Chapter 11: all your money won't another minute buy Valued Gateway Client Valued Gateway Client 3 616 2001-10-14T07:33:00Z 2001-10-27T02:35:00Z 2001-10-27T02:35:00Z 4 1692 9647 80 19 11847 9.3821

The Pretender is the Copyright of TNT.  The characters Jarod, Sydney, Miss. Parker, Broots, and Mr. Raines etc. are all the copyright of TNT.  The song Dust in the Wind belongs to Kansas.  No profit intended, no harm intended.   This is my first take at fan fiction and any errors are mine alone.

Chapter 11: All Your Money Won't Another Minute Buy Road in the Rocky Mountains, outside Denver

Once again, Jarod looked at the rock formation that had started this journey.  He had returned to Eagle Rock Cave to get the DSA's and gear he had left there.  He had leased his cabin for the entire summer and believed that he had not been gone long enough for any of the locals to have noticed and have bothered it.

When he returned to the cabin he found everything as he had left it.  He quickly collected his things and left.  He was rather surprised that Miss Parker had not thought to look for his lair in the area he had been found in.  The DSA's had not been with him in the accident.  They must have overlooked this fact.  She must have not been paying attention or was losing her edge.  Or…

Mr. Parker's Office – the Centre

Mr. Parker stalked his office in anger.

"Why the hell haven't you gotten hold of my daughter?  I don't want excuses I want results.  She told me she was going to her house, how tough can that be?"

"Sir, she isn't there.  Her car isn't there.  There is no evidence that she has been there in weeks."

"Perhaps she never made it to her house.  Did anyone check for accidents or abandoned cars on the way up there?"  Pausing for the drama Lyle added, "If the Pretender was stolen by someone inside the Centre, perhaps she was taken to keep him in line."  Lyle's goal was to delay them by playing to their suspicions of each other.

"It's a possibility, get on it Lyle."

Lyle nodded and hurried from the room.  His stall tactics were working.  He was keeping them busy looking everywhere but the direction he knew his sister had taken.  He was successfully pointing the suspicion to Raines.  Raines by nature was secretive and supported Lyle's theories by his silence.

Sub Level 5, Technician room – the Centre

"Something's not right.  We're being led in the wrong direction.  Pull up the Gemini summary that Jarod finished before he escaped."  Mr. Raines rasped.

The technician complied with Mr. Raines order.  He pulled up the first of the files.  As they stared, it slowly turned into gibbish. 

"What!"

"There's a virus sir!  The files are being destroyed!"

"Stop it!"

"I can't sir.  It's in each of the files.  I can't move them, I can't isolate them."

Mr. Raines grew more enraged as he stood there and watched the files deleting themselves."

"Sir! It's starting on the other files!"

"Stop it!  Turn off the server, it can't destroy the files if it's off."

"Actually sir…"

"Do it!"

The technician commanded the servers to shut down putting them in total darkness.  The fans stopped and within minutes, the air became stuffy and hot.

Mr. Raines pulled out his cell phone and dialed Mr. Parker's number.

"What's wrong?  What happened to the power?"

"The mainframe has been compromised.  The Gemini files are destroyed.  We had to shut the power to prevent the entire mainframe from being destroyed."

"Heads are going to roll for this Raines!" Mr. Parker yelled. 

Mr. Raines ended the call and left the room.  The technician held his head in his hands.  He hoped they wouldn't kill the messenger on this one but the mainframe was already gone.  The virus didn't need to have power to destroy the files.  They were already contaminated.  His worst days at Microsoft were better than his best days at the Centre.

Denver Airport

Jarod was using his laptop to hack into the Denver Police files.  He read the report on his accident and agreed that it was just an accident.  The young men involved in the landslide had confessed after their backpacks were found on the hill.  In their fear and confusion they had forgotten been forgotten on the hillside.

Jarod also checked on the couple that had helped him.  He wanted to thank them in person.  The Police file indicated that they would be back home by this time.  He noted their address and phone number. 

Glancing at his watch, he did a quick check of the Centre before his flight to Seattle.  He quickly scanned a shadow file he had created.  It sounded like they were running around getting nowhere and that they had already discovered the virus in the Gemini files.

He smiled at their attempts to protect the mainframes.  The other Centre sites would be experiencing problems soon.  He wouldn't be able to use them for much longer.  It would take them a long time to discover that his virus was also attacking the administration files.  Financial records, Personnel records, and inventories.  His main concern was the contents of the Pretender labs.  He knew they had samples from him.  Samples that he wanted lost or destroyed.

The desk attendant announced his flight.  He shut down his laptop and stood. 

Seattle Washington

Jarod rented a two-door blazer while he was waiting for the luggage to come up.

He picked up his luggage and was on his way north. 

He turned onto the street where the couple lived.  He turned into the driveway and parked.  When he got out, a couple of horses trotted up to the fence.  They stood at the gate and nickered.

"Well hello there.  The official greeting committee?"

The horses nickered again.  They stood at the gate waiting expectantly.  The yellow colored horse stomped his foot and nickered again.

