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“It can’t be done,” Bull said “Each one of those skiffs is carrying half a dozen marines in full battle dress Powered armor Maybe Goliath class for the Martians, Reaver class for the Earthers Either way, I don’t have anything in that league And the soldiers inside those suits have trained for exactly this kind of coot a bunch of plue went quiet Ashford crossed his arms
“Plumbers With rifles Is that how you see us, Mister Baca?”
“I don’t question the bravery or commitment of anyone on this crew,” Bull said “I believe that any tea to lay down their lives for the cause Of course, that would only take about fifteen seconds, and I won’t send our people into that”
The iently as they did You’re the captain You can make the order, but you’ll own the consequences And they’ll know the Earther told you ould happen Pa’s eyes were narrow and looked away
“Thank you, Mister Baca,” Ashford said “You’re dismissed”
Bull saluted, turned, and launched hie crew started talking again, but not as loud Probably they’d all get reaone just because they’d been in the rooot e anyone to the thing Nucleus, base, whatever it was Bull couldn’t think of a way to do any better than that, so that would count for a win
On the way back to his station, he looked over the datafile the Rocinante had sent out The saboteur seeh faked confessions to recognize the signs, and this didn’t have the turned into a fairy tale A overn to kill dozens of people and risk thousands in order to… do what? Put Ja now?
The ie the prisoner had built looked like it had been carved from ice No one had added color Bull put on an even olive flesh tone and brown hair, and the face didn’t look familiar Juliette Mao, they said She hadn’t been the first person infected with the protootten thrown in an autoclave one way or the other She’d been the seed crystal that Eros had used toSo as to say she couldn’t be wandering around hiring traitors and placing bo withsee in orbit around Saturn for billions of years It had eaten thousands of people, hijacking the mechanisate into a kind of haunted sphere So why not the rest? If all that was possible, everything was
Bull didn’t buy it
Back at the security desk, he checked the status The skiff of Earthto race ahead of the Martian force The slow zone had caught the of debris Chances were that all the men in it were dead The Martian skiff was still on track, but Holden would reach the structure before they got to hier-happy ones all along Chances of so
Bull sucked his teeth, half-foretting interrogated, but that didn’t mean no one would He checked his security codes Ashford hadn’t blocked hi the comm laser Protocol would have been to discuss this with Ashford or at least Pa, but they had their hands full right noay And if it worked, it would be hard for the chip
The Rocinante’s XO appeared on the screen
“What can I do for you, Behemoth?”
“Carlos Baca here I’ a problem off your hands”
She hoisted her eyebrows, her head shaking like she was trying to stay awake She had a sht now,” she said “Which one were you thinking about?”