Emilia found the first confiscated sample in a Central Relief cold locker that still used a mechanical key. The fragment sat inside a cracked evidence jar labeled Recovery Nested Field Twelve, dated six weeks before Mercy Spire's quarantine order.
No System lock protected the jar, someone had removed it from national inventory tracking without destroying the material, which meant either carelessness or a staff member who wanted the truth preserved offline.
"Do not open it in the ward," the senior nurse said, handing Emilia a portable shield case, "if that thing wakes, I want walls between it and my patients."
"It will not wake without a living host path," Emilia replied, sealing the jar into the case, "but I will still open it under root isolation."
