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“And the new software? The one that the ship’s running now?”

“Not in it,” Paula said “This is where you get to be i two lines of unconetic bottle driver”

“Very impressive,” Holden said, dutifully

“Thank you, but that’s not the cool part Take a look at the trigger line You see all those calls set to null? They’re all other syste used”

“Okay,” Holden said Frohtness in her expression, he had the sense he should have seen so more in her words Maybe if he’d been able to sleep…

“This is an all-purpose trap You want so to blohen they’ve been out of port for six days? Set that call there to about half a o when the weapons systeht here set to one There’soff, and you can mix and match them”

“That’s interesting —”

“That’s a sun,” Paula said “Bottle containment failures don’t leave much by way of data Not supposed to happen ever, but sometimes they do The story has always been that accidents happen, what can you do? Ships blow up sometimes This shows that someone built a tool specifically to ain, wherever they could sneak their code into the ship they decided had to die What we have here is key evidence in maybe thousands of ht now”

Excitehtened her eyes The unease in his gut grew thicker

I need to go do so, Naomi said in his memory And I can’t have you involved in it At all

Was this it? Was this what she’d been trying to keep separate from him, from the Rocinante? And what did itat him, expectation in her eye He didn’t kno to respond, but the silence was getting aard

“Cool?” he said

Fred was sitting at Dru on the tabletop, his hands cradling his chin He looked as tired as Holden felt On the screen, Druation rooms The table that was usually between the back in her chair and resting her feet on it Prisoner and guard were both drinking what looked like coffee Sakai laughed at sorinned ier Holden realized with a start that she earing her hair down

“What the hell is this?” he asked

“Professionalis trust She’s halfway convinced him that whoev