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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Part 2
Ashe, New York
Helen got out of the car and opened the large doors at the back of the house that led down to the cellar before easing open the rear car door. Knowing that the door had been holding up the girl's body, the woman stretched out both her arms to catch Debbie as she began to slip to the ground. Helen supported her with one arm and placed Broots' limp arms, outstretched in the position they had fallen after the girl had been removed from his unconscious grasp, back on the car seat. She shut the car door, before carrying Debbie down into the dark room. Enough light shone in through the open doors to show a large sofa, on which she placed the deeply sleeping figure before going over to the light switch and flicking it on, a light in the ceiling illuminating the spacious living area. Looking around the room, she nodded in satisfaction.
"Okay, Debbie. Let's put you into your room and then I'll go and get your Dad."
Helen opened one of the doors that led out of the living area into a bedroom and gently picked up Debbie in her arms, carrying her into the room and putting her on the bed. With a gentle hand, the woman rearranged the blankets in which Debbie had been wrapped to ensure that she was warmly covered. Walking back up the stairs to the car, Helen opened the black case and pulled out a rag, soaking it in fluid. Opening the back door of the car, she held the cloth under the technician's nose, watching as his eyes opened, gazing wildly around for a moment before focusing on her face.
"What the...?"
"Good evening, Mr. Broots. Nice of you to join me."
"What are you - where's my daughter?"
"I just put her into her temporary bed. Can I help you to yours before that sedative begins to affect you again?"
Helen held out a hand, watching as he cautiously took it, slowly getting out of the car. She helped him into the living room seeing that, as she had said and knew it would, the tranquillizer was once more beginning to make itself felt. Broots swayed weakly on his feet, and she put her arm around his waist.
"Careful there. I'm not sure I'm strong enough to carry you all the way. It's just a couple more steps from here."
The man leaned heavily on her, his eyes almost closed, feeling unable to move by himself, as his mind began to fog, staggering the last few paces into a room and virtually falling onto the bed, unconscious immediately. Helen laughed and pulled a blanket over him, closing the door as she left.
Going back up the stairs, she soaked the cloth again and opened the other door, rousing Sydney in the same manner.
"Is Jarod here?"
"No, he's not." She helped him out of the car. "The only people here are the four of us, and that's the way I intend it to remain for the moment."
"And why?"
"Like I said, you were finding out too much information about me. I get a bit edgy when people do that." She smiled, assisting him into the third bedroom and helping him to sit on the bed. "But it’s nothing for you to worry about. You're quite safe. You can ask me anything you want when you all wake up in the morning. Of course," she laughed, "being below ground, you won't know when it is morning, but that's something both you and Broots should both be used to by now."
There was amusement in her eyes as Sydney struggled against the exhaustion that he could feel returning, his half-closed eyes fixed on her. With an effort, he put an arm out to stop himself from falling sideways, but Helen gently pressed his elbow, buckling it and seeing as, too exhausted to fight any longer, he slipped down onto the pillow, his eyes closed. She laughed, raising his legs up onto the mattress, and then pulled a blanket over the deeply sleeping man. Helen ensured that the door leading into the house was secure before ascending the other stairs to where the vehicle stood, firmly fastening the large wooden doors behind her before locking her car and walking into the house.
The Centre
Blue Cove, Delaware
"Syd?"
Miss Parker tried to push the door open but it wouldn't yield to her touch. Turning on her heel, she got the lift up to the Tech Room on SL-5 was situated but Broots' usual workstation was also bare and his computer was off. Pulling out her phone, she called the reception desk, to find that neither had signed in so far that morning, but had left together the night before. Curious, she next called Debbie's school, to find that the girl hadn't turned up so far that day. As she’d started to consider other possibilities, she heard a step and turned as Lyle approached.
What did Broots find last night?"
"I wouldn't know." She shrugged. "He hasn't come in this morning."
"He what?" Lyle stared at her. "Is that a joke?"
"No, and Sydney isn't here either." She looked at him. "Did you talk to Daddy?"
"He didn't tell me any more than he did yesterday."
Miss Parker nodded, dissatisfied, and then began to walk down the hall. Her brother hurried after her.
"Where are you going?"
"My office. If there's something wrong, I'd expect them to have told me about it."
She entered the room, Lyle following, and noted that an email was already waiting for her. Hands covering the keys, she typed in the password and then opened it.
"Well?"
