This is an Unspoiled Network podcast.

This is spoil Me, covering the Expanse Book one, Leviathan Wakes, chapters twenty one through twenty three.

In these chapters, well, we are on a mission to Euros and we are actually finally having our two sides of this meet up for once.

I'm excited, interested to see how we all get along.

I'm just ro curious.

You know, how is this going to go for everybody?

I'm rooting for them all, but also hesitant.

Welcome to spoil Me.

Welcome to the show everyone.

I am Natasha.

Thank you very much to John for commissioning this episode.

What's up?

John and Jeff is in the chat with Miss t April, Michael and saraham delighted to see you guys again.

Yeah, you guys.

There is nothing that tickles my fancy quite so much as getting to know a character and then getting to see that character from another character's perspective.

It's just one of my favorites.

It's part of It's like my favorite genre of romance as well, when you've got the perspective of both love interests and you get to see how they each are thinking about the other.

And this was just really particularly fun to me getting to see how they interact and how they see each other.

I'll be very curious to go into Miller's POV and see what it is that he is thinking about John, you know, So all right, let's get into this, because we start off with chapter twenty one is from Holden's perspective, and we are getting with him a kind of like explanation on why people tend to go hogwild when they finally birth after being in space for a while, and it's pretty much what you would expect that you know, there's a kind of low level terror, I think is the easiest way to describe it, that you feel at all times where you know there is no place to escape to if something were to happen to you, and just you know, it's like, as he puts it, it's not claustrophobia, because if you have that, you're not going to be able to do that job.

But it's just more like a sense of sure, hope nothing goes wrong, so that once you were able to get to a place where you can get off and be safe, the fact that you made it it's part of the whole thing, you know.

The way this is described more than once he'd wandered into a brothel and left only when they threw him out with an emptied account, a sore groin, and a prost state as dry as the Sahara tessert.

So when Amos staggered into his room after three days on Station Hold and knew exactly what the big mechanic felt like, and that just cracked me up a little bit.

The whole idea of like, you fucked so much that you have a sore groin.

I can't because like it's one thing as a woman when you get sore, because that can just be a byproduct of any sex, depends ending on how you know, how you feel at the time, how it goes.

But for a dude, it's got to be like pretty and dense for it to be at that level, you know.

So anyway, I just found that very funny.

And the whole vibe here is everybody's chilling, everybody's sounding a nice time.

Everybody is just enjoying the moment that they get where they are allowed to like take it easy, not have to think about can we pay for this?

Or what's coming next?

Are we going to live or die?

And yet Holden is kind of stir crazy.

It's so it's such a bummer because the way that this scene goes later on, he winds up like making a deal that they're all gonna leave tomorrow.

I was so annoyed, y'all, because the whole thing is let's talk it out, and then at the end him saying, sure, of course, you get a couple extra days.

I don't mind staying as long as we have a plan, but then almost immediately going back on that and making plans for them to leave the next day.

I mean, you know what I'm saying, Like I understand on the one hand, and on the other I was like, really, bro, are you fucking serious.

Can't you at least make a deal that you'll leave the day after tomorrow or something?

But no, and I don't want our guys to wait around.

I want them to do the thing, you know, to be clear, But it just seemed like we just had this conversation and then you immediately threw it all out the window.

And yeah, he finally says everyone had enough enough of sucking on Fred's teat yet, And I really do appreciate Amos's point of view where he says, uh, yeah, I've been having a great time, and when he's like, well, how long is this supposed to go on for?

And Alex is like, as long as we can make it last.

Is this a trick question?

Like?

I, of course this is awesome and great.

I thought that we were all on the same side there.

No, Oh, well, I don't know what to say to you now, frankly, because I really was kind of having a great time.

Honestly.

It's the sort of thing where I think I believe that I would have an awesome time and just let go and lean into it all, but that in reality I would wind up feeling like strange about it and I wouldn't really be able to allow myself to have a good time.

I don't know, you know, I just I am sort of all over the place, like between how I feel about something in theory and then once I'm in person being like, okay, you know what, now this is weird.

Actually I take it all back.

And the way he says this is like, we don't really have any actual independence if he is paying for everything.

As long as he's paying, he owns us and you know, again, technically yes, you're right.

But also I really appreciated Naomi being like dude, we get to enjoy this, like, don't make us feel bad for this.

I just wanted to give her a big high five, as I fucking always do.

Frankly, every time Naomi says anything, I'm pretty much you know, even later she says something to him about how she's been a pain in the ass, but you're doing a good job, and you guys know that I am actually in agreement with that.

I had my moments where I was just like when Naomi should clearly be in charge, but like, Holden is not doing a bad job.

It's just that he's not really where I want him to be.

And you know, she's she's kind of saying what I was saying, except more diplomatically, I guess, is really what it is.

