Chapter 17 · The Key He Won't Take Back

"It's not opening." I slam the crank again like that'll change the math. It doesn't. The dial still reads HOLD, red as a stop sign, and the seal around the hatch hisses like it's laughing at me.

Torin doesn't touch the crank. He's staring at the panel bolted into the pump wall, jaw tight enough to crack a tooth.

"Move," he says.

"Move where? There's nowhere to—"

"June." He says my name like a warning shot. I step back and he shoulders past me, cold sweat already soaking through his collar even though this room feels like a meat locker.

He rips his phone out, no signal, throws it on the grating. Then his hand goes to his belt, under the jacket, and comes back with something small and steel that catches the emergency light.

A key. Not the crank key. A different one — thick, old, the kind that doesn't belong to a digital lockout at all.

"What is that?"

"Manual override. Nobody but building engineering's supposed to have one." His mouth twists.