“Everybody’s related to someone,” he said. “You wind up at his place or your own?”

“Neither one,” she said. “I need to hire a cleanup crew to get the blood off my floor, and I’m doing a solid security audit to figure out how they got in.”

“Yeah. Wouldn’t feel safe until that’s done,” Alex agreed.

“Right? And if there is a follow-up attack, I’m sure as hell not staying where it’s going to catch Ben and his wife in the crossfire. I popped for a hotel room. They’ve got their own security, and I can pay for extra surveillance.”

Min’s voice rose in the background, calling for calm. There was laughter in her tones, and he heard it echoed in the protests of her children. A tightness like a hand closed over his heart. He hadn’t thought about a follow-up attack. He should have.

“They got a spare room at that hotel?” he asked.

“Probably. You want me to find out?”

“Nah, I’ll just pack up and head over, if that’s all right. They don’t, someone will.” And whoever it is, it won’t be Min, he thought but didn’t say. “I got a few people I thought I’d try chatting up in the next few days. See if anything seems likely.”

“I really appreciate this, Alex,” Bobbie said. “We should talk about how to manage that safely. I don’t want you walking into a trap.”

“Wouldn’t make me happy either. Also, you don’t have access to a ship, do you?”

Bobbie blinked at the non sequitur. “What kind of ship?”

“Something small and fast,” Alex said. “May need to get out to the Belt, take a gander at something for Holden.”

“Well, actually, yeah,” Bobbie said. “Avasarala gave me the old racing pinnace we took from Jules-Pierre Mao back in the day. It’s pretty much just been sucking dock fees, but I could probably get it polished up.”

“You’re kiddin’. She gave you the Razorback?”

“Not kidding. I think it was her way of paying me without actually paying me. She’d probably be confused that I haven’t sold it yet. Why? What’s up?”

“I’ll let you know when I hear more,” Alex said. “Maybe something, maybe nothing.”

But either way, he thought, it’ll get you and me both where it’s hard as hell to have someone make a follow-up attack.

Chapter Sixteen: Holden

The security footage from Tycho Station covered almost all of the public spaces. The wide, open common corridors, the thinner access ways. Gantries and maintenance corridors. It seemed like the only places the eyes of station security didn’t reach were the businesses and personal quarters. Even the storage lockers and tool shops had cameras logging whoever went in or out. It should have made things easy. It didn’t.