Cibola Burn (The Expanse) Read Online Free PDF

pad blew up.”
    “Oh,” she said. And then, “Do they do that?”
    “No. No, they really don’t.”
    She tried to think through that. If they don’t, then how could it have happened? Her mind was clearing enough for her to notice how compromised she was. Unnerving, but probably a good sign.
    “How bad is it?”
    She felt Fayez’s shrug more than saw it. “Bad. Only significant good news is that the village is close, and their doctor’s competent. Trained on Ganymede. Now, if our supplies weren’t all on fire or smashed under a couple tons of metal and ceramics, she might be able to do something.”
    “The workgroup?”
    “I saw Gregorio. He’s all right. Eric’s dead. I don’t know what happened to Sophie, but I’ll go look some more once they get to you.”
    Eric was dead. Minutes before, he’d been in the couch beside her, trying to flirt and being annoying. She didn’t understand it.
    “Sudyam?” she asked.
    “She’s back on the Israel . She’s fine.”
    “That’s good then.”
    Fayez squeezed her hand and let it go. The air felt cool against her palm where his skin had abandoned it. He looked out over the rows of bodies toward the wreckage of the shuttle. It was so dark, she could hardly make him out except where he blotted out the stars.
    “Governor Trying didn’t make it,” he said.
    “Didn’t make it?”
    “Dead as last week’s rat. We’re not sure who’s in charge of anything now.”
    She felt tears forming in her eyes and an ache bloomed in her chest that had nothing to do with her injuries. She recalled the man’s gentle smile, the warmth of his voice. His work was only starting. It was strange that Eric’s death should skip across the surface of her mind like a stone thrown over water and Governor Trying’s should strike so deep.
    “I’m so sorry,” she said.
    “Yeah, well. We’re on an alien planet a year and a half from home with our initial supplies in toothpick-size splinters, and the odds-on bet for what happened is sabotage by the same people who are presently giving us medical care. Dead’s not good, but at least it’s simple. We may all envy Trying before this is over.”
    “You don’t mean that. It’s going to be okay.”
    “Elvi?” Fayez said, with a sardonic chuckle. “I believe that it isn’t.”

Chapter Three: Havelock
    “H ey,” the engineer said blearily from the cell. “Havelock. You’re not still pissed, are you?”
    Not my job to be pissed, Williams,” Havelock replied from where he floated beside his desk. The internal security station of the Edward Israel was small. Two desks, eight cells, a space as much brig as office. And with the ship in high orbit, the loss of effective gravity made it seem even smaller.
    “Look, I know I got out of line, but I’m sober now. You can let me out.”
    Havelock checked his hand terminal.
    “Another fifty minutes,” he said, “and you’ll be free to go.”
    “C’mon, Havelock. Have a heart.”
    “It’s policy. Nothing I can do about it.”
    Dimitri Havelock had worked security contracts for eight different corporations over thirteen years. Pinkwater, Star Helix, el-Hashem Cooperative, Stone & Sibbets, among others. Even, briefly, Protogen. He’d been in the Belt, on Earth, Mars, and Luna. He’d done long-haul work on supply ships heading from Ganymede to Earth. He’d dealt with everything from riots to intimate violence to drug trafficking to one idiot who’d had a thing for stealing people’s socks. He hadn’t seen everything, but he’d seen a lot. Enough to know he’d probably never see everything . And enough to recognize that how he reacted to a crisis was more about the people on his team than with the crisis itself.
    When the reactor had gone on Aten Base, his partner and supervisor had both panicked, and Havelock remembered the overwhelming fear in his own gut. When the riots had started on Ceres after the ice hauler Canterbury had been destroyed, his partner had been more weary