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Naoht It would be so easy to see Belters as alien Hell, if you gave theen storage and recycling and kept tri the environht wind up with Belters who spent more time outside their ships and stations than in

Maybe that hy they were taxed to subsistence level The bird was out of the cage, but you couldn’t let it stretch its wings too far or it ed to you

“You trust this Fred?” Miller asked

“Sort of,” Holden said “He treated us well last time, when everyone else wanted us dead or locked up”

Miller grunted, as if that proved nothing

“He’s OPA, right?”

“Yeah,” Holden said “But I think maybe the real OPA Not the cowboys ant to shoot it out with the inners And not those nuts on the radio calling for war Fred’s a politician”

“What about the ones keeping Ceres in line?”

“I don’t know,” Holden said “I don’t know about the”

“Fair enough,” Miller said “We won’t find a political solution to Protogen, you know”

“Yeah,” Holden said, then began unbuckling his harness as the Roci slid into its berth with a series of s “But Fred isn’t just a politician”

Fred sat behind his large wooden desk, reading the notes Holden had written about Eros, the search for Julie, and the discovery of the stealth ship Miller sat across froht watch a new species of bug, guessing if it was likely to sting Holden was a little farther away on Fred’s right, trying not to keep looking at the clock on his hand tere screen behind the desk, the Nauvoo drifted by like theleviathan Holden could see the tiny spots of brilliant blue light where workers used welding torches on the hull and fra them

He’d reached forty-three when a small shuttle appeared in his field of view, a load of steel beams clutched in a pair of heavy eneration ship The shuttle shrank to a point no larger than the tip of a pen before it stopped The Nauvoo suddenly shifted in Holden’s antic ship farther away It gave hio

His hand terminal beeped at almost the same instant that Miller’s did He didn’t even look at it; he just tapped the face to shut it up He knew this routine by now He pulled out a small bottle, took out two blue pills, and sed the pills out of his bottle as well The ship’s expert medical syste that failing to take them on schedule would lead to horrific death He took the a feould just

Fred finished reading and threw his hand terminal down on the desk, then rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands for several seconds To Holden, he looked older than the last time they’d seen each other

“I have to tell you, Jim, I have no idea what to make of this,” he finally said

Miller looked at Holden and nored him

“Did you read Naomi’s addition at the end?” Holden asked

“The bit with the networked nanobugs for increased processing power?”

“Yeah, that bit,” Holden said “It makes sense, Fred”

Fred laughed without huer at his terminal

“That,” he said “That only makes sense to a psychopath No one sane could do that No et out of it”

Miller cleared his throat