"What! What are you doing? Outta my way," the young woman glanced over her shoulder. Her lips were parted and an expression of worry filled her eyes.

"I'm sorry! I didn't see you in the dark," the man replied, also looking over his own shoulder as he spoke and his breath came rapidly.

"That's what I'm counting on," she replied as he helped her somewhat clumsily to her feet.

He didn't immediately release the hand he had offered in assistance. "You're frightened," he said, giving her a questioning look.

He blocked her path. "You don't want to go that way," he assured her. A mutual understanding passed swiftly between them. Both were running. Both needed to hide. Neither had time to explain. "Come on."

They ran down a dark alleyway, hand in hand, so as not to lose each other in the dark. The sounds of footsteps behind them reached their ears.

"Wait! Down there," she pointed.

In another moment, the man was replacing the manhole cover. He gripped the cold rungs and climbed down the ladder. The man and woman huddled in the dark at the bottom of the metal ladder. A chilly draft blew up from the sewage tunnel and a pungent smell came with it. They held their breath and listened in silence to the noises overhead.

Footsteps echoed above and then the noises of an engine followed. A car door slammed and a male voice that seemed louder than the rest bellowed, "Don't you tell me you've lost her!" There was a muffled reply. "What do you mean a woman stopped you? Who is she?" There was a sudden shift in the speaker's voice and his tone was that of controlled fear, "I advise you ma'am to put down your weapon. FBI. Agent Trelawney." He apparently was showing some ID. "Obstruction of justice is a serious offense."

A voice edged with ice but clearly feminine floated down to them. "If you have your sidekick put away his gun, I will."

There was a pause.

"Hearney. Put it away," Trelawney directed. "We're searching for a woman in her mid-twenties. Brown hair, brown eyes. Her name is Liz Marx and she's a very dangerous terrorist. If you've seen her..."

"I haven't. My sweepers have been combing this area looking for a man named Jarod. We would have noticed her. Have you seen him?" She must have held up a photo. "He's wanted for everything in the book."

"No," Trelawney's voice seemed calmer now. "But we'd be the first to know. And your name was...?"

"No time to chit chat. I have a job to do. Let's move, people!" The footsteps began again and the sound of the engine roaring to life until these sounds blended together creating a din and then grew fainter and fainter until they died softly away into the night.

There was a soft sound as the two listeners below stopped holding their breaths. The woman squinted as a bright light suddenly flashed in her face, displaying her bright brown eyes and the similar tone of her hair plainly to the man who held the flashlight. She blinked and held up her hands to shield her face and then quavered, "Jarod? It's not what you think."

The man, who did not object to being called Jarod, replied, "Who are you?"

"My name is Angela Bennett. I accidentally discovered a group of computer terrorists called the Praetorians. They erased my life. They made me into a criminal."

"Why?"

"They thought I knew something." Angela clutched the front of her sweater and twisted it. "But I didn't. But now I want some answers and I'm not going to stop until I get my life back."

"And I should believe this because...?"

"Because if it happened to me, it could happen to you. To anyone. They have to be stopped," she replied, earnestly. "And you can't be perfect, you weren't hiding down here to keep me company."

Jarod redirected the flashlight beam so that it no longer glared in her face.

Taking heart at this action, Angela continued. "Look, I know it sounds crazy. Running from a secret organization...on some type of quest for the truth." She pressed her hands together, attempting to steady her nerves.

Jarod made a clicking noise with his tongue. "Not really."

Angela looked at him in surprise. "You mean you actually believe me?"

Jarod grinned and said, "It's good to meet you, Angela."

Angela slowly returned the smile. "It's good to meet you too, Jarod. If I may call you that." Her eyes had finally adjusted to the light and she saw his eyes were brown and his smile, genuine. He didn't object to the name.

They shook hands.

"Why do you believe me, Jarod?" Angela asked, pointedly.

Jarod sniffed and said, "Why don't I explain in a place where there's more pleasant aromas?"

"Hmm," Angela breathed in the fragrant odor from her cup of gourmet coffee and then remarked, "Now that that's what I call a pleasant aroma."

The waiter set a plate of salad in front of her and then spooned the dressing of her choice onto the plate. "Are you ready to order?" the waiter asked.

"Yes," Jarod replied, coming out from behind his menu. "I have a question for you though. This dish...Min...a... stroni," he tapped the menu. "Now what exactly is it?"

"Um, Jarod," Angela interrupted. "Have you ever eaten Italian before? That's a type of vegetable soup."

"Oh," Jarod said, "I'll have that."

The waiter nodded and took their menus away.

"So now are you going to explain why a man like you who was just hiding with me in the sewer a few hours ago has the cash to buy me a change of clothes and now treat me to this fancy dinner?"

"If you tell me...who is Trelawney?"

Angela shook her head and took another bite of salad. "I've already told you, Jarod. You know as much as you'll ever want to know about him. What about you? I don't even know your last name."

