Part 2
by the
lurker
Toronto,
Ontario, present
Jarod’s eyes were slightly moist
from the memory. He hadn’t thought of that conversation in years, but he remembered
with clarity, the pain and sorrow he had placed in Sydney’s eyes with his
words. Jarod shook his head: The Centre had caused all of them so much anguish.
Miss Parker, her mother, Jacob, to himself; but it was Sydney, who had borne
most of it. And all for what? A defunct pretender program, and a protegé who
could not bear to be in the same room with his mentor.
He looked over at the phone lying on the table. He picked it up and punched in
a code. The phone rang a few times.
“This is Sydney.”
“Why are fathers and sons always so complicated?”
“Hello, Jarod.”
There was a dullness to Sydney’s voice, one Jarod had never heard before.
“Do you know the answer to the question, Sydney?”
There was a long pause, and Sydney’s voice was very quiet, “No, I really don’t
know.”
Jarod frowned, “And it sounds like you really don’t care right now.”
Silence.
“Sydney? Are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
Jarod’s brow creased further, “You sound upset.”
“I’m not.” Sydney’s tone mellowed, “I’m...sorry. What’s really on your mind,
Jarod.”
Jarod paused for a moment, trying to keep his anger at bay. When he continued,
his voice was tight.
“You were never there for me, Sydney. There were so many times when I needed
you, and you weren’t there. I was just a little boy. Why didn’t you help me?”
Sydney sighed into the phone. It didn’t matter how he tried to explain the
realities of the situation to Jarod, the boy didn’t want to hear it. The
boy. Even now, Sydney still thought of him as a child. He leaned his elbows
on his desk, feeling suddenly very tired, and very old.
“There were a lot of mitigating factors, Jarod. There still are.”
Jarod gripped the phone tighter, “Somehow, I knew you’d say that.”
Sydney’s tone was far snippier than Jarod had ever heard it, “I was there for
you far more than you understand.”
“Really....”
“Yes.”
“Somehow, I doubt that.”
Jarod stabbed the off button on his cell phone with a vengeance. He was never
going to get straight answers out of Sydney; why he still bothered to try, he
didn’t know. The anger he felt permeated his mind for a few minutes, but then
he remembered that he had a job to do, and a pretend to execute.....
****************
The Centre
The dial tone rang in his ear, and Sydney put the phone back in its cradle. He
returned his attention to the documents before him. There was nothing at all
unusual about the birth certificate. He typed in a few more codes and another
document came up, the Centre’s infirmary records. He studied them page by page,
but nothing jumped out at him.
An involuntary shiver hit him, as he once again felt the sensation of being
watched. He glanced around the office and down the connected corridors, but
there was no one. Shaking it off, Sydney proceeded to the next set of
documents, unaware of the eyes watching him from behind the air vent grate.
****************
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Toronto, Ontario
The restaurant was crowded and noisy. Jarod and Harry sat in a booth at the
back, where it was a little more private, a little more quiet.
“Thanks for meeting me, Harry.”
“Sure. You got an idea on how to get these guys off of me?”
“Well, that depends on you.”
“Whaddya mean?”
“First, where’s Ben?”
“He’s with my friend Stephen and his wife, Shirley.”
“This is the guy from Gentech, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Look, Harry, you haven’t been on the level with me. I can only help you if you
tell me the truth.”
“I don’t even know who the hell you are, Jarod.”
Jarod reached into his pocket and pulled out a badge, “Jarod Russell, Canadian
Intelligence.”
“What’s your interest in a little mob intimidation?”
“It’s the embezzlement that interests me.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t do that.”
“I know.”
Harry looked at Jarod sharply, “What do you mean, you know?”
“Harry, I’ve done my research, and you were not only set up by someone on the
inside, but you were setup to find yourself in debt to the mob.” Jarod paused,
allowing Harry to digest his words, then he continued, “It was all planned very
carefully. What I don’t know, is what it is that they really want from you.”
Harry looked away, and took a long sip from his gin. His mind whirled from the
impossibility of it all. How had he ended up here?
“They want me to help them break through Gentech’s security system.”
“And?”
Harry swallowed, “And help them swipe some biochems.”
“As in germ warfare?”
“Yeah, the very same. The one they want could knock out a province the size of
Ontario with about four ounces strategically placed in the water supply.”
“Which they’ll sell to the highest bidder.”
“Yep. It’s worth millions out on the open market.”
“Then I guess we’d better come up with a plan.”
Harry stared in disbelief at Jarod, “Plan?”
