Centre_Games

Part 13: Centre Games
by N.R. Levy

Miss Parker stormed down the stairs and into the alley of the Manhattan brownstone. Moving swiftly, she lost the three sweepers who were trailing her, and turned two corners before she found what, or rather who she was looking for.
"Charles, can you get out on your own?"
Major Charles stood still, his hand holding open a hole in a chain-link fence that Jay had already climbed through.
"We’ll be fine." He smiled at her and then headed through the opening himself. After they were through, he and Jay headed down another alley and into an adjacent building where they had an escape route set up. Before he entered the building, Charles looked back over his shoulder in time to see Miss Parker kicking over several boxes so that the hole in the fence was now covered. Then she began swearing angrily and headed back toward her sweeper team.
Charles couldn’t help but smile again as he followed his son down the path they had memorized two months ago when they’d arrived here. If only Jarod could have seen her. For someone who had never been trained to pretend, she was getting pretty damn good at it.
**************
Matthew held the file tightly in his hands as he walked to the office of his mentor. He entered the room to find Mr. Raines staring at a DSA display. He glanced over the older man’s shoulder, and saw a frozen frame of two men. One stood, a gun in his hand, the other sat slumped on the porch of a house, obviously dead.
Before he could figure out exactly what was happening in the DSA, Raines looked up and saw him. The gruff man quickly snapped off the DSA player, and glared up at his protégé.
"Do you have the latest report?"
"Yes, sir." Matthew handed him the file, then stepped back awaiting some reaction to the information. To his surprise, Raines seemed unmoved by what he read, and for a moment, Matthew wondered if the old man really understood what he had in his hands.
"Would you like me to put a team in place, sir?"
"No, Matthew, I would not like you to put a team in place."
"But, Sir, we can –"
"Don’t make the mistake, Matthew, of thinking I’m uncertain of my course. This information will aid me in my purpose. It isn’t up to you to question that."
Few people could make Matthew feel fear, but this man did. He knew that wasn’t a rare thing, hell, even Miss Parker was afraid of Raines. Of course, she had reason to be, Matthew mused. Still, he knew he had crossed some imaginary boundary with the man to whom he’d pledged his loyalty, and he decided to exit before any more upset could be caused.
Raines watched the rattled sweeper leave then sat back in his chair, taking a deep, satisfying breath of oxygen. ‘Yes,’ he thought, ‘this information will help me a great deal. Soon, the Centre will be exactly what it always should have been – Mine.’
****************
Parker couldn’t wait to get home, which wasn’t unusual these days, but today it was worse than normal. She’d had to endure yet another lecture about her failures from her father today, and for some reason, it had stung her in way it never had before.
What else did he want from her? she wondered as she drove the twisting road home. She’d sacrificed her freedom, saved his life, brought her son back to this god forsaken place, and gone back to running across the earth chasing every Russell male in sight, and it still wasn’t enough.
‘He wants your loyalty." The thought raced through her mind, and on its way, pierced her heart. ‘That’s exactly what he wants, and it’s the one thing I can’t give him,’ she thought. Her loyalty belonged to others now – to the family that loved her for what she was, not for what they wanted her to be.
Still, part of her did believe her father loved her, just not in the right way. Not in the way that she loved Thomas. Never could she imagine holding her son back from his own life, his own happiness for her own sake. It would have been tragically unfair. Of course, isn’t that what Jarod had been trying to drill into her head for the last four years, that her father had never been fair to her?
Jarod – another difficulty altogether. She hadn’t seen him in nearly three months, though she had spoken to him several times since their few precious days together. And she had needed very much to hear his voice on those brief but so important occasions.
Part of her still couldn’t believe that it had happened, that they –that she – had finally surrendered to her feelings. She had fought them so hard, for so long, and she knew the same was true for Jarod.
Lovers – they were lovers now. No, she corrected herself, they were more than that. Those nights had been more than making love – she knew she and Jarod had mated for life as they moved together in the firelight of her living room, as they’d lain together in her bed. They were a family now, she, Jarod and baby Thomas, and nothing short of death was going to change that.
