Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Part 17
by N.R. Levy
Garvey had always been a patient man. That virtue had made it possible for him to turn an idea into an empire. He had taken the raw material the Centre had been and through careful tending, he had turned it into the reality of his vision. So it seemed almost amusing to him that now, in what he knew were the last years of his life, he had lost his ability to be patient. There were important matters to be attended to, and he wanted them settled.
Of the three who had been born with the potential to take over his position only two remained. Each of them were admirable in their own ways, living proof that the blood line he had established remained as he had hoped - a source of power and intelligence beyond measure. Yes, the two of them were remarkable. The question was which would succeed him. The boy had always been a source of pride, his obedience and loyalty to Centre goals balanced well with a sense of leadership and an intimidating manner. She was ferocity personified. Garvey had often been guilty of underestimating the female sex, but she had changed that. True, she had been prone to small bouts of emotional frailty, but he had seen to it that those distractions were eliminated from her path, and as her way became clear, she grew stronger and more decisive.
What remained was the final test. Though his own pride left him hoping that they would both pass and rule together once the light of truth was allowed to illuminate their petty differences and push them aside, Garvey was also practical. To have achieved two such wonderful contenders was much to be grateful for, but to expect both to attain this final level of achievement - it was perhaps asking too much.
Garvey took a deep breath and reached for his phone. He dialed three numbers and waited for the rasping voice of Mr. Raines to answer on the other end.
"Yes?"
"It's Garvey. It's come to my attention that Jarod may be searching for information that could compromise some of our more delicate secrets. You do understand what I'm speaking about, don't you?"
"Yes, sir. I do."
Garvey could hear fear in Raines' voice, and it was there with good reason. Jarod finding the information he was referring to would spell certain death for Raines. No amount of decency in the Pretender's makeup would prevent that.
"Then I expect you to take care of it."
Garvey disconnected the line. He had barely replaced the hand set in its cradle before a knock sounded at his door.
"Come in."
The door opened and Cox strode in. Garvey liked that Cox never seemed intimidated by coming into his presence. He sensed that she would react the same way, and he was only now beginning to be sorry that he had kept his existence a secret from her.
"You wanted to see me, Mr. Garvey?"
"Yes. I suspect Miss Parker and her friends are looking in corners they should not. I would like you to keep a closer eye on them."
Cox took a deep breath and tried to keep any signs of disappointment from showing. So, it was Miss Parker he'd been called about. Damn it. If she'd stumbled onto Retrieval after all he'd done to keep her out of it...
"Of course, sir. I'll take care of it."
Garvey turned his back then and Cox knew it was his cue to leave. He turned and left the office, his mind trying to decide the best course for finding out just what Miss Parker knew.
The door closed, and Garvey turned back to stare at the space where his protégé had just stood. Well, he thought, may the best one win. The game has begun.
*****
When he had come to the Centre, Sam had been little more than a step above a street thug. It had taken training and careful honing to turn him into the man he now was - a man of cunning, deliberateness and incomparable skill. That his skill was in eliminating problems, mostly the human kind, seemed irrelevant. Some people were born to do the things others found immoral, and Sam had long ago accepted that he was one of those people.
He had focused on building a career at the Centre, on making himself one of the men people feared and respected. He had never counted on meeting anyone that could sway him from that course, but he imagined few people ever counted on someone like Miss Parker coming into their lives.
So now, 10 years after his first day as a Centre trainee, he was skulking around outside of Mr. Raines favorite lab in Renewal Wing. Something important was going on, he was certain of that. He had seen Raines conspiring with Lyle and Cox too much of late not to believe that things were about to get very interesting. What he needed before he went to Miss Parker were details.
What he got was another question - one that set an unstoppable chain of events into play.
Raines was in the lab on the phone. Sam heard him say, "I'll take care of it" to whoever was on the other end of the line. Quickly Raines hung up, gathered his oxygen tank, and headed for the door. Sam hid from view until the old man passed and then followed after him.
