Leviathan Wakes Read Free Page B

would have blown it off except for Holden. The grunts would respect the captain for not wanting to cut into the ship’s profit. They’d respect Holden for insisting that they follow the rule. No matter what happened, the captain and Holden would both be hated for what they were required by law and mere human decency to do.
    “We have to stop,” Holden said. Then, gamely: “There may be salvage.”
    McDowell tapped his screen. Ade’s voice came from the console, as low and warm as if she’d been in the room.
    “Captain?”
    “I need numbers on stopping this crate,” he said.
    “Sir?”
    “How hard is it going to be to put us alongside CA-2216862?”
    “We’re stopping at an asteroid?”
    “I’ll tell you when you’ve followed my order, Navigator Tukunbo.”
    “Yes, sir,” she said. Holden heard a series of clicks. “If we flipthe ship right now and burn like hell for most of two days, I can get us within fifty thousand kilometers, sir.”
    “Can you define ‘burn like hell’?” McDowell said.
    “We’ll need everyone in crash couches.”
    “Of course we will,” McDowell sighed, and scratched his scruffy beard. “And shifting ice is only going to do a couple million bucks’ worth of banging up the hull, if we’re lucky. I’m getting old for this, Holden. I really am.”
    “Yes, sir. You are. And I’ve always liked your chair,” Holden said. McDowell scowled and made an obscene gesture. Rebecca snorted in laughter. McDowell turned to her.
    “Send a message to the beacon that we’re on our way. And let Ceres know we’re going to be late. Holden, where does the
Knight
stand?”
    “No flying in atmosphere until we get some parts, but she’ll do fine for fifty thousand klicks in vacuum.”
    “You’re sure of that?”
    “Naomi said it. That makes it true.”
    McDowell rose, unfolding to almost two and a quarter meters and thinner than a teenager back on Earth. Between his age and never having lived in a gravity well, the coming burn was likely to be hell on the old man. Holden felt a pang of sympathy that he would never embarrass McDowell by expressing.
    “Here’s the thing, Jim,” McDowell said, his voice quiet enough that only Holden could hear him. “We’re required to stop and make an attempt, but we don’t have to go out of our way, if you see what I mean.”
    “We’ll already have stopped,” Holden said, and McDowell patted at the air with his wide, spidery hands. One of the many Belter gestures that had evolved to be visible when wearing an environment suit.
    “I can’t avoid that,” he said. “But if you see anything out there that seems off, don’t play hero again. Just pack up the toys and come home.”
    “And leave it for the next ship that comes through?”
    “And keep yourself safe,” McDowell said. “Order. Understood?”
    “Understood,” Holden said.
    As the shipwide comm system clicked to life and McDowell began explaining the situation to the crew, Holden imagined he could hear a chorus of groans coming up through the decks. He went over to Rebecca.
    “Okay,” he said, “what have we got on the broken ship?”
    “Light freighter. Martian registry. Shows Eros as home port. Calls itself
Scopuli
… ”

Chapter Two: Miller
     
    D etective Miller sat back on the foam-core chair, smiling gentle encouragement while he scrambled to make sense of the girl’s story.
    “And then it was all pow! Room full up with bladeboys howling and humping shank,” the girl said, waving a hand. “Look like a dance number, ’cept that Bomie’s got this look he didn’t know nothing never and ever amen. You know, que?”
    Havelock, standing by the door, blinked twice. The squat man’s face twitched with impatience. It was why Havelock was never going to make senior detective. And why he sucked at poker.
    Miller was very good at poker.
    “I totally,” Miller said. His voice had taken on the twang of an inner level resident. He waved his hand in the same lazy arc the girl