Chapter 30 · The Amber Line

"Say the account number again," the voice said through the gap, and Vale's hand closed over my wrist before I could open my mouth.

"Don't," he said. Not to me. To the door.

The gap hadn't grown since the last try — four inches of cold vault air and a sliver of hallway light cutting across the concrete between us and whoever was standing on the other side. A boot. Black, laced tight, not moving. Nothing above the ankle showed.

"Gia Holt." The voice used my full name like she'd read it off a file. Not Rhys. Not anyone I'd logged in the bond room in four years of stamping pages. Female, flat, bored in a way that scared me worse than shouting would've. "You keep the ledger. I need line four-forty-one read back to me. Word for word."

"I'm not reading you anything through a door."

"Then I shut off the scrubber and we wait for you to change your mind."

Vale's jaw worked. He still had the cloned chip in his other hand, the one Rhys's own people had copied for him weeks back, the one supposed to open every door in this building that mattered.