So yeah, her feeling on this of just don't make us feel bad for it absolutely correct on all accounts.

I really appreciated that, and somebody needed to say it because like, they literally had to watch a bunch of people die in front of them.

I think they get to be a little selfish for three fucking days.

It's not even a week, Like, be fucking for real, you know what I'm saying.

It just seemed to me I understood the energy behind what he was saying.

I understood the like not even the energy, you know what.

I take it back.

I understood the facts of what he was saying, but it was the energy that felt off to me, where he seems impatient with him and annoyed by them.

And I don't think there's anything specifically wrong with wanting to get a plan set up, but it's like he doesn't actually come at them with that being the goal.

He comes at them with what the fuck is wrong with you guys?

That kind of vibe, you know, And eventually he cools it and he's like, well, now that we have a plan, it's fine, I understand, and that like the scene is him sort of talking it out the way he puts it is once you thought, once he talked things out, it clarified them.

But it's the sort of thing where I'm like, how about you talk this out in a different room with none of these people until you get your head straight on what it is that you actually want to say, and then you come at them and talk to them about it.

Because just like it was somewhat accusatory, you know, and considering what they've all been through, I was just not I was not interested in it.

So let's see one other thing.

Fred is taking care of all the arrangements for Kelly's body.

He'll hold it here in State until we go public with our survival, then he'll ship it back to Mars.

Good Lieutenant Kelly deserves all the respect and dignity we can give him.

I am really curious what the reaction is going to be once people hear that they have Kelly's body, because there's a part of me, like I saw the way that all of those Martians went down with the ship and how fucking like they were committed.

These people were absolute fucking gees, and I am worried that we are going to wind up seeing something really ugly from people in reaction to his body.

And I don't want to see that.

I just it may be nothing, this may never come up, but it's the sort of thing that I could see kind of sparking something in folks who just need a bad guy, you know.

So let's see.

I want you to know I think you've done a great job of keeping us alive.

You focus us on problems we can solve instead of feeling sorry for us.

You keep everyone in orbit around you not everyone could do that.

I couldn't do it, and we've needed that stability.

You're wrong, and yes you could.

That's all I have to say on that.

So then he goes and sees Fred Johnson, and it's funny because he gets there and even though Fred had sent for him, he is on the phone when or Jim arrives and keeps talking on the phone for like another ten minutes before he is able to get off.

And Jim isn't mad at it, because he's got this gorgeous, like high deaf of view from this screen behind the desk that he's sort of letting himself enjoy while this is all going on.

But it was sort of funny because I wondered if this was supposed to put him off or make him feel a certain way, and if it was, it seems like that did not work.

It just seems like this, if you intended to bug him with this, that isn't what happened.

He seemed to be perfectly at ease here.

And we have this interesting conversation where let's see pirate cast claiming to speak for the OPI worked into a frenzy felt prospectors with homemade torpedo launchers are firing on Martian warships.

They get wiped out in response, but every now and then one of those torpedoes hits and kills a few Martians, which means Mars starts shooting first.

Fred nodded, and then even the honest citizens on legitimate business start getting worried about going out of the house.

We've had over a dozen late shipments so far this month that I'm worried it will stop being delays and start being cancelations.

I've been on that bridge, unidentified ship coming on you in a decision to make.

No one wants to press the button.

I've watched a ship get bigger and bigger on the scope while my finger was on the trigger.

I remember begging them to stop.

I need to ask you a favor.

I need to borrow your ship.

And at first when Jim asks why, Fred won't tell him, and then finally Holden's like, okay, look, you want me to be in on this, you gotta fucking tell me everything.

You know.

I need somebody picked up, somebody important.

Does this person have a name?

You don't trust me?

Nope.

Fred turned back around and gripped the back of his chair.

His knuckles were white.

Holden wondered if he'd gone too far.

Look, Holden said, you talk a good game about peace and trials and all that.

You just allow the pirate casts.

You have a nice station, filled with nice people.

I have every reason to believe you are what you say you are.

But we've been here three days and the first time you tell me about your planes, you ask to borrow my ship for a secret mission.

Sorry, if I'm part of this, I get full access, no secrets.

Even if I knew for a fact, which I don't, that you had nothing but good intentions, I still wouldn't go along with the cloak and dagger bullshit.

And Fred just stares at him, and, like Jim, tries to make a little joke about like, yeah, you're very intimidating, but Fred doesn't laugh or have any reaction really, so he's starting to feel like, oh God, what do I do?

And then finally Fred says, I bet every captain you ever flew under thought you were a gigantic pain in the ass.

I believe my record reflects that, Holden said, trying to hide his relief.

And this moment, you know, I had said earlier that Keith David was who I was picturing for this role, and my friends, I am so pleased with my casting because he could pull off this long stare.

