Green Grass by shaack
Story Notes:

Thank you, SimTec, for helping to translate from german into english!

1. Daddy's Girl by shaack

2. In the Lab by shaack

3. Sea-Saw by shaack

4. The Triumvirate by shaack

Daddy's Girl by shaack

Green Grass
“Loosen the bonds of wickedness,
undo the straps of the yoke,
let the oppressed go free and break every yoke,
then shall your light break forth like the dawn.”
Isaiah 58,6

 


Chapter 1
Daddy’s Girl


The Parkers House, June 1994, on a Saturday, in Blue Cove, Delaware
“I have to go now, sweetie.” Catherine Parker kissed her 11 year old daughter good bye.
“Do you really have to go?” Miss Parker grumbled.
“Yes, I have to catch a plane.” Catherine answered to her own reflection in the mirror. Through the mirror she
looked into the eyes of Miss Parker and smiled. “What are you going to do today?”
“I am going to pick up Dad from work at 4 o’clock.”
Catherine turned around and took her bag: “Don’t forget to do the dishes, okay?”
“Okay.”, Miss Parker uneagerly answered while opening the door for her mother. Catherine caressed her
daughters hair once more before leaving. Miss Parker closed the door and thought about what to do next.

Surely no dishwashing. At least not yet. Suddenly, an idea came to her. She quickly got dressed and left.

 

In the afternoon Miss Parker came back home with a satisfied smile on her face. Sitting down on the floor, she
pulled off her heavy riding boots and helmet. Leaving everything on the floor, she then went into the kitchen
and drank straight from the milk carton. While drinking she looked around in the kitchen. The Parker home
was usually very clean but today there empty glasses of wine, half-emptied cheeseboards, plates with pieces
of leftovers and a lot of dirty coffee cups. The little party her parents gave last night was one of the usual ones
and had something to do with the important work they both did at the Centre. They left little Miss Parker in
the dark about what that exactly was.

 

Miss Parker started to work as the old fashioned clock at the wall signaled with a “Dong, Dong” that it was
already half past three.
She knew two things: First, her father expected the kitchen to be clean when he came home.
Second, this was one of the rare opportunities to spend some time with him but required her to be punctual.
There was no way she could do that in the 20 Minutes she had left until she was supposed to meet with her
father.
But then Miss Parker got an idea how she could clean the dishes and still meet with her father.

 

Through the backdoor in the kitchen she went out into the garden. In the tool shed she rummaged around until she got what
she had looked for.
She had found a wheelbarrow.
With that she went back into the kitchen, quickly pouring all the drinks into the sink and dumped leftovers
from the plates into a garbage bag. Miss Parker packed the dirty dishes plate by plate and cup by cup into the
wheelbarrow, placing some towels in between them. She then took off her riding jeans and replaced it with a
skirt and blouse.

 

On the street to the Centre
The dishes clattered loudly as Miss Parker went into the direction of the Centre. Parkers House wasn’t far
from there.
The Centre laid very close to the shore and therefore it had been built on a dike. Miss Parker pushed the heavy
wheelbarrow upon the dike and panted. She went to the suppliers lift and left the barrow there.
Self-confidently she went through the lobby and took the elevator to the management level, her digital wrist
watch showing 4:07. She began running in the last corridor to her father’s office. Full of verve she opened the
doors…


…and was very disappointed to find it empty. She sat down on her father’s big leather office chair, which
made her feel very small. Her disappointment turned into feeling guilty because of her being late.
She took the picture he had placed on his desk. On the picture there were Miss Parker’s mother holding her as
a Baby. She watched the approving smile her mother gave and thought about her father, who disapproved
most things she did. Out of boredom Miss Parker started to link the paper clip to a chain when suddenly the
doors opened. Mr. Parkers surprised expression told her, that he has forgotten about his meeting with his
daughter.
“Angel, what are you doing here?”
“Daddy!” she answered indignantly and got up from her seat.
“Oh yes!” He remembered. “I’m sorry Angel. You’re going to have to wait for me a little. I just have one
more meeting.”
Behind him Dr. Raines entered. Miss Parker never liked him. He always had an expression as if everyone
around him smells of bile, she thought. With this despising expression he looked at her.
Mr. Parker shoved Dr. Raines out of his office. “Let’s talk in the conference room.” Mr. Parker turned around:
“Angel, please do your homework and wait for me in here, ok?”

 

The door closed. Miss Parker sat down, folded her arms with a defiant glare and spun around heavily in her
father’s chair. She was very annoyed with her father. He was living in his own world.
A Centre-world.
There were no weekends for him. He didn’t even know that she had no school today.
But suddenly she stopped the spinning and smiled. Today her father’s Centre mania wasn’t too bad. She was
very determined when she left the office.

Chapter End Notes:

 

 

 

Thank you for reviews!

In the Lab by shaack

Chapter 2
In the Lab


Sublevel 17, Science labs
Jarod was used to being alone. In the morning he had worked on a simulation with Sydney, but now he was working on a chemical experiment for his term paper. Sydney had enrolled him at a university in Germany, so
that Jarod’s brilliant mind would not be idle. Jarod liked it very much because it meant that for once he could leave the monotone and grayish sublevel he lived in to work at the science labs.

 


From Monday to Friday the science labs were used by the center staff. Because of that there were some personal stuff and even postcards on the refrigerator where they kept the samples. One of them showed a colorful small house made of wood that said “Greetings from Sweden.” There was another one from Florida
with a big humanlike smiling mouse wearing white gloves. But the most intriguing item was a photograph at one of the workspaces. It showed a boy who was huddled against his dog that had gold colored fur. Both of them laid in vivacious beaming green grass. Jarod looked at the picture very closely and tried to remember how it felt to touch the grass.

