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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Part 16
by N.R. Levy
Mr. Raines paid careful attention to the bowls and cloths in front of him as he prepared for his afternoon session in the washing room. Still, years of balancing important tasks allowed him to complete his actions as he thought back over the strange conversation he had shared with William earlier in the day.
"Miss Parker? I'm not sure I understand what you mean, William."
"I want to be able to see her. I've been back six months, I've done everything you've asked, and you're offering me a reward. I want to visit Miss Parker."
"Miss Parker does not know that you've returned."
"So tell her. Tell her that I got separated from the Major, and that with nowhere else to go, I came back here. She won't have any reason to doubt that."
As William spoke, Mr. Raines circled him, intrigued by the new components in his young protégé's personality. Gone was the insecure boy who had looked at his captors with childish eyes. In place of that boy was a confident young man, one who clearly knew what he wanted.
His request did clear up a bit of a mystery. Raines had wondered what it was that made the boy call after so much time - clearly his motivation was a chance to reconnect with Miss Parker. That was also new. William had never shown any real emotional connection to anyone except Jarod, and that only in passing during the boy's training. No, his connection to the Centre huntress was both interesting and dangerous, and it required careful consideration before the former doctor gave his answer. It was certain that allowing them to see one another was the equivalent of opening Pandora's box.
Now, standing with his hands around the basin as it filled with water, Mr. Raines understood what was happening. God was giving him his chance. There had been no way to prove his new-found faith to Miss Parker before, but this mission could do what nothing else could - it could show her how truly sorry he was for what he had done in the past.
Raines looked up from the basin as Sam entered.
"Sam, good of you to come. Please, sit down."
Sam smiled mutely and moved to the chair. He automatically began to remove his socks and shoes. Nothing made him feel as creepy as his visits here, but Miss Parker had asked him to stick close to Raines since the Veritas project was discovered. True, it did seem that Raines had freed the baby from his breathing problems, but still, Miss Parker didn't trust the old weirdo, and that meant Sam would do what she asked and watch him - even if it did mean getting his feet washed every day.
He kept coming because he was sure Raines was up to something. He spent too much time in Renewal Wing these days for Sam not to notice. The problem was, the sweeper didn't want to say anything to his boss without more to go on. Miss Parker was working hard to keep up appearances, but Sam had been around her long enough to know that something was truly bothering her. He didn't want to add to her burden by giving her false hope that he was on to whatever Raines's scheme might be.
"Sam, you seem distracted today."
The sweeper heard the old man's voice and looked up at him. Sometimes, Sam could swear he saw a true difference in Raines's eyes, as if he really had changed. But other times, especially when he saw the man looking at Miss Parker, Sam felt that he was as evil as ever, and that all of his plots were directed right at the woman who held Sam's loyalty firmly in her grasp. The question was what did Raines want from her, and what could Sam do to make sure she came out of it okay?
******
Charles Russell had endured many hardships in his life, not the least of which was losing his family. Still, little had prepared him for his days in the place called Renewal Wing and the man named William Raines. Raines knew more ways to inflict pain on a human being than a Hollywood writer could ever dream of, and he had no conscience about using the techniques perfected through years of practice. Yet despite the pain in his body, Charles knew that nothing physical could equal the pain in his heart.
The pain of the boy's betrayal.
It was the curse of having nothing but time on his hands and only his thoughts to distract him. Why? Why would Jare - no, that wasn't his name, was it? Why would William do it? How could he choose the Centre over his own family? It was something Charles knew he would never understand.
Along with his struggle to comprehend all that had happened in the last six months, Charles was consumed with fear for Jarod. He did not know what happened during the sessions where Raines's men strapped him down to a table and an IV delivered drugs into his system, but somehow Charles knew that the results of these encounters were directly aimed at his son's capture. He was so certain of it, Charles had actually contemplated ending his own life to keep himself from being used against his son, but apparently Raines could read his thoughts because that very day sweepers had cleaned the Major's room of anything he might use to accomplish the task.
Now all he could do was wait and wonder and pray for his children.
*****
Miss Parker could feel her body fighting its natural urge to reach out and snatch what little hair Broots still had clean off his head. She was fighting that feeling only because she knew it wasn't him she was truly angry with. That honor belonged squarely and solely to Jarod, though she knew it was for far different reasons that those around her would think.
Parker no longer seethed with rage when Jarod escaped her. More to the point, she celebrated it. She never wanted him back here where Raines and Lyle could hurt him. That this meant she would spend her life trapped inside the Centre was something she had accepted. It was the cost of finally being able to protect someone, anyone in her life from being destroyed by the powers that be.
