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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Part 23
by N.R. Levy
Angelo sat in his attic space searching through Web page after Web page in hopes of finding some information that might further the plan to free his family from the grasp of the Centre once and for all. He'd begun his search shortly after checking the e-mail accounts that Jarod had established for Cox and Broots to send them information. One of them held a scanned image of a contract between David Jamison, Randall Highton and Eric Harmon. The three men had bought a plot of land and built a research facility that opened in British Columbia the year that David Jamison and his family ceased to exist. Below the scanned image was a note.
"Why a trial-run of the Arctic facility? C."
C meant the e-mail was from Cox. Angelo immediately took the names of the other two men and began to search for them. Two hours later, he came upon a site run by a graduate student at Princeton University. The site was called: "Scientific Mysteries." It was dedicated to unsolved mysteries surrounding scientific anomalies, strange experiments or crimes that had occurred involving prominent names in different fields of research. It was the sixth entry on the list that had registered a hit for Angelo.
"Dr. Eric Harmon - missing, dead or reborn?"
Angelo clicked on the link. He quickly read and absorbed the information found on the next page, but it was the photograph of Harmon that captured his attention, not so much because of Harmon, but because of the man standing next to him-William Raines.
Things in her relationship with Jarod, Parker realized, always seemed to move at two speeds, unbearably slow or lightening fast. When they met, their connection had been automatic. Their friendship had grown quickly and intensely. The rupture of that friendship by her father had come just as swiftly. Then there were the years of missing and anger and longing that came between that last moment they'd been together as children and the first time she heard his voice again after his escape. And since then? Weeks, sometimes months of nothing followed by a revelation that changed their dynamic all over again. That had never been truer than it had this past year and a half.
Thomas' death, Parker's decision to help Jarod's family, Jarod sending her to Elizabeth, Parker walking out when things got too serious too quickly at Christmas, and then her discovery of their sons: each of these events had pushed their relationship further and faster than either had really been ready for, and yet here it left them, Parker sitting in bed, Jarod sitting across from her, her hand in his as he explained the story of her rescue from the Centre.
It was difficult to hear the fear and pain in his voice that he could not hide from her as he recounted the story. What was hardest to hear was his honesty about how hard it had been to trust Will initially. She could tell he was ashamed of this, and she interrupted him for the first time to tell him so.
"Jarod, you can't blame yourself for that. Will had hurt your father, you thought I'd been hurt because of him - it's only natural that it would be hard to reach out to him. The important thing is you did it."
His only response was a nod of acceptance, but Parker knew that she and Jarod had work to do in order to forgive themselves for all the perceived mistakes they had made with their son. Will was a good boy at heart, and he clearly loved them both despite everything Raines had tried to do to keep that from happening. It was the same with her and Jarod - in spite of the Centre, their bond was stronger than ever.
Jarod dove into the part of the story where Elizabeth uncovered Cox's true identity. Another connection the Centre could not break. With some sense of wonder, Parker remembered how she and Cox seemed to be drawn to each other in some way, how she had always felt his fascination with her and though it should have frightened her, she had never truly felt in danger from him. Somehow they had sensed the familiar in each other, just as she and Angelo had even when she'd believed her brother was that psycho Lyle. "Parker, Cox did more than just help us get you out. He took care of you on the plane. Of course, I had Sam standing over him the whole time, but from what I could tell, his medical care was top notch. Actually, he even helped me find the antidote to save you."
"Oh, that must have hurt."
Cocking an eyebrow, Jarod looked at her with a questioning face. Parker smiled and said, "Asking Cox, a man you despised up to that moment, for help."
Now Jarod was smiling back, and he squeezed Parker's hand. "It was a trying experience, but I suppose you're worth it."
"Ha ha. So, how did he help?"
