Total Recall

Part 4 – A Central Monopoly

 

Jennifer turned her head slightly and winced from the pain that the action caused as she licked her lips. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw Sydney sitting in a chair beside the bed. He rose and placed a hand on her arm.

 

"Finally. It's good to see you're awake."

 

She moved her head and glanced around the room, looking up to meet his eye, and he understood her concern.

 

"It's okay. We're alone."

 

"Where…" Her voice was raspy and she coughed slightly to clear it. "What happened?"

 

"I was hoping that you'd be able to tell me," he responded gently. "Apparently Lyle and Brigitte were playing around with some things that they didn't understand." He stood back as a doctor, who had entered seconds earlier, gently examined Jennifer.

 

"Considering what they put you through, you're doing well. Do you want something for the pain?"

 

Jennifer slowly shook her head and the doctor left the room. She looked back at Sydney.

 

"Have you told Jarod?"

 

"No. I didn't think you would want me to. In fact I haven't spoken to him since you first disappeared. There have been no new leads."

 

"Don't tell him."

 

He nodded, gently placing one hand on hers. "I won't."

 

~~~~~

 

Escorted by Miss Parker and Sydney, Jennifer slowly walked through the door of her house in Blue Cove. While they were there she tried not to show how terrible she felt but, as soon as they left, she dropped onto the sofa and flicked on the television. Over the past few nights, she had dreamed of horrors that she either imagined or had actually happened to her - she wasn't sure which. Terrified of sleep, she wouldn't use painkillers in case the dreams came to haunt her and she couldn't escape from them. Having lost count of the number of times that she had woken, trembling, from some half-remembered nightmare, all she could hope was that the marks on her face had disappeared before Jarod found out she was home.

 

~~~~~

 

Lyle glared at the wall of the cell and muttered angrily. The jacket in which they'd bound him meant that he had almost no movement and, as a further measure, chains around his ankles were attached to the wall with a strong ring. The look on Raines' face, when he'd burst into the lab, had been enough to show that he'd gone too far and, although him father had tried to help, the hold Raines had over the Triumvirate was enough to block the older Parker out of the picture. Lyle heard the faint squealing from the cell next to him and he knew enough to realize that they were responding to Brigitte's self-imposed hunger strike by force-feeding her. If it was the same awful stuff that they fed him, it was no wonder she was trying to refuse. However the worst part, and the icing on the cake for him, was the fact that his guard during meals was Jennifer's personal sweeper and Lyle could tell that Paul would not hesitate to use the gun he held. The one time he had tried to refuse his meal, Lyle had received a punch that had given him a thick ear for three days. Remembering the food, he glared at the roof as he lay on his bed and shuddered in disgust. Optimized nutritional supplements, with something else added that had stripped him of any energy and left him helpless and listless. How could anyone survive on a diet like that? And it wasn't only good food he missed. There was also the open air and his car with its personalized number-plate. Lyle-3. He had had to get another after his second one had also disappeared. There was no guarantee that Jarod had taken it but Lyle was certain he had. Thinking of the prodigy, his eyes narrowed and he muttered angrily to himself.

 

~~~~~

 

Jarod slipped around the outside of the building. He had been about to enter the previous evening when he recognized one of the silhouettes through the window as they prepared the house for its returning occupant. The sight of Miss Parker had caused him to withdraw into the shadows of the garden and it wasn't until later, looking at his hands as he typed, that he realized it had probably been one of Jennifer's rose bushes. Now, as he glanced through the window and saw the figure lying on the sofa, his heart leaped and he slipped through the passage to appear in the doorway. Jennifer lay with her eyes closed and, taking in the marks on her face and the small gasps, signaling pain, as she breathed, he gripped the doorway to stop himself from swaying. What on earth had they done to her, and who had done it? Then, as he stood there, she was gripped by a nightmare and he moved quickly across the room.

 

Jennifer, recalling what they did every other time she fought, immediately lay still and, with closed eyes, anticipated the next prick of the needle. She had never felt pain like that in her life and, as the bile rose at the back of her throat, she waited for it to come again. When it didn't, and a soothing voice could be heard in her ear as one gentle hand swept her damp, sweat-soaked hair back from her face and the other supported her shoulders, Jennifer slowly eased her eyes open and stared blankly up at Jarod. Trembling from shock, she clung to him, face pressed to his neck, breathing deeply and trying to forget the images that had appeared during the dream.

 

"What was it?" His voice was soft and tender. "What did they do?"

 

"I don't...remember." The lie sounded hollow in her own ears, but she knew that Jarod wouldn't demand an explanation, in the same way that she never pressed him. However she knew that he would find the disc that Broots had left beside her portable DSA machine and could play it for himself. She felt him lift her off the sofa and carry her upstairs and into the bedroom. Although she considered protesting, the nightmares left her with little energy and it was easy to submit to his attentions. He put her on the bed and gently removed the clothes that she had been wearing since her return home, helping her into the nightgown that was on her pillow. Then, laying her down, he slipped into bed beside her and kept his arms around her until, finally, she was asleep.

 