Raines took him on a circuitous route through the Centre's underbelly, taking the sweeper past rooms and places he'd never even known were there. After what seemed a good hour, they were in front of the main Centre laboratory. The old man entered and approached a technician named Gus. Though it was difficult to hear from outside of the room, Sam distinctly thought he heard Raines say the words "get rid" and "system download."
Along with being a man who had no problem accepting who he was, Sam was also a man who knew his limitations. Computers were one of them. Quickly, he decided his time would be better spent finding someone who could help him than following Raines any further. Instead he headed off toward the Sim Lab where he found Broots pacing anxiously back and forth across the floor.
"Broots, do you know where Miss Parker is?"
The technician looked up at him with nervous eyes and Sam knew more was going on than just Raines and his secret meeting with Gus.
"Uh, she, she's busy."
"Well, we need to find her. Raines is up to something. I heard him talking to Gus -"
"Gus? In the lab Gus?"
"Yes, why?"
Broots felt a cold shudder run through him. He had once trusted Gus implicitly, but now he knew the man's betrayal had left Miss Parker trapped believing Lyle was her brother. Thankfully that duplicity had been uncovered, but if he was working with Raines...
"Sam, what were they talking about?"
"I only got a bit of it, but something about getting rid of something during a system download. Does that mean anything to you?"
"Yeah, we're doing a system download tonight. They could delete files then and nobody would notice."
"Can you find a way to figure out which files?" Sam asked the question and got greeted with a look of pure confidence on Broots' face.
"Are Miss Parker's skirts short?"
****
He was sitting on his bed, his knees drawn up to his chest. His thoughts seemed to be far away. Parker watched him for a moment longer through the glass pane in the door, then knocked. His head turned quickly toward her, and she saw a light turn on in his eyes the moment he saw her. He added a smile, and Parker took that as her cue to enter.
He stood as she made her way inside. The boy had grown since she'd last seen him. Three inches at least. And he looked more and more like the man Jarod had become than the boy he had once been. Parker smiled and walked over to him. For a moment, she thought she saw a flicker of nervousness in his face, and so she opened her arms and welcomed him into them.
Will had waited so patiently for this moment to come that it was almost hard to believe it was here. Ever since he'd met her, he'd wanted to be closer to her, to know more about her. And here she was, standing in front of him, arms open to him. He stepped forward and took in everything about the embrace. She wore the same perfume. He'd found out during his days outside that it was called Chanel. Her suit was made of silk, and it felt smooth against his cheek as he rested it against her shoulder.
She held him like that for a moment before stepping back. He noticed she had cut her hair and she noticed the faint signs of stubble on his cheeks. Almost instinctively, Parker reached her hand out and brushed it along his face.
"Are you all right? Mr. Raines told me you came back." As she finished speaking, she took her hand away, and Will felt a sense of loss at the movement.
"I did. I got separated from the Major, and, well, I didn't know where else to go."
"That's what he told me."
She was quiet for a moment, and Will realized that she didn't believe the story. Not that it mattered. She was here, which was all he had wanted.
"I-I didn't know how to get a hold of Jarod. It just seemed best to come home."
Miss Parker only nodded and then moved to sit down on the bed he had occupied earlier. He sat down beside her.
"Are YOU all right? Last time I saw you..." Will let his voice trail off. Just asking the question had brought back the terrifying memory of Miss Parker's blood running at the airport that day, and he hated remembering that.
"Fine. Back gets a little stiff every now and then. Nothing I can't handle."
He smiled, and suddenly he felt a new wave of nerves. He felt that he had to keep talking to keep her here, yet all he wanted to do was be close to her. His mind raced for something else to say. Thankfully, she saved him.
"Has Raines done anything to you since you came back? I want you to tell me the truth. If he's forced you to do anything you didn't want to do...I just realized, I've never even known what to call you besides Gemini."
"Actually, my name is Will. And no, Mr. Raines has been fine. I've done some work, but no one had to force me. If I'm here, I might as well."
"Will." That was all she said as Parker thought about the name. Odd choice, but he had a right to it, she supposed. Still, to think of him wanting to be Raines' namesake...
The ringing of her cell phone pulled Parker's thoughts in a new direction, like how damn important this better be. She pulled the device from her pocket and hit the answer button.