This was the part of the story that Jarod had been dreading. He knew deep down that Parker would understand, but she wouldn't like it. He'd been tempted to omit this detail, but everyone in the house knew the truth, and it wasn't fair to ask Will to keep the secret from his mother, not when they were trying to help their son learn the benefits of honest communication. So, after taking a deep breath, Jarod dove in.
"He, um, he gave me the details about the machine Raines and Lyle used to torture you so I could, uh, so I could do a pretend..."
"You what?" Parker's whole face had changed when she heard the word "pretend." Her expression wasn't angry exactly, but it was clear to Jarod that he had been right - she was not happy. "Parker, there was no other way. I had to know what happened to you and no one was sure. We'd treated your fever and the fluid in your lungs was reducing but you were getting worse and it didn't make any sense. Now, I'm sorry if you don't like it, but damn it, I didn't have any choice, and..."
Her hand on his cheek stopped him mid rant and his eyes locked with her. The unreadable aspect of her face had vanished and in its place, Jarod saw a cloak of sadness and tears glistened in her eyes.
"I'm not angry, Jarod. I just...I didn't want you to know. I didn't want you to ever have to know how afraid I was."
Jarod brought his hand up and placed it atop hers, then he gently guided her palm lower, closer to his mouth where his lips placed a soft kiss against her skin. He remembered all too clearly how real Parker's fear had felt in his own body as he pretended through her experience. But he also remembered her strength, and her constant dedication to trying to hold on so that she could make it back to him and their children.
"You were stronger than you give yourself credit for."
Parker's eyes lowered, but she left her hand in Jarod's hold. A silence feel between them as each dealt with the painful memories of her torment at Centre hands. Finally, Parker brought her eyes back to his, her eyes now showing that she had moved to a new concern.
"Are you sure we can trust him, Jarod?"
"Cox? No, I'm not sure, but Angelo is, and Elizabeth is. So far he's delivered everything he's promised. Besides, Sam is watching him like a hawk, and if there's one thing I am sure of it's that anyone planning to hurt you better hope Sam is nowhere around. He's kind of a grizzly bear where you're concerned. Which reminds me...there's something else I need to tell you."
"Am I going to like this?" Parker asked.
"The truth is," Jarod began, "I'm not sure how you'll feel about it. Cox's basic plan is that if he gets control of the Centre, than we'll all be safe. aines is on a plane to Africa and we assume that Garvey or Jamison, whatever we want to call him, has ordered Raines out of the picture. That only left Lyle, and we all agreed that he was simply too dangerous to be left in the game."
Before she'd discovered Lyle's hideous lie and learned that Angelo was truly her brother, Parker had tried to develop some kind of feelings for her "twin" that weren't those of disgust, enmity or contempt. It had been a difficult task, and she'd rarely succeeded. Then had come the realization about her true brother, about all the time that Lyle had cost her, which just compounded the original sin of the Centre. Any generous or lukewarm feeling she might have had for Lyle died in that moment of discovery. Instead, she focused all her attention to the brother she had longed for and finally found.
That Lyle was now dead, and she knew that's what Jarod meant even if he couldn't say the words, made her feel nothing but relief. She wanted to be ashamed of that on some level, but the mother in her, an aspect of her personality that became stronger by the millisecond, was simply glad that Lyle was no longer on the Earth where he could hurt her children...or their father.
"Who did it?" was Parker's only response, and Jarod reached out to stroke her cheek.
Your grizzly. He played a good setup, though. Everyone thinks Cox ordered him to do it and so he's safe."
"They all have to stay safe, Jarod, all of them. If Cox is really doing this, then he deserves a chance to get to know his mother and Elizabeth has lost enough time with her son. And Sydney, Sam and Broots...we have to get them all out of this in one piece."
"We will, I promise."
Parker nodded as she took Jarod's promise into her heart. Scooting forward, she moved so that their faces were now mere inches apart.
"Thank you for telling me what happened, even what I know you didn't want to tell me."
"I figured we've both had enough secrets and lies to last us a lifetime," Jarod said, as his hand moved against her cheek again.
