Total Recall

Part 5 – Happy Families

 

Parker looked at the screen for the third time and then let her head sink into her hands. It just wasn't possible. Was she going mad? The telephone record had no indication that Jennifer had just called, and Raines had made no comment on the fact when he had been in her office. Maybe she was going mad. It would be quite feasible, especially considering the state of her family. She quickly accessed the program that they had always used to run searches on Jarod. As she began to type, she felt a little more comfortable. After all, if that phone call hadn't happened then it wasn't certain that anything else had either. Maybe the system...

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer curled up against the cushions on the sofa and giggled as she thought of Miss Parker's confusion. Jarod, disconnecting the camera and other equipment, joined in her amusement. Jennifer gently clasped her hands behind her head and glanced out through the streaming windowpanes at the green slopes below.

 

"I was thinking..."

 

Jarod rolled his eyes. "I feel a nightmare coming on."

 

"When did you see 'The American President'?"

 

His expression was confused. "What?"

 

"Never mind. I was thinking that maybe I should go back."

 

Jarod stared, jaw lowered. "Wha-at?"

 

"I think it's time I went back to the Centre."

 

"But...why?"

 

"Well, there's still plenty more that needs doing. And I can help you much better from in there..."

 

"Oh, yeah." Jarod's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Really well, once you're trapped inside one of those little cells, never to see the light of day again."

 

"You know what I mean. Raines still trusts me. He knows why I went. Here, look at this." She handed over a small card that Jarod hadn't seen before.

 

"What it is?"

 

"It's a congratulations card, from Raines, on Kyle’s birth."

 

"But he...why..."

 

"...didn't I show it to you before? Because I'm not that silly. I'd be perfectly safe, going back there. Nobody knows we're connected and if I know Parker, right know she's probably shaking her head, questioning her own sanity and wondering how things got that bad."

 

~~~~~

 

Miss Parker shook her head, questioned her sanity and wondered how things had got that bad. That morning everything had seemed so perfect - Lyle was helpless inside the Centre, the new system designed by Jennifer had found three new leads on Jarod and she, Parker, had realistically began to think that her days at the Centre may had been drawing to a close. She typed in the first letter on the search screen, holding her breath. Then another. However as the A followed the J, the computer instantly shut down. Damned message. 'It is now safe to turn off your computer'. She could imagine some bright, smiling little technician coming up with that phrase to make everyone else's day as painfully happy as hers was. Miss Parker slammed both palms down on the surface of the desk and jumped in shock as her computer responded to the vibration by booting up again. God, she hated this thing. Not, perhaps, in the same way that she hated Raines, but hate was hate and it ate away at you regardless. The most annoying point was that Raines knew little and cared less about her feelings and this stupid inanimate object couldn't even feel the pain she wanted to inflict upon it.

 

~~~~~

 

"One of the neighbors said he'd look after JD."

 

"And what about Kyle?"

 

"What about him?" Jennifer looked fondly down at where the small boy sat in his playpen, staring up at the mobile that Jarod had designed and built for him.

 

"Who's going to take care of him while you're locked up every day?"

 

"Sarah said she would. She has to take some time off herself."

 

"Maternity leave?"

 

"Uh huh."

 

"Must be contagious."

 

Jennifer grinned in response to Jarod's smile. "Contagious, maybe. But there's no way just yet..."

 

