Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story

- Text Size +

Existence
Part 4



"Remember this, --that very little is needed to make a happy life."
Meditations. ii. 67

…Death…

"In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our outward opinions and principles."
Discources, Chap. xi




And so the walls begin to close in.

I know that they will be coming for me. Perhaps not today, or even tomorrow. But some time. And I'll be ready. I won't go quietly. They'll have to earn my death. In my time I've been a success. I have a loving family and I've worked to the fullest extent all my life. I really couldn't ask for more.

But I know that they want me dead.

I know too much. And I stand in their way. They could be even more if they didn't have me there. But I'm not going to go. Not yet. And not in the way that they think. I'm going to make a comeback. An almighty shock to those that think they got rid of me for good. Because they thought they had, some of them. Oh, how wrong they were. And I have the bargaining chips. Soon it will be my Centre. Raines and the others will be removed, or taken care of, and I will have complete control. Jarod will be brought back. There will be no excuses, and the others who help him will be weeded out and removed also. Then his family will be captured. Used to persuade him that it would be better if he co-operated. And he will. I'll make him. And if the threat of harm to his family don't work, we'll see what would happen if my daughter was in danger. Any fool can see that he's mad for her. And she, Parker as she is, will control any emotions that she feels and do exactly what I tell her. As she always does.

I find emotions to be inconvenient things. Ethics, too, come to think of it. If we had followed my plan and stripped Jarod of any ethical concerns he might have had, he would have made the perfect Pretender. Of course, it's probably too late now. I really don't know why the Tower wants him back alive. It would be so much easier to be able to conveniently dispose of him in the usual, neat manner. In fact keeping him alive seems to be a greater risk than having him removed.

In this game of cat and mouse that I'm playing, I just need a chance to prove myself. Of course, for that to happen I need Raines out of the way. I wouldn't imagine, though, that it would be so difficult. I mean, he's got a fairly firm grip on life but take away the tank and he's just a breathing mass of skin grafts. There are times when I wish that the shot that blew up the tank had taken him with it.

And so my position is as tentative as it has ever been. People that I neither trust nor like surround me. I married so that there would be a younger Parker to take control of the Centre after we are all gone. I cannot rely on my daughter to provide such a person and my son will never be given that opportunity. His earlier habits have shown that to be impossible. And so that left myself. Well, I have done what I set out to do and what they wanted me to do. So the next step is up to them, I guess. Although waiting is never something I particularly like, I know when it's necessary and it certainly is now. Waiting for the right moment to appear and show them how wrong them they were to underestimate me. No one should ever allow him- or herself to underestimate me. They'll soon learn their mistake. My wife, for example, thinks I'm a complete idiot. Well, she'll learn. I'll bide my time and, if Raines doesn't get to her first, then she's mine. If Raines fails then the Tower will learn of his failure and he, too, will be made to pay.

The person by whom I am most underestimated is my daughter. She assumed I knew nothing of her brother until she informed me of it, and that I was ignorant of her mother's affair with the man who is really my children's father. He, too, will be made to be sorry for what he did. She, my daughter, will never believe that I knew of this, or that I killed her mother because of it. The looks that the two share are the only reminder of what I did that day. I'm not sorry. I feel no guilt over it. She betrayed me for another man and that was my revenge. Not that I killed her myself. I let other people do that and there are plenty for whom a threat will give you instant obedience.

Perhaps the only person who never underestimated me was the Pretender himself. I think Jarod has always been aware of my limits and capabilities. He understands me, but I don't want understanding. I want respect. I want him to fear me and to know that I hold his life in my hands. As it is. Or as it should be. I should be in control of everything. I deserve it, after all. And, after all the effort that I've put in, building up the Centre, I deserve being more than just the Chairman.

So that's the situation. For me and for other people. It's a matter of waiting, of dodging around, avoiding possible traps and trying to get them before they get me. And I will get what I want. I can make enough effort to succeed. And when I do, the Centre will earn more money than it's ever done before. It will become a multinational organization, incorporating groups from all over the world, replacing governments and taking control of people. It will be a major success, no longer a secret organization, but an open group that exchanges ideas and solves problems for groups all over the world. It will be everything that I ever wanted it to be, and more. And I will enjoy every moment of it.

And so the Centre will survive. My older son will have control after I die and then my younger son, when he reaches the right age, will take over. My older son must make room for him, that's all there is to it. I am not unrealistic enough to think that I will live to see the baby grow up - there's no question that it's just not going to happen.









You must login (register) to review.