"Mama?" Miss Parker asked again, this time in tiny voice that made her sound 10 years old again. Catherine had to swallow hard against the tears the rush of memories brought to her.
"Yes, sweetie, it’s Mama. I am so sorry I was not there for you for so long."
"Why did you leave me, Mama?" Her voice was unsteady and the first silent tears started to run down her cheeks. “Why did you leave me all alone?”
Everything Catherine had wanted to tell her, to ask about, to explain, vanished from her mind. She simply rushed over to the bed and took her daughter in her arms. Then she held her daughter tightly and rocked her like she had when Parker had been a little girl.
"I’m so sorry, baby," was all she could manage before she too was crying for the irreplaceable lost years.
"Jarod." Major Charles lightly shook his son by the shoulder. "Jarod wake up."
He hated to wake him, especially since he had been only been able to fall into a light doze just an hour ago. He knew that the little sleep his son had gotten wasn’t restful either, but even this little bit was better than nothing.
"Wha—?" the muffled response came slowly as the younger man tried to find his way back into the real world. Suddenly he was wide awake, realizing that the car was no longer moving.
"Why have we stopped?" He asked, but as soon as he looked around and saw the row of identical tiny cabins, he knew how stupid his question was.
"We’re here.” The Major explained anyway. “The cabin is over there --- the one on the right side about 400 yard from here. When I pulled by to check the address I saw the car parked in front so I think....” he stopped in the middle of the sentence as the door of the cabin swung open and two figures walked out. Even from their vantage point it was clear that they were Sam and JJ.
“....they’re still here. " The Major finished, pointing to the obvious pair.
He looked at his son, who was staring at the boy and the man as they indulged in a little roughhousing while they headed for the big trash can next to the building.
"What do you want to do now?" Jarod’s father asked.
Jarod was wondering if he had the nerve to just leave the jeep, much less intrude on what seemed to be a perfectly happy family unit.
"I want to smash Sam’s face in, but I think I’ll settle for just approaching them directly. The Centre can’t be far behind us. If we want to get them out of there safely we’ll have to do it quickly." Jarod decided quickly, if not with out certain amount of regret for forgoing the pleasure of pounding on Sam.
Catharine had no idea how long they sat there just clinging to each other and allowing that non-verbal assurance of love do their talking for them. Just being able to hold her daughter again was an overwhelming joy. She had missed it so much, even though she hadn’t remembered she even had a daughter. Now she felt the painful wound in her heart, one that she had never been able to explain, not even to herself, finally begin to heal.
"Angelina?" Catherine finally addressed her daughter in a soothing, low voice. She kissed her daughter’s damp forehead. "How do you feel?"
"I’m pregnant, Mama." She answered in a barely audible voice, her head still buried in her mothers neck.
"I know, baby. How far along are you?" Her mother responded just as softly.
“Six weeks,” came the surprised reply, but how did her mother know? "Six weeks tomorrow." She added after a moment of silence.
Now it was Catherine turn to be surprised. How could she know the moment of conception so precisely? She decided to drop the subject for a moment, though, and to try instead to find out why her daughter was so angry at the nice man outside.
"And just why have you been throwing food at your boyfriend? What is his name anyway?" Catharine asked slyly hoping her guess was right. The man she’d met briefly in the hall seemed to be kind and steady, just the sort of husband she’d like for her daughter to have.
Miss Parker lifted her head and looked into her mother eyes as a tiny smile crept onto her lips. "He isn’t the baby’s father." She answered her mother’s unspoken question. "And his name is Sam."
This was the mother she remembered; caring, probing, but rarely asking her questions outright. The only real difference was in her; now she recognized her mother’s tricks to get the answers she wanted from her daughter. "Who is it?" Catherine asked, trying to keep her misgivings from coming out in her voice. Silently she prayed that the Centre was not involved, that they had not forced her daughter like they had tried to do to her.
She studied her daughter closely. A red blush crept into Parker’s cheeks and she broke the eye contact quickly.
"I don’t want to talk about him. He doesn’t matter anymore. He was .....," Miss Parker’s voice trailed off as she tried frantically to come up with an answer that would satisfy her mother. "He was a mistake!"
After a few seconds of silence she dared to look at her mother. She was looking at her with raised eyebrows and Parker knew instantly that this was not the end of this discussion, but that she would not have to answer right away. From the concern she saw in her mothers eyes, she was sure she suspected the Centre was involved. She wished she could tell her mother they weren’t.
She also wished she could tell her mother everything; her fears, her foolish longings, her constant pain, but after all those years of silent self sufficiency it was impossible for her simply to open up and spill her heart out. Not even for her mother could she break the habit of reserve. To tell the truth, she still could not believe that she was here in a cabin and in the arms of her mother. A part of her kept waiting to wake up, most likely in a Centre detention cell.
But this felt so good that she hoped that the dream would go on forever. She felt loved again, finally, and in her mother’s arms she was at home. Nobody had loved her for a long time. Okay, that wasn’t strictly true; Thomas had, but he was dead. She knew now that her creepy brother had, in his own perverted fashion, but he was... The thought of Lyle cut through her like a hot sword. Her mother didn’t know about Lyle; not that he’d survived his birth, and definitely not that she had killed him less than a week ago.
Miss Parker could feel a wave of panic rising in her mind she started to struggle free from her mother. It was almost as if her mother knew what she was about to tell her, for she refused to let her go.
"Sh sh sh……" Catherine tried to calm her down; she could feel the panic in her daughter, feel that she was desperate. For a moment Catherine thought the fear had to do with the father of the baby, and she vowed if that bastard had done anything to hurt her he would pay dearly.
She was about to tell Parker that everything was going to be OK, that she was here to help now, but an image popped into her mind, freezing her in an instant. It was young man with dark brown hair and dressed in tailored gray pants and a white shirt. Her old house in the background, and he was screaming.
‘Twins!’ She remembered suddenly. ‘The boy said twin brother.....’
Every one of the dozen men was blond, their eyes hidden behind wrap around sunglasses, and in peak physical condition. The leader, speaking to his boss at the Pagode, knew that they were up to the challenge they’d been given.
"The Centre?" Marion asked her prized ‘‘Seeker’’, the best in a lot of highly intelligent and motivated men.
"We arranged for a delay in Pennsylvania. They’ll be held up for several hours filling out paperwork and undergoing background checks." He assured her. "I had confirmation that they fell into our trap 15 minutes ago."
"Excellent, Alexander! Give them half an hour and if they haven’t left the house by then, go in and get them. Return with my prizes and you will be well rewarded." Marion promised, triumph gleaming in her blue eyes.
She ended the call, and swiveled her plush, leather chair around to look out of the expansive windows of her penthouse office. He was almost hers, it was only a matter of hours; she gloated silently.
She’d wanted Jarod from the first moment she’d seen him; just a glimpse into his Sim lab as she was hustled back to her room by a Sweeper. She’d only been 13 then, it was just hours before Catherine Parker had rescued her and another little boy and girl. Jarod had been focusing intently on something Sydney was telling him, his dark eyes narrowed in concentration and his lower lip trapped between his teeth. He was the most appealing boy she’d ever seen,
Granted, her years at the Centre hadn’t allowed her to meet many boys, but she’d had plenty of chances to know them after she’d been rescued. As she grew into a well endowed young woman, with her fair hair, blue eyes, and porcelain skin, she’d had more than her share of boyfriends and lovers. None of them had made her forget the boy, with his soft, sad, brown eyes and gentle, caring face.
So she had kept tabs on Jarod almost since the day she had been rescued by Catherine. After he’d escaped the Centre she’d been able to get pictures of him as her men tracked him from site to site. He’d grown into a magnificent specimen of manhood. Well muscled, tall, with the same dark eyes, one of which drooped endearingly. And, of course, he still had the same caring face; the face that she wanted to regard her with consideration and love.
She knew, of course, about his infatuation with that irritating Parker female, but she knew that she could make him forget her with just a little persuasion. Unlike Parker, she was not afraid to be a woman, and once she’d won Jarod to her side the Pagode would rise in power to where nothing could affect them. And once Parker had the child she could be dismissed to the breeding project in Siberia. Marion and Jarod would raise the child, train it to use to the fullest its dual genetic gifts; intelligence and that extra sense that the Parker wench had no idea she carried.
And she and Jarod would have other children --- heirs to take over the Pagode and carry it into the next millennium. Of course, creating those children wouldn’t be a burden either. A cat-like smile of satisfaction curled her lips.
Almost as if it sensed her thoughts, a gray/black tabby cat strolled over to Marion’s chair and leapt into her lap. She curled into a purring ball of contentment, kneading her mistress’ thigh with her claws, as Marion stroked her gently, still imagining herself with Jarod.
"Broots, are you sure you don’t want me to take the gun?" Emily whispered once more as the three would-be rescuers crouched in the shadows around the house they had determined was the most likely to hold Debbie.