Jarod grew serious. He folded his hands under his chin and replied, "I don't know it. When I was very young, I was taken from my family. The people who took care of me after that did everything to make me forget them."

"No," Jarod replied. "Her name is Miss Parker. She works for a corporation known as the Centre. That's where I grew up."

"Those people took you away from your family. Why would they do something like that?"

"I'm what they call a Pretender. I have the unique ability to become anyone I want to be. While at the Centre, they made me do simulations and then..." Jarod paused. "They used and sold the results of the simulations to make terrible things happen." A sad look clouded Jarod's eyes.

Jarod nodded.

"A race car driver?"

Nod.

"Um..." Angela looked up at the ceiling trying to think of something harder. "A doctor? A lawyer?"

Nod. Nod.

"An astronaut?"

Once again, Jarod nodded and he was smiling again.

Angela burst into laughter. "No way!" she said. Then, she realized he was absolutely serious. "You really must be a genius then. And you do this while you're searching for your family?"

"Well," Jarod replied. "When I pretend, it's to help people."

It was Angela's turn to look serious. "Jarod," she asked. "Could you help me get to a computer?"

"Broots!" Miss Parker's voice came over the phone so loudly that the computer tech flinched and held the phone away from his ear.

"Um, speak...speaking," Broots muttered reluctantly.

"I want you to pull up everything you can about a Liz Marx and an agent of the FBI. I think he was called Trelawney. Understood?"

Broots had picked up a pencil and was trying to scribble the key words down while balancing the phone between his head and shoulder.

"Broots!" Miss Parker cried, impatiently. "Are you there?"

"Yeah, yeah. Marx. FBI. Tray...no Tra-lawn-ee. Trelawney. I got it. How's Sydney?" Broots asked. The phone slipped out from under his chin and he made a grab for it, catching it before it could hit the floor. He half wished that he had been allowed to go on the trip with Miss Parker and Sydney, but the other half was content to stay in the relative safety of the Tech room.

"Oh. Just as analytical as ever. Get to work. I'll call you in one hour."

Miss Parker's phone snapped shut and she turned to Sydney.

Sydney shook his head. "I do not see the point of this, Miss Parker. Jarod is not the type of person to shield criminals."

"No," Miss Parker agreed. "But he protects the innocent."

Angela swiftly ran her fingers over the keys of the computer like it was an old friend. The words "Online chat--Sorcerer" appeared at the bottom of the screen as she accessed a private chat room. A chat screen appeared and blue words scrolled up on the screen as a cultured voice was heard over the connection along with the words that had appeared.

"And yet," Trelawney breathed. "The enemy is stalked. The enemy escapes. Each time she learns something new."

"She makes mistakes," Hearney said, joining the conversation with a bored tone. He privately thought that Trelawney admired that girl too much. He scowled at the picture as if it was only good for target practice and then walked off to look at another computer screen.

"Kelly," Trelawney motioned and immediately Anna went and took a seat at a computer, raising her fingers over the keyboard and looked over at him with a questioning readiness.

"What have you found on the woman who hampered our capture of my enemy?"

Anna's fingers fell to the board and a hundred clicking noises arose from it. The wall projection now changed to an auburn-haired woman who was standing on the street conversing with a white-haired man.

Kelly's voice now narrated the pictures on the screen. "Her name is Miss Parker and her companion is a man named, Sydney. They originate from a place called Blue Cove, Delaware. Their purpose..."

The projection changed to Miss Parker holding up a photo and questioning someone walking across the street.

"To find and capture a man known only as Jarod. Jarod is on a mission to defend the innocent and he is a genius. What he is capable of and his whereabouts we were unable to attain. Which can mean only one thing."

Kelly nodded.

The projection changed once more to a still of Miss Parker's face. "Do you want her deleted, sir?" she asked, her eyes gleamed at the prospect while her face remained immobile.

"Why bother? She knows nothing." Trelawney frowned, picking up a device and clicking backwards and forwards through the pictures they had just viewed.

Kelly pushed her chair away from the computer and studied him as she awaited instructions.

Trelawney spoke. "This Jarod character...he sounds familiar, does he not? Defending the innocent? Doesn't it remind you of our elusive but brilliant escape artist? And how strange of them to disappear from their pursuing parties at the exact same time." He looked at Kelly.

She listened in silence, awaiting the point he was trying to make. She looked back at him in expectancy. "So--" she began. She stopped suddenly and adjusted the headphones on her head in a listening attitude.

"What?" Trelawney asked. "What is it?"

Anna Kelly stood up. "Operation Green has entered the third phase."

Trelawney motioned across the room to Hearney. "Let's go." The three headed out the door.

Angela handed Jarod a printout from a newspaper article. "This is Albert Fitzgerald, billionaire. And this is his daughter, Hannah." She handed him a photograph of a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl riding a bicycle.

"She's been kidnapped," Jarod stated.

"Yes," Angela nodded, raising her eyebrows. "How did you know?"

