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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
As the sun sizzled on the horizon, Jarod started to close up his tower. Swinging the broad boards down with a slap over the windows, Jarod thought about what had happen a week ago. Wow, it had been a week, but it felt like a lifetime since that kiss on the rooftop. During this week there wasn’t a moment that his mind didn’t wander back to that point in time, their soaking wet kiss caught up in the heat of the moment. He tried to convince himself that this was the case, but he knew of his feelings, and they never lied to him, at least not yet. As he made his way down the ramp from his lifeguard tower he made one last scan across the beach and water that he was in charge of during this shift. Seeing that all was safe, he made his way back to his beach house where he was staying on this pretend. Glancing out at the pinkish red sunset, he dreamed of a time he could sit and enjoy the romantic scene being played out with her in his arms. He smiled at the thought of that and hoped it would come to pass.
****
Out of nowhere, a chair came whizzing through the air, and Broots swiftly moved out of the way as it broke into pieces at his feet. "M-miss P-parker, why are you so angry?" She just let out a rush of air in response, and sat down in the living area of the hotel in France where they had followed a lead from Lyle on Jarod’s whereabouts. All they came up came up with, however, was another dead end. The only lead they had, if you could even call it that, was a little souvenir bottle of beach sand and a note saying, "Surfs up! Ride the wave!" Jarod was playing with them again.
"Broots, have that sand analyzed to see if we can come up with some idea of where it came from; maybe we’ll get lucky." She knew it was a long shot, but it was all they had to go on. Plus, her severely sprained ankle forced her to wear a brace, and it made standing even harder than in those stiletto heels she owned. As she sat there, Broots and Sydney both gave her a concerned look.
"What?!" she screamed, getting angry at the looks she was invoking. "We’re just concerned for you after that near death experience in Seattle." Sydney stated.
Miss Parker almost laughed out loud. Not at the fact that Sydney and Broots cared about her--she knew by now who her real friends were, and she knew they would stand up for her no matter what. Hell, they had been against the T-board together and came out all right. No, what she thought was funny was that they had no idea that her barely successful rooftop jump didn’t even faze her a bit. Jarod, only Jarod, was on her mind. She still hadn’t come to grips with what had happen. She half hoped that it had been only just a dream. But what a dream it could have been! Her mood brightened at the thought of that night.
Sydney was still concerned about Miss Parker. Her mental health was never what he would consider stable. She was strong at most times, but when she did seem to get depressed, she shut out everybody. Slowly he had been able to get her to open up to him, and it gave him great pleasure and joy when she confided in him.
Broots made the comment, "Isn’t Paris the city of love?" Miss Parker glanced at him and sneered,
"No, it’s the city of lights." It seemed like everything reminded her of Jarod. She wondered how she would personally connect with him after her experience on that wet rooftop. "Well there’s nothing else we can do here. Let’s go," she stated firmly.
****
Jarod sat in his beach house looking over his DSA’s, the only history of his life as he knew it. Looking through the sims he performed as a child and all the damage that they had done to the world, he felt himself slipping back into a creature of habit. No matter how many times he scolded himself, he always thought he should have known what the Centre would do with the information his sims provided. He knew he couldn’t change the past, and it did him no good to dwell on it. What was done was done. All he could do was try to correct the things he could, and change the outcome to a brighter one.
With that in mind, he took out his red notebook and once again glanced over the headlines that brought him here. "Lifeguard and Victim Die, Cause of Faulty Equipment." Another article read, " Lt. Reece reports they need better crafts to perform up to the standard that are required by their jobs." "Well," Lt. Jarod thought, "Why would you say you need new crafts when the current ones are only two years old?"
The next day, Jarod followed Reece to a cozy little restaurant on the beach. As Reece met with a few people in suits, Jarod took some digital pictures of them, downloaded them into his laptop, and did a search. The men turned out to be the board of directors of Yamaha Watercraft Inc. The scene started to come together.
The Lt. breaks the current equipment, and the VP’s supply the replacement so that Lt. looks good for the low replacement costs. Meanwhile, the VP’s make a killing in the market by driving out the competitors. Greed: the worst king of motivation. Two people had died just so these few people could get more money than what they deserved.