 

Behind him dark liquid simmered in an Erlenmeyer flask which was heated by a Bunsen burner. When he heard loud clatter and footsteps he rushed over to his experiment and pretended to look very focused on it.
Suddenly he recognized who those footsteps belonged to and smiled.


Miss Parker opened the backdoors to the science labs, pushing a wheel barrow into a small corridor. The dishes clattered so loudly that Miss Parker feared her father could hear her from the conference room 22 levels above. She left the wheel barrow in the corridor and climbed the two steps that was required to get
into the chemistry laboratory. She found Jarod standing behind his intricately set up lab experiment.
“Miss Parker!” He said excited. Jarod wanted to say more but his heart was pounding too hard over the sight
of the most wonderful and sweetest human being he’d ever met standing at his doorstep.
“Hi, Jarod” Miss Parker said coolly as she entered the room.

“What are you doing?” She asked while looking at the things Jarod built.
“I am distilling alcohol” Jarod said, feeling embarrassed. He didn’t know if Miss Parker was even interested or bored over such things.
“Alcohol?” asked Miss Parker. “Are you trying to get drunk?”

Happy that Miss Parker showed some interest he answered: “No, this is an experiment I am writing a protocol for. “
Miss Parker pointed to a pot simmering on the lab’s stove exclaiming,

“What kind of experiment is THIS?”
“This is no experiment” Jarod said “I am cooking potatoes for the rabbits in the biology lab. We can go and feed them together when they are ready if you like?”
Miss Parker, too busy looking around for the dishwasher, didn’t hear what Jarod had said. She suddenly found it in the corner of the lab.
“Jarod, could you do me a favor?” Jarod, disappointed because she didn’t react to his offer, suddenly replied eagerly,

“Sure, what is it, Miss Parker?”
She went into the little corridor to get the wheelbarrow, raising the blanket that covered the dishes.
“I have to wash these dishes before my father comes home. There’s a dishwasher in the lab, right?” Jarod’s eyes went wide.
“You carried that heavy cart all the way here?” Jarod wondered why Miss Parker increased the distance-time-relation with a big variable, but said nothing. Deep within he hoped that she did it for him, so that she had a reason to see him. He felt always very happy when she was with him.

He took the bottle with yellow colored liquid he found on the pile of dishes.
“What’s that, surfactant?”
“No, that’s dish liquid.” replied Miss Parker.
Jarod looked at the bottle of dish liquid in curiosity: On the front of the bottle was a picture of a man with no hair, seemed to be very strong, wore a white t-shirt and had an earring in his right ear. In big red letters was
the name “Mr. Clean.” Jarod wanted to explain to Miss Parker that most dish liquids like this worked with surfactants.
“That’s a pity. If I knew this Mr. Clean” Jarod continued; “I could ask him about his composite of ionic and anionic surfactants.”
Miss Parker laughed, replying; “Jarod, not everything in the world is chemistry. Besides, Mr. Clean is not a real person. He is just in the commercials.”
“Actually it is, Miss Parker. Everything in the world is a chemical bond, even you and me.”
Miss Parker noticed that Jarods eyes lit up as he talked about it and that he really was interested in such stuff.
She decided to distract him.
“Are you helping me or not?” She asked impatiently.
“Of course Miss Parker!” He went to the dishwasher, opened it and looked at it doubtfully.

“But first we have to clean it. Yesterday I did an experiment with Iron-(II)-lactate and…” He stopped mid-sentence as he saw Miss Parkers bored expression.

“I-I-I…mean, your dishes could get pink if we don’t clean it first.”
“Pink? My mother would kill me, this is Villeroy and Boch.”
“I am very sure your mother would never kill you.” Jarod was appalled. Miss Parker rolled her eyes, but changed her mind and thought: “How could he know?” She explained it nicely to him: “This is just a saying
for ‘getting into trouble.’
“Oh, I see.” He said, closing the dishwasher. He then went to the door.
“Where are you going?” Parker asked.
“I really need to get those chemical protocol blank forms from Sydney.” He pointed to his experiment.

“If I am not finished with this tonight he will kill me.” He smirked about the use of the newly learned expression.
He got serious again. “Please Miss Parker you are not going to leave until I get back?”
“I’m sure.” Miss Parker didn’t really listen. She was distracted by studying the control panel of the dish washer. Jarod ran as fast as he could to be back quickly. He didn’t hear what Miss Parker said next…

 


“I’m just getting started with the cleaning.” Miss Parker had never used a dish washer before. The Parkers were the richest family in town but her father always said some manual work would do them good. But most of the time it has been Miss Parkers hands that had to do the manual work. Miss Parker assumed that he was just a big scrooge.

 

The machine didn’t seem too complicated. There was a start button and a turn-switch that showed several temperatures. Miss Parker spread a generous amount of Mr. Cleans dish detergent into the inside of the empty dish washer and pressed start. When the dish washer started humming she went into the biology lab next door to see the bunnies. She took her favorite, a white very soft one, out and caressed it.