Jarod pulled a red notebook from his jacket pocket. He opened it to a page and pointed to the same picture of Hannah. "Something I was working on," he explained. "When I heard she'd been kidnapped and how hard her father had been searching for her I knew I had to help. But how are you involved in all this? What does it have to do with the Praetorians?"

"It has everything to do with the Praetorians," Angela assured him. "I was supposed to prevent the kidnapping from happening. But when I went to get Hannah the Praetorians had already gotten to her first. I just barely escaped."

"How did you know the Praetorians were planning to kidnap Fitzgerald's daughter?" asked Jarod, who only begun working to find the kidnapped girl after the fact.

Angela hesitated a moment. "There's someone I'm working with. He's good at getting information on the Praetorians. Sorcerer. We hope someday the info we've been gathering will be enough to stop the Praetorians. In the meantime, we do what we can."

Jarod cocked his head with interest. "He's the one you wanted to talk with privately when you were using the computer."

"Yes," admitted Angela with a sheepish grin, remembering how Jarod had left her in the computer lab and conveniently made himself scarce when she had wanted to talk to Sorcerer.

Jarod listened silently as Angela explained further. He seemed particularly interested when somehow the name Evan Bennett slipped into her explanation of what had happened to her.

"Who's Evan Bennett?" Jarod interrupted.

"My father," Angela said, trying to hurry over that part to Sorcerer's plan of action.

"When did he disappear?" Jarod asked a moment later.

"In 1984," Angela said in exasperation. Discussion of her father was a taboo subject most of the time. She found it too painful to talk about him. "Now please, pay attention. This part is important. What I have asked of you is extremely dangerous. These people are ruthless and..." Angela swallowed hard. "Remember how I told you they killed my best friend and framed me for it. Well, that isn't all. Anyone who gets close to me is at major risk. If they find out you're helping me, they'll go after you too. You may have to leave the country--Change your whole identity. And even then, nothing's guaranteed."

Change his identity? Jarod kept back a grin. His identity was safe...even he didn't know it. And he changed it every week.

Jarod didn't appear worried, at least not for himself. He looked at Angela's face with concern though, sensing something else underlying her warning and asked, "What happened?". Angela appeared close to tears and as there were no time for tears, she stood up and said, "No use dwelling in the past. Maybe I'll tell you about it later. Right now, if you still want to do this, I guess we should get started."

Jarod nodded. "Do I get to meet Sorcerer?"

Angela tilted her head and with quick wit began to poke fun, "I don't know, do you?" Without explaining she grabbed her bag and headed for the door. Jarod picked up his own case and followed.

"Well?" Miss Parker's voice once again blared over the connection and once again Broots held the phone away from his ear before responding.

"I checked the computer and it all checks out. Liz Marx is said to be an international terrorist. Very dangerous. She has a long record and is known most for cyber hacking and electronic espionage. I'd hate to be in her shoes."

"What about Trelawney?"

"I'm at a loss there, Miss Parker. I looked into the FBI files and found him but..."

"But what?"

"It was strange. I can't explain it. Something wasn't exactly right about it. Maybe if I had more than just the name..."

"Find out what it is!"

But before she could discover the answer to that mystery, she had been forced to flee and Copper Canyon had been destroyed.

"This is it, Jarod," Angela said. "This building is owned by the Praetorians. This is where Hannah is."

Jarod looked up at the tall building. "You and Sorcerer are absolutely certain about that?" he asked. He silently assessed the building, weighing it weaknesses and strengths.

"Yes, Sorcerer did some hacking and that's how he found out she's being kept here. The Praetorians were trying to extort money from Mr. Fitzgerald but for once they couldn't find anything to use against him."

"Except his daughter," Jarod replied with a determined look. "Let's go." He opened the door and got out.

Angela exited the vehicle also. The two walked to the back of the pickup in order to unload it. Angela was excited. "Okay...well this a great plan to get in the building...but as for getting out...well, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she said.

Jarod agreed gravely. "But however we get out, it'll have to undetectable."

"We can't risk them seeing you, Jarod."

"Then, I'll work on being as invisible as I can," Jarod said.

"Good." Angela held a mop with a bulky head, while Jarod pushed a large mop bucket filled with supplies. The interlopers walked into the building and past the front desk without being questioned.

Once inside the janitorial closet their uniforms underwent a dramatic change and instead of the janitorial apparel they now wore black jumpsuits. Jarod pulled out a laptop computer from the mop bucket, while Angela secured some lengths of rope and cords, a few pulleys and a screwdriver. Then, they slunk out of the closet and crept down the hallway until they reached their desired location. A room with a computer that hooked into the security systems of the entire building.

"Well, Broots. What have you got?" Miss Parker challenged him.

Broots was ready. "Miss Parker, you're not going to believe this."

"Try me."

"I called the FBI and asked to speak to Agent Trelawney."

"And?" asked Miss Parker, sharply.

"Nobody who actually works at the Bureau has ever heard of him. It's like he only exists in the computer database."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning he is one good hacker."

"More or less. He's wasted my time and I won't rest until I get to the bottom of this. And this Liz Marx. Is he working with her?"

