"I wish I had some fresh clothes to put on" said Sydney to himself, emerging from the shower "but these will have to do," he added, getting dressed again quickly in the same dark brown corded trousers and thick polo-necked jumper he had worn at home yesterday evening - how many hours ago, was it now? Certainly, before Jarod had persuaded him out of the house at midnight to go look for Parker.

They'd been fortunate enough to find this motel - Jarod had caught their waitress outside the diner, leaving at the end of her shift. He had asked simply if there was a motel that she could recommend that was quiet and off the main route. His ‘father' was not well and needed to rest for a day or so before continuing their journey. Her whole attitude had softened immediately on looking at Sydney, much to his amusement, his eyes twinkling at Jarod's description of himself.

They had arrived at The Pines Motel, well off the main highway, which was warm and comfortable. The motel consisted of small, two-bedroom, log cabins with bathroom and sitting room cum kitchen and they had obviously been designed around the summer tourist trade now closed for the winter. A mention of the waitress' name had secured them a cabin.

Sydney glanced across the room at Jarod, his dark head bent over his lap-top, his face set in concentration. He was surfing through all the Centre files on the mainframe but so far, he hadn't found any evidence of new projects directly connected to Lyle or any reference to Miss Parker.

The only footage of CCTV that had caught his eye was that of Sidney escorting Miss Parker through the underground car park, prior to her disappearance yesterday afternoon. Slowly, he flipped the Pez tube and watched the scene before him.

It was the first time he had seen her since his escape from the aircraft on leaving Carthis and he couldn't help but notice the subtle changes in her. Oh, she was dressed to kill as usual; designer pant-suit with at least three inch high-heeled leather boots, topped off with a long, dark grey, wool coat and neck scarf. Looking at her face as she turned to say something to Sydney, he could see how tired she looked.

His heart beat quickened a little at the sight of her and he wanted to hold onto the image of her. As he froze the screen, he felt the irrational desire to say something to her that would bring the smile back to her face. He knew in reality, she had very little to smile about and, at the moment, he was probably the last person on the planet she would accept a kind word from!

Jarod forced himself back to the work in hand and said to Sydney;

"I need to look at last night's dsa's - there might be something on them that will give us a starting point. I want to be certain that she's not being held anywhere in that hell-hole".

Sydney smiled and he couldn't resist saying, "You realise that we knew you had a contact in the Centre, keeping you up to date with everything; the joke is that everyone thought it was me!"

"I would never have involved you to that degree Sydney, nor would I have exposed you to that kind of danger. No, my contact is CJ - Cracker Jacks? Mean anything to you?" asked Jarod.

Sydney's forehead creased into lines as he thought hard about it and then he started to laugh, finally understanding the joke, "Of course ... ... ... Angelo," he said softly.

Jarod laughed with him and then explained to Sydney, "Angelo has always remained my dearest friend and the fact that everyone thinks he is totally ‘gaga' made it easy to maintain the cover - Angelo has communication problems but if you put him in front of a computer there's nothing and no one to match him, except perhaps Mr Broots. I'm still hoping that one day I'll come up with the right formula that will set him free."

Sydney smiled to himself and then suddenly jumped up, his hand on his forehead in fright:

"Oh my God, I forgot about Broots!" he exclaimed loudly, "I should have called and warned him to get himself and Debbie out of sight of the Centre firing line - they'll probably have monitored my call asking about Parker and since they know that we're together now ... ... ... I should call him," said Sydney, quickly picking up Jarod's cell phone and pushing numbers.

"I'm sorry Syd, I should have thought of that earlier," apologised Jarod.

"Tell him to drop out of sight for at least forty-eight hours ... ... and tell him to leave his cell phone behind in case it has a tracking device in it," ordered Jarod speaking quickly.

Broots answered on the third ring and Sydney brushed aside his questions, saying quickly:

"Just listen, Broots, this is really important. I want you to get Debbie up and leave the house within the next five minutes - just trust me on this - leave your cell phone behind in case it has a tracking device - in fact, don't take anything with you; you can always buy new later on," he said thoughtfully, "just get going Broots ... ... ... let me know your new number as soon as you have it," he ordered and then gave Broots the number to reach Jarod.

Broots hesitantly asked Sydney, "I take it you didn't find Miss Parker, then?"

"No Broots, we didn't. We found Rosa dead in the kitchen but no sign of Parker anywhere - what's more, we were disturbed by a sweeper team and, ... ... ... I appear to be ‘on the run' with Jarod now," explained Sydney with a hint of a smile in his voice at the complete irony of the situation.

"No more questions, Broots ... ...just go! I'll talk to you later," said Sydney finishing the call abruptly and closing the connection.