Keith David absolutely could pull us off.

I really think that this would be great.

So then he says, I need to fly to Aros and find a man named Lionel Polansky.

And I just want to know why this author insists on using the last names of sex pests for everything.

Can we stop it?

Look?

I know that, like there are the whole thing with like the Epstein files that came out, but like Polanski's last name has been mud for a while.

Now you knew about that one.

Stop it doing it.

I don't like it.

It's bothering me, Okay, I decided to register my disapproval of this.

Why why you have to know what associations?

Everybody is going to have that last name?

And I'm not talking about people in this world.

I'm talking about readers, like you know, I mean, I just I don't.

I don't.

I don't like it.

And every time that it's set out loud by a character, it's gonna like jar me the same way that the Epstein name jars me.

So finally, when he says Lionel doesn't exist.

Uh, he's only on paper, and he owns things that mister Tycho doesn't want to own, including a courier ship called the Scopuli.

The non existent owner of the Scopuli checked into a flaphouse on one of the shit levels of arrows.

We only just got the message.

We have to work on the assumption that whoever got the room knows our operations intimately needs help and can't ask for it openly, which like, it's still unclear.

It seems like it was a check in for just setting a trap, but it could also be that they see Jim Holden coming and they're just like, who's this guy?

Wasn't he involved in the other thing?

And they could potentially have just not been willing to hear Jim and his team out.

It could really go a couple directions, like whether or not this was a plea for help or a trap, because sometimes if you are worried enough about the type of help you're getting, it will look like a trap.

You know it, I don't know.

And this is when Holden is like, all right, well we can leave in an hour, and friends like, when did this turn into you leaving, and I'm like, oh, come now, Fred, you know I just had a moment of very much like sir, I'm going to need you to see what is obviously about to happen here.

It's far too late for you to start digging your heels into being like, well, you're not even involved.

The fuck he isn't okay.

I mean, it's so obviously what is meant to happen that a part of me was almost suspicious in a way of like is he trying to get?

Because this is what conmen do, right.

Conmen set things up so that there is only one conclusion to really draw, But they don't actually lead you through connecting those dots.

They simply put the dots in place in such an obvious pattern that the mark connects those dots and thinks they're being really clever for the record for connecting them too, like they really think they did something, and then they do a whole trap thing thinking that it was their idea, so that when it turns out it was a con they feel as if somehow this person read their mind and that it was fucking magic, when really it's simply that they know human nature and they knew the way that you were going to figure it out and decide on a course of action.

What I find very funny about it is that occasionally you'll have some really comedic plot lines where the mark isn't putting the dots together and the con man does have to like tell them in such a way that it's like kind of defeating the purpose of what a con is supposed to be.

But you know, not everybody is just like good at that part.

I guess, so, yeah, a part of me was sort of is this a trick because it's just asking him to borrow his ship.

You had to know he wasn't going to agree to that, right And then like I need them to do a thing and you have the exact like right number of people for a job like that, Like I ah, I want to trust Fred.

I do, But there's a big part of me that is sort of feeling like something smells off and is he trying to like get them out of the way.

I don't feel like it makes sense because he says he wants their what do you call it depositions?

But if they own the scopuli, and the scopuli was the thing that was booby trapped, and he is like somehow behind that, then he doesn't want their depositions.

So I don't know, man, I just am suspicious of this man.

And let's see, Uh, Fred, I don't like the risk.

Your other option is to throw us in the brig in commandy of the ship.

There's some risks in that too, Fred laughed.

Holden felt himself, relax, You'll still have the same problem that brought you here.

Fred said, your ship looks like a gunship, no matter what its transponder is saying.

And Holden comes up with the idea to disguise it by just attaching a bunch of tanks and stuff to the outside so that the profile of it looks totally different.

And Fred thinks this is very amusing because of like, if a pirate were trying to take over a gas freighter and then all of a sudden unleashed fucking like military grade weapons on them, they would be very, very surprised and like, where the fuck did that come from?

And let's see, if you do this, you and your crew will record my depositions and hire on as an independent contractor for Aeron's like the aeros run and appear on my behalf when the peace negotiations start.

I want the right to outbid anyone else who tries to hire you no contracts without my counteroffer.

And this is when Holden calls up Naomi and says, pack up the kids.

We're going to Euros, which if I were her, I would have literally just settled into like a hot bathtub full of SuDS.

And this man, after telling me it'll be a couple of days, ordering me to pack everything up the way that I would cuss at him, it wouldn't be allowed on paper.

So then we go to chapter twenty two and we are with Miller on a people mover to Aros.

It's called a people mover, which I thought was sort of interesting, and it's basically public transport levels of ugly, crowded, cheap.

