The locking bolts stayed sealed.
Their hum ran through the walls of Cube X, low and stubborn. Elias pressed his palm to the biometric scanner again, but the glass stayed dead under his hand. The panel showed a hard red refusal where green access had been a minute earlier.
Behind him, pod doors opened one after another. The block woke badly. People came out without boots, without jackets, with weapons half formed and sleep still on their faces. The emergency lights made everyone look injured before the fight even reached them.
Tidwell came out first, half dressed, knife already in a reverse grip. His cloud Ikona gathered around his shoulders in a nervous gray crawl.
"Could it be Roachaline's people already?" Tidwell asked.