Jarod glanced at his watch; it was almost time for duty. Sure enough, the Lt. got up, shook hands, and started to head back to headquarters. When the Lt. drove up to the equipment garage Jarod was just heading out to the beach. "Hey! Wait a minute Jarod!" he called. "I need those insurance papers filled out, just in case the equipment fails again. We need to have our butts covered." Lt. Reece smiled as he handed over the paperwork to be signed.
"Of course sir, no problem. I wouldn’t want to end up like the last guard." Jarod continued, "Although the county should pony up the dough for new crafts since that last accident was in the papers." The Lt. started to look a little uneasy. Jarod handed over all the signed paperwork saying, "Well, I wouldn’t want to be late my second day on the job." He then walked off toward his tower.
***
Home sweet home. Miss Parker almost laughed out loud at that idea. This place hadn’t been a home since her Mother passed away. Now it was merely a place to get away from the Centre. Her phone rang just as she was about to pick it up. Sydney told her that they might have a lead on Jarod, and she should get to the Centre quickly. She hung up the phone, took one last look around the house thinking "No rest for the weary," and went off to pick up another trail of Jarod’s.
When she got there, Broots and Sydney were at the computer. "Miss Parker, the sand you gave me to analyze . . .well, it came up with only three different matches." She would never understand why Broots had a way of talking but never really saying anything she wanted to hear.
"Well?" she prompted.
"Well, that’s the weird thing: they all come from California. And with the amount of glass shards and small amounts of litter, I’d say it came from L.A., San Francisco, or further south like San Diego." Broots finished.
"Okay then. California, here we come," Miss Parker stated as she lit a cigarette and hissed smoke out at Broots. "We’ll split up. Syd, you take San Fran, Broots, you got the City of Angels, and I’ll go to San Diego. Let’s leave tomorrow, and then you guys can meet me in a week in San Diego." She turned briskly around and started for her office to prepare for her mission. Just as she was about to reach her office she heard it, the squeak squeak of Dr. Rainie’s pet oxygen tank.
He stopped her and wheezed, "the Centre doesn’t think you’re moving fast enough in the pursuit of Jarod. To that end I’m assigning my own sweeper, Roy, to aid you in your current task of tracking Jarod in California."
"Thanks, but no thanks. You know I don’t play nicely with others," she said through clenched teeth.
"You have no choice in the matter. The Tower wants results, and it’s my job to see that they get what they want." Looking at Dr. Rainie, Miss Parker decided that he seemed more and more sickly each time he took a breath.
"Fine! We leave tomorrow. Make sure you’re ready!" She nodded toward Roy as she finished her cigarette, then brushed past them both and briskly entered her office.
****
Jarod pulled back the head and pulled a candy out with his teeth. As the sugary piece dissolved in his mouth, he thought about all the little things he missed growing up. Things like Pez. As he ate another, he resolved to make up for the time he lost while growing up in the Centre.
The sun was warm as he sat in his tower looking over the multitudes of sunbathers and swimmers.
"Hi Jarod." A voice pulled him from his trance.
"Why hello there, are you enjoying the beach today?" he asked the young woman. The woman smiled and put down her beach blanket in front of his tower. Jarod couldn’t help but notice the skimpy string bikini that the woman wore. Her sun bleached hair seemed to glisten with the sunlight. "It’s much more enjoyable now that you’re on the job." she flirted. Jarod gave her a warm smile and said, "Thanks."
"Do you think you could rub my back with sun tan lotion so I don’t burn?"
Jarod hopped off his chair and strode down the planks to help her. "Aren’t you the one who told the reporters about the two people who drowned out here?" Jarod asked as he rubbed her back. He noticed that her body tensed up at the question.
"She was a good friend of mine. She shouldn’t have gone swimming when the waves were that high, but that’s the kind of girl she was, always pushing the envelope, taking risks to the maximum. I saw her go under and ran to the lifeguard on duty. He ran to his Seadoo and drove out with no regard for his own safety, pulled her up on the craft, and then when it looked like he tried to come back in, that’s when it happened." The blonde woman started to sob softly and Jarod felt extreme sorrow for what she had gone through.
"All I could do was watch as the Seadoo started to smoke! Suddenly it just went up and there was nothing left but a small fire on the water."
"It must be hard to come back to this beach," Jarod said somberly.
"I come here because this is where she loved to be the most. Just sitting here in the sun reminds me of all the fun times we shared together."
Jarod smiled. "There you go, all greased up for another day in the sun." As he made his way back up the ramp he knew what he was going to do. When his shift ended, he started to prepare.