Everything about it is like, it's like fine.

Flying jet blue is like the energy of it, you know.

And he keeps looking through Julie's case file.

A small newsfeed crawled down the terminal's left side.

The war between Mars and the Bell escalated incident after incident, but the secession of Sarah's station was the top news.

Earth was taken to task by Martian commentators for failing to stand united with its fellow inner planet, or at least for not handing over the Sarah's security contract to Mars.

The scattershot reaction of the Belt ran the gamut from pleasure at seeing Earth's influence fall back down the gravity well to strident near panic at the loss of Saria's neutrality, to conspiracy theories that Earth was fomenting the war for its own ends.

And honestly, I've been thinking this over a little bit, you guys, and like a part of me does sort of wonder if Earth isn't behind whatever.

We obvious have not yet seen the silly putting monster since the opening chapter, so a part of me is just like constantly distracted by that and wondering what the hell is going on there, And if that is something that's like an actual weapon, then it's being dispatched by somebody, and maybe Earth is somehow behind it, But like I really don't I don't even know how that would work, to be honest, y'all.

I just it's the vaguest notion.

It's barely a nocean, you know, So I don't have any real theories on this.

It's just Earth's trying to stay out of it.

Just the nature of that is drawing my attention because that has to mean something, But I genuinely I don't know.

It may literally just be we don't want to be in a war, But why don't they like what exactly how much is at risk for them as compared it feels like they're in the most stable position.

I mean, it's, you know, the usual things at risk for them that any any war causes.

But I don't know, I don't really know enough about the dynamics here.

So Miller encounters this missionary and they have kind of a lovely conversation where the missionary says something about how he's sort of retired on trying to convert people, and Miller is like, I didn't think that was something that you could retire from, and the missionary says, essentially, you don't really.

But you get to understanding that if people are willing are in a place in their lives where they will accept Christ, you'll just get there because that is what they are looking for.

And if they are not in a place to accept Christ, they are never going to do it because you continue to like hector them about it.

So you just have to interact with people in a regular, normal way and then see how they behave in response to you and just go from there.

So it's no different really than being unretired.

It's just that that's not my goal in every conversation that I have anymore.

And I just really like that perspective.

I feel like that's nice and balanced and it's reasonable, and it's just open without being pushy, and I think that is essentially the best way to handle anything like this.

And it's interesting because he's sort of he's asking Miller like where are you from?

What are your plans?

And Miller says something about you know.

They get to the change of contract and how he doesn't work for the police there anymore, and this guy asks him, are you planning on going back?

And Miller says no, with a finality that takes him by surprise, and he's sort of like, oh, wow, you know, I didn't realize that I was so sure I wasn't going back until he just asked me this question.

And now I'm like, yeah, I'm done.

That is a closed book that part of my life.

And when he says this, the missionary man says that must be painful, and Miller stops and thinks about it and realizes that he feels just this giddy sense of relief that makes him apparently kind of laugh out loud in a way that has the Missionary Band like, did I say something funny?

But I just I really liked this, because you know this, This is how it can be sometimes when you're going through things, you're not really if it's if a lot of change is happening.

It's almost like you get so wrapped up in coping with the immediate changes that you don't have time to really ask about the future.

You know, you don't have time to like think to yourself about steps that are a year or so out.

All you can do is get from one day to the next because everything is so bonkers and up in the air, and that results a lot of times in this weird like moment where you're outside of yourself and you're not actually considering the full implications of some of the day to day choices that you're making, and until you have a conversation like this where somebody asks you what your plans are and where do you see yourself and you know all this stuff, Like it's something that I remember when I was going through my divorce and I had to like move back in with my mom for a little while before coming down to Texas, and I really everything was so unsettled and a lot of it just happened, but I wasn't I was making the next move because it was kind of the only move I could make, you know.

And it wasn't like I was really choosing because I thought this is going to be what's best.

It was just sort of, well, this is just the next natural next step.

And I just understood this moment for him of like, oh wow, I'm I'm not sorry to be leaving.

And he it's like he goes through his own thoughts about never going back to Sarah's again, trying to see if he can make himself feel sad about it, and it just doesn't really happen.

And that is something that is so wild when you're like I feel as if I should be sad, but it's not there.

I just I've been there, and sometimes it's a relief to not be sad, and you're just like, oh good, I don't want to be coping with that emotion right now.

And sometimes you'll be sad and you go, or you won't be sad and you'll go there's something wrong with me actually, the fact that I'm not sad about this at all.

Something's wrong.

Why am I not responding to this, you know?

So anyway, I just thought this conversation was interesting.

And then you jump to the description of Arrows, and basically it is a what's the word I want here?

It's an in between place that has a ton of casinos on it.

