Chapter 20 · Root Access Bites Back

The hull screamed.

Not a metaphor. The Long Invoice's outer plating shrieked metal-on-metal as something chewed through from the outside. I was still jacked in, still seeing the contract's last page floating in my vision. The original hadn't sold the ship. She'd sold a body. Hers. Mine. Whatever.

The breach alarm kicked my heartbeat into my throat.

"Sable!" Briar's voice cracked through the cargo hold. "They're cutting in through the aft hold. Two minutes."

I ripped the jack out. Too fast. My vision went white at the edges and I tasted copper. Ivo was already at the panel by the vault door, fingers flying. Vey stood in the center of the hold with a tablet, face like carved ice.

"How many?" I asked.

Briar didn't look up from her rifle. "Four signals. Maybe five. They knew exactly where to cut."

Of course they did. Someone had been tracking us since the Lattice drop. Someone who knew what the Long Invoice carried. Who it carried.

The hull whispered in my ear. Not words. Data. I could feel the breach point like a cold spot on my own skin. Twelve meters aft. Cutting through the last plate now.