First, he gained access to the quads and made a couple of changes to them. Then he ran a virus through the computer duty roster so he and the Lt. had the same shift together the next day. The "eye for an eye" justice that the Lt. deserved, was well on its way to completion.
***
As the plane touched down at the San Diego airport, Miss Parker thought about what to do about her new sweeper. She planned to give him a horrible assignment just to spite Raines, maybe even have him search all the dumpsites along the beach.
"Where to, Miss Parker?" Roy asked.
"Take a wild guess, Siefree. The hotel - I want to sleep off this jet lag." As she made her way to the limo that waited for them she thought of the perfect place to start her search. What was common with the beach and lifeguards? And with the connections she had at the Centre she would find out if they knew of Jarod. When they got to the hotel, the manager was already waiting for them at the entrance.
"Hello and welcome. We are so glad you are staying with us. Everything is just as your companion requested." Miss Parker gave him an evil look but said nothing.
"We don’t usually get requests like yours. He paid us in advance, so here you go - room 202," said the man, handing over the keys to the room.
She was too tired to inquire about what the man was babbling about and lazily made her way over to the elevators. She slid the key into place and turned the handle to go into her room. When she turned on the light, she silently cursed.
"Jarod!" she thought as she looked around the room. The whole place was done in a pineapple motif with a surf board standing in the corner and the beach boys song playing "California Girls" on the radio. Oh, Jarod was going to pay for this! This is the most hideous decor she had ever seen. She dropped her bags and went to the phone and called the manager.
"What do you mean there are no more rooms!" Miss Parker yelled on the phone at the manager.
"Well at least get someone to turn off the stupid radio!"
"I’m sorry, Jarod said to wire the radio into the light switch so that whenever the lights were on the radio would play the songs that he selected," the manager stammered. "There’s nothing we can do about it for at least a day."
Miss Parker slammed down the phone on the receiver. She turned off the lights, changed into her sleeping garments and went to sleep.
***
"Well, Lt. it looks like it’s just you and me today," said Jarod with a smile. The Lt. and Jarod climbed aboard their quads and took off on patrol. As they were cruising down the beach and the Lt. was checking out the scenery of all the scantly clad women in the sun, they got a radio call that a sun bather had gotten to close to the edge of a cliff and slipped over. Jarod and the Lt. were the closest units, so they radio in that they were on their way and sped up to the cliffs. As they were nearing the edge, Jarod let off the throttle and slowed down. The Lt. made the same move, but the throttle stuck and the quad raced full speed for the edge. The Lt. jumped off just as the quad went over the cliff face. Lt. Reece slid off and fell down the cliff face about 5 or 6 feet and hung to the face. "Jarod! Help me!" he screamed.
Jarod peeked over the edge of the cliff "Hi ya, how’s it hanging?" a small smile curved the corners of his mouth. "Come on Jarod throw me a rope!" The panic was starting to set in, Jarod could hear it in his voice.
"Well, ok. Wait…on second thought, if you were to fall to your death it would be blamed on vehicle failure and the station would get brad new quads. What do you think?"
"I think you’re crazy! Now pull me up!" screamed the Lt.
"You think it’s a bad idea? Well, what do you think the guard felt like when he tried to use a Seadoo that was broken! Think about that! You killed a good lifeguard and a young woman just so you could line your pockets and look good doing it," said Jarod forcefully.
"Yes, yes - I did. I didn’t think anyone would die. I didn’t mean for it to happen that way. Now pull me up!" the Lt. yelled.
"Well you see I’m not really a lifeguard, but I’m sure if you hang around long enough somebody will find you. So bye bye."
Jarod smiled and stood up slowly walking away with Lt. Reece screaming in the background.
"I got it all on tape Jarod, I’m sure they will both have some peace now." Jarod smiled at her and gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek.
"Now you remember to put on plenty of sunblock when you lay by the tower cause I won’t be around to do it for you any more." Jarod teased.
"When should I throw him a rope?" she asked as Jarod turned to leave.
"The Police should be here in about five to ten minutes so I’d let him dangle for another minute or so."
***
Well, this was the address that lifeguard headquarters gave them on Jarod’s location. Miss Parker kept her gun raised and slowly entered the house with Roy close behind. The place was neat, not clean, just that everything had a place, unlike her hotel room. She remembered that after taking her shower she had forgotten about the lights and turned them on to get a change of clothes out when "Hotel California" came blaring on the radio. She still had that Eagles song stuck in her head, even now as they searched through the house. It sure seemed as though they were a step behind in finding Jarod’s lair, but then she saw that the DSA’s were still here and she knew Jarod would never leave those behind.
