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“Holden Everyone has a past Naorooman when youright when you set eyes on her, did you?”

“No, of course not Everyone on the Canterbury was there because they had a reason Including , like ‘part of a cabal that went on to destroy Earth’ big, I don’t knohy she wouldn’t have told me”

“Did you ask?”

“No I mean, she knew that I was interested That she could tell ured if she didn’t want to, that was up to her”

“And now you’re upset that she didn’t So what changed? Why are you entitled to know things now that you weren’t entitled to know before?”

The raï fro the ops deck On Fred’s screen, the playback had reached the split circle as it faded to white “Ito lose her, I at least need to knohy”

“We’ll see if we can’t put you in a position to ask her yourself,” Fred said The ain, and Fred scowled up at the hatch “If it’s any co before he’s ready to open negotiations”

“No?” Holden said It was such a thin sliver of hope, but he felt hi to it all the same

“No He got the juive him that But the next part is where he has to actually consolidate and hold power That’s not tactics That’s strategy, and I don’t see anything in him that leads me to think he has a handle on that”

“I do”

Fred waved a hand like Holden’s words had been saht now, and probably will be for a little while But he’s standing in the way of the gates All of this is to stop people froer is already out there S itself Avasarala couldn’t put the brakes on the process, and God knows she tried Marco Inaros thinks he can do it at the end of a gun, but I don’t see it working Not for long And he doesn’t understand fragility”

“You mean Earth?”

“Yes,” Fred said “It’s the blind spot of being a Belter I’ve seen it over and over in the past few decades There’s a faith in the technology In the idea of row food on Ganymede, so they think humanity’s freed from the bonds of Earth They don’t think about how row The eneticto build rich soil out of substrate and fungus and full-spectru all of that, the complexity of life on Earth And now these neorlds… well I don’t have to tell you how much less hospitable they are than it says on the box Once it beco —”

“He doesn’t, though,” Holden said “Yeah, okay, the ecological part h, but when it co Look at all the people who just pulled up stakes and headed out for the rings Ilus or New Terra or whatever the hell you want to call it? It’s a terrible, terrible planet, and there are people living on it All those colony ships that left Mars to go try terrafornetosphere? A lot of those people are really, really set out to the new systeuy expects or is prepared for ThatWe have to ”

“You think I don’t know that?” Fred said “What I was doing with Medina Station would have —”