Sydney placed the cell phone back on the desk near the laptop, saying

"I just hope Broots moves quickly and he and Debbie are out of the house in the next five minutes," fretted Sydney, getting up and going over to the coffee pot to pour a mug of coffee. "Want some"? he asked and Jarod shook his head, no.

Sydney sipped his coffee as he sat down at the table, placing the mug on the coaster. Leaning back in the chair, he crossed his legs and started pulling at his ear in a familiar way. Jarod looked across at him and he knew that Sydney was trying to pull his thoughts together, ready to ask something that was clearly bothering him.

"I think it's time we talked about what is really going on here, Jarod; are we really sure that Parker's been taken?" asked Sydney.

Jarod sat back in his chair, slowly closing the lap-top shut, meeting Sydney's gaze. He moved his hands to lace them together behind his head in a relaxed manner and leaned even further back in the chair, thinking about his answer.

"Yes, I'm certain she is being held somewhere," he answered quietly.
"It's a strange thing really," he said slowly, "because I came back this one last time specifically to see Parker. I wanted to have one more ‘go' at convincing her to leave the Centre and I felt sure that I'd have more success now. When I arrived in Blue Cove, I started to get the strangest feeling - call it my ‘inner sense' if you like - I can't really explain it, Sydney, but it was as if I knew she was in trouble and she needed my help and I wasn't particularly surprised that I couldn't find her," he explained carefully.

"After I convinced you to go to Parker's cottage and check it out, it suddenly dawned on me that I might have put you in real danger, just by involving you. The rest you know", he added lightly.

"What I don't understand, is why Rosa was killed"? asked Sydney, his tone suddenly becoming gruff with emotion. "How could ‘they' do that to her? Everyone knows how Parker felt about Rosa; for God's sake, she's been with Parker for years".

"I don't have all the answers yet, Sydney, but I think it was one of two things. Firstly, it could be a way to ‘frame' Parker for the murder - she uses a Glock 9mm with hard-nosed bullets, not soft-nosed like the majority of Centre-issue. Without the proper tests, I can't be sure, but that bullet wound looked very similar to a 9mm wound. Although I wasn't particularly looking for it, I didn't notice Parker's gun lying around, did you?'" he asked Sydney.

Sydney shook his head.

"Secondly, I think the murder of Rosa could be some kind of message to me ... ... us ......" he corrected "to let us know that whoever has taken Parker is playing for very high stakes and that this is the end of the game - winner takes all," he added grimly.

Sydney looked down at his hands as he thought about what Jarod had said, carefully going through the scenarios Jarod had outlined, looking for flaws in the analysis. Finally, he looked up at Jarod and said slowly:

"As I told you this evening ... ...sorry, yesterday evening, there have been some strange things going on at the Centre ever since the death of old man Parker. Since their return from Scotland, Mr Raines has definitely shown a marked preference towards Lyle and it's been obvious that Parker is being edged out - only she doesn't see it that way, or doesn't want to see it ... ... ... it's been pretty obvious to me".

Sydney paused, trying to choose his words carefully:

"In the last couple of weeks, Mr Raines has been very ill ... ... his emphysema has finally caught up with him ... ... in fact, he's dying ... ... I was told it will only be a few days and then it will all be over. Most of the time, he's in a coma. I assume The Triumverate will endorse Lyle's nomination for the position of Chairman, no question of that. The organisation is still sufficiently backward to prefer to see a man in the Chair rather than a woman. I think Lyle will want to be sure of his position and he is ruthless enough to remove all the stumbling blocks from his path without a second thought," he stated dramatically, "including his sister".

* * * * *

Parker opened her eyes and turned from her side to her back. Pushing the hair out of her face, she grimaced at the foul taste in her mouth and reached for the water bottle to ease her thirst, pulling on the chain attached to the handcuff, as she did so. ‘I could kill for some coffee,' she moaned to herself, ‘maybe even a cigarette, if I hadn't already given up'.

A sudden flash of bad temper made her yank hard on the chain several times, just for the hell of it.

"Bastards", she seethed to herself.

It was now light and, looking at her watch, she saw that it was past 7.00 am.

She had been right in her assessment of the room the night before - the room was square, no bigger than eight feet by eight feet with just the single bed and a commode in the corner. The small window was so high up near the ceiling there was little chance of her reaching it without a pair of damn stilts!

Sitting up with her back against the wall, she started to make an inventory of everything that would help her understand where she was, who had taken her and how the hell she was going to get out of there.

