Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey Page B

answer, six new objects appeared on his radar, glowing yellow icons appearing and immediately shifting to orange as the system marked their acceleration. On the
Canterbury,
Becca yelled out, “Fast movers! We have six new high-speed contacts on a collision course!”
    “Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick, did that ship just fire a spread of torpedoes at us?” McDowell said. “They’re trying to slap us down?”
    “Yes, sir,” Becca said.
    “Time to contact.”
    “Just under eight minutes, sir,” she replied.
    McDowell cursed under his breath.
    “We’ve got pirates, Jim.”
    “What do you need from us?” Holden said, trying to sound calm and professional.
    “I need you to get off the radio and let my crew work. You’re an hour out at best. The torpedoes are eight minutes. McDowell out,” the captain said, his comm clicking off and leaving Holden listening to the faint hiss of static.
    The general comm exploded with voices, Alex demanding to go on the juice and race the torpedoes to the
Cant,
Naomi chattering about missile-jamming strategies, Amos cursing at the stealth ship and questioning the parenting of its crew. Shed was the only quiet one.
    “Everyone, shut up!” Holden yelled into his headset. The ship fell into shocked silence. “Alex, plot the fastest course to the
Cant
that won’t kill us. Let me know when you have it. Naomi, set up a three-way channel with Becca, you, and me. We’ll help however we can. Amos, keep cussing but turn your mic off.”
    He waited. The clock ticked toward impact.
    “Link is up,” Naomi said. Holden could hear two distinct sets of background noise over the comm channel.
    “Becca, this is Jim. I’ve got Naomi on this channel too. Tell us what we can do to help. Naomi was talking about jamming techniques?”
    “I’m doing everything I know to do,” Becca said, her voice astonishingly calm. “They’re painting us with a targeting laser. I’m broadcasting garbage to scramble it, but they’ve got really, really good shit. If we were any closer, that targeting laser would be burning a hole in our hull.”
    “What about physical chaff?” Naomi asked. “Can you drop snow?”
    While Naomi and Becca talked, Jim opened a private channel to Ade. “Hey, this is Jim. I have Alex working on a fast-burn solution so we can get there before… ”
    “Before the missiles turn us into a flying brick? Good idea. Taken by pirates isn’t something you want to miss,” Ade said. He could hear the fear behind the mocking tone.
    “Ade, please, I want to say something—”
    “Jim, what do you think?” Naomi said on the other channel.
    Holden cursed. To cover, he said, “Uh, about which thing?”
    “Using the
Knight
to try and draw those missiles,” Naomi said.
    “Can we do that?” he asked.
    “Maybe. Were you listening at all?”
    “Ah… something happened here, drew my attention for a minute. Tell me again,” Holden said.
    “We try to match the frequency of the light scatter coming off the
Cant
and broadcast it with our comm array. Maybe the torpedoes will think we’re the target instead,” Naomi said like she was speaking to a child.
    “And then they come blow us up?”
    “I’m thinking we run away while pulling the torpedoes toward us. Then, when we get them far enough past the
Cant,
we kill the comm array and try to hide behind the asteroid,” Naomi said.
    “Won’t work,” Holden said with a sigh. “They follow the targeting laser’s scatter for general guidance, but they also take telescope shots of the target on acquisition. They’ll take one look at us and know we aren’t their target.”
    “Isn’t it worth a shot?”
    “Even if we manage it, torpedoes designed to disable the
Cant
would make us into a greasy stretch of vacuum.”
    “All right,” Naomi said. “What else have we got?”
    “Nothing. Very smart boys in the naval labs have already thought of everything we are going to think of in the next eight minutes,” Holden said. Saying it