"'The psychiatrist and the technician as well as his daughter are safe. They'll be returned when I think the time is right.’"
Lyle shrugged. "There's your answer."
Ashe, New York
Helen heard the muffled talking as she silently unlocked the door, opening it and looking down at the two men who sat on the sofa below her.
"Good morning, gentlemen. I hope you slept well."
They both looked up, watching as she came down the stairs, with the gun held in one hand and a large basket in the other. Broots nodded at the weapon, a look of resentment on his face.
"Is that necessary?"
"It depends." She shrugged carelessly. "I don't like having to wave it around, particularly with your daughter being here, but unless you promise me not to try and escape, then yes, it is."
The older man looked up, speaking quietly. "Considering we don't know where we are, it wouldn't be a lot of use trying that, would it?"
"That's a very naïve statement, Sydney." Helen put the basket down on the floor and leaned back against the stairs. "Jarod had no idea of where he was when he got out of the Centre – he had no idea of the world he was escaping into, if you come to that – and he managed fine."
Sydney nodded slowly, glancing around. "Interesting, perhaps, then, that we woke this morning to find ourselves in comfortable rooms with no windows and a door that only locks on the outside."
"Yes," Helen responded coolly. "It was rather, wasn't it?"
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a cell phone and held it up briefly before replacing it.
"I thought I should mention that I had it before you started thinking you'd lost it, Sydney. I relieved you of it while helping you in here earlier this morning."
"So you pickpocket as well as kidnap?"
"As well as steal Centre files and DSAs before you ask, yes. Anything that suits my purpose."
"And that is?"
Helen glanced at the technician. "Twofold. To protect myself and also, as it’s needed, to help my friends."
"And does that include Jarod?"
"Perhaps. Although, considering I ran him over, it seems a strange sort of help."
Sydney looked up at her. "I seem to recall last night you saying he fought, too. Did you sedate him somehow as well?"
"Would you rather I set a broken wrist and tape broken ribs while he was conscious? I think you’d have been able to hear his screams in Blue Cove if I had. No, he had a nice little sleep, and then I drove him home." She consulted her watch. "He's probably just waking up now." Looking down at the gun in her hand, Helen glanced at the two men. "I'll put this away before Debbie comes out, if you'll promise me that you won't try to either escape or overpower me. If you tried, I would win but it wouldn't be pleasant for any of us."
Sydney met Broots' eye and nodded slowly. "That won't happen."
"Good." She slipped the weapon into the holster. "So we can be civil and I'll leave the three of you to enjoy your breakfast."
Going back up the stairs, she walked through the door and locked it behind her.
Pritt, Pennsylvania
Jarod stretched and opened his eyes, staring blankly around the room for a few seconds before memory reasserted itself and he sat up.
"Good morning, big brother. How did you sleep?"
He grinned, instantly understanding. "Okay, what did she give me?"
"It depends on whether you took the things she gave you or not." Emily smiled as she came over and sat down on the edge of the bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Better than the last time I opened my eyes to see you after being the victim of one of her drugs." He gently stroked her cheek. "How are you?"
"A lot better than I was when you left the convent. In fact, I didn't have any problems as a result of that at all."
"Good." Jarod wrapped both arms around his sister and hugged her. "I'm so glad to see you, Em."
She hugged him back. "So have you forgiven Helen for what she did to you?"
"How could I stay angry with someone who got me back in touch with my family? And she's your friend, too, which gives me another reason."
"Good." Emily got up off the bed. "The bathroom's down the hall."
"Dad showed me last night."
"Breakfast in half an hour."
"Great."
Ashe, New York
"Sydney, I'd like a word."
She held open the door as he walked past her, locking it behind him. Sydney sat down opposite her, looking warily at the mug she placed before him, and she laughed.
"Obviously you imbued Jarod with your own personal brand of suspicion. This is coffee, Sydney. Pure coffee only." She poured some into her mug, drinking before the psychiatrist moved to serve himself.
"What is it?"
"I'm interested to know how you're explaining this whole situation to Debbie."
"Her father told her that he was in danger, to do with work, and was brought here to be safe." He eyed her. "I don't know how much of that is the truth."
"More than I thought when I brought you here." She sighed and pushed a sheet of paper over the table to him. "Read that."
He glanced over the sheet before looking up at her. "Where did you get this?"
"Mr. Parker's secret hiding place. I'm sure you've watched footage of me in there, from the hour before I hit Jarod, so you know what I'm talking about."
