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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Part 15
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."
Janis Joplin
Striving
September 18, 2000
25 weeks to go.
Jarod couldn't help wondering if either or both of the coups had been a success. There was no way for him to be sure, but he suspected that the two groups would work together for a time, each trying to undermine the other, until one finally toppled. Then the more powerful partner in the pair would be eliminated and the Centre would return to semi-normality.
Then he would be released and the Centre would be shaken to its very foundations. He wasn't sure of his support but he knew that one person, at least, would be very valuable. Steve knew the Centre almost as well as Jarod himself - years as a sweeper had taught him well and a devotion to Jarod had helped them both. It had secured Jarod's freedom and, eventually, Steve's happiness.
But Steve remained unaware of internal events within the Centre and Jarod had no intention of enlightening him. There would be no way to prevent the man from rushing back to rescue his own charge and Jarod had hopes that Miss Parker had already achieved that on her own.
The feelings Jarod had received, now a week earlier, had pointed to the great change and, as Jarod had felt the pain in his arm and then the feelings that spread through him, he knew what was being done. The final dose. Of course, the poisoner could never know that Jarod's antidote had been stripping the earlier poisons from Sydney's system, leaving him able to fight the new toxin entering his system.
And, through Steve's former charge, Jarod had pictured the removal of Sydney from the hospital and the silent rush along the corridors to where safety waited in the form of Miss Parker, Broots and transport away from Blue Cove.
September 21, 2000
Miss Parker watched Sydney as he slept on the small bed. Ten days and, finally, he was beginning to recover. The thought that someone could deliberately inject a near-fatal dose of acetone directly into a living person was more than even she had been able to comprehend, and to watch Brigitte dressed up as herself - to know that the woman was even alive had been almost more than she could bear, and she felt sick at the thought of the tears she had shed at her younger brother's birth.
They had only waited for a few seconds before entering the room and she watched as Sydney began to react to the drug his body was absorbing. They had nothing, for the moment, which would cure it, and they couldn't risk wasting time while he brought up the substance.
Their entry into the room was marked by the movement of Sydney's eyes in their direction and his slurred speech, as though drunk, while he tried to get up. The noise he made when he hit the floor had caused them all to stop short but fortunately everyone else had been out of earshot and they got him, after many anxious moments, out of the Centre and into the waiting car. And then they had all come back here, to wait for the eventual changed in the Centre itself.
"Have you heard from Jarod?"
"No, nothing." Miss Parker tried to smile. "Do you feel better?"
"Mmm hmm. Never have a large dose of sodium anything and then a shot of acetone."
"I'll try to remember that."
Sydney grinned feebly. "Where are the others?"
"Broots is keeping an eye on developments while Angelo entertains Debbie."
"Good." Sydney shut his eyes and turned his head away on the pillow. Then he opened his eyes again. "You know, Jarod was right. We never belonged there, ever. Any of us. "
"Well, the people who do have probably got control of it by now." Miss Parker tried to disguise the hate in her voice. "And long may their reign."
"There's no point in being bitter." Sydney reached out and took her hand. "It will only make you more like them."
"I can't forgive myself for the things I've done to people there."
"Neither could I. Until they forgave me."
September 21, 2000
Raines looked across at Brigitte and tried to disguise the hatred in his voice. He could feel Lyle behind him and, strangely, it only made him braver.
"Well, now we only need to decide what to do next."
"What do you mean?" The white-haired man sitting beside the lollipop-sucking woman glared across the room, making no attempt to disguise his feelings. "The Triumvirate are all but gone and the only remaining member is so subservient that it makes me nauseous. The brainwashing of the sweepers is almost complete. Most of the projects are going ahead as planned. I would have said this was the perfect time to enjoy the spoils of our success."
"You're mistaken," Raines replied. "There are several small problems which still have to be dealt with."
"Such as?" Brigitte demanded impatiently.
"Shall I list them? In no particular order: Jarod, his family, Miss Parker, Broots, his daughter, Angelo, Sydney."
"Sydney is dead," the woman interposed.
"I'm sorry to have to contradict you but no body was ever located, the vent leading from his room was found to have been disturbed and Angelo, the constant occupant of the said vents, has since disappeared. I am therefore forced to draw the conclusion that he is not dead."
"He is dead."
"Show me the body, allow me to perform an autopsy and I shall believe you. And don't try to present me with the figure of his dead twin brother. That didn't work then and will not work now. Even if your technique of preservation was almost perfect. Of course, you did have an expert working with you, but I wasn't fooled and I won't be again."
"I still say he is dead."
"Present a body, Mrs Parker, and perhaps I shall condescend to believe you!"