And gradually, as we get like more description later on, we find out that like it was built initially in a different way, but as time went on, they began to redirect all of the streets down through the casino district, so that now if you want to get to any other area, all of the streets go through there, and there's not really a way to avoid it anymore, which sucks ass.

Like, if you haven't ever been to a casino, it's really hard to adequately describe how fucking pressing they are.

I genuinely have never felt that kind of like, I don't even know how to describe it.

It's this weird combo of like despair and denial.

If you are spending a bunch of time at a casino, if you are not super wealthy, there is no good thing about doing it.

To me, the whole thing is rigged for you to be fucked.

That's the point of it.

And it's all a game of you pretending that you don't know that and thinking that you are just the one person that it's going to be different for who is going to actually win, and they have just enough people win to like trick you into thinking that is real.

Everything about it makes me so deeply sad and resentful and angry.

And then the people there oftentimes do not look like people who can afford to lose money this way.

And then there's that aspect to all casinos where they make sure that the sense of time passing is muted because there aren't windows, and they keep the sounds going all the time to make it sound as if somebody's always winning, and they have free drinks so that you can get your judgment worn down, and everything is meant to distract and lie to your senses in such a way, in such a all marketing and advertising aims to do this, but with casinos it so overt and so well known, and yet people still go to these places for fun.

And I will literally never understand it, kids, I will never get it.

It's just one of those things.

I have only ever gambled with money that somebody gave me on a card for a casino on like the night before my first wedding, and other than that, I have never felt any inclination whatsoever.

And when I go in, I immediately want to leave.

It also smells very heavily of like cigarette smoke, so there's a sort of aura to the place that isn't inviting.

And a lot of times they'll have like nicer restaurants and things on the interior, but it's always sort of like nicer according to whom because it can be more expensive but it's not necessarily good, or you have the opposite thing.

Like here, I'm right on the border of Oklahoma, and the casino near me is called Windstar, and they have a bunch of chain restaurants as well.

And the only reason that I go to the casino is because they have a smash Burger and it's the closest smash Burger to us, and so occasionally we'll go in there just to get to the smash Burger.

Otherwise, there's this giant buffet that it's like twenty five bucks a person and all you can eat, but it's like all of that food is straight from Cisco.

It's the sort of thing that you can buy pre made in a flat shipped to you buy this palateful and so for me, twenty five dollars for that is a ripoff.

And it's just I hate him.

I hate him.

I hate him, I hate him.

I hate him.

Everything about them to me is like the worst parts of humanity, the worst types of predatory.

You know what I'm saying.

So anyway, Oh, sorry, there's a bunch of chat.

Sorry, sir, says Space Vegas.

Michael says, old people defecating on themselves because they don't want to leave the slot machine.

Oh boy, Jeff says, I think the Lord I never got into gambling.

Every time I've been into casino, I want to leave.

That's exactly what I said.

Austin says, did one once made eighty dollars day one, lost one hundred day two?

That sounds right.

Jeff says, I heard ones that being anti gambling is a bourgeois ethos.

Not sure how I feel about that.

I think that's bullshit, And honestly, I think that the rich do tons of gambling.

Like I don't know, It's just I don't see the point.

Ms T says, heard agree casinos are a waste of resources.

They pray on problem gamblers, and Jeff says, so many people are superstitious and don't bother to research statistics.

Michael says, I used to make some decent pocket money playing twenty dollars Nolan at hold Them.

I had to stop because I kept chatting with people talking about how they were betting their rent money and it made me sad.

This is what I'm saying.

Jeff says, oh, yeah, if you play other people, you have to convince yourself.

Soaking people for their wealth is fine, and ms T says, that's the best describer.

It's sad.

Yeah, it's it's just like, you know, we have this sort of especially in the US.

I think we have this glamour that we associate with casinos a lot, and like, you know, we all think that it's going to be a casino royale sort of situation where you've got people who are ultra wealthy in these gorgeous tailored suits, and you know that they're not coming to the South Oklahoma casino.

Those people are going to fucking Monte Carlo and shit, you know, like they aren't.

They aren't here.

What you're getting here are folks who are already lay on their child support payment.

It's that kind of thing, and it's just it makes me so incredibly depressed.

So anyway, Yeah, this whole vibe is just really sounds like it couldn't be less my scene and the fact that Amos loves the idea of it.

I was just like I knew I didn't like you.

He walked through the cheap casinos, the opioid bars and sex clubs, the show fight areas where men or women pretended to beat one another senseless for the pleasure of the crowd.

Randolph Mock, holder of the belt Free Fight Championship for six years, against Martian Kivrin Carmichael in a fight to the death.

Surely not fixed, Julie said dryly.

In his mind, wonder which one's going to win, he thought, and imagined her laughing.

And he gets interrupted as he's stopping for something to eat by inspector.