"What? Now really isn't a good time. All-all right. I'll be there in a few minutes."
She hung up the phone and looked into Will's face. She could see disappointment beginning to cloud his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Will, the baby isn't feeling well and the nurse seems to think I'm the only one who can calm him down."
Will smiled half-heartedly as his mind raced. The baby. He had heard Raines and Cox talking about Mr. Parker's new baby. He had not realized that Miss Parker was so attached to it. He wasn't entirely certain he liked that, not at all.
"I will come back, I promise. Actually, you can even come see me. Sam will bring you anytime you want."
That perked Will's mood up again, and he turned his attention back to Miss Parker.
"Really? I mean, I could just come up when I want to?"
"Yes. Mr. Raines seems to think it's okay for us to visit, so I don't see why not. Now, I really do have to go. I'm glad to see you again, though." And she was, even if she wished she were seeing him anywhere but inside the Centre.
She hugged him again, quickly, and Will took one last inhale of her perfume before she turned and left. So what if she cared about the baby, he told himself. She cared about him, too, and in time he'd make sure that she didn't care about anyone as much as she cared about him.
****
Raines leaned back in his chair and allowed himself a momentary sigh of pleasure. Retrieval was going to work beautifully. Will had simmed it again today, and it was flawless. The first step was ready to go. They simply needed to wait for the appointed time.
Thankfully, his plans to eliminate the files Garvey had specified had also gone off without a hitch. It was still a miracle Garvey hadn't killed him when the ghost-like man had discovered the truth about the Gemini project. Raines knew his continued survival was dependent upon the complete destruction of those documents, so he'd stayed in the Centre all night just to be certain that there was no interference.
Now it was time for one last session with the Major. It was true there was no work left to be done for the success of Retrieval; he simply enjoyed watching Jarod's father suffer. He would have to be certain to offer a few extra prayers during his meeting with Father Guisseppe tomorrow night to atone for that.
****
Jarod was used to finding the answers he needed to whatever puzzle was posed to him. So it was especially troubling to him that he couldn't put his finger on what was wrong with the connection between Halmar and the Centre. And it was that mystery that was currently keeping Halmar in business.
Thanks to the information Emily had helped him gather, Jarod had a dossier ready to send to the police that would destroy the company and send Cirrus Martin to jail for a very long time. But Jarod was hesitant to deliver the file. He had to be certain that there was nothing more to be learned about their work with the Centre before he allowed outsiders into their company mainframe.
To that end, the last few hours had been spent with him going back over every report Halmar's technicians had filed on their cloning project. There had to be a reason it wasn't working, and he needed to know what it was. Was there some way to prevent the procedure? And if so, had it come from the Centre or from inside Halmar? He had to know. It might be the only way he could prevent his own genetic code from being duplicated again.
Anxious and frustrated, Jarod began to formulate a new set of random search programs that would check the Centre mainframe for anything that might answer his questions. He entered several keywords, and since he had the time, decided to add a few to search for any information on his mother and father. He knew it was probably pointless. He'd checked a hundred times. Still, it was worth a shot.
****
Elizabeth had never been to her sister's home in Blue Cove, Delaware. Catherine had described the place to her in detail, especially the summerhouse where she had spent such happy times with her daughter. It was these memories that Elizabeth depended upon now as she drove silently down the highway. Angelo sat quietly beside her, a troubled look on his face as he battled with the growing feelings of fear and danger that were enveloping him.
She still wasn't sure this was the wisest course, but after she'd found Angelo screaming about Parker being in danger, it seemed the man was ready to walk to Delaware if he had to, and Elizabeth hadn't doubted that he would find a way to do just that if it were necessary. So she had promised him they would leave for Blue Cove as soon as she could reach Harry.
She'd finally tracked her husband down at the Whitaker farm and told him what had happened. Harry agreed that it was best to take Angelo to Parker rather than risk calling her on the phone. They couldn't take the chance that someone in that vile place would trace the call and discover Parker and Angelo's safe haven.
