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“Forty-two days?” Saba said Hethe distribution sta to find the name and transit specs for the ship The Typhoon And froe On a hunch, Holden had Saba match it with Laconia’s first transit The tere the sahtness under his rib cage wondering how many more like it there were

Saba cursed under his breath A man’s voice came from behind them, somewhere in the warren of hidden corridors A woman answered The bulkheads, the exposed conduits and industrial decking, the thick air and the darkness All of it was just the same as it had been when Holden sat down, except that now it seeile

Another warship fro of the per of the end The end

Saba cracked his knuckles and s I could tell Dru she’d want to know”

“Yeah,” Holden said, trying to gather his wits There wasaround behind his own eyes like a panicked ht We still have some ti Stor like two hundred,Marines inside it”

“And loose-cannon OPA factions firing off without warning,” Saba said “When they hear about this, they’ll get worse Co if they won’t coordinate”

“So that too,” Holden agreed His brain felt like it was stuffed with cotton ticking He wanted to get all his people onto the Rocinante and run away If there was anyplace that the Laconians wouldn’t just follow them and shoot them down If there was anyplace in thirteen hundred systems that would be safe anymore For them, or for anyone

“Okay,” he said “All right Whatever goals we decide on, we have to take those three things into account And we have to do it in the next forty-two days”

“Because after that,” Saba said, “no more us, yeah?”

Chapter Twenty-Six: Bobbie

Bobbie, Alex, and Clarissa ate lunch together in a tiny compartment with ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES stenciled on the door in four languages It had a few unlabeled crates in it that they could use as tables and benches, so they’d taken to calling it the Diner The meal was the heavily spiced and deep-fried balls of bean paste that Belters called red kibble On the side they had a few bits of dried fruit, and a thin seafood soup that tasted like the flavor cah the broth

“You knohat Iat his kibble, which rolled around his plate “My ship kno to make Martian food I’m so sick of this Belter shit”

He was exaggerating his Mariner Valley drawl the way he always did when he spoke of the ship Bobbie laughed at him, then noisily drank off the last of her broth

“It’s good for you, boy,” she said,his drawl

“It keeps body and soul attached, and that’s about the best I can say for it”