Jarod shrugged his shoulders and went to the front door.  He pushed the doorbell and waited.  No ring.  He knocked on the door.  He looked back at the yellow horse that was leaning as far over the gate as it could.

He heard footsteps and the door opened. 

"Since when do you knock?"  He heard as the door opened, followed by an embarrassed, "Oh!  I thought you were my sister.  I remember you.  You were in the Jeep accident when we were in Denver."

"Yes, I was in the area and wanted to thank you in person."

"Come in." 

Laurie led him into the hall and turned into a living room area.  Jarod noticed that Harry sat at a breakfast bar with his back to them.

"Harry, you will never guess who's here!"

"Gee, I don't know.  Judging by the blue blazer in the driveway…Oh, hello."

"Harry, you remember Jarod?  He was the one in the Jeep accident in Denver."

"Wow! You look a lot different!"

"Well Harry, his face is not all bloody and his eyes are not black and blue."

"Um yes.  What are you doing in Washington?"

Jarod smiled at their bantering conversation.  "I was in the area and thought I would stop by and thank you in person for helping me."

An Un-Named Island Base

Miss Parker wiggled her toes beneath the sand.  It was warm here.  She supposed some people would find it soothing to be in the sun, warm sand beneath your feet, sound of the surf.  Under other circumstances she would have too.

Right now she could only think of what was missing.  The person she wanted to be sitting beside her was the one man that made her whole.  An indignant squawk brought her attention back to the beach.  The little boy a few feet away from her lost his balance and plopped down on the sand.

They had stopped calling him baby Parker.  She had started to call him Jamie and the others had followed.  She was enjoying her time with him.  She wasn't used to babies but she had made a point of visiting him several times a day while he was in the Centre nursery.  She didn't want him to grow up with only that to remember.  Now he wouldn't have to ever remember the Centre.

Broots and Debbie were walking in their direction happily talking.  They were enjoying this mini vacation.  This was the most time they had gotten to spend with each other in years.  She had never seen Broots laugh or smile so much.

Sydney kept hovering and trying to 'shrink' her.  He was coming her way now.  He sat on a log behind her.  She tried to ignore him but he cleared his throat.

"Miss Parker?"

She turned her head and glared at him.  "Syd I don't want to talk about it."

"You can't hold it inside.  You must deal with it.  He may never try to contact us again. 

I always feared that if there were nothing at the Centre for him, he would just disappear."

He let the silence drag on for a moment then added, "I will miss him terribly.  I loved him as a son and I never told him.  He heard me tell Nicolas.  I knew he was hiding in the trees.  I was too afraid to tell him.  Afraid he would reject me.  I regret that with all of my heart.  Now I Fear never having the opportunity to tell him."

When she didn't respond he stood up and walked away to deal with his own guilt and sadness.

A tear rolled down her cheek.  "Oh Momma, where did it go so terribly wrong?  Where are the voices when I need them?"

Woodinville, Washington

Laurie peeked out the dutch doors of the kitchen and saw Jarod and Harry walking the back pasture.  She had no idea what they could be talking about for the two hours they had been wandering around out there.   She hoped it was the arena that she had wanted built back there.

Jarod and Harry were indeed talking about the arena.  They were having a very complicated conversation about weight bearing beams and spacing, northwest weather needs for stain and such.  There weren't too many people that could stick out a tech talk with Harry but Jarod was giving as good as he got and setting the pace.

When dinner was ready, Laurie disturbed their discussion on the value of chip to sand mix in the footing of the arena and insisted they come in.  They had sat down for dinner of crab casserole and Caesar salad where they resumed their conversation.  Laurie just smiled hoping that this meant that the arena would be built in this century.

Dessert was a coffee ice cream with chocolate liquor and fresh raspberries.  All of them talked into the night, Jarod being able to talk about anything with confidence.  They insisted he stay the night and he grabbed his bag from the blazer and settled in for the night.  He had enjoyed the day with the very normal, and interesting couple.  He told himself to make sure he dropped by here again on his next pass though this area.

Before turning out the lights he checked his email.  He was surprised when he had mail.  It was from Angelo.  He opened it and read a very short and cryptic note, "You need refuge.  You will find it in the keys."

Unnamed island

Miss Parker sat rocking Jamie and watching the seagulls.  Jamie had fallen asleep an hour ago but she didn't want to let him go.  It was very soothing to hold him as he slept.  To hear his baby breathes and sighs.

She looked up at the partial moon and glittering stars.  It made her and her problems feel small.  She had her time of happiness with Jarod.  It was even shorter than her happy times with her mother.  But she had the wonder of having them. 

She thought back to Lyle.  He had been taken from their mother and raised by uncaring people that obeyed all of Mr. Raines demands.  Lyle had not had the talks with mom, stories, hugs that she had gotten.  Jarod's recent days at the Centre would be the happy ones she would remember.  She was hurt and saddened by Jarod's abandonment but knew why he had left.   She wouldn't have left so quietly but she was safer now because he had left.

Sydney had tried again to comfort her.  She didn't want comforting.  She had gotten what she deserved and now had to live with it and try and make it right with Jamie.  And she would, if the Centre was out of the picture she had the rest of her life to make it better for Jamie.