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He wiped his eyes, swung his feet to the wall that was now teh his hair, and looked blearily at the screen A crowd of people were outside the ship He recognized a couple of the faces fro And in the ray cerah Holden’s body was only tempered a little bit by the prospect of overnor on board

He opened a connection “This is Captain Holden of the Rocinante Hang tight We’ll be right out”

“Be careful,” Nao, that doesn’tdifferent”

“Right,” he said, opening a connection to ops “Alex? You there?”

“He’s sleeping,” Clarissa answered “I have the PDCs warmed up, and Amos and Bobbie are on their way to the airlock If it’s an ambush, it will be a very unsuccessful one”

“Thank you for that,” Holden said, walking along the side of the lift shaft toward the airlock The mixed voices of Bobbie and Amos already echoed doard him

“Give the sign if you need me to do more than watch,” Clarissa said, and cut the connection

When the airlock opened and they lowered the ladder, Holden went first A woray-black hair pulled back in a bun stepped out toward him

“Captain Holden,” she said “I’m Interiovernment’s demands”

“Thank you for that,” Holden said as Bobbie slid down the ladder behind hi as he came

“We’re lodging a forenty,” Marks said “This should have been handled internally in Freehold”

“I’ll let you take that up with the union,” Holden said “Thank you for being willing to bend on this one I didn’t want to quarantine your system”

Marks’ eyes said, I think you did, but she stayed silent Bobbie helped the prisoner to his feet Houston’s face was gray where it wasn’t red He seemed unsteady

“Hey,” Amos said A ement “I’m Amos This is Bobbie We’ve done this kind of duty before, so there’s so to want to listen to very carefully …”

Chapter Five: Drummer