He nodded slowly. "So it's Mr. Parker and Mr. Cox?"
"Correct." She looked up. "Do you have any idea where Raines is now?"
"No. He disappeared after being at Miss Parker's…"
"I know."
Sydney looked at her closely. "You seem to know an awful lot."
"I do know an awful lot. It's not difficult."
"So what's going to happen?"
"Isn't that a rather obvious question considering what you just read? Mr. Parker is feeling that Lyle knows too much and, son or not, will have him eliminated."
"And… Miss Parker?"
"I don't know." Helen stared thoughtfully into her mug. "I'm not sure what the best course of action there is. I mean, if I rocked up to her house and said 'I'm here to save you. Jump in,' I don't think she would, do you?"
"No," Sydney shook his head, his lips twitching at the thought of the very casual scene, "I don't think so either."
Helen sat back in her chair. "I suspect that Raines is, at least temporarily, under the Triumvirate’s protection. And I really mean genuine protection, not what terms like that have meant in the past."
"On what are you basing this idea?"
"I found a bit of information about a few secret projects that he's been running, and which nobody else knows about. I'm sure the Triumvirate wouldn't run the risk of losing those."
"So the Triumvirate will be facing off..."
"No." Helen shook her head definitively. "Lyle will die, and then life will go on. He's not important enough for the Triumvirate to see it as a threat to their security. Not yet anyway."
As Helen was about to speak again, the phone on the table beside her rang and she leaned over, turning on the speaker.
"Hello?"
"Helen, do you know how hard you are to find?"
"That's always my intention, Em. What's up?"
"I've got a somewhat concerned big brother here, who's trying to find out why Sydney and Broots didn't turn up to work this morning. I think he's a bit worried, in case they've been hauled in by the Triumvirate."
Helen grinned. "When you say 'here', what do you mean exactly?"
"'Here' as in 'here', right 'here', next to the phone 'here'," a male voice replied in very terse tones. "Helen, do you know anything?"
She laughed and then glanced at the man opposite, raising an eyebrow. "Well, be polite, Sydney. Say hello."
"You mean… he's there?" the Pretender demanded.
"Good morning, Jarod. Are you alright?"
"Sydney?" There was a note of disbelief in his tones. "Helen, how on earth...?"
"Hey, if I can actually lure you to my house, then it shouldn't be too hard for me to kidnap Sydney, Broots and his daughter and bring them here, should it now?" She could hear Emily's laughter as she finished her rhetorical question and, seeing the light of amusement in Sydney's eye, although he fought very hard to suppress it, Helen grinned.
"What are they doing there?"
"They started to investigate my background, and Em will tell you that I'm not a big fan of that, so I decided that it was best to bring them here before they could tell anyone what they found." Helen laughed. "Let me return Sydney to the comforts of his room and then I'll tell you some more."
Pritt, Pennsylvania
Jarod turned off the speaker, grinning at his sister. "Want to come along?"
"You certainly aren't going there on your own!" Emily glared at him. "Of course I'm coming. She's my friend, not yours!"
"Sibling rivalry, huh?" He laughed and stood up, walking over to pick up the bags that still waited near the door and watching as she went into her own room. It was barely a few minutes later that she reappeared with similar items in her hand, and Jarod turned to the man who now stood next to him.
"You don't mind, do you Dad?"
"Of course not." Major Charles smiled. "I'd probably do the same. Just keep me informed of how things are going, okay? And, when you're done, son, you know you can come home."
Jarod hugged him. "I know, dad. And we will, I promise."
"I'll be looking forward to it." Major Charles hugged his daughter and watched as they got into the car that was parked outside the house, waving before he went back inside the house.
As the car reached the speed limit, Jarod looked at his sister. "Do you know exactly where we're going or do you have to call again to get an address?"
"New York State. She has a house there with the perfect set-up for a few 'guests' and that's probably where they're sleeping."
"Oh, really?" Jarod raised an eyebrow. "In what way?"
"Hmm," Emily thought for a moment. "Underground, comfortable, several rooms including a bathroom with running water, books, a television, radio." She grinned at him. "Now that I think about it..."
"You thought about it before then or you wouldn't have described it in so much detail." He laughed. "But I can already see where you're going so please stop."
Ashe, New York
Helen made the second bed and then looked around. She hadn't guessed that they would come, but it would be a lot easier if they did. Reaching into her pocket, she took out the piece of paper, rereading it as she went down into the kitchen. After switching on the large urn in the corner, she put the page down on the table and then walked over to the cellar door, opening it.