"That we have, but this being honest thing is kind of new for us. It's been a long time since we could tell each other the truth about everything."
"I missed it," he said, his voice low. "I missed being able to tell you whatever was on my mind. Then at Christmas, it felt like we were getting it back and I thought...I can't ever lose you again, Parker. I don't think I could take that."
You won't," she promised, meaning it with all her heart.
"Parker, I know you. Now that you're getting well, you're going to want to be a part of all this, and I know better than to try to stop you, but please remember when you get mad and want to storm the Centre with your gun in hand that you have a family now, and we need you."
She smiled at him, and Jarod felt his heart begin to flutter in his chest. God, this woman...she meant everything in the world to him. And in her mind, a similar thought was manifesting itself. They had become so much to each other, and if they could rid themselves of the specter of the Centre, they had so much more to look forward to. If...
"This honesty thing we've got going, I think it obligates me to confess that I've been keeping a secret, too," Parker purred as she leaned still closer to Jarod. The 'if' was there, and it was still a large mountain to climb, but they were going to do it together, and Parker knew that now was the time to take that next step on their journey.
"What secret is that, Miss Parker?" "I wanted to tell you, Jarod, that I love you. I always have, and I always will."
The words were out, and the impact upon Jarod was immediately obvious. Tears welled in his eyes as he closed the small distance between them and kissed the woman he loved with all of the emotion that he'd kept bottled up inside of him for so long. Their arms wrapped around each other as the kiss deepened, as both of them felt the full power of their lifetime dream coming true. They were together.
Matthew's cry tore through the house just as things might have gotten interesting, and though Jarod was disappointed, he knew it was probably for the best. Parker was strong, but she wasn't 100 percent yet, and he wanted her in perfect health as soon as possible. They both let out a small chuckle as they broke their embrace and looked at each other.
"When this is all over," Jarod began, glancing quickly over his shoulder; Matthew's cries had been halted, by whom Jarod didn't know, "I'm going to take you someplace where we are not surrounded by our loving but ever-growing family, and I am going to make love to you until you beg me to stop."
"I'm not sure I'm going to let you," Parker said, crossing her arms in front of her body.
Jarod frowned immediately. "Why not?"
"Because when a girl tells you she loves you, there is an expected response and so far you are not ponying up, lab rat." He couldn't help but laugh as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again.
As they pulled away, breathless, Jarod fixed his eyes upon hers. "I love you, Parker."
A third soul-searing kiss was imminent when Angelo knocked on the door and walked in carrying Matthew in his arms. The baby eagerly reached for Parker and she opened her arms to her little boy. The baby snuggled against her and began to fall back to sleep immediately upon contact with his mother's body.
Jarod felt pure joy as he watched Parker ease down in the bed so that Matthew lay comfortably on her chest. He pulled the blankets up and covered mother and son as Parker's own heavy eyelids began to close. "Jarod, talk." Angelo whispered, drawing Jarod's attention toward him. Angelo
held a piece of paper in his hands that the pretender had not noticed before and he took a few steps toward his friend to take the paper. A quick read told Jarod they had a long night of work ahead of them. He glanced back and assumed that Parker was already asleep. He discovered he was wrong just as he and Angelo tried to make their exit.
"Full report in the morning, right?"
Glancing back, Jarod saw that Parker had opened her eyes and was looking directly at him with an expression he remembered well from his days of running and looking over his shoulder. He winked and grinned as he answered, "Of course, Miss Parker."
Ten minutes later, Will, Angelo and Jarod were huddled in the attic. Jarod had learned that it was as useless to try and argue with his son as it was to argue with Will's mother - neither was going to be kept out of this final assault on the Centre, and perhaps it was wrong of Jarod to try to keep them out of it. Yes, he wanted to protect them, but Will and Parker had suffered as much as he had at the Centre's hands, and they deserved to participate in the downfall of those who had inflicted that pain.
