Chapter 29 · Lockdown Authority: External

"Say it again." Milo's grip hadn't left my wrist. Four fingers, dead center over the pulse, pressing like he wanted to feel exactly how fast I was lying. "Tell me the lock resets when the override clears."

"It doesn't reset when the override clears." My voice came out flatter than I wanted. "It resets when the system decides the breach that triggered it is gone. And I am the breach. I torched a federal document mid-transmission, Milo. That's not a glitch. That's the wing calling me the threat."

Voss laughed from the far wall, one boot still smoking where Milo had kicked the taser out of his hand twenty minutes back. "Beautiful. You just bricked us into a box because you couldn't stand watching me pin a name to his back."

"Your name's still on it," I said. "Handler falsifying quarantine dumps to run cartel product past my wing. That's not a rumor, Voss. That's a file with your signature block, timestamped, six cycles deep."

His face did something ugly and fast, gone before it landed. "You don't have that file. You have a burned list and a locked door.