Chapter 14 - Emma KnowsEmma sat at our kitchen table.

Linda was beside her.

Keo stood across the room.

He was seventeen now.

Tall.

Healthy.

Still carrying the same spaceship keychain he'd had as a child.

He looked at Emma.

"You know my name?"

She nodded.

"They called you K-07."

Keo frowned.

"Who?"

Emma didn't answer.

I sat down.

"Emma, tell me everything."

She looked at me.

"My mom worked at St. Jude's."

I hadn't known that.

"She was a nurse."

"What happened?"

"She found the files."

"What files?"

"The children."

My stomach tightened.

"Why did she tell you?"

"Because she knew they would come for her."

Linda covered her mouth.

Emma continued.

"She told me if anything happened, I should find the spaceship."

"The Hope Ship."

Emma nodded.

"She said the man who built it would help me."

I looked at Keo.

"Why?"

"Because you saved a boy before."

"What boy?"

She looked at Keo.

"You."

Silence.

Emma reached into her backpack.

She pulled out an envelope.

"My mom gave me this."

I opened it.

Inside was a photograph.

My father.

Standing beside a group of doctors.

One of them was young.

Dr. Marcus Reed.

Another was a woman I didn't recognize.

And beside them stood my father.

On the back, he had written:

The first seven.

I turned the photograph over again.

There were seven children.

Keo was one.

But the other six faces had been crossed out.

I looked at Emma.

"Who did this?"

"My mom."

"Why?"

"She said they weren't supposed to be forgotten."

Keo stepped closer.

"Who are the other kids?"

Emma shook her head.

"I don't know."

Victor called.

I answered.

"We found something."

"What?"

"The missing K-06."

My heart jumped.

"Alive?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Arizona."

"Name?"

"Samuel Reed."

I stared.

"Reed?"

Victor nodded.

"His father was Dr. Marcus Reed."

The same doctor who had denied knowing anything.

I looked at the photograph.

Then at Keo.

The pieces were beginning to connect.

But one question remained.

Why had someone created the Hope Ship's database?

And why was Keo one of the subjects?

I called Dr. Reed.

He didn't answer.

I tried again.

Nothing.

Then a message arrived.

Stop asking questions.

A second message followed.

A photograph.

Dr. Reed.

Tied to a chair.

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And beneath the photograph:

K-07 is next.