Read Online H.A.L.F.: The Makers by Natalie Wright - Free Book Online Page A

was hush-hush about everything, of course. Top secret, blah, blah, blah.” Anna made a talking motion with her hand. “But I’ll worm the details out of you.”
    Sewell let out an uncomfortable chuckle coupled with a cough. “Now, Anna, don’t interrogate your houseguest.”
    Anna grabbed Sewell’s hand and planted a kiss on his cheek. Sewell’s face flushed as red as a fire truck. “Oh, don’t worry, Mr. Sewell. I was just kidding. Now why don’t you run along to do whatever it is you do all day. I’ve got to get my houseguest settled.” She dropped Sewell’s hand and looked Jack up and down. “And maybe do a little clothes shopping too.”
    Jack’s face and neck flushed.
    “Pushing me out the door. I see how it is.” Sewell smiled and gave Jack a nervous look as if to silently say, ‘Remember what I told you.’
    Anna walked Sewell to the door and shut it behind him. She padded softly back down the hall. By the time she reached the kitchen, her smile was gone. “Tell me everything. I’ve got to know what Croft is up to now.”

10
TEX
    Tex awoke with a blinding headache. He was glad that the lights were dim.
    He tried to rise and assumed that he was still restrained by telekinetic bindings. But the invisible ropes were gone. He easily sat up.
    The A.H.D.N.A. standard-issue drawstring pants and T-shirt were gone, replaced with a tunic and pants made of a fabric so light it was nearly nonexistent. The material was soft against his skin, and there was an almost imperceptible feeling of it moving.
    His head swam. I need to eat.
    Within seconds the door slid open and a row of lights along the perimeter of the ceiling flickered on. One of the Conexus beings glided in carrying a white plastic tray containing a cup and a brick of something.
    “Nourishment,” it thought to him.
    Tex grabbed the brick of food and greedily gulped it down. He swallowed the viscous liquid in the small plastic cup. The food was familiar to him, similar to the nourishment provided for him at A.H.D.N.A. But the Conexus food was more tasteless than he had thought possible.
    The creature had either mastered the art of closing its mind to him or its mind was completely silent. No thoughts were projected into his head. It watched him while he ate. This too did not bother Tex. His whole life he had been observed doing everything from rising in the morning to eating to relieving himself.
    The small brick of food did not satiate him. His stomach rumbled with hunger. “More,” he said out loud.
    The door opened again and the larger being that he had seen before he passed out strode toward him. She stood easily a foot taller than the rest of the Conexus.
    She moved around the table, examining him from every angle. “You will make the Conexus stronger,” she said.
    Tex had no intention of doing anything for the Conexus until he knew that Erika, Ian and Dr. Randall would be safe. He did not need to say this out loud. His thoughts were no longer private, his mind no longer his own.
    She moved gracefully and deliberately like a snake slithering across the sand in search of its prey. Her mouth was so close to his ear that her breath tickled his neck, causing it to prickle with goose bumps. “You will be one with the Conexus.”
    Heat wafted off her body, carrying her scent to Tex’s nostrils. It was a heady odor that smelled of peat and musk and a faint sweetness like an overripe piece of fruit. Her lips grazed his ear as she spoke, and his pulse quickened. A strange warmth spread through his loins. The hunger in his stomach was forgotten, replaced with another kind of longing.
    “You are part human, aren’t you? Capable of feeling in a way that the Conexus have been unable to experience since before the Age of Regina.”
    Her long, thin finger ran up his arm, sending a chill down his spine. She moved closer, her thighs now against his shins, her face inches from his.
    “I am the Regina,” she whispered in his ear. “And you shall soon