"Enough, Emily!" Broots snapped, his firmness still startling his two companions. "I am going to keep every advantage I can get until Debbie is safely with me again. Besides," he admitted with a trace of his old timidity, "I don’t know any of the martial arts like you say you do."
Sydney smothered a smile with one gloved hand and rose quickly to peek into the window over their heads. He swept the room with his eyes and ducked back down in seconds, unnoticed by the room’s occupants.
"Well?" Broots demanded impatiently.
"Two men, in the center, playing cards. I didn’t see any sign of Debbie." Sydney answered thoughtfully, replaying the picture of the room he’d fixed firmly in his mind.
"Okay, are you ready, Emily?" Broots asked the young lady. She settled a lightweight coil of nylon rope to her shoulder and nodded silently. Broots took a deep breath, worry flashing on his face for a moment before determination pushed it off. "Wait for us in the car, Sydney." He whispered to the older man, and began making his way to the back door of the house. Sydney nodded and crept cautiously towards the front of the house.
He’d barely started the car and pulled it, with the headlights out, in front of the house when Broots and Emily burst out the front door, each holding one of Debbie’s hands. They tumbled breathlessly into the back seat and Sydney accelerated away from the house. As he did an angry figure appeared in the doorway, firing two shots at the fleeing car before it turned the corner and was gone.
"Daddy, I knew you’d come for me!" Debbie cried joyfully, hugging her father tightly. Broots blinked away the moisture in his eyes and passed his gun to Emily behind Debbie’s back before he enfolded her into his arms to return the hug.
"Did they hurt you, honey? Are you okay?" He asked her when she relaxed her hold on his neck. Debbie giggled mischievously.
"No, Daddy, they didn’t hurt me. They didn’t know anything about taking care of a little girl, though." She told him cheerfully, her eyes dancing as she remembered how she’d gotten her own little revenge on the two men with her temper tantrums.
"Rochester, Broots?" Sydney verified their destination quietly with a quick glance in the rear-view mirror to catch Broots’ nod.
"Are we going to visit Uncle Frank and Aunt Karen?" Debbie asked happily.
"Only for a few hours." Broots told his daughter, still watching her like he was afraid she’d disappear if he took his eyes off of her for a minute. "Then we’re going to have to leave again."
"They might come looking for us, huh?" Debbie asked solemnly, surprising the two men with her immediate grasp of the danger. Emily, however, knew that Debbie undoubtedly understood far more of what was going on at her father’s work than he wanted to know.
"Yes, Debbie." She answered the girl gently when it became clear that Broots couldn’t find the right words. "They aren’t happy that your father helped me, so now I’m going to help you two disappear."
"Okay." She accepted this simply and tried, unsuccessfully, to smother a huge yawn. "I hope you remembered to bring Peter, though." She told her dad sleepily, referring to her favorite, battered old stuffed animal. It was a bunny, rather than the traditional bear.
"He’s in the trunk." Broots reassured his daughter, stroking her light brown hair softly as she snuggled her head into his lap a began to drift off to sleep. Her histrionics during her captivity had worn her out.
"Hello, Sam." Jarod’s voice was low and even, but a muscle jumped in his jaw and his brown eyes burned with an angry fire.
"Jarod." Sam’s own eyes were narrowed and wary.
"Are you going to let us in, or am I going to come through you?" Jarod demanded when Sam showed no signs of either opening the door wider or moving aside for the two men on the porch.
"Son!" The Major reproved sternly.
"Might as well come in." Sam answered tersely, stepping back to let them in.
"How is she?" Jarod asked as soon as the door closed behind them.
"She’s a little better right now." Sam answered grudgingly, but he kept the information that Catherine was with her to himself. "I think that if she doesn’t have to deal with anymore shocks she just might make it through this pregnancy." He added pointedly.
"Sam, that’s my baby she’s carrying. If you think I’m going to walk away and leave her to go through that alone, you’re dumber than I thought." Jarod responded acidly. A hand clenched and unclenched at his side, as if he was just itching for an excuse to strike.
"Dad? Jarod?" JJ’s young voice interrupted the male posturing by Sam and Jarod. “How did you find us?"
"The genius here announced to the hospital you stayed at where he was going." Jarod answered the boy bitingly, still glaring at Sam. "You’re just lucky the Centre hasn’t gotten here yet. We’ve got to get out of here before they do. Now which room is hers?"
"She’s in the first bedroom." JJ answered slowly, his puzzled gaze swinging between Sam and Jarod. "But she’s not ---" His voice trailed off as Jarod strode away without waiting for the rest.
Now Sam and the Major sized each other up. The Major broke the silent appraisal with a smile and an outstretched hand.
"Thanks for taking care of JJ and Miss Parker." He told the faintly surprised ex-Sweeper. "When he has a chance to think sensibly Jarod will realize what a debt we owe you."
"He’s got reason to dislike me." Sam admitted unwillingly.
"Well, now he’s got even more reason to thank you." The Major maintained. "And I’ll see to it that he remembers that, if he doesn’t remember on his own.
"Dad?" JJ pulled the Major’s attention to him. "You know I was right, don’t you?" He asked anxiously, afraid that Jarod would upset Miss Parker if he didn’t realize that she really was pregnant.
"Yes, son." He reassured him. "We do know, and Jarod was feeling bad about what he’d said to her even before that."
"That’s okay, then." JJ nodded once, satisfied. "I guess I’ll go get my things together then." He added, starting towards the hallway.
"Parker, just hear me out!" Jarod opened the door and spoke the words simultaneously, and was in the room with the door closed behind him before he realized that there was another person present.
"Parker?" His disbelieving eyes swept from one face to the other in shock.
"What are you doing here, rat-boy?" Parker demanded harshly, her hand clinging to her mother’s for strength.
"Angelina!" Catherine reproved her weakly.
"Mama, you don’t understand." Parker defended herself as Jarod spoke to her.
"Parker, please forgive me." He pleaded, shelving his shock at Catherine’s existence in order to focus on the matter at hand. "I should have trusted you---I’m so sorry."
"Jarod, get the hell out of my room and out of my life!" Parker answered steadily, although her grip on her mother’s hand had tightened.
‘‘Jarod?’’ Catherine thought, her gaze on the man standing in front of the door sharpening with interest. She kept silent and watched the exchange between her daughter and the intruder with avid attention.
"Listen, Parker." Jarod demanded desperately, raking a hand through his hair and beginning to pace. "That gorilla in the next room might as well have left a trail of neon signs pointing the Centre this way. They’re going to be here any time now. You’ve got to stop fighting me and let me help you."
"I don’t have to do anything, Jarod!" Parker responded bitingly. "I’ve taken care of myself all of my life and if you think a baby is going to change anything you are sadly mistaken. Go find some other fool to listen to your drivel."
"Don’t be so stubborn!" Jarod flared. "You aren’t blameless in all of this either! You did everything you could to make me believe you’d had an abortion."
‘‘Bad move.’’ Catherine thought, watching the anger grow in her daughter’s eyes. But she thought she saw a hint of guilt too.
"You’re the genius. You should have figured it out." She hissed furiously. "Trust me, Parker. I understand you, Parker! All those head games for all of these years and all of a sudden you no longer understand me? I don’t think so!"
"Parker, please! I was hurt and I was angry!" Jarod backpedaled frantically, finally realizing what a mistake his anger had been. "I wasn’t thinking clearly."
"You weren’t thinking at all, wonder-rat. You took what you wanted and you left. Just what did Lyle promise you to get you to cooperate anyway? A real chance at escape?" Parker’s eyes were the only thing with color on her face and the hurt she would have done anything not to show flared in those eyes.
"It wasn’t like that!" Jarod gulped, his heart pounding in response to the pain on her face, pain he’d caused. "I thought---"
What Jarod was about to say was lost when an oval, metallic object crashed through the bedroom window and began spraying white gas.
"Parker!" Jarod managed two steps towards her before the gas overcame him and he stumbled to the floor. The last thing he saw was a dark figure stepping over him to brace a chair under the handle of the door.
"Sir, it’s Mr. Mutumbo." Raines’ secretary called out as he passed the door to his office. Raines swung around to face her, his already pale face growing paper white with fear. What was he going to tell Mutumbo?
"Where are we, Daddy?" The sleepy voice of his daughter made him smile. She was the only good thing that had ever happened to his life. No matter what it was he did for her, he was always her Hero. And even better than her confidence in him was the fact that it made him feel brave.
He still couldn’t believe what he had done. Broots tried not to think back on the events of last night. Every time he did he started to shake as all the possibilities of what have could gone wrong popped up into his head.
"We’re at Uncle Frank and Aunt Karen’s. We will go in and get cleaned up and catch a little sleep. Later we will have to try to find Miss Parker, JJ. and Sam." Broots looked into the tired eyes of his daughter. "Do you want me to carry you in?" He asked with a smile.
