After only two hours of going through different ways to fake passports and credit cards, they sat down, opened the bottle of alcohol and celebrated the successful transition of Miss Parker into a Pretender.
“You did well Parker.” Sydney said and flashed his famous Sydney-grin.
“I couldn’t have done this without you and you know it. And besides, I have not even escaped yet, everything we worked for could go down the drain in no time.”
“It won’t if you keep on being careful. Never feel too safe anywhere, the Centre has scary ways to get to information. Very important is, that you keep the friends safe that are helping you.”
“I have taken care of that. I have installed a secure line here that nobody knows about and I have never spoken their names aloud or given any indicator as to where they might live.”
“That’s very good Parker.”
“It really pisses me off, that I can’t get a hold of Jarod. He would have been a huge help to me, but I guess my evilness towards him finally registered and he really doesn’t want to have anything to do with us anymore.”
“If he knew what you are trying to do, he would help, I am sure of that. And that he doesn’t know about it already is also a indicator that we covered our tracks well. I am sure Jarod is still checking up on us.” Sydney said, trying to reassure Miss Parker.
“I hope you are right.”
They sat in silence for a while, until Miss Parker started to talk again.
“I wish I still had Thomas. Though he didn’t understand why I hated my family that much, he was always there for me. He was on my side. It felt so good Sydney. I really loved him. I thought he was going to be the one I would marry. Before he died he kept making hints as if he might propose soon. I think he was only waiting for the right opportunity.”
Sydney saw, that Miss Parker was close to her breaking point, so he decided to change the subject.
“So have you seen Elias today?” he asked and as he had thought, her mood got better in a matter of seconds.
“Yes and he was so cute! I only had half an hour with him, but he almost seemed happy to see me. That was great, but weird at the same time. Nobody ever depended on me you know?”
“Yeah I know… I think I’ve got to go. We both need our sleep and you especially with such an important day coming up.”
“You are right as always. Please remember: When they ask where I am, tell them you THINK I am following a lead on Jarod; they won’t check up on Elias immediately then.”
“I got it, don’t worry, it will take at least a day before they suspect anything.”
“Let’s hope you are right!”
After a goodbye with Sydney and some last minute tries to reach Jarod, Miss Parker lay down in bed and had a hard time falling asleep. Her ulcer has been acting up again recently and that was the one thing that couldn’t go wrong. If she was ill, it would be pretty easy for the Centre to find them and take Elias away and her back to the Centre.
-
In the morning she showed up at the Centre briefly so people wouldn’t get suspicious too fast. She talked to a few people, said goodbye to Broots without him noticing anything and grabbed the rest of the stuff she needed out of her office.
She called a taxi to the main entrance. She would leave her car there, so if people were looking for her they would search the Centre itself first. She drove over to the Daycare, signed all the necessary papers and went home with Elias to get all their stuff. A few hours later she locked her front door, walked with Elias on her arm down the driveway, got into the car and drove away without looking back. It was hard enough leaving her house behind which still held so many memories from her mother, but it was even harder with the possibility she might be never coming back.
For the hour drive to the airport she had given Elias something to occupy himself with, but 20 minutes into the drive he had fallen asleep – luckily, she couldn’t afford to lose too much time with stopping anywhere.
The flight to Spain was long and uncomfortable. Elias kept crying and the mean glances from fellow flight guests were the looks she normally gave people when she was forced to fly commercial flights and not the center jet.
“Elias Honey, calm down. What do you need mh?” she whispered.
Nothing changed of course, but Parker was not about to give up. She gently lifted him out of the bassinet the flight attendant had attached to the front of her seat and laid him onto her shoulder. He had gotten big, but not too big to be carried. He snuggled into her shoulder and stopped crying.
“That’s right Baby, everything is okay, no need to cry.”
When they arrived in Spain they stayed a night in a hotel at the airport and the next morning she discarded their once used fake identities and replaced them with new ones. With another airline they flew to Switzerland, this was a way shorter and better flight than the other one. In Zurich she rented a car and discarded it in Munich, where she bought a new car for them to travel to their destination Hamburg. She tried to only stay on the street for at about 8 hours a day, because all the traveling was not good for the baby and she wanted to make it as comfortable as possible for him. She sent an encrypted message to Sydney that they were fine before they had crossed the German border. She paid a teenager to call Sydney’s home line and pose as a travel agent. That had been their agreed code for ‘We are fine’. He couldn’t sent anything back to let her know what was going on in the center, because she was sure every single phone line in Blue Cove was being listened in on since she disappeared.
Her friend had rented them an apartment under another fake name and when Parker pulled up into the driveway of the building she finally felt a little bit save again.
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To be continued…
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