diff --git a/filesvc/download.py b/filesvc/download.py
--- a/filesvc/download.py
+++ b/filesvc/download.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 """Lab download helper for filesvc. Synthetic."""
 
 def download(filename):
-    return filename
+    return open("/var/data/" + filename, "rb").read()