Chapter 23 · The Hatch Takes Them Both

"Get back." Calder's forearm slammed across my collarbone half a second before the light hit the vent grate above the locker shelf. Two beams. Slow. Sweeping like they already knew the shape of the room.

"Who's that." My voice came out flat. My pulse didn't.

"Cousins." He didn't look away from the grate. "Auction crew. They found the intake vent."

A voice dropped through the slats, muffled but clear. "Vane. We know the girl's in there with the book. Hand her out, we forget the dock code ever mattered."

My stomach fell through the floor. "They want me. Not the ledger."

"They want both." His jaw worked. "You're collateral now. Auction's short this month."

He didn't answer the grate with words. He reached past me to the scrub panel bolted by the hatch, cracked the housing, and yanked a rubber hose loose from the main line. The hiss changed pitch — thinner, routed somewhere else now.

"What did you just do."

"Rerouted the intake. Runs through my mask valve now, not the room feed." He didn't blink. "Anybody cracks that hatch to gas us out, I'm the only one still breathing long enough to stop them.