Which of course left her poised on the edge of the very fears that plagued her each day they were apart. What would happen to her if something happened to Jarod?
That thought terrified her. She remembered once, just after Thomas’ murder, thinking that she would survive the tragedy, not because she didn’t love her carpenter, but because he wasn’t Jarod. At the time, she’d pushed the thought aside, thinking herself too horrible for words for even allowing it to crop up in her mind. Now, she understood where it had come from. Despite the enormity of her love for the father of her child, her love for Jarod was a part of who she was – as inescapable it seemed as her connection to the Centre.
She pulled up in front of the house, and immediately noticed that Greta’s car was not in the driveway. Her first instinct was to feel panic – had something happened to the baby? Then logic kicked in. Surely Greta would have reached her if there were a problem. More than likely, she was out somewhere with Thomas. Or, was there another possibility?
She felt a small tinge of hope start to grow inside of her – could it mean what she hoped it did? Carefully, she climbed from the car, walking toward the house as she would after any other long day at work, just in case someone was watching her. She opened the door, and immediately felt a sensation of warmth pass through her body.
There was a white rose lying on the floor, just inside the door.
She closed the door and saw that the one rose led into a trail of them, leading through the living room, and down the hall toward her bedroom.
She followed the trail, stopping only to pause in front of the door to Thomas’ nursery. She could hear the soft tones of Jarod’s voice as he spoke to the baby. Not wanting to interrupt the little private time the two had together, she continued on the rose-strewn path to her bedroom.
There she found a candlelit dream – more roses, a gift-wrapped box lying on her pillow, and the unmistakable scent of Jarod’s cologne. She approached the package, and pulled the card from the top of it.
"Take this box into the bathroom and wait for me."
Smiling, she did as she was told, and picked up the box. She opened the bathroom door to find still more surprises waiting for her.
Jarod had filled the bathtub with steaming water, then sprinkled it with still more roses. Candles lit the room, giving it a warmth that invited Parker into the waiting water. She peeled away the Armani suit she’d worn to work that day, piled her hair atop her head, then climbed into the tub, the heat of the water stinging her skin a bit as she sank into its depths and closed her eyes.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, allowing the heat of the water and the gentle aroma of the roses to push the stress of her day far away. Then she heard the door open, and she opened her eyes, immediately finding Jarod’s in the soft light of the room.
He smiled at her, and then sank to his knees beside the tub. Gently, he reached out his hand and caressed the side of her face and her neck.
"Welcome home." His voice was nearly as soft as his caress, and it sent shivers through her body. She pulled her hand from the water, and placed it warm and wet against his cheek. They said nothing else, instead just enjoying the feeling of being close to each other again.
The contact was broken when Jarod stood to remove his own clothing. Parker watched him, aware of the desire he stoked inside of her with each movement he made. Jarod also continued to look at her, watching the way her eyes took in the sight of him. Never had anything made him feel so completely wanted or loved as that look.
He climbed into the tub, stepping in behind her, and she moved forward to give him room to sit down. Then she was leaning back against his chest, held in the strength of his arms, his heartbeat strong against her back. At that moment, Parker was convinced that nothing on earth could make her feel happier than this – sitting here with Jarod, her son safe in his room down the hall.
"So, how goes the hero business?"
Jarod smiled at her words, pulling her tighter against him. The time away from her had been so difficult, so empty, and yet it had been far more bearable than the weeks when she’d first come back to Blue Cove. Because, he knew, that then he had lived with doubt. This time, though the separation had been longer, he had known each and every moment of the time that he would be coming home when it was over – home to her and Thomas. It made his work even more clear, more focused, and it made the justice he meted out even more satisfactory because now there was more than just the emotional reward of knowing he was helping someone else, there was the knowledge that he could come back here – back to his family.
"The hero business goes well. But the hero missed you very much."
She turned slightly in his arms so that she could look up at him, her hand coming to rest on his chest.
"The hero was missed." She smiled up at him, wishing she could make herself say the words she felt so strongly inside of her. But her old enemy fear was holding them in, and despite all of the strength Jarod’s presence brought to her, she still felt weak in the presence of the nemesis she had yet to find a strong enough weapon to fight.
