Elena's phone rang at 5 AM, four days into their careful preparation, and the number displayed belonged to Agent Reyes marked with the emergency priority tag that never meant good news.
"Dr. Cole," Agent Reyes said, voice tight in a way Elena hadn't heard before. "We have a situation. Confirmed outbreak, mid-sized city, no advance warning signals whatsoever."
Elena sat up fast, Marcus stirring awake beside her on the couch where he'd fallen asleep reviewing tactical documents. "No warning signals? Our early detection network should have flagged unusual activity before release."
"That's exactly the problem," Agent Reyes said. "Nothing. No financial irregularities, no facility reactivation signatures, no personnel movement anomalies. This came from somewhere our monitoring systems never t