I'm Timba.

Uh.

He was a tall man, even among belters, with the darkest skin Miller had ever seen.

Years before, Semi Timba and Miller had coordinated on a particularly ugly case, a smuggler with a cargo of designer Euphorix had broken with his supplier.

Three people on Sarah's had been caught in the crossfire, and the smuggler had shipped out for arrows.

The traditional competitiveness and insolarty of the station's respective security forces had almost let the purpse slip away.

Only Miller and Semi Timba had been willing to coordinate outside the corporate channels.

And I really like the idea that criminals are getting away because you guys can't get over your dick measuring contest is so infuriating, and I know that this is like a real thing, but I hate it.

It's just so missing the fucking point to me.

And just for the record, my casting on him is Mahershe lah Ali.

I think that he would be great for this.

He's quite tall, he's got this charisma, but he can also be like kind of scary.

Yeah, I'm into this.

And he brings up the first He mentions Protagen and that they are somebody one of his old coworkers is now working for.

I'm sorry, guys, if you can hear Mama Pippins inside and let's see CPM carne port La Machina meet for the machine, Sema Timba said, and pulled a face exaggerated bluff masculinity.

He thumped his chest and growled, then let the imitation go and shook his head.

New Corporation out of Luna.

Mostly belters make themselves out to be hardcore, but they're mostly amateurs.

All bluster, no balls.

Protagen was Inner Planets and that was a problem, but they were serious as hell.

They broke heads, but they kept the peace.

And he says, I almost wish I'd picked them.

Why didn't you?

You know how it is.

I'm from here, yeah, Miller said, So he mentions this whole Julie thing and when he says, like, I think it's linked to something big, he says the war, and Semititimba is like, that's a fucked up joke, man.

He's like, I am not joking.

I actually believe that this is something.

And Semon Timba says, I don't want any trouble.

Things are fucked up enough.

And he says I'll try to stay a low profile, which, considering what happens next chapter, is hilarious, but you know he doesn't know that yet.

And let's see the Rosinante showed as on schedule, the docking birth was listed, Miller sucked down the last of his noodles, tossed the foam cone with a thin smear of black sauce into a public recycler, found the nearest men's room, and when he was done there, trotted toward the casino level.

And the whole fact that everybody gets funneled into the casino is just right for him tracking down who he needs.

So then we go to chapter twenty three.

Holden the casino level of Aros was an all out assault on the senses.

Holden hated it, And it's kind of fun to see the difference in the way that things are described, because it's not like Miller likes it, but he never flat out says I hate it the way that Holden does.

Holden takes a very decisive, like fuck this place, you know, kind of stance, whereas Miller's POV is like, I'm going to describe everything about it and you can draw your own conclusions.

Because I think that it's like very obvious that all of this adds up to a place that sucks.

But I'm not going to state my opinion.

I'm just going to give you the facts.

Ma'am, which feels like it makes sense for each of them.

Miller is like, it's not.

That's not to say that Miller doesn't have opinions on things, but he has a much more roundabout pov in a way, and Holden is a much more direct this is how I feel about the thing.

Whereas Miller, it's like he needs to figure out how he feels about a thing, and we are on the ride with him as he does it a lot.

Holden feels a thing first and then figures out why he feels that way.

You know what I mean, It's like backward with him.

I relate to both, to be perfectly honest.

So they are like going through all of these different areas, and at one point I think it's Alex who says, hey, by the way, we're being followed, and Holden's like, ah, okay, what does he look like?

Beltzer fifties maybe forties, with a lot of mileage, white shirt, dark pants, goofy hat.

I can't remember what Miller's hat is supposed to be.

Is it a Fedora cop?

Oh?

Yeah, but no Holster.

I can see all right, keep an eye on him, but no need to get too worried.

Nothing we're doing here is illegal.

You mean other than arriving in our stolen Martian warship, Sir, you mean our perfectly legitimate gas freighter that all the paperwork in registry data says is perfectly legitimate.

Yeah.

Well, if they'd seen through that, they would have stopped us at the dock, not followed us around.

I thought that was kind of funny.

There is this moment here that you guys have to read this whole thing.

An advertising screen on the wall displayed a stunning view of multicolored clouds rippling with flashes of lightning, and encouraged Holden to take a trip to the Amazing Dome Resorts on.

He'd never been to Titan.

Suddenly he wanted to go there very much.

A few weeks of sleeping late, eating in fine restaurants, and lying on a hammock watching Titan's colorful atmosphere storm above him sounded like heaven hell as long as he was fantasizing, he threw in.

Naomi, walking over to his hammock with a couple of fruity looking drinks in her hands, she ruined it by talking, this man pisses me off so bad.

You guys he's just like, no, no, no, I can't have anything about my attraction to her.