"Roy don’t touch anything, and stay out of sight. Jarod will be back and when he comes - we’ll grab him. I’ll check out back. You stay put," she said firmly. As she made her way to the back sliding door she scanned the wooded area and saw a small dirt path that lead away from the direct view of the house. She followed it to where it stopped, over-looking a sharp rock face that ended at the beach far down below.
"The view isn’t half as beautiful as you," a dark rich voice softly said behind her. With lightening fast reflexes, Miss Parker swiveled on her back heel and turned the gun on the person who was behind her. She came face to face with Jarod. He still only had his lifeguard suit on, and as she looked at his golden tan muscular body all that came to her lips was "Jarod". His name rolled off her tongue like dew on a morning flower.
"I’m not going anywhere, yet," came his reply. He slowly reached up and took the barrel of her gun and pointed it to the ground. "Come see this amazing sunset; there’s nothing like it from this view," Jarod said softly as he moved next to her and put his arm around her waist. Together they watched as the sunset melted into the ocean.
"If you listen close enough you can hear the water sizzle," Jarod whispered into her ear. She laid her head down on his broad shoulders and said softly "Jarod, I have to bring you in. It’s my job, the Centre doesn’t approve of me ever getting involved with you. I mean, if there wasn’t the Centre…who knows where this could lead."
A soft crack of a twig brought them both back out of their trance on the sunset. "Oh crap!" thought Miss Parker, "I forgot about Roy. I should have known he couldn’t follow instructions."
"Freeze! Both of you," said Roy as he came toward them. "Move and I’ll shoot! In fact, Miss Parker, since you’re in league with him I am authorized to shoot you," said Roy with a wicked smiled as he turned his on her.
"NO!" yelled Jarod, as he shoved Miss Parker out of the way. Roy squeezed the trigger and a shot rang out. Miss Parker rolled with the shove that Jarod gave her and kicked Roy’s legs out from under him. She felt some warm liquid running over her waist, she looked to see where she had been hit. Jarod tumbled into Roy as Miss Parker had kicked him and Roy went down like a sack of potatoes, but slipped off the side of the cliff and continued to tumble and fall until he was out of sight. Jarod got up and stumbled to the house while Miss Parker was still in a bit of shock. Miss Parker couldn’t find the entry wound of the bullet.There was blood all over her mid section, but she couldn’t find where it was coming from which meant…Jarod had been hit!
Jarod limped over to his DSA’s and grabbed them as he headed out to the front where Miss Parker had her black lincoln parked he got in and drove off his leg was really starting to hurt and he felt a little light headed from losing so much blood, he knew of a hospital close by that he could go to and have his leg looked it. Miss Parker grabbed her gun and looked to see where Roy had fallen to, as she peered over she saw his body down the cliff towards the bottom, she had no idea if he was alive or not, but raced to the house just to see Jarod escaping in her car. She called the local branch of the Centre and they sent sweepers and cleaners to her location with in minutes.
"Get Broots here, I’m going to go clean up. Roy is at the bottom of the cliff," she informed the group when they got there.
Hours later, Broots came in and said, "Marcy General treated a gunshot victim to the leg about an hour ago, but he disappeared before the police were able to question him."
Miss Parker grinned at this news. "At least he’s still alive and running again," she thought.
"As for where he went next, I don’t have a clue yet. There was nothing in his red note book except a story about a lifeguard," Broots finished telling her.
"Well there’s nothing more we can do here, so come on, Broots, let’s get back to the Centre," Miss Parker stated.
Her phone rang as Broots left to get ready "What?!" she stated in her normal tone.
"Well, you seem to be just fine," Jarod’s smug tone of voice said over the line.
"Should I call you gimp now?" she sneered back.
"Well, it looks like we’re back to the game of cat and mouse, aren’t we?" Jarod said slyly.
"Meow, I’m sharpening my claws right now." stated Miss Parker.
"Who ever said you were the cat? Well, got to go, don’t want to be late for my new job, do I now?" Jarod said.
"And what might that be?" Miss Parker asked.
"I never got to play cowboys and Indians when I was little. So maybe I’ll take some time in the Wild Wild West, Yee-Ha!"
