Chapter 8 · On the Record

"Say that again." Callum's pen was still wet on the port transfer. He didn't look up.

The enforcer — Voss's second, a wiry guy named Petrik with a tablet clamped in both hands like it might bite him — said it again anyway. "The mark registry flagged an anomaly at oh-six-forty. Status field for the Rhee-Pell bond didn't clear to VOID. It reads ACTIVE. Reciprocated."

Nobody moved. The negotiation room, all glass and cheap folding chairs, went so quiet I could hear the ballroom band two doors down still playing something with strings in it, like the wedding hadn't already died in here twice.

"Reciprocated," Voss repeated, like the word tasted bad. He rounded on Petrik. "That's not possible. He rejected the bond in front of four hundred witnesses."

"I know what I saw, sir." Petrik didn't lower the tablet. "The system logs the reject on his side. It's not logging one on the archivist's."

Every eye in the room swung to me.

I kept my hands flat on the table because if I didn't, they were going to shake, and I was done shaking in front of these people. "Don't look at me like I did something.