She threw open the motel-room door, grabbed the remote from Thomas’s hand, and hastily clicked off the television. “Get your stuff together. We’re leaving.”
Alecto had been curled into herself, but she raised her head and blinked. She unwound her arms from around her knees and rose. Her movements were slow, as if she moved through air the consistency of gelatin.
Thomas made no move to follow Anna’s direction. “Did you talk to Sewell?”
Anna stood in the bathroom and shoved toothpaste and other toiletries into a small bag. “Yes.”
Thomas turned his attention to Jack. “Well? What did he say?”
Jack shrugged. “Don’t ask me. She’s the one that talked to him. I’m just the hired help, so need-to-know basis. Apparently, I don’t need to know.”
Anna emerged from the bathroom and glared at Jack as she stuffed her toiletry bag into her duffel. “He said our Aunt Lilly is out of prison.” She didn’t stop her frenetic packing while she gave the news to Thomas as if it were no more momentous than news that rain was falling outside.
Thomas swiveled himself around on the bed and grabbed Anna’s wrists. “Stop.” His voice was a low hiss.
Anna tried to pull her wrists out of his grasp. “Let go.”
Thomas held her firmly. “No. Not until you slow down and tell us what’s going on.” He looked back at Jack then returned his gaze to Anna. “All of us.”
Alecto was at Anna’s side before Jack even noticed she had moved. If Thomas had half the common sense as he had genius, he would have let Anna go. Before Jack had the chance to tell Thomas to let Anna go, Thomas flew backward off of the bed.
Alecto hadn’t moved a muscle.
“Stand down, Alecto,” Jack said. He tried to pitch his voice downward and put as much authority into it as he could despite the fact that, in her presence, he was pretty much perpetually close to pissing his pants with fear.
She turned her head toward him slowly and raised her hand in the air toward him.
She’s apparently not going to take orders from me. Jack put his hands up and out to the sides. “He’s her brother. It’s between them.”
Alecto cocked her head to one side, and her hand dropped. Thomas rose slowly, his eyes on her. He looked rattled but uninjured.
Anna gingerly touched Alecto’s shoulder. Her voice was calm. “I’m okay. And Jack’s right. Sometimes, Thomas and I argue. But he’s my brother. He won’t hurt me.”
“My brother tried to hurt me. I attempted to terminate him.”
Jack recalled his Jetta tumbling off the road and into a ditch and bursting into flames.
“Okay, clearly we need to calm this down. I’m sorry I got everyone so jacked up.” Anna dropped the pair of socks from her hand into the duffel and flopped onto the bed on top of the pillows. “Everyone sit and chill for a minute while I tell you what Sewell said.”
Thomas sat cross-legged on the second bed, and Alecto sat on the edge of the bed. Her feet barely reached the floor. Her back was as straight as a board. Jack remained standing. He leaned against the TV cabinet, his arms across his chest.
Anna twisted the end of her hair in her fingers then let it go. “Sewell wanted to make sure we knew how relieved he was that we’re all still alive.”
Thomas clapped his hands slowly and wore a smirk on his face. “Yay for the Sturgis clan. Two survivors.”
Anna’s brow furrowed again. “Don’t be so cynical. Anyway, apparently within hours of our escape, Aunt Lilly was released from military prison.”
Alecto stood up. “I must go to her.”
“Sit down and listen,” Thomas said.
Anna nodded and motioned for her to. “I would have thought that too, Alecto. After all, that’s why we liberated you from the Croft house, so you could help us break her out of prison. But Sewell said we can’t go anywhere near Aunt Lilly though he didn’t have time or inclination to go into details as to why.”
“I think it’s obvious. He didn’t need to spell it out,” Jack said.
Anna and Alecto both asked “Why?” simultaneously.
“Because it’s what Croft wants.”
Thomas uncurled his legs. “Jack’s right. It’s the only conclusion that makes sense.” He gave Jack an irritated look, as though irked that Jack had gotten to the idea before he did.
“So what, he thinks he can use Aunt Lilly as bait to recapture Alecto?” Anna asked.
Jack and Thomas both nodded.
