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Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc. and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM, TNT and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.

Sequel to: The Tender Side of the Heart


The Refuge
part 1
By Sarah Elizabeth





Sarah sat in the playroom watching as Anthony, Jarod and Paul played together. It was so good to finally have her son back.

It had been two days since they had arrived at The Refuge and they had been filled with change. Jarod had been admitted as a member, and was due to be given his first assignment the next day. Sydney was under protective guard and his movements were restricted to recreational and living areas. Sarah herself had been ordered underground.

Despite the fact that she was in charge of The Refuge, the leadership was set up in such a way that no one person had a final say in the decisions made. The council was set up with five members. They had the ability to overturn Sarah’s decisions although it rarely happened. If the council overturned a decision Sarah could either accept their decision or put it up for a vote from the other thirty members of The Refuge.

The day that Sarah had returned the council had unanimously voted that it would be too much of a risk to the refuge if she were caught so she was to work from the inside now. It was a decision, which she had accepted outwardly but had yet to accept inwardly.

From the time she was fourteen years old Sarah had been in the field. Passing information between Kyle and The Refuge and setting up a computer system within The Centre to gather as much information as possible. She had also been in on seven rescues, and acted as a spy.

Spying had been so easy when Sarah was still “imprisoned” at The Centre. Raines had revealed so much to her in the hours they spent alone. On occasion Sarah had managed to slip something into his drink and had gotten even more out of him. Broots had been easy. He was so sentimental in choosing his security codes that hacking into the system had been fairly easy especially after a few weeks of online chatting under the name of Anastasia.

Then there was Angelo. He had been the most useful to her. He had comforted her as a young child and as she lost one sibling after another he had maintained a nightly vigil in case she needed him in her grief. He had been almost like a father to her. He had also provided her with information that she would not have been able to gain access to on her own.

She had tried to rescue him once, but Angelo had refused. Sarah suspected that when he was ready Angelo would not need any assistance to escape. His communication skills were lacking although not as much as he allowed most others to believe, and his ability to think and reason was fully intact.

“Sarah,” Jason said interrupting her thoughts. “The council wants to meet with you about your father’s assignment. Jarod we need you there too.”

Sarah glanced at her father for affirmation and then said, “ I’ll get Sydney to watch the boys. We’ll be in the council room in twenty minutes.”

*************************************************************

Broots paced his office back and forth. He had just had a visit from Mr. Parker who had confronted him about Sydney’s whereabouts. Fortunately, he had not been able to answer any of the questions, because had not heard from Sydney in a few days.

That did not by any means end the issue of course. The investigation would continue and if they were to discover Broots’ part in Sydney’s disappearance then Debbie would be in danger. At the moment, Broots was trying to decide if he should wait it out or run now. Either way both he and his daughter could end up in the renewal wing or worse yet the crematory.

Miss Parker entered the room and Broots looked up.

“I just had a visit from Raines,” She said. “He seemed to think that we had something to do with Sydney’s disappearance.”

“Your father just questioned me,” Broots responded. “Was trying to find out where Sydney is.”

“So,” Miss Parker said. “Where is he?”

“I… I don’t know Miss Parker,” Broots answered her. “I haven’t heard from him.”

“Tell me what you do know then,” Miss Parker said threateningly.

“Nothing,” Broots said looking Miss Parker straight in the eye. “Nothing at all.”

Miss Parker turned surprised at her friend’s boldness. Usually she could get information out of him with a look. She knew he was lying, so whatever it was would probably endanger Debbie if it were to be revealed. She would have to find out for herself this time.

*************************************************************

The council room was small and consisted of a table and eight kitchen chairs. Sarah sat at one end and Jarod at the other. The council members sat in five of the remaining chairs. Jarod had met them the day before when he was admitted as a member, so formalities were skipped and the meeting began as soon as all were present.

Jason began the meeting by saying, “It’s time to move our plan forward full throttle. The triumvirate already knows that we exist now and if we have to move our headquarters we’ll have to virtually start over.”

“Jason,” Sarah responded. “We all want this to be over, but if we move too quickly they will tear us apart and we’ll be back to square one. We have to be careful. Alex what do you think?”

Alex was a tall woman with long red hair falling down her back. She had not met anyone’s eyes since Jarod had entered the room, but now she met Sarah’s. “What if we set up a decoy headquarters. Have one of our own get ‘caught’ and then lead them to the decoy. It won’t hold them off forever, but it will buy us some time.”

Jarod was staring at his daughter questioningly. Jason was the first to notice.

“We plan more than rescues Jarod,” Jason said. “We’re planning to bring The Centre to its knees. We have almost complete access to Centre computers and informants on the inside. We know almost every move they make. Despite our technology we still have the issue of who to trust with this information and how to be sure that it doesn’t get intercepted on the way to them.”

There was a knock on the door and silence ensued as Sarah answered it. “We’ve got some new activity in Blue Cove,” The man at the door answered. “They’re questioning their employees about Sydney’s disappearance.”

“Get Sydney and bring him back to the council room,” Sarah said. “This is something the council should hear too. (Turning to face the table) We may have a problem.”

*************************************************************

“I don’t trust them,” Raines wheezed. “One of them knows something, but they’re not talking.”

“Well figure out which one it is,” Mr. Parker demanded. “If the Triumvirate finds out we lied to them I am not the one who’s going to take the fall. I have not come this far in life to throw it all away because of some shrink who’s past his time.”

“Don’t worry Mr. Parker,” Raines responded. “I have a plan.”

“What plan?” Mr. Parker asked.

“To relieve Mr. Broots of the one thing he can’t live with out,” Mr. Raines answered. “His daughter.”

*************************************************************

Mr. Broots pulled up to the high school and rushed straight to the office. He asked the receptionist which classroom Debbie was in and showed his ID.

As soon as Broots got the room number he rushed through the halls to the classroom and told the teacher that there was a family emergency. He hurried Debbie out to the car and pulled out of the parking lot just in time to see three town cars enter from the other end.









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