"Not that I can tell," Broots replied with a thinking tone in his voice.

"What is it?" Miss Parker demanded.

"Nothing," Broots replied.

"Spill it!"

"I," Broots hesitated. "Well, I was thinking. If this Sean Trelawney could forge a FBI identity maybe he's forged others. And if he's forged others maybe I can find out what those are...and if I find out..."

"Then, you could zero in on him and tell me his possible location now," Miss Parker mused. "Do it! Get back to me as soon as you gotten the information. I want to know everything you find out about this character. And..."

"I know. Call you as soon I find it."

"Good boy!" Miss Parker approved.

"This is their security grid..." Jarod brought up the display on the laptop computer which he had hooked undetected into the building's security systems.

Angela peered over his shoulder at the screen, watching with admiration. "Whoa! Already? I couldn't have done a smoother job myself. I'll have to tell Sorcerer he has some competition."

Jarod nodded. "Now the floors below the floor where Hannah is are very carefully patrolled and guarded, but the floors up above...."

Angela understood. "They don't figure anyone will get past them to up there so they only put a low-level security in place."

Jarod handed her a page of schematics with clearly defined locations. "You sure you can do this?" he asked.

"I'm on it," Angela said, taking it. She sat down and placed the laptop computer in her lap. She flexed her fingers over the keyboard. "Now, you'll get to see a little of my work, Jarod. I'm no super genius like you, but when it comes to computers...Magic!"

Jarod smiled and pulled out his climbing gear.

A triumphant laugh came from Angela's direction. "You've got a clear path on this level to Elevator three, Jarod."

The Pretender nodded and stuck a listening device into his ear, ran down the hallway, safely reached the elevator without detection and their plans were set in motion.

"Cut to the chase, Broots! The address! Now."

"Your best chance at finding Trelawney is at a law firm affliated with," Broots began to fill her in on the details.

Miss Parker scribbled it down and said, "A law firm? What would an FBI agent want with a law firm, Broots?"

"I think its safe to say that the entire FBI thing was a lie. This guy is smart and very good with computers, believe me. You'd almost think that a whole group was behind this and that--"

"Then, this firm is just a front for whatever really is behind it." Miss Parker cut him off with a question. "The location is close? Very close, Broots? Good. Send me the quickest route there and be quick."

Sydney broke in. "Miss Parker...perhaps it would be wisest to wait for the sweeper team and--".

"Wait!" Miss Parker would hear no more. She held up her hand. "And lose another chance to catch, Jarod? We go now, Syd or I go alone."

The hunched figure of a little girl sat in the chair of the spacious, but dark office. What little light entering the room filtrated through the half-open door. Shadows passed by the door occasionally, blocking the light and making shivers run up and down her spine.

She had always been afraid of the dark.

Voices floated to her occasionally, wisps of words that her ears strained to listen to and occasionally managed to catch a few phrases, none of which she could truly comprehend. Her ears did not find what they sought. They quested for a kind word, a familiar voice among the strangers who had taken her away from all she had ever known.

But she heard nothing like that and as she sat in the semi-darkness she only knew that she had been taken away, snatched without warning, blindfolded for the duration of a terrifying ride and brought to this awful place.

There weren't any telephones in the room. Her eyes had searched for one everywhere, but the attempt to locate a means of calling '911' had failed.

And she was up so high! She didn't dare look out those huge glass windows to view the dizzying heights or think about how far the ground was below.

During the daylight hours she had courageously spoken against her captors. "Wait til my daddy comes! Then, you'll be sorry." But as the hours passed, her courage waned and the tide of fear threatened to rise up and engulf her. What if nobody came? What if she was stuck with these strangers forever?

Then, a movement at the window attracted her attention.

Her curiosity rose above her fears. She slipped out of her chair, carrying the flower-covered notebook she had been clutching to her heart, and went to investigate.

There was a cord dangling down and a man was attached to to it, climbing down the outside of the building! He gestured silently to her, asking her to open the window.

After only a moment's hesitation, she dropped her notebook and pulled the latch of the window, partially openly it.

In another moment, the man had opened the window the rest of the way and entered the room, detaching himself from the cord.

"How did you get up here?" asked Hannah. She was so in awe of the amazing feat that she forgot to be afraid. "How did you know how to do that?"

"Spiderman," whispered Jarod with a twinkle in his eye, cautioning her to be quiet with a finger over his lips. His brown eyes beamed kindly at her. He bent so that his eyes were level with hers. "You must be Hannah. I'm Jarod. My friend and I are going to help you get back to your father. I know he's worried about you. Will you trust me?"

Hannah's eyes grew wide and she nodded, hopefully.

Anna Kelly sat silently on the passenger side of a dark unobtrusive looking car. The man who was the driver had his eyes fixed upon a wastebasket--the scheduled meeting place--on the street corner, poised to alert her at the slightest sign of movement. Kelly was wearing headphones and typing on a portable computer in front of her.

