Chapter 15 - The Doctor Who DisappearedWe found Dr. Reed in an abandoned warehouse.
He was alive.
Barely.
His wrists were bruised.
His face was swollen.
When he saw me, he whispered:
"I knew they'd come for him."
"Who?"
"The organization."
"What organization?"
He shook his head.
"I can't."
"You can."
"No."
I grabbed a chair and pulled it closer.
"You lied to me."
"I was trying to protect you."
"You denied knowing about the database."
"I was afraid."
"Of whom?"
He looked at Keo.
"Of what they would do if they knew he remembered."
Keo stepped forward.
"Remembered what?"
Dr. Reed stared at him.
"You were too young."
"Remember what?"
"The treatments."
Keo frowned.
"I remember being sick."
"No."
Dr. Reed shook his head.
"You remember more than that."
Keo looked at me.
I didn't know what to say.
Dr. Reed continued.
"Your father funded the original research."
"My father?"
"Yes."
"Then why did he never tell me?"
"Because he discovered what happened to the first children."
"The six?"
He nodded.
"They weren't failures."
"What does that mean?"
"The treatment worked."
Silence.
"Then why did they die?"
Dr. Reed closed his eyes.
"Because the research wasn't about curing them."
I felt my blood turn cold.
"What was it about?"
"Predicting which children would survive."
I stared at him.
"They wanted a biological model."
"For what?"
"To decide which patients were worth treating."
Linda whispered:
"Like a ranking system."
Dr. Reed nodded.
"Exactly."
I looked at Keo.
"Why him?"
"Because K-07 survived."
"But others survived."
"Not like him."
"What makes him different?"
Dr. Reed looked at Keo.
"His body adapted."
"To the treatment?"
"To everything."
Keo looked confused.
Dr. Reed continued.
"Your immune response became the model."
My stomach tightened.
"So they studied him."
"For years."
"Through the foundation?"
"Yes."
"Without my permission?"
"Yes."
I stood.
"Who runs it?"
Dr. Reed hesitated.
Then whispered:
"Your father's former research partner."
I froze.
"Who?"
Dr. Reed looked at me.
"Eleanor Vale."
The name meant nothing.
May you like
Then he added:
"She's still alive."
Related Stories