 

Meanwhile, at Sydney’s office…
Sydney sat on his desk and looked up from his paperwork when Jarod ripped the door to the sim-lab open and entered the stairs to the gallery.
“Sydney, I need more blank forms.” He panted.
“You ran?” Sydney opened the drawer from his desk and fetched some papers.
“I’m in a hurry.” Jarod said.
Sydney passed Jarod the papers but when Jarod took them Sydney kept hold of them. Curiously he looked into Sydney’s eyes.
“Is Miss Parker with you?”
Jarod let the papers go. He really hoped Sydney would not send her away.
“Don’t get distracted. You know we need all of this in Germany on Monday.” He laid down the stack of papers.
“Yes, Sydney” Jarod said relieved. He took the papers and ran back to the lab.

 

In the lab…
When Miss Parker heard Jarod’s steps, she placed the bunny back into his cage and went back to the chemistry lab. As Miss Parker was sure the dish washer had to be clean by now, she pressed the stop-button and opened the cover. Suddenly, water flushed out on both sides with a lot of foam.
“Shut it off!” Jarod called from the doorway as he hurried to her. Miss Parker closed the cover very quickly, but Jarod slipped on the water-foam-mix and tried to hang on a table on which stood his Iron-(II)-lactate experiment. With a move of his hand, Jarod pulled down the bloodlike liquid filled test tubes. The red liquid spilled, spreading all over his head and shoulders. Miss Parker screamed because she thought Jarod had hurt himself.

 

His only thought was to remove that liquid as fast as possible, before the furniture permanently turned pink. Suddenly, the timer sounded with a loud and piercing series of peeps telling Jarod the potatoes were ready.


Jarod, ignoring the alarm, got up and went carefully as if walking on eggshells to where the cleaning utensils could be found. The lid on the pot clanked loudly as the briskly boiling water jabbed against it.
“Please Miss Parker turn on the pump!” He called out. Miss Parker turned the switch to “Pump” and pressed
start. An ear-battering rattle could be heard in the lab. In his arms he carried a big batch of cloth and two buckets.
“Turn it off again!” Jarod called through the noisy lab the sound of the pump telling him that it must be broken.
“What!?” Miss Parker called. Jarod repeated what he said while heading as fast as he could but still slowly to Miss Parker. Jarod didn’t noticed that the brownish stinky liquid in the Erlenmeyer flask above the Bunsen burner boiled very heavily and that there was already a lot of pressure in it.
“Here, keep that bucket next to the cover!” he said loudly over the rattling of the pump, the peeps from the timer and the clattering lid. He spread out the cloth on the floor and finally turned off the pump. The rattling stopped but you could still hear the peeps and the sound of big water drops falling on the hotplate.
“Ok, on the count of three, we open the cover and try to pick up as much water as possible.” Jarod instructed
Miss Parker. “O-ne, t-wo, Th-ree!”
KAPOOMMM!
What happened next all happened in a few seconds.
First Miss Parker and Jarod opened the cover of the dish washer and the foamy water started to flow into the buckets.


Second, Jarods set-up for the distillation of alcohol exploded and bits of broken glass blasted through the room. Jarod and Miss Parker were so surprised that the buckets fell out of their hands and the water spread everywhere. Jarod pulled Miss Parker to the ground. He leaned over her head, protecting them
with his hands. One of the flying glass splinters met the peeping timer, which fell and broke into many pieces.


And third, the potato pot boiled over, the steam pushed the lid from the pot which fell on the floor with one final clatter. The last of the water spilled from the pot onto the hot plate again causing it to steam upward.
After a moment of silence Jarod moved.
“Are you hurt, Miss Parker?”
“No, but I’m wet.” She said as she got up. Jarod got up, went to the stove, turned it off and shoved the pot from the hot plate. Then he gazed at the destroyed lab.

 

Jarod looked around him to assess the damage. The floor was completely wet. His hours worth of experiments were gone. The dish washer was full of foam. Brown liquid dripped from the walls. Red liquid oozed from the working table. Every step he took made a crunching noise from the glass splinters on the floor.
And then, drops of moisture began falling from the ceiling, as if rain started to set in.

 

At Sydney’s office…
Mr. Parker knocked lightly on the door frame to Sydney’s office. The door was usually open. Sydney, on his
way to the file cabinet, turned around at the sound of Mr. Parker’s knocking.
“Mr. Parker.” he responded, not sure if this visit was good or a bad. Sydney approached his boss, respectfully shaking his hand.
“Sir, what can I do for you?”
“Uh, I was hoping to find my daughter down here. You don’t know where she could be?”
“I’m sorry. I haven’t seen Miss Parker today.”
“Hmm.” Mr. Parker looked down the hall toward the sim-lab.
“Where is Jarod? How is he doing?”
“Jarod is doing very well, getting smarter every month as a matter of fact. I just recently registered him to study online at Justus-Liebig-University in Germany. It will help him become faster with some of the simulations.”
“Jarod had been a very good investment.” Exclaimed Mr. Parker.

 

An alarm suddenly sounded.
“A Fire?” Mr. Parker asked uneasily
“That’s in the chemistry lab. Jarod is there!” Sydney exclaimed as he ran toward the lab.

