Author's note: Thanks to all those still interested and reading my story!
Mission Impossible
(Chapter 25 - Can we talk, now??)
Trader's Inn
Blue Cove, DE
The team was gathered together around the communications equipment. When Parker finally announced her news there was a general intake of breath. Her promotion came as a surprise to everyone but Geoff.
"I wonder if this promotion will affect his Plan B? Maybe we don't have to do anything to get her out of the way, she'll be too busy dealing with office politics to be concerned with what we're doing." Barney mused aloud.
"That came out of left field but it's not surprising. Scuttlebut had it that she would keep her current position and be made director of Worldwide Marketing. Managing Director isn't that much of a leap. Well, finally I'll get to hear the Master-of-Quick-Thinking at work," Geoff stated with a happily expectant smile.
Parker's residence
Blue Cove, DE
"When we try out that champagne, I don't want any distractions and what I have to tell you is a big distraction. Hear me out."
Parker frowned at his statement but remained silent. She didn't expect him to but she couldn't help but feel a little let down by his lack of enthusiasm at her promotion. A little support, at least emotional support would've been highly appreciated. Parker caught herself just then. Here she was expecting things out of Jarod as if their relationship was normal—by any stretch of the imagination, it wasn't. She wanted to shut out the emotional neediness in her expectations but for some unknown reason, they kept creeping out when she least expected.
Jarod noted her thoughtful silence and then plunged into the deep end. "A telephone call is what brought me back to the Centre." With that preface, Jarod began to truthfully tell her about his mission, its goal and purpose. Still, he left out many of the details that sketched the daily updates uncovered by his team. Jarod instead gave her a thumbnail sketch of Thackery's experimentation. For brevity sake, he left out all the symptoms that were key identifying markers of the current victims, instead he opted for eliciting both her sympathies and outrage by explaining some of the more horrific side-effects seen in the African patients. He ended with the numerous federal indictments handed down for the doctor. The only thing he felt necessary to conceal was his infiltration team—how many they were or who they were. He trusted Parker's instincts but he wanted his people to continue on without interruption or interference. Jarod ended his story readily admitting that there were some operational details he wouldn't go into but wisely left it there while staring intently at his listener. When he was done, Parker sat silently. Her expression was impassively thoughtful, her dinner forgotten and left to grow cold. This would be the time, he reasoned when the fireworks of her temper would probably reveal themselves.
"So this Thackery person is your target? My assistant is taking care of his security; I haven't had any direct contact with him. From what I've been told, he's a Triumvirate asset that was brought in specifically to work on some kind of top secret medical research. Another one of those demands they've been making lately. Raines knows that his being here puts the Centre in a very precarious situation. Since you mentioned our non-interference pact with the government then it's safe to say they already know about Thackery's return. Where exactly do you come in?"
"I was sent here by a covert branch of the government to find a way of extricating the doctor from the Centre, preferably without your knowledge."
"Is this a pretend? Do they know about you?" she asked incredulously. It was one of the main reasons for the Centre's obsession, the fear of any disclosure on Jarod's part, of what had happened to him in the years of his imprisonment that spurred the hunt for him—despite his contamination by the outside world.
His expression asked, 'Are you nuts?' mirroring her disbelief, while he answered neutrally, "I work for them—legitimately."
"You make it sound personal. What the hell do they care if I know?"
"They don't want you to align against them. As the security director and now, the managing director for the Tower, they don't want to run the risk of you pulling the plug on any of the projects the Centre is handling for them. Plus they're afraid of jeopardizing their position with the Centre and are eager to avoid any retaliation, blackmail or worse. Apparently they still see the Centre as a valuable resource."
"So they want to take a look under the sheets and even manipulate the action to benefit themselves. All the while making sure the Centre keeps focused on their interests while violating our privacy. Cute. Is that the reason you've kept this from me? And what's your role in all this—to expose the whole dirty business or are you the one doing the peeking?"
Trader's Inn
"Oh geez! Why the hell did he tell her everything? Has he lost his mind?" Jonas asked in dismay.
Geoff looked equally grim and shocked. "He told her almost everything. So far he hasn't said a word about us. I'm wondering what he hopes to gain from this."
"I thought I'd heard and seen everything. How could a simple seduction angle get this twisted? I guess we'll have to see where infatuation ends and duty begins. So far he hasn't been wrong about her, so all we can do is keep the faith," Barney stated quietly.
"Jarod has a reason for doing this. Don't forget, this is supposedly Plan B, though I've got to admit, I would've definitely tried to talk him out of this if I knew," Modesty replied with grim certainty.
