But he knew there was no way he could spend the day with Erika without her knowing that he was withholding information. Though she could not read minds like he could, she had an uncanny ability to ferret out truth like a bloodhound on a scent. And she was especially good at knowing when he lied. If his plan were to work, he would need every ounce of his energy. He had none to spare for confrontation with Erika. His goal was to avoid her for an entire day.
41
JACK
Jack wished he had seen Anna’s face when Croft claimed she would one day rule over the warped and empty kingdom he’d created.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I grow tired of having guns pointed at me. Come to the sitting room.” Croft glanced at his watch. “It’s tea time, after all. It will take some getting used to living in the dark.” Croft left them staring after him as he walked toward a set of white double doors that were open to a spacious room to their left.
Croft showed them his back. It would be such an easy shot. If Lizzy had done it to Anna’s dad, Jack could do it to Croft. Why is he making himself so vulnerable? Croft was too smart for that. It felt like a trap. Besides, they needed to get the anti-viral first and they had no idea where it was. Croft could have hidden in a place they’d never find.
Jack wished he knew what Anna was thinking. She didn’t take the shot either.
“Come have tea. Just because the world up top is devolving into chaos doesn’t mean we can’t behave like civilized people down here.” Croft entered the room, the shot now obscured by one of the tall columns.
Jack’s stomach chose that moment to growl loudly. “I could go for some tea.”
Anna strolled past him but took a moment to roll her eyes at him.
This room was as sumptuously decorated as the foyer. The wall to their left was filled with floor to ceiling windows as though the builder’s expected the room to have a view that it never would. The floors here were wood laid in a parquet pattern. The walls were smooth plaster painted a pale blue accented with white decorative moldings. The coffered ceiling was lit by a row of crystal chandeliers, none quite as large as the one in the entry but still grand.
A central seating arrangement was laid out on a large, hand-tufted rug of rich blue, emerald and yellow. Croft sat in a deep brown leather chair, his legs crossed, his fingers steepled under his chin the way Sturgis sometimes did.
Jack’s eyes swept the room. He neither saw nor heard anyone else.
“Please sit.” His voice was gracious, as if he was a friend of theirs expecting them for afternoon tea. Croft pressed a button on an intercom sitting on the table beside his chair.
A woman’s voice spoke over the com. “Yes, Sir Croft? Would you be wanting your tea now?”
Croft’s face tensed and he slightly rolled his eyes. He was clearly annoyed with the woman on the other end of the com though Jack had no idea why. She sounded like a pleasant, older British lady.
Croft spoke through nearly gritted teeth in the sort of fake pleasant voice a person uses when trying not to show anger even when livid. “Yes, Dottie, it is 3:00 which means it’s tea time. And bring serving for five. We have guests.”
“Oh, yes sir,” Dottie said. She sounded excited.
It was hard to say how long Croft had had the poor woman cooped up in the strange mansion underground. For all Jack knew, seeing as how Croft’s mansion was so far from the town square – or even Dr. Randall’s place for that matter – Dottie could have been down there when the alien ship had arrived and probably not even known it.
The sound of footsteps echoing on the marble floor in the entry made Jack jump. Anna had already taken a seat on the tightly upholstered couch diagonally to Croft but Jack turned toward the door in an instant, his gun drawn. Alecto turned as well, her hand rising into the air, ready to strike.
Ben’s lanky frame came into view. His geeky glasses were gone. His chin was shadowed by a few days of facial hair growth making him look older. He’d exchanged the white lab coat and loose-fitting khakis for a tightly fitted black T-shirt, black jeans and had a gun holster in plain view, a pistol pressed close to his side.
Ben looked menacing without his glasses and dressed in all black. Or maybe he seemed sinister now because Jack knew the guy had made a pact with the devil and put millions of lives in danger.
“Brad, I think you know Anna, Alecto and of course, Mr. Wilson.”