Jarod smiled at Harry, and took a sip of his drink.
***************
The Centre
Broots was at his desk, and Parker was standing behind him.
“These are the documents Sydney’s been studying?”
“Yeah, this is it.”
Parker shook her head, “I don’t get it. What would he want with my birth records?”
“I don’t know.”
Sydney entered the room, and all conversation stopped.
Parker looked at her watch, “Slow boat from China?”
Sydney ignored the remark and walked over to the desk, leaning on it casually.
Parker’s annoyance lit up her eyes, and Sydney couldn’t keep the slight grin
from tugging at the corners of his mouth. She had feigned annoyance with him
since she was a small child. It was her way of possessing his regard, and she
hadn’t grown out of it. In a way, he was glad she still required attention from
him.
Irritated by the grin, Parker turned away from him, “Broots, let’s have it.”
“Well, I was monitoring some small newspapers, when this caught my eye.....”
Broots pointed to his computer screen, “A guy stopped a man from being beaten
to death in front of his son, in Bozeman, Montana.”
“So?”
Parker’s glare made Broots nervous, “There’s more....it turns out that this
guy’s in trouble with the mob.”
“The part about the mob was in the local rag?”
“No, Miss Parker, I dug that up myself.”
“Well remind me to give you a gold star then, Broots.”
“Really?”
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“For making me wait through that stupid monologue, you moron.” Parker picked up
the phone, “This is Miss Parker, I need the jet.....Montana. Three of us--”
Raines’ voice stopped her, “Make that two of you. Sydney’s presence is required
elsewhere.”
Parker frowned and looked at Sydney, who simply nodded in acquiescence. Raines
smiled and left as quickly as he had come.
“Make that two. Yes, I want to leave in thirty minutes.”
She hung up the phone and turned just in time to see Sydney walking out of the
office. She followed him out into the hallway.
“Hey, Freud, what’s going on with you and Dr. Death?”
Sydney stopped and slowly turned around to face her; he looked apprehensive.
Abstractly playing with the strand of pearls around her neck, Parker closed the
distance between them.
“Syd?”
He smiled weakly at her and gently ran a finger across the strand of pearls,
“They look as beautiful on you, as they did your mother.”
The compliment brought a smile of embarrassment to Parker’s face. Despite all
that had transpired between Parker and Sydney, she realized that her mother had
been right in the letter she had left for her: Sydney had always been her
protector, and she had come to realize that even the strange sense of moral
code which had kept his silence for thirty years at her mother’s behest, was an
expression of love for both Miss Parker and Catherine.
“I’m glad you held onto these for so many years, it’s the only thing I have of
my mother’s that my father gave her.”
Sydney looked at her sharply, “Your father?”
“Yes. In the letter, my mother said that my father--”
“--She told you they were a gift from Mr. Parker?”
Parker chuckled slightly, “Unless you know of another father of mine, she wrote
that my father gave them to her on her--”
“--Twenty-fifth birthday, yes.”
All the colour had drained out of Sydney’s face; he looked as if he might be
blown away by a strong wind.
Parker took his hand in hers, “You don’t look so good, Syd.”
“I’ll be fine. Good luck in Bozeman, Miss Parker.”
He turned and slowly walked away. Parker watched him, worry outlining her
features.
****************
The file folder was sitting on his desk when he entered his office. He sighed
heavily, no longer even caring how or why someone was leaving him clues on his
desk. He walked over and sat heavily in his chair. He reached for the file, but
when he touched it, his noticed his hands were shaking. He took a deep breath
and opened the folder.
His eyes grew wide as he perused the papers, “Oh my god.....”
After a moment Sydney closed the file folder. He pulled the DSA out from his
pocket, and turned it in his hands, thinking. It wasn’t safe on him, and he
knew it. It had to stay hidden; if Miss Parker saw it-- He couldn’t complete
that thought. It would devastate her. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out
an envelope. He placed the DSA in the envelope, grabbed some tape, and quickly
taped it under the bottom corner of his desk. The eyes from the air duct didn’t
miss a beat.
****************
Toronto, Ontario
The street was cold and empty, as Harry and Jarod walked along. Their footsteps
resounded on the pavement, and the air carried with it the scent of burning
fireplaces.
“So you think we can just placate them with the money?”
“Well, that’s what they’re holding over you, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Because they think you can’t pay it back; but if you do pay it back, then what
have they got?”
“What about my kid?”
“I can help get you relocated, a new identity and a new job.”
Harry stopped, “Jarod, what exactly do you get out of all of this?”