"So Eric Harmon knew Raines," Jarod said, working his thoughts out aloud. "We know that Mr. Parker started the Centre on his own, we know that David Jamison used Catherine to get into the Centre and cement the family connection, and now another connection between Raines and this Dr. Harmon. Will, did you get the bio on Harmon?"
Will stood up and walked from his perch near the attic window to where his father sat a few feet away. "Yeah, but I can't find any tangible connection. Different hometowns, different colleges, different medical schools. They don't even appear on any employment rosters together, and there's nothing on Harmon in the Centre records we've accessed so far."
"We'll have to have Broots go deep on these two. There might be something in the manual files at the Centre he can find."
Angelo looked up from his keyboard then and gazed at Jarod.
"Raines knows the truth."
"I know he does, Angelo," Jarod answered, "but Raines is in Africa." Angelo shrugged. "So, go get."
"I don't think we can do that," Jarod responded. Despite the fact that Angelo was right and Raines could actually be of help, Jarod wasn't about to let anyone in his family or his circle of friends get anywhere near the Centre site in Africa. He'd studied it enough to know that capture there could be
permanent.
Will, too, had studied the layout of the Africa facility more so out of curiosity than for any other reason. Since it was the place that Raines had planned to send him, he'd simply wanted to know what it was like. Intimidating was the best word to describe it, and Will knew that's why his father was dismissing the idea. Still, if getting Raines back would help...
"Dad, what if we can get this Garvey guy to bring Raines back? Then we could snatch him here."
"Garvey ordered Raines put down within 72 hours of his arrival. He's probably already dead."
Angelo immediately began typing on his keyboard and soon he had hacked into the security system's video feed in the Africa facility. Raines was chained to a metal table and a man who reminded Jarod of a younger Raines was administering torturous shocks to Raines' body. The old man who had hurt so many people jerked and cried out at each induction of pain. Jarod couldn't help but be a little pleased at the sight.
"Okay, so he's alive," Jarod said. "Now how do we get him back? Garvey won't cancel his own termination order without good reason, and we don't have a lot of time."
The three men grew quiet as they tried desperately to come up with a scheme that would get Raines back on U.S. soil. The key was figuring out what it was Garvey valued, and Jarod knew that the man had moved heaven and Earth in an attempt to get three key pieces of the Centre puzzle back in place, Jarod himself, Will and Matthew. There had to be some way...
"Will, I think I have it, but I'm going to need your help."
"Anything, Dad, just name it."
The ease with which "Dad" rolled off his son's tongue was not lost on Jarod. It felt good. He'd have to remember to share that with Parker later on, but for now, there was work to be done.
"Come with me, we need to borrow some of your aunt Emily's makeup." Will stopped mid-step and looked at his father with worry. "Makeup?" Jarod smiled as he put his arm around his son. "Just trust me."
Mornings in Blue Cove were usually cool and pretty, and today was no exception, though Cox felt no joy in the beauty that greeted him. He had barely slept, his mind too full of images of the life he might have had if only...but now was not the time, and he knew it. He had to keep these rampant emotions under control until after his goal was accomplished. Once David Jamison was no longer a threat to the family, then, Cox knew, he would have a lot of demons to face.
Walking out of his front door, he saw Sam sitting in the driver's seat of a standard issue Centre Town Car. The sweeper displayed no ill effects from the events of the day just passed, and though not surprised, Cox was relieved. Right now, Sam was all he had to depend on as an ally when it came to brute strength, and there was no telling when those skills would be needed.
The two drove to work in silence and not long after their arrival, Cox was on his way to the Sim Lab. His surface reason for going was to put the fear of God into Broots and Sydney because he had been notified of their taped conversation and their desire to help Miss Parker avoid her Centre-dictated fate. His real reason for going was to see if there had been any response from Jarod to his e-mail.
He walked in and found the two men hunched over Broots' computer. Cox saw that Broots' personal laptop was running sans its Centre hub connection, which meant that they were, in fact, communicating with Jarod. He strolled behind them, his usual emotionless mask upon his face.