The only answer were two little arms sliding around his neck. Carefully he lifted the small body out of the car and carried the already sleeping girl into the house.
Jarod watched the two woman in front of him. He had been awake for about 10 minutes already but Miss Parker and the woman who could only be her mother still slept. He suspected that he had been less affected by the gas because he had been the one farthest from the window, not mention the fact that he was bigger and would require more of the drug for the same effect.
They were on a plane, secured with to their armrests by cuffs that had a longer chain than normal. But they weren’t long enough for him to reach the others. He had tried to open the cuffs but had no suitable object to pick them, and unlike Parker, he couldn’t dislocate his thumb at will. Even if he could get the restraints off he had no clue where they would go afterwards. He had no idea where this plane was heading, but he knew that what he’d seen between breaks in the clouds beneath them was water, and not land.
He had studied the jet carefully and was positive it wasn’t a Centre jet. After he heard several German words being used around him, he guessed that it was a plane from the Pagode. He wasn’t sure which was worse. At least he knew the Centre and always knew that he had a friend there in Angelo. He castigated himself for being a complete fool. Why hadn’t he used his time to find out everything he could about the Pagode? He wanted to protect Parker, but all he had accomplished was to end up in the same trap as her, with no useful information at all.
A stirring caught his attention, and he watched as Catherine Parker’s body came slowly alive. He looked over to her daughter but she was still not moving at all. If it hadn’t been for the regular rising and falling of her chest as she breathed he would have said she was dead. Her body was far more limp than he liked and her face seemed completely bloodless.
He wanted to go over and check her out more closely, but the cuffs wouldn’t reach. He was frustrated, to put it mildly. Everything that had happened since that night he confronted Parker in the Centre had gone totally wrong, and worse, it was all out of his control. He had wanted more than anything to walk into her room in the cabin and tell her what he felt for her, but they had ended up fighting instead.
Sure he had been surprised to find her in the arms of her mother, especially considering the fact that she was supposed to be dead, but it was better to find Parker in her dead mother’s arms than in Sam’s. He still couldn’t quite figure out what he had done wrong that had led to their fighting instead of making up.
For the first time his mind returned to his father and JJ. He saw no sign of them, and had heard nothing to indicate there were more prisoners elsewhere on the plane. He prayed that meant they had been able to escape. He looked over to Mrs. Parker again and was greeted by a pair of icy blue eyes, identical to her daughter’s.
Jarod blushed slightly; she had watched him staring at her daughter. He wasn’t sure what he should tell her and she said nothing that would help him figure it out. The silence was getting on his nerves; he almost felt like she could see right into his mind.
"You really love her, don’t you?" Catherine finally broke the silence, but it was more a statement than a question.
Jarod could only nod.
"What has happened to you two?" She continued softly.
"I have no idea." Jarod replied with a deep sigh. He broke their eye contact and lowered his head.
Catherine looked at the young man, and thought about how much he looked like the little boy she had tried so desperately to rescue. She nearly smiled when she thought about her daughter who’d had such a big crush on him at that time. She glanced over to her daughter. Now it seemed that they were starting their own family. But from the short argument in the cabin, it would appear that her Angelina was not too happy about it.
Catherine was sure she was happy about the baby, but there was something in this whole situation that was definitely wrong. The argument in the cabin had sounded more like a cat fight than a lover’s quarrel. She was somehow sure the that Centre was involved in this pregnancy. Why in Gods name would her daughter have faked an abortion otherwise? The mother in her was still a bit angry with Jarod for believing it, though.
On the other hand 20 years were a long time. She had left them as kids and she had no real idea what has happened in all those years. She vowed to try to help them work things out. She prayed that her daughter was not too stubborn to be able to give a little. She had said that the father of the baby does not matter anymore, so there had to have been a time when he had.
"Mom?"
Catherine’s head snapped around towards her daughter. Finally! She was awake as well. She had been worried about any side effects but except from a slight dizziness she seemed perfectly fine.
"Where are we?" Miss Parker asked.
"We’re on a Pagode plane." Jarod answered her.
Miss Parker focused on him, her brows lightly furrowed. "I didn’t ask you, wonder-boy!" She hissed into his direction.
"Parker, please..." Her icy glare made him stop.
"Why is it that every time you step into my life it goes down a bit more?" She snarled.
Catherine Parker wondered if she should step in before they went any further, but decided against it for the moment. Better for her daughter to get everything out in the open, and maybe she could get a little more information about this entire situation. She could interrupt them later if things got too bad, but it hurt her to see them act this way. She saw Jarod wince when her daughter used that name on him. Where had she learned to act so mean? Once again, Catherine Parker wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know.
She knew she needed to know more about what was happening, but every tidbit she learned made her like the entire scenario less. What had they done? What happened during those years.?
"I’m not going away." Jarod stated firmly, raising his head and setting his jaw. "This is my child too, and I will be damned if give up on either of you so easily. If nothing else, I have a right to be a part of the baby’s life as much as you do. I am the father." He declared glaring back.
‘‘Smart!’’ He chided himself. ‘‘Make her angry instead of telling her that you love her. That will certainly win her over.’’ But he couldn’t bring himself to say the words; he had what he would do if she simply laughed into his face if he did.
"So sure of that, are you? Well if you remember what happened then you have an edge on me!" Miss Parker retorted.
"What do you mean by that?" Jarod asked in confusion.
"Oh, something wonder-boy hadn’t discovered yet?" She taunted him bitterly. "Lyle drugged me, you idiot!"
She looked away from his shocked face and finished her attack.
"Oh come on, now! You don’t really believe I would have even let you come close to me without some help. If you believed for a minute that I was a willing participant then Lyle must have had them beat you harder than I thought!" Her voice was full of venom.
She couldn’t resist the urge to glance at him and she saw that his face had lost all of its color and his eyes had darkened with hurt.
"I just wish that this was Thomas’ child. At least then I would know I don’t have a freak growing inside of me." With this final jab she turned away, pretending that she had lost all interest in the subject.
But she knew one more word would make her break down. She needed all her strength now to go on. Maybe this subterfuge would save them all.
With tear filled eyes she watched the clouds outside the plane, wishing she had a better answer for both of them.
Sam, Major Charles, and JJ sat in the silver Jeep in the parking lot of a McDonalds, eating a meal. Well, JJ was eating, Sam and the Major just picked at their meals while they brooded morosely on what to do next. None of them noticed the maroon Volvo pulling into the parking lot near them.
Emily, like most of her family, seemed to thrive on next to no sleep and she’d awakened a few hours after they’d arrived at Broots’ brother’s home. Debbie had slept most of the way to Rochester, so she was also awake just a few hours later. Rather than risk waking people up, Emily decided to take Debbie to McDonalds for breakfast. Debbie was thrilled, and it was the two of them who pulled into the parking place to the left of the silver Jeep in the maroon Volvo.
"Hey, isn't that Sam?" Debbie asked curiously, staring at the dark haired man in the driver’s seat.
"Sam who?" Emily asked, wondering if Debbie really thought she would know who "Sam" was.
"Sweeper Sam, from the Centre!" Debbie explained absently as she stared harder at the man. He seemed to sense her gaze because he looked directly at her.
"It is! It is!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Hi Sam!" She waved, smiling broadly.
"Debbie don’t!" Emily protested, restarting the car and preparing to pull out of the parking lot.
"No, he helped Miss Parker. I heard Daddy tell Sydney about it." Debbie justified herself with all of the hurt only a child could muster. "Who’s that with him?" Emily asked warily, noting that there were more people in the jeep.
"I don’t know, but maybe they can tell us where Miss Parker is!" Before Emily could stop her Debbie was out of the Volvo and pulling open Sam’s door.
"Sam!" Debbie declared happily.
"Who’s that?" The question came from both JJ and the Major at the same moment.
"Hello, Debbie." Sam said gravely. "I don’t think you should be here right now."
"Emily was just getting me some breakfast." Debbie answered him, looking hurt again.
"Emily?" Major Charles repeated, trying to tell himself that it was only a coincidence that Debbie was with someone named Emily.
"Debbie, I don’t think---" Emily’s voice trailed off and her brown eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of the man in the passenger side of the Jeep.
"Daddy?" She asked, tears springing to her eyes.
"Emily?" He breathed, with similar tears. "Is that you, baby?"
Before anyone else could move the Major was out of the car and Emily was in his arms for a fiercely joyous reunion.
"Daddy, we thought you were dead!" She told him, gazing at him with the intensity of one trying to make up for too many lost years in only moments.
"No, I wasn’t in the plane that crashed, but by the time I could get to our rendezvous point you and your mother were gone!" He explained sadly. "Oh, baby, I didn’t think I was ever going to find you again!"
