For a moment, Holden thought Amos would argue with him. The mechanic stared back, face flushed with rage, his jaw clenched hard enough to crack his teeth. “Okay,” he finally said and then left. The other four security people kept their guns trained on him the entire time.
“That was smart,” Murtry said. He pulled a tissue out of a box on his desk and wiped the blood from his forehead. He had an ugly bruise forming around the cut Amos’ pistol had left. “Your boy almost didn’t make it out of this room, mediator.”
Holden surprised himself by laughing. “I’ve never seen Amos pick a fight he didn’t plan to win. I’m not sure what he had in mind, but even at five to one my money would be on him.”
“Everyone loses eventually,” Murtry said.
“Words to live by.”
“That’s quite the killer you have working for you, as critical as you are of my methods.”
“There’s a difference. Amos is willing to lose face to protect something he loves. He doesn’t need to win more than he needs to keep his friends alive. And that’s why you’re nothing alike.”
Murtry agreed with a nod and a shrug. “So if you weren’t here to save your man, then what?”
“We keep escalating,” Holden said. “Some of that is my fault. I asked Naomi to deal with the shuttle.”
“Sabotage —” Murtry started.
“But I did that in response to finding out you’d weaponized it. We keep reacting to what the person before us did, justifying ourselves like kids on a playground. ‘He started it.’ ”
“So you’ll be the first to break the cycle?”
“If I can,” Holden said. “You’ve gone too far, Murtry. Disable the shuttle, give me Naomi back. Let’s see if we can find a way to stop the escalation.”
Murtry’s vague smile shifted into an equally vague frown. The man leaned back on his desk and touched another tissue to the cut on his forehead. It came away with a single crimson spot. Then he folded his arms, casual but immovable. Holden knew that it was a deliberate affectation intended to look natural. He was both impressed and worried by anyone who had that level of self-awareness and control.
“I’ve acted entirely within the purview of my assignment here,” Murtry said. “I’ve protected RCE assets and personnel.”
“You’ve killed a bunch of colonists and kidnapped my XO,” Holden replied, trying to keep the anger out of his voice and failing.
“I’ve killed fewer squatters than they’ve killed of us, all of which were actively engaged in plotting and carrying out attacks on RCE assets and personnel. Which, as I said, is my job.”
“And Naomi —”
“And I captured a saboteur and am holding her pending an investigation. ‘Kidnapping’ is not only a provocative term, it’s inaccurate.”
“You want this to blow up.” Holden sighed. “You can’t wait for the next chance to make things worse, can you?”
The frown shifted back to the smile. Neither meant anything. Just different masks. Holden wondered what it looked like inside Murtry’s head and shuddered.
“I’ve done the minimum necessary at each step,” the man said through his disquieting grin.
“No,” Holden replied. “You could have left. You had the Israel. After the first attack on the shuttle you could have pulled your people out and waited for the investigation. A lot of people would still be alive if you had.”
“Oh no,” Murtry said, shaking his head. He stood up and uncrossed his arms. Every movement slow and deliberate and conveying threat. “No, that’s one thing we won’t do. We won’t give up a centimeter of ground. These squatters can throw themselves against us until every one of them is shattered into dust, but we’re not going anywhere. Because that…”
Murtry’s smile sharpened.
“… is also my job.”
~
The walk from the RCE security shed back to his room at the community center wasn’t a long one, but it was very dark. Miller’s faint blue glow illuminated nothing, but it was oddly comforting anyway.
“Hey, old man,” Holden said in greeting.
“We need to talk.” Miller grinned at his own joke. He made jokes now. He was almost like a real person. Somehow that was more frightening than when he’d been insane.
“I know, but I’m kind of busy with keeping these people from killing each other. Or, you know, us.”
“How’s that working for you?”
“Terrible,” Holden admitted. “I’ve just lost the only real threat I had to make.”
“Yeah, Naomi being on their ship makes the Rocinante a non-factor. Letting her anywhere near that ship was a dumb mistake.”
“I never told you about that.”
“Should I pretend I’m not inside your head?” Miller asked with a Belter shrug. “I’ll do it if it makes you more comfortable.”
“Hey, Miller,” Holden said. “What am I thinking now?”
“Points for creativity, kid. That’d be difficult to pull off and less fun than you might expect.”
“So stay out.”
Miller stopped walking and grabbed Holden’s upper arm. Again he was surprised at how real it felt. Miller’s hand felt like iron gripping him. Holden tried to pull away and couldn’t. And all of it was just the ghost pushing buttons in his brain.
“Wasn’t kidding. We need to talk.”
“Spit it out,” Holden replied, finally yanking his arm away when Miller let go.
“There’s a spot a way north of here I need to go look at.”
“By which you mean you need me to go look at.”
“Yeah,” Miller said with a Belter nod of one fist. “That.”
Against his will, Holden felt his curiosity piqued. “What is it?”
“So, turns out our coming here caused a little ruckus with the locals,” Miller said. “May have noticed. Lot of leftover stuff waking up all over the planet.”
“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that. Is that you? Can you control it?”
“Are you kidding? I’m a sock puppet. Protomolecule’s got its arm so far up my ass, I can taste its fingernails.” Miller laughed. “I can’t even control myself.”
“It’s just that some of it seems dangerous. That robot, for instance. And you were able to turn off the station in the slow zone.”