Trelawney's voice came to her ear. "Kelly. Report."

"There's no movement yet, sir," replied Kelly, still absorbed in looking at the screen of her computer. Even as she sat here awaiting the final phase of Operation Green, Kelly was still scanning for signs of the whereabouts of Trelawney's chief prey. If the authorities arrested or brought Liz Marx into custody, if anyone so much as accessed the file on Liz Marx, then the Praetorians knew about it.

"What about my enemy?" Trelawney inquired.

"Currently no activity," Kelly replied. Then, she continued, "I'm paying close attention to the areas around the last known location of her whereabouts. If she's out there, we'll find her."

Trelawney accepted this with resignation. "Keep me updated. The cut-off deadline for Operation Green is twelve midnight. Fitzgerald has until then to get the money to us. Trelawney out."

"I don't like it," said Hearney, sullenly.

He watched Trelawney remove the audio transmitter from his ear and turn to look at him with amusement. "What is it now, Hearney?"

Hearney looked disturbed. "This was your brain child. If Operation Green fails, it will be on our heads. I was thinking about the chairman."

"Shut up, Hearney. Leave the thinking to me. Upstairs, in the form of a child, sits the ticket to millions upon millions of dollars. I'm going to check in with security." He put the transmitter back in his ear and hit a button on a nearby computer counsel. A frown came over his face. Trelawney turned with annoyance at the sound of loud knocking over the connection. "Copeland," he demanded, when security answered his call. "Who is making that infernal racket?"

"It's a woman, sir," Copeland answered, timidly. "She's beating at the front door of the building. I think she's shouting your name."

Trelawney sighed. "Tell them to open the door. I'll be right there."

"Well, if it isn't the good Agent Trelawney," grinned Miss Parker as she and Sydney were ushered into Trelawney's temporary office.

Trelawney did not look in the least bit shocked to see her. "Miss Parker," he said, coyly. "We meet on a name to name basis. What brings you all the way from Blue Cove, Delaware? I hear they have lovely weather this time of year."

Miss Parker's grin didn't seem to be as wide as it had been before, but otherwise she seemed unrattled by Trelawney's knowledge of her. "My reason for being here is simple. I'm still after Jarod and you happen to be my last link to him. Your Liz Marx/FBI story doesn't hold water."

"Liz Marx is a very dangerous terroist," counseled Trelawney.

Miss Parker gave a wry laugh. "And you're not?"

Trelawney pressed his hands together calmly. "This could be a serious case of the kettle calling the pot black. I assume you yourself aren't from any governmental agency?"

Sydney, standing next to Miss Parker, watched Trelawney warily. Be careful how you answer that, Parker, he thought. He wondered if he was the only one noting the dangerous gleam in Trelawney's eye.

But Miss Parker hadn't been raised around Centre personnel for nothing. She had developed sharp perceptions. She knew when to tell the truth. "I assume you don't ask questions you already have the answers to. I'm from a private corporation," said Miss Parker. "It's important I find Jarod. If you know anything. Anything that would help lead me to him, the Centre would be prepared to make it worth your while." It was Miss Parker's turn to smile coyly.

Trelawney rose up from behind the desk where he had been sitting and put his hands in his pockets. He leaned against his desk, still the very picture of calm, and said, "Our goals really aren't that different, are they? There's no reason then, to act like we are on opposing teams. Why not form a partnership?"

Jarod was facing a dilemna.

Just outside the room where he had found Hannah, he had counted at least three guards in the hallway. Two were sitting at a card table playing cards. The third was seated at a security monitor, apparently scanning the various levels of the building for unusual movement. They were blocking the way to the elevators. In a normal Pretend of his, these obstacles would have posed no problem at all.

He would have marched out into their midst pretending to be extra security, security sent to test the skills of the existing system that was set in place. He would have used the momentary confusion and uncertainty caused by this in order to distract the guards away from their posts and, in the ensuing melee, taken Hannah to safety.

But Angela had told Jarod this was not an option. The Praetorians ignorance of Jarod's involvement was to serve as his chief protection. There were security cameras placed about the building and, even if Jarod attempted to hide his face, simply knowing the fact someone had dared go up against them would make the Praetorians add Jarod to their 'Most Wanted' list. Eventually, using their high tech methods, they would find out it was Jarod and begin their own pursuit of him.

It was too dangerous. They were dealing with the Praetorians whom Angela had gone up against before and knew better than anyone else. "How would you usually fight corruption, while at the same time protecting yourself from discovery?" Angela had asked him. "You would put things out on the Internet, mail incriminating information to the proper authorities, wouldn't you? But all that stuff gets processed by computers, Jarod, and the Praetorians have strategicly placed people almost everywhere. The moment the word "Praetorian" hit the net, they would delete it. The moment whatever you mailed to the authorities crossed the wrong desk, all the good people involved with working the case would be mysteriously replaced, bought off, or silenced and the records of what you mailed would become non-existent in the computer databases."