What was frustrating her now was Jarod's complete refusal to pay attention to the sacrifice she was making. He would not leave her alone, would not just disappear despite her best efforts to make him do so. He brushed off her caustic comments and threats as easily as snow on his shoulders now, and Parker didn't know how to get through to him anymore. That was why she was ready to kill today. How can you protect someone who doesn't want to be protected?
"Miss Parker, did you hear me?"
"What, Broots? What?"
"I said that I'm going do a mainframe search. You know, you asked me to check up on Lyle and Cox. I just wanted you to know that's where'd I'd be."
"Fine. Go."
Broots nodded and left, though what he wanted to do was say, "Miss Parker, please don't let them get to you. Forget this place, forget Jarod and just run." Of course he knew that he'd be wasting his breath. Still, she was his friend, his best friend, and he wanted her to have a chance at a real life. He'd seen her come close to happiness with Thomas, and then again when she'd discovered that Angelo was her real brother. But even that, even her brother, had been taken away from her. He knew that she missed Angelo every day, and though it was true he was safer wherever she had hidden him, Broots knew that she ached to be with her brother again.
Resigned that there was little he could do to make her feel better, Broots made his way to the mainframe and began to run his search. As usual, he picked a random set of keywords so that there was no pattern to the records he accessed. After a few minutes, the screen was covered with a list of 12 names, files that had been hit on in the search. He scanned the list looking for anything that seemed worth checking out. Three files caught his attention: GEN2FILE, HIERARCHY, and PJRETRIEVAL.
With a cautionary glance over his shoulder, Broots downloaded the files and began reading. Maybe something in one of these would brighten Miss Parker's day.
*********
The squeaking of Raines's oxygen tank wheels always alerted Parker to his impending arrival. That he was about to intrude on her time in the nursery with the baby made her instantly tense. No one came in here when she was with her brother, including Cox. As the door to the nursery opened, Parker turned to face her nemesis, but not before shifting the baby in her arms so he was held safely and securely against her body.
"What do you want, Raines? I thought I told you to stay away from him."
"I'm here to see you, Miss Parker, not the baby." His voice seemed raspier than normal, and the sound of it aggravated Parker's already frayed nerves.
"What?"
"I have some news for you. I know how you hate secrets."
That got him an even more intense glare. Raines took this as a good sign. She would of course doubt him and go to check on the information he was about to give her.
"Gemini is back in the Centre."
Parker's jaw dropped of its own volition and Parker felt herself clutch the baby more tightly, drawing a slight whine from her baby brother.
"Shh, sweetheart, it's okay. What do you mean, Raines?"
"Gemini - the clone - he is back in the Centre."
"How, and when did this happen?"
"A few days ago. Apparently there was an incident in Maryland with a sweeper team. The boy was separated from Major Charles, and with nowhere else to go, he came home."
"All on his own? I'm supposed to believe that?"
"The truth is what it is, Miss Parker. I just thought you'd like to know."
With that Raines turned and left. Miss Parker glanced down and saw that the baby had fallen asleep, so she returned him to his crib and gently laid him down before she allowed herself a deep and worried sigh. Why in God's name would the boy come back here?
As she left the nursery, Miss Parker pulled her cell phone out and hit the speed dial button that she knew would bring her Broots.
"Hel-Hello?"
"Broots, where are you?"
"The tech room."
"Stay there, I'm on my way."
Broots listened to her disconnect the line, then turned his attention back to the files. The first two had really told him nothing, and he was just beginning to read the one marked PJRETRIEVAL when he heard Miss Parker's high-heeled footsteps stalking toward him.
"Broots?"
"Over here, Miss Parker."
She moved to his desk and leaned against the front, her hands balled into tight fists. He knew her well enough to know that something was very, very wrong.
"Gemini is back."
"What? How?"
"That's what I want you to find out. Raines says he came back on his own. I want you to check on his story, but first, find out where they're keeping him."
"Miss Parker, maybe you should stay away -"
"Broots, did we or did we not agree that this boy deserved better than the life he's had here?"
"Of course we did, Miss Parker, but -"
"But what?"
"But you hadn't been shot or attacked by Damon then!" Broots heard himself yelling at her, his words flying out of his mouth before he could stop them. Her eyes widened and for a moment, the technician was certain she would pull her gun on him. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and glared at him, and he took that as a sign that now was the time for him to say his piece.