Croft using only Jack’s last name was getting on his nerves. “I thought your name was Ben. So even your identity was a lie?” Jack shook his head at Brad. “You suggested he go to New Mexico to get him out of the way, not because you were thinking of him. You son-of-a-bitch.” Jack was not looking forward to telling Ian the truth. It was going to hurt him more than Jack could imagine.
Brad’s easy-going smile was gone. He wore a derisive smirk. “Look, kid, I didn’t mean to hurt your friend. He’s nice to look at and all. But business is business. If he didn’t want to feel the sting, he shouldn’t have begun playing with fire.”
Jack had never wanted to punch someone more. His hands pumped into fists and he was about to let loose a punch, but Alecto’s thin hand on his arm kept him from swinging.
Brad walked past him and took his smirk with him. He sat in the other leather chair opposite Croft.
Jack didn’t want to sit and he was sure as hell not in the mood for tea anymore. Dottie chose that moment to enter with a cart filled with a three-tiered plate of finger sandwiches and tiny cakes. She brought two pots of tea and enough cups for all of them.
Without being asked, she poured a cup for Croft, dropped in two sugars, squeezed a small wedge of lemon into the cup and handed it to him with a curtsy. You would think she was serving the King of England.
Jack’s stomach rumbled again. He decided to give in to his traitorous stomach and eat. They remained quiet, locked in mutual stares of distrust as Dottie doled out a bit of each food item to everyone. If she noticed that all of them save for Croft was packing heat, she didn’t say anything about it or even acknowledge the weapons with a flick of her eyes.
After serving the tea and food, Dottie left the room and closed the door behind her. It was a strange thing to do seeing as how the only other person in the whole house was a cook. Anna shot Jack a look out of the corner of her eye. So she noticed it too.
Croft’s eyes had hardly left Anna. He stared at her now over his teacup. “I deeply regret the errors of my progeny’s ways. All of them, so flawed.” He set his cup down. “Lizzy’s jealousy of your perfect beauty caused her to slash at you, Anna. But even a milky eye hardly diminishes your radiance. In fact, once my medical team gets here, they may well be able to repair the damage and make you whole again. After all, who wants to be ruled by an ugly queen.”
Anna flung her porcelain cup at the floor. The loud crash made all of them jump. “For God’s sake, stop saying that. I’m not going to become a surrogate daughter for you and rule by your side over your pathetic kingdom. I’ve done nothing but try to bring you down. You must know that. What could make you possibly think that I’d help you?”
Croft put his cup down gently on the table beside him. “Because you were born for it. More precisely, engineered for it.” He steepled his fingers under his chin again and looked at her intently as though waiting for the meaning of what he’d said sink in.
Anna’s voice was incredulous. “What are you talking about?”
Alecto’s stoic voice broke in. “You are like me, Anna. Genetically programmed. Correct?”
“And Sturgis said you weren’t the smart one. That’s right, Ten.”
“My name is Alecto.”
Croft acted as though he hadn’t heard her. “Ten has the right of it.”
Anna rose and faced him, her hands on her hips. She trembled with anger. “Are you telling me that my mother and father aren’t really my parents? That I was created in a lab somewhere?”
“Of course Robert and Hannah were your parents. Don’
t be daft. It was their genetic material we used. Only perfected.”
“But what about Thomas? He’s my brother, isn’t he?” There was panic in her voice.
“Yes, but obviously the process was not perfect. He was a mistake.” Croft’s eyes grew darker.
Jack’s mind was still back on something Croft had said. ‘Robert and Hannah were your parents.’ He’d watched her dad get shot and killed. But he thought her mother was alive. He hated to ask the question, but he figured Anna would want to know the truth. “What happened to Anna’s mother?”
Croft turned his attention to Jack and narrowed his eyes. “I said nothing about anything happening to her. Why do you ask me this?”
“You referred to her in the past tense.”
Anna slowly sat back down. She put a hand out for Jack and he took it. “You son-of-a-bitch. What did you do to my mother?”