There was only a click of the line being hung up after Jarod’s last statement.
Was he going to go rope cattle? "One never knew with Jarod, but," she thought, "it’s a lead she had to follow".
"Come on Broots I’m sick of all this surf and sand. Let’s move!"
Miss Parker stood out side of the beach house and waited for the helicopter that would bring them to the airport that would lead them to Blue Cove.
****
Out of nowhere, a chair came whizzing through the air, and Broots swiftly moved out of the way as it broke into pieces at his feet. "M-miss P-parker, why are you so angry?" She just let out a rush of air in response, and sat down in the living area of the hotel in France where they had followed a lead from Lyle on Jarod’s whereabouts. All they came up came up with, however, was another dead end. The only lead they had, if you could even call it that, was a little souvenir bottle of beach sand and a note saying, "Surfs up! Ride the wave!" Jarod was playing with them again.
"Broots, have that sand analyzed to see if we can come up with some idea of where it came from; maybe we’ll get lucky." She knew it was a long shot, but it was all they had to go on. Plus, her severely sprained ankle forced her to wear a brace, and it made standing even harder than in those stiletto heels she owned. As she sat there, Broots and Sydney both gave her a concerned look.
"What?!" she screamed, getting angry at the looks she was invoking. "We’re just concerned for you after that near death experience in Seattle." Sydney stated.
Miss Parker almost laughed out loud. Not at the fact that Sydney and Broots cared about her--she knew by now who her real friends were, and she knew they would stand up for her no matter what. Hell, they had been against the T-board together and came out all right. No, what she thought was funny was that they had no idea that her barely successful rooftop jump didn’t even faze her a bit. Jarod, only Jarod, was on her mind. She still hadn’t come to grips with what had happen. She half hoped that it had been only just a dream. But what a dream it could have been! Her mood brightened at the thought of that night.
Sydney was still concerned about Miss Parker. Her mental health was never what he would consider stable. She was strong at most times, but when she did seem to get depressed, she shut out everybody. Slowly he had been able to get her to open up to him, and it gave him great pleasure and joy when she confided in him.
Broots made the comment, "Isn’t Paris the city of love?" Miss Parker glanced at him and sneered,
"No, it’s the city of lights." It seemed like everything reminded her of Jarod. She wondered how she would personally connect with him after her experience on that wet rooftop. "Well there’s nothing else we can do here. Let’s go," she stated firmly.
****
Jarod sat in his beach house looking over his DSA’s, the only history of his life as he knew it. Looking through the sims he performed as a child and all the damage that they had done to the world, he felt himself slipping back into a creature of habit. No matter how many times he scolded himself, he always thought he should have known what the Centre would do with the information his sims provided. He knew he couldn’t change the past, and it did him no good to dwell on it. What was done was done. All he could do was try to correct the things he could, and change the outcome to a brighter one.
With that in mind, he took out his red notebook and once again glanced over the headlines that brought him here. "Lifeguard and Victim Die, Cause of Faulty Equipment." Another article read, " Lt. Reece reports they need better crafts to perform up to the standard that are required by their jobs." "Well," Lt. Jarod thought, "Why would you say you need new crafts when the current ones are only two years old?"
The next day, Jarod followed Reece to a cozy little restaurant on the beach. As Reece met with a few people in suits, Jarod took some digital pictures of them, downloaded them into his laptop, and did a search. The men turned out to be the board of directors of Yamaha Watercraft Inc. The scene started to come together.
The Lt. breaks the current equipment, and the VP’s supply the replacement so that Lt. looks good for the low replacement costs. Meanwhile, the VP’s make a killing in the market by driving out the competitors. Greed: the worst king of motivation. Two people had died just so these few people could get more money than what they deserved.
Jarod glanced at his watch; it was almost time for duty. Sure enough, the Lt. got up, shook hands, and started to head back to headquarters. When the Lt. drove up to the equipment garage Jarod was just heading out to the beach. "Hey! Wait a minute Jarod!" he called. "I need those insurance papers filled out, just in case the equipment fails again. We need to have our butts covered." Lt. Reece smiled as he handed over the paperwork to be signed.
"Of course sir, no problem. I wouldn’t want to end up like the last guard." Jarod continued, "Although the county should pony up the dough for new crafts since that last accident was in the papers." The Lt. started to look a little uneasy. Jarod handed over all the signed paperwork saying, "Well, I wouldn’t want to be late my second day on the job." He then walked off toward his tower.
