Leaving the flophouse under Miller’s “professional courtesy,” Holden’s crew follows him to a cheap hotel to talk. Naomi quietly notes Miller seemed to know Julie, while Alex reels from the crime scene. In private, Miller presses for how they found the room; Holden admits a tip tied to the Scopuli but withholds the source. Miller reveals he was fired from Ceres security while pursuing Julie’s disappearance for her parents and kept following the mystery.

They dissect the ambush: someone knew Holden’s team was coming to that hotel but didn’t know the exact room or the alias. The attackers weren’t locals, felt last-minute, and had pull with security—evidenced by the delayed police response—implying CPM complicity. Concluding they’re badly exposed on Eros, they consider leaving quickly.

Alex demands they address Julie’s condition. Miller produces her hand terminal; Naomi operates it through the evidence bag and unlocks it with “Razorback.” A notes file reveals Julie fled on a shuttle with stripped comms, believed she carried a “Phoebe bug” that’s anaerobic and feeds on radiation, and warned to burn her remains. She sent up a signal for help, avoided contact, and described escalating symptoms and a crewmate named Darren turning to goo.

From this, the crew infers Julie left the Scopuli aboard another ship, contracted a Phoebe-derived organism—likely linked to the hit on the Phoebe science station—reached Eros, signaled for aid, and died. Fearing contamination, they minimize contact with her effects. Holden proposes telling Sematimba and getting off Eros. They fixate on a string in her notes, BA834024112, which Naomi identifies as a rock designation, suggesting a hidden ship parked near it.

Holden plans to investigate the coordinate as their next lead. Miller asks to come along, reframing his pursuit as a new case: finding who killed Julie. The team’s focus shifts from merely surviving ambushes to uncovering the source and purpose behind the Phoebe infection.