 

In the lab.
“Hurry Miss Parker, you have to leave!” Jarod panicked. “eeck!, eeck!, eeck!” the fire alarm sounded unmercifully.
‘Oh no, the dishes!’ Miss Parker thought and ran to the door that led into the sublevels.
“No, don’t take this exit!” Jarod called. Miss Parker came back and tried to lift the wheelbarrow over the steps. Jarod went quickly to her and helped her. They hid it in the bio lab.
“Please don’t tell Sydney, why I came here.” Miss Parker pleaded. Jarod nodded. Then Miss Parker left through the main exit that led directly to the over ground levels on which Jarod wasn’t allowed to go. Just the
moment when the door behind Miss Parker had closed Sydney arrived at the lab.
“Jarod!” Sydney said worried.
Jarod shivered while looking at him. Water dripped from his forehead. Sydney covered his head with his arms and walked through the artificial rain to Jarod. He shoved him aside and opened the cupboard underneath the sink, closed the main tap and stopped the alarm.
Sydney grabbed Jarod’s Arm and asked harshly “What happened here?”
Mr. Parker arrived at the lab and watched the chaos in silence. Jarod looked from Mr. Parker to Sydney.
“I-I burnt the rabbit food.”
Mr. Parker came closer. Each step he took, made a crunching sound from the floor. He spoke into Sydney’s ear.
“We will talk about this incident later. Keep me reported” Mr. Parker then turned to Jarod, looking sternly in to his eyes. “Boy, have you seen my daughter?” Jarod shook his head hesitantly. His heart was racing because he feared that
Mr. Parker knew he was lying. But Mr. Parker just nodded before he left.
Sydney took Jarod by the arm down the corridor back to Jarod’s room. Jarod looked back toward the lab.
When Sydney felt they were far enough from Mr. Parker Sydney scolded Jarod; “Why did you lie to Mr. Parker?”
“I didn’t” Jarod defended himself.
“Don’t you lie to me now! I asked you earlier if Miss Parker was with you.”
“But I didn’t say yes.” He said sullen.
Sydney let go of him. He took a magnet strip card out of his pocket and swiped it through the scanner. He went through the wardrobe and gave Jarod a towel and dry clothes. Jarod took his wet clothes off.
“Jarod, he wants a report from me by Monday. He’ll want to see records from the cameras.” Sydney took his wet jacket off and put it on a chair.
“That’s not what he said.” Jarod argued.
“Oh yes he did. He said `Keep me reported’ and that means he wants a report and he wants it on Monday.”
Jarod sat down wearily on his bed.
“And that’s why I will get in to the technical department on Monday to get those records from the technicians. So if you lied to me this is your last chance to tell me the truth.”
Jarod kept silent. If he wanted to convince Sydney, he had to stick with his version of the story until he had an idea how to get Miss Parker and himself off the hook.

Sea-Saw by shaack

Chapter 3: Sea-Saw

The Street Between ‘The Centre’ and the Parker’s House.

Miss Parker ran as fast as she could to get home before her father got back. If she could convince her
Dad that she hadn’t been in the lab she would not get into trouble, even though Jarod would, and
probably already is. Sydney’s endless bla bla bla, is nasty but bearable.
Suddenly, she heard a car coming near. As there is usually never much traffic on a Saturday between the
Centre and Blue Cove, most likely, this could only be one person. Miss Parker jumped quickly into the
field of corn that was next to the street and cowered underneath the plants. It was close but the driver
of the Mercedes e-class didn’t notice her. When Miss Parker came out from her hiding place she could
catch a glimpse of the license plate.
MR-P 1
“Merde!” Miss Parker swore and stamped her foot.

She decided to take the shortcut through the field. The corn plants, which were as tall as a man and the
soft soil made the running harder than thought. At the end of the field Miss Parker could already see her
house meanwhile her father had to drive until Market Place before turning into the street that lead to
their home.

They arrived the same time.

Miss Parker cowered in the hedge and listened when Mr. Parker turned off the engine. The evenings
semi-darkness had already crept in. She heard him open the door to the house and go inside. Miss
Parker sneaked to the backdoor. When her father turned on the lights in the kitchen, Miss Parker
jumped out of the beam and pushed herself as close as possible against the wall of the house.

Mr. Parker went through the house and turned on the lights everywhere.
“Angel?” He called into the kitchen. Then he went upstairs.

Miss Parker watched the window of her room. When the lights were turned on in it she entered the
kitchen through the backdoor and ran into the downstairs bathroom. Quickly Miss Parker got rid of her
wet clothes. She heard the steps of her father leaving the house again. A short glance in the mirror
showed her that her hair was still wet. Only wrapped in a white towel she opened the door.

“Daddy” she said. Her father turned at the doorstep.
“Angel, there you are. Why didn’t you wait for me?”
Miss Parker showed her most innocent face: “It was so boring, so I went home.”
Her father believed her and went into the kitchen but Miss Parker got in his way.
“Daddy, can’t we go to Giovanni’s?”
“No Angel, I am too tired for that.” He moved closer to the cabinet where they usually kept their cups.
“Oh Daddy pleeeaaase” she begged and took away his hand he already laid on the handle. “There’s
nothing in the fridge anyway” She nodded to the fridge. Mr. Parker considered for a moment.

“Okay. I just wanted to have coffee. But Giovanni’s coffee is indeed the best.” He said and put his jacket
back on.

In the Centre, 11 pm
Jarod stopped the now working pump of the dishwasher and opened the cover for the umpteenth time.
There was still foam. Jarod again took a sponge , thoroughly removing the flakes of foam from the inside
of the dishwasher. He already had cleaned up the whole lab with Sydney’s help.
“No” he heard Sydney’s soft voice from the small corridor. “No, Michelle, you know how it is. This is the
Centre.”
There was silence. Obviously Michelle on the other end of the phone line said something.
“I assure you we will meet tomorrow, in the afternoon - or better yet, late in the evening.”
Jarod closed the cover. Finally the dishwasher was clean. Sydney continued talking on the phone peering
to Jarod. “Mh.” He said. “Mh” He turned his back on Jarod. Jarod knew they were talking about him.
Listening on the phone Sydney turned back to Jarod and saw that he stopped working. Sydney pointed
with his finger to the pot with the burnt potatoes. When Jarod started scrubbing the bottom of the pot
he could not understand about what Sydney was talking on the phone. Sydney hung up.
Before he had been interrupted by that call Sydney had packed personal items from the lab staff into a
box and wrote a note for them. He hoped that would improve Jarods focus on his tasks. He even
emptied a half-full cup of coffee, one the staff members had left in the sink and put into the dishwasher.
Jarod placed the clean pot into the cupboard. Sydney grabbed one last item and let it disappear into his
box. It was the photograph that Jarod was looking at, before Miss Parker had appeared. Sydney watched
the clean lab.