***
Home sweet home. Miss Parker almost laughed out loud at that idea. This place hadn’t been a home since her Mother passed away. Now it was merely a place to get away from the Centre. Her phone rang just as she was about to pick it up. Sydney told her that they might have a lead on Jarod, and she should get to the Centre quickly. She hung up the phone, took one last look around the house thinking "No rest for the weary," and went off to pick up another trail of Jarod’s.
When she got there, Broots and Sydney were at the computer. "Miss Parker, the sand you gave me to analyze . . .well, it came up with only three different matches." She would never understand why Broots had a way of talking but never really saying anything she wanted to hear.
"Well?" she prompted.
"Well, that’s the weird thing: they all come from California. And with the amount of glass shards and small amounts of litter, I’d say it came from L.A., San Francisco, or further south like San Diego." Broots finished.
"Okay then. California, here we come," Miss Parker stated as she lit a cigarette and hissed smoke out at Broots. "We’ll split up. Syd, you take San Fran, Broots, you got the City of Angels, and I’ll go to San Diego. Let’s leave tomorrow, and then you guys can meet me in a week in San Diego." She turned briskly around and started for her office to prepare for her mission. Just as she was about to reach her office she heard it, the squeak squeak of Dr. Rainie’s pet oxygen tank.
He stopped her and wheezed, "the Centre doesn’t think you’re moving fast enough in the pursuit of Jarod. To that end I’m assigning my own sweeper, Roy, to aid you in your current task of tracking Jarod in California."
"Thanks, but no thanks. You know I don’t play nicely with others," she said through clenched teeth.
"You have no choice in the matter. The Tower wants results, and it’s my job to see that they get what they want." Looking at Dr. Rainie, Miss Parker decided that he seemed more and more sickly each time he took a breath.
"Fine! We leave tomorrow. Make sure you’re ready!" She nodded toward Roy as she finished her cigarette, then brushed past them both and briskly entered her office.
****
Jarod pulled back the head and pulled a candy out with his teeth. As the sugary piece dissolved in his mouth, he thought about all the little things he missed growing up. Things like Pez. As he ate another, he resolved to make up for the time he lost while growing up in the Centre.
The sun was warm as he sat in his tower looking over the multitudes of sunbathers and swimmers.
"Hi Jarod." A voice pulled him from his trance.
"Why hello there, are you enjoying the beach today?" he asked the young woman. The woman smiled and put down her beach blanket in front of his tower. Jarod couldn’t help but notice the skimpy string bikini that the woman wore. Her sun bleached hair seemed to glisten with the sunlight. "It’s much more enjoyable now that you’re on the job." she flirted. Jarod gave her a warm smile and said, "Thanks."
"Do you think you could rub my back with sun tan lotion so I don’t burn?"
Jarod hopped off his chair and strode down the planks to help her. "Aren’t you the one who told the reporters about the two people who drowned out here?" Jarod asked as he rubbed her back. He noticed that her body tensed up at the question.
"She was a good friend of mine. She shouldn’t have gone swimming when the waves were that high, but that’s the kind of girl she was, always pushing the envelope, taking risks to the maximum. I saw her go under and ran to the lifeguard on duty. He ran to his Seadoo and drove out with no regard for his own safety, pulled her up on the craft, and then when it looked like he tried to come back in, that’s when it happened." The blonde woman started to sob softly and Jarod felt extreme sorrow for what she had gone through.
"All I could do was watch as the Seadoo started to smoke! Suddenly it just went up and there was nothing left but a small fire on the water."
"It must be hard to come back to this beach," Jarod said somberly.
"I come here because this is where she loved to be the most. Just sitting here in the sun reminds me of all the fun times we shared together."
Jarod smiled. "There you go, all greased up for another day in the sun." As he made his way back up the ramp he knew what he was going to do. When his shift ended, he started to prepare.
First, he gained access to the quads and made a couple of changes to them. Then he ran a virus through the computer duty roster so he and the Lt. had the same shift together the next day. The "eye for an eye" justice that the Lt. deserved, was well on its way to completion.
***
As the plane touched down at the San Diego airport, Miss Parker thought about what to do about her new sweeper. She planned to give him a horrible assignment just to spite Raines, maybe even have him search all the dumpsites along the beach.