"I saw your father and Jay this morning. Rather, the back of them as they were busy escaping through the streets of Manhattan."
"Oh, and did a gorgeous Angel happen to help them get away?" She couldn’t help but smile again at the look of pure adoration in Jarod’s eyes. Did he have any idea how that look made her feel?
"She might have bought them a few extra minutes." The smiles on both their faces slipped away as the look in Jarod’s eyes turned to one of pure desire and longing. He eased himself lower in the tub, pulling her up against him as he did. Their lips were now just barely apart.
"Thank you." He whispered the words against her lips, and then he claimed them, kissing her like a man who hadn’t eaten in days suddenly faced with a feast of riches.
She wasn’t sure what he was thanking her for – for helping his family, for being here with him -- the truth was it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was happy and he was here.
*************
The Triumvirate was unused to being summoned. They were especially unused to being told they had made a mistake. So, they were more than a little displeased at Raines for doing both. And though the evidence he presented was difficult to refute, Mutumbo was not yet ready to cave in to the wishes of his underling.
"Mr. Raines, you have three times this year defied the wishes of the Triumvirate. You, sir, should consider yourself lucky that you are still able to have an opinion."
Raines considered Mutumbo’s words, then crafted his own carefully. He knew that he was putting himself completely on the line this time. Another failure of the magnitude he’d experienced with Jarod or the clone would certainly mean the end of his life, and he was far from ready to give up his quest for control of the Centre.
"That is why I’ve come to you with this information. Clearly, the time for blind trust and pat reassurances of control have passed us by. Mr. Parker has lost the ability to dictate what she does. The Gates child is proof of that. So is this." He motioned toward the files he had placed in front of the Triumvirate members. Each contained still photographs of Miss Parker. One showed her standing in an alley while Major Charles and the clone climbed through a fence. Another showed her looking back over her shoulder at a fleeing Jarod, as she directed sweepers in the opposite direction.
"You’ve had the sweepers watching her?" Raines nodded his response to Mutumbo’s question, and then continued on.
"Further delays could destroy any possibility of success with the SP Project. Clearly her emotional ties to Jarod are growing. We have to cut them before our ultimate goal becomes unattainable."
Mutumbo watched Raines as he thought about what the man was asking. Siding with Raines would mean acting without Mr. Parker’s approval, and that meant the possible need to eliminate the Chairman were he ever to discover the project’s status. The man still had many valuable characteristics that the Triumvirate needed, and that would be a most unwelcome possibility. Yet none of them could deny the benefits that would be reaped from the successful completion of the SP Project.
"Mr. Raines, you have conditional approval to proceed, however, each and every aspect of the project must have Triumvirate approval, is that clear?"
Raines straightened up in his chair as victory became his. He didn’t care that they planned to watch him like a parent watching a small child – he would deliver the SP Project successfully, and he would finally have the satisfaction of showing Miss Parker the destiny she had been born for.
Raines’ reverie was interrupted by one last question from Mutumbo.
"What will you do about the child? It will hardly be believable that she disappeared and left him behind."
"The Gates child may have some potential. We’ll be able to evaluate him once he’s been brought in. If nothing else, he will ensure Miss Parker’s docile cooperation."
************
Letting him go would always be the hardest part, she knew that. Knowing, however, did not make it easier. As she waited for Jarod to finish dressing, she walked the living room, Thomas sleeping soundly against her chest, snuggled into the dark blue silk robe that had been Jarod’s gift to her.
For some reason she found herself thinking of her mother and Ben. She had no idea how many times her mother had actually visited him in Lake Catherine, and she knew that they had only been friends for many years before their romance had bloomed. Still, she wondered how he had been able to let her go so many times, and how in God’s name he had survived when the last time had truly become the last time.
Jarod walked into the living room with a vice around his heart. He watched her holding Thomas and tried to remember all of the reasons why he didn’t just put them in the car and drive away with them, disappearing forever. There were good reasons, he knew that, but, God, he didn’t want to walk out of this door again.
She looked up at him and stopped walking. He moved to her, wrapping his arms around the two people he loved most in the world. How long would it be, he wondered, before he would hold them again?