"Debbie, can you spare your Dad for a moment?"
The girl looked up from the chess game that she and Sydney were planning and nodded. Broots rose and walked up the stairs, glaring at Helen as she locked the door and then led the way into the kitchen.
"Considering that I've probably saved your life, Mr. Broots, you could at least try to be grateful."
"What exactly did you do to my daughter before you took her?" he growled, ignoring her.
As he sat down, she picked up the black case and opened it, pulling out a plastic bottle and giving it to him. "You won't recognize it, because it's something that I made myself, but it's a very gentle sedative, only really useful when a person is already asleep to deepen it. I exposed Debbie to this so that she wouldn't wake up in a panic as I carried her down to the car. She didn't."
"Any side-effects?" he queried, half-soothed by the description.
"None. That's the benefit of most of the things I create - they have no long-term signs. So please, Mr. Broots, try and trust me. I nabbed you and Sydney because you were trying to find out things about me and, as I said, I don't like that. I brought your daughter along because I was worried the Centre may have tried to use her as an 'incentive' to find you. Where would you rather Debbie be - safe here with you or in one of the Centre's cells?"
He nodded slowly as she got up to fill both his mug and her own and then looked at her. "Did you want something specific or just to try and make me trust you?"
She grinned. "Do you?"
"Well, usually I wouldn't trust somebody who abducted me..."
"Even if I told you that, by doing so, I probably inadvertently saved your life?"
He leaned back in his seat. "What do you mean?"
She pushed the piece of paper across the table and watched him read it, his eyes widening.
"So Lyle...?"
"I don't think you'll have to be scared of him again. If the poison doesn't kill him, although I think it will, he'll certainly be left with nasty, long-term side-effects."
Broots looked up. "Are you a chemist?"
"Amateur, yes. I've always been interested in that and, although I'm a doctor, I also like spending time in my lab working on new formulae. It's more of a hobby than a profession." She leaned back in her chair, light from the window making her hair glow. "Interestingly, the poison that will remove Lyle from the picture is, with superb irony, his own composition. Lyle concocted it under Raines' direction when he was younger."
"That's twisted."
Helen laughed, standing up and watching as Broots did the same. "I believe that could fairly be said of everything at the Centre, don't you?"
The Centre
Blue Cove, Delaware
Angelo crawled along the vent until he came to an office and watched as a black-haired man, his blue eyes gleaming, entered and, after deliberately locking the door after him, walked over to the desk. Slipping on gloves and taking a bottle out of his pocket, the man sprayed the surface of the desk and the keyboard. He then took out another bottle and squeezed several drops of liquid into the mug that sat on the desk, pulling out a cotton swab and spreading the liquid around, ensuring that the rim was coated. A tiny smile on his face, he put the swab into a plastic bag and sealed it, returning it to his pocket before going over to unlock the door. Turning once, he nodded, and then put his hand on the lock, sliding a thin piece of metal out of his sleeve and fiddling with the catch. Satisfied, he allowed the door to almost close, and Angelo could hear his footsteps walking away down the corridor.
Ashe, New York
"For some reason, this situation seems strangely ironic."
Sydney looked up at the sound of the familiar voice to see Jarod standing at the top of the stairs. "I suppose that it might appear that way."
"You don't see it?"
"I didn't say that."
"You just don't want to admit it." Jarod laughed. "Should we try a simulation to see who gets the better results?"
"I think that would be rather pointless, don't you?"
Sydney's voice dripped with ice and Jarod turned to Helen, struggling to hide a laugh. “He doesn't seem all that pleased to see me."
"He was probably actually happier to see my car hit you than he is now, although it means you're still alive and relatively uninjured. Funny what putting someone in an underground room will do."
Jarod raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure they won't get bored? After all, even I got provided with... things to do."
"Now why would they do that? They have TV and radio, and I feed them on a fairly regular basis, or else when I remember. What more do they need?" She laughed, pulling him back, before locking the door.
"You're horrible, you know that don't you?"
"Me?" Helen looked hurt. "You were the person teasing him!"
"But I wasn't the person who locked them up."
"Yes, that's true." She sat down at the kitchen table. "That might make somewhat of a difference, I suppose." Picking up her mug, she got up and went over to the sink. "Actually, I just think being down there is what's getting to him. He was a lot better up here."