“But why release her? He could keep her in prison and track us. We may be off grid, but we’re not exactly an inconspicuous group.”
“Tracking takes time,” Jack said. “Especially when we’re not using electronics or credit cards.”
“And with what’s going on in Europe, he knows time is running out,” Thomas said.
“What did Sewell say we’re supposed to do now?” Jack asked. He was a bit afraid of the answer. Breaking Sturgis out of jail wasn’t his dream job, but he’d lived with the idea for over a month. He’d gotten used to it the way one gets used to having an irritating wart.
“Thomas, Alecto, and I are supposed to help with a new project that Aunt Lilly has for us. You, Mr. Wilson, are a free man.” Anna’s face was an unreadable mask.
Jack had thought that Anna had warmed to him. He even thought that maybe she had begun to think about him as much and in the same way that he thought about her, but she didn’t seem too torn up over the fact that they’d soon part ways. I’m just one less piece of baggage for her to haul around.
The lot he’d recently been handed in life sucked, but being with Anna had made it bearable. In truth, despite the ugliness they’d faced at Croft’s penthouse, the month he’d spent with Anna was the best time of his life. He wanted to see his mom again, and he missed Ian and Erika, but the idea of being without Anna made him feel hollow inside.
Anna continued. “We’re to go to Phoenix. From there, we’ll get you to Ajo. Okay, Jack?”
Jack managed to mumble, “Okay.”
Thomas asked, “What’s the new project?”
Anna directed her answer to Alecto. “It’s something to benefit Alecto.”
Alecto tilted her head. “For me?”
Anna nodded. “Apparently, while Aunt Lilly was in prison, she worked on a gene therapy to help you with a problem you have.”
“I did not know that I need help.” She blinked her huge eyes.
“Sewell said you have an Achilles’ heel. A weakness.”
“Humidity,” Jack said.
“Yes,” Anna said. “And this new gene therapy—if it works—will make you less vulnerable to the effects of humidity and water.”
As far as Jack had seen, humidity and water were the sole ways to control the hybrid beings. He’d also seen plenty of reason humans should want a Stop button on them. Jack found it hard to believe that Sturgis considered it a good idea to surrender control over Alecto. He didn’t want to rile Alecto, though, so he kept his thoughts to himself. Besides, he’d soon be home, and all of the Sturgis, Croft, and hybrid crap would be none of his business anymore.
Thomas asked, “If we’re to stay away from Aunt Lilly, then who will be heading up this new project? You have a degree in molecular biology, but you’re hardly qualified for something like this. And you don’t have a lab.”
“This is the really interesting part.” Anna turned her attention to Jack. “We’ll be working with the founder of the H.A.L.F. program.”
“Dr. Randall,” Alecto said in a hushed whisper.
The information took a few seconds to fully percolate through the folds of Jack’s gray matter. If Dr. Randall was in Arizona again, that meant he was back from the planet the Greys had taken him to. And if he’s back, then maybe…
“Erika,” Jack whispered.
He caught Anna’s gaze. For the briefest moment, he thought he saw sadness there, but in an instant, the look was gone, and she put on her well-practiced mask of indifference.
The idea that Erika could b
e in Ajo should have made him eager to get home. Instead, he wished he had a reason to stay in Phoenix a bit longer. Guilt made his stomach do flip-flops.
Alecto spoke in a barely audible whisper. “9.”
“What’s that?” Thomas asked.
“She’s talking about Tex, the other hybrid. They have the same genetic parents, so in a way they’re brother and sister,” Jack said.
Alecto nodded her bowling ball of a head. “If Dr. Randall is back… Was 9 with him? Will I see 9 again?” Her voice was more animated than Jack had ever heard it.
“Mr. Sewell didn’t mention 9,” Anna said.
Alecto’s shoulders drooped.
“In fact, Mr. Sewell only mentioned Dr. Randall.” Anna’s eyes softened a bit, and she looked at Jack. “But that doesn’t mean the others aren’t there.” She clapped Alecto lightly on the shoulder. “There’s only one way to find out. Let’s get back on the road and get you to warm, sunny Arizona.” Anna plastered on her best fake smile.