“Okay, Jarod, well done. Tomorrow you are going to repeat your experiments and write the protocols,
alright?”
“Yes, Sydney”

Sydney escorted Jarod to his room and closed the door behind him.

At night, Parkers house
Miss Parker opened the door of her room and tiptoed past the room where her father was asleep. Every
sound seemed to be louder at night than at day. She rifled through the coat pockets of Mr. Parker. In his
wallet she found what she was looking for. It was a white plastic card with a magnetic strip on it. She put
it in to her pocket and left the house.

At night, Jarod’s room
The little metal plate that usually covered the door electronics hanged crooked on the wall only secured
by one screw. Behind it was a nest of thin colored cables. With pincers he cut through one of the cables
and removed a piece of insulation. He repeated that with another cable and held their endings together.
He heard that familiar buzz that implied that the door had opened.

He pulled the door open and held his breath. The corridor was empty. Jarod ran a lot of corridors and
stairs into the lab. He deactivated the camera by cutting of the power supply cable. He took the dishes
from the hiding place and placed it piece by piece into the dishwasher. While the machine ran, Jarod
took papers, clothes and bubble wrap from storage.
When the dishwasher was ready he neatly packed the items between the cups and plates. Jarod was
very satisfied with himself. Even when he took the wheel barrow down that one stair in front of the lab,
he could hear the rubber tire on the floor but no clattering dishes.
Jarod went to the door where he was not allowed to go and opened it carefully.
There was a sweeper roaming the corridor who was reporting his status into a walkie-talkie.
“Patrol to base, Over”
“This is base, go ahead”
“Everything’s quiet on SL-17. I’m heading to the science labs, over?”
“Roger, copy that.”
Jarod quickly closed the door and went to the sim-lab. He wouldn’t have a chance to leave the Centre
through the main house, especially with a wheelbarrow so he left it at the stairs, took scissors from
Sydney’s office, and opened the ventilation shaft, climbing in.

The Center Outside
Miss Parker arrived at the center and went to the parking lot. With the access card she stole from her
father she opened the doors. She walked to the lifts and pressed SL-17. When Miss Parker arrived, it was
dark. The only light were the green escape route lights. She passed a sign on which was written “science
labs”.
She entered the lab that she escaped from earlier that day noticing it was clean. Nothing was left from
the chaos she had left in the afternoon. Miss Parker was looking for the wheel barrow in the bio-lab. But
it was gone. Miss Parker hoped that Jarod didn’t tell Sydney about her idea to use the dishwasher. But
why had her father not say something about it? And where were her mother’s dishes?
When she couldn’t find them in the sim-lab, she decided to ask Jarod himself. But his quarters were in
the top security tract. Even Mr. Parker’s access card had not enough authority to open the door to his
space. Sydney said that because Jarod is so valuable, some bad guys might decide to abduct him. That’s
why no one in the center carried around an all access card. She knew that in her father’s safe in their
living room was another card. It had the appropriate authority level. So she went back home.

The Centre, outside, emergency exit
Of course he knew it, but still he was a little disappointed, when he saw that it was dark when he
opened the heavy fire door and entered the outside world. He felt a gentle breeze on his face. It smelt
of salt, grass and soil. Jarod remembered those scents from his early childhood, but because of the long
isolation, he felt them very intense now. He looked up at the stars and listened to the wind hissing
through the grass on the dike. But then he remembered why he came here and started to run.
All Jarod knew was that Miss Parker lived near the Centre. He ran over the dike to the only street that
led away from the Centre. When he reached that little town he went from house to house to find out
where Miss Parker lived.
“The Donovan’s live here.” He read on a big stone in front of a house that had a smiley face painted on
it. Jarod walked to the next house. This time there was no reference of who lived there. Not even on the
fence or the mail box. Carefully Jarod tried the gate, but it was locked. So he decided to climb over the
wooden fence. When he had taken steps towards the house, someone turned on the lights. A loud
barking dog ran after Jarod who ran back to the fence. Just before the dog was able to bite him, it was
stopped by an invisible wall. The Dog barked and growled, jumping up and down. Jarod turned around
and saw that the dog was on a chain that kept him from Jarod by only a few inches.
“Hey! Get off of my property!” A man shouted from the window and attached a word Jarod had never
heard before. When the man fired a shot into the air with his rifle, Jarod jumped over the fence and
crawled underneath a nearby bush. It was suddenly quiet, Jarod could hear the door of the house
close. He immediately got up and ran back up the street to the Centre, in sheer panic and horror.