Parker's residence
Jarod averted his gaze from hers and stared out at the neatly trimmed grass and garden. The heavy stone which represented his fear of her rejection started weighing down the pit of his stomach.
"My goal was to keep you distracted and as far away from my core target as possible. Believe me when I say that what's happened between us caught me off guard. From what you said after we returned from Scotland, I thought you would just try to shoot me and get it over with. I never thought things would've turned out the way they did."
Parker narrowed her eyes at this and stared at her lover. Jarod had just admitted to a serious breach in her trust. She wondered just how insincere he had been and if he was up to admitting that as well. "I've been honest with you. All I was hoping for was sincere companionship and what I get for my trouble is you, playing games."
"I would never play with your heart or hurt you with lies. You know that. This assignment brought us together; I'm hoping that you won't allow it to tear us apart."
"Damn it Jarod! I really wanted this, for once, to have something in my personal life to be genuine. You know—real, even if it was only going to last for a few moments. What do I get? Games, stupid, gut- wrenching games designed to make my life just that bit more unbearable. Oh, granted, you didn't lie exactly, you merely failed to give me all the pertinent details of your…um…visit. Why tell me anything at all?" she asked with venomous anger. Without warning her anger turned into hurt-filled disappointment. "You could've kept stringing me along and then simply left without a word. After all, that has been the status quo of our, I suppose, "relationship" would do for want of a better word." She said this so softly that his team had to strain to hear the last few words of her sentence.
When he looked up, his expression wasn't exactly what she was expecting. He looked equal measures of miserable, distressed and hopelessly in love. "Only a lesser person would have tried stringing you along. That was the furthest thing from my mind. Sometimes the best laid plans backfire in the strangest ways. I wasn't expecting you to have changed so much."
"I haven't, Jarod."
"Yes you have, more than you can imagine. What's confusing me is your excitement over this promotion. Why you stay is a mystery."
"I know the promotion is nothing but a Catch-22, no illusions there. The Tower wants to keep me happy after hearing about the dirty trick Raines pulled with the look-a-like. But I was using it for a far more selfish reason—as a means to have something to celebrate with you. I'm no simpleton. I know you're not going to hang around here regardless of what's happened between us. I wouldn't expect it and I'm too old to delude myself with visions of roses and buttercups. But since this was all a shell game, I guess I'm the schmuck left holding the bag." Parker said this as she rose from her seat.
Jarod immediately moved to intercept her. "I meant every word I said at the beach house."
Parker remained silent for several long seconds, agonizing seconds for Jarod. "You played me and you did it very well. I didn't figure on you getting so personal—that's a new wrinkle in your usual repertoire. Now I'm left looking like a lonely, pathetic fool with nothing left in the pantry. Your triumph is complete, nothing like a healthy dose of humiliation to set the record straight between us," she replied with a tremble in her voice and fire in her eyes.
"I thought your previous hostility would continue and you would insist on maintaining the status quo. That was my plan to distract you. When you started to respond to me, I thought you were stringing me along! You were very clear about your feelings the last time we spoke. I honestly didn't expect for us to forge a true relationship. Now, after everything that's happened, I don't want to lose you over this. I never thought I even had an outside chance with you."
"What we had, no, what I imagined we had wasn't going anywhere, Jarod, end of story."
"You weren't imagining anything, except the lousy ending. Write a new one."
"Why? Looking for some more weaknesses?"
Jarod said nothing but looked down with a pained expression, as if she had just slit his wrists. "I never lied to you," he repeated softly. Then in a barely audible voice, modulated so his team couldn't understand his words, he said, "You're not the only lonely person here with nothing more than faded hopes."
"With your looks you could have anyone you want. You were going to have to let me go anyway, Jarod." Parker's tone was exasperated as she turned away. She hated hurting his feelings and his tone of voice and expression told her that he meant every word he said. With an aching heart, Parker wanted nothing more than to find new ways of holding on to him, but she knew to do so would have the same result as it did with Tommy.
He reached out and gently caressed her arm. When she turned he looked directly into her eyes and asked, "Is that what you really want?"
Parker paused and stared back at him, then turning she gave a half chuckle. "Okay, I admit that this little plan of yours hurts like hell. No doubt, once you finished with me and the Centre, I would be left with a mess to clean up and trying to give explanations that I don't have. You never think of the aftermath do you? Why not stay true to form? Why did you bother telling me this?"
"I wanted you to know, to hear it from me. Part of the plan was to inform you of what I had done and setting up for you some plausible deniability once my little scenario was complete. I've seen the way Raines reacts to being thwarted."