They needed less than fifteen minutes to get back on the road headed west. As Jack watched the Gateway Arch of St. Louis recede in the rearview mirror, feelings of guilt gave way to a calm happiness. He was going home. Even if he was confused about his feelings for Erika, seeing her and Ian again would be good. Also, his mom would know he was alive.
First a layover in Phoenix. Then this nightmare will be behind me.
10
ERIKA
Erika headed north out of town but turned onto the first forest-service road she came to. They’d gone less than a mile when the engine sputtered, chugged, and finally died. The car stalled on a narrow, deeply rutted dirt road headed up a steep hill.
She hit the steering wheel in frustration. “So close.”
“This spot is quite open. It will be easily spotted,” Tex said.
“Yeah, I know that. This wasn’t part of the plan. We’ll have to push it the rest of the way.”
Tex got out and asked, “Rest of the way to where?”
Erika pointed up the hill.
“I do not understand.”
Erika put the car in neutral. “Aunt Dana brought me out to this area a lot before… well, when I was younger. I’m guessing there’s a perfect spot at the top of the hill.” She stood behind the back bumper. “Come on. Push.”
She put her hands on the trunk, and Tex followed her lead. She expected to have to rock the car hard to get it out of the rut it had stalled in. Even in a weakened state, though, Tex was stronger than most people. The car easily rolled forward.
The going became tougher once the terrain sloped more steeply. By the time they got the car to the top of the hill, sweat was covering her forehead, and her back muscles burned.
When the ground leveled out, Erika yelled, “Whoa!”
Tex stopped pushing, and the car came to a stop at the edge of a cliff that dropped off at least a hundred feet to the canyon below.
“Let’s get our stuff before we shove it over.” Erika grabbed the handgun from the front seat and a few bags of food while Tex got the rest. “We need to push it hard so it will have enough momentum to make it farther than just a few feet and get hung up on the trees.”
“I can give it an assist.”
“If you have the strength for it, that would be great.”
Erika pushed with all she had but doubted Tex needed her at all. The car levitated out from the ledge as if flying. It cleared the edge by nearly twenty feet then picked up speed before dropping from the air. The car crashed nose first and toppled back over front as it rolled down the hill. It finally landed in the canyon below, hidden from view by the thick trees and bushes.
“Someone will find it eventually, but this should hold us over for a few days,” Erika said.
“Long enough to rest before we move on.”
She hadn’t planned on moving on, whatever he meant by that. She was exhausted. She was thinking only about getting to Aunt Dana’s and sleeping. She didn’t know what she’d do after that.
Erika shielded her eyes with her hand and stared at the sky. The sun was already well on its way to the western horizon.
“Come on. We gotta scoot if we’re to make it there by nightfall.” She headed back down the hill as Tex followed.
Erika hadn’t been in the New Mexico forest for several years, but she’d spent a lot of time in the area when she was younger, back before her dad died. She wasn’t sure how to find Aunt Dana’s traipsing through the forest, and that way would take longer anyway, so she headed back down the main road and toward Luna. From there, she knew the way.
After nearly an hour of walking, they made it to the forest-service road leading to Dana’s cabin. They didn’t see a single car on the road. Strange, even for this remote area. She didn’t know if the reason was the lack of gas due to the closed Arizona border or that news of the virus had spread and people were worried to leave their houses. Whatever the cause, the trek was eerily quiet.
After another thirty minutes trudging uphill on a narrow, deeply rutted dirt road, they got to Aunt Dana’s cabin. It was tucked into a forest of piñon and juniper. They came upon the little house at dusk, the western sky ablaze with deep crimson and purple. The cabin’s windows were filled with welcoming yellow light, and a truck was parked in the gravel drive. She’s home, at least.
Erika stopped at the edge of the clearing. “Before we go in, we need to get our story straight.”
Tex cocked his head to one side.
“My Aunt Dana is with the forest service. She’s law and order, like my dad was. So she’s going to be full of questions about why we’re here and who—and what—you are. And yeah, it’s not going to work with her to say you have a genetic anomaly. She’s too sharp for that kind of lie. And…”
“And what, Erika?”