Jarod listened intently to the conversation of the guards outside the room, hoping to get a clue of what might happen next. He had devised the plan and method used to reach Hannah, but here was where his part of the plan ended. He was used to having everything planned out to the last detail, but Angela seemed to be the queen of improvisation. Angela knew this organization. Computers were her field. So Jarod waited in the room with Hannah, comforting the child, and waiting to see the first demonstrations of Angela's computer wizardy.

Then, the alarm bells sounded.

"What's that?" Miss Parker asked, suddenly.

Trelawney paused in the middle of a sentence and then pressed a button on his desk. "Copeland? What's going on out there?"

"I'm showing a security breach, sir," Copeland's alarmed voice crackled over the intercom.

"What's happened to our communications?"

"System failures and malfunctions, sir."

"Check our surveillance. Location?"

"I'm...I'm not sure sir. These readings and--" There was static. "I'm getting are erratic."

Miss Parker moved towards the door, but one of Trelawney's men blocked her path. "What is this?" she turned to look at him. "The man I'm looking for may be here right now and I'm the only one who knows his tricks." Trelawney didn't answer her right away, she began to lose her patience. She felt like she was nearly jumping out of her skin. "I have to catch him! Trelawney! He and that girl you're looking for may be getting away as we speak!"

The guards outside Hannah's room leapt to their feet as the alarms sounded. "We've got a breach," said the man at the security monitor. The other two men dropped their cards and one of them asked, anxiouxly, "What are you talking about, Benson?"

Just then, one of the two elevators in the hallway began to hum. The lights of its buttons lit up as it moved to their level and stopped on the floor. The elevator's doors parted.

"What is that?" asked the security monitor man called Benson. "Don't just stand there, you two!" he commanded the other guards. The men were standing dumbfoundedly by the card table. "Check it out!" When neither moved to obey, he singled one out. "Stevens!"

Stevens approached the elevator car cautiously and entered it. "No one's here," commented he, mystified.

Benson looked at the man who stood by the card table and the guard promptly followed Stevens. "He's right," grumbled the guard. "Nothing's here." A thought occurred to him. "And none of us pressed the button for this level. Why'd it stop here?"

Benson didn't believe anything he hadn't seen with own eyes. He too, stepped into the elevator car and began to tap the wall suspiciously.

The elevator doors hissed shut suddenly, confining the three inside the elevator.

Stevens jumped. "Stupid! You pressed the button!"

"No, I didn't, moron!" yelled the nameless guard.

"Don't look at me!" snapped Benson, desperately trying to open the doors up again.

"But if I didn't press the button and you didn't press the button, then who--"

The elevator lurched as it began to move.

Jarod peeked out into the hallway. He had watched the antics of the guards with interest when the three disappeared onto the elevator and did not return. A moment later, the light of the security camera scanning the hallway blinked off.

The second elevator's doors parted, revealing Angela standing there, grinning. "Going my way?" she asked.

Jarod shepherded Hannah out of the room, across the hallway, and onto the elevator.

"Benson? Is our charge secure? Benson? Why don't you answer me? BENSON!" Three creases appeared in Trelawney's brow. "Go!" Trelawney cried, giving permission for Miss Parker to leave the office. He jumped up himself, suddenly seized by the thrill of his own chase. Angela Bennett, his dear enemy, could be here in this very building. Her boldness surprised and invigorated him. He put on his jacket. "You shouldn't have risked entering my domain. It's your humanity that will be your undoing, Angela," he said under his breath, exiting the room.

Miss Parker was off like a bolt of lightning. She ran directly to the security station in the hall and snapped at the woman at the computer. The one Trelawney had addressed over the intercom as Copeland. "This breach of yours? Where is it?"

Trelawney was right at Miss Parker's heels. He too leaned over the station, wishing for a moment that Kelly wasn't working on Operation Green because she certainly would have already located the causers of the breach by now. Amanda Copeland was slow in comparison. "Benson, hasn't checked in. Find out what's going on up there, Copeland! Hearney, get some people up there! Surround Floor fifteen. Above and below."

Miss Parker watched Trelawney giving orders and glanced at her watch. At this rate, Jarod, if he was here, would be long gone. She rushed over to an elevator and pressed the button. Trelawney was evidently concerned about something on the upper floor, so whatever it was might be something or someone worth protecting. Which meant, to Jarod, something or someone worth saving. If so, that was where Jarod would be found, but only if she hurried.

The alarms continued to sound as throughout the building, areas seemed to be falling into continuous system's failures. The lights blinked on and off without rhyme nor reason. The security cameras panned in wrong or pointless directions while some shut off altogether.

"There's been a system wide compromise," reported Copeland, who was in charge of coordinating technical security while Kelly was away. Her eyes were glued to her screen and she listened to reports over her headphones from the other security personnel about the situation.

"A virus?" asked Trelawney.

"A foreign program, yes," agreed Copeland.

"Well, you are the computer expert on the job. Attempt to purge it!"

"I'm trying, sir."