And then he's like, well, as long as I'm fantasizing, I'll have her be serving me.

And then she ruined my fantasy by being a person.

She ruined it by talking.

If that isn't like the way so many men see women, why do you have to fucking be a person with your own thoughts, sir, I am going to need you to, like fucking enough already, just make up.

Somebody stop it with Naomi.

Stop it so anyway, so everybody's saying, yes, it is a fedora, Jeff says, have you never fantasized about a coworker?

Lol?

It sucks.

I mean I have, but it was a much more overt.

Every time I see them, I want to fuck them.

And this is such a weird, like on and off thing where he's not thinking about it most of the time.

So every time that it happens again, I'm like, oh, man, I thought we weren't doing this anymore, you know what I mean?

I just like it would not be better if he were constantly thinking about it, but at least I would sort of like be prepared for it mentally and then he does it, and it's just like, especially because of the way that he was already with uh woman whose name I've already forgotten, but she didn't want to be his girlfriend, and he was like making her be that, and it feels like he's doing it all over again to somebody who isn't interested, you know, and he has this idea in his head, and it's just like anyway, she ruined it by talking.

Bit really got me though, because like, y'all, this is this is the thing about like making people into non people, dehumanizing them and turning them into a symbol of something, is that they no longer just get to like actually live.

And that is part of the weirdness around women who aren't supposed to have body hair or men straight or fart or eat.

It's like, we're just meant to be these dolls that sit in a closet waiting for you to fuck us or ask us to like vacuum, and the fact that we're actual people is very inconvenient to a lot of dudes out there, and they think that we just shouldn't be And it's i know, taking these she ruined it by talking.

It's meant to be like a joke.

But it just is so very on the nose the way that it seems a lot of men operate, that I can't find it funny because it is the exact sentiment, you know, it's just too correct, So it just becomes not funny due to that.

So anyway, they find this flop house that this person has logged into or what's the word I want checked into.

It was dark and dingy and exactly the sort of place where people got mugged or worse.

Broken lights created dark corners, and there wasn't a tourist in sight, and this whole thing.

Once he sees this, I'm very much going, Okay, yeah, this is definitely a trap, right, but again it could possibly just be I know nobody is gonna come here, and if I want help, I'll go to a place that I know people aren't going to be poking around.

It was dark and dingy.

Oh no, I read that part.

The lobby was mostly empty space, with a pair of couches at one and next to a table covered with magazines, a sleepy looking older woman sat reading one.

Elevators were recessed into the wall at the far end, next to a door marked stairs in the middle was the check in desk, where, in lieu of a human clerk, a touchscreen terminal let guests pay for their rooms.

Holden stopped next to the desk and turned around to look at the woman sitting on the couch, graying hair but good features and an athletic build in a flop pause like this that probably meant a prostitute reaching the end of her shelf life.

She pointedly ignored his stare, and that kind of set off an alarm bell for me of like, if she is a prostitute and she's in this lobby to get a john, why is she going to not make any eye contact with you?

That was like immediately I felt like that, why is she ignoring?

Hysterare does he not look like he has money?

I feel like he would look as much like he has money as anybody who would come to a place like this.

So he goes and looks at the check in screen.

A simple menu would let him send a message to Lionel Polanski's room, but Holden exited the system.

And I know that, like the point of this is to make it convenient, but as somebody who has worked in hospitality, the idea that this thing will tell you that somebody is checked in feels like a real breach of the supposed etiquette of hotel stays.

And maybe that's part of the point, is that you come to a place like this and the security is just not going to be very good.

But it just seemed to me.

I understand that it's not necessarily telling him which room Polanski is in, but it's still giving information that is not necessarily like kosher to me that you should be able to get it this easily.

So Holden is like, all right, so, and he's thinking, like, maybe we can just wait them out.

I don't know.

And he turns and the woman who had been reading the magazine is right behind Alex and has a gun made of plastic and is saying, walk to the stairwell and stay at least three meters ahead of me.

Do it now.

Now, it's understandable the way that Amos reacts here.

It's just very frustrating because I honestly think that she probably wanted Like I won't say she probably, I'm saying that A part of me feels like, if you are worried about people spotting you, you are going to have somebody sitting and waiting to head off anybody who is coming in and out of the place.

So for me, even though she comes at them with this very intense energy, I still wasn't really that worried about them.

And I know that might seem weird, and maybe it's just me being really naive, but it just something about this felt for me like she is afraid of you and she's trying to get you to a place where you can have a conversation.

But I don't think you need to really worry.

And so Amos immediately pulling his gun is just like, oh man, because when you talk about gun control, guys, a lot of people are you know, have these ideas about using guns to defend themselves, et cetera, et cetera.