"Me either!" She admitted to his shoulder as he hugged her again. Sam, Debbie and JJ watched them with amazement. Sam understood first, remembering bits and pieces about Jarod’s family that Miss Parker had let slip in his presence. Then JJ realized that this was, in a way at least, his sister and climbed out of the jeep smiling broadly.
"Why are they hugging?" Debbie asked JJ, as he came to stand beside her. She tried to whisper, but her question was heard by all.
"This is my daughter, young lady." The Major explained to Debbie. "And we haven’t seen each other since she was close to your age."
"I wouldn’t like it if my Daddy went away and didn’t come back." Debbie decided solemnly.
"I didn’t like it either." Emily confessed to the girl. "But I knew my Dad couldn’t help it."
"Oh." Debbie looked like she was trying to decide if that made things all right or not.
"Emily, I’d like you to meet JJ." The Major gestured to the boy who slowly moved closer. "He’s your brother."
"Brother?!"
"I’m Jarod’s clone." JJ announced gravely. "Dad says that means we’re identical twins born a long time apart, so I’m his son and your brother."
"So I finally get a brother I can be with!" Emily smiled her welcome and moved to hug JJ, much to his mingled delight and dismay. "And I get a little brother to boot! I’m not the baby anymore!" She grinned mischievously. JJ’s expression made it clear he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of being the baby of the family, but Emily’s welcome smile went a long way towards reconciling him to his changed status.
"Look, let me get Debbie something to eat for breakfast, and then you can follow me to her aunt and uncle’s place. I think we all have some catching up to do." Emily suggested impulsively.
"We all?" Sam asked pointedly.
"My daddy and Sydney are here too." Debbie told him. "They had to run away after Mr. Raines tried to kidnap me. But Daddy saved me."
"Broots and Sydney have left the Centre too." Emily explained more clearly. "They felt it was necessary after Debbie was kidnapped and we retrieved her. We’re looking for Miss Parker now."
JJ’s face fell and he opened his mouth to tell them she was gone, but his father quelled him with a shake of his head.
"We’ll share all of the news when we’re all together, okay son?" The Major explained gently. JJ nodded obediently.
"I just wish we had better news to share." Sam and Emily said in unison.
Catherine tried to reach her daughter mentally. She could feel Angelina’s pain, and she knew that her daughter loved this man, in spite of her words, but she couldn’t get past the walls her daughter had raised in her mind. Once again she found herself mourning the years apart and wondering what had happened to her daughter to make her so hard and self contained. And, once again, she found herself wondering if she really wanted to know the answers to those questions.
Jarod looked away from the two women, his chocolate brown eyes nearly black with emotion. The primary emotion was hurt, but Catherine sensed that he was feeling somewhat unfairly attacked as well. Well, she could understand that, men aren’t the most observant creatures at the best of times, and if you brought their emotions into play you could just about guarantee they’d make an ass of themselves. She would have smiled if she’d known how closely her sentiments echoed those that Major Charles had told his son just days ago.
"Angelina, don’t you think you’re being a little unfair?" Catherine asked her daughter gently.
"You don’t know anything about it, Mother." Parker answered harshly, refusing to look away from the window. "You weren’t even there for most of my life!"
Catherine reeled with the pain of that attack, even though she realized that her daughter didn’t mean it.
"Dear, I had amnesia after that attack on the elevator. I didn’t remember anything until I saw the boy this morning." She managed to keep her voice even and loving.
"How could you forget me?" Parker demanded, finally turning away from the window to stare at her mother. The woman looking at her wasn’t 30 some odd years old, though, she was a little girl and full of hurt.
"I don’t know, darling." Catherine’s eyes radiated just as much hurt. "I don’t know how or why it happened, all I know was that until I followed my feeling that someone needed me up north, I had forgotten all about you, and your father, and the Centre."
"What feeling?" Parker felt uneasy, sensing that there was something threatening about her mother’s hunch.
"It was almost like I could hear you calling for me, although you sounded like my little girl, not like you do now, and, oddly enough, I could hear a man calling for me too. I---" Catherine’s voice trailed off as she remembered, once again, what Sam had said about Angelina killing her twin brother.
"That was your brother I heard, wasn’t it?" Catherine asked sadly, but with no anger. "My little Daniel wasn’t stillborn at all, was he?"
"Daniel? Is that what you were going to name him?" Parker asked her mother, desperately stalling for time.
"It was him, wasn’t it? Tell me, Angelina. It’ll eat away at you until you do." Catherine kept her eyes locked on her daughter’s and Jarod watched in amazement as Parker’s face crumpled and she began to cry.
"Yes, Mama, I killed him." She admitted, sounding more like a little girl than the cold, hard woman Jarod was used to seeing.
"You had no choice." Jarod insisted, his eyes dark now with worry rather than hurt. "He would have killed you if you hadn’t."
"No, it was JJ he threatened." She wept.
"Oh, and those bruises on your jaw and wrist were from Sam?" Jarod demanded astutely.
"He just wanted me to love him!" Parker burst out. "Oh, God, Mama, I felt it all when the bullet hit him. He was so hurt and he couldn’t understand why I didn’t love him."
"Oh, my poor baby!" Catherine cursed inwardly when the cuffs kept her from being able to hold her daughter like she wanted to, but she was able to grab Parker’s hand and hold it tightly.
"But Mama, I killed him." She looked at her mother, her eyes full of remorse and faint confusion.
"I believe Jarod when he says you had no choice, Angelina." Catherine kept her eyes steadily on her daughter and her face full of love and compassion.
"Oh, Mama, I’m so tired." Parker sighed, leaning her head on her mother’s shoulder. Catherine was able to reach high enough to stroke her daughter’s hair and she soothed her with her thoughts and her words.
"It’s okay, baby. Mama’s here now and you’re going to be fine." Catherine noticed Jarod’s look of amazement and asked, quietly. "Is she asleep?"
"Yes, but how?"
"It’s a mother’s trick." Catherine dismissed his question airily. Jarod’s eyes narrowed fractionally, telling her that he wasn’t convinced, but then he looked at Parker and smiled a little.
"Whatever it was, I’m glad. It’s not good for her to be so upset." He told Catherine bluntly.
"Maybe now that she’s finally told me, she can start to heal." Catherine speculated.
"That’s not all she has to heal from." Jarod told her darkly.
"Tell me." Catherine responded promptly. "Tell me what I’ve missed."
Jarod sighed, where to begin?
"Well," he started slowly. "After you died……"
"Ma’am?" Alexander kept his voice down, even though he was in the front of the plane where none of the captives could possibly overhear him.
"Yes, Alexander."
"She’s got the gift, just like her mother." He told his leader smugly. "I overheard them talking about it."
"Parker and Jarod?" Marion was frankly amazed, she hadn’t expected Parker to open up, even to Jarod.
"No, Parker and her mother." Alexander corrected her.
"That’s impossible! Catherine Parker is dead!"
"No, Ma’am." Alexander answered slowly, beginning to worry that he was in serious trouble now. "We picked her up with Jarod and Parker. They were all in the bedroom together."
"Catherine Parker? Alive?" Marion was silent for a long moment, increasing Alexander’s worry. Her next words didn’t soothe him much.
"I’m not happy that you waited until now to tell me this, Alexander. I do not like surprises. However, you at least told me in time for me to make some preparations. Remember not to make this mistake again."
"Yes Ma’am." Alexander was relieved that the rebuke was so mild. "We’re about three quarters of the way to you now."
"Good. I’ll be waiting." Marion disconnected the phone abruptly, her eyes narrowed in thought.
Alexander hung up the phone and made his way back to his seat, feeling like a man who’d been reprieved from a particularly nasty death sentence.
"Where are they?" Raines demanded frantically over the phone. "Mutumbo is on his way here right now, and I’ve got to have them in my hands before he gets here!"
"Sir, I don’t know." The Sweeper said solidly, praying inwardly that he wasn’t going to wind up in the renewal wing for this fiasco. "The house was empty, door open, when we got there. Someone had thrown a sleep gas in through one of the bedroom windows, but other than that we’re without information."
"It’s the Pagode." Raines mused desperately. "It must be! Get the Centre jet ready and get your best team together. We’re going to Berlin."
‘If nothing else,’ Raines thought silently. ‘I’ll be on a different continent from Mutumbo.’
All the stories about what happened to messengers who brought bad news made the nameless Centre employee sweat. It had been a freaky week for all of them. The gossip around the Centre was running wild, nobody was sure anymore what was true or what was false. Nobody was even sure anymore who was the hunter and who was the hunted. It didn’t help matters any that neither Miss Parker or Lyle had showed up here during the last few days. He even had heard rumors that Miss Parker had killed her brother, not that anybody really minded. He only hoped that if it was true that she had survived it. Her absence was not a good sign.