Miss Parker impatiently waited for the elevator. "Don't you have any people on that level that can intercept your intruders?" She spotted Hearney and associates heading for a door marked "Stairs" and plunged after them into the darkened stairwell, oblivious to Sydney's concerned cry.

The elevator moved steadily downwards. Angela had Jarod's laptop computer tucked under her arm. She knelt to be eye to eye with Hannah. "Hi, sweetie. I'm Angela. You look like you're feeling a little scared?"

Hannah nodded. One of her hands clung to Jarod's with a vise-like grip.

"Did those men hurt you?" asked Angela gently.

"They scared me," sniffed Hannah.

Angela touched Hannah's shoulder sympatheticly. "It's okay to be scared. They scare me to, but that doesn't mean we're gonna let them win. We're gonna get you out of here, kiddo."

The grip on Jarod's hand loosened and Hannah relaxed visibly at Angela's comforting words.

Jarod looked at Angela, approvingly. He kept his tone steady, but his eyes were concerned. "What are all of these alarms? I got you in past the system security. What tripped them?"

Angela smiled at him. "It's something extra I've been working on. I think your Miss Parker is here too, Jarod. It was an unexpected arrival. We needed a diversion." Angela held up a disk. "Call it a parting gift. Especially designed for the Praetorians."

"Miss Parker is here?" asked Jarod in surprise.

But before Angela could answer, a sudden jolt threw the occupants of the elevator off balance.

Their elevator had lurched to a full stop.

"I think I've got them," Copeland reported.

"Where? Where?" demanded Trelawney.

"Infared sensors are detecting three in a moving elevator," Copeland replied.

"Three? Can you stop them?" Trelawney's mind was racing. He would be up there himself if he thought it would do any good. But some instinct told him he had a better chance monitoring happenings from below. Besides, if Angela did have help from a source he was unfamiliar with, it was better to be out of the line of fire.

"I've gained back control of some the system. Initiating transport override routines now, sir," replied Copeland. "I've stopped them. Elevator Four on Level Six. Cameras are still malfunctioning but infared still reads three."

"Three?" repeated Trelawney, still not overcoming his momentary surprise. "Seal the doors, Copeland. Don't let them off that elevator." Not only could Angela be here but she might also be working with someone else. And that someone else, that Jarod whom Miss Parker was tracking, that phantom menace was swiftly becoming an annoyance to him. "You shouldn't share secrets, Angela," he whispered to himself. "Hearney!" he radioed. "Elevator Four, Level Six. Bring them to me!"

Hearney wasn't the only one who heard Trelawney's instructions over his radio.

Miss Parker panted as she made the precarious run up the stairs, still wearing high heels and finally throwing them off her feet to gain speed and traction. She managed to keep just behind Hearney and the group he was leading.

The stairs were set in a series of ninety-degree angles occassionally the walls of which were broken by emergency exit doors. They passed all these by and continued the flight upwards. Upwards to that waiting elevator that held the prize for their diligent pursuit.

In the mad rush up the stairs through the dimly lit and stuffy atmosphere of the stairwells, Miss Parker felt a momentary cool rush of air on the back of her neck, but she disregarded the sensation. All her senses were attuned on one thing only. She was focused on reaching her goal.

"Releasing the elevator doors," said Copeland with anticipation.

And then, the strangest of all things happened. While the buzzing of the tripped alarms had been a constant dull roar, suddenly a siren-like sound invaded the building. A sound more persistant and harder to ignore than the intruder alarms.

Especially since it was accompanied by a deluge of water. Along all the the equipped ceilings, a wet mist of spray shot through the air like a cloudburst indoors and water droplets pelted everything in their path to the floor.

"No!" Trelawney screamed, clenching his fist even as the water soaked his hair and ran down his cheeks, drenching his tailor-made suit.

It was the fire alarm. Sean Trelawney's mind burned with the knowledge that a fire alarm automatically released all the emergency doors. There was little doubt his mind that Angela had planned this somehow and his last hopes vanished at the sound of Hearney's radioed words.

"We've got the doors open, sir and I've caught--" There was brief pause of shock. "Benson? What are you doing in here?"

"Where are they?" Trelawney growled at Copeland. "It thought you had them!"

"They must have been on a different elevator," Copeland said, frantically searching the elevator surveillance security logs. She dared not now tell her boss what she had deduced from the data. One of the elevator cameras had been giving a looped camera feedback. Any number of persons could have come and gone on that elevator leaving the Praetorians none the wiser.

"No! No! No!" Miss Parker cried at first shriek of the fire alarm. She pivoted even as she had reached the top of the stairwell on Level Six, knowing from experience that she must have been going the wrong way. That brief breath of fresh air she had felt--a draft caused by the opening and shutting of a door. Oh, why hadn't she realized it before?

It took her half the time to descend the stairs to that particular drafty landing than it had to ascend. But even as she pushed open the emergency door and stared into the stillness outside, she knew with a sinking feeling that she was already too late.

She had been so very close, but once more, Jarod had overcome the odds.