"Well, now he understands..." Jarod looked up at her sharply. "That was why you did it, wasn't it?"
She grinned but didn't comment. Emily laughed. "Helen, I think one of the things that annoys my brother most is when people don't answer his questions."
"Then he'll have to get used to it, won't he?" She smiled. "Because it's a thing I'm very good at."
Jarod sent a mock-glare across the table. "I'll change the subject and come back to that one later when you might be willing to tell me. Em told me that the reason you were in Blue Cove in time to hit me was because you were 'liberating' a few files about us. Why?"
Helen smiled. "Because I enjoy it."
He raised an eyebrow. "For some strange reason, I don't believe that."
She laughed and glanced at his sister. "Em, you didn't tell me he was skeptical among everything else."
"Would that have changed anything?"
"Oh, yes." She smiled. "If I knew from the start that he wasn't going to believe me, I wouldn’t have bothered with the whole sedative thing. I’d have told him I knew you and watched him disappear over the horizon."
The Centre
Blue Cove, Delaware
Miss Parker walked into her office and let the door shut behind her, going over to her desk. Sitting down in the chair, she picked up the piece of paper that lay beside her right hand and stared at it. Her father had refused to say anymore about the robbery, telling her that, as everything had been returned, there was nothing else she needed to know. Before going to speak with him, she’d gone through Broots' things and found the sheet - a list of reports that detailed missing items and all of which had to do with Jarod or his family. She activated the computer in front of her and started to try and find any connection between the reports.
Ashe, New York
"I really do enjoy it, Jarod. I like a challenge."
"But I don't believe that it's either the only or the major reason that you do it. Why the Centre?"
Helen tried to keep her face expressionless. "Why not?"
"Please, Helen..."
"Ooh, begging." She crossed her arms and leaned against the sink, not bothering to hide the grin on her face. "I like this."
"I could always ask Sydney."
"He wouldn't be able to tell you. They didn't get far enough to be able to provide an answer to that question."
"So will you?"
"Hmm, maybe."
"Today or some time next year?"
"I was thinking some time next century myself." She grinned at him. "Actually, Sydney might have some more information that might be useful."
"Like what?"
"Why not wait until I ask him and then you'll know at the same time?"
"I don't like waiting," he muttered.
"Gee, there's a shock." She grinned and went over to the cellar door, opening it and looking down into the room below. "Sydney, do you have a moment in your busy schedule?"
"For you, Helen?" The man's tones were full of sarcasm as he ascended the stairs, entering the kitchen. "Always."
Jarod tried to sound offended. "How come I never got a response like that?"
"You never locked me a cellar." Sydney sat down opposite Jarod and hid a smile as he looked at his former protégée. "It makes a difference."
"Apparently." Helen glanced at Jarod. "I don't suppose you've got your DSA player with you?"
As Jarod got up to retrieve the case, Helen looked at Sydney with a smile. Once the player lay on the table in front of her, she reached into her pants pocket and took out a flat case. Extracting one of the discs from it, she put it into the machine and then turned the screen around so that Sydney could see the image that appeared.
"What is it?" he demanded.
"The things you were looking for." She grinned at the older man. "In return for all the information I want from you, I thought it might be nice if I gave something back in return. As you said yesterday outside Broots' house, I'm a considerate person."
"So this is...?"
"My 'break-ins'. I copied them onto one disk for ease. All sixty-nine." Sitting back in her chair, she watched the jaws of the two men droop and glanced at Emily with a sly grin. "Was that too much information too soon?"
"Hmm, could be," her friend agreed with a laugh.
"S… sixty-nine?"
"Oh, how could I forget? It's seventy now, of course." Helen heaved a rueful sigh before grinning again. "I must be getting old."
"Well, of course you are," Sydney responded in mock-acid tones. "That explains how you manage to crawl around inside the Centre's air vents with ease on so many occasions." He hesitated for a moment. "That list Broots put together only had about thirty items on it, so why did you have to go there so often?"
She laughed. "I had to see what I was going to replace, didn't I?" Helen looked up at Jarod. "What was Sydney's reaction to Gemini?"
"Why don't you ask...?"
"Because you'll tell me and Sydney, since he still doesn't really trust who I'm actually working for, won't.”
"He helped me get him out."
Helen raised an eyebrow. "Loyalty to the Centre's obviously as strong in you as your faith in me, Sydney."
"Actually, I'm beginning to have more trust in you than in them, Helen."
