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“It’s standard,” Bobbie said “And it’s part of why no one was ever able to hack back into a Martian ship fro their protocols on Martian ones, this is where that machine is”

“But the lag time—” Katria shook her head “That’s impressive”

“The room is crewed by two people, always The door is physically locked Not connected to the security grid, no electronic interface Old-school bolt and key, and no keyhole on the outside Can’t be hacked into remotely, can’t be circuuards at shift change”

Katria took control of thefarther in on the encryption vault Her face was thoughtful, which was better than Bobbie had hoped It made her nervous to talk about this

“I see,” Katria said “You can’t get in withoutin the cavalry Is that why you need me? To blow the door?”

“No,” Bobbie said “We have a way in We need your help to cover it up once we’re done”

Katria traced a slow circle with her fingers Go on

Clarissa picked up the thread “The room is still connected to the environmental system But if we put a teaer fra—“we can shut down the fans and open the carbon dioxide scrubbers and recycling systems”

“Choke them out?” Katria asked

Alex shook his head “Make a path to pilot so charges Take down the two guards, then use the rest to pop the lock” He made a little boom sound with his lips and opened two fists in the physical cartoon of an explosion

Bobbie pointed toward Nao deck I’ll have a crowbar and a haet in, et out to the hardened-radiation shelter”—Bobbie moved the model—“here And then you come in”

“If los security coyos knoe stole their codes,” Saba said, leaning against the wall, “they change things up, yeah? Not just new crypt but new procedures Everything we’ve got turns into a whole lot less So they can’t knoe do, even after it’s done”

Holden pulled the ainst the side of the station “We need to give them a different story The Store tanks are … right here If that blows out, it will look like we’re trying to blow up the Storm, but Tycho built this place well Lots of redundancy and fail-safes There’s an explosion-relief route that’ll vent the pressure blast out along this pathway here … which takes out the communications vault And, y’know, a bunch of other stuff”

“You want to blow our air out as cover?” Katria said “I think you y We’re usually the ones who are called extreme”

“Not our air,” Saba said “Theirs as soon as they carace, us Plus, those tanks are docked-ship refills Not for the habitat”