"You two wouldn't be searching for Miss Parker now, would you?"
Broots stopped typing as he would normally when facing the scrutiny of Mr. Cox, but instead of being errantly nervous, he carefully used his "shaking" hands to point out to Mr. Cox the information that he and Sydney wanted him to see.
"Mr. Cox, we're doing what you asked us to do, nothing more." Sydney replied, working to keep their cover in place as Cox leaned menacingly over Broots' shoulder to look at the computer screen.
"That's not what I heard, Dr. Green." Cox glared at Sydney before turning his full attention to the laptop. Jarod had replied and the message was open and read, "Need Raines back. Explain later. Hide nerve gas file. All hell breaks loose at 8:15."
"Well," Cox said as he righted himself, "it seems that this morning you are actually doing your job. That's good. See that it continues. Jarod and the two children are all we are concerned with. Miss Parker sealed her own fate, and it's time you two accepted that."
Cox gave them one last look and headed for the door. He was barely eight steps down the hallway when his cell phone rang.
"Yes?"
"Cox, get to my office, now!" Mr. Parker barked. Cox looked at the time on his phone as he disconnected the call. 8:15 on the dot.
By the time he reached Mr. Parker's office, the elder man was beside himself. Cox calmly strolled toward the desk.
"What seems to be the problem?"
"This," Mr. Parker stated as he pushed a button on his computer keyboard and a video message began to play back. Cox moved so he could observe the playback. Jarod was sitting beside a bed. You couldn't tell where they were just from looking at the video, but of course, Cox knew that it was Angelo's attic room on the farm. Will was laying on the bed. The boy looked like death warmed over, and his body was shaking uncontrollably.
"Mr. Parker, your daughter is dead. I doubt that means anything to you, but if you don't want your grandson to follow her, you better do something, and now. The nerve gas that killed Miss Parker...Will was exposed to it. I can't come up with an antidote. You have to get Raines to tell you what he used or Will is going to die. I'll contact you in two hours."
The message cut off there, and Cox let a suitably concerned look mold to his face as he looked at Mr. Parker.
"Raines is in Africa being interrogated before he's executed. He's hardly going to volunteer any information to us now." "We cannot lose that boy, do you hear me!" Mr. Parker bellowed, his forehead furrowing as panic set in. If one of the children died, Garvey would surely send him to join Raines in Africa as punishment. Getting those children and Jarod back alive was all that could save him now.
"You could offer Raines a deal, Mr. Parker. His life for the information."
"Raines is no fool. He knows we'll kill him as soon as we get what we want."
"Raines is an arrogant old man who thinks he knows how to control you. So let him think he's right. Convince him that you will bring him back and give him yet another chance if he gives you information to help the boy. He won't give you the whole antidote, of course, but he could be persuaded to give us information that could help the child survive long enough for Raines to return to Blue Cove. Then, once he's back here, I'm certain Mr. White would have no trouble getting the rest of the information we need."
"Yes," Mr. Parker said, thinking through the plan, "yes, that could work. I'd feel better if Raines were dealt with here anyway. That way, we know he's gone for good. Do it."
Cox nodded and headed for the door. He stopped just after opening it and turned back to face this man who had helped to conspire in the destruction of so many lives. "By the way, Mr. Parker, I am sorry to hear about your children."
"What?" Mr. Parker answered, his attention only vaguely focused on Cox. "Your son and your daughter, Lyle and Miss Parker; I'm sorry for your losses."
"Oh, yes," he replied, "thank you. Damn shame."
Cox shoved down the feeling of disgust that threatened to choke him as Mr. Parker so easily dismissed the loss of his "children." God, it was going to feel good to bring him to his knees along with the rest of the puppet masters in this house of horrors.
But for now, Cox had to focus on the present, and the present was getting Raines back to the States as quickly as possible and finding out just what it was that Jarod had in mind.