But the truth is that a lot of folks do not have very good judgment and overreact to things in the moment in a way that when they have the chance to cool off and look at their actions, they can't believe they took it so far.

So Amos behaving this way like he's the exact wrong person in the party to even have a gun.

He's so hot headed and so ready to fight at any moment.

Honestly, Naomi being the only one who doesn't carry a gun, she's the one who should have one.

Then on the like, find everybody who's very eager to carry a gun and make sure they can't have one.

And then everybody who's like I would really rather not give them the gun because you know that they will be a lot more loath to use it, and that's really what you want on the problem is in America that the people who are excited to get guns are the people who shouldn't have them a lot of the time because they have this weird fantasy in their head about what that's going to be like.

And so you have these fights that would have just been a fight, a fistfight, and they escalate into a shooting with somebody dead because a person just got pissed and felt like making a statement that they can never take back.

And that is my reasoning for being like very anti gun is I feel like it just facilitates the worst of our natures into being even more focused and deadly than it is anyway, because like a regular fistfight can kill you.

I'm not trying to pretend that it's like if there were no gun, nobody would get hurt.

But a gun makes it so much easier, quicker, and possible to kill more than one person.

Considering the guns we have now, I just they just never seemed to be a good idea to me.

So yeah, I just this moment with him.

I was so irritated because I understand why he's reacting how he is, and I don't know that he's wrong, but it just felt like, oh, bruh.

You know.

The stairwell burst open and half a dozen men and women armed with compact automatic weapons came into the room.

Yelling at them to drop their guns.

Holden started to put his hands up when one of them opened fire, the weapon coughing out round so fast it sounded like someone ripping construction paper.

And it's odd because like the woman with a taser gets gunned down right away.

And I had thought, of course, when these folks popped out, she was with them.

And it's possible she was with them and just didn't really matter to them.

It could be that they she was like collateral and they hadn't intended to take her down.

She just wound up being in the wrong place.

But it seems like these two groups might be separate from each other.

I'm calling her a group, you know what I'm saying.

And this guy's holding reached for his gun, but the front sight caught in his waistband.

He yanked it out, tearing his underwear.

That detail is so great.

Do you guys know how fucking funny I found this.

I mean, I swear to God like these sorts of details really are invaluable.

They make a whole moment.

It fucking killed me all.

I love that so bad.

And the pilot reached his pistol around the corner of the couch and blindly fired off half a dozen shots, yelling at the same time.

I mean, it just sounds like such pure chaos out of nowhere.

A burst of rounds bounced off the floor past Holden's knee.

Shit, someone's flanking us, Amos cried out, then moved farther behind the desk and away from the shots.

Holding crawled to the other side and peeked out.

Someone was moving low and fast, and then he notices the hat, and he's just like, oh shit, this guy, the one that was following us.

No one shoot the guy with the hat, Holden yelled, then moved back to the edge of the desk.

Guy's probably a cop extra especially, do not shoot any cops, Holden said.

Naomi says they might all be cops.

Cops to I don't carry small, easily concealable machine guns and ambush people from stairwells.

We call those death squads.

I think they're bugging out.

Must have another exit, amost.

Keep your eye on that door of it open, start shooting, stay down.

Holden rose from behind the now ruined checkin kiosk.

The desk facade had splintered and the underlying stone showed through.

Holden held his gun barrel up, his hands open.

The man in the hat stood considering the corpse at his feet, then looked up as Holden came near.

Thanks, my name is Jim Holden.

Jim Holden, you are.

The man didn't speak for a second.

When he did, his voice was calm, almost weary.

Cops will be here soon.

I need to make a call.

But we're all going to jail, aren't you the cops?

The other man laughed.

It was a bitter, short sound, but with some real humor behind it.

Apparently Holden had said something funny.

Nope names Miller.

Miss t says almost may be quicker to violence, but he does have the most accurate read of a violent situation.

That's interesting, miss Tea.

Perhaps Oh my god, guys, I just I like that sentence.

The last sentence of the chapter was at the very bottom of the page, and I jumped to the next page because I wasn't positive that was the end of the chapter, and I just saw the first sentence of the next chapter.

Miller looked at the dead man, the man he just killed, and tried to feel something, which considering what I'd been saying earlier about how sometimes not feeling anything makes you wonder if there's something wrong with you?

Is sad some real bummer?

Actually, h Miller, probably good that you're not a cop anymore.

But hey, no offense, but like, yikes, So all right, guys, I am going to wrap this up, but I really liked this section.

I'm super interested to see how our people work together.

Also, perhaps maybe we'll start to zero in on this silly putty monster.

Maybe just a thought.

All right, everybody, Thank you again so much for coming and hanging out with me.

Thank you John for commissioning this one.

And until next time, Dolo motherfuckers.

That was an Unspoiled Network podcast