Free Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey Page A

house.
    “Okay,” Havelock said. “I’m sorry, but I’m missing something here.”
    “What?” Miller said. He meant
What are you yammering about?
Havelock took it as
What are you missing?
    “A water hauler millions of klicks from here got vaporized. Why are we going to full alert? Our cisterns will last months without even going on rationing. There are a lot of other haulers out there. Why is this a crisis?”
    Miller turned and looked at his partner straight on. The small, stocky build. The thick bones from a childhood in full g. Just likethe asshole in the transmission. They didn’t understand. If Havelock had been in this James Holden’s place, he might have done the same stupid, irresponsible, idiotic bullshit. For the space of a breath, they weren’t security anymore. They weren’t partners. They were a Belter and an Earther. Miller looked away before Havelock could see the change in his eyes.
    “That prick Holden? The one in the broadcast?” Miller said. “He just declared war on Mars for us.”
    The cart swerved and bobbed, its internal computer adjusting for some virtual hiccup in the traffic flow half a kilometer ahead. Havelock shifted, grabbing for the support strut. They hit a ramp up to the next level, civilians on foot making a path for them.
    “You grew up where the water’s maybe dirty, but it falls out of the sky for you,” Miller said. “The air’s filthy, but it’s not going away if your door seals fail. It’s not like that out here.”
    “But we’re not on the hauler. We don’t need the ice. We aren’t under threat,” Havelock said.
    Miller sighed, rubbing his eyes with thumb and knuckle until ghosts of false color bloomed.
    “When I was homicide,” Miller said, “there was this guy. Property management specialist working a contract out of Luna. Someone burned half his skin off and dropped him out an airlock. Turned out he was responsible for maintenance on sixty holes up on level thirty. Lousy neighborhood. He’d been cutting corners. Hadn’t replaced the air filters in three months. There was mold growing in three of the units. And you know what we found after that?”
    “What?” Havelock asked.
    “Not a goddamn thing, because we stopped looking. Some people need to die, and he was one. And the next guy that took the job cleaned the ducting and swapped the filters on schedule. That’s what it’s like in the Belt. Anyone who came out here and didn’t put environmental systems above everything else died young. All us still out here are the ones that cared.”
    “Selective effect?” Havelock said. “You’re seriously arguing infavor of selective effect? I never thought I’d hear that shit coming out of you.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Racist propaganda bullshit,” Havelock said. “It’s the one that says the difference in environment has changed the Belters so much that instead of just being a bunch of skinny obsessive-compulsives, they aren’t really human anymore.”
    “I’m not saying that,” Miller said, suspecting that it was exactly what he was saying. “It’s just that Belters don’t take the long view when you screw with basic resources. That water was future air, propellant mass, and potables for us. We have no sense of humor about that shit.”
    The cart hit a ramp of metalwork grate. The lower level fell away below them. Havelock was silent.
    “This Holden guy didn’t say it was Mars. Just that they found a Martian battery. You think people are going to… declare war?” Havelock said. “Just on the basis of this one guy’s pictures of a battery?”
    “The ones that wait to get the whole story aren’t our problem.”
    At least not tonight,
he thought.
Once the whole story gets out, we’ll see where we stand.
    The station house was somewhere between one-half and three-quarters full. Security men stood in clumps, nodding to each other, eyes narrow and jaws tight. One of the vice cops laughed at something, his amusement loud, forced,