They'd left just after 11:00 last night, and had been driving ever since. Elizabeth had considered trying to fly, but she couldn't imagine Angelo surviving a commercial flight without causing a scene, and she didn't have the first idea how to arrange a charter flight. She had also considered phoning Jarod, but decided against it. There was still the chance that Angelo was overreacting to what he was sensing from Parker, or that perhaps his own longing for his sister was clouding his perception. No, she would wait to find out if Parker was really in some kind of danger before she contacted Jarod.
Angelo whimpered slightly, and Elizabeth reached over with her right hand as her left steadied the wheel.
"It's okay, Angelo. We'll be with her soon. I promise."
"Sister needs Angelo. Needs help. Risk everything."
Elizabeth sighed and moved her hand back to the wheel. God, what in the world had Little Cat gotten herself into now?
***
Miss Parker had stayed awake all night trying to decide on her course where the Major was concerned. She knew that she was almost out of time. Project Retrieval was set to begin in 16 hours, and there was still the chance that during that time, Jarod would find out about Charles' captivity and attempt to rescue his father himself. She knew she could not let that happen. If Jarod came near the Centre and the Centre tried to use his father against him...well, she knew what would happen. It was the same reason she'd helped Emily escape in New Orleans. She could not let them use his family to hurt him.
It was nearly 5:00 in the morning before she ran through her final checklist for her plan to get the Major out. Satisfied, she headed off to prepare for work. After a quick shower, Miss Parker pulled a brush through her hair and pulled on one of her favorite suits. It was cranberry, and had a long coat and well-tailored pants. It had taken her a moment to decide to wear it. There was the chance that a short skirt and her exceptional legs would provide a nice distraction if anyone approached her in Renewal Wing, it had worked often enough before. Still, if she was required to go into heavy action, she wanted the comfort the pantsuit offered.
After a final check in the mirror, Miss Parker grabbed her keys and briefcase and headed out the door. She stopped short when she reached the porch. Broots was sitting in his car, which was parked in front of her house. Curious, she approached him. Clearly he was upset about something. He never even noticed her until she knocked on the glass of his driver's side window.
The technician nearly jumped out of his skin, but quickly composed himself when he saw who was waiting for him. Grabbing the files he had printed out, he climbed from the car. Never before had Broots dreaded anything as much as he was dreading this. The information had come from the files he had stolen while Raines and Gus tried to destroy it during the system download. The original computer files had all been deleted. He'd seen to that the moment he'd read what was in them. He could not let anyone other than Miss Parker see this. What happened next was up to her and only her. Enough choice had been taken away from her.
"Broots, what the hell are you doing?"
"Miss Parker, I need to talk to you."
"Well, I would've been at work in 20 minutes."
"Not there, and not in your house either. We should talk out here."
Broots was always nervous, but he was rarely paranoid without good reason. Parker knew that her house was regularly bugged by the Centre, and though she'd just had it swept, clearly Broots did not want to risk anyone hearing whatever it was he had to tell her.
"Broots, what is going on?"
"You know how you asked Sam to keep an eye on Raines?"
"Yes."
"Well, he got something yesterday, and --"
"Why didn't he tell me?" Parker narrowed her eyes as she spoke, sending an extra jolt of panic through Broots.
"Miss Parker, just listen, okay? Sam heard Raines talking about destroying some records. He had Gus do it during the download last night."
"Broots, why didn't -"
"Listen!"
Miss Parker blinked and stepped back a bit. Broots had directly challenged her yesterday and now he had raised his voice to her?
"Broots, get to the point."
"Look, you were busy with, well, with the baby and the boy and you couldn't have dealt with this anyway. I had to copy the files while they were deleting them."
"Broots, what did you find?"
"Miss Parker, I found, well, I - Miss Parker, some bad stuff. I found some very bad stuff, and it's about Jarod, and about you."
"Me?"
Broots extended the file towards her, and Parker sat her briefcase down on the hood of his car, and then took it from him. Her eyes began to scan the pages as Broots offered his own summary of what was contained inside.
"It's mostly about Gemini. It turns out that your Mom didn't have much to worry about. The project wasn't working, and Raines was about to get in big trouble with the Triumvirate, so he decided if he couldn't clone Jarod, then..."
