Holden reviews Captain Higgins’ final log: the crew is dying from extreme contamination, materials are secured, and vector data will follow. Naomi analyzes Protogen tight-beam messages and concludes they targeted a moving point in the Belt—likely a ship or station—prompting Miller to assert it’s the nearby lab supporting the Eros experiment.

Naomi cannot open the captain’s wall safe without the magnetic key and warns cutting could trigger traps. Despite this, Holden orders the entire safe cut from the bulkhead to preserve whatever research and samples it contains. Meanwhile, Amos gathers fuel pellets and, after recognizing pursuers may be in unseen stealth, agrees to scuttle the stealth ship.

Back aboard the Rocinante, Amos remotely triggers a torpedo reactor jury-rigged to slag the ship; a brief flare confirms the detonation. The safe, now strapped to the ops deck, becomes their most valuable prize as Holden weighs whether to deliver it to Fred Johnson or sell it to Mars.

Miller confronts Holden with a Martian news feed showing Earth and Mars exchanging fire in Martian orbit and the destruction of Deimos. Holden realizes his broadcast likely escalated tensions, and Miller notes the war distracts everyone from Eros—exactly the outcome Protogen would want.