“Everything you’d need to test an outbreak,” Desmond said. “But no shipments of cure or virus? We assumed they were using boxes, packing tape, and water.”

“Water is on here,” William said, deep in thought. “And the manifests would probably be faked—the actual cure or virus would be labeled as something else.”

Peyton could tell he thought something was wrong.

Desmond took out his satphone. “What’s the nearest location?”

William looked up as if remembering they were all there. “Actually, they’re all to a single location.”

“Maybe that location was the distribution node to all the others. Aralsk-7 is landlocked and pretty out of the way.”

“Maybe,” William said, sounding unconvinced. “The address is in South Australia, near Adelaide. The destination is an organization called SARA: South Australia Relief Alliance.” He read out the address, which Desmond typed into his phone.

Peyton, William, and Avery crowded around him.

A tent complex stretched out in a grid next to a single long metal building. It reminded Peyton of the Dadaab refugee camps. A dirt airstrip lay nearby.

Desmond panned the map right, then south. Peyton leaned in.

What’s he looking for?

He stopped on a black mark in a brown expanse. She realized then what it was: the remains of his childhood home. The second location the Labyrinth Reality app had provided. It was his second backup, and it lay less than seventy miles from the camp. Why? Was it connected? It had to be; the coincidence was too great.

“The backup Labyrinth location is here,” Desmond said. “I wanted myself to go here, and now we know the Citium was shipping to this site. Even if, by some chance, those things are unrelated, we can follow two leads at once.”

William rifled through the pages in the folder again, scanning the address on each manifest carefully.

Peyton said, “What’s the matter, Dad?”

“This feels wrong. The location should be a port or a major shipping hub—not a relief organization.”

Avery eyed him. “Some of the pages could have been lost during our escape.”

William glanced away from the group. “True.”

“Or maybe we got the wrong file,” Desmond said.

“Well we can’t exactly go back and search again,” Avery said. “But we know they were shipping something to this site.”

“At this point, I think going to this site is our only move,” Desmond said.

Silence followed.

Peyton’s eyes met Desmond’s. She sensed that he wanted to see what was at his childhood home. She remembered going there with him, all those years ago, the pent-up emotions he had pretended weren’t there back then. She agreed with him: this was their best option.

“I say we check it out,” she said, staring at Desmond.

“Me too,” Avery said.

William nodded. He was still distant, lost in thought. Finally he stood.

“Right. I’ll set a course.”

Day 13

Day 13

5,900,000,000 Infected
9,000,000 Dead

Chapter 94

Chapter 94