Unpredictable Turn of Events

by Sabs, Anna, Em, and Annie

Disclaimer: I do not like them, Sam I am, I do not like green eggs and ham! I do not like them with ice cream, I do not like them in my dream. I do not like them at the Centre, I do not like them in the winter. I do not like green eggs and ham!

Now, on to chapter 4!

CHAPTER 4: Destination, Blue Cove

Just ahead, the airport was materializing from the top of a hill. Sam took the exit for the helipad and the two Town Cars behind them followed. The three Lincolns came to a stop on the tarmac and Lyle went to talk with the Centre pilot. He returned momentarily and filled Miss Parker in on the plan.

“You, me, Sam, and our Boy Genius will take the first chopper back to Blue Cove. Dad’s got a Sweeper team waiting for us on the Tower helipad. Willie and the others will take the jet back.”

“Whatever, let’s just do this,” she snapped. Without looking back, she climbed into the helicopter.

“Hello, Miss Parker!” the pilot called.

“Roy, make this the fastest flight of your life, understand?” Miss Parker replied.

“Yes, Miss Parker.”

The other three piled into the helicopter. Jarod followed, struggling against the sweepers the whole way in.

“You know, Jarod,” Lyle commented offhandedly with an evil grin as the helicopter’s engines started and they lifted off. “I’m almost hoping you’ll be fighting the whole way back. All the more reason to have fun with you. In fact, keep it up.” He smirked.

“This is just a game to you, isn’t it, Lyle?” Jarod winced, gritting his teeth. The sweepers apparently saw fit to spare him the ease of buckling him in his seat as Jarod knocked his head against the hard window. “Just like when you tortured and killed your father, your friend, those Asian young women--”

Lyle callously yanked the hood off the pretender’s head. “Now that’s just cruel, Jarod.” He cocked his head at Jarod, his expression that of a cat who swallowed a canary. “Where’s your decorum? Talking about the dead in such an insensitive way.”

Jarod stared at him. “Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black. You should know about cruelty, Lyle. You've got a Master’s in cruelty and the inhumanity arts.” Lyle’s hand met Jarod’s face with a loud smack. Jarod’s and Lyle’s eyes met. “Hmm, seems I hit a nerve.” Jarod commented evenly.

Lyle’s evil smile grew so it went from ear to ear. “You have no idea.” He shoved the black hood back over Jarod’s head and tied it unnecessarily tight around the pretender’s neck.

“Careful, or you might be bringing in damaged goods, and-- you’ll have-- nothing to barter your pitiful-- carcass with in front of-- the Triumvirate.” Jarod gasped for breath. The hoodstrings loosened a little.

Lyle’s voice was sardonic. “Thanks for the reminder, genius. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. How long did it take you to figure that one out?” He took Jarod’s ears in each hand and twisted 360 degrees. Jarod let out a groan of pain. “You going to behave, or am I going to have to detach those ears from your head? You’ll still hear your own screams as I do it, I promise.” Lyle snickered evilly.

Jarod gritted his teeth in pain. “Go suck-- on a-- rotten lemon.” was his only reply. In response, Lyle stopped twisting and looked to the senior sweeper. “Sam? Want to participate?”

Sam brightened at the offer. “It’d be my pleasure, Mr. Lyle.” Jarod heard Lyle back away and sensed a heavier presence in front of him.

Before Sam could get started using him as a punching bag, Jarod heard the clicking of Miss Parker’s stilettos approach. “Before you get started, you might want to wait until he is safely in SL-26.” Miss Parker sounded cold. “You’re at a stopping point, aren’t you? Oh, and Lyle, that was a rhetorical question.” Her voice sounded sarcastic. “Just let me know if you need ‘rhetorical’ defined.”

Jarod inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he was only momentarily saved. He knew he would pay for his lip to Lyle and his antics involving a shirt button from the last time with Sam.

The flight went by quietly... well, as quietly as it could with the blades spinning so close above them. Lyle patched Mr. Raines through on the radio and described, in detail, his capture of Jarod, but no one was really listening to him. Sam was keeping a close eye on Jarod; he’d been tricked too many times by this menace of a labrat and wasn’t taking any chances. Even the fact that they were at least one hundred feet above the ground didn’t make him relax his watch. No one could tell what Jarod was doing under that hood, but he was sitting very still.

Miss Parker didn’t have the peace of mind Jarod seemed to show. She could imagine him meditating in a tepee on a beach somewhere, dreaming about his freedom. But, she had lost even the dream of freedom. Somewhere deep inside her knew that she would never get out of the Centre. They hadn’t let her out when she was a girl, when Tommy wanted to take her away, or when Jarod had been caught before.

There was no reason to think they’d let her out now, especially with Mr. Raines in charge. The fact that he was probably her biological father only made her dislike the man more, and she wasn’t about to kiss his butt like her baby brother! With Mr. Miss Parker running the place there had been a slight chance that he would keep his word and let her go, but no way was Raines going to honor a deal made with Mr. Parker.

Jarod’s words echoed in her mind: "You'll never be free of the Centre, Miss Parker," She had realized that now. Her meeting with Sydney just after he’d bombed SL-27 flashed in front of her eyes. “They will never let me out of here,” he’d said then, and it was true for her now.

"I can help you free yourself, but you've got to be willing to accept the help." Could he really help? Was he smart enough to keep both of them away from the Centre? Could he make them invisible to all the eyes that were watching? She didn’t know, but she had to find out. The problem was how to get him alone in some private place. There was no chance of that in the helicopter, and they’d be landing at the Centre soon, where there were eyes in every window, every wall; they never blink. Then it came to her.

There were no cameras in Renewal Wing.