He tried to look innocent. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

 

~~~~~

 

Raines smiled in satisfaction as he watched Jennifer leave his office. The smile almost made the oxygen tube slip out from under his nose but he grabbed it and fixed in firmly in place. He was pleased that she was back. He tried not to think about the similarity between her and his lost daughter but it was just too unmistakable. The months that she had been away he had spent trying to work out whether he wanted her to return or not. It had been so many years but the pain never diminished. Admittedly the experiments he had carried out on Jarod had eased it a little but it was still there and nothing he could think of would remove it. To Jennifer's surprise, he not only understood but also agreed with her decision that her son would never appear at the Centre. However, he could never understand her deepest reason for that - her desperation that Raines and Kyle be kept as far apart as possible. One look would show clearly who her son's father was. Even if he hadn't had the small mole below his right eye, the dark hair and beautiful brown eyes were a dead giveaway.

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer settled in behind the familiar desk and quickly removed any new bugs that may have been placed there in her absence. She was developing a new detector, with Jarod's help of course, which would tell her where to find the bugs once she had destroyed them, but the use of that was still several weeks off, particularly with Jarod off on one of his jaunts around the country.

 

"You're back then."

 

"I certainly am." Jennifer smiled up at Sydney, who gave a half-hearted smile in return.

 

"Have you seen Parker?"

 

"No, in fact I haven't even spoken to her for a while."

 

"You know that Lyle's escaped, though, right?"

 

"I know. What I can't understand is why you haven't got him back yet. It's not all that difficult."

 

Sydney's attempt at being cool dissolved under the pressure of her pleasantries and he slipped into the chair in front of the desk. She started the computer and, after hitting a few keys, brought up a map of the Americas on the screen.

 

"What's that? An atlas."

 

"Not exactly. It's a satellite-linked map, for tracking people."

 

"What, you mean track one person in a continent of this size? That's hardly going to be possible, is it?"

 

She laughed. "Of course not, if you're only looking for him blindly. That's needle-in-a-haystack or," she grinned up at him, "pretender-finding stuff. But if you're looking for a specific point..." Jennifer pressed another few keys on the screen and one solitary yellow dot appeared on the screen. A few more keystrokes and the screen zoomed in, enlarging the state of Nebraska. "Gee, Lyle. I knew you were a sentimentalist but I never imagined you'd go to that length."

 

The sarcastic tones made Sydney smile. "How do you know it's him?

 

"It's almost impossible to be anyone else. I suggested to Raines that he put in a tiny microchip, implanted under the skin in the same way that you tag a pet, only on a different wavelength. Otherwise," Jennifer laughed, "we'd be seeing every dog and cat between here and the southern border of the States."

 

"So he's..."

 

"Townsend. Where we grew up together."

 

Sydney was about to turn when they heard Miss Parker's voice on her phone in the doorway behind him. "Townsend. Nebraska. And I want every single sweeper with us. There's no way Lyle can escape now."

 

Sydney smiled ruefully at Jennifer, who laughed. "It's all right, I knew she was there. If you're going to go with her, you might want to get a move on."

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer closed down the last of her files and, with a sigh of relief, stood up and switched off the computer. As she took down her jacket from its hook, the door of her office swung open and Miss Parker grinned at her. Jennifer smiled back.

 

"Hello. What can I do for you?"

 

Without a word, Parker moved to one side and Jennifer watched in silence as three sweepers dragged Lyle down the corridor. His total lack of movement and blindly staring eyes convinced Jennifer that Raines was aware of his return and had administered a drug to make him easier to handle. Miss Parker carefully watched the other woman's expression before moving into the room, shutting the door behind her.

 

"How can you bear that? I mean, he's your brother, for God's sake."

 

Jennifer sat down and placed her jacket on the desk. "He's yours too, remember, and he's not really my brother. I left my brother - Bobby - in Townsend, when I moved out of home. That, as he reminded me months ago, is Lyle. A completely different entity."

 

"I see." Miss Parker stared into the small mirror-globe that Jennifer had on her desk while the redhead waited for her to continue. She had been waiting for this discussion all day and a few more minutes was not difficult.

 

"Did you or did you not call me two weeks ago?"

 

"Of course I did." Miss Parker opened her mouth but Jennifer jumped in. "But the office said that you were busy looking for Lyle, who had just escaped, and that you weren't available. It was a shame because I'd been looking forward to a nice long chat."

 

Jennifer waited to see what response Miss Parker would make. Little though she liked lying, she'd begun to realize that life at the Centre involved a lot of them and that most were unavoidable. However to ensure the accuracy of her 'lie' she had phoned the main office of the Centre and her number was clearly in their records. Still, she was pretty certain that Miss Parker would only check her own listing, and not bother about the general information. It appeared that she had been right.

 