There was even a betting pool gong on about which of them had survived and would come back. He’d placed 20 bucks backing Sydney and Broots, who’d left to help their boss, but now it looked like he wouldn’t survive long enough to find out if he won. He had often heard about how your life was supposed to flash before your eyes just before death, but all he could do is think ridiculous thoughts about money---but maybe that was a good sign; maybe it meant that he was going to survive after all.
"Raines found them and he took the jet to follow them. It seems that the Pagode caught Miss Parker at Sam’s cabin. We are not sure who else might have been with her; the cabin showed signs of a fight and we found an empty gas cartridge in one of the bedrooms, Pagode standard issue. So Raines decided to head towards Berlin as soon as he could to keep up with them." The man reported with much more confidence than he felt.
"I hope for your own sake he succeeds this time. If he fails, his team has failed, understand?" The threat was evident with every word.
With a nod the man fled, glad to have survived, at least this time.
Jarod had tried to fill in the gaps from the years Catherine had missed as briefly as possible. She would never have believed these things if anyone else had told her. A matter of hours... It was heartbreaking, really. She had saved so many children over the years, but failed her own daughter. She glanced over at her daughter’s sleeping form. Catherine prayed the scars weren’t too deep, that there was hope that her daughter could heal someday, but from what Jarod had just told her, she feared it was too late.
Jarod leaned back and watched the two women who had always played such a big part in his life. Even after her death Catherine had affected him, and everyone around him. He had no idea how to deal with Miss Parker at the moment. Everything he tried so far seemed to just make matters worse. He had always refused to believe that she really wanted him to leave when she tried to push him away. But now, without the Centre, it was still the same old story. She still treated him like he was the enemy. Now he wondered if he was right about her, or if he’d just been fooling himself all those years.
He should have known that she was drugged that night six weeks ago. But it hadn’t felt artificial in any way, it was more like she was the way he remembered being in their happier, younger days. She had been warm and caring. She had smiled in the same irresistible way The way he loved so much. She had been exactly what his battered spirit had needed after his time under Lyle’s attentive care.
All he had wanted later was to get out of the Centre and take her with him. But after he had really escaped he had discovered that she was back on his trail, hunting him. He had never felt more betrayed than he had at that moment. Then, after he had finally worked up the courage to call her, she had sounded like she didn’t even remember that night. And now he knew that was exactly the case. Now he finally understood and could forgive, but was it too late.
But the worst thing about this whole thing was the stunt she had pulled with the baby; his baby---their baby. She knew how much family meant to him! Centre or not she should have found a way to tell him. She had made him so angry that he almost slapped her. He could still see the picture in his mind; the alley, the icy glare, and, worst of all, the smile.
It had been the first time he had ever wanted to hit a woman, and he still felt guilty just for thinking it. He was sure she had known what he wanted to do, he was sure that he had even seen a spark of fear in her eyes. But at that moment he had felt like he was being torn apart, everything he had believed in at that moment had vanished in the face of that damn smile.
His thoughts were starting to run in circles; he had no idea what he felt anymore. He loved her, and there was nothing that could ever change that, he was sure, but sometimes he hated her as well. In one way he wanted to take her in her arms to comfort her and promise that everything was going to be OK, but he also wanted her to feel the same pain he did. He wanted her to know how it felt to be rejected by somebody you love.
He still marveled at what Catherine had accomplished in getting her to sleep that way, and he still wondered how she’d done it. Parker looked like she was completely relaxed, and he could swear there was even a little smile. She looked like an angel, true to her name, but he was sure as soon as she woke up the devil would wake up with her.
"Mrs. Parker? " He asked quietly, hating to interrupt Catherine’s reflection on the years she’d missed. "What did you really do to Parker to get her to sleep?"
Catherine smiled at the young man, for a moment she considered telling him the truth, but in light the current situation decided it was better to keep her mouth shut.
"Nothing, you need to worry about.” She answered breezily. “It’s just a little trick I learned when she was a baby. She was always so active, I could not get her to sleep so..." she trailed off. She could tell from the look on his face that Jarod did not believe, her.
"It has to do with her being a Red File, doesn’t it?" He demanded. He wanted to take his words back when he saw all the color leaving her face. Damn he thought she had known.
"I could kill that bastard who claimed to be her father!" Catherine Parker exclaimed darkly.
"Mrs. Parker..." Jarod started but he was interrupted by her upraised hand.
"Please don’t call me that.” She asked him tiredly. “Catherine is just fine, really." She added.
"Catherine..." Jarod started again, not willing to drop the subject. "You’re saying that Mr. Parker is not her real father, right? And I’d guess that her real father was Ben Miller, wasn’t he?"
Catherine’s head snapped around to stare at him, a wide eyed look of surprise on her face. "How..?"
Jarod smiled back, pleased with himself.
"It wasn’t hard to figure out, based on her birthday" He nodded in Miss Parker’s direction. "The weeks you were gone every year...” He speculated, the same look of pride on his face that Sydney had seen at the successful completion of each Sim.
"Not bad, Sherlock." Catherine returned with an amused smile. "But also not correct. Ben isn’t her father."
Jarod smile faded, and a puzzled look crossed his face. His first thought was to ask why she had called him Sherlock, but then her last words sunk in as well. Ben wasn’t Miss Parker’s father?
"Who then?" Was all Jarod could manage.
Before Catharine had a chance to answer the door to the cockpit opened and a young man walked into the cabin.
"We will landing in about 20 minutes, so be ready!" He informed them coldly. He let his gaze wander over the two women, thinking that he had to remember to keep an close eye on them; they could be really dangerous.
"I don’t know about the rest of you," Emily was saying resolutely, her delicate looking face set in a frown that veritably dared anyone to disagree with her. "But I’m tired of the Centre breathing down my neck, threatening my family, and screwing up my life!"
"No problem." Sam told her with heavy sarcasm, glaring at Emily like she was a spoiled brat. "We’ll just take them out for you. Would Wednesday be soon enough?"
"Yes." Emily answered sweetly, smiling at him with a dazzling display of teeth and dancing eyes. "That would be perfectly lovely."
Sam subsided, glowering darkly.
"Well, why not?" Karen asked practically. "Let’s figure out what would be necessary to destroy the Centre and see if it’s feasible. Frankly, I’m tired of worrying about Broots all of the time."
"Okay, dear, let’s." Frank agreed with a comfortable grin to his wife. Unlike Broots, Frank was close to 6 feet tall, broad shouldered, and had a thick head of hair.
"Okay, talk!" She ordered the group, poising her pen over the yellow legal pad in her lap.
"We can’t just take out the Centre." Sydney contributed unexpectedly, the forefinger tapping his upper lip indicating that he was deep in thought. "There’s the Triumvirate too."
"That’s right." Sam agreed, his frown also turning thoughtful. "If we don’t eliminate the Triumvirate too we’d be leaving the head to simply start all over again later."
"Not to mention all of the branches and hidden research stations the Centre has." The Major said glumly.
"So." Karen restated briskly, writing as she went. "We need to A) determine just who the Triumvirate are, B) determine all of the branches and hidden bases connected to the Centre, C)…….?"
"The Pagode." JJ’s voice sounded from the kitchen doorway. He’d come upstairs to get sodas for himself and Debbie and overheard the strategy session.
"JJ?" The Major frowned unhappily. "What are you doing up here listening to us?"
"Dad, you need me." JJ said patiently. "I’m a Pretender, remember? For instance, why take out the Centre? Why not screw up their taxes and set the IRS on them? Or work out a hostile take-over and use Centre resources to take out the Pagode?"
"That’s not a bad suggestion." Broots offered suddenly, considering JJ’s suggestion so carefully that he missed the amazed looks he drew from the other participants.
"Well, not the Centre taxes, they stay strictly in the straight and narrow there, even pay the L&I tax, but we could certainly get almost every higher-up in the Centre on tax fraud in one form or another. And the Triumvirate, I’m sure that they’re breaking countless of our international trade laws."
"So, C) is weaken the Centre from within?" Karen received a round of nods and wrote that down. "And then, D) will be decide what to do about the Pagode." She added firmly.
"Now, just how do we accomplish all of these miracles?" Sam demanded skeptically.
"I can track down all of the finances." Broots offered.
"And I can help!" JJ added eagerly.
"I suppose I can look into the legalities." Emily offered unhappily. She hated the legal mumbo jumbo that the American Corporate structure delighted in.
"Sam and I can reconnoiter the Centre grounds, see what we can pick up on hardcopy. See what other leads we might turn up." The Major volunteered Sam blithely. Sam looked surprised, but didn’t protest.
"I can look into the Pagode issue." Sydney volunteered. "I probably already know more about them except maybe you, Sam."
"Okay, I’ve got friends in government agencies that might help us." Frank said thoughtfully.
"’’ll hold down the fort and keep everyone fed." Karen declared cheerfully.
"No one could do it better than you." Frank assured his wife warmly. "Now, why don’t we break into our individual groups and brainstorm while my lovely wife prepares a good lunch for us? Emily, I think you and I might want to work together.” He added, nodding towards the younger woman.
