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Holden thinks he’s a hero, power to the people, information wants to be free blah blah blah, but he’s a fucking moron.”
“We all grieve in our own ways,” Avasarala said. “For what it’s worth, you’ll never kill enough people to keep your platoon from dying. No more than I can save enough people that one of them will be Charanpal.”
“At least you lost that fucking beard,” she said to no one.
It had been a failure, but it was a failure he understood, and that made it a victory. The
An ill or suffering plant could be moved into a community of well members of the species and, through proximity, improve, even if soil and water were supplied separately.
“Ms. Corlinowski, I’ve just seen the leaked video accusing Praxidike Meng of screwing his cute little five-year-old daughter. When exactly did UN media relations turn into a fucking divorce court? If it gets out that we were behind that, I would like to know whose resignation I’m going to hand to the newsfeeds, and right now I’m thinking it’s yours. Give my love to Richard, and get back to me before I fire your incompetent ass out of spite.”
Emma Corlinowski’s a coward. It’s why I love her.”
Her back was aching, and her left leg was tingling with the pins and needles she got now from sitting too long in one position.
oh man, I feel this. lol
Time took her strength but it gave her power in exchange. It was a fair trade.
How the fuck do you keep your hair like that? I look like a hedgehog’s been humping my skull.”
The image cut to Avasarala. She was leaning forward to make her neck longer and hide the loose skin under her chin. Long practice made her look natural, but she could almost hear Arjun laughing.
“Point of clarification,” Alex said, raising his hand. “We have an apocalypse comin’? Was that a thing we knew about?” “Venus,” Avasarala said. “Oh. That apocalypse,” Alex said, lowering his hand. “Right.”
You will be personally responsible for the single deadliest screwup in the history of humankind, and I’m on a ship with Jim fucking Holden, so the bar’s not low.”
Desperate psychotic people do desperate psychotic things when they’re exposed. I refuse to grant them immunity from exposure out of fear of their reaction. When you do, the desperate psychos wind up in charge.”
Avasarala’s eyes narrowed and she said, “Maybe even save that little girl.” “Mei?” Prax said immediately, putting the mug down and turning around. Oh, that was low, Holden thought. Even for a politician.
Even now, just hours after nearly being cut in two by a high-speed projectile, Prax was belowdecks with Naomi and Avasarala, patching holes inside the ship. He hadn’t even been asked.
“When this is over, I’d like to buy you a drink and talk about how a dishonorably discharged UN naval officer winds up flying a stolen MCRN torpedo bomber crewed by Martian military personnel and a senior UN politician.”
“Sure, no problem, Cap’n. If it turns out to be a dozen long-stemmed roses, I don’t want to be there when Naomi finds out. Plus, you know, Alex…”
But Alex was pushing fifty, balding without complaint, and wore his love handles with the quiet resignation of a middle-aged man.
“Well, you’ve got a full load of torpedoes and bullets, three Martian warships trailing you, one angry old lady in tea withdrawal, and a Martian Marine who could probably kill you with your own teeth. What do you do?”
“If I were there, it would happen the way I want it to happen. I could go squeeze a few testicles until they saw it my way. From here? Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Reputation never has very much to do with reality,” she said. “I could name half a dozen paragons of virtue that are horrible, small-souled, evil people. And some of the best men I know, you’d walk out of the room if you heard their names. No one on the screen is who they are when you breathe their air.”
“If you can make them blush, they think you’re a hard-ass,” she said. “My husband calls it the mask.”
Had a son on Mars he still didn’t know about. James Holden, the man without secrets. The holy fool who’d dragged the solar system into war and seemed utterly blind to the damage he caused. An idealist. The most dangerous kind of man there was. And a good man too.
“If life transcends death, then I will seek for you there. If not, then there too.”
“He’s using the outsider speech. That man’s asshole must be tight enough right now to bend space.”
“Amos,” Holden said, grabbing the mechanic’s arm as he turned to leave. “The gunny’s in charge once you hit the surface. She’s a pro, and this is her show. But I need you to keep Prax safe, because he’s kind of an idiot. The only thing I ask you to do is get that man and his little girl safely off the moon and back to this ship.” Amos looked hurt for a moment. “Of course I will, Captain. Anything that gets to him or that baby will already have killed me. And that ain’t easy to do.” Holden pulled Amos to him and gave the big man a quick hug. “I feel sorry for anything that tries. No one could
...more
Flying the Razorback to the crippled Agatha King was like taking a race car to the corner market.
Holden shot him in the throat. Somewhere in his brain stem, Detective Miller nodded in approval.
The smallest of them was still in newborn diapers.
And besides, heading back with James Holden and Sergeant Roberta Draper and Mei Meng? It has all the right symbolism. Press will eat it up. Earth, Mars, the Outer Planets, and whatever the hell Holden is now.” “Celebrity,” Souther said. “A nation of its own.”
“It doesn’t matter if I want it. I’ll be offered it because if the bobble-head doesn’t offer it, people will think he’s slighting me. And I’ll take it because if I don’t, people will think I’m not hungry enough to be afraid of any longer. I’ll be answering directly to the secretary-general. I’ll have more power, more responsibility. More friends and more enemies. It’s the price of playing.”
“A traitor to your government and a patriotic hero. A martyr who didn’t die. A Martian whose best and only friend is about to run the government of Earth.”
“Political favors are how I express affection,” she said.
And she had to exercise so that they wouldn’t have to put her in a nursing home when she got back to a full g.
“Shut the fuck up,” Avasarala said, real anger creeping into her voice for the first time. “Next time I hear your voice, I have those two big MPs in the hallway hold you down and beat you with a fucking chair. Do you understand me?”
“This is me gloating. I’m going to drop you into a hole so deep even your wife will forget you ever existed. I’m going to use Errinwright’s old position to dismantle everything you ever built, piece by piece, and scatter it to the winds. I’ll make sure you get to watch it happening. The one thing your hole will have is twenty-four-hour news. And since you and I will never meet again, I want to make sure my name is on your mind every time I destroy something else you left behind. I am going to erase you.”
Mei sat on Prax’s lap, but her attention was focused with a laser intensity to her left. She put her hand up to her mouth and gently, deliberately deposited a wad of half-chewed spaghetti into her palm, then held it out toward Amos. “It’s yucky,” she said. The big man chuckled. “Well, if it wasn’t before, it sure is now, pumpkin,” he said, unfolding his napkin. “Why don’t you put that right here?”
Awww... Love Amos and Mei!
“So living on Ganymede, you know a lot about low-gravity childbearing, right?” Holden said. “It’s not really that much riskier for Belters, is it?” Prax swallowed a mouthful of salad and shook his head. “Oh, no. It’s tremendously difficult. Especially if it’s just a shipboard situation without extensive medical controls. If you look at naturally occurring pregnancies, there’s a developmental or morphological abnormality five times out of six.”
“Son of a fucking whore,” Avasarala said, loud enough to cut through the background buzz of conversations. The crowd turned to her. She was looking at her hand terminal. “What’s a whore, Daddy?” “It’s a kind of frost, honey,” Prax said. “What’s going on?”
