I saw her before she saw me—pale as a corpse, wrapped in a thermal blanket, being wheeled off a black C-130 on a hospital stretcher. Three years in a maximum-security biolock prison, and they still didn’t trust her to walk. Then I saw the bundle in her arms. A little girl, no older than four, staring at me with my own eyes.\n\nMy radio crackled. 'Sir, we have no record of her release. This is a Level 9 breach.'\n\nXylia’s lips moved. Not to me—to the child. Whispering something. Then she lifted a trembling hand and pointed straight at me.\n\n'Seize him,' came the order over comms. 'He’s contaminated.'\n\nI backed away, heart slamming. The doors sealed shut. No exits. Just me, the child, and the woman I left to die.