~~~~

 

Sydney stared at the screen in front of him, unable to believe what he saw. How she had survived the experiments was more than he could understand. It took him several seconds for him to break out of his trance and answer the phone.

 

"What on earth did they do to her?"

 

"Have you seen her? Did she tell you anything?"

 

"No, but I found the DSA." In the background, Sydney could hear the sound of heavy traffic and surmised that, although Jarod had been in Blue Cove, he was no longer there.

 

"Apparently Lyle was performing similar experiments to those he performed on you. He also pumped her full of sodium pentathol."

 

"Truth serum? That's never used any more. It isn't reliable enough."

 

"I know. But Lyle was hoping to find out some information, probably about you."

 

"Did she tell him anything?"

 

"According to Lyle's notes, nothing. She had no reaction to it at all, except apparently some extreme pain and nausea. I did a little research and a very small proportion of people react that way. Obviously Lyle didn't know in advance that she would be one of those people."

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer woke and stared blankly out of the window. She had felt Jarod leave the room earlier that morning and knew that she wouldn't find him downstairs. This was too close to the Centre for his comfort, or hers either, for that matter. She had arranged with Sarah to go down to the cabin for a few weeks, Raines having given her time off, and she was looking forward to it. A hand pressed across her stomach to try and ease the pain that her aching muscles caused, she moved around, slowly packing. She had almost finished when a box, tucked away in the corner of the room, drew her attention. It was not the box itself that she noticed, but rather the fact that it was rocking violently. Walking over, with a gasp for the pain, she bent down and opened the lid, stared down at the small face, which blinked back at her. The big, brown eyes watched her and, almost disbelieving, she picked up the dog from the container. Carrying him over to the sofa, she sat down and pulled out the note, which had been tucked under its collar.

 

'I've been training this little one for you since we first got to know each other. He's eight months old, fully house-trained and quite well trained in other areas too. His owner originally called him Jarod, which was one of the reasons I chose him. Now, if Louise said anything about Jarod, it could mean the dog. And if Miss Parker threatens to tell the Triumvirate about you receiving presents from me, remind her about a certain white rabbit.'

 

~~~~~

 

"You look like something the cat dragged in."

 

"Gee, thanks. It's great to see you, too."

 

Sarah grinned as her friend opened the car door. However her eyes widened as a dog leaped into the car and curled up on the floor.

 

"What's that?"

 

"It's a dog, Sarah. What did you think it was?"

 

"Oh, very funny. Couldn't Lyle have taken your so-called sense of humor away while he had you there?"

 

Jennifer grinned at her friend as Sarah started the car. "Actually, he was given to me as a present. He was left at my house with a mysterious, anonymous note on his collar."

 

"Oh, and I don't suppose this mysterious, anonymous visitor of yours was tall, dark and in all other respects totally clichéd by any chance, was he?"

 

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Jennifer tried to hide the smile that curled at the edges of her mouth and Sarah snorted with amusement before she turned back to concentrate on the road.

 

~~~~~

 

Lyle looked up as the door to his cell was swung open. After so many days in the half-darkness, the brilliance of the lights in the hall dazzled him and, turning his head aside, he blinked violently until his eyes could stand the glare. "What?"

 

"Time for your first lesson."

 

Lyle stood up and watched warily as Raines and three sweepers entered the cell. His feet, although still chained together, had been untied from the ring in the wall so that he could stand. Now a sweeper that Lyle had never seen before knelt and began to remove the chain. Lyle, as soon as his foot was free, kicked out violently and was rewarded with a punch to the side of the head that sent him over like a tenpin and caused him to see stars. He was jerked violently to his feet and shoved out of the room.

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer unlocked the door of the cabin and then turned to wave as Sarah drove away. One glance showed that Jarod was not there and her heart sank slightly with disappointment. She waved the dog into the building and watched as he gradually familiarized himself with the interior. Finally he flopped down on the mat in front of the fireplace and watched as she slowly moved around, putting things away in the kitchen. She knew that Jarod had given the dog to her as a form of protection and had obviously been imbuing a sense of devotion in the canine, if his constant proximity to her was anything to judge by.

