James Corey: Abaddon's Gate

“I hope I’m not disturbing you,” he said, sitting and staring out at the stars. Not looking at her. He didn’t look her in the eye anymore.

“Not at all. Just recording a message home and enjoying the view.”

They sat silently for a few moments, watching the stars.

“Esteban lost,” Cortez said, as if they’d been talking about that all along.

“I don’t— Oh, the secretary-general. He did?”

“Nancy Gao is the new SG. You can see Chrisjen Avasarala’s fingerprints all over that one.”

“Who?”

Cortez laughed. It sounded genuine, a nice loud rumble coming up from his belly. “Oh, she would love to hear you say that.”

“Who is she?”

“She’s the politician no one has ever voted for, that runs the UN like her own personal fiefdom and keeps her name out of the press. The fact that she controls your home government and you’ve never heard of her means she’s very, very good.”

“Oh,” Anna said. She was not a political creature. She felt that politics was the second most evil thing humanity had ever invented, just after lutefisk.

There was another long silence. Anna wondered where Tilly was, and if she’d show up and rescue her from the awkwardness of the moment.

“You backed the right horse,” Cortez finally said. “I picked a bad one. I hope you won’t hold that against me. I’ve grown to respect you a great deal, in spite of our differences. I wouldn’t like it if you hated me.”

“I don’t, Hector,” Anna said, taking his hand in both of hers and squeezing it. “Not at all. It was terrible, what we all went through. We all made bad decisions because we were afraid. But you’re a good man. I believe that.”

Cortez gave her a grateful smile and patted her hand. Anna nodded her head at the star field splashed across the wall.

“So many stars,” she said. “Some of them might be ours someday.”

“I wonder,” Hector replied, his voice low and sad. “I wonder if we should have them. God gave man the Earth. He never promised him the stars. I wonder if He’ll follow us out there.”

Anna squeezed his hand again, and then let it go. “The God I believe in is bigger than all of this. Nothing we ever learn can be an attack on Him as long as that’s true.”

Cortez gave a noncommittal grunt.

“I want her to have them,” she said, pointing at the spray of light around her. “My little Nami, I want her to have all of that someday.”

“Whatever she finds out there,” Cortez said, “just remember it’s the future you chose for her.”

His words were full of hope and threat.

Like the stars.

Once again, we have more people to thank than space to thank them in. This book and this series wouldn’t exist without the hard work of our agent Danny Baror and the support and dedication of Tom Bouman, Susan Barnes, Ellen Wright, Tim Holman, Alex Lencicki, and the whole crew at Orbit. Thanks to the amazing Daniel Dociu for giving us the art that people can’t help but pick up off the shelf, and to Kirk Benshoff for creating that wonderful design that ties the whole series together. We’ll never be able to adequately express our gratitude to Carrie, Kat, and Jayné for feedback and support, and to Scarlet for allowing us to distract her with Mythbusters while we work. Thanks to the Mythbusters crew for being so entertaining to scientifically curious six-year-olds. Thanks again to the whole Sake River gang. Much of the cool in the book belongs to them. As always, the errors and infelicities and egregious fudging was all us.

James S. A. Coreyis the pen name of fantasy author Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, George R. R. Martin’s assistant. They both live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Find out more about this series at www.the-expanse.com

Find out more about James S. A. Corey and other Orbit authors by registering for the free monthly newsletter at www.orbitbooks.net

Leviathan Wakes

Caliban’s War

Abaddon’s Gate

Published by Hachette Digital

978-0-7481-2298-1

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by James S. A. Corey

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

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