Chapter 36 · Two Names on the Seal

The ram hits the bulkhead one more time and I finish the code with my thumb still shaking.

Four digits. The last four Knox never gave me — I built them off the pattern he did give me, off the way his hand moved on the keypad three floors up, off four years of a man who locks doors to keep people alive instead of out. I'm right. The lock under my palm goes from a growl to a click, and on the other side of the steel, the ram stops mid-swing.

Silence. Real silence. Not the wash-corridor kind with breathing in it.

"What did you just do," Knox says. He's not asking. He's already checking the panel over my shoulder, cheek almost against my hair, and I feel the words land warm on my neck before I hear them right.

"I dropped the corridor bulkhead behind them." My voice comes out steadier than I feel. "Your crew's not in the vault. They're not in the hallway either. They're in eleven feet of dead space between two locked doors, Knox."

He doesn't move back.