Chapter 6 - THE SECRET CHILDRENThe police searched the entire city.
Nothing.
No van.
No cameras.
No witnesses.
Eli had vanished.
His mother collapsed.
Mia refused to sleep.
And Lena stopped eating.
She sat at the restaurant every night, staring at the three coins.
Nora finally found her there at three in the morning.
“You need to rest.”
“Eli is seven.”
“I know.”
“He had three coins.”
“I know.”
“Just like Mia.”
Nora sat across from her.
“There may be a connection.”
Lena looked up.
“What connection?”
Nora opened her laptop.
“I found something in the foundation's old records.”
She turned the screen.
A list appeared.
Names.
Dates.
Locations.
Children.
Lena read the first line.
Then the second.
Then the third.
Her stomach twisted.
“These are missing children.”
Nora nodded.
“Some were reported missing.”
“Some?”
“Others were never reported.”
Lena stared at her.
“How can a child disappear without anyone reporting it?”
Nora's expression was grim.
“Children from homeless families. Children whose parents were undocumented. Children whose parents were addicts. Children whose families were too poor to fight.”
Lena felt cold.
“Someone was taking them?”
“We don't know.”
Nora scrolled down.
One name stopped her.
MIA HART.
Lena stood so quickly the chair fell backward.
“No.”
Nora looked at her.
“Mia's name is here.”
“Before she disappeared?”
“Three years before.”
Lena's heart pounded.
“That can't be possible.”
Nora opened another file.
There was a photograph of Mia as a baby.
Then another.
Then a medical record.
Lena's voice trembled.
“Why was she being watched?”
Nora didn't answer.
Instead, she opened a hidden folder.
Inside was a document titled:
PROJECT THREE COINS.
Lena stared at the words.
“What is that?”
Nora clicked the file.
The screen showed a list of children.
At the top was one sentence:
Children who can be found can be controlled.
Lena felt sick.
Then another line appeared.
MIA HART — FAILED.
Lena's eyes widened.
“What does failed mean?”
Nora read the next line.
“Subject recovered by civilian intervention.”
Lena whispered:
“Me.”
Nora nodded.
The room fell silent.
Then Lena's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
No one spoke.
Then a child's voice whispered:
“Lena?”
Lena stood.
“Eli?”
A sob.
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“I don't know.”
“Look around.”
The boy breathed heavily.
“There are other children here.”
Lena's heart stopped.
“How many?”
Eli began to cry.
Then he whispered:
May you like
“Twenty-three.”
The line went dead.
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