TheButcherofAndersonStation

The Butcher of Anderson Station by James S.A. Corey Prelude to The Expanse The Expanse 01: Leviathan Wakes 02: Caliban’s War 03: Abaddon’s Gate 04: Cibola Burn 05: Nemesis Games Short Stories Drive The Butcher of Anderson Station The Churn Gods of Risk The Butcher of Anderson Station When Fred was a kid back on Earth, maybe five or six years old, he’d seen a weed growing in the darkness of his uncle’s cellar. The plant had been pale and thin but twice as tall as the ones out in the side yard, deformed by reaching for the sunlight. The man behind the bar looked just like that: too tall, too pale, too hungry for something he’d never had and never would. Belters were all like that. The music in the bar mixed Punjabi rhythms with a high-voiced woman rapping in the polyglot mess of languages that made up Belter Creole. The battered pachinko machine in the back rang and skittered. Hashish smoke sweetened the air. Fred leaned back on a bar stool meant for someone ten centimeters taller than he was and smiled gently. “Is there a fucking problem?” he asked. The bartender could have been Chinese or Korean or a mix of the two. Which meant......