Catherine, Parker, and Jarod all wondered exactly what to expect when they were whisked out of the private jet and into a waiting black limousine. Jarod’s respect for Pagode influence went up as he realized that they’d totally bypassed Customs. His estimation of their audacity went up when the limo headed straight for downtown Berlin. His opinion of their subtlety went down, however, when the limo pulled to a halt in front of a tall, glass and metal building with the same emblem of a stylized Pagode on the doors. No name, just the image.
The three were hustled into the building, Parker being firmly supported by two burly blond men holding her arms like she was a keg of dynamite that might go off. Looking at the lowering frown and tightly clenched jaw, Jarod had to agree that their caution was prudent. Parker was like a powder keg about to go off. He had to wonder why he and Catherine were being treated with so much respect, though.
"Jarod! It is so good to finally meet you face to face!" A svelte blond woman undulated across the plush foyer, ignoring Parker entirely, smiling seductively, and exclaiming her greeting in warmly welcoming tones. Jarod’s bruised ego started to feel better, in spite of his mind’s insistence that he couldn’t trust this woman.
"And, Catherine! It is so good to see you aren’t dead after all!" She added, turning to the older Parker and speaking with just a hint of genuine feeling in her voice. "I owe you everything, you know."
Parker’s cheeks reddened at the deliberate snub, but a pointed glance from her mother stilled her incipient blow up.
"Marion?" Catherine asked gently, turning her attention back to the blond woman. "What happened, dear? Why are you working here?"
"Catherine, I am the Pagode." Marion said proudly. "I took it over after my foster mother’s unfortunate accident ten years ago." There was not hint of guilt in her voice or manner, and yet somehow all three of them know that the accident had been one Marion had arranged.
"Now, Jarod." Marion purred, moving closer to Jarod and running a greedy hand down his chest. "I have so much I need to discuss with you. Just be patient for a few minutes my dear, while I deal with Catherine and the other female, and then I’m all yours."
Jarod battled twin emotions of gratification at the flattery, and embarrassment at the predatory interest in Marion’s eyes.
"Alexander, the female is to be taken to the infirmary for a thorough check-up and debugging." To date Marion had managed not to look at the taller brunette, but her carmine red lips took on a slightly deeper grin at the angry hiss that sounded from the other. "And Catherine is to be returned to the States immediately, with all the comfort we can give her, understand?"
Parker’s anger faded suddenly and she shot her mother a desperate look.
"Marion, this is my daughter you are discussing. I will not leave her." Catherine answered calmly, a serene smile directed at her daughter.
Marion frowned in irritation. "I suppose I could give you a guest suite for a few days." She suggested grudgingly.
"I will go where my daughter goes." Catherine turned her eyes to Marion and showed the steel beneath the gentleness. "I don’t know what has happened to make you so amoral, Marion, but I must say I am terribly disappointed in you."
Marion flushed, anger, and just the tiniest hint of hurt, flaring in her blue eyes.
"Very well, Catherine." She answered stiffly, looking just a trifle sulky. "Take her with her daughter. Set them both up in the luxury holding cells." She turned her shoulder on the two women and her seductive smile blossomed again as her eyes fell on Jarod.
"Come along, dear." She purred, running her hand along the bulging muscles of his biceps like a cat stroking itself along her owner’s leg. "We really do have a great deal to discuss."
Jarod threw a glance towards the Parker women that was amused, flattered, resigned, and ever so slightly nervous. Miss Parker glared stonily and Catherine smiled sympathetically before Marion once again demanded Jarod’s full attention.
Two tall blond men leading Miss Parker and her mother into the elevator. Inside Miss Parker noticed a large row of buttons, several indicating an extensive system of sublevels. ‘Finally,’ she thought with satisfaction, ‘not so different from the Centre after all.’
The tall man on their right side pushed the lowest button and a slight jerk indicated that the elevator obeyed the command. Nothing indicated how fast they where going down, but soon another light jerk indicated the end of their journey.
As soon as they stepped out, Alexander, the blonde man from the plane, stepped in front of them, blocking their path.
"Sorry, Ladies, but this is where you two part company." He turned towards the two goons who had led the women this far.
"Martin, Kevin," he addressed the two men, "begleiten sie Mrs. Parker zu ihrem Raum.
"Oh, no!" Catherine protested after hearing him say that she was supposed to have her own room. "Marion promised that I could stay with my daughter."
A condescending smile appeared on Alexander’s face, "And you believed her?"
"Mom," Miss Parker stepped in; "please just let them take you to your room. I’ll be just fine on my own." The last thing she wanted was a fight here in the middle of the floor. She had no idea what was going on here, but she had the bad feeling that she would find out soon enough.
:Angel, hon---:
"NO!” Alexander roared. "No telepathic conversation!"
It was hard to tell who was more surprised, mother or daughter.
"You heard me?" Catherine was astounded.
"Look around," he pointed over to the men he had ordered to take her to her room. "We don’t just all resemble each other, we all also have what you would call "telepathy" to some extent. Our gift is not a natural occurrence, as it is with you and your daughter; we’ve all been genetically enhanced. We are the first designer humans." Alexander seemed almost proud.
"The Centre is still working on cloning and genetic manipulation for the Pretender project, but they are only in the very first stages with their research. We have already succeed in achieving exactly the effect we want with our enhanced mental abilities, and now, with the DNA from the little one you carry, we will soon surpass the Centre’s Pretender Project too. "
The way Alexander casually divulged top secret research results to them made the knot of worry in Miss Parker stomach grow even bigger. This wasn’t a good sign; not at all. The knowledge that they were all in big trouble was no surprise to her, she’d known it from the moment she awoke on that damn plane, but Alexander’s revelations of Pagode secrets were now making her wonder just how big the trouble they were in really was.
Suddenly another part of the conversation sunk in, "---and your daughter".
Lyle! That mental scream, the emotions that came with it---now it all made sense. And other incidents that had happened when she was just a little girl came up in her mind as well; knowing when her Mama wanted her, even though she hadn’t called, hearing her mother’s voice in her head after a nightmare, even Jarod’s words "You have the voice of your mother inside of you", could now be seen in a different light. But why had she forgotten that non-verbal communication she used to have with her mother? She had no idea, but it raised yet another question, why had it suddenly stopped? She couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 the last time she remembered hearing her Mama in her mind. What had happened? More and more questions popped up into her mind as she digested the information Alexander had given them.
Jarod had no illusions as to what was on Marion’s mind as she led him further into the Pagode building and into a different elevator. She was guiding him with one of her arms linked through his, and as much of her body as humanly possible glued to his side. In a way her obvious interest was flattering, but it also made Jarod extremely nervous.
"Where are we going?" Jarod asked, still trying to decide whether or not he liked what was going on. Of course he hadn’t expected that their captors would allow them to stay together, but Marion’s aggressive semi-seduction was quite a shock.
Marion. While the elevator ascended to the penthouse floor he tried to bring up anything he might have learned about her while investigating the Centre. Catherine’s reaction to her indicated that she was one of the children Catherine had smuggled out of the Centre. Things were falling into place in his mind; she’d told Catherine she had taken over the Pagode from her foster mother, so she, at least, had to have been involved with the Pagode. It made him wonder if they had been involved, in some way, on the attempt on Catherine’s life. He decided to try to do a Sim on this later. Right now he needed to recall all he could from Marion’s Centre file.
She had been tested for Pretender abilities and had been deemed not good enough to train. She’d been one of Raines’ subjects, but he couldn’t recall that he had read anything about her being subject to any of Raines’ less humane experiments.
His musing were interrupted when they reached a big double door at the end of a long corridor. Marion pushed the doors open and dragged Jarod into the room.
For a moment the Pretender was speechless; this was completely different from all the offices he knew from the Centre. The wall in front of them was one huge window offering a breathtaking view over Berlin. Jarod was so caught in the view he missed Marion’s approach entirely.
"If you promise to be a good boy I can take these off." Marion purred into his ear as she lightly rattled chain on the cuffs.
Jarod stiffened slightly when she pressed herself against his back, one hand reaching up to bury itself in his hair. He could feel her breath on his neck and the heat from her body where she was pressed against him. Her sweet perfume made him feel a bit dizzy. His body wanted to respond as any normal male would. He suddenly found it hard to breathe, much less concentrate on his situation.
Marion slithered around to his front, never losing her contact with his body, and twined her arms around his neck. She didn’t look anything like Nia, but for some reason he was irresistibly reminded of her. He struggled to pin down what it was that made him think of her; anything to keep from responding in a way that would get him in trouble with Parker later.
Marion gazed invitingly into his eyes, and suddenly Jarod identified the resemblance; Nia had looked at him similarly, like a woman, like a caring woman. Parker had only looked at him like that once---the night they…
‘Stop!’ He told himself sternly. ‘Nia did care; Parker was drugged.' As for Marion, well, he had the feeling he’d find out soon enough.
