Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

Holden, formerly of the
Canterbury,
now on the shuttle
Knight.
We are cooperating with an investigation into who destroyed the
Canterbury
and, as part of that cooperation, are agreeing to be taken aboard your ship, the MCRN
Donnager.
We hope that this cooperation means that we will not be held prisoner or harmed. Any such action would only serve to reinforce the idea that the
Canterbury
was destroyed by a Martian vessel. James Holden out.”
    Holden leaned back. “Naomi, send that out broadband.”
    “That’s a dirty trick, Boss,” said Alex. “Pretty hard to disappear us now.”
    “I believe in the ideal of the transparent society, Mr. Kamal,” said Holden. Alex grinned, pushed off, and floated down the gangway. Naomi tapped the comm panel, making a small, satisfied sound in the back of her throat.
    “Naomi,” Holden said. She turned, her hair waving lazily, like they were both drowning. “If this goes badly, I need you… I need you to… ”
    “Throw you to the wolves,” she said. “Blame everything on you and get the others back to Saturn Station safely.”
    “Yeah,” Holden said. “Don’t play the hero.”
    She let the words hang in the air until the last of the irony leeched out of them.
    “Hadn’t crossed my mind, sir,” she said.

     
    “
Knight,
this is Captain Theresa Yao of the MCRN
Donnager,
” said the severe-looking woman on the comm screen. “Message received. Please refrain from further general broadcasts. My navigator will be sending course information shortly. Follow that course exactly. Yao out.”
    Alex laughed.
    “I think you pissed her off,” he said. “Got the course info. They’ll be picking us up in thirteen days. Give her time to really stew on it.”
    “Thirteen days before I’m clapped in irons and have needles shoved under my fingernails,” Holden sighed, leaning back in his couch. “Well, best begin our flight toward imprisonment and torture. You may lock in the transmitted course, Mr. Kamal.”
    “Roger that, Cap—Huh,” said Alex.
    “A problem?”
    “Well, the
Knight
just did her pre-burn sweep for collision objects,” Alex said. “And we have six Belt objects on an intercept course.”
    “Belt objects?”
    “Fast contacts with no transponder signal,” Alex replied. “Ships, but flyin’ dark. They’ll catch us just about two days before the
Donnager
does.”
    Holden pulled up the display. Six small signatures, yellow-orange shifting toward red. Heavy burn.
    “Well,” Holden said to the screen. “And who the hell are
you
?”

Chapter Eight: Miller
     
    A ggression against the Belt is what Earth and Mars survive on. Our weakness is their strength,” the masked woman said from Miller’s terminal screen. The split circle of the OPA draped behind her, like something painted on a sheet. “Don’t be afraid of them. Their only power is your fear.”
    “Well, that and a hundred or so gunships,” Havelock said.
    “From what I hear,” Miller said, “if you clap your hands and say you believe, they can’t shoot you.”
    “Have to try that sometime.”
    “We must rise up!” the woman said, her voice growing shrill. “We have to take our destiny before it is taken from us! Remember the
Canterbury
!”
    Miller shut the viewer down and leaned back in his chair. The station was at its change-of-shift surge, voices raised one over the other as the previous round of cops brought the incomingones up to speed. The smell of fresh coffee competed with cigarette smoke.
    “There’s maybe a dozen like her,” Havelock said, nodding toward the dead terminal screen. “She’s my favorite, though. There’re times I swear she’s actually foaming at the mouth.”
    “How many more files?” Miller asked, and his partner shrugged.
    “Two, three hundred,” Havelock said, and took a drag on his cigarette. He’d started smoking again. “Every few hours, there’s a new one. They aren’t coming from one place. Sometimes they’re broadcast on the radio.