~~~~~

 

Sarah sat and rocked a sleepy Kyle as Louise sat in front of the television. The boy was incredibly advanced for a child of eight months. He had been crawling for some time already and had recently begun to walk, although he was still unsteady and needed someone to keep a constant eye on him. His speech was also well ahead of normal children, using not only single words but phrases although they often made no sense. However, Sarah reflected, considering his parentage that was hardly surprising. She glanced up, seeing a tall figure approach the house, and, through the darkening shadows of the garden, she recognized Jarod. Getting up, she put Kyle down and opened the door to let him in.

 

"Come to get your son?"

 

"I thought I'd wait for Jennifer, if you don't mind. I got someone to drop me here and she can give me a lift home."

 

It was a word Jarod loved saying. Home. It was a part of his life outside the Centre that he appreciated most of all. For a time he had felt that perhaps he would have to leave Jennifer as he had left Nia, however that moment had been bypassed by the work she did at the Centre. Sarah was preparing to hand over the child to his father when Kyle held out his hands.

 

"Da-da."

 

Jarod's face lit up in one huge beam. Sarah handed over the boy and then moved into the kitchen to begin dinner for herself and her husband.

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer pulled up Sarah's house. It had been a long day. Parker had continued to talk for more than two hours and Sydney hadn't gone with the others to bring back Lyle but had instead remained in her office, chatting to her about children and how they grew. During this conversation, Jennifer realized for the first time how much Sydney regretted not seeing his own son grow up. She knew about Nicholas, of course. Her searches through the Archives, and the detailed profiles she had made on each Centre employee had taught her a lot, mostly that the Centre liked to know everything they possibly could about everyone who worked under their direction. It was a comfort for her to see that all of the small details that she had dropped into the Centre's mainframe about her own 'past' had been picked up and given as proof of not only her life, but her loyalty also.

 

She hardly waited for the engine to stop before she was out of the car and walking up to the door. Sarah met her, a finger on her lips.

 

"What is it?" Jennifer kept her voice low and looked over as Sarah indicated something away to her left. At the sight of Jarod lying on the sofa with his son on his chest, both fast asleep, Jennifer couldn't help smiling.

 

"As a memento..." Jennifer took the photo that Sarah handed to her and looked from that to the two on the sofa.

 

At that moment Kyle woke. When he saw his mother, the boy struggled to sit up. Jennifer moved across and cuddled him to her as she walked away from Jarod. For ten minutes she and Sarah chatted until he appeared in the doorway.

 

"Do you think maybe we should head off?"

 

"How very considerate." Jennifer smiled as Jarod took Kyle. "I thought you might have wanted to stay there all night."

 

"Oh, very funny."

 

As they walked down the drive, they met Sarah's husband. Adam had gone to school with both women and he and Sarah had married soon after graduation. Jennifer and Jarod exchanged a few comments with him before getting into their car.

 

~~~~~

 

Lyle lunged against the restraints that bound him to the wall of the cell. He had not been enlightened as to the method that had been used to bring him back to the Centre, but he was determined to find out and also to escape once more. He wanted freedom so badly that he could almost taste it and he was sure that his escape this time would not end up with him back here. There had to be some place he could go where they wouldn't find him...

 

~~~~~

 

Sydney looked at the photos that he had received in the post over the last few weeks. If he hadn't known that Jarod would never be vindictive, he could almost have believed that his protégée was doing it on purpose. Nice though they were to see, the photos showed Sydney what he had missed in the growth of his own son. He threw the photos onto his coffee table and watched as they fluttered from the smooth surface to the floor, each one landing face up and in a position where he could see them clearly. He moaned and buried his face in his hands.