"We’re going to have a great time, Jarod." Marion told him in a low, husky voice. "No more loneliness, no more Sims, and you’ll never have to run again. Nobody would dare to try take you away from me. What a team we’ll make! We’ll run the Pagode together and then, not to long from now, we will take over the Centre as well."
She reached behind him to undo the cuffs, never breaking eye, or body, contact. Jarod tried not to lick his lips nervously. ’Sydney, why didn’t you ever teach me what to do in a situation like this?’ He wondered, slightly desperately.
"We will have everything we always dreamed of." Her voice was a beguiling whisper. "The dream every one of us Centre children shared will come true for you and me. We will finally have our own family, our own children." She felt Jarod stiffen under her hands and frowned slightly, unhappy with his reaction.
Soothingly she slid her hands up and down his sides, frown vanishing as she smiled at him again.
"I know that woman carries your child, Jarod, but don’t worry, we’ll keep it with us and raise it together. You know that she does not care about it, that it was just another project she did for the Centre, but we both know better." She snuggled even closer, as Jarod’s arms went hesitantly around her. Her words were striking buttons in him, the longing for a family, the fear that Parker hated the baby as much as she seemed to hate him.
He wasn’t ready to believe everything Marion was telling him, his logic told him that if she ran the Pagode she had to be at least as ruthless as Raines, but she was persuasive, and beautiful, and very, very willing. Besides, he needed to hear all of her plans, didn’t he?
"We will give your baby a real home---with a real daddy and a real mommy." She promised him dreamily, never noticing his subtle withdrawal.
"The last time I was here it was a small building, if you could have called it a building at all. Nothing ground level or above was habitable, much less useful." Raines hissed in disgust. He looked out of the window of the limo over the streets to the impressive Pagode building. People hurried in and out constantly. A never ending stream of cars crawled over the streets between the building and the car where he was sitting, many of them depositing or picking up visitors to the glass and metal building.
"Is everything set up?" Rains asked the man hidden in the shadows beside him.
"Yes, our informant will be meeting us as scheduled." As the man answered he also leaned forward, revealing his nearly paper-white skin and pale, white hair.
Everyone else threw themselves into a flurry of study, research, and investigation. The Centre didn’t know it yet, but their days were numbered……
"Jarod……" Marion breathed, tugging his T-shirt out of his jeans. Jarod practically levitated off of the plush sofa where she’d dragged him. He was standing next to the floor to ceiling windows, chest heaving as he tried to calm down, before he even realized he’d moved. Marion stretched lithely on the couch and smiled a feline smile of pleasure.
"Oh come on, Jarod. I know you aren’t that innocent." She laughed huskily.
"Look, Marion, it’s not that I’m not flattered—," Jarod began with a slight edge of desperation in his voice as he started to pace, and raked his fingers absently through his hair. "It’s just that, well, Parker isn’t carrying my baby for nothing. I care about her. And---and…" He searched his mind frantically for another reason to give the amorous woman before him.
Marion laughed again, startling Jarod who had expected anger.
"Forget her." She advised him callously, rising and going to her en suite bar to pour herself a drink.
‘‘Is there something about me that drives women to drink?’’ He wondered nonsensically, seeing Parker and her flagon of scotch on her sideboard.
"Parker will be kept in the subject infirmary until the child is born. At that time she will be transferred to our breeding project in Siberia." Marion clinked the ice in her glass as she strolled over to the man standing frozen with horror in front of the window. She made a self satisfied noise in her throat that sounded surprisingly like a purr as she lightly ran the tips of her fingers up and down Jarod’s arm and shoulder. "You can save yourself, Jarod, and you can save your baby, but you cannot save that woman. Now, are you for me, lover, or against me?" A perfectly arched eyebrow rose inquisitively, but the satisfied smirk on her blood-red lips made it clear that she thought she knew the answer to that one already.
Alexander led Parker to the end of the hall, and then turned her down a side hall that proceeded in the opposite direction that Catherine had taken.
'Obviously they want to keep us as far apart as possible.' Parker thought grimly.
And that thought brought her right back to the assertion that she and her mother were some kind of telepaths.
'Is it possible?' She wondered skeptically. She glanced at the man leading her to her cell and a cynical smile twitched her lips. 'Only one way to find out.' She decided.
:Hey! You there, Blondie!: She thought with her typical attitude of derision. :If you can hear this, pass a message along to your boss for me. Tell her I’ve seen cats in heat with more subtlety than she’s got, and she’d better just remember that JAROD IS MINE!!!:
Alexander’s brow rose, but he kept silent and managed not to grin. Catherine, however, yards away in what was admittedly a quite comfortable cell, grinned widely as she overheard her daughter's mental comment.
Parker observed that brow with equal measures of amazement and satisfaction.
'So it's true.' She thought privately. 'Now all I have to do is figure out how to use this telepathy thing to get us out of this mess. And, of course, give that blond bitch exactly what she deserves.' She added with more than a touch of malice.
"How long until he gets here?" Raines asked again, impatiently.
"Half an hour." His companion sighed, tired of reassuring the old man. "Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to go to a hotel and let me handle this?" He asked for the twelfth time.
"No." Raines snapped. "I have to be here when we get Jarod. This time he won't escape."
The pale 'Finder', closed his eyes, wondering if working for the Centre was such a good idea after all, and missing Lyle, who had at least allowed him to work unhindered.
Either there weren’t any, which she really couldn’t believe, or they were damn good. The Centre never settled for subtlety. The cameras were always clearly visible; a reminder that you were never alone.. The red blinking eyes were always there to keep you in line.
With a sigh Catherine sat down in a chair next to a large table. The last days had taken their toll on her. A past she had believed was lost forever had returned, and with it a force that left her feeling that her head was going to blow up any minute.
The joy of having her baby back was worth everything, even the pain that the old memories brought her. She felt sad when she thought about her son, a son she had never had the chance to meet, but she tried to push those thoughts back. Now wasn’t the time to mourn. Now was the time to think about the living; about her daughter who needed her more than ever.
She had tried to reach her more than once after they had been separated, but no luck. The last time she had felt something like an angry yell, which she took as a good sign. If her daughter was able to be angry then she was fine. She just hoped that Angelina wasn’t letting herself get too upset. She’d nearly lost the baby once already.
Even though she was sure the Centre was somehow involved in the pregnancy, Catherine knew that her daughter wanted the baby. She sighed again, feeling slightly overwhelmed. As usual where the Centre was concerned, there was much more going on than what met the eye.
"Miss Parker, please! Dr. Baker is only here to make sure you and the baby are OK." Alexander was starting to feel desperate. This wasn’t going like he had planned it. No matter what Marion had planned for Miss Parker, Alexander was sure he was the one who would end up regretting it.
"Alexander is right, I just want to make sure you are all right. He made sure I would be here when you arrived for your sake. Don’t fight us. We know what Marion plans to do; to you and to the baby, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help you." The elderly woman tried to calm her down.
"Sure, you’re just going to give me a check up and then you’ll let me walk right out of the building." Miss Parker replied sarcastically.
She saw Alexander and the Doctor exchanging uneasy looks that ended when Alexander shrugged his shoulders.
"What?" Miss Parker demanded harshly.
After a few seconds of complete silence Alexander decided it would be better to tell her everything. It would surely be better than having her fighting them the whole time.
"Things have been going downhill here for some time." The blonde man started his explanation. "As you can see, we have made good progress in genetic design, but we have made no progress in increasing the abilities we achieved. I can understand your thoughts, yes, but only because of your ability. If I want to read anyone else, I have to touch them and even then I have to concentrate. Alexander stopped and shot the woman in front of him a nervous glance.
"Marion contacted your brother, trying to trade him some of our research in return for you. She was sure he had no idea about your abilities. Maybe she was right, I do not know, but Lyle never agreed to the exchange. One day our spy inside of the Centre told us of Lyle’s plan to try and—breed you to the Pretender. I don’t think I have to tell you that Marion was overjoyed to hear about the baby." He cast another nervous glance over to Miss Parker, but still she showed no reaction. He was sure she didn’t believe a single word he’d said, and he had to admit that in her situation he wouldn’t believe him either.
"OK," Alexander gave up trying to persuade her to trust him. "I will leave the room and let Doctor Baker check up on you in privacy. Please don’t try anything stupid! We will talk later; maybe you will be more willing to listen then than you are at the moment. I have important meeting to get to right now."
"Important for you, or for me?" Miss Parker mocked.
"For all of us," Alexander answered as he headed for the door. "For all of us." He repeated softly as the door closed behind him.
As soon as the door was closed Doctor Baker walked over to the younger woman. She opened her mouth to continue trying to convince Parker to submit to the examination when Miss Parker stopped her with an upraised hand.