Croft smoothed the legs of his pants and cast his gaze downward. “I did nothing to Hannah.” When he looked up again, for a brief moment he looked as though he might cry. “She took her own life, Anna. I would have stopped her if I could. You must believe me when I say that I grieve for her as you will. She was my dearest cousin. And oldest friend.”
Anna let out a wry laugh. “You grieve? You can’t weep. You feel nothing. How dare you even speak about her as though she was your friend.”
“There’s so much you don’t know. So little that you truly understand. But in time, you’ll learn. Your mother and father chose this for you. Planned it for you before you were born. To rule Apthartos is your birthright. Soon there will be others. They’re on their way here now, from every corner of the globe. Men and women, the best of the best, chosen to be part of the Makers. And others like you too, Anna. Engineered to be even stronger and more intelligent than their parents. You’re one of the chosen ones.”
“Chosen for what? To live in a freakin’ cave for the rest of our lives?” Anna’s voice had gone pitchy. She dug her fingers into Jack’s thigh from her anger.
“You will be the mother of a new evolution of humankind, Anna. It’s your destiny. I’ve already chosen your mate. A young man who is your equal in every way. But you’ve already met him.”
Brad put his teacup down on the end table beside his chair. “We’ll get along beautifully, I’m sure.”
The way Brad’s eyes openly roved over Anna’s body made Jack come nearly unglued. “You’ve got to be kidding. This guy? Yesterday he was gay. Now you’re saying he’s going to be what? King of the underground douchebag brigade? And Anna’s husband?”
Croft’s voice was impatient. “We have no need here for the trappings and conventions of the world up top. Anna need not marry. But she will be expected to reproduce and Brad has been matched to her by an algorithm. They are the perfect match to produce the most genetically superior offspring.”
Anna was on her feet again. She threw up her hands. “All of this—this waste of taxpayer money—was all for your twisted eugenics experiment?” She let out a nervous laugh. “I don’t know why you’d possibly think I would voluntarily be your breeding sow.”
Croft gave her a condescending smile. “There is always an easy way and a hard way. Voluntary or involuntary, you will do what is required of you to fill our fine city with perfect Sturgis/Croft babies. And once the virus has run its course and the M’Uktah have culled the herd so to speak and left the planet, the Makers descendants will repopulate the Earth with a more perfect version of ourselves.”
Jack sprang to his feet. “Over my dead body.”
“That can be arranged.” Croft gave a small nod of his head to Brad.
Brad had his pistol in his hand before Jack had a finger on his. For the second time in a twenty-four hour period, a bullet rocketed in Jack’s direction.
Jack closed his eyes, braced for the ripping pain of yet another gunshot wound, and prayed that he would die quickly. He didn’t want Anna to see him suffer.
Everything happened so quickly. The sound of the hammer hitting the pin. Alecto on her feet, moving with her preternatural speed. Jack trying to duck left to avoid being shot. Alecto standing in front of him, her arms stretched out in front of her.
She’s going to take a bullet to protect me?
But the bullet didn’t hit her. Neither did the second shot or the third. The casings plinked to the wood floor. Brad unloaded an entire magazine, but not one shot hit any of them.
“I thought you couldn’t do that?” Jack whispered.
“Apparently she can,” Anna said.
Jack and Anna both stood, grabbed the rifles from their backs. Anna pointed hers at Croft. Jack’s was trained on Brad.
Brad reached behind his back for something. Jack wasn’t going to wait to see what it was.
“Keep your hands where I can see them,” he shouted. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will.”
Brad ignored Jack’s request. He didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest. His hands were quick. There was a glint of metal and blades flying at them before Jack had even registered what Brad had retrieved from his back pockets.
“Duck!” Anna shouted.
Alecto did not duck. And her shield did not prevent the blades from reaching her.
She caught each knife with her bare hands.
Brad’s face turned ashen. He looked like he was going to puke.
He may have been genetically engineered to be the perfect specimen of humanity, but Alecto was something beyond even him. She held the knives in her hands and deftly flipped them so she held the handles, the blades pointed at Brad.
