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“I ait for the second escort,” Singh said “Carry on”

He dropped the connection In the htened his uniform, and composed himself until his reflection looked more like a man confident in his control of the situation It was iht impression That was all he could do now

So thumped deep below hioing on all around him while he hid in a public toilet

The underground had caught hiive them their due, he’d underestimated their coordination and their numbers and their will He had been told that the Belters of the old regie of the oxygen tank, he had thought he understood what that meant, but he hadn’t appreciated the depth of it until now

Their plan was unfolding right now all around the station All he could hope was that the one place he knew that he was ahead of the the sensor arrays was critical to their plan, he could still bring all the rest of it crashing down

Chapter Forty-Seven: Bobbie

Bobbie’s harness consisted of three netic locks about the size of her palreen sometime in their past Basic safety equipravity well Wondering whether they worked was like wondering if her next footstep would sink through the atoms of the deck

“You think these things are going to hold?” she asked Her radio was set to a broadcast strength so low a thick T-shirt would have ja curve of the Gathering Storm’s exterior His helmet hid his expression, but his tone was fatalistic

“If it doesn’t, this’ll be a weird day”

The surface of the ship wasn’t like anything Bobbie had ever seen Faceted like a gem, without the protrusions of PDC cannons or sensor arrays The pinks and blues seemed less like the color of the material itself andthat it did to light that was much weirder than selective absorption The darkness of the slow zone was profound Her hel hat it picked up froes, pulling ultraviolet and infrared into the visible range, just to have —exposed and uncertain—made it seem ominous

While the surface of the ship looked like crystal, it was soft in a way that she wanted to think of as foanetic locks bound her to it in a rough, uncomfortable cradle, or would once the ship was under way Provided that the low that said they were claht she caught a flicker of amber The other ten members of the insertion tea the same equipment Their suits were all low-level environ as ar crew than a crack ht be, but that was for after the locks held If the Stor behind it like a snake’s shed skin, it would be up to Alex to solve the problem of the enemy destroyer And they’d probably all die There was no upside

“Really hope these hold,” Bobbie said

The encrypted alert came Bobbie tapped her forearh, it had the thick Mariner Valley drawl that meant he was scared shitless but also a little euphoric on the fear “This is Alex Ka out to my friends and family and all ships at sea We are about to start this rodeo Breaking loose fro clamps in ten Nine …”

“Brace,” Bobbie said “We don’t kno fast this is going to happen”

She took the nylon cords, tracked the Storm to leave port