“Never again,” Basia said. “And if anyone in my family is hurt because of this, I will kill you myself.”
He drove back to the mine, then walked to his house. The sun was just coming up when he finally stumbled into his tiny bathroom. The man in the mirror didn’t look like a killer, but his hands were covered with blood. He started trying to wash them off.
Chapter Ten: Havelock
About five hours before—when Havelock had been halfway through his ten-hour shift—a man dressed in an orange-and-purple suit so ugly it approached violence sat down on a couch in a video studio on Mars. Havelock floated against his restraints, considering him. Strapping in was second nature now, even though it felt a little silly. The orbital space around New Terra was essentially empty, and the chance of a sudden acceleration was almost nil. It was just a habit. On the little monitor set into the cabin wall, the young man shook the feed host’s hand and smiled at the camera.
“It’s been a while since you came by, Mister Curvelo,” the host said. “Thank you so much for coming back.”
“Good to be here, Monica,” the man said, nodding like he’d been caught at something. “Good to be back.”
“So I got a chance to play the new game, and I have to say it seems like a real departure from your previous work.”
“Yeah,” the man said shortly. His jaw was tight.
“There’s been a certain amount of controversy,” the host said. Her smile was a little sharper. “You want to talk about that?”
It was physically impossible for Havelock to sink back into his couch, but psychologically it was a snap.
“Monica, look,” the man in the ugly suit said, “what we’re exploring here are the consequences of violence. Everybody’s looking at that first section, and they don’t think about how everything comes after.”
Havelock’s hand terminal chimed. He muted the newsfeed and took the connection.
“Havelock,” Murtry said, “I have a call I need you to take.”
His voice was so calm and controlled, Havelock felt his breath go shallow. It was the sound of trouble, and his mind clutched at the first fear that came. The Rocinante and Jim Holden, the UN mediator, was about ten hours from the end of its deceleration burn. Almost here. If something had gone wrong with it…
“Something happened downstairs,” Murtry said. “I’ve got Cassie on the horn, and I need you to keep her from melting down while I talk to the captain.”
“Is it bad?”
“Yeah. Take the call. Be the calm one. You can do that?”
“Sure, boss,” Havelock said. “Cool as November, smooth as China silk.”
“Good man.”
The picture froze for a fraction of a second, and then Cassie was looking out at him. For a year and a half, they’d been on the ship together, part of the same team, familiar if not intimate. He’d been aware vaguely when she’d struck up a romance with Aragão and then when they’d broken it off. He thought of her as a friend because he didn’t think about her much at all.
In the image, her skin had an ashy color, and her eyes were lined with red.
“Cassie,” Havelock said, his voice falling into the comforting register he’d trained for in the hostage negotiation workshop he’d taken after the Ceres riots. “Hear things are a little rough down there.”
Cassie’s laugh shifted the camera, shaking her on the screen like an earthquake. She looked away, and then back.
“They’re gone,” she said. In the pause afterward, her gaze shifted like she was looking for something. More words to say, maybe. “They’re gone.”
“Okay,” he said. A thousand different questions pressed forward, wanting to be asked. What happened? Who’s missing? What happened? But Murtry hadn’t asked him to find out, and Cassie didn’t need an interrogator. “Murtry’s talking to the captain.”
“I know,” Cassie said. “We had a lead. We found a hideout. Reeve took them out. I stayed back with the witness.”
“Is the witness there?”
“She’s sleeping now,” Cassie said. “I’m a security systems consultant, Havelock. I’m supposed to be figuring out optimal shift schedules and building the surveillance network. I don’t shoot people. That’s not my fucking pay grade.”
Havelock smiled, and Cassie smiled with him, a tear leaking out the side of her eye. For a moment they were both laughing, the horror and the fear transforming into something like exasperation. Something a little bit safer.
“I’m scared as hell,” Cassie said. “If they come for me too, I won’t be able to stop them. I’ve got the office locked down, but they could cut through the walls. They could blow the place up. I don’t know why we thought it was a good idea to be down here at all. After they blew the heavy shuttle, we should have hauled our butts back up the well and stayed there. We should have dropped rocks on them from fucking orbit.”
“The thing now is keeping you and the witness safe.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Cassie asked. Her voice was a challenge, but one that wanted to be answered. You can’t and Tell me that you can all at the same time.
“We’re working on that,” Havelock said.
“I don’t even have food in here,” Cassie said. “It’s all at the commissary. I’d kill for a sandwich. I really would. I’d kill for it.”
Havelock tried to remember what they’d said in the workshop about talking with people who’d been traumatized. There was a list. Four things. The mnemonic was BEST. He couldn’t remember what any of the letters stood for.
“So,” he said. “I bet you’re pretty freaked out right now.”
“I’m not holding it together.”
“Yeah, it feels like that, but actually, you’re doing good just by not making it worse. That’s how people usually get it wrong when things go to hell. Overreact, escalate. All goes pear-shaped. You’re holed up and talking to us. Means you’ve got good instincts for this.”
“You’re making that shit up,” Cassie said. “I’m just this side of going catatonic.”
“Stay on this side, and that makes it a win. Seriously, though, you’re doing the right thing. Stay cool, and we’ll get on top of this. I know it feels like it’s all going to hell, but you’re going to be all right.”
“If I’m not—”
“You will be.”
“But if I’m not. If, right?”
“Okay,” Havelock said. “If.”
“Do me a favor. There’s a guy back on Europa. Hihiri Tipene. He’s a food engineer.”
“Okay.”
“Tell him I said I was sorry.”
She thinks she’s going to die, Havelock thought, and she may be right. The bright, coppery taste of fear flooded his mouth. The locals were killing RCE security, and she was the last one standing. He didn’t know anything about the state of play down there. For all he knew, there might be three tons of industrial explosive about to turn Cassie into a memory. Any moment, she could die, and he could watch her die and not be able to do anything about it.
“You’re going to tell him yourself,” he said gently. “And after this, it won’t even be scary.”
“I don’t know. You’ve never met Hihiri. Promise me?”
“Sure,” Havelock said. “I’ve got your back on this one.”
Cassie nodded. Another tear streaked down her cheek. He didn’t feel like he was doing a great job of keeping her from meltdown.
A tiny inset window appeared on the feed. Murtry’s security override.
“Hey there, Cass,” Murtry said. “I’ve talked to Captain Marwick, and we’re dropping a team to you. It’s going to take us a couple hours, though. Your job is to keep that civilian safe.”