Miller and Havelock watch a masked OPA agitator urge Belters to rise, invoking the Canterbury. A week after Holden’s broadcast, Ceres reels from intermittent riots and fevered debate. Administration reopens under guard, daily crimes resume, but the station feels traumatized and suspicious of Star Helix as an Earth-based contractor.

Reviewing cases, Havelock pushes to finish reports, his marginalization as an Earther obvious. Miller wrestles with the urge to shield him. Havelock quietly reveals he has applied to Protogen’s Ganymede office for a lead investigator role, longing for a sky; Miller calls it a good move and heads to work Julie Mao’s missing-person case.

At Julie’s small apartment near the port, Miller surveys a neat, elegant space: jiu jitsu plaques (purple, then brown belt), minimal clothes, and an OPA armband. He drinks a beer, searches her terminal, and finds training files for light craft, restrained political archives, many broadcast feeds seldom read, and a canceled low-g dating service—suggesting discipline and cause-driven focus without zealotry.

In a folder labeled “Bullshit Guilt Trips,” Miller reads a letter from Ariadne Mao threatening to sell Julie’s racing pinnace, the Razorback. Draft replies trace Julie’s fury to resignation (“Do what you have to”). An unread message from Jules-Pierre Mao urgently warns her to come home because the Belt will soon be unsafe—sent from Luna two weeks before the Canterbury incident. Miller notes the implication of prior knowledge, and the case suddenly looks bigger than a runaway heiress.