Finally, knowing he had to leave before the sun rose, he forced himself to let them go. He pulled on his jacket, picked up his bag and walked toward the back door and away from them. As he drove away, he felt hot tears sting his face.
Miss Parker watched him go, and then she walked into her bedroom, crawling into the bed they had shared so recently. She leaned back on the pillows, his cologne still lingering there, and holding her son close, she cried, and she whispered the words she could not say when he was there.
"I love you, Jarod. I love you."
Later, as she strolled into the Centre, no one would be able to see how sweet a night she had spent, nor how painful a morning she had endured. She was simply Miss Parker, all business.
Sydney, of course, could sense something, but he knew better than to mention it. Over the past few months, she had occasionally mentioned small things to him about Jarod, and though he suspected they had taken some rather large steps in their relationship, he felt they would both come to him when they needed help navigating the difficult path of their love for each other. Until then, he would wait and simply be happy in the knowledge that they had finally found their way back together.
Unfortunately, whatever had happened left her in a worse than usual mood, and Broots had chosen this morning to be late. He strolled in at 8:30, half an hour past when the morning staff meeting should have
started, rolling down his sleeve as he held a doughnut between his teeth.
"Nice of you to join us, Mighty Mouse."
Broots looked up, a little surprised at the reprimand. When Miss Parker saw the confused look on his face, it only annoyed her more.
"Did you forget how much I hate to be kept waiting?"
"No, Miss Parker, but I was doing that stupid physical and it took forever."
"Physical?"
"Yeah, didn’t you get the memo? You’re up next."
Broots reached into his pocket and pulled out a now glaze-covered piece of paper, which dictated that all Centre employees had to report to the Centre infirmary for their basic yearly physical.
"Oh, beautiful. Like I’m in the mood for this today." She stormed out of the office, dropping the memo on the floor as she went. Broots watched her go, then turned to Sydney.
"What’s with her?"
Sydney shrugged, uncertain as to what he should say to Broots. As close as the technician and Miss Parker were, he wasn’t sure how much Broots actually knew about Miss Parker and Jarod, and he would be damned if he was going to risk her wrath by spilling the beans.

**********
Miss Parker stormed through the halls on her way to the infirmary, more annoyed than she’d been in all of the weeks she’d been back at the Centre. It wasn’t that the physicals were any big deal – they happened every year. She just didn’t feel like being poked at today. Emotionally, she felt like an exposed nerve, and it was taking every ounce of energy she had to hide that fact from the rest of the world. She just couldn’t deal with this. She’d tell the doctor she had a meeting and give him five minutes – no more.
She rounded the corner on her way to the elevator and froze when she saw Brigitte head into Lyle’s office. She didn’t stop because Brigitte was visiting her brother, that happened often enough. What did get to her was the look of pure cat-ate-the-canary satisfaction that was glued to her brother’s face as he opened the office door to usher his stepmother inside.
Something was wrong, very wrong if Lyle was that happy. A knot slowly began to form in her stomach as she wondered what it could possibly be. Was it something about Jarod? She reached for her cell phone, and realizing she had left it in her office, she cursed herself. Now she would have to wait to call him. He had given her a new phone during his last visit, one with his numbers preprogrammed and cloaked inside of it. She had to let him know that there might be some kind of danger.
Entering the elevator, she pressed the button that would take her to the infirmary floor.
*********
Sam could tell something was going into action. Had he not picked up on the thread of tension that was building in the sweepers he’d seen that morning, he would certainly have known from the directive he had received. Raines had ordered him to conduct a retraining session for several junior level sweepers, an assignment that would pull him away from Miss Parker. And that meant trouble, Sam was sure of it. The wheezing bastard always found a way to separate him from his boss when she needed him most. This time, he would not fall for it.
Sydney and Broots had told him she was on her way to the infirmary, so he headed there, too, taking a longer route that would make it seem he was headed elsewhere. He hoped no one could see the urgency in his walk, or the worry that he felt growing inside of him. Something was definitely wrong, and he had to get to her soon.
********
Miss Parker entered the infirmary and found the doctor and his nurse waiting for her.