In front of the Parker House
When Miss Parker arrived, she saw that the light in the kitchen window was turned on. From far away
she could hear the Carlson’s dog barking. The kitchen light turned out again. She went around the
corner to the backdoor that lead directly into the kitchen. She prayed that her father drank his midnight
milk straight from the milk carton as he usual does and had not suddenly decided to use a cup. Maybe
her mother was the only Parker ever that used a glass or a cup for drinking milk. Suddenly she heard a
gunshot. The light in the kitchen was turned on again. Miss Parker pushed herself close to the house
wall. Her Father had opened the window and looked curiously into the direction of the Carlsons house.
When the dog stopped barking he shrugged his shoulders and closed the window. When Miss Parker
heard her father ascend the stairs, she quietly went into the house, took her father high priority access
card, put the other back in his wallet and headed for the Centre again.

On the street to the Centre
Jarod could already see the Centre and had slowed down his pace, when he saw two lights. “This must
be a car” he thought. At the same time he developed disastrous ideas of who the driver could be.
Maybe it was the man whose property he trespassed. Would he have his dog with him? Maybe the
Centre was already looking for him? He looked left and right for a hiding place. The car came
dangerously close just a second before could be seen in the lights, he jumped into the corn field and ran
as fast as he could. The corn plants grazed his face so he lifted his arms to protect his eyes. Corn plant by
corn plant buckled underneath his fast steps. Even if he had ran already very deep into the field, he
didn’t feel safe. He looked around to see if someone was following him when he bumped into
something hard, that threw him down the ground.
“Outch!” the obstacle said. Jarod rubbed his head looking to see who had talked. Opposite to him, her
legs sprawled out, sat Miss Parker touching her hurting head.
“Jarod?!” she said shocked. She never saw her friend outside the Centre before. “What are you doing
here?”
“I was looking for you, Miss Parker. “ He helped Miss Parker on her feet.
I wanted to give you your tableware back, but I couldn’t use the elevator and the wheel-barrow is too
heavy for the stairway…”
“Are you insane?! We are in real trouble now!” Miss Parker asked herself why Jarod was so eager to
help her with her stupid idea that she already regretted. They started to walk back to the Centre.
“Where are the dishes? I Couldn’t find them in the lab.” Miss Parker finally asked.
“They are in the emergency stairwell in the South-East wing. That is the only way outside I know.” He
explained apologetic.

With Miss Parker’s card it was easy to get the wheel-barrow out of the Centre without someone
noticing. Jarod had the wheel-barrow when they were on their way back to Miss Parker’s house. The
soft dawn had made the stars invisible. A golden belt formed on the horizon between the sea and a few
dark clouds. Unnoticed, Jarod became slower and slower. Although he knew the sea and the sun from
books and his early childhood, he was amazed by their beauty and grandeur. The light he saw shining in
the sky gave him a peaceful and yearning feeling.
“Jarod, please hurry. It’s dawning already.” She complained. Jarod forced himself to look away from the
wonders of nature. He focused on their way until they reached Miss Parkers house.
“You live here, Miss Parker?” Jarod asked.
“Shh, yes I do!” She whispered and laid her finger on his lips. She slowly opened the kitchen door to
avoid noises that could wake up her father.
“It’s much smaller than the Centre.” Jarod whispered and looked at the beautiful house in awe.
“Of course, genius! There are only three of us. Now be quiet. My father is sleeping upstairs. She pointed
with her finger up to the window above them. Then she started to unpack the plates and carried them
into the kitchen. Jarod still kept his hand on the handles of the wheel-barrow and looked to the window.
The thought of Mr. Parker sleeping there gave him the creeps.
“Gonna help me or not?” Jarod quickly stopped his gazing up and helped Miss Parker. There were a lot
of interesting things in the house that Jarod had never seen before. Although he was very curious about
them he tried to focus and followed Miss Parkers short commands like: “Put this in here!” or “Give me
that plate!”
Finally Miss Parker laid back fork by fork, knive by knive and spoon by spoon into the drawer. Jarod put
the last plate into the cupboard and walked outside again.

In meantime the sun had risen and Jarod realized that the soft ground he stood on was green. Green
grass. Like on the picture with the boy and the dog he had seen in the lab. He fell on his knees and
touched the grass. It was wet and cold. He caressed it gently and watched every single blade of grass.
The feelings in his hand had loosened a distant memory:
He saw a woman with long, reddish-blonde hair. She was tall and slim. In a garden she hung white
sheets on a clothes line. Jarod passed her running and let his paper plane fly through the air until it
landed in the green grass. He picked it up and in doing so his fingers felt the grass. He pulled some of it
out and smelled it. ”Jarod..” the beautiful woman said. “Momma, it smells sooo good.” A younger Jarod
passed the grass to his smiling mother for her to smell it too.
”Jarod!” Miss Parker said low but resolute.

Jarod woke up from his daydream and felt immediately ashamed about kneeling there in the grass and
holding a bunch of it in his hand.

Miss Parker gaped at him feeling pity.

In this moment she realized, that her playmate Jarod was an innocent prisoner. A child, growing up in a
prison. And his jailors were not that kind of people to play with, as soon as they would notice that he
escaped from his cell. That’s why she reacted:
“Jarod, quick, we have to get back!”
Jarod picked himself up when they both heard the sound of wood scratching on wood. Mr. Parker
pushed the window open but. Appalled the children looked up. He didn’t peek out. Hectically Miss
Parker rummaged in her pockets and gave Jarod the white plastic card.
“Take this, Jarod. This opens the doors to your room. Run!”
As he ran, the worry that they would discover his absence became bigger and bigger.

With that card Miss Parker gave him he could ride the elevator directly into the sublevel and no one
could stop him. Not that it was necessary, because at this time on a Sunday, even at the Centre, almost
no one was there.

No one but Sydney.

He was already on his way to Jarod’s room to pick him up. Sydney reached the elevator and pressed the
button several times and was surprised to find the elevator already in use. All he could do was to wait
until it was enabled again.