The wall coverings were old fashioned, perhaps 1960's design and the same could be said for the linen on the bed - it all looked old, sad and neglected. Maybe she was being kept in an old house somewhere out in the wilds of God knows where? There didn't seem to be any noise coming from outside - no busy street noises, just silence.

"Hello" she bellowed out aloud ........."is anyone out there"?

* * * * *

Mr Lyle strode out from the elevator, entered the office and swiftly closed the door. He walked straight to the window overlooking the cold, grey sea of the Atlantic and smiled to himself broadly as he thought about this corner office he had recently moved into. Hell, but it was impressive, with the oak wood panelled walls and thick Persian rugs over the oak wood flooring. ‘I've waited a long time for this,' he thought to himself.

Despite the fact that it was Saturday morning and most of the administrative staff away on the weekend, he needed to be here to check on Raines ... ... ...

‘God, how much longer was the old bastard going to take to die,' he asked himself.

The doctors in the Infirmary Wing kept telling him that it was only a question of time, maybe hours, but the old bastard was still hanging in there.

‘At least with Raines in a coma, he's stopped spouting all his holy roller crap,' he thought to himself sourly.

He wondered idly if there was something he could do to hurry things along? Maybe, he should take a walk down later.

He sat down at his desk, leaning back in the leather chair and gently let it swing from side to side as he thought about Parker. His sister. His beautiful sister. God, she was sensational but given that their sibling relationship had been undeniably established, she never gave him the time of day. He thought about her blatant sexuality which always overwhelmed him - even though she'd never consider a relationship with him ... ... ... he wouldn't need asking twice, even though she was his sister! Every time he saw her, he wanted her. Hell, she wouldn't consider a relationship with him at any price; he knew very well that she loathed and despised him ... ... ... which only made him want her more.

He thought back on the three months since old man Parker had taken a swan dive ... ... ... she hadn't been the same since. He'd noticed that she seemed to have lost her edge when it came to the search for Jarod, lost some of the fire. He never did get to the bottom of what happened on that damned Island - he was pretty sure that something had changed, but he didn't know what.

Suddenly, he sat up straight and picked up the telephone, punching in the well-remembered extension number for Willy.

"Is the video ready?" he asked him quickly.

"Yes, Mr Lyle," replied Willy, "I can E-mail it now, if you wish?"

"Send it," he ordered and put the phone down.

Mr Lyle smiled to himself as he thought about the perks of the corner office - they now included Willy, whose loyalty had swiftly transferred from Raines to himself.

Each now understood the other very well.

* * * * *

"We should go and grab some breakfast while it's still early, maybe pick up some provisions, more coffee and donuts or something for later", said Jarod suddenly feeling ravenous, "then I think you should grab a few hours of sleep, Sydney, you look pretty exhausted to me," he added, noting Sydney's grey pallor and tired eyes.

It took them ten minutes of driving to get the SUV back out on to the main highway and they quickly found a breakfast diner.

Sydney finished up his early breakfast and carefully folded his napkin, deep in thought, trying to choose his words carefully. Picking up his coffee cup, he looked at Jarod closely, noticing the fine lines around his mouth and the strained look in his brown eyes. Although Jarod looked a little tired himself, Sydney couldn't help noticing that he was looking ... older.

"You know something Jarod ? The last twelve hours we've spent in each other's company have been the longest time we've spent together without being under the scrutiny of Centre cameras ... ... ... It feels good," he said with a tired smile, trying not to sound trite.

"I'm glad, Sydney. It feels good to me, too," said Jarod quietly.

Jarod drank his coffee slowly, thinking on what Sydney had just said to him. They had been catapulted into this situation and he'd barely had the time to reflect on anything, other than their basic needs. He knew the time was coming, when he would have to face some home truths about his relationship with Sydney

Jarod idly wondered whether either of them would be able to cope with the changed circumstances. Was he being too naïve to want two families? He'd already acknowledged to himself how important Sydney was and how much he wanted him to be in his life. He couldn't bear to think of a time when Sydney would not be in his life. ‘Don't go there yet,' he told himself, ‘just concentrate on finding Parker'.

"I need to tell you something, Sydney, and this may surprise you," he said nervously, "Earlier, I told you that I came back specifically to see Parker. Well, that's true in a way but, you may as well know the rest; I want one last shot at trying to convince her that she should walk away from the Centre - to leave with me", he said quietly.

Sydney shook his head, taken by surprise at what Jarod had just said to him and he couldn't quite fathom what to say in reply. In fact, he was not sure what Jarod was implying.

"I'm sure she never told you anything about what happened on the Island"? Jarod continued nervously, his fingers idly folding and refolding the edge of his table napkin.

Sydney shook his head, no.

"No, well that doesn't surprise me, you know Parker, she always reverts to type," said Jarod dryly.