“And, well, I haven’t seen or talked to her since my dad’s funeral, so she may not be all that thrilled to see me.” Her throat was suddenly dry. She had always been close to her Aunt Dana and had practically lived in the New Mexico forest during the summers of her childhood. Being separated from Aunt Dana had made her father’s death even more painful.
Normally, Erika couldn’t read Tex’s face, but he was clearly angry with her. His brows came together, and his jaw set.
His voice came out as a low hiss. “You mean you brought us all this way, and now you tell me that this woman may not welcome you? And if she’s ‘law and order’ as you say, she may well turn me over to the authorities.” Tex’s hands were fists at his side.
Erika spat back, “Yeah, well where the hell else were we going to go? I don’t recall you having any ideas.”
She turned her attention to the cabin. “Just follow my lead. Try not to talk much. And whatever you do, do not harm her. She’s the only family I have left on my dad’s side. Be cool.”
She walked slowly to the porch and tiptoed to the door. Erika rapped lightly on the wooden screen door. The knock caused the hook latch to rattle. In the quiet of the mountain twilight, the knock sounded like an explosion.
Erika heard Dana’s footfalls on the wooden floor inside. The porch light came on and bathed them in the nearly fluorescent yellow of a bug light. The inner door opened, and Erika stared through the screen at her Aunt Dana.
Dana’s hair had been dark brown the last time Erika saw her, but it was streaked with gray and pulled back in a tail exactly the way Erika wore hers. Dana’s eyes were the same clear blue that Erika’s father had. Erika loved the color and had often wished she had it. The lines in Dana’s forehead were deeper, the crow’s feet at the edges of her eyes more apparent, but otherwise, she still had the athletic build and natural, no-nonsense beauty Erika remembered.
“Well I’ll be…” Dana’s face lit up in a smile that quickly faded to a tight mask of anger. “What kind of trouble you get in that’s so bad you gotta show up at my doorstep?” Her eyes landed on Tex, and her brows knitted into a tighter knot. She looked Erika up and down, taking in Erika’s dirt-covered clothes and unwa
shed hair. “What’s wrong, Erika? Tina kick you out? I woulda figured she’d understand if you got pregnant, seeing as how she did the same thing when she was your age.”
Erika needed every ounce of strength left in her not to put her fist through the screen door and land a punch on Dana. If she didn’t need the woman’s help so badly, she would have told her where to stick it and walked away without looking back.
She did need Dana’s help, though—desperately.
Erika’s hands were balled up at her sides, but she took a deep breath and said, “I’m not pregnant. And Tina didn’t kick me out. She’s dead.”
Dana’s face went from smug to shocked pain in less than a nanosecond. “Oh. Oh Erika, I’m sorry. I didn’t—I hadn’t heard. Come on. Get in here out of the chill.”
Dana stood aside so they could come in then quickly strode to the kitchen. Her eyes were fixed on Tex. “Who’s your friend?”
“His name is Tex.”
Dana gave a soft laugh. “Strange name for a young person.” She held her hand out to shake his hand.
Tex did not join her laughter. He stared at her hand.
Erika coughed lightly and used her head to gesture for Tex to take Dana’s hand. She didn’t know how Dana would react to having a fugitive human-alien hybrid in her house, but she didn’t know how to hide the truth from her astute aunt when Tex couldn’t even abide by simple human customs like a handshake.
He got the hint, took Dana’s hand, and they shook briefly.
Dana kept an eye on him as she spoke. “Can I get you something to eat? You look like a scarecrow. How long has it been since you ate a meal?” She didn’t wait for them to answer, opening cupboards, rattling dishes, and grabbing things out of the refrigerator.
Erika fell into a wooden chair at the kitchen table, and Tex took the seat next to her. His head swiveled as he took in the small kitchen, seeming to catalog every wood plank and speck of dust.
Dana chopped onions and potatoes while Erika filled her in on what had happened to Erika’s mom. Erika cried as she recounted it. Dana placed a warm hand on her shoulder and handed her a box of tissues. That was the kind of quiet comfort Erika had grown up with from the Holt side of her family, and she was craving it more than she had let herself realize. Seeing Aunt Dana was good, and so was talking about the death.
H.A.L.F.: ORIGINS Page 7