The Doctor’s Secret

The next morning, Rae stood in front of Dr. Landon Pierce’s office door, one brow raised and a lockpick already spinning between her fingers.

“This is locked tighter than a government vault,” she muttered, crouching low.

“You’re not going in there alone,” Will said firmly, standing beside her with his arms crossed.

Remi gave Rae a look that said don’t even think about arguing, while Trey hovered near the hall, his eyes scanning the empty corridor. “We’ll keep watch. You just work fast.”

“I always do,” Rae said with a grin, then turned her full focus to the lock. A few flicks and a soft click later, the door creaked open.

The moment they stepped inside, the smell hit them—stale antiseptic, broken electronics, and something faintly metallic. The office was a disaster. Papers were scattered everywhere, drawers torn out, the filing cabinet pried open. Whoever had been here before them wasn’t subtle.

“Someone wanted to make sure we didn’t find whatever he left behind,” Remi muttered, stepping around an overturned chair.

“Or they were looking for something he hid,” Rae said. Her eyes swept the room, then locked onto a black case half-buried under a collapsed shelf.

She knelt, flipping it open. Inside was a device about the size of a thick tablet, sleek and unmarked, but humming faintly.

“This… this I can work with,” she said, already pulling her portable keyboard from her bag. “This is encrypted. Deep. Not hospital standard—I’d bet my laptop it’s personal.”

Aspen gave a low bark from the doorway, pawing at the ground. Rae barely glanced up, but when the dog whined again and nudged something on the floor—something white and crumpled—she straightened.

It was a scrub top. Rae picked it up, sniffed it, then held it out to Aspen.

“Track him,” she said softly, switching to Cajun. “Cher, go get him.”

Aspen whined low and turned, trotting down the hallway, nose low to the floor.

“She’s got something,” Rae said, already tucking the tablet under her arm.

Remi glanced at Will and Trey, who were already moving. “Let’s go. Whatever Pierce was doing, someone didn’t want us to find it. That means we’re on the right path.”

They followed Aspen through the winding corridors of the older hospital wing, past long-forgotten storage rooms and sealed-off access doors. The air grew colder as they descended deeper, concrete replacing linoleum, dust thick in the air.

Eventually, Aspen stopped at a rusted door half-hidden behind a supply shelf. She growled once, pawing it lightly.

Will pushed it open, revealing a narrow stairwell that disappeared into the dark below.

“Underground,” Trey muttered, pulling out a flashlight. “Figures.”

Together, they descended into the unknown—chasing a ghost, a secret, and a trail buried just beneath the surface of everything they thought they knew.

The narrow concrete tunnel stretched ahead like a vein beneath the hospital, damp and breathing with echoes. Their steps were careful, weapons close, every footfall watched. Aspen stayed at Rae’s side, nose twitching, ears alert.

Will scanned the walls, jaw clenched. “These tunnels haven’t been on the main blueprints in years.”

“They’re not,” Remi replied. “My mom mentioned emergency paths when she interned here, but no one’s used them since the outbreak in ’06.”

“They’re still active,” Rae muttered. “Fresh prints. Recent dust kicked up. Someone’s used this path to get out—fast.”

Aspen let out a low whine and surged forward suddenly, nose to the ground. Rae followed without hesitation.

“Where’s she going?” Trey asked.

“Following a scent,” Rae said tightly. “Pierce’s.”

The tunnel eventually sloped upward, the air thinning and brightening with each step. They emerged at the edge of the forest, the old rusted hatch squealing open behind them like a warning.

Aspen didn’t hesitate. She darted into the woods, tail high, weaving between trees. They jogged after her, hearts pounding, until a shape began to form in the mist ahead—old wood, leaning porch, shattered windows.

“Cabin,” Will said grimly. “This hasn’t been on our maps.”

“It’s not,” Remi confirmed. “This is outside the eastern watch grid. Just barely off pack land.”

Aspen stopped at the edge of the porch, growling low. Rae climbed the steps carefully and froze.

“Wolfvine,” she whispered, pointing to the spindly vines tangled along the porch supports, their dark purple thorns pulsing faintly with sickly energy.

Remi narrowed her eyes. “That’s not wild. It’s been planted.”

Rae nodded. “Strategically. It’s lining the entrances—like a ward. Someone didn’t want people—or wolves—getting too close.”

Will stepped beside her, his gaze hard. “Or they wanted to mark territory they thought they owned.”

Rae crouched, pulling gloves from her pocket and carefully brushing the soil at the base of the vine. She scooped some into a sample vial, then stood slowly.

“They weren’t just hiding here. They were growing this. Using it.”

Trey’s hand tightened on the grip of his weapon. “So what now?”

Rae looked toward the partially open door of the cabin, her voice low and cold.

“Now we go inside. And we find out what the hell they were doing out here.”