Jarod reached his room, the door still open as he had left it. He screwed the cover back in place, hid the
tool behind his bed and laid down. Sweaty, out of breath and his head full of new impressions and
thoughts it was difficult to pretend to be asleep. He had just turned his face to the wall and covered
himself, when the door opener buzzed and Sydney entered.
“Jarod, wake up.” He said friendly. Normally the guards snarled a “get up” to him and left. But Sydney
came closer to the bed.
“Jarod are you awake?” He asked and shook Jarod’s shoulder gently. Jarod rolled on his back and
opened his eyes. Sydney saw the sweat on Jarod’s face and his heavy breathing, even when he tried to
hide it. Sydney became worried.
He immediately knew what had happened: “Did you have nightmares again?”
Jarod nodded. With a soothing voice Sydney spoke: “Come on. After showering and breakfast, I will pick
you up for chemistry lab.” Sydney reached out his hand and helped him out of the bed. He wondered
why Jarod had slept in his uniform, but said nothing.
When Sydney had left the room Jarod sagged back into bed, covered his face with his hands and blew
out the breath he had been holding.



The Triumvirate by shaack


Chapter 4: The Triumvirate


In the morning Jarod repeated the unsuccessful experiment from Saturday. The beautiful pictures and postcards that made Jarod’s
work in the chemistry lab a special joy were gone and the lab felt bare and empty. Jarod was bored by his experiment and sleep was
coming to demand its rights that were denied to it last night.
Jarod felt the card in his pants pocket. He had only one chance to protect Miss Parker and convince Sydney that she hadn’t been
with him in the lab.