"I have a meeting in five minutes, so you’ll have to hurry."
"That won’t be a problem, Miss Parker. This won’t take long at all."
She slipped off her jacket and sat down on the exam table, and the nurse came over and slipped a blood pressure cuff around her arm. Meanwhile, the doctor pulled out his stethoscope, and moved to check her heart beat, his gloved hand first moving in a circle over her heart. She didn’t notice the motion.
What she did notice was that within seconds of his touch, she began to feel sick to her stomach. Her body began to feel weak, hot and cold all at the same time, and she immediately knew that she had been drugged. She reached out with what little strength she had left and gripped the doctor’s arm.
"Don’t bother to fight it, Miss Parker. There’s nothing you can do."
*********
Sam rounded the corner of the hall and froze when he saw Miss Parker being wheeled out of the infirmary on a stretcher. Quickly, he forced his body to move back into a place of concealment. What in the hell were they doing to her? His first instinct told him to run down the hall, grab her and leave, but he knew at this point he would only get them both killed. Besides, he had a promise to keep, and he moved quickly through the halls of the Centre, returning to Miss Parker’s office. He searched for her keys, stopped to grab her cell phone, which he saw lying on the desk, and headed out of the building for what he now knew
would be the last time.
It took him 14 minutes to reach Miss Parker’s house. He raced up the front steps and quickly opened the door. A startled Greta, who immediately sensed his worry, met him inside.
"Sam, what is it? What’s wrong?"
"Greta, I need you to get Thomas’ things as quickly as you can. We have to leave here, now."
Greta nodded and handed him the baby while she went to pack. Miss Parker had tried hard to shield her from the realities of the place she worked, but Greta knew from the things Jarod had told her that it was a place where many bad things had happened. Where they still could happen, she reminded herself.
Once, Miss Parker had told her that if anything ever went wrong, Sam would come for her and the baby, and they should go with him, no questions asked. And so that was what she would do, despite her now growing fear for her friend.
As soon as Greta was done packing, Sam loaded she and Thomas into his car and headed quickly away. Before they could even make it a mile from the house, the rearview mirror provided Sam a view of five black sedans pulling to a frantic stop in front of Miss Parker’s house.
They drove for less than 10 minutes before Sam stopped in front of an old garage just on the outskirts of town. He opened the door, letting Greta and Thomas inside, then he returned to the car to drive into a grove of nearby trees. He pulled the baby’s suitcase and car seat out of the car, then ran back to the garage, shutting the door.
Inside the garage sat an old red pick-up. Greta noticed that the doors read "Gates Restoration, Where Everything Old Is New Again."
"This belonged to Tommy’s father?"
Sam nodded as he fastened the car seat into the truck.
"Miss Parker couldn’t bring herself to sell it. So she put it into storage. She told me it was here, in case any kind of emergency ever came up."
Greta nodded as Sam took the baby and settled him quickly into his seat. As Greta climbed in, he threw open the door of the garage, quickly checking to see if any Centre sweepers had found their location. Satisfied they were still ahead of the game, Sam climbed into the truck and hurried off.
They drove for nearly an hour before he pulled Miss Parker’s cell phone from his pocket, and began randomly trying the preprogrammed numbers inside.
***********
Jarod sat in the Durham, North Carolina train station, trying to stave off the growing sense that something was very, very wrong. He had called Sydney, and the old man had assured him that everything was fine as far as he knew, and Sydney had also promised to keep an eye on Miss Parker for him.
When his cell phone rang, he reached to answer it, expecting to hear Parker’s voice on the other end so he could feel silly about being worried.
"Hello?"
"Jarod, it’s Sam." That small phrase sent terror racing through Jarod’s body. It was a fear he hadn’t felt since he’d found her lying on the floor of her house after Lyle’s attack.
"They have her, Jarod. I got the baby and Greta and we’re out of town, but I wasn’t sure where to take them, and someone has to go back for her."
"Take them 2355 Madison Drive in Lake Catherine, Maine. The man there will know what to do."
"Jarod –"
"I’ll get her out, Sam. You just take care of our son."