"Miss Parker, I know that you want to fix this, that you want to stop Lyle and his killing and whatever is going on with these kids, and I know that because I know how good your heart is even though you try to hide it. But you don't know what it's like to keep standing next to your bedside waiting for a doctor to tell you that this time your friend isn't going to live. Damn it, we need you. Sydney and Sam and Angelo and me and Debbie, we need you."
Few people could stun Parker into silence, but for the first time in a long time, that's exactly what had happened. She crossed her arms in front of her body and looked at the man in front of her. She knew, of course, what she meant to Broots - he found the silliest ways to show her, but never had she imagined that he would confront her so emotionally about anything. Part of her, the part she was just beginning to know wanted to hug him and say thank you. The part she was used to, though, told her to keep her distance. Caring about her was not good for people's health, and Broots was the last person on earth she wanted to see hurt.
Broots stood waiting for the explosion of angry words but it never came. Instead, Miss Parker uncrossed her arms and took a step toward him.
"I'm not going anywhere, Broots. Now go find the boy."
Broots nodded and returned to his computer. He listened to her take a few steps before she stopped.
"Did you turn up anything in the mainframe check?"
"N-not much. Two files that turned out to be nothing. I was about to read the only other one that I thought -"
"Give it to me. You focus on the boy."
Despite his misgivings about giving her information he hadn't read first, Broots picked up the file and handed it to her. As she reached for it, her eyes met his for a moment, and in that instant, Broots thought that he saw something there. Something that said, "thanks for caring."
Then she was gone, her heels echoing down the hall. Sighing, Broots began his work again, this time with a new goal - finding out the truth about Gemini.
*****
William paced in his room, his hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly. He had never had problems with nervous energy before his days of freedom, and he wondered now if the feeling of being trapped would ever go away. He had not anticipated this when he'd decided to return. No, he had been too focused on his goal to care about the consequences.
The plan was perfect, he knew that. In a few days time, Jarod would be back in the Centre and Gemini would be the hero who had done it. He liked that idea. And though some small part of him felt sadness when he remembered the hurt look in the Major's eyes that day in Boston, William knew he had done only what was necessary to take care of himself.
The doors opened, and Mr. Raines entered the room. William turned with expectant eyes. Today his mentor was to tell him if he would be allowed to see Miss Parker.
"Hello, William. How are you?"
"Good, sir."
"We would like one more run-through of Retrieval tomorrow."
"Of course, sir."
"Good. Oh, and Miss Parker has been informed about your return. Whether or not you see her is now up to her."
William only nodded in response and then he watched as Mr. Raines turned and left. She would come, he knew she would - and then everything would be okay.
****
All of her life, Emily had dreamed of having her family. She remembered so many years spent only with the comforting stories her mother told her about her brothers and her father. Now she had one of those mystical figures back in her life.
She knew that she had become someone Jarod depended on, and that meant a great deal to her. He trusted her with his secrets and now, he was even trusting her to become involved in his work. Currently, she was sitting behind a desk at Halmar Industries. She was employed as the executive assistant to the head of research technology, a man named Cirrus Martin.
What Cirrus Martin did not know about his new assistant was that she was carefully downloading files on a daily basis. She did this undetected because of software Jarod had developed to hide her activities. Emily wasn't entirely certain what the files contained, but she knew that Jarod felt the information would help him learn more about the death of a reporter who had been preparing an expose on the company's reported secret breakthroughs in cloning.
That word, cloning, always made Jarod nervous. Since finding out what had happened with Gemini, he suspected every company involved in the process of having Centre connections, and he was determined to find out if that was true. The reporter's death only added to his suspicions about Halmar.
Sometimes when Jarod spoke about his clone, Emily could see a look in his eyes that bordered on envy. After all, the boy was somewhere with their father, getting to know him. That was something Jarod had only had for a few brief days before the Centre took it away.
The leads on their father continued to turn up empty. Before starting her new job, Emily had returned from another search effort in California where she'd found some old contacts of Major Charles'. Unfortunately, none of them had heard from her father in months.
The screen on her computer began to blink, and Emily reached into her purse and retrieved her cell phone. She quickly dialed in the number to the apartment she shared with her brother and smiled when she heard his voice.
"Got it all."
"So little Gracie Maxwell can quit today?"
"Yes, sis," Jarod replied with a laugh in his voice. "Gracie can throw in the towel."
"See you in a few minutes. Chinese okay for lunch?"
"Get lots of egg rolls. I love those."
Laughing, Emily hung up the phone. If being with Jarod was any indication of what finding her whole family would be like, her future was going to be very, very good.
