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Clarissa pushed her soggy fries away and smiled at them all

“My father could be the kindest, ht up until he wanted soive it to him I don’t knohy I think this, but Duarte feels the same And these are men ill mercilessly punish anyone on’t co you to tell them why you made them do it”

“I knew a few guys like that,” Amos said

“So, he won’t stop until he has it all,” Bobbie said “And it looks like he has the tech to make it work The ar outside All of this? They all look like they came out of the same factory to anyone else?”

“Yeah, it’s protoreed “So on Eros”

“I’ a timeline here,” Bobbie said

“We were looking into those uy,” Alex said “It was about the tiet a gander at the usable planets”

Bobbie finally got the ordering screen to colass of club soda instead of another beer It felt like so important was on the tip of her mind, and she didn’t want to drown it in booze

“So,” she said, letting the words co her subconscious had an insight it hadn’t shared yet “A probe finds so that makes ships and armor and who knohat else”

“What, like a big volumetric printer that says, ‘Insert protomolecule here’ on the side?” Amos scoffed

“Hey,” Alex replied, “we found a planet-sized power generator with moons that could turn off fusion”

Ah”

“Marco’s people are running a fifth column on Medina by that point,” Bobbie continued “Duartewith them already Said he’d slip the probes They call hi’”

“He hands them a bunch of Martian ships,” Alex said

“And Marco starts fucking up the solar system while Duarte takes the rest of his fleet and a bunch of like-minded Martians and takes over in Laconia,” Bobbie finished