"I'm glad to hear it." She closed the machine and pushed it over to him. "You can take that back down with you when you go and watch me in action if you like."
"Will you tell me a few things first?"
"Sure. Then you can tell me a thing or two as well."
"Fair deal." Sydney sat back. "First, why did we get snatched?"
Helen rolled her eyes. "I thought I'd answered that one. It was because you were finding out too much about me."
"And what, exactly, could that have been? We couldn't even seen your face on the security tape, and now we get an even better chance to see it than we could have on the DSAs."
"That's very true." Helen grinned. "But, if the two of you had hunted much further, you would have found quite a lot of files about me. You see," she leaned back in her chair. "My vendetta against the Centre goes back a long way, and I made the mistake once of leaving a half-print around the place. A certain person was given it and…"
"SIM 3832? The intruder?" Jarod raised an eyebrow. "That was you?"
"Sure was. I kicked myself for three weeks about it, particularly as I had no doubt you would take no time at all to figure it out. And I was right. The mainframe's got a complete profile, and several parts, although I hate to admit it, are very eerily like me. You did well."
"Thanks, I think."
"Oh, come on, Jarod." She folded her arms and grinned. "Considering the complimentary things I just said about your work, you could be happier."
"Well, let's just say I didn't expect to ever be confronted with the subject of a SIM, much less have her collect me with the front of her car."
"I bet." She rolled her eyes. "But you missed out on a big part of my personality, for all your skills. The part where I play around with chemicals."
"That's because most thieves don't."
"And since when do you generalize?"
"Oh, all the time!" He rolled his eyes, grinning.
"So, if the Centre already knows so much about you," Sydney glanced over as he spoke, " I don't understand your problem with us reopening the results of that simulation, and anything else we could find."
"That was the problem, Sydney. I didn't really want it reopened." She smiled. "Not from fear of you two - I have no problem at all with any of you knowing everything about me, so ask away - but because it’d bring memories of me to the Triumvirate, and I'd much rather they weren't reminded, not right now anyway." Her smiled widened as she watched the psychiatrist consider this. "I suppose, having said so much, we can stop the 'prisoner' things now. The only problem is that there are just three bedrooms up here and they're all being used, so you'll all have to sleep down there, but you can eat up here like civilized people and not Centre captives."
"Your generosity is overwhelming."
She grinned at Jarod as he spoke. "I know, I know."
"Can I ask another question?" the psychiatrist queried.
"Fire away."
"What was it that we were given in the car?" Sydney glanced at the pretender out of the corner of his eye. "And how did you convince Jarod to take a drug?"
"Convince him?" Helen raised an eyebrow. "Who said anything about me having to convince him? No, Sydney, I slipped the sedative into his drink. As I'd been so nice and welcoming to him, and particularly as nobody seems to have given him the old 'don't talk to strangers who have just robbed the Centre and collected you with the front of their car, thus breaking your wrist and a few ribs' speech, when he was a child," she paused to laugh at the smile Sydney was fighting to keep from his face, "Jarod unwittingly drank enough to send him off to dreamland, while I treated the aforementioned broken wrist and taped his broken ribs." Helen turned to Jarod. "And for all of which I've never yet received a 'thank you', I might add."
"And you're not getting one, either." Jarod grinned. "Not considering how nasty to me you were as I gradually slumped unconscious on your sofa."
"Nasty?" Helen looked indignant. "I bring you back to my nice house, make you a lovely cool drink that has a teeny, tiny little sedative in it, thus sending you into a beautiful sleep so that you don't feel me treating you, stop you from panicking when you finally wake up by having your sister beside you, reunite you with your father, steal files about you from the Centre, so they can't clone you again..."
"Ah, so that's why you went hunting there." Jarod sat back in his seat, a look of satisfaction on his face. "I knew you'd tell me eventually."
She narrowed her eyes. "Now that was just devious."
"Says the expert. I'm flattered."
"You should be. So do I get my 'thank you' yet or not?"
"Hmm, I'll think about it." He looked at her sharply, all traces of humor gone from his face. "Was that why you asked Sydney about Gemini?"
"Yes, it was." She turned to the older man. "The pages that I have no doubt were found under the front seat of my car weren't the ones I stole. They look very like them, but aren't the same."
Sydney leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. "So the reason you've been inside the Centre so many times is that you sneak in, look at or copy the files you're interested in and then make new ones before sneaking back in and swapping the old for the new."
