H.A.L.F.: The Makers (9 page)

“So conspiracy and covert ops are like your family business?”

“Officially, my dad is a mogul of industry in the high-tech sector. Unofficially, my family specializes in lies and countermeasures.” Anna’s face wrinkled up in disgust. She sipped her coffee. “I’ve said a lot. Your turn.”

Jack didn’t know where to begin. His time at A.H.D.N.A. was a nightmare and he didn’t relish revisiting it. And he wasn’t sure what she was angling for. “What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start with the basics. Why were you at A.H.D.N.A.?”

“Oh, you know. Thought I’d take a little vacation a mile underground. Very restful, what with the isolation cells and all.”

Anna’s pupils were so dilated that her eyes were nearly black. The soft lilt of her voice was gone. “This isn’t a game.”

“What happened to the first rule? Patience, Anna.” Jack smirked at her.

For a minute Jack feared she’d come over the counter and punch him in the face. But she settled for glaring at him. She gripped the counter and took a deep breath.

She might not have hit him, but the glare was enough to make Jack decide he’d pushed her far enough. He didn’t have the stomach for games, and he got the feeling Anna Sturgis had been playing a game her whole life. “I wasn’t there by choice. My friends and I –”

“Names.”

“Ian. And Erika.” Jack regretted giving her their real names, but he wasn’t sure why. They weren’t even on the planet anymore. “We were out in the desert west of Ajo. On the gunnery range.”

“What were you doing out there?”

“None of your damned business. Do you want me to give you an answer to your question or not?”

Anna made a continue gesture with her hands.

“We were attacked by two criminals. Really nasty guys. I got shot.” Jack rubbed his shoulder where a bullet remained lodged in his skin. “Anyway, one of Sturgis’ hybrids, Tex – I mean H.A.L.F. 9 – he saved us and healed me.”

Anna didn’t look the least bit surprised when Jack mentioned hybrids. “And my aunt Lilly took you all to A.H.D.N.A. after rescuing you?”

Jack laughed. “Hardly! H.A.L.F. 9 – we call him Tex – he’d escaped from your psycho aunt. We just happened to be out there. And a lot happened before she rounded us up and forced us to A.H.D.N.A. It was no rescue mission. More like a kidnapping.”

Anna looked as though she was processing what he’d said. She absentmindedly poured more coffee into Jack’s cup.

The coffee was hot and strong and the first thing he’d had in over a week that wasn’t consumed in a jail cell in a dank, underground prison. He drained half a cup in one drink. “Your turn.”

Anna didn’t argue for more information from Jack. “My dad has – how to say this – questioned some of Croft’s plans. So he’s on Croft’s naughty list. If you met Croft, then you may have guessed that being on his shit list isn’t a good thing. My dad is in danger.” Anna spoke about her father being in danger the way a newsperson delivers the nightly news.

Either she hates him or she’s a psychopath or something.

“Does that make you in danger too?”

Anna nodded. “You see, when your dad is one of the Makers, you’re in the organization whether you want to be or not. Even if you don’t know it.”

“Sounds like the Mafia.”

“Somewhat. Only the Mafia rules little fiefdoms scattered here and there. They compete with one another and have never organized into one, big multinational organization that runs it all. Picture one united Mafia only more intelligent and with a lot more money.”

“Sounds frightening.”

“Only if you know what’s really going on, which I didn’t for the first part of my life. When I was younger, it just meant I had access to more money and power than most people dream of.”

“Must have been nice.” When Jack’s parents were still married, Jack had lived a comfortable lifestyle afforded by two teachers’ salaries. Not rich by any means, but he always had what he needed. But when his dad took off, the income was cut in half and wasn’t so comfortable after that.

“I won’t lie. It’s far better to live with money than without. I know that. But being part of the Makers comes at a high cost. Lives are lost every day because someone got on the naughty list. Innocent lives. Whole families disappear without knowing what they did to get iced. So to answer your question, I’m in danger. Thanks to being a part of one big lying, scheming friggin’ family.” She spit out the words like they tasted awful to her.

“How do you know all this?”

“I told you. Espionage.”

“You spy on your dad?”