Jarod hung up the phone and raced out of the train station, his mind not even registering the last words he’d spoken to Sam.
*********
Brigitte could not believe her ears. The news Lyle had just told her was definitely too good to be true, yet he assured her it was. Miss Parker was being confined by the Centre indefinitely for an experiment, and that meant that they could now safely put their plan of action against Mr. Parker into action without her around to spoil it.
"So, when do you think we should make our move?" Lyle’s words pulled her out of the fantasy she was already indulging about being free of her old and difficult husband.
"No time like the present. I’ll begin tonight."
*********
Parker woke and instantly felt the cold of metal underneath her. She looked around groggily, and instantly realized two things – she was completely naked, her body covered by a thin sheet, and she was restrained – her torso and arms held down by long straps which cross the entire width of the table, her ankle held by some kind of shackles.
She moved her eyes around, trying desperately to figure out what was happening. As she did so, her eyes locked onto the stuff of which her nightmares were made – Raines.
"Miss Parker, you’re awake. How fortunate for us."
She went to speak, and found that her throat was dry and sore from whatever drug they had given her. When sound did finally come out, she was horrified by how weak she sounded.
"Raines, what the hell are you doing?"
"Where is the boy, Miss Parker?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Your son. We sent someone to gather him up, so he wouldn’t be left without proper supervision, and he was no where to be found."
Parker let herself feel some measure of relief inside. Sam had kept his word. How he had realized she was in trouble she might never know, but he had gotten to her son before the Centre bastards had, and that was all that mattered.
"Raines, why do you care where my son is? Since when is my status as a mother of interest to you?"
"Oh, but Miss Parker, it’s always been of the utmost interest to me. You see, it’s by far the most important thing you’ll ever do."
A sense of great unease settled into Parker as she heard his words, saw the look of joy that crossed his face. Suddenly, the room seemed very familiar to her, and she knew exactly what Raines was planning.
"Don’t do this. Please –" her words were cut off as a mask was placed over her face. She fought her own natural urge to breath, knowing they were trying to render her unconscious, struggling even though she knew she would lose the fight.
"Surely, you must have known that you were born to a greater purpose than just running the corporate offices, Miss Parker? You are going to be the mother of the future of the Centre -- The most genetically perfect Pretender ever born."
She felt a nurse release one of the shackles on her ankle from the table, it’s slack allowing her to place Parker’s leg in what was unmistakably the stirrup of a gynecological table. Parker’s body was flooded with the urge to fight, but the anesthesia was already controlling her body, forcing her down into unconsciousness.
"You act as if I’m giving you something you don’t want, Miss Parker. As if having Jarod’s child isn’t something you’ve dreamed of."
She felt her other leg being moved, and she fought the veil of darkness that was enveloping her as the mask was removed.
"Not like this, please." The words were barely audible as she slipped into blackness, her last thought following her into the dark. ‘I’m sorry, Jarod. I’m sorry I couldn’t stop them.’
Raines saw that she was out, and he motioned to the waiting medical team.
"Begin the insemination."
Hours later, a nurse checked on a still sleeping Miss Parker, making sure that her vital signs were stable. As she checked her pulse, she took the sleeping woman’s left arm at the wrist, not noticing that her ever-present silver ring was missing from her hand.
*********
Mr. Parker sat in his office staring at the report that sat in front of him. The Centre doctors had diagnosed a serious anomaly in his daughter’s heart functions during her physical, and she had been sent immediately to a medical facility where she could receive specialized treatment.
He knew he should believe it. Self-preservation told him to believe it. But if it was true, why were his grandson and his nanny gone, and why did Raines look as if he’d just won the lottery?
The sound of movement behind him startled the Chairman, and he whirled around in his chair to see a dark figure standing in the corner.
"Who’s there?"
A man moved out of the shadows, and it took Mr. Parker a moment to realize who it was. As realization hit, he felt something being pressed into his hand. Quickly the figure slunk back into the corner, hiding against the wall.
"Daughter needs help."
He heard the words and knew instantly that his daughter was in grave danger. Any doubts he was wrong were banished when Mr. Parker looked down into his hand. It held his daughter’s square silver ring.

go to part 14