 

~~~~~

 

Brigitte sank down in the corner of her room. Not that it even qualified for a room, she thought bitterly. It was a cell, pure and simple. Perhaps it was a little different from the cell that had housed her for the first five months of her captivity, but still a cell. From that time she had forcibly blocked out the memory of her son and now she forgot that she even had one as she wondered what Raines had in store for her. It was unbelievable that she was still a prisoner but she reflected angrily that it clearly showed the loss of power her husband had obviously suffered. She wished that she had killed him when she had had the chance. If only his daughter hadn't interfered, she would have ended up under Raines' protection and not Mr Parker's. Having failed the Triumvirate's order, she had had to rely on her talents and skills to get her the position she had enjoyed for the time she had been free. She glared around the room and watched as the door opened.

 

~~~~~

 

Miss Parker picked up the small boy from his bed. She had virtually taken over the care of her brother and it was not a task she enjoyed. A sense of revulsion hit her every time she went near him and she had as little to do with him as possible. She had seen the increasing similarities between the boy and his father and for that reason only was she willing to take care of the child when the nanny that her father had hired was not working. It seemed unreal to her that her father now blamed her for Lyle's escape and that she was almost unable to approach him with hearing a constant stream of criticism for her lack of success. Now even he was commenting, as Raines had done in the past, on her lack of Parker instinct.

 

Jennifer placed her son in his cot and watched him for several minutes as he lay, peacefully asleep. She heard the door open and felt Jarod slip his arms around her waist as he stood behind her.

 

"He's beautiful."

 

"Just like his mother."

 

"Father," corrected Jennifer, smiling. "He looks just like you." She led Jarod out of the room and shut the door behind her.

 

"How was your week?"

 

"Busy." Jarod sighed and brushed his fingers through his hair in an unconscious sign she had learned to recognize as an indication that things weren't going well.

 

"Can I help?"

 

Jarod smiled and kissed her gently. "No, sweetheart. It's not something you can do anything about."

 

~~~~~

 

Sydney flipped through the papers on his desk without seeing anything. With a deep sigh he closed the folder and slipped it back into his filing cabinet. His thoughts, despite his best efforts, constantly went back to the two images he had recently seen - the photo of Jarod with his son and the sight of Miss Parker with her baby brother. Both beautiful but both would be better if only he, too, had had a child to watch grow.

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer glanced over and saw Jarod's head droop sleepily forward as he sat at the table in front of his computer. The usually rapid pace of his typing slowed and she watched his eyelids close before forcing themselves open several times until finally he gave up the fight against his exhaustion and sat back in the chair with his chin resting on his chest. Shivering, despite the blazing fire, as the cold eased into the room, Jennifer picked up the travel rug laying on one of the chairs nearby and slipped it around his shoulders. Then she moved the laptop away from him and visually scanned the pages that he'd accessed. Her eyes slowly widened as she read and instantly understood the situation in which Jarod was involved. Suddenly she was scared for him. She had always been nervous when he began a new pretend, aware of the dangers and risks, but now she was scared. At least, though, there was something she could do to help this time.

 

~~~~~

 

Lyle silently screamed as the needle was stabbed into his skin and then into the wall of the artery, and the fluid flowed in. It had seemed to Raines that the best thing would be to make Lyle unable to recover and to remove any further chance of escape. Raines watched with satisfaction from the observation deck as Lyle struggled against the anesthetic, but the fight was brief and the operation commenced. Raines sat down and watched with something approaching glee as Lyle's further chance of escape was removed and his chance of movement was brought to nothing. Raines had no further use for Lyle, but he wanted him under his control and it had been so very simple to get the Triumvirate to agree to this operation. Mutumbo regarded Lyle as a pest and, having failed in his task, was willing to remove him from any chance of further action within the Centre.

 

~~~~~

 

Jarod woke in the chair with a jolt and glanced around the room. Jennifer was no longer there and he imagined that she had either gone in to see Kyle or had gone to bed. Still drowsy, he failed to notice that his computer was now turned off. Moving over to the sofa, he lay down on it and sighed deeply as his eyes closed, having completely missed the note that lay on the table nearby.

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer slipped into the pub and approached the bar. Two of the men glanced over their shoulders and immediately moved over to make way for her. She picked up the glass that the barman had handed to her with a wink and turned to the man on her left.

 

"So, Jerry, how's tricks?"

 

"Oh, busy, busy. You know the deal."

 

"I do indeed." Jennifer slipped a coin onto the bar. "Got time for a chat?"

 

"With you? Always." Jerry and his friend left the bar only seconds after Jennifer and followed her into a room up the stairs. She sat on the edge of the table and the two men turned chairs so that their backs faced her and straddled them.

 

"What's up?"

 

"I need a hand."

 

"Drug-runners?"

 

"You bet. Big men too, from what I heard."

 

As she continued the conversation, the two men moved in a little closer, their interest obvious.

 