"Then he'd use him to create a new pretender?" Parker's voice was flat, the shock of what she was reading and hearing beginning to take firm hold of her.
"Yeah. And he decided to try and make an even better version than Jarod, so he needed to use a female pretender to 'mother' the new baby."
Parker closed her eyes and leaned against the car, her hand tightening around the pages in her hand.
"Oh, my God, Broots. Are you telling me that Will isn't Jarod's clone? He's Jarod's son? Jarod's and, oh, God, and mine?"
"Yeah, Miss Parker, I am."
Broots stood silent for a moment, his eyes casting downward as he let his friend absorb this latest betrayal. He wished there were some way to let it end here, to not tell her the rest, but he would not keep any of this a secret from her. It was finally time for her to know the whole truth. He was about to speak when he heard her voice. This time there were tears in it, tears that matched those he found on her cheeks as his eyes returned to her face.
"How could he - Broots, they never did any experiments on me. How could they have been able to do this?"
"That's in there, too. They harvested some of your, um, some of your eggs while you were in the Centre infirmary. Remember, after your mother died? You had appendicitis?"
Parker brought her right hand to her forehead as she tried to push away another rash of tears. God, her father had let them violate her like that?
That thought was followed by a stern voice in Parker's mind. Why should she be surprised? He had let them kill her mother, let them kill Thomas. How could it still surprise her that he would do anything to anyone if it meant saving himself? Parker took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm herself.
"Bastards. Broots, does anyone else know about this?"
"No. I mean, no one else knows that we know. I told Sam that it was stuff only you should see."
"Good." She picked up her briefcase and angrily turned toward her car.
"Miss Parker, wait. That's - I mean, there's something else."
Parker stopped and turned back to face Broots.
"What?"
"They, uh, Raines made more than one successful embryo when he made the - I mean, Will. He kept the other one stored thinking that if he needed to, he could always make another pretender later on."
"And did he?"
Parker stepped toward Broots as she waited for his answer. His eyes lowered as he nodded his head. Parker was about to ask who or when when the truth dawned on her without any further words from her friend.
"The baby?"
Broots forced himself to meet Miss Parker's eyes. He could see all of the pain and sadness and betrayal that the Centre and her father had caused her. It was reflected in her eyes. He tried to actually answer her, but his mouth went dry. So he simply nodded his head.
Parker fought back more tears as she gave her own small nod, acknowledging that she understood what Broots was telling her. She turned to leave, but stopped after a few steps.
"Thank you, Broots. No one else knows about this, okay?"
"Whatever you want, Miss Parker."
She stared at him for a second longer, then walked to her car and got inside. Broots was still standing outside of his own vehicle as she pulled away and headed down the driveway.
As she drove, Parker's mind whirled. Will and the baby - they were her children -- her children and Jarod's. Damn them, she thought, her hand gripping the wheel tighter. Then she immediately chided herself. You don't have time for anger, you have to get the Major out of the Centre, and you have to find some way to save both of your sons.
****
The dark sedan sat half a mile from Miss Parker's home, its driver having pulled it deep into the brush the woods afforded him for cover. Now, as her car headed down the road, Mr. Cox returned to that sedan, his mind whirling. Something very serious had just transpired between Miss Parker and Mr. Broots, and Cox suspected his earlier fears that it was related to the Major were now something he wished for rather than hoped against. The look he'd seen on Miss Parker's face - He knew that she was headed down a very dark road, and she was on it alone.
Cox climbed back into his own car and sat staring out at the street. After a few minutes, Broots' car passed by, and Cox knew it was safe to pull from his hiding spot, but he did not turn the key. What was this strange connection he felt to Miss Parker, and why was he even remotely considering risking himself to help her? He had already gone to such lengths to try and protect her from the Retrieval Project, and now...hell, now he didn't even know what he was getting into. All he knew was that he had spent the better part of his life not caring about anyone, and he was starting to think that was far preferable to the unclear feelings this woman had brought up in him.
It was strange, he thought, it was almost like he could feel her in his blood.