"You win." She conceded, but the moment she saw the smile forming on the doctor’s face, she added; "for the moment."
But the smile just broadened on the older woman’s face. Strangely enough Miss Parker felt that she could like this woman and she wasn’t sure if she liked that feeling.
Marion stared at Jarod’s back, giving him some room to think. She was sure she knew what his decision would be. She had studied him for a long time. She may not have been such a good Pretender, but you didn’t have to be a genius to know how a man thought.
Jarod’s first priority had always been his family; the baby was vitally important to him, of course, but the mother---not really. He might think he loved her right now, but she would teach him otherwise.
As the silence drew on she wondered if she had made the right choice. Maybe it had been a mistake to talk about the breeding project too early... Marion was just about to speak when Jarod suddenly turned to face her.
"OK. I’ll take you up on your offer. I’ll stay with you, and the baby will stay with me." He stated flatly.
With a victorious grin Marion stalked towards him...
The man nodded his head twice, something that amused his unseen audience.
"Of course I will deal with Raines when he gets back. Jarod or no Jarod, we agreed that he has outlived his usefulness." Mutumbo responded, the bite to his tone growing sharper. "I will report as soon as he arrives--do not worry."
With those final words he place the receiver firmly back onto the phone. He stood for a moment, seeming to be lost in thought, and then strode out of the room with a swish of white robes and brightly colored sash.
Angelo put his finger to his lips in warning and led the other two men back into the maze of ventilation shafts that riddled the Centre.
"Thank you, Angelo." The Major whispered, when they reached the savant's hiding space in the center of several shafts. "Now, while we're waiting to see if they recapture my son or if he escapes again we need to gather any and all evidence of misconduct and illegal activities we can. Do you think you can help us with that too?"
A sly smile crossed Angelo's face and he gestured for the two men to follow him again. Sam looked none to happy to be crawling through the metal passages again, but he said nothing and followed along. After almost an hour of crawling and climbing, always down, never up, they finally emerged into a dusty, abandoned room.
Major Charles sniffed once, when they emerged.
"Smoke?" He questioned.
"We're in SL 27." Sam informed him sourly.
"Stay here, safe." Angelo explained, heading straight for the half open door. Sam paused to stretch a kink out of his back, and the two men followed again.
Angelo stopped at an unmarked door just before the end of the corridor and opened it to reveal a pristine room with two neatly made cots and boxes of MRIs in one corner.
"Safe." He repeated, as if the two hadn't gotten the message the first time. "Come."
He pulled the door shut and opened the one that marked the end of the corridor. This too was an immaculate room, with a desk and stacked with countless cardboard boxes. Angelo pointed and giggled softly.
"Evidence." He said simply.
"Evidence?" Sam repeated in utter amazement. "A room full of evidence just waiting for us?"
"Did you get this for us, Angelo?" Major Charles asked, looking behind him for the other man, but Angelo had vanished.
"Okay, Sam," the Major sighed, looking back at the mountain of paperwork stored in front of them. "Let's start sorting. It'll give us something to do while we're waiting for my son at least."
"Something to do?" Sam parroted blankly. "We'll be going through this stuff until Christmas!"
"Then we'd better get started." The Major chuckled. "Because I have plans for this Christmas."
"I told you, I can't get the man out!" Alexander repeated angrily. "She's got him in her personal apartments!!"
"I don't appreciate it when my allies start reneging on our agreements." Mr. White drawled menacingly. Alexander's eyes narrowed ominously.
"Look." He responded, venom filling his voice. "I'm working on a way to get the two women to you but the man is a lost cause. If I could I'd go to his room, knock him out, and deliver him to you bound hand and foot, but it isn't an option. Now, do you want your female friends or not?"
Mr. White glanced back at Raines who nodded grimly and turned back to the blond man.
"Very well," he responded smoothly. "10:00 pm at Brandenburg Gate?"
"Okay." Alexander agreed, but he didn't like the look the two had exchanged and suddenly wondered if they knew the Parker women at all. Only one way to find out, he thought.
"No hard feelings about the other?" He asked, holding out his hand to shake and mentally preparing for the physical contact with the pale man in front of him. Mr. White hesitated, but finally took the other man's hand.
"No. Just let us know if anything changes." He agreed grudgingly.
‘Like hell I will.' Alexander thought as he smiled and turned to leave. His brief contact with the assassin had worked better than he'd hoped. His thoughts whirled madly as he made his way back to the Pagode building.
‘Damn! Now what am I going to do?' Was his predominant thought.
:Sweetheart, can you hear me?: Catherine tried once again, being careful to keep the thought as focused as possible. She didn't want any of the blond bully boys picking up on her message to her daughter.
:Momma?: Parker thought back cautiously. Catherine could feel her daughter's continuing disbelief in this mode of communication. She stifled a grin; there was no reason to give any unseen watchers a reason to suspect she was up to something.
:Yes, baby.: She thought back, infusing the message with all of the love in her heart. :Are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they?:
:No.: Parker's thought was as dry as the Sahara. :Alexander saw to it that I was checked out by a doctor after our ordeal. I guess they really do want this pregnancy to come to term.:
:And is everything okay?: Catherine was still worried about her daughter's near-miscarriage not even a week earlier.
:We're fine.: This time Parker's thoughts held more than a trace of wonder. She'd barely had time to think about the fact that she was pregnant since the moment she'd found it out. :I heard the baby's heartbeat.: She added, still touched with awe at the miracle taking place inside her. She felt her mother's warm wave of love and understanding.
:We have to get out of here.: She told her mother firmly, ignoring a headache that was forming behind her eyes.
:That's enough thinking at each other for now.: Catherine replied, sensing her daughter's pain. :That headache means you're on the edge of overusing your gift. Rest, we'll discuss escape later, after they feed us, maybe.:
:Momma?: Parker thought hesitantly. Catherine was irresistibly reminded of her daughter as a toddler, asking for one more story or one more glass of water before going to sleep. :Do you think I could---sense Jarod?: She asked, trying to bury her burning curiosity and jealousy.
:I don't know.: Catherine answered honestly. :Normally I would say no, but there's something about Jarod…: It was just a feeling, nothing she could explain, but she wasn't prepared to dismiss some form of telepathy where he was concerned.
:But not now.: She added. :You're just learning how to use this gift and you need to exercise it and grow stronger. Later, maybe, you can reach him. For now, rest.:
Parker's response was a wave of exasperation; she was getting tired of being told to rest! On the other hand, she was feeling oddly drained. She lay down on the soft couch in her suite of rooms and closed her eyes…‘just for a minute,’ she told herself sleepily. ‘In a minute she'd start thinking of how to escape this place…’
Jarod's back was pressed firmly against the windows overlooking Berlin and he felt perspiration dotting his forehead and upper lip. And still the blond woman advanced on him, looking at him the way he'd been told he looked at ice cream.
"Uh, look, Marion." He slid nervously to the left and froze as she altered her course to intercept him. "Can't you give me a little time?" He asked her desperately.
"I mean, I've only just met you, really, and I____"
"You're shy!" Marion chortled, slowing slightly to draw out her moment of triumph. "How sweet."
"No, it's not that!" Jarod lied quickly, sensing that shyness would only intrigue her more. Marion chuckled in the back of her throat and drew one blood red fingernail down his neck from just below his jaw to his collarbone, resting her fingertip just over the wildly pulsing artery.
"Poor baby!" She tsked with mock concern. "Your heart is just racing! I really think we should just go right ahead and---get better acquainted."
"Wouldn't you rather I freshened up first?" The situation would have been hysterical to anyone watching it. Jarod was taller than Marion by nearly a foot, and yet she had him cornered like a wolf to a rabbit. Of course, if she hadn't had Parker and the baby as hostages the situation would have been far different, but she did and Jarod didn't dare risk offending her.
Fortunately, Marion chose to remain amused by his shyness and backed off slightly.
"Very well, Jarod." She agreed suddenly, much to Jarod's relief. "Your apartment is just down the hall to the left. Rest, refresh yourself. Tonight will be soon enough to get to know each other."
She shot Jarod a look from diamond hard blue eyes, though, before he could move.
"But don't go anywhere near the elevator, lover." She warned him. "You wouldn't like what I would do if you did."
Jarod nodded, too consumed with relief at his reprieve to even think about elevators and consequences. Yes, he told himself as he made his escape, Marion's husky laugh floating in his ears, he did have to find a way out of this building, but for now it was just enough to get out of that room.
He made it to the door she'd indicated and closed it behind him, leaning against it in relief. If he could have he’d have wedged a chair under the door and barricaded himself in, but he knew that such a move would doubtlessly set off Marion’s anger. Even though she’d hidden her temper so far, Jarod knew that it was certain to be as formidable as Miss Parker’s at her worst.
‘Got to get out of here!' He thought dazedly. ‘Even the Centre wasn't this bad!'
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