“Satisfaction from seeing a family stay together.”
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“Okay.”
The cop let him through and then stopped Jarod, “Where do you think you’re
going?”
Jarod flashed his badge, “With him.”
The cop stood aside and Jarod followed Harry into the building and up the stairs
to the apartment. The police were everywhere, dusting for prints, taking
pictures. Stephen was sitting on the couch, holding a towel to his head. He saw
Harry at the door.
“Oh god, Harry...I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop them, I swear to god
I tried, I--”
The man disintegrated into tears and Harry just sat next to him, holding him
for a moment.
“Stephen, tell me what happened.”
“Ben and I were sitting here, watching tv, when these guys broke through the
door. I grabbed Ben and tried to get away from them, but there were too many.
They wrestled Ben away, and clubbed me with a gun. Harry, I swear to god, I
tried...”
“I know.”
Harry looked at Jarod, who stepped closer.
“What did these men look like?”
Stephen scowled at Jarod, “Who the hell are you?”
******************
Harry paced back and forth in Jarod’s apartment. Jarod was typing furiously on
his laptop. Harry stopped right in front of the table at which Jarod was
working.
“Jarod.....I know we were going to expose these guys, but, the deal’s off. I
can’t do this. They have my son. They’ll kill my boy if I don’t do what they
want.”
“Harry, you have to trust me. I’ll get him back before you have to go through
with it. It’s all going to work out, and you know, I think I may have just found
us the key....”
*******************
The Centre
The scotch went down smoothly, but no matter, it couldn’t kill the pain. It
couldn’t take away the regret, nor the sorrows of the past. And there were so
many sorrows. He took another sip of it and loosened his tie. There were so
many ghosts living within the Centre. Far too many for him to make peace with
himself, or with them. He looked at his watch; Parker should be in Montana by
now.
And in his heart, he knew she would find nothing. He had been isolated by
Raines for a purpose; he was quite certain that if Broots backtracked the news
story, it would prove to have been falsified. He could have prevented it, but
the look Raines had given him in the office told him that whatever it was, it
was something that Miss Parker was safer not knowing about.
He closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair. He wondered how much longer
Raines was going to keep him waiting.
********************
Toronto, Ontario
Jarod handed Harry the com unit, “I promise you that I will rescue your son
while you’re in there. As soon as I have him, you’ll know.”
“And that’s when I lock Balducci’s men in a room, red-handed with the stuff.”
“Exactly.”
“Jarod....what if.....what if they’ve already--”
“--You can’t think like that, Harry.”
“But how do you even know where to look for Ben? He could be anywhere....”
Jarod looked across the room, where Stephen and his wife were puttering.
He smiled back at Harry, “Let’s just say that I have a pretty good idea where
to start.”
Harry packed all his equipment into a black bag, and shook Jarod’s hand.
“Please save my son. I don’t really care about me; just save my son.”
“Harry, I’m going to help both of you. Just stick to the plan, and it will all
work out.”
“Jarod, if I don’t hear from you while I’m in there, I’m going along with
them.”
“Harry, they’ll pin it on you, you know that.”
“If it saves my boy, I don’t care.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll hear from me.”
“I hope so.”
Jarod watched Harry go, closed the door and then turned, smiling at Stephen and
his wife, “So, anybody for a game of Pictionary?”
********************
The Centre
His eyes snapped open, as the squeaky sound of wheels moving across the
polished floor reached his ears. He turned just in time to see Raines enter the
room, followed by four Cleaners. He said nothing, but merely watched as the man
dragged his oxygen tank toward him. Raines stopped right in front of his desk.
Sydney allowed the silence to simply lie there.
“You’ve been digging around where you shouldn’t have, Sydney.”
“You knew all along, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I was wondering how long it would take you to put the pieces together.”
“Well now, I only had part of the puzzle, didn’t I?”
“True.” Raines paused then continued, “Frankly, I’m surprised that Catherine never
told you.”
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Sydney spat blood on the floor and looked up at Raines, “Go to hell, Raines.”
Raines pulled a syringe from his pocket, “I think it is you who will be going
there first.”
He stabbed Sydney in the carotid artery with the needle, injecting him with the
liquid. Even though Sydney willed himself to remain quiet, the pain caused him
to cry out.
Raines turned toward the door, “Bring him.”
Angelo, crumpled in a ball of empathic pain, watched as the Cleaners dragged
Sydney’s unconscious form from the room. It was only after they were long gone,
that the howl of pain and sadness echoed through the air duct.