Anna nodded. “What began as a hobby when I was a bored teen has become my unofficial profession. I left New York and came out here to get my master’s degree. But also to get away from my dad and prying eyes so I could find a way to expose them and take them down before they kill more innocent people. But don’t tell my dad.” Anna winked.

Hearing that she was in danger too eroded Jack’s resolve to hate her. But he reminded himself that she was related to Commander Sturgis, and his distrust of her amped back up. “Sure. Your secret’s safe with me. I’ll cancel my golf date with your old man so I’m not tempted to blab.”

Anna’s face hardened a bit. “Okay, Mr. Wilson, your turn.”

“I’ll give you one more, but you better start giving me more than your family tree.”

“You have to admit I have one hell of a family tree.”

“What else do you want to know?”

“Tell me in detail about what happened when you saw Croft.”

“That’s a big tell.” Jack’s stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly. “The cookies are great, but I haven’t eaten a real meal in weeks. Any chance we can continue this over some food?”

Anna smiled. “How about a pizza?”

“Perfect.”

Anna showed him to a small bathroom off the main hallway so he could clean up while they waited for their food. As soon as Anna shut the door behind her, Jack stripped out of his reeking clothes. He wanted to pitch them into a trash can, but until they had a chance to go shopping, they were all he had.

As he peeled off his boxers, Jack caught a glimpse of himself in the full-length mirror on the back of the door. At Dr. Randall’s townhouse in Aphthartos, Jack had only had a midchest and up view. That had allowed him to get used to his scruffy hair and grizzled face. But it hadn’t prepared him for the full-body view.

Two weeks of living on rations of stale nutrition bars and liquid vitamin juices had pulled at least ten pounds off him. The loss of weight had made Ian look gaunt and Erika like she had an eating disorder.

But Jack had sported a small Buddha belly that had set in when they moved to Ajo and he stopped swimming regularly. Now his love handle was gone. He’d still need to get his muscle tone back, but he was more trim thanks to the ‘A.H.D.N.A. diet’.

The water was warm and the pressure firm just the way Jack liked it. He lathered his hair twice, pleased that the shampoo wasn’t too flowery. He took his time, letting the water wash away the stench of A.H.D.N.A. that seemed stuck in his nostrils.

The door clicked open. Startled, he nearly slipped on the wet tub floor. “What the – ?” Jack instinctively covered his privates with the washcloth even though the shower curtain was opaque.

“Just me,” Anna called. “I have some fresh clothes here for you. Jeans and a shirt anyway. Sorry, I don’t have any fresh – um – unders. I guess you’ll have to go commando.”

Before he had a chance to respond to her, the door clicked shut. Jack held the shower curtain so it covered him and peered out. She was gone, as were his clothes. Jack imagined her throwing them into an incinerator.

The water began to run cold, which he took as a cue to get out. As he dried off with the fluffiest towels he’d ever seen, he noticed she’d put a new razor, a shaving brush and a small container of shaving lather on the counter.
Hint, hint.

Jack envied Ian’s ability to pull off the unshaved look. When Jack didn’t shave, he looked like a derelict.

He’d always used inexpensive shaving cream that his mom bought at Walmart by the gross. The container Anna had placed on the counter was ‘shaving butter’ from France. He unscrewed the lid and took a whiff. He was used to the strong, spicy scent that manufacturers of male grooming products thought men should smell like. The French stuff smelled of honey, oranges and lavender. He wrinkled his nose. But beggars shouldn’t be choosers, so he lathered his face and dragged the razor through his scruff. When finished, he had to admit his face was smoother than it had ever been, and the smell mellowed into a delightfully clean but not cloying aroma.
I could get used to this stuff.

He was fresh out of scissors, so his shaggy curls remained. His hair would be frizzy and unruly but whatever. Erika never minded, so why should he care what Anna Sturgis thought.
It’s not like I have to impress her.

As he was closing the medicine cabinet door, he noticed a prescription bottle. Curiosity made him pick it up. It was a drug called ‘amitriptyline HCL’ prescribed by a Dr. Steven Rosen. Jack filed the information away for future reference. He had no idea what it was or why she needed it. She appeared perfectly healthy.

Jack dressed and thought the jeans looked good on him though he wished he had a pair of boxers on. The material was a bit scratchy and the pants were tighter than he typically wore. The T-shirt was too clingy as well. He pulled at it, trying to get it to stretch out. But it wasn’t a cheap cotton T-shirt from a big-box store, so the pull-and-stretch trick didn’t work.