"Where to, Miss Parker?" Roy asked.
"Take a wild guess, Siefree. The hotel - I want to sleep off this jet lag." As she made her way to the limo that waited for them she thought of the perfect place to start her search. What was common with the beach and lifeguards? And with the connections she had at the Centre she would find out if they knew of Jarod. When they got to the hotel, the manager was already waiting for them at the entrance.
"Hello and welcome. We are so glad you are staying with us. Everything is just as your companion requested." Miss Parker gave him an evil look but said nothing.
"We don’t usually get requests like yours. He paid us in advance, so here you go - room 202," said the man, handing over the keys to the room.
She was too tired to inquire about what the man was babbling about and lazily made her way over to the elevators. She slid the key into place and turned the handle to go into her room. When she turned on the light, she silently cursed.
"Jarod!" she thought as she looked around the room. The whole place was done in a pineapple motif with a surf board standing in the corner and the beach boys song playing "California Girls" on the radio. Oh, Jarod was going to pay for this! This is the most hideous decor she had ever seen. She dropped her bags and went to the phone and called the manager.
"What do you mean there are no more rooms!" Miss Parker yelled on the phone at the manager.
"Well at least get someone to turn off the stupid radio!"
"I’m sorry, Jarod said to wire the radio into the light switch so that whenever the lights were on the radio would play the songs that he selected," the manager stammered. "There’s nothing we can do about it for at least a day."
Miss Parker slammed down the phone on the receiver. She turned off the lights, changed into her sleeping garments and went to sleep.
***
"Well, Lt. it looks like it’s just you and me today," said Jarod with a smile. The Lt. and Jarod climbed aboard their quads and took off on patrol. As they were cruising down the beach and the Lt. was checking out the scenery of all the scantly clad women in the sun, they got a radio call that a sun bather had gotten to close to the edge of a cliff and slipped over. Jarod and the Lt. were the closest units, so they radio in that they were on their way and sped up to the cliffs. As they were nearing the edge, Jarod let off the throttle and slowed down. The Lt. made the same move, but the throttle stuck and the quad raced full speed for the edge. The Lt. jumped off just as the quad went over the cliff face. Lt. Reece slid off and fell down the cliff face about 5 or 6 feet and hung to the face. "Jarod! Help me!" he screamed.
Jarod peeked over the edge of the cliff "Hi ya, how’s it hanging?" a small smile curved the corners of his mouth. "Come on Jarod throw me a rope!" The panic was starting to set in, Jarod could hear it in his voice.
"Well, ok. Wait…on second thought, if you were to fall to your death it would be blamed on vehicle failure and the station would get brad new quads. What do you think?"
"I think you’re crazy! Now pull me up!" screamed the Lt.
"You think it’s a bad idea? Well, what do you think the guard felt like when he tried to use a Seadoo that was broken! Think about that! You killed a good lifeguard and a young woman just so you could line your pockets and look good doing it," said Jarod forcefully.
"Yes, yes - I did. I didn’t think anyone would die. I didn’t mean for it to happen that way. Now pull me up!" the Lt. yelled.
"Well you see I’m not really a lifeguard, but I’m sure if you hang around long enough somebody will find you. So bye bye."
Jarod smiled and stood up slowly walking away with Lt. Reece screaming in the background.
"I got it all on tape Jarod, I’m sure they will both have some peace now." Jarod smiled at her and gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek.
"Now you remember to put on plenty of sunblock when you lay by the tower cause I won’t be around to do it for you any more." Jarod teased.
"When should I throw him a rope?" she asked as Jarod turned to leave.
"The Police should be here in about five to ten minutes so I’d let him dangle for another minute or so."
***
Well, this was the address that lifeguard headquarters gave them on Jarod’s location. Miss Parker kept her gun raised and slowly entered the house with Roy close behind. The place was neat, not clean, just that everything had a place, unlike her hotel room. She remembered that after taking her shower she had forgotten about the lights and turned them on to get a change of clothes out when "Hotel California" came blaring on the radio. She still had that Eagles song stuck in her head, even now as they searched through the house. It sure seemed as though they were a step behind in finding Jarod’s lair, but then she saw that the DSA’s were still here and she knew Jarod would never leave those behind.