~~~~~

 

Brigitte looked up at the four unknown figures standing in the doorway. As they walked in o the room, she shrank back against the bed but stayed silent during the walk to Raines' office. Standing by his desk was a figure that she instantly recognized, however Brigitte wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad sign that she saw Mutumbo there, a stern expression on his face and his arms folded across his chest. He eyed her up and down before looking at Raines.

 

"I want her." His voice boomed through the room.

 

"You shall have her. At the price we agreed." Immediately the woman cringed. She was being sold? Like a slave?

 

"She shall join the other women in my harem. I've long wanted a white woman. She will compliment the others."

 

"What you do with her is of no concern to me. She is yours and you may take her immediately."

 

Mutumbo nodded to the men who fastened chains to her wrists and waist before escorting her out of the building. She suddenly wanted to cry, to protest. A fleeting memory of her son assailed her and she tried to go back, to beg Raines to change his mind, but the men forced her onward. A member of his harem? A sex-slave? And as Mutumbo had paid for her, there was no way she could ever return to the Centre. She was pushed into a seat on a lavish jet that she had seen only once, when Mutumbo had come to the Centre to bring the clone to Africa. Now she watched as he left the building and climbed into the jet and she could smell the alcohol on his breath as he sat in the seat beside her.

 

~~~~~

 

Lyle looked around at the clear plastic wall of the bubble that was now his room and home. He had had no idea of what Raines had intended to do to him but not in his worst nightmares had he imagined this. Rubbing the scar on his chest that showed where the new heart had been implanted, he swallowed the anti-rejection tablets lying beside his meal. He had the choice. Either take the tablets and live in this plastic globe, or refuse to take the tablets and die a slow death as his body rejected the new heart. Glancing up from his meal, he saw the woman standing at the window and looking down into the room at him.

 

"What do you want?" The snarl had no impact considering his situation.

 

"I just wanted to make sure that you've fully recovered from that horrible surgery, my dear twin brother," Parker cooed, but her eyes gleamed as she took in his situation. "At least we now know beyond doubt that you actually have a heart. It was always questionable before, you know."

 

Lyle muttered something incomprehensible and glared at her from beneath his lowered lids. He lunged at the window but the pain from the wound in his chest made him stop as the bubble rocked alarmingly. Miss Parker reached down to the floor beside her and picked up the baby.

 

"Lyle, meet your brother. This is Robert." Lyle glanced up but paid little attention, however his sister wasn't disconcerted.

 

"Well, I just wanted to see how my darling brother was. Must dash. Got to keep up the hunt for Jarod, after all. I'd hate to be sent to Africa to become a member of Mutumbo's seraglio, like our dear stepmommy was. Bye." She fluttered her fingers at him as he stared up at her through the plastic and glass and left the observation area with her baby brother in her arms.

 

~~~~~

 

Jennifer dropped the newspaper on the table and put on the kettle. She really needed a cup of strong coffee. It had been a long and very busy night but she was happy that the situation in which Jarod had potentially been involved was now solved. As she blew to cool the drink down, she glanced at the headline in satisfaction: 'Contaminated Drugs Swooped On In Raid'. A small sound from the bedroom took her in there and she scooped up her son with a sigh of gratitude. It was useful that she still had contact with Jerry and Mick, two of the boys taken in by her parents at one time. Although she didn't really approve of the way they worked, it was always good to have connections in areas like that. When her son was satisfied, she laid him down again in his bed and then went into her own room. Lying down in bed beside Jarod, slipping an arm around his waist, she was quickly asleep.

