Chapter 30 · Someone Else's Clock

"It's green." I slam my palm against the release panel again, heel of my hand flat on the plastic. "Green means open."

Nothing happens. No hiss. No seal crack. No cold air rolling off the scrubber vents to tell me the lock's letting go. Just the light, steady and stupid, lying to my face.

Behind me Voss is still screaming into the grate where Milo's got him folded double, one knee driven into the small of his back, Voss's wrist bent up between his shoulder blades at an angle wrists don't go. Every time Voss bucks there's a wet crunch, bone-on-bone, gristle deciding it's not going back where it started.

"Cade." Milo doesn't look up. His voice comes out flat, chewed down at the edges. "Panel's not gonna help you."

"It's green."

"Green means nothing if somebody upstream already flipped your switch."

I hit it a third time. The little screen blinks, cheerful, useless. SYSTEM: OVERRIDE TRANSFERRED. AUTHORIZATION: EXTERNAL. My name used to sit right there under the seal code. I check again. It's gone. Not revoked. Replaced.

"Say that again," I say, and I'm not talking to Milo.

Voss laughs into the grate, wet, blood in it.