Chapter 25 · Sole Trigger

"Say it again." Torin's voice came from six inches away, low enough that the pipes swallowed half of it. "Tell me the panel's wrong."

I couldn't. The screen behind him still read it in cold green letters: DEFAULT TRIGGER AUTHORITY — J. CALDER — SOLE. His print had failed twice. Mine hadn't failed at all.

"It's not wrong." My back found the cinderblock, damp and freezing through my coat. "The system doesn't care whose barn it is, Torin. It cares whose thumb worked."

"Then we do it again." He reached past my shoulder for the scanner, and his forearm brushed my collarbone on the way, deliberate or not I couldn't tell, and my whole spine lit up anyway. "Both hands. Same time. It has to take us both or none."

"It already picked." I put my hand flat on his chest before he could lean past me again — a stupid move, because now I could feel his heart going harder than a man arguing about a keypad should have any right to. "Back up."

He didn't back up.