“I’m aware of that, Mister Sakai.” Fred’s voice was no louder; there was no anger in it. The cool politeness made the hair on the back of Holden’s neck rise. Sakai seemed to feel it too. It didn’t stop him, but his voice went from accusatory to almost wheedling.

“I’ve got shipments on two dozen jobs due to go out. There are a lot of people counting on us.”

For a moment, Fred’s shoulders seemed to sag, but his voice was just as strong. “I’m aware of that. We’ll open up for business again as soon as we can.”

Sakai wavered, on the edge of saying something more. Instead, he made a short, impatient sigh and walked back out as the head of security came in. She was a thin-faced woman Fred called Drummer, but Holden didn’t know if that was her first name, her last, or just something she went by.

“How’s it going?” Fred asked.

“Nothing we can’t handle,” she said. Her voice had a crisp accent that Holden couldn’t place. She glanced at him, nodded curtly, and turned back to Fred. “Do we have any information we can give on how long we expect the lockdown to be in effect?”

“Tell them the interruption of service will be as brief as possible.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Drummer said, then turned away.

“Drummer. Close the door when you go, eh?”

Her eyes flickered, cut back to Holden, then away again. She didn’t say anything, but she pulled the door closed behind her when she left. Fred gave Holden a mirthless, tired smile.

“Sakai’s right. I just shut down the equivalent of a major port city because of one missing woman. Every hour I keep it like this, Tycho’s losing thousands of credits in a dozen different scrips.”

“So we’ll have to find her quickly.”

“If they haven’t already fed her into the recyclers and broken her down to water and a few active molecules,” Fred said. And then a moment later, “I have the sensor arrays sweeping the local area. If she’s been spaced, we’ll know it soon.”

“Thank you,” Holden said, leaning against the counter. “I know I don’t say it often, but I do appreciate this.”

Fred nodded to the door. “You see her? Drummer?”

“Sure.”

“I’ve been working with her directly for three years. Knew who she was for ten before that.”

“All right,” Holden said.

“If you’d asked me yesterday, I’d have told you I trusted her with my life.”

“Now?”

“Now there is exactly one person on this station who I’m certain isn’t going to shoot me in the back of the head if I keep pressing on this, and that’s you,” Fred said.

“That’s got to be uncomfortable.”