 

~~~~~

 

Lyle fought as he was almost carried into the room and tied, spread-eagled, to an x-shaped board. Once fully immobilized, Raines came and stood before him, smirking.

 

"Having shown us how much you enjoy experiments, we thought you might like the chance to be the subject of one."

 

Lyle shrank from the penetrating gaze that swept over him and frantically tried to imagine what could be about to happen to him. Having waited for a response and received none, Raines continued.

 

"The Triumvirate felt that only death would be a sufficient form of punishment for what you did, however I presented my suggestion to them and they found that it was sufficient. The only part of you that is of any value to us at all is your mind and, while we briefly considered just removing it, what we have planned is even better."

 

As Lyle began to suspect what was coming, he lunged against the restraints but it made no difference.

 

"I see you understand me. However, if you will remain still, this won't hurt. Or not for too long."

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer was lying against the arm of the sofa with the dog's body pressed firmly against her own and she looked up in surprise as the door opened.

 

"Did I give you a key for that?" she demanded.

 

"Well, no. But a locksmith is an easy job."

 

"I should have guessed." She lifted her face for his kiss and he looked down at the dog who, although he wagged a tail politely when Jarod touched him, didn't moved.

 

"I taught him well."

 

"He's a wonderful present. Thank you Jarod."

 

"What are you going to call him?"

 

"Well, not Jarod. It would be too confusing. No, I decided on JD."

 

"JD?"

 

"Jarod Dog. Much simpler, don't you think?" Jarod laughed and Jennifer, knowing about Jarod's association with Argyle, let her eyes twinkle at him.

 

"Very clever."

 

"I thought so too."

 

~~~~~

 

Brigitte looked around the inside of her cell from the corner where she remained for most of each day. The only exception was when food was brought to her and then she was strapped to the bed as it was forced down her throat. Despite her struggles, the lack of sugar was doing wonder for her health; she just hated to admit it. Without a clock she had no idea of time and that was something else she hated, only being able to estimate that a day was passing by when she was fed. Several 'days' before, she had heard Lyle removed from the cell beside hers and, as far as she could tell, he had never been brought back there. Brigitte had wondered when her husband would come and rescue her from the predicament however, as time passed and he didn't appear, she surmised that Raines had persuaded the Triumvirate to give him control over her situation. Sometimes she wondered what was happening to her son. When she had returned to work, a month after giving birth, he had been left with a nanny her husband had hired. However she had long since lost any feeling that she may have had for the boy and the only emotion she now experienced was hatred for the people who put her in this situation.

 

~~~~~

 

After four months Jennifer was getting used to the lifestyle she was leading. The experiments had caused no lasting damage, except for the nightmares she still had occasionally, and she was gradually getting used to Jarod stopping by every so often. JD was almost fully grown, and the sight of a large Alsatian outside the cabin was a deterrent to most visitors. In all that time she hadn't returned to the Centre, however she occasionally kept in touch with Sydney or Miss Parker by telephone. One day she had inquired about Lyle.

 

"Do you know - what have they done to him?"

 

"You mean...you haven't heard?" It was the first time Jennifer had heard Miss Parker so uncertain. "It...Raines was furious about the things Lyle did to you. He convinced the Triumvirate that..."

 

"What?"

 

"Jenn, Lyle's a quadriplegic." There was a pause before the woman continued to speak. "Raines didn't actually sever the spinal cord but he injected something in that caused it to swell and, well, it's permanent."

 

"So he's..."

 

"Strapped to a wheelchair. He gets injections every day to keep him alive so that Raines can use the ideas he comes up with, but otherwise he's useless."

 

Try as she might, Jennifer couldn't remove the image of her adopted brother from her mind. She compared the memory of the boy, developing into a man, running around the house and driving scores of pretty, Asian girls, for whom he'd always had a liking, around the town in which they'd lived, with the images that Broots sent her, of him strapped, helpless, into a chair and forced to comply with the will of Raines and his henchmen. It was a comfort to her that Paul was no longer involved with that work. He had, in fact, vanished from the Centre a week after she had been brought out of the infirmary.

 

Jarod had taken the news well and, Jennifer couldn't help suspecting, considered it revenge for death of his brother. He'd stayed only a few days before leaving again and this time she knew that it would be about six weeks before he came back. All that she knew, from what he told her, was that his destination was somewhere in South America. He never told her precisely where he was going and she preferred not to know. However she had decided to take advantage of the time and leave Delaware. Her grandfather had had a farm close to Boston that had been under the care of neighbors since his death, years earlier. The organization, moving and settling in took almost the entire six weeks and the house was set up by the time Jarod was due back in the States. She'd informed him of her move and the location of the house, which was almost impossible to see from either the air or the road. With help from neighbors, she finally had everything running smoothly. It was not a large farm, with only a few sheep and hens and a couple of ducks floating on the pond, located on only three acres, but she had always liked the place and knew Jarod would too.

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer heard him enter the house and, waiting behind a semi-closed door, listened as he picked up the envelope that lay on the table. As she had anticipated, his reaction to the contents was total, stunned silence. When she appeared in the doorway, he looked up at her with a face still full of shock.

 

"What's this?"

 

Jennifer walked over to him. "It's an ultrasound."

 

"It's...you're...you mean...?"

 

"Yes, Jarod, I'm four months pregnant."

 

He stood for several minutes staring out at the spectacular valley that was visible through the large window. She waited, facing him. Finally, realizing that he was incapable of uttering a word, she spoke again. "I wanted to tell you when I first found out, but I didn't want to interfere with your work. As time went on, though, you probably would have noticed eventually."

 

"I can't believe it. I mean, it's a little unexpected."

 

"I know."

 

He looked up at her. "Which is it?"

 

"A boy."

 

"A boy..." Jarod reached out and drew her to him, wrapping both arms around her and holding her close. "I'm going to be a father..."

 