 

~~~~~

 

Sydney watched the footage of the jet taking off from the runway. He hadn't been able to account for Miss Parker's cheerfulness until he learned who had arrived and had seen Brigitte brought to Raines' office by several of Mutumbo's men. In fact, the atmosphere in the Centre had improved greatly since both Lyle and Brigitte had ceased to be active members, and particularly since Jennifer had returned to work.

 

~~~~~

 

Raines fingered the notes that crinkled between his fingers. He was staring out of the window but turned as Mr Parker stormed into the room.

 

"Where is my wife?"

 

"You ex-wife is no longer within the Centre."

 

"What do you mean, ex-wife?" Mr. Parker hissed, his eyes narrow. "What have you done with her, William?"

 

Raines reached out and drew a folder to him. Pulling out a form, he held it up for Mr. Parker to read. The man's face turned red as he looked back at Raines. "I never wrote this."

 

"You must have. Your signature is on the bottom of the paper. Your marriage has been null and void for the last three months and Mutumbo has taken Brigitte to his office in Africa. The only way for you to see her again is for you to follow her there, and if you do and succeed in returning to Delaware, you will, of course, not be welcome back here."

 

Mr. Parker understood the implied threat and turned on his heel without a word, leaving the office.

 

~~~~~

 

Jarod threw the paper down in front of where Jennifer was eating lunch, a look of amazement on his face.

 

"What do you know about that?"

 

Jennifer smiled. "Is that a hypothetical question?"

 

"No."

 

"Only what I read when I bought it this morning. I'm glad to see something like that stopped. If people need drugs, it's better, and safer, that they be pure and not mixed with other potentially fatal substances, I suppose." She smiled again as she spread jam on to a piece of bread but bent her head over the paper to try to hide the smile from Jarod. "Why do you ask?"

 

"Oh...no reason."

 

~~~~~

 

Miss Parker put her baby brother down on his bed and stood for a few seconds, watching him sleep. She heard the footsteps behind her and turned to see her father in the doorway.

 

"You'll make a wonderful mother, you know."

 

"If I ever get that chance."

 

Mr Parker's mouth tightened as his daughter turned back to the cot.

 

"Please, Angel. You're all the family I've got now. Don't turn against me." He held out his arms in mute appeal and, after a second's hesitation, Parker went to him.

 

~~~~~

 

Jarod was clearing the last of his belongings out of the police locker when Mick approached him, hiding a grin as he looked at the man, having been told by his one-time sister who he was, and recalled the night of hard work, now two days earlier.

 

"You're leaving, then?"

 

"Yup. Got a transfer interstate. I need to fill the position immediately or miss it."

 

"Well, good luck." The two men shook hands and then Jarod picked up his bags. He was going to have a break before his next job, he hoped. He wanted to spend some time with his family.

 

~~~~

 

Jarod came in to the bedroom as the moon shone in through the window, to find Jennifer sitting in the rocking chair near the bed and humming a song under her breath, the baby in her arms.

 

"What's that?"

 

"It's a lullaby."

 

"A what?"

 

"A song you sing to children to make them go to sleep, like the one you told me that your mother sang to you."

Jarod looked down at his son. "It seemed to work." He took Kyle from her arms and put him down in his cot.

 

Jennifer stood up and stretched before leaving the room, preceding Jarod down the hall and into the kitchen, where she put a large covered dish into the microwave.

 

"What's that?"

 

"Your dinner, if you want it."

 

"Definitely. I didn't get lunch today."

 

"Why not?"

 

"No time."

 

"What, were you chasing crooks around or something?" Jennifer smiled and glanced out of the window however, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jarod blush and look sharply at her.

 

~~~~~

 

Sydney stood nervously on the doorstep. He had spent hours debating what to do but he knew that he had to do something about the whole circumstance. He couldn't bear to leave things the way they were at present and, after sitting at his desk and staring blankly at the wall in front of him for almost the entire day, he had finally picked up the phone.

 

"Hello, Michelle? This is Sydney. I'd like to see you. Can I pick you up for dinner?

 

Part 6

 

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