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“They had vacuum suits,” Holden said “The ones in your office They had e off the air may not matter”

Drummer answered from Fred’s hand terminal “We’ll keep them in place until their bottles run out if that’s e need to do”

“Good,” Fred said “We’re on our way”

“Don’t stop for beer, sir,” Druround hiss of the connection dropped Fred runt and pushed himself farther down the hall

“It’s not going to work,” Holden said “They’ll figure out e’re doing and cut through a bulkhead or so”

“You know the difference between a code and a cipher, Holden?”

“What?”

“A code and a cipher Cipher, you encrypt text so that no one can tell what the words in the ht out in the o

pen, but you change what they mean Anyone with a smart computer and a lot of time can break a cipher No one can break a code”

Holden launched hieways caether For a moment, the station extended around him on all three axes Fred and Garret floated close behind him but pushed off faster, so that they reached the far side before hiestured for them to follow

“Service deck four’s the other way, sir,” Garret said

“But the four people on the a slushy “Level six, section fourteen, berth eight Once we’re in position, I’ll try to pull the bad guys out, and we’ll take them in the flank”

Holden thought for a moment “You had a whole system set up in case this happened But what if Drummer had been one of them?”

“I had other systems set up with Oliver, Chu, and Stavros,” Fred said “Secure, open communications hoever I had left”

“Tricky,” Holden said