~~~~

 

Lyle looked down at his helpless hands and feet and struggled to make them move. He could still remember the red-hot feelings that had burned down the length of his body, leaving numbness and immobility to follow the agony. He had never been returned to his cell but, instead, was strapped into the chair and moved around to the different places that Raines wanted him. The feelings of helplessness had initially been terrifying but now they only angered him. He hadn't seen his father since the operation had been performed. On occasion Miss Parker had passed him in the corridor, still in search of leads of Jarod, and he ignored her. The expressions that had once made others, such as Broots, tremble before him, no longer had any effect and this, too, he deplored. Every so often he wondered what they had done to Brigitte or to his new brother. It never last for long though. His thoughts nearly always came back to his own situation.

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer was terrified when, with twenty-eight days until the baby was due, she went into labor. Jarod wasn't home at the time, however, as Sarah was staying for a few days, Jennifer was rapidly in hospital and, in an emergency operation, her son was born. Although the baby was immediately taken off for tests, he was soon well enough to be taken in to see his mother. Once he was returned to the nursery and Jennifer was sleeping, Sarah began frantic efforts to contact Jarod. Within two hours, he was at the hospital. With his son in his arms, he went into the private room where Jennifer lay and watched until she woke up.

 

"I'm sorry."

 

She smiled. "For what?"

 

"That I wasn't there."

 

"It doesn't matter. You're here now."

 

Jarod moved over and sat on the bed. "He's beautiful."

 

"He's just like his father."

 

At that point Sarah came in with her Polaroid and took a photo. She gave it to Jarod, who pocketed it.

 

"For Sydney?"

 

He smiled and gently placed one hand on her cheek. "How did you guess?"

 

She smiled back at him. "Oh, I know you pretty well by now."

 

~~~~~

 

Lyle looked down at his right hand and, with extreme concentration, watched as it slowly flexed. Although Raines had intended the treatment to be permanent, the very slow movement he was regaining convinced Lyle that with time and extreme patience he could recover. Unfortunately his stock of patience was limited at the best of times and now he just wanted to throw the chair away and leave the Centre for good. He muttered angrily to himself but soon fell silent and began to mentally coax the muscles in his legs to move.

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer looked from the small face, framed in wavy brown hair to the view from his bedroom window. She was just in time to see a car rattle its way up towards the house and JD's actions told her who was coming. She picked up her two-month-old son and, by the time she was in the doorway, the car was parked under the carport. Jarod got out and took his son from the boy's mother, at the same time draping his other arm over Jennifer's shoulders as the two walked into the house. He had been tempted on several occasions to give up his traveling and stay with the two people who made up the only home he knew, but Jennifer had dissuaded him from doing so. Jarod knew that she had put his feelings before her own and it made him love her even more.

 

~~~~~

 

Miss Parker stormed through the halls of Centre. Her temper had become worse since Jennifer had left the Centre and not even the phone calls that the two made several times every week were enough to please her. Raines was on her back constantly, not only about Jarod but also his family, and the Triumvirate, too, was demanding results, as the trail left by Jarod gradually grew weaker. The hints that he had once sent her were no longer to be found and the team had to rely on sightings and reports for all of their information. Equally frustrating to her was the behaviour of her father. He had withdrawn even further from her, almost as if he resented her being the only other family member who wasn't being obviously punished. She knew that it was painful for him to see Lyle in his current state and he had begun to spend less time at his house, as though the sight of his new son made him ill. Remembering her baby brother and his mother her glare deepened and, as she flung open the door of Sydney's office, her expression caused Broots to try and disappear into a corner. Sydney, on the other hand, stayed in his seat, looking at a photograph. As Miss Parker sat down, he pushed the picture over to her and she saw Jarod holding a small baby.