Croft rose. His voice was shrill. “Enough. You’ve had your fun, displaying for each other like rams in rutting season.” His lip curled up in disgust.
“No, Croft, it is not enough,” Alecto said. “You will give us the anti-viral and all that you stole from Dr. Montoya. We will then leave here, never to return.” She advanced on him, but her backside was exposed to Brad.
Jack kept his rifle pointed at Brad. The guy was still visibly shaken by what he’d seen Alecto do. If his bullets couldn’t touch her and she plucked flying knives out of thin air, he didn’t stand much of a chance against her.
And he hasn’t even seen her snap a person’s neck with only a thought.
Croft wore an imperious look on his face. “Or what?”
Brad pushed a new magazine into his pistol.
“Cooperate, and I will spare your life. If you refuse, I’ll end you.”
“Is that so?”
Croft pushed a button on his intercom station. Sprinklers popped out of the ceiling. Water sprayed and rained down on them. It was cold and smelled of iron and like hard water from a well.
“Now!” Croft yelled.
Alecto stood unyielding, her small body now loomed before Croft. The water made Brad’s gun reloading a challenge. He cursed as he tried to get the magazine fully loaded. Alecto looked over her shoulder, flicked her arm at him and the bones in Brad’s neck crunched as they snapped.
He fell forward with a loud thud. His head hit the coffee table and he slumped finally to the floor. His eyes were open but there was no one home.
Alecto turned her full attention back to Croft. “Your attempts to weaken me will not work. I am no longer vulnerable to water.”
Croft’s eyes were wide, his mouth agape. “Wha … How?” He plopped down into his chair, shrinking back from Alecto.
“You’re surprised?” Anna asked.
“Guess Brad was too busy stealing the anti-viral and laying waste to my friend’s emotions to pay attention to Dr. Randall’s work on the gene therapy for Alecto,” Jack said.
The house had been chilly before. The drenching made Jack downright cold.
Alecto didn’t seem to notice or mind the cold water. She advanced on Croft, her hand outstretched toward him. “You will give me the location of the anti-viral.”
Anna screamed, “Don’t kill him! I have to question him.”
Croft’s face relaxed a bit. “Call the creature off
and I will answer your queries.”
Anna shook her head, raised her pistol and took a few steps toward him. “You don’t get it. You’ll never freakin’ get it. She’s not a creature. We’re not your property.” Her voice trembled with anger. Tears streamed down her face. She wiped her face on her shoulder but kept her gun trained on Croft. “I’m going to tear down your spider’s web. Now tell us where the damned anti-viral is or I’ll order Alecto here to torture the crap out of you until you do.”
Torture seemed a little dark for Anna, but she’d been pushed to her edge. Croft was so arrogant and defiant though, Jack feared there would be no other way to get him to hand the goods over.
Alecto pressed two thin fingers to Croft’s temple. He shrunk back from her touch.
“He does not need to speak,” she said. “I will obtain the information we need.” Alecto’s eyes bore into Croft’s then she closed them. She slowly raised her other arm and placed her other hand at his temple, his head held between her hands like a vice.
Croft squirmed but her grip was firm. His face contorted in pain.
Alecto’s face too scrunched up in agony. “It will pain you less if you stop resisting. I will retrieve the information, one way or another.”
Croft let out a throaty, primal growl. His hands closed around Alecto’s tiny wrists. He pulled and kicked feebly with his legs. His arms shook from the effort of trying to free himself from Alecto’s grasp.
Alecto’s body trembled as well, but she did not let go. Her eyes were open now, wide and determined.
Croft’s voice was hoarse and small as he tried to scream out, “She’s killing me.”
“Stop,” Anna cried. “I have to get answers.”
Alecto did not stop. Croft slid even further down the chair, his arms now loose at his sides. His legs had stopped kicking. Tears of pain rolled down his face. Still Alecto held his head tightly in her hands.
Jack grabbed Alecto’s arms and tried to yank her away. “Stand down. That’s an order. We need more intel before he can be terminated.”
H.A.L.F.: ORIGINS Page 32