Amos shook his head. “Not without a map, we won’t. You get lost in here, you’re in trouble,” he said.
Ignoring them, Holden said, “Okay, so we wait for everyone to move to the radiation shelters and then we leave.”
Miller nodded at him, and then the two men sat staring at each other for a moment. The air between them seemed to thicken, the silence taking on a meaning of its own. Miller shrugged like his jacket itched.
“Why do you think a bunch of Ceres mobsters are moving everyone to radiation shelters when there’s no actual radiation danger?” Holden finally said. “And why are the Eros cops letting them?”
“Good questions,” Miller said.
“If they were using these yahoos, it helps explain why their attempted kidnapping at the hotel went so poorly. They don’t seem like pros.”
“Nope,” Miller said. “That’s not their usual area of expertise.”
“Would you two be quiet?” Naomi said.
For almost a minute they were.
“It’d be really stupid,” Holden said, “to go take a look at what’s going on, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. Whatever’s going on at those shelters, you know that’s where all the guards and patrols will be,” Miller said.
“Yeah,” Holden said.
“Captain,” Naomi said, a warning in her voice.
“Still,” Holden said, talking to Miller, “you hate a mystery.”
“I do at that,” Miller replied with a nod and a faint smile. “And you, my friend, are a damn busybody.”
“It’s been said.”
“Goddamn it,” Naomi said quietly.
“What is it, Boss?” Amos asked.
“These two just broke our getaway plan,” Naomi replied. Then she said to Holden, “You guys are going to be very bad for each other and, by extension, us.”
“No,” Holden replied. “You aren’t coming along. You stay here with Amos and Alex. Give us”—he looked at his terminal—“three hours to go look and come back. If we aren’t here—”
“We leave you to the gangsters and the three of us get jobs on Tycho and live happily ever after,” Naomi said.
“Yeah,” Holden said with a grin. “Don’t be a hero.”
“Wouldn’t even consider it, sir.”
Holden crouched in the shadows outside the maintenance hatch and watched as Ceres mobsters dressed in police riot gear led the citizens of Eros away in small groups. The PA system continued to declare the possibility of radiological danger and exhorted the citizens and guests of Eros to cooperate fully with emergency personnel. Holden had selected a group to follow and was getting ready to move when Miller placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Wait,” Miller said. “I want to make a call.”
He quickly dialed up a number on his hand terminal, and after a few moments, a flat gray Network Not Available message appeared.
“Phone is down?” Holden asked.
“That’s the first thing I’d do, too,” Miller replied.
“I see,” Holden said even though he really didn’t.
“I kind of think he does,” Holden said. “You should do what he says. He’s not a very nice person.”
Miller pushed the barrel of his gun against the guard’s head and said, “You know what we used to call a ‘no-brainer’ back at the station house? It’s when a shot to the head actually blows the entire brain out of someone’s skull. It usually happens when a gun is pressed to the victim’s head right about here. The gas’s got nowhere to go. Pops the brain right out through the exit wound.”
“They said not to open these up once they’d been sealed, man,” the guard said, speaking so fast he ran all the words together. “They were pretty serious about that.”
“This is the last time I ask,” Miller said. “Next time I just use the card I took off your body.”
Holden turned the guard around to face the door and pulled the handgun out of the man’s belt holster. He hoped all Miller’s threats were just threats. He suspected they weren’t.