"Precisely. I've been progressively doing that all over the Centre, and Mr. Parker's office was the last. You see, I've managed to gather information about some of the future projects of the Centre and, by doing what I've done, it's basically put a stop to all of the ones with negative connotations."
Jarod looked over. "But not all of them?"
"Considering that one, for example, has a potential to cure some cancers, I think we can leave all of those alone, don't you? Of course, I've kept copies of those files too, and if the Centre tries the 'we've got information and you've got money so let's trade' trick, they'll quickly find that the buyers have the information too."
Sydney glanced at Jarod. "I can see why you call her devious. We ought to have seen that more in the SIM." He turned back to the woman. "But you still haven't told me what you gave all three of us in the car."
Helen looked from one man to the other. "Well, it's obvious you two spent a long time together - same suspicion, same impatience..."
"Helen!"
The name came simultaneously from both men, and she laughed, before reaching over to pick up a black case, putting it on the table. Opening it, she took out a silver canister and placed it in front of Sydney.
"There was a hook under the car seat. When I pressed the button, that put a hole in the canister and the gas was released."
Jarod picked up the container and examined it. As he went to open it, Helen reached forward and took it out of his hand. "If you do that, you'll be unconscious in about two seconds. For once, and for all our sakes, Jarod, don't let curiosity get the better of you." She replaced it in the case before taking out eight vials, putting them in a row on the table. "The gas is a mix of those chemicals."
He read the neatly printed names on the labels before looking at Sydney. "You're doing well to be awake now. That'd be potent stuff."
"It is," the older man assured him ruefully. "Painfully so."
"Well, I did give you the option, Sydney." Helen laughed. "You chose the hard way, instead of just letting it soothe you to sleep like it did for Broots."
He looked up. "If it's a strong as all that, how did you get us down to the cellar?"
"Don't you remember?"
"No. I do have a faint memory of seeing Broots pass out in the car and I can faintly remember the conversation we had and all I remember after that was waking up downstairs to find a note on my bedside table reminding me, in friendly tones, that, earlier that day I'd been abducted, but if it was all the same to me, you'd rather I didn't panic about it too much yet. It took me almost an hour before I was actually able to get out of bed."
As Emily laughed at the description of the note, and at Sydney's tones, Helen picked up a second bottle and put it on the table before returning the other glass vials to their places in the case.
Jarod glanced at her as he read the label on the bottle in front of him. "What's this?"
"It's another of my own creations - a weird drug. Smell it."
He looked skeptical and she laughed. "You couldn't have stopped trusting me yet again, by any chance, could you Jarod?"
"Only where chemicals are concerned." He lifted off the lid and cautiously sniffed at the contents, gasping as he put it back down on the table. "What the...?"
"I call it a 'pick-me-up'. Once, just after I'd given a sedative to a patient, I knocked over a bottle of something I'd been experimenting with. She was awake for sixty seconds, with total awareness of what was going on, and then, to my sheer astonishment, she passed out again. When she came around for a second time, she had absolutely no memory of being awake. That's what I used with both of you. I could take Debbie down there, but I had no hope with two fully-grown men, so I used that."
Jarod's eyes were still wide. "Well, I think that name you gave it is pretty accurate, anyway. Any more 'up' and you'd have to tie me down."
Helen grinned and consulted her watch. "You've got another ten seconds before it wears off. Like I said, the things I use don't have side effects. That's one of the best parts of them." Laughing at the expression on the younger man’s face, Helen turned to the psychiatrist. "Was there anything else you wanted to ask me, Sydney?"
"Not right now, no, so I guess that makes it your turn. What were you wanting to know?"
"Only one thing, actually. I want a rough timetable for Miss Parker's activities on an average day."
Jarod raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Who did I ask - you or Sydney?"
"Okay, okay."
"Good." Helen turned to Sydney. "I want to know the times she's at her house on a normal night."
"Give me twenty minutes or so, and I can make you a pretty accurate plan of her whereabouts at any point during a normal twenty-four hour period."
Helen pushed a pad of lined paper and a pen across the table. As he accepted them, Sydney glanced at her.
"Are you going to try the casual routine or use something else?"
"As you said, Sydney, I don't think she'd go for the casual thing, but she needs to get out of there soon, or her father might decide she's as big a risk as Lyle."
"Is he still...?"
"For now, he is still alive, yes. But once he's out of the picture, I'm not sure where they'll turn their attention next."
