SIM CITY

Part Four - Motives and Memories

Crouched over his impeccable scale model, Jarod frowned, silent.

Behind him, Sydney paced.

"Where are you hiding?" The psychiatrist's voice was gentle, coaxing.

Eyes closed, Jarod ran his finger down the miniature road, stopping briefly at an intersection with a little plastic phone-box, then turning left down a tree-lined street. He moved to a model hedge and tapped it.

"Just behind this hedge. The best way to get her is to stage an accident--" he pointed to the road beside the hedge, "--Make her think she hit me." He turned and dipped a finger in some nearby black poster paint and smeared some skid marks on the road.

"Very good. So, she stops the car..."

"She's panicked, off-guard. I'll pull a gun, make her get over to the passenger seat, get in and drive."

"You're not going to make her drive at gunpoint? Surely that would be the logical thing to do."

Jarod opened his eyes and breathed out slowly, letting his own personality resurface. He turned to Sydney.

"This man isn't thinking logically. It's his first kidnap and he's nervous, too flustered to be sensible. There are several quieter streets on Miss Parker's route to work, with less chance of there being witnesses. He chose this site in a hurry."

Sydney nodded, an appreciative little smile on his face as he saw the almost superhuman understanding on Jarod's face. He was certain. He didn't guess, he simply knew.

Despite his fears for Miss Parker's safety, it was wonderful to work together again. In his mind Sydney recalled the sim-lab back at the Centre; remembered doing countless simulations with Jarod throughout his childhood, his teens, and right up to the year he escaped, the Pretender's intuitive genius never failing to delight and amaze him. If anyone could discover who had taken Miss Parker and where, Jarod could. Sydney came over and crouched next to Jarod.

"All right, so he's a hired gun, not used to this kind of thing. Where is he going to take her?"

"Somewhere he feels safe, in control. This job has him so worked up, he'll need somewhere he finds comforting and familiar. I'd start with family."

"Excellent work, Jarod," Sydney nodded approvingly at the Pretender, "I'm glad to see that being in the outside world hasn't affected your abilities--"

"You thought it might!" Jarod turned to Sydney, suddenly angry, "You think that someone like me can only thrive in a lab? Let me tell you something, being here in the real world for just a year, I've learned more that I did the rest of my life in the Centre!" Jarod ignored the momentary stab of guilt at callously dismissing thirty years of Sydney's teaching. "I've met people, connected, lived a hundred different lives! I've brought families back together and soon I'll find my own family." He stood up and stomped off towards the door.

"You mistook me, Jarod," Sydney's reply was calm as he stood, but made no attempt to follow. The gentle voice stopped Jarod in his tracks, but he stubbornly kept his back turned.

"I only meant that you haven't done a controlled simulation for some time, and I'm happy to see your focus is as clear as ever." He went up to Jarod, then, and gently put a hand on his shoulder. "I've followed your activities out in the world, and I've rejoiced in your new experiences and your good deeds. I never wanted to restrict you, Jarod, or use you..."

Jarod turned to face Sydney, seeing the sincerity in his mentor's eyes. "Then why did you?" He demanded.

Sydney looked away, struggling with the answer. Not a day went by that he didn't feel the weight of this truth, and wish it could be lifted.

"It was-- you were-- an experiment, a mystery. The Centre gave you to me to unlock and develop... that's how it started. Even in the beginning I saw the wrong in denying you a normal life, but..."

"But the Centre had you. Just like they had me."

"No, I can't throw off the responsibility. I got caught up in the project, I kept you imprisoned. I could have tried to get you out... Catherine Parker tried..."

He turned away and walked back to the model. "I don't expect forgiveness, Jarod, not yet anyway, perhaps in the future. But I can hope to be of some use to you in the present, in getting Miss Parker back, and..." He looked Jarod straight in the eyes, earnestly, "...Not letting them catch you in the process."

Jarod held Sydney's gaze, for the first time seeing beyond his own anger at the Centre, anger which he had often directed at his former 'keeper'. His head swam with memories of past simulations, of the tortuous situations and scenarios he was made to live through, and through it all had been Sydney's calm, insistent voice, endlessly questioning, providing a running commentary to his life.

Ever since his escape, he'd kept in touch with Sydney without really knowing why. Perhaps just habit, maybe some need for familiarity, for some other person to acknowledge he was a real person beneath the pretence. But here in this dim warehouse, in the middle of yet another simulation, Sydney was here for him, not to trap or exploit him but simply to support him, to act like-- Jarod struggled at the thought-- any father would.

Jarod stood motionless, worried by the unbidden feelings, but Sydney had picked up the scale model of Miss Parker's house and was turning it over in his hands, musing.

"Do you think you could... this is more Angelo's talent, but... can you empathise with Miss Parker, find out how she would weather the ordeal?"

Jarod blinked his distraction away and went back to the model. He took the house from Sydney, remembering how he built it exactly to the image in his photographic memory. He closed his eyes, his mind suddenly transported inside the house, back to this morning.

He stood behind Miss Parker as she fixed her hair in front of the mirror. Her appearance was pristine as always, a façade that Jarod knew only masked the confusion within.

"You have to believe you'll catch me, don't you Parker?" Jarod asked her retreating form as she left the house with determined step. "Because then it would be over, and you could escape the Centre yourself."

Now he was in the passenger seat of the car as she drove, distractedly to work. Screeching brakes and a violent jolt forwards as the car halted. "She's panicked, sickened by the thought that she might have killed someone..."

Sydney listened to the narration, wishing he could see the images inside Jarod's head.

As Jarod saw in his mind's eye a faceless thug pull a gun, he could almost feel Miss Parker's frustration and disgust, both at her attacker and herself. "She's humiliated at being tricked, angry... and scared."

"Do you think she knows her assailant?" Sydney prompted.

"No. But she's agonising over it, imagining every possible enemy, every possible motive... she starts to question her value, to wonder if there is anyone who cares enough to ransom her..."

Jarod fell silent, listening to his own intuition. He could almost hear the cog wheels turning in Miss Parker's head, accusing him of orchestrating her capture, but deep down knowing him better than that. And he felt her boiling fury in admitting that, this time, she needed him.

He half-smiled as he heard the silent plea... Get me out of this Jarod!

End of Part Four