Leviathan Wakes

“I’m Lieutenant Lopez. Kelly probably told you that. I work for naval intelligence, which he almost certainly didn’t tell you. My job isn’t secret, but they train jarheads to be tight-lipped.”

Lopez reached into his pocket, took out a small packet of white lozenges, and popped one into his mouth. He didn’t offer one to Holden. Lopez’s pupils contracted to tiny points as he sucked the lozenge. Focus drugs. He’d be watching every tic of Holden’s face during questioning. Tough to lie to.

“First Lieutenant James R. Holden, of Montana,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, sir,” Holden said anyway.

“Seven years in the UNN, last posting on the destroyer Zhang Fei.”

“That’s me.”

“Your file says you were busted out for assaulting a superior officer,” Lopez said. “That’s pretty cliché, Holden. You punched the old man? Seriously?”

“No. I missed. Broke my hand on a bulkhead.”

“How’d that happen?”

“He was quicker than I expected,” Holden replied.

“Why’d you try?”

“I was projecting my self-loathing onto him. It’s just a stroke of luck that I actually wound up hurting the right person,” Holden said.

“Sounds like you’ve thought about it some since then,” Lopez said, his pinprick pupils never moving from Holden’s face. “Therapy?”

“Lots of time to think on the Canterbury,” Holden replied.

Lopez ignored the obvious opening and said, “What did you come up with, during all that thinking?”

“The Coalition has been stepping on the necks of the people out here for over a hundred years now. I didn’t like being the boot.”

“An OPA sympathizer, then?” Lopez said, his expression not changing at all.

“No. I didn’t switch sides. I stopped playing. I didn’t renounce my citizenship. I like Montana. I’m out here because I like flying, and only a Belter rust trap like the Canterbury will hire me.”

Lopez smiled for the first time. “You’re an exceedingly honest man, Mr. Holden.”

“Yes.”

“Why did you claim that a Martian military vessel destroyed your ship?”

“I didn’t. I explained all that in the broadcast. It had technology only available to inner planet fleets, and I found a piece of MCRN hardware in the device that tricked us into stopping.”

“We’ll want to see that.”

“You’re welcome to it.”

“Your file says you were the only child of a family co-op,” Lopez said, acting as though they’d never stopped talking about Holden’s past.

“Yes, five fathers, three mothers.”

“So many parents for only one child,” Lopez said, slowly unwrapping another lozenge. The Martians had lots of space for traditional families.

“The tax break for eight adults only having one child allowed them to own twenty-two acres of decent farmland. There are over thirty billion people on Earth. Twenty-two acres is a national park,” Holden said. “Also, the DNA mix is legit. They aren’t parents in name only.”

“How did they decide who carried you?”

“Mother Elise had the widest hips.”

Lopez popped the second lozenge into his mouth and sucked on it a few moments. Before he could speak again, the deck shook. The video recorder jiggled on its arm.

“Torpedo launches?” Holden said. “Guess those Belt ships didn’t change course.”

“Any thoughts about that, Mr. Holden?”

“Just that you seem pretty willing to kill Belt ships.”

“You’ve put us in a position where we can’t afford to seem weak. After your accusations, there are a lot of people who don’t think much of us.”

Holden shrugged. If the man was watching for guilt or remorse from Holden, he was out of luck. The Belt ships had known what they were going toward. They hadn’t turned away. But still, something bothered him.

“They might hate your living guts,” Holden said. “But it’s hard to find enough suicidal people to crew six ships. Maybe they think they can outrun torpedoes.”

Lopez didn’t move, his whole body preternaturally still with the focus drugs pouring through him.

“We—” Lopez began, and the general quarters Klaxon sounded. It was deafening in the small metal compartment.

“Holy shit, did they shoot back?” Holden asked.

Lopez shook himself, like a man waking up from a daydream. He got up and hit the comm button by the door. A marine came through seconds later.

“Take Mr. Holden back to his quarters,” Lopez said, then left the room at a run.

The marine gestured at the corridor with the barrel of his rifle. His expression was hard.

It’s all fun and games till someone shoots back, Holden thought.

* * *

Naomi patted the empty couch next to her and smiled.

“Did they put slivers under your fingernails?” she asked.

“No, actually, he was surprisingly human for a naval intelligence wonk,” Holden replied. “Of course, he was just getting warmed up. Have you guys heard anything about the other ships?”

Alex said, “Nope. But that alarm means they’re takin’ them seriously all of a sudden.”