Page 287 of Scars of Fate

“Can it contain what’s inside that case?” Adam asked.

“For a while.”

“How long?”

“The certification guaranteed six hours.”

Lucas moved toward the terminal.

“Activate it.”

“I can’t do that directly.”

“Why?”

“The system requires authorization from both the chief security officer and the managing director.”

“Both were taken,” Ghost said.

“Yes. But private-vault clients have an emergency-duress function.”

Hawk looked at me.

“What does it do?”

“It alerts security and locks access to the client’s section.”

“That won’t trigger biological containment.”

“No. But it may give you a secure route into the bank’s emergency network.”

Hawk pulled a chair toward the terminal.

“That might work.”

Boone nodded.

“That means yes.”

“That means might.”

“With Hawk, it usually means yes.”

I signed in again.

The bank portal opened.

I activated the duress feature attached to our private-vault account.

A secure emergency channel appeared.

Hawk used it to access the bank’s alarm-management system.

Most of the controls remained inaccessible.

Then he found the vault-status display.

Temperature.