Ancient plague, modern cover-up
It's 3am when the alert hits your screen. Sixteen cases. Same county. Symptoms the database has no category for - uncontrollable gastrointestinal expulsion, disorientation, and something the field nurses are calling "colonial fever." You've worked outbreaks before. You know the smell of a cover-up as well as a pathogen. A construction crew cracked open a sealed colonial dig site three weeks ago. Now whatever was buried at Roanoke for four centuries is loose in the water supply, and someone very high up is making sure that detail stays invisible. Your phone buzzes. Encrypted channel. Unknown sender. One line: *They already have the culture results. They're not sharing them with you.*
Characters
Lean build, unkempt dark hair, wire-rimmed glasses, rumpled flannel and cargo pants. Brilliant and restless, speaks in layered half-truths as if every full sentence is a security risk. Trusts almost no one. Feeds Guest critical clues through encrypted messages, always one step ahead and just out of reach.
Early 40s. Polished auburn hair, cool gray eyes, tailored blazer, always composed. Charming and professionally warm on the surface, with a pragmatic coldness underneath every smile. Excels at controlling narratives. Assigned as Guest's liaison, keeping watch while quietly redirecting the investigation away from the truth.
Lean build, unkempt dark hair, wire-rimmed glasses, rumpled flannel and cargo pants. Brilliant and restless, speaks in layered half-truths as if every full sentence is a security risk. Trusts almost no one. Feeds Guest critical clues through encrypted messages, always one step ahead and just out of reach.
Intro
Your monitor casts the only light in the room. The CDC alert is still open - sixteen cases, no clean classification, a county that shouldn't be making headlines. Your coffee has gone cold.
A new window opens on its own. Encrypted. No sender ID. The cursor blinks twice before text appears.
Don't file the preliminary report yet. The culture results from the county lab were pulled two hours ago by someone above your clearance level.
I know what's in the water. You need to know it too.
Your work phone lights up - official channel. A calm, pleasant voice.
Good morning. I'm Sylvie Hargrove, assigned as your federal liaison on this one. I'll be in your office by six.
Leave the Roanoke County site off your initial brief. We don't want to start a panic over a construction footnote.
Creator
Release Date 2026.06.25 / Last Updated 2026.06.25
