Chapter 24 · The Long Invoice Comes Due

The hull screams before I do.

Briar's already moving, hauling me back from the vault terminal as the proximity alarms shred the air. Red strobes paint the antechamber in slashes. The voice from the pod cuts off mid-word, swallowed by klaxons.

"Three contacts," Briar snaps, eyes on her wrist display. "Docking clamps engaged. Fast approach, no hail."

Hunters.

I should've known we had minutes, not hours. The Beacon Lattice is dying but she's still screaming our position into the dark. Every system I touched left a signature. Every access request I pushed through root flagged us to anyone listening.

"Vey," I say. My hands are still shaking from the vault, from the voice that knew my name. "We need to—"

"Seal the pod." Vey's voice cuts through the klaxons, hard and flat. He's standing in the hatchway, blocking our exit. Not running. Not scrambling for the bridge.

Blocking.

Briar's hand drops to her holster. "Captain."

"Seal it," Vey repeats. He's looking at me, not the vault. Not the pod with its weak life signs and four-hundred-year mystery. Just me. "Whatever's in there stays in there. We're done."

My jack port itches.