Miss Parker House/ Sydney’s Office, Sunday morning
Catherine Parker held her cell phone between her head and her shoulder, as she unlocked the door and lifted her bag over the
threshold of her house.
“No, I don’t think so.” She said to the person on the line. She went to her living room but neither her daughter nor her husband was
there.
“He almost destroyed the lab and tried to break the dish washer.” Sydney, who sat in his office, explained desperately. “Catherine, I
don’t know what to do anymore to protect him.”
She went into the kitchen and took a cup from the kitchen cabinet. “Well, I don’t know why he doesn’t like dish washers but,
Sydney, he is still a kid.” She spotted her daughter and whispered into the phone. “My daughter always does such stupid things. I
have talks with her teachers all the time.” With one hand she prepared herself an instant coffee while listening to him. She then
answered. “Do you mean safety or control?” She said filling her cup with water. “Yes I know.” She sighed and put her cup into the
microwave. “Ok, bye.” She finished the call.
Her daughter sat on the kitchen stair and starred in to the garden. Her mother tiptoed from behind to her and said:
“Booh!”
“Hi, Mom.” Miss Parker said lamely.
“Oh, don’t be so excited that your mother is home again.” She sat next to her daughter on the stair. “What are you marveling at?
The green grass?” She joshed her daughter.
“Oh, Mama, I think got someone into trouble.”
“In school?” Catherine hoped and got serious again. It would be no fun if it had something to do with the Centre.
“Yes, in school.” Miss Parker lied. “Well I have this friend, and she did the homework for another friend.”
“Really? How nice of her.” Catherine commented her daughter’s semi-confession.
“And then something went wrong.”
Meanwhile at the Centre
Jarod entered the tech-room that was separated from the hall by a wall of glass. No one was here. On three servers, as big as a man,
lights were blinking and their coolers humming softly. The computers on the workplaces were connected with a tangled mass of
cables.
There was also a massive filing cabinet. It was opened and filled with boxes. Instead of files , the boxes were filled with thousands of
little silver discs which contained millions of bits of data. This was the digital simulation archive. Jarod read the labels:
Tower, Lobby, SL-5, SL-19, SL-21, Sim-Lab I-21 SL, Sim-Lab II SL-22
Jarod was amazed that they really kept all those records. He took the box with SL-21. The level he lived on.
On the labeled disc he read: “Jarod March 1989”. Ten discs at a time were separated by a register. On the next register he read:
“Jarod April 1989”. He packed the box back into the cabinet and calculated. Three days worth of data were on one disc. He was
amazed by that technology.
Then he spotted a silver case in the cabinet on which there was a note in a familiar handwriting:
“Sydney’s Archive”
Jarod opened the case and saw that it was a player for these little discs. The discs in the case had their own classification system.
Jarod read:
“Jarod – Important Simulations 1991-1994;
Jarod – Pivotal Moments of Development 1987 – 1994;
Jarod – Best solutions 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994”
He shut the case again and focused back on his task. He had to find the DSA disc from yesterday. He found a box on which was
written: SL-17 Science Laboratories. He ran through the discs to find the right date: March, April, May…but instead of the disc there
was only another note.
“Record 06-13-1994 5:00:00 – 6-14-1994 8:00:00-4:37:15 is filed under “Pretender Project” division “Jarod”. The text was a blank
where someone filled in the dates and the name of the project by handwriting.
Jarod felt very little and valueless, when he perceived himself as a project. With an empty feeling he finally found what he was
looking for in that box where he had looked first. He heard someone coming.
“Hello!?” A woman entered the tech-room. “Heeelloo!?” She asked again. “Lenny, are you there?” She crossed the room and looked
into the small kitchen, blotched with coffee stains and crumbles of muesli. She shrugged and went to the cabinet which was left
open. She closed it with a loud thud and locked it with a key.
“So much for the safety of sensitive data” she mumbled to herself. Then she hid the key in the plant pot on the cabinet and left the
tech room.
Jarod sat underneath a desk, the DSA clutched to his chest. His heart was pounding heavily. He carefully peered out from under the
table. The tech-room was empty again. Jarod dared to came out of his hiding place when someone grabbed him by the scruff of his
neck.
“Damn, where the hell are you coming from?” a man with long hair, flannel shirt and glasses swore. On his name tag Jarod could
read: “Lenny”
Parkers House
Catherine drunk up her coffee and wondered why there were letters on the bottom of the cup. She rinsed it out and read: “Property
of the Centre” She turned the cup around and saw the Centre-emblem on the backside of the cup. She was thinking of how that cup
came into her kitchen when the phone rang.
In Sydney’s office
Sydney paced up and down until Catherine picked up her telephone. Before she could say anything he said:
“Catherine, your husband wants Jarod to appear before the triumvirate.”
“Why? Because of a little foam in a dishwasher and some nasty stains in the lab?” she asked disbelieving. “No, it’s not about that. He
escaped from the sublevels and tried to steal a DSA from the tech-room.”
“How is that possible? The doors are safe, aren’t they?”
“He has a general keycard with the highest level of authority. “Just like the one …”
“…my husband owns.” She completed.
“Exactly! Jarod must have stolen it from him.”
Catherine looked at the cup in her hand. Then she understood.
“Sydney”, she said, “hold the line.”
Miss Parker entered the room and saw how her mother rummaged hectically through the family safe. Catherine took the phone
again.
“Did he really call the triumvirate?” She asked and Miss Parker was terrified as she heard those words. Catherine continued:
“Sydney, I am coming to the Centre.” She hung up, took her car keys and a jacket.
“Momma, I am coming with you.”
“No!”
“But Momma…” Miss Parker said regretful “It was me, not Jarod.”
“I know” Catherine answered coldly.
“Then why I can’t go with you?”
“Because you’re grounded for two weeks!”
“But Momma…”
“Three weeks!” She had that severe look on her face that said: No more discussion.
Miss Parker fell quiet.
Isolation cell SL-21
Jarod sat on the cot, which was the only furniture in that small and empty room. Grey walls and an ugly green iron door surrounded
Jarod. The door was opened with a squeak. Two men in black suits and dark faces grabbed Jarod on his arms and dragged him out.
In a dim lit hall he had to sit down on the long side of a T-shaped table. Three big shadows were opposite him. He couldn’t see their
faces.
“Every misdoing deserves a punishment.” one of the shadows said.
Another shadow asked: “Did you leave the sublevel without permission?”
“Yes, but that’s just because…” Jarod said nervously when the door behind him was opened. The Sweeper brought Miss Parker in
and escorted her in a smaller room next door.
“Did you leave the sublevel without permission?” The shadow asked again.
“Y Y..Y..Yes” Jarod stuttered.
“Every misdoing deserves a punishment.” Said the third of the three shadows. Jarod could hear Miss Parker screaming in the room
next door.
“No!” he jumped from his seat. “It was me, I did that, I did that.”
The door opened again and the sweepers brought Sydney.
“Did you steal from Mr. Parker?” One of the shadows asked. Sydney looked at Jarod with a disappointed face.
“Jarod” he said. “Jarod, wake up!”
Jarod woke up with a start and noticed that he was still in the isolation cell. Sydney stood next to the cot with a worried face.
“We have to go now,” Sydney said sadly. Jarod got up. Mr. Parker and a sweeper were already waiting for him in front of the cell.
“Hold it!” a female voice said. It was Catherine Parkers’.
The group turned around.
“Catherine, what are you doing here?” Mr. Parker called out in surprise.
“Darling, you are making a mistake. Please have a look into your wallet.”
“Catherine, what is this about? We better not keep them waiting.” He said impatient.
“Please just do it.” She insisted.
Mr. Parker surrendered and showed her his wallet. She found an Access-Card. Mr. Parker was confused.
“Boy, where did you get that card?” He pointed to the other card in Sydney’s hand.
“Jarod has nothing to do with it” Catherine intervened.
“Then who does?”
“It’s our daughter.”
Mr. Parker fell silent.
“What do you think? Should we sick the triumvirate on her too?” Catherine provoked her husband. “Have you even seen what is on
this disk?” she interrogated on and yanked the DSA from Sydney which he was holding in a sandwich bag.
Simulations lab, a few minutes later
Sydney turned off the projector and the light on. From out of the corner you could hear someone sobbing. It was Jarod. Catherine
sat immediately next to him. An embarrassed Mr. Parker, looked the other way.
“Jarod-honey, why are you crying?” She said soothing.
Sydney and Mr. Parker started discussing. Jarod cried on. Catherine asked him dovelike: “Jarod, this card. Did Miss Parker give it to
you?”
Jarod noded.
“I will never see her again, right?” he asked hesitantly. Catherine looked to her husband.
“…and in future you are responsible for that!” Mr. Parker pointed his Finger on Sydney and left the room.
“Of course you can see her again.” She laid his arm around him. “You just have to wait three weeks.”
Parker House, three weeks later
Miss Parker filled her watering can and walked into her room. She had planted a piece of lawn into a flower pot. When she had
finished watering it, she wrapped it in a paper bag. With her little package she stood at the doorstep facing the outside.
“You really think Jarod would like that kind of a present?” Her mother asked.
“Yes, I think so.” She smiled to herself.
“Alright, you can go.”
As soon as Catherine spoke those words, Miss Parker started to run towards the Centre.

The End











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