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“Well,” Fred said, speaking slowly as though he orking out the answer as he said it, “the big problem with that is the location of the attacks”

“Because they happen on the other side of the gates”

“Exactly,” Fred continued “If ships were getting nuked as they passed through the Belt, that would be one thing But on the other side of the gates? Who has access there? Unless

you’re thinking the ships were sabotaged in so fuse?”

“There’s another alternative,” Holden said

“No, there isn’t,” Fred replied, anticipating his next argument

“Fred, look, I know you don’t want to think you’ve got people working against your interests on Medina Doctoring records, s they don’t want people to see And I get why that’s hard to s”

“Medina is central to our long-term plans,” Fred said, his words hard as iron “I’ve placed all of my very best and most loyal people on that station If the radicals have a fifth coluanization I ht as well pack it up and retire”

“There are thousands of people on Medina, I doubt you can vouch for every one of them personally”

“No, but the people running the station arelike this could be going on without their knowledge and cooperation”

“That’s a scary thought”

“It means I don’t own Medina Station,” Fred said “It means that the roup controls the choke point of the entire galaxy”

“So,” Holden said, “hoould one go about finding that out?”

Fred leaned back in his chair with a sigh and gave Holden a sad smile “You knohat I think? I think you’re bored, and lonely, and looking for a distraction Don’t disive yourself so to do”

“But ships areis I don’t know that we can just ignore that and hope it goes away”