Chapter 8 · Ice Hold Spits a Twin

The vault won't open.

I'm standing in front of it with Briar two steps behind me and Ivo somewhere in the corridor arguing with Vey over comms. The door's humming. Not the good kind. The kind that says it's waiting for something I don't have.

"Try again," Briar says.

I press my palm flat against the panel. The interface lights up under my skin. Admin privileges confirmed. Authorization Quinn, S. clearance absolute.

Nothing.

"It's reading me," I say. "It's just not moving."

Briar leans in. Her breath fogs on the metal. "What's it want?"

I don't know. The feedback through my implants is clean. No errors. No denied access. Just a loop. A waiting pattern.

"Secondary authorization required," I read off the string crawling across my optic nerve. "Vault protocol demands dual admin presence for unsealing."

"Dual." Briar straightens. "You mean there's another admin."

"Looks like."

"Where."

I shake my head. The ship's manifest didn't list anyone else with root access. Just me. Just this body. Just the name Quinn that I don't remember earning.

Then the vault hums again. Different pitch. The kind of sound that makes your teeth itch.

"Alert," the system announces through the wall-mounted speaker.