Jarod had escaped.

No trace of what the Praetorians had really been doing here was to be left behind for the local authorities to find. With loose ends tied up here, it was time to go and face the music of what the Committee and the Chairman would say about this incident, hopefully with a newly formulated plan that would forestall the repercussions of this failure and keep him classified as one their topmost and indispensable agents.

"Hearney. Go and arrange for our immediate departure."

"Maybe we should be looking for this Jarod?" Hearney balked. His clothes were still uncomfortably damp.

"Hearney," Trelawney shook his head. "From the information gleaned from Miss Parker, we know that Jarod is somewhat of a showoff. He always leaves behind a...what was it?"

"A red notebook, sir," supplied Kelly, looking at the extensive notes she had taken.

"Yes," said Trelawney, as if the thought was very quaint. "He leaves a notebook. Now, I had the building searched thoroughly. Was there any sign of notebook like the one described, Hearney?"

"No sir."

"That computer virus which tied up our computer security systems, Kelly. Which systems were affected? Specifically?"

"The security cameras, the elevators, and the sprinklers," detailed Kelly from her checklist.

"Ah yes, the sprinklers," said Trelawney with a relish. "Being drenched with water by my enemy to remind us of that first escape. Very nostalgic, I think." The day Angela had first learned of the Praetorians, Trelawney, Hearney and Kelly had come to her home posing as NSA agents. They had intended to frame her for murder, while milking her for all she knew. But Angela had been tipped off by Sorcerer and, in the middle of their visit, set off the sprinklers suddenly. Using this diversion, she had made a narrow escape. "Now, I cannot control what you write in your report, but I do know that we don't want to waste our resources anywhere else because you have your little suspicions, now do we?" He gave Hearney a hard stare, but spoke to the other member of his team. "The style in which Operation Green was corrupted bears whose mark, Kelly?"

"Examining the effects of the program used to disrupt this building's internal systems, it is must be concluded that it was Bennett's," said Kelly, seriously.

Trelawney nodded. "Hear that, Hearney? The evidence that Angela was here is unmistakeable. Who else was here if anyone was, is unimportant. There is no record this Jarod was here. Over expenditure of our resources might force me to make cutbacks which I certainly don't want, do you?"

Trelawney stared steadily at his sidekick. He didn't care if Jarod had been here, if Jarod had the audacity to openly get in his way, then the man would be dealt with. But Angela was the greatest threat, of the greatest importance, and nothing was to be allowed to get in the way of his pursuit of her. So for all intents and purposes, the Centre, Miss Parker, Jarod, anyone and anything that might cause the delay of the capture of his enemy didn't exist for him.

Hearney got the hint. "I'll go see about the car," he said, and strolled away.

Angela and Jarod had just finished seeing the Fitzgeralds off at the airport. Albert Fitzgerald couldn't thank them enough for restoring his daughter to him and he did not question their urging to get away from the people who had done this without learning any details of the rescue.

Then, Angela turned to Jarod and said, "Sorceror says the Praetorians aren't looking for you and the Centre doesn't seem to be looking for me."

"That's very good."

"Well, its not bad."

"There was something I wanted to--" Jarod began.

Angela interrupted. "Oh, wait. Let me guess. It's about how I know Sorcerer."

"Well--" Jarod started to say.

"I've never met Sorcerer in person," Angela admitted. "Not yet. He's a pretty mysterious guy. Kind of like you. But he's my friend. The only person who really knows me for who I am. Who knows I'm me. Angela Bennett and nobody else. Until I met you Jarod. You believed in who I was and trusted in me. Well...it makes me hope that one day the world will know who I am again, too. That one day, we all can feel safe again."

Jarod felt a lump rising in his throat. "Thank you. I wish I could have helped you more."

"Helped me? Believe me, Jarod. You've done plenty. Thank you."

"You're welcome. I better be going now," said Jarod with a smile of farewell. He picked up his duffel bag and his Haliburton case.

Angela laughed. "Sure you don't want to go on the run together for awhile," she said, jokingly. Seeing Jarod's expression, she continued quickly, "Kidding. No. No, you're right. Two ruthless organizations coming after you instead of just one. As if our lives aren't complicated enough." Angela narrowed her eyes, looking curiously at the item Jarod had just pulled from his bag. "What is that?"

"That" proved to be compact computer, with voice activation and satellite uplink, that rivaled even the prototype Angela had once possessed but eventually lost to the jaws of a passing lawn mower. Now, Angela once again had a way to instantly communicate with Sorcerer.

"Oh thank you!" Angela cried and a gave Jarod a hug. "If you ever need anything, anything. Don't hesitate to get in touch with Sorcerer. He'll know where I am." Then, she drew back and, sniffing to keep any tears that threatened to come, said, huskily, "Take care of yourself, okay?"

Jarod nodded and clasped her hand in parting. "Goodbye Angela Bennett. I hope you find what your looking for."

Angela stood and watched Jarod walk away. "You too, Jarod," Angela smiled. "You too."