Chapter 19 · Occupant Verification: Failed

"Move." Torin's hand closes around my wrist before I even hear the buzzer upstairs. "Ninety seconds, June. Ninety seconds and this game goes to overtime, and you are not in that box."

"The door's still not open." I yank at the pump room hatch. The gear we loosened together twenty minutes ago groans, catches, stops dead. "You felt it move. I felt it move."

"It moved an inch. An inch doesn't get you up two flights and through the tunnel before the ref drops the puck."

He shoves something hard and flat against my sternum. Cold glass, warm rubber edge. A tablet, screen up, so close I can smell the machine oil still on his palm.

"Read it," he says. "Out loud. I want to hear you say it."

I look down instead of at him, because looking at him from four inches away does something to my chest that has nothing to do with the tablet pressing into it. The screen's got a countdown. Red numbers. 01:24. Under it, smaller: RESIDENCY WINDOW — PERIOD 4 (OT) —