"Roy don’t touch anything, and stay out of sight. Jarod will be back and when he comes - we’ll grab him. I’ll check out back. You stay put," she said firmly. As she made her way to the back sliding door she scanned the wooded area and saw a small dirt path that lead away from the direct view of the house. She followed it to where it stopped, over-looking a sharp rock face that ended at the beach far down below.
"The view isn’t half as beautiful as you," a dark rich voice softly said behind her. With lightening fast reflexes, Miss Parker swiveled on her back heel and turned the gun on the person who was behind her. She came face to face with Jarod. He still only had his lifeguard suit on, and as she looked at his golden tan muscular body all that came to her lips was "Jarod". His name rolled off her tongue like dew on a morning flower.
"I’m not going anywhere, yet," came his reply. He slowly reached up and took the barrel of her gun and pointed it to the ground. "Come see this amazing sunset; there’s nothing like it from this view," Jarod said softly as he moved next to her and put his arm around her waist. Together they watched as the sunset melted into the ocean.
"If you listen close enough you can hear the water sizzle," Jarod whispered into her ear. She laid her head down on his broad shoulders and said softly "Jarod, I have to bring you in. It’s my job, the Centre doesn’t approve of me ever getting involved with you. I mean, if there wasn’t the Centre…who knows where this could lead."
A soft crack of a twig brought them both back out of their trance on the sunset. "Oh crap!" thought Miss Parker, "I forgot about Roy. I should have known he couldn’t follow instructions."
"Freeze! Both of you," said Roy as he came toward them. "Move and I’ll shoot! In fact, Miss Parker, since you’re in league with him I am authorized to shoot you," said Roy with a wicked smiled as he turned his on her.
"NO!" yelled Jarod, as he shoved Miss Parker out of the way. Roy squeezed the trigger and a shot rang out. Miss Parker rolled with the shove that Jarod gave her and kicked Roy’s legs out from under him. She felt some warm liquid running over her waist, she looked to see where she had been hit. Jarod tumbled into Roy as Miss Parker had kicked him and Roy went down like a sack of potatoes, but slipped off the side of the cliff and continued to tumble and fall until he was out of sight. Jarod got up and stumbled to the house while Miss Parker was still in a bit of shock. Miss Parker couldn’t find the entry wound of the bullet.There was blood all over her mid section, but she couldn’t find where it was coming from which meant…Jarod had been hit!
Jarod limped over to his DSA’s and grabbed them as he headed out to the front where Miss Parker had her black lincoln parked he got in and drove off his leg was really starting to hurt and he felt a little light headed from losing so much blood, he knew of a hospital close by that he could go to and have his leg looked it. Miss Parker grabbed her gun and looked to see where Roy had fallen to, as she peered over she saw his body down the cliff towards the bottom, she had no idea if he was alive or not, but raced to the house just to see Jarod escaping in her car. She called the local branch of the Centre and they sent sweepers and cleaners to her location with in minutes.
"Get Broots here, I’m going to go clean up. Roy is at the bottom of the cliff," she informed the group when they got there.
Hours later, Broots came in and said, "Marcy General treated a gunshot victim to the leg about an hour ago, but he disappeared before the police were able to question him."
Miss Parker grinned at this news. "At least he’s still alive and running again," she thought.
"As for where he went next, I don’t have a clue yet. There was nothing in his red note book except a story about a lifeguard," Broots finished telling her.
"Well there’s nothing more we can do here, so come on, Broots, let’s get back to the Centre," Miss Parker stated.
Her phone rang as Broots left to get ready "What?!" she stated in her normal tone.
"Well, you seem to be just fine," Jarod’s smug tone of voice said over the line.
"Should I call you gimp now?" she sneered back.
"Well, it looks like we’re back to the game of cat and mouse, aren’t we?" Jarod said slyly.
"Meow, I’m sharpening my claws right now." stated Miss Parker.
"Who ever said you were the cat? Well, got to go, don’t want to be late for my new job, do I now?" Jarod said.
"And what might that be?" Miss Parker asked.
"I never got to play cowboys and Indians when I was little. So maybe I’ll take some time in the Wild Wild West, Yee-Ha!"
There was only a click of the line being hung up after Jarod’s last statement.
Was he going to go rope cattle? "One never knew with Jarod, but," she thought, "it’s a lead she had to follow".
"Come on Broots I’m sick of all this surf and sand. Let’s move!"
Miss Parker stood out side of the beach house and waited for the helicopter that would bring them to the airport that would lead them to Blue Cove.
