Abaddon's Gate (Expanse 3)

“Seriously?” Anna gave a humorless laugh. “We’re going to do dueling etymology?”

“What we are facing here is more than humanity is ready for,” Cortez said.

“You don’t get to decide that, Hank,” Anna said, stabbing at the radio as if it were the man. “Think about the people you’re killing. Look at who you’re working with, and tell me that in clear conscience you know you’re doing the right thing.”

“Argument by association?” Cortez said. “Really? God’s tools have always been flawed. We are a fallen people, but that we have the strength of will to do what we must, even in the face of mortal punishment, is what makes us moral beings. And you of all people—”

The feed went silent for a moment.

“Cortez?” Anna said. But when Cortez’s voice came, he wasn’t speaking to her.

“Clarissa, what are you doing?”

Clarissa sounded calm, almost half asleep. “I opened the doors.”

Chapter Fifty: Holden

N

aomi had taken an access panel off the wall next to the command deck airlock. She’d crawled halfway inside, and only her belly and legs were visible. Holden had planted his mag boots next to the airlock’s outer door and was awaiting instructions from her. Occasionally she’d ask him to try opening the door again, but every attempt so far had failed. Corin floated next to him, watching down the elevator shaft through her gunsights. They’d seen a quick flash of light down there a few minutes back that had set the bulkheads to vibrating. Something violent and explosive had happened.

Holden, having now moved on to his second last stand of the day, had come to view the whole thing with a weary sense of humor. As far as places to die went, the small platform between the elevator shaft and the airlock was about as good as any other. It was a niche in the wall of the shaft about ten feet on a side. The floor, ceiling, and bulkheads were all the same ceramic steel of the ship’s outer hull. The back wall was the airlock door. The front was empty space where the elevator would normally sit. At the very least, when Ashford’s people came swarming up the shaft at them, the floor of the niche would offer some cover.

Naomi scooted sideways a bit and kicked one leg. Holden could hear her over the radio as she grunted with the effort of grabbing something just out of reach.

“Gotcha,” she said in triumph. “Okay, try it now!”

Holden hit the button to open the outer airlock doors. Nothing happened.

“Are you trying it?” Naomi asked.

He hit the button two more times. “Yeah. Nothing.”

“Dammit. I could’ve sworn…”

Corin shifted enough to give him a sardonic look, but said nothing.

The truth was, Holden was out of emotional gas. He’d gone through his existential moment of truth back when he thought he was making a last stand at the elevator to buy Naomi time. Then he’d been given a reprieve when the attackers chose another path, but Naomi had been put in the firing line, which was actually worse. And then she’d shown up a few minutes ago saying Bull had sent her on ahead to get the door open while he acted as rearguard.

Every plan they’d made had failed spectacularly, with more casualties piling up at every step. And now they were at yet another last stand, with a locked door behind them and Ashford’s goons ahead of them and nowhere to go. It should have been terrifying, but at this point Holden just felt sleepy.

“Try it now,” Naomi said. Holden jabbed the button a few times without looking at it.

“Nope.”

“Maybe…” she said and moved around, kicking her legs again.

“Two incoming,” Corin said, her voice harsh and buzzing over the radio. He’d never heard her voice when it wasn’t on a suit radio. He wondered whether it would have that same quality naturally. He walked over to the edge of the platform and looked down, magnetic boots having tricked his brain into thinking there was an up and down again.

Looking through his gunsight’s magnification, he saw two of the Martian marines hurtling up the shaft as fast as their cheap environment suits would let them. He didn’t recognize them yet. Bull wasn’t with them.

“Try it now,” Naomi said.

“Busy,” Holden replied, scanning the space behind the marines for pursuers. He didn’t see any.

Naomi climbed out of her access panel and floated over next to him to see what was going on. The marines shot up the shaft toward them at high speed, flipped at the last minute, and hit the ceiling feet first to come to a rapid stop. They pushed off and landed next to Holden, sticking to the floor with magnetic boots.

Holden could see through their faceplates now, and recognized the sniper, Juarez, and a dark-skinned woman whose name he’d never gotten.

“We’ve lost the hold point,” Juarez said. He clutched his long rifle in one hand and a fresh magazine in the other. He loaded the gun and said, “Last mag,” to his partner.

She checked her harness and said, “Three.”

“Report,” Holden said, slipping into military command mode without even meaning to. He’d been a lieutenant in the navy. Juarez was enlisted. The training they’d received about who gave orders and who followed them in combat died hard.

“I took out one hostile with a headshot, I believe a second was neutralized with our remaining explosives. No intel on the other two. They may have been injured or killed by the explosion, but we can’t count on that.”

“Bull?” Corin asked.

“He was holding the explosives. That second kill was his.”

“Bull,” Corin said again, choking up. Holden was surprised to see her eyes filling with tears. “We have to go get him.”

“Negative,” Juarez said. “The elevator has become a barrier. He’s inside it. Anything we do to remove his body actively degrades our defensive position.”

“Fuck you,” Corin said, taking an aggressive step toward Juarez, her hands closing into fists. “We don’t leave him—”

Before she could take another step, Holden grabbed her by her weapon harness and yanked her off the floor, then spun around to slam her against the closest bulkhead. He heard the air go out of her in a whoosh over the radio.

“Mourn later,” he said, not letting her go. “When we’re done. Then we mourn for all of them.”

She grabbed his wrists in her hands, and for one heartstopping moment Holden thought she might fight him. He seriously questioned his ability to win a zero-g grappling match with the stocky security officer. But she just pulled his hands off her harness, then pushed herself back down to the floor.