Jarod carefully lowered his voice so that there was little chance of them being overheard by other early morning diners.

"Parker discovered that her recent Parker ancestors were nothing short of mass-murderers - if it can be believed - that the whole family are all tainted with this evil streak of madness and terrible lust for power. There seems to be strong evidence that Parker's grandfather set fire to the family house - with the family still inside. I know that those discoveries left Parker totally devastated. It's no wonder she feels abandoned and lost, particularly after the way old man Parker decided to end it all" he explained softly.

"Oh my God", breathed Sydney quietly.

"For just a short while though, just for a few hours on that Island during the Devil's storm, I found the real Parker again, Sydney. She's still there on the inside; it's just that she's been lied to, hurt and manipulated all her life by her family and she doesn't know who to trust any more. She hides behind this façade of toughness and indifference to keep the pain out but ... ... ... that little girl is still there".

Jarod paused for a moment, remembering those moments they had together in Ocee's cottage when the storm raged around them. Looking at Sydney, he said quietly:

"We discovered that there is something special between us - there always has been - something that can't be defined - she denied it later, of course, but she knows it's there."

Jarod leaned forward and searched Sydney's face as if looking for the answers.

"I have to try, Sydney", he pleaded softly; "I have to make her see that it's OK to walk away from the Centre, to take the chance on being happy; that she deserves to be happy. I want that chance, Sydney; I want to be with her".

Suddenly, Sydney was back in his office with Catherine Parker, thirty years ago, remembering his promise that he would always be there to watch over her daughter, and it had not been an empty promise. He loved Parker as if she was his own daughter and he had done his best to protect her, but how do you protect someone from themselves, he thought? At times, she was her own worst enemy!

Sydney sighed as he thought about all the times he would have given everything in the world to put his arms around Parker, to comfort her and to ease her pain, but she would never have accepted comfort from him. She saw pain as weakness; it was as simple as that. It was what she had been brought up to believe and she believed it still. He thought about those times when she had craved her father's love and attention, only to have it spurned. How emotionally stunted her father, or the man she knew as father, had been! A man totally consumed by the lust for power.

Sydney remembered the bright young girl that Parker had been, full of mischief, who always wanted to disturb Jarod when he was working. The attraction between the two teenagers had been immediate and electrifying and Sydney had done his best to try and discourage the friendship between the two, so afraid that their mutual attraction would be noticed by the Centre and used as a means to control Jarod and himself.

Sydney thought about the young Miss Parker who had fallen in love with Jarod as a teenager - was she still in love with him after all these years? More to the point was Jarod still in love with her, or was it just that he felt guilt at leaving her behind five years ago and now wanted to ease his conscience? Surely it had just been infatuation?

Or, perhaps, it finally explained why Parker had never really managed to catch Jarod and return him to the Centre. Perhaps it also explained why she was so bitter at his escape - because he had left her behind?

Sydney felt the anxiety of his churning emotions - he loved them both but they were so wrong for each other; they carried such a lot of emotional baggage between them that this would be disastrous - the best he had ever hoped for was that they would become friends, somehow learn to put the past behind them, but this? ... ... ... he couldn't accept what Jarod had told him, and for some unexplained reason, he felt angry with Jarod.

"I don't know what to say, Jarod," said Sydney in a flat tone of voice, "I really had no idea that you felt like this toward Parker - I remember you were attracted to each other as teenagers but that was a long time ago and ... ... ... things have changed a lot since then".

Sydney paused, feeling reluctant to continue but knowing he must say what was in his thoughts:

"My God, she's been hunting you for the past five years, man," Sydney continued, suddenly becoming more aggressive. "It was her father who stole you from your parents, her brother killed your brother Kyle and almost killed Emily; how will you reconcile yourself to that?"

Jarod' face hardened with determination. Stubbornly, he said "I don't care Sydney; all I am sure of is that I need her. I've realised at last that I simply can't live my life without her; I don't want to live my life without her and I'm hoping that I can convince her that she needs me just as much!"

Jarod's words struck him momentarily into surprised silence. Finally, he looked up and said:

"I can't help thinking that you have an idealistic view of Parker and that you're not facing the reality of your situation or hers - for God's sake, this is Parker we're talking about!"

The silence lengthened and Sydney felt the tension flaring between them and he didn't know how to diffuse it. Suddenly, he straightened up and looked directly at Jarod saying:

"We have two immediate problems, Jarod. One: Parker is still missing. Two: you and I both know that the Centre would never allow you both - all of us - to just disappear into the wide blue yonder and live happily ever after - that just isn't going to happen," he concluded solemnly.

* * * * *