Margo Holland's Arc

Chapter 7 of 13

Margo wrapped the keyring in cloth and tucked it into her field kit beside the tissue samples. Six keys, each one stamped with a location she'd memorized from the military files a year ago. Research Wing. Archive Storage. Lab Three. Equipment Cage. Server Access. Emergency Exit. She pulled out the files now and spread them across the hospital's metal desk, tracing the facility map with one finger until she found what didn't fit. The military records showed Lab Three sealed after a catastrophic FEV breach—welded shut, they claimed, with personnel casualties listed and the wing marked as permanently inaccessible. But the deserter had carried a key to it, brass worn smooth from use, the military insignia still visible on the bow. Someone had been going in and out long after the official seal. Margo held the key up to the light and studied the notched shaft. The records made sense now in a way that tightened her chest. They'd sealed the main entrance, posted warning signs with red paint that would keep anyone from asking questions. But they'd left themselves a back door, and the deserter had stolen the keyring before he ran. She set the key down and looked at the map again, calculating. Lab Three sat adjacent to the research wing where the diagnostic equipment would be stored. If the official seal was theater, then her override codes wouldn't just be backup—they'd be useless against a lock that still worked. She pulled the tissue samples from her kit and held them next to the key. Two patients with identical mutations, a lab that was supposed to be permanently sealed but wasn't, and a keyring that gave her access to the one place her medical codes couldn't reach. The mutation wasn't spreading randomly—it was coming from somewhere specific, somewhere the military had tried to hide behind warnings and rust-stained gates. She packed the key separately from the others and locked her field kit. Tomorrow they'd use the mining entrance, but Lab Three was the real destination now. Whatever was behind that gate, it was still alive enough to spread.