Chapter 13 · Sole Owner

The system kicks me out.

Not a logout. Not a session timeout. It's a hard shove, like someone yanked the jack out of my skull. My vision whites out. The firewall I just built—gone. The vault interface—gone. Even the basic nav overlay I'd been running since I woke up disappears, and I'm staring at raw air with a splitting headache and the taste of copper in my mouth.

Briar's gun is still up.

"What did you do," she says. Not a question.

I blink. Try to pull the overlay back. Nothing. "I didn't—"

"Your access just flatlined." Her voice is flat. "Vault flagged you."

Kade's still against the bulkhead, data spike in hand, but he's not moving. He's watching Briar. His face has that look people get when they're deciding whether to run or stay for the show.

I try again. Jack protocol, handshake request, anything. The implant in my neck is live, I can feel the current, but the ship's not answering. "Briar, I just locked down the ping. The firewall's up, the beacon's isolated—"

"Yeah." She tilts her head. "And then the vault transferred."

My stomach drops. "Transferred what."

"Owner access.