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“You have so to add, Mr Muller?” Fred asked

“Miller,” the detective replied “Yes First—and all respect here—don’t kid yourself Genocide’s old-school Second, the facts aren’t in question Protogen infected Eros Station with a lethal alien disease, and they’re recording the results Why doesn’t matter We need to stop them”

“And,” Holden said, “we think we can track dohere their observation station is”

Fred leaned back in his chair, the fake leather and

“Stop them how?” he asked Fred knew He just wanted to hear the

“I’d say we fly to their station and shoot them”

“Who is ‘we’?” Fred asked

“There are a lot of OPA hotheads looking to shoot it out with Earth and Mars,” Holden said “We give theuys to shoot at instead”

Fred nodded in a way that didn’t

“And your sample? The captain’s safe?” Fred said

“That’s otiation on that”

Fred laughed again, though there was some humor in it this tirin

“Why would I agree to that?” Fred asked

Holden lifted his chin and smiled

“What if I told you that I’ve hidden the safe on a planetesih plutonium to break anyone who touches it into their component atoms even if they could find it?” he said

Fred stared at him for a moment, then said, “But you didn’t”

“Well, no,” Holden said “But I could tell you I did”

“You are too honest,” Fred said

“And you can’t trust anyone with so to do with it That’s why, until we can agree on so it with me”

Fred nodded

“Yes,” he said, “I guess I am”

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Miller

The observation deck looked out over the Nauvoo as the behee of a soft couch, his fingers laced over his knee, his gaze on the immense vista of the construction After his time on Holden’s ship and, before that, in Eros, with its old-style closed architecture, a vieide seemed artificial The deck itself ider than the Rocinante and decorated with soft ferns and sculpted ivies The air recyclers were eerily quiet, and even though the spin gravity was nearly the sa