"Gee, thanks." Parker said some heat. Jarod's plausible deniability would be interesting to see but she still felt like someone had slipped a shank between her ribs. "So now I know, why are you still hanging around?"
"I also need your help," he answered simply.
"With what!?" she asked suddenly curious. Jarod's revelation should have left her furious, instead she couldn't help but feel oddly elated, like she won something far more precious than a lousy Centre promotion.
"Getting Thackery out of the Centre."
"Oh, now you want me to help you? I thought I was only a pawn in this game of yours."
"You never were. Nothing happened the way it was supposed to happen. The problem I'm facing now is your efficiency. You have the Centre locked up tighter than Raines' oxygen tanks. I can get the doctor out but it will be messy and chances are Raines and company will know it was me and blame you. If you could relax security just enough, then my plan can go forward. I only need about 30 minutes, probably less and I'll have him out and on his way to a long overdue visit with the Feds."
"That's what you want from me? What do I get in return?"
"You want this to be a quid pro quo?"
"I'll take what I can get. What I wanted when I came home was my idea of a pleasant evening; terrific sex and getting a great night's sleep."
"You'll get that anyway. Will you help me?"
"Raines is a gasping dung-heap of worthlessly boring schemes and hair raising experiments with all the creativity of Mengale and this Thackery sounds like he's cut from the same cloth. My help depends on what it is you want me to do."
Jarod visibly relaxed and began looking around anxiously. "Where's that champagne?"
Parker couldn't help but grin, her horniness finally got through his thick skull. "It's over there. When do you want to do this? I need details," she demanded. When Jarod looked back at her with a question in his eyes, she replied, "Do you trust me with the details?"
"I trust you with my life."
"Huh, right. No pressure," she said in a soft voice.
Jarod slowly smiled at her disconcertment. "Tomorrow at 10am, a service truck will arrive at the loading docks waiting for a single crate. The crate will have all the right markings and my driver will have all the right paperwork. What I need from you is one sweeper, not Sam, to pick up the crate on Level 7 and take it to the loading docks without it being searched."
"I suppose Thackery will be inside, kicking, screaming and carrying on? No way, too risky."
"What do you propose?"
"Keep him quiet. Better yet drug him if you have to but he has to be gagged. There's no way my people are going to ignore some fool yelling his head off from inside a crate. I don't care whose wheeling it around."
"Gagging him won't be a problem and he'll be bound as well. I'll need to have the crate loaded onto the truck without interference and given free passage away from the Centre."
"Done and done. But in return I want something from you," she replied firmly.
"Tell me," Jarod said with a shakily, apprehensive smile.
"When you do finally leave, make it for keeps. Don't visit, don't write, no telephone calls, emails, presents, Christmas or birthday cards. Turn your back on this place and never look back. It's way overdue for you to cut the umbilical cord on your connection to the Centre and everyone involved with it."
"What about us? How we feel about each other?"
"Regardless of your games, we're at an impasse. We're headed down a road that promises to be nothing more than a cul-de-sac. The time has come for you to ride off into the sunset, buckaroo," Parker replied facing Jarod with her arms crossed and a serious expression.
"There are others that I don't wish to sever all contact with—I don't believe I'll be able to do what you ask."
"You can and you will. I'll explain things to Angelo, but I think he'll already know. Anyone else, you can say farewell to without exciting too much alarm. They should be expecting it by now."
At the resistant look on Jarod's face, Parker continued, "You want my help, then this is the price for it. I know it won't be easy, but it's a long time in coming. Is there anything else you wanted?"
"What would you want then—A pound of flesh? Getting Thackery out was at the top of my list."
"That was all? Geez, Jarod. I thought you'd ask for something more difficult, like the password codes to the Tower wash room," Parker replied with a lascivious smile she knew would grab his attention. She was gratified by the resurgence of hope in his eyes.
"You have to enter a password to get into the restroom?" Jarod asked, finally spotting the large champagne bottle and following her into the house. His mind seized on the fact that she hadn't caught his reference to a list. It meant that he had some leeway—a small crevice he could use as a handhold to hang on to something that recently had become very precious to him.
"They have a sauna in there with a masseuse on call 24 hours. The Jacuzzi can fit at least 20 and the gym is actually decent. Much better than the one offered to the regular hierarchy." Parker turned and saw that Jarod was shedding his jacket and draping over the back of a kitchen chair while hanging on tightly to the champagne bottle and following her out of the kitchen.
"Here, give me that," said she grabbing the champagne and putting it on a coffee table. "Your fantasy is on hold; I'm tired, cranky and all out of patience. Plenty of the basics is what I need right now."
Jarod grinned appreciatively as he followed Parker into the bedroom.