H.A.L.F.: The Makers by Natalie Wright Page A

up to the legacy of her brilliant father and win the approval of her demanding mother. No matter how many accolades she received or diplomas on her wall, her younger brother, Robert, had simply to live to be the apple of their mother’s eye.
    If she learns of this, it may kill her.
    Alone in her cell without books, a computer or Sewell to bark orders at, Sturgis had time to think. And time to plan.
    On the third day she requested paper and something to write with. At least the guard did not give her an automatic no. It took two more days, but on the fifth day of her confinement, a legal pad and pencil were delivered to her.
    Croft probably thinks I’m going to continue my work – work that he’ll later find a way to take from me.
    But instead of writing equations, she planned her escape – and her revenge. Day after day, she patiently observed the patterns of the guards and the routines of the prison world in which she lived. She scribbled notes on her pad of paper in a numeric code she’d learned years ago for sending messages.
    Croft might have won a battle, but Sturgis had no intention of being dealt out of the game. Not when all that she’d worked for was coming to pass. Not when the world needed her the most.
    Once free of the bonds of prison, she’d find Alecto. Together they’d rid the world of Croft and his daughter, Lizzy, heir apparent to become head of the Makers. And together, she and Alecto would continue her cloning project.
    But first I need to get out of here. Sturgis filled the pages of her legal pad with coded notes as she put her genius to work on devising a plan to escape the cage Croft had put her in.

9
JACK
    Sewell got Jack through the security checkpoint at Davis-Monthan though how it worked, Jack couldn’t say. Jack kept his mouth shut as much as he could and followed Sewell’s lead. The fact that Jack was wearing street clothes rather than the ubiquitous black uniform caused a bit of discussion, but the lack of resemblance to the ID made the guards hesitate. Sewell explained the clothes due to ‘Steve Harper’ being on cleanup duty and the ID as a crappy picture taken before ‘Steve’ had lost weight and grown his hair out. When the guards still didn’t buy it, Sewell began throwing General Bardsley’s name around. That prompted the guards to move them through.
    Once through security, it took about twenty minutes to get out of the building complex. They had to walk from the underground platform, through a labyrinth as confusing as A.H.D.N.A.’s and finally up into the warm, sunny Tucson day.
    The sun. Jack feared he’d never see it again. He couldn’t help the grin that came to his face. He was alive. He’d survived his underground ordeal and he was in the world again. It seemed so long since the helicopters doused Tex that he felt like a time traveler. He half expected to look in a mirror and find himself aged and the world changed.
    But it all looked the same. It had been only two weeks. Feels like a lifetime.
    They finally got to Sewell’s car. Jack had expected an all-black four-door sedan. Instead Sewell unlocked a Prius.
    “Prius? You keep surprising me, Mr. Sewell.”
    “What’s wrong with my car?”
    “Nothing, man. Not a thing.” Jack got in and was happy to feel the dry sauna heat inside the car after it had sat closed up in the hot Arizona sun. He couldn’t wipe the wide grin from his face.
    “You’re smiling, Mr. Wilson. Did I do something else to make you laugh?” Sewell started the car and they were on their way.
    “No. I’m just happy to be alive, I guess.”
    Sewell smiled then too. “I’m glad of it as well. I was overwrought when she ordered the three of you terminated. You know that if there was anything I could have done, I would have.”
    No, Jack didn’t know that. He figured Sewell for an ass-kissing company man who blindly followed orders just so he could keep his job. Maybe Sewell was a cowardly ass-kisser. Maybe he was more. Jack decided