Thirty minutes later, Emily entered the apartment with two bags of steaming hot Chinese food. She expected to find Jarod hunched over his computer, but instead he was sitting on the windowsill, his eyes fixed on the view outside.
"Jarod, is everything okay?"
He turned and saw her, and then giving a half-smile, moved from the window and toward the table where Emily was now standing.
"I don't know. Something in one of the files, it just seemed wrong somehow."
"What do you mean?" Emily began unpacking the food, a sense of unease immediately creeping into her stomach. Jarod looked confused, and she had only seen that look on his face once before when he had been hunting Damon. That had been a bad time, and she did not want to watch him go through something like it ever again.
"Halmar is working with the Centre. Lyle sent White to take care of the reporter."
"Is this something you can use to expose them?"
"I'm not sure, Em. It's just - well, either the Centre is lying to Halmar or..."
"What, Jarod? What's bothering you?"
"Well, the file says that the company obtained genetic samples for cloning purposes from the Centre 10 years ago. Apparently, it was the backup facility to Donoterase."
"So what's the problem?"
"It hasn't worked. I mean, they've gotten results cloning the animals, but the human cloning project hasn't worked. Why would the Centre be able to complete one human clone, and then not produce any other viable subjects?"
"Jarod, you should be happy about that. No more unauthorized versions of you running around."
"No, I am. I just don't see what benefit there is to the Centre withholding part of the technology, and if that isn't it, then what, they just got lucky when they made the boy?"
Emily looked at Jarod's face and wished she had an answer for him. Personally, she was just glad to know they hadn't used him any more. She didn't understand why he wasn't just glad the project was failing.
"Jarod, look, just have lunch, okay? After that, you can take a fresh look and maybe you'll figure it out."
Nodding absently, Jarod sat down at the table and reached for a container of food. He would take another look and maybe even run a SIM after lunch. Something about this was very, very wrong.
*****
Miss Parker sat at her desk rereading the file in front of her for the third time. That they would do this, go this far, did not surprise her. What was so shocking is that she'd allowed herself to be so far off her game that she had not been aware such a plot was being undertaken.
Sighing, she stood and moved to pour herself some tea. Her first urge was to run straight to Renewal Wing and just grab the man sitting there, but she knew she needed to plan. Rash behavior had already almost gotten her killed more times than she cared to remember, and Parker was certain this situation would be more dangerous than any of those she'd already experienced.
God, she thought, thank goodness she'd gotten the file before Broots read it. The last thing she needed was for him or Sydney to try and be helpful and get the information it contained to Jarod. No, that was the last thing she could let happen. If he knew that his father was back in the Centre, she knew the pretender would risk anything to free him, and Parker was only sure of one thing at this point - that was a risk she was unwilling to let Jarod take.
So, Major Charles was back in the Centre. Amazing that Cox and Raines still stored this kind of information in the computer system when she had Broots at her disposal - proof that they underestimated the little man's brilliance. She had long ago learned not to do so, and that had paid off in spades now.
The question was how did she get the Major out. According to the file, they were planning to launch this Project Retrieval in less than 48 hours. That meant she had little time, and because she wanted to keep Jarod out of the loop, no help. She couldn't risk someone panicking and notifying him of what was happening.
There had to be a way to get him out, and Parker was determined to find it.
"Miss Parker?"
Parker's eyes flew to the doorway where Broots stood. Quickly, She moved back to her desk and closed the file.
"What is it, Broots?"
"I found the boy. He's in room 55 on Jarod's old level. No big security or anything, I guess because he turned himself in."
Turned himself in, Parker thought, or was dragged back here with the Major? Of course, if he were forced back, why was Raines seemingly inviting her to find Gemini?
"All right, I'm going down there. Get back to work on Jarod."
"Okay. Uh, Miss Parker, was there anything in that file?"
Miss Parker stopped in the doorway, fixing her best, disaffected look, then turned back to her friend.
"File?"
"That Retrieval thing?"
"Nothing. It was just a recycling project."
With that, Parker turned and walked off in search of some answers. She better find that boy in good health - physically and mentally - or Raines was going to pay.
****
Elizabeth had just begun making dinner when she heard the screams coming from upstairs. Racing, she made it to Angelo's attic room in half the usual time, and found her nephew frantically rocking back and forth, his head covered by his arms. His dog Angel sat right beside him, her head pushed against his back as if she were trying to comfort him.
"Angelo? Angelo, honey, what is it?"
"Danger, very bad danger. Sister. Have to help. Must help Sister."
"All right, all right, honey. What do we need to do?"
"Angelo must go. Go home. Must save sister."