 

"His son?"

 

"Apparently." Sydney tried to hide his pleasure at the sight, however Miss Parker wasn't fooled and shot him a venomous glance.

 

"Enough of the Happy Families, Syd. Have you run a search on him?"

 

"Yes...well...I mean..."

 

She glared at him. "Spit it out, Broots."

 

"There's something wrong with the system. We can't run any searches with the name 'Jarod'. There's a block somewhere in the system."

 

"Well, find it and fix it."

 

"I...we can't. The system doesn't recognize that there's a problem and, until it does, it won't allow us to enter without the passwords."

 

"So, use the passwords."

 

"I can't. They've been changed and I don't know what to."

 

"Then keep trying."

 

"Each time we try three wrong words the system shuts down and, although the computers start, the system doesn't boot up."

 

"Which means?"

 

"If we don't look - no searches. If we do - no computers."

 

"Then contact Jennifer."

 

"I tried. Her number's changed and a search of the tracking device that was put on her car leads us to her house in Blue Cove - and she moved from there just after the incident with Lyle and Brigitte and no-one knows where she went."

 

She snorted and stood up, walking to the door.

 

"M...Miss Parker? What do you want me to do?"

 

"Keep trying!"

 

~~~~~

 

Lyle pulled himself out of the air-vent and into the woods just outside the walls of the Centre. It was, although he didn't realize it, the same path that Jarod had taken after his escape years earlier. Tentatively, his legs still heavy from crawling along the tunnels, he began to make his way down the path, keeping the gun he had taken from the guard in his hand. He hoped fervently that he wouldn't have to do any shooting, feeling that the shaking of his hand would ruin his aim.

 

~~~~~

 

Miss Parker sat and stared blankly down at the piece of paper Sam had handed to her. It was a report written by the sweeper who had found Lyle's unconscious guard in the former prisoner's cell and showed the probable escape route. Finally she snapped her head up and glared at the man.

 

"Well, what are you standing around for? Go and find him. Now!"

 

"Yes Miss Parker." She could hear the low response as he walked through the door. Then, as the phone rang, she glared at it and picked it up.

 

"What?!"

 

"My, my, somebody's feeling cheerful today, aren't they?" Miss Parker could hear the tracer that she had ordered on every line cut in and hoped that it, at the very least, was working.

 

"Jenn, hi. God, nothing else could possibly go wrong now. Enough has already."

 

"Oh yes, what with Lyle escaping, the mainframe being damaged and no leads on Jarod, I can see how frustrating that would be."

 

"What did...how did you know about all that?"

 

"Oh come on, Parker. I designed the system. I can always find out what's going on at the Centre. In fact..."

 

The brunette stared as the computer screen in front of her flickered and an image appeared. She saw Jennifer sitting on a sofa, with an instantly recognizable child on her lap. However it was only when Jarod appeared and sat next to her, taking the baby and grinning at the camera, that Miss Parker reached for the button to activate a search.

 

"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you." The words stopped her. "After all, it would be terrible if the system were just to collapse without warning, wouldn't it?"

 

"You mean you're...you've been..."

 

"Working for the Centre?" Jennifer shrugged. "You could say that, yes. But my loyalty was always with someone else. Meet the father of my son, Miss Parker, unless, of course, you two already know each other." She grinned. "Isn't it nice that I finally have a family? After all, the Centre took from me just as much as it took from you. Surely you wouldn't deny me this happiness."

 

Miss Parker buried her head in her hands and dropped the receiver, however the speaker switched itself on and she could still hear the other woman's voice.

 

"Parker, make sure you tell Broots not to bother with the system. I can control it very easily from here and...well, it would be awful if all of the information I typed in was to be lost, wouldn't it?"

 

Jarod chortled with laughter and Miss Parker glared at the security camera in the corner of the room. At the same time, the baby began to cry softly.

 

"Oh, gotta go. It's been lovely talking to you. We must do this again some time." The phone and screen instantly switched themselves off but the computer began to reboot immediately and went through its usual start-up process as Miss Parker blindly watched. Nothing, surely, nothing else could go wrong now. She was so deep in thought that she completely missed the sound of footsteps and the small squeak of an oxygen tank as they made their way into her office.

 

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