He glanced in the mirror and decided the clothes made him look better than his usual baggy ones, but he was damned uncomfortable.
Erika and Ian would have a field day making fun of me if they saw me in these clothes.

He sauntered back to the kitchen in his bare feet. The cool of the tile on his toes reminded him of home.

Anna was perched on a chair at the small dining table. She was engrossed in her laptop but looked up as he entered. “Wow, you clean up well, Jack Wilson. Feel better?”

Her compliment brought warmth to Jack’s cheeks. He nodded. “These are what – your boyfriend’s? He won’t want these pants back seeing as how –”

Anna sipped water from an environmentally conscious reusable water bottle. “No worries. Actually they were my brother’s, but now they’re yours.”

All Jack could manage was “Oh.” He was surprised to find himself happy that Anna didn’t have a boyfriend.

The doorbell rang and Anna paid for the food. She carried a large pizza box with a small bag teetering precariously on top.

They ate in near total silence. Jack had inhaled a slice before he noticed that Anna was munching on a spinach salad, not pizza.

“You could be eating the most delicious food known, but instead you’re eating glorified grass?” He shook his head. “Typical for girls like you, I guess.”

“Girls like me?”

Her eyes were stormy again. Jack wished he’d stuffed more pizza in his face instead of saying that to her. “I mean, you know, thin pretty girls like you. Especially rich ones.”

Anna’s brow crinkled. “Oh, you have a lot of experience with rich, pretty girls out there in Ajo, do you?”

“In Ajo? No, but I grew up in Scottsdale.”

Her crinkle relaxed a bit, but her eyes were still dark. “Well, I now know how you got your name, Jack. As in, you don’t know jack, do you?”

Ouch. “I didn’t mean to insult you. It’s just I don’t get why girls have to deprive themselves is all. I mean, you can’t possibly like spinach more than pizza, do you?”

It’s like I’m on the worst damned date ever.

Anna took a sip of her water with lemon and shoved the salad to the side of her plate. She opened the pizza box and took two slices.

“I’m a bad influence,” Jack said.

“I wonder what other bad things you’ll influence me to do?”

Is she flirting with me?
His cheeks were hot again. Her cheeks had flushed red too. The awkward silence returned.

They finished off the entire pizza and the salad as well. Jack wanted to loosen the top button of his pants but decided against it. The carbs had made him tired, and all he wanted was to go to bed. He yawned and stretched his arms up over his head. “I’m tired. Any chance we can finish story time in the morning?”

Anna put their plates in the sink. “I’m tired too. Tired of playing games. I figure you for a guy who likes things straightforward. So what do you say we cut the crap and put it all on the table?”

She was right. He hated dancing around things. If someone had something to say, he preferred if they just said it. Another of the many things he loved about Erika. She was all out there all the time. Take it or leave it.

He ran his hand through his mass of curls and nodded. “I’m too tired to care anymore.”

Anna gestured to the small couch in the living room. Jack took a seat while Anna sat in an armchair opposite him.

Jack told Anna the story of everything that had happened to him from the time they’d met Tex in the desert to the point where he’d shown up at her door. It was good to tell the story – to lay it out in the open and get the ordeal off his chest. Before he had the good sense to stop himself, he told Anna about how her aunt had ordered three teens to be killed despite the fact that Sewell had told him not to. Though he’d known her only a short time, he’d begun to trust Anna despite trying not to. He didn’t figure she’d go blabbing about Jack’s indiscretion to Sewell. Besides, she didn’t seem as shocked by Jack’s revelation as Sewell seemed to think she’d be.

She listened intently and interrupted him only a few times to ask questions or press for more detail. She never showed a bit of shock or surprise by his story, her face a mask.

As he recounted what had happened to them, he realized how incredibly lucky he was to be alive. As he told the story, the realization dawned fully that Erika and Ian had gone with beings none of them had ever seen to an unknown place based solely on the word of Tex. It was insane.
Why didn’t I talk her out of it?

He drained the cup of coffee Anna had handed him. It was cold now, but he didn’t care. His lids were heavy and he needed help to stay awake to finish their discussion.