Chapter 21 · Remote Access

"Delete it." Cade's fingers hit the console so hard the plastic cracked under his knuckles. "Delete it now, before Voss opens that inbox."

Milo's hand landed over his, flat, heavy, pinning Cade's wrist to the panel like he was stapling it there. "Touch that key again and I break the fingers."

"It's my override."

"It's evidence," Milo said, voice gone low and ugly, the growl underneath scraping through. "You erase it, Voss thinks we're hiding something worse. You leave it, he thinks it's a malfunction. Which one gets us both shot, Captain?"

The screen still glowed. GLAND-SYNC LOG — DUAL SUBJECT. Heart rate curves stacked, twin spikes matched almost second for second. Scent-marker column reading CONTAMINATED / MUTUAL. Tolerance index ticking down like a fuse. And at the top, small, patient: CC: COMMISSIONER R. VOSS.

Cade shoved off the panel with his shoulder. Milo didn't move, so Cade slammed into him instead, chest to chest, locked in the gap between console and scrubber housing. Bone hit bone at the collar where Cade's badge clip caught Milo's throat guard, a hard metallic crack neither of them flinched from.

"Move," Cade said.

"No.