Balancing The Scales - Part 5
by MMB
"Yes?" Miss Parker glanced up from her paperwork to see who it was that was knocking on the glass door of her office, then waved Sydney in. "What's up?" she asked while she looked back down at the form she had been reading and signed her name. When he didn't answer her question quickly, she glanced back up at him. "Sydney?" she inquired at the sight of his tense face.
"There's been." He stopped, not wanting to say much with the cameras recording every word. His face smoothed visibly, but Miss Parker knew that such a worried face took a lot of effort to erase. "I was wondering if you and Davy might like to come over to my house for supper tonight," he modified quickly. "I meant to ask you in the car this morning, and I was so involved in thinking about my latest research project that I entirely forgot to mention it."
She nodded. She'd heard the hesitation in his voice and understood his reticence. "At least you're learning to wait until Friday nights to invite us over, Grandpa," she commented with a fond smile on her face and worry in her eyes. "That way Davy doesn't have to be in bed so soon, and can spend some quality time with you." She rose and came over to him and smoothed a hand against his upper arm. "You're looking tired, Syd," she spoke very softly. "You're not letting planning out those twins studies keep you up late nights, are you?"
"Not at all," he hedged, reading between the lines of her actions and words. "I just watched something last night that came about as close to giving me nightmares as anything has in a while." He smiled gently at her and brushed a quick kiss against her cheek. "Don't you worry about me so much." He turned to leave, then twisted back to look at her again over his shoulder halfway through the door. "Oh, and I invited the Broots too. Tell Davy to bring over that new game of his. I know I may be no competition for him, but Broots or Debbie might give him a run for his money."
Miss Parker smiled at him, a smile that didn't make it as far as her eyes this time either. "I'll tell him. Maybe we can get a game of Trivial Pursuit going tonight for a change?"
"That sounds like a good idea," Sydney nodded. "Seven?"
"Want me to bring anything?"
"Just an appetite - and maybe dessert. A friend of mine made a rolled beef roast for me the other night that makes the most delicious sandwiches." Sydney hated talking in double-entendre. He had grown rusty at it in the months and years since the hunt for Jarod had been suspended, and didn't appreciate having to brush up those skills again. "Broots is bringing salad."
"Gotcha. See you tonight, then." Miss Parker watched her old friend slip back out of her office and drew her hair through her fingers and away from her face. She could tell that the stress of the planning and waiting were beginning to wear on him - hell, she corrected herself, it was beginning to wear on all of them. But her relationship with Sydney was special, and it deserved special handling to protect it. She decided that when she saw him that evening, she'd make arrangements for Jarod to watch Davy while the two of them took one of their frequent evenings out together. Jarod's coming had disrupted that schedule of regular outings - something she would remedy tonight.
The more things stayed the same, the less indication they gave that something was going on.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jarod stared at his computer screen with a frown bent between his brows. There was no record of a Kevin in any respect that would have Raines interested to the extent the DSA had indicated. Seven Kevins were listed on the Centre employment rolls - two in Clerical, one as sweeper, one medical doctor, two as janitorial and one security guard - none of whom had any regular contact with anybody from the Tower.
Lyle had said "projects we've been giving Kevin lately." That was the way his work as a Pretender doing sims had been described in some circles. So Sydney was right; Kevin must be a Pretender - and one that WASN'T anywhere in Centre records. Jarod shook his head in disbelief. No - it was impossible that there was no record. After all, Raines had ordered Lyle to destroy the records of this Kevin's activities - so obviously they existed SOMEWHERE.
So where to look - before Lyle accomplished his assigned task and deleted all reference to Kevin's existence?
He began by first logging in as a regular IT sysop to check who was online already, so as not to run the risk of detection by logging in as someone already in the system. With the Centre on alert, precautions previously superfluous were now essential. Then Jarod typed in a couple of high-level passwords, including one he'd 'borrowed' from Mr. Raines' own system nearly eight years earlier. He'd never actually used that one before, preferring to save it for a case of extreme need. This was such a situation - there was no need to send up any red flags about unauthorized high-level access to the sensitive inner workings of the Centre; and going in under Raines' ID and password was one sure way to avoid detection.
With a few more knowledgeable keystrokes he accessed the Centre's collective financial records, brought up the general ledger and then zeroed in on accounts receivable. Raines had mentioned that the Centre had, of late, been selling sims to Japan - so unless the money from those sales were going into a private account that didn't benefit the Centre as a whole, a record of the payments would be here. somewhere.
Each payment entered in the ledger had been crossposted to individual receivable accounts. Jarod limited his investigation to just the last two months' worth of income, then began to cross-reference project names listed on the individual receivable account ledger page with current projects listed as active elsewhere. Within fifteen minutes of cross-referencing, Jarod was beginning to be able to eliminate unlikely account numbers and project names, and had accessed the accounts payable to double-check his nebulous theory. Within an hour he'd shut down his connection to the Centre mainframe and brought back up the files he'd saved to his hard drive for closer scrutiny. He was impressed.
The subterfuge used to hide the information from casual detection had been exceedingly clever. Raines had hired efficiency experts - at least, on paper - nearly ten years earlier. These so-called 'efficiency experts' had worked all this time without being paid at all - not a single paycheck or payment check had been cut ever - funding for them had simply been re- routed from unrelated and virtually unscrutinized petty cash accounts on a roughly rotating basis. What HAD emerged from these experts had been regular reports, filed with Raines' office. Buried and encrypted within each and every one of those reports had been progress reports on a project named Shadow.
Once he had a name to search for, he'd used his log-in AS Raines himself to access Raines' own terminal in his office - and taken copies of the files pertaining to Shadow directly from the source. Shadow was Kevin - and had been an on-going under-the-table project, from all indications, for well over eighteen years. Jarod found computerized copies of the intake forms on an eight-year-old male, much the same as those Jarod had found for Raines' previous attempt to steal the boy Davy ten years earlier. But Kevin had never been put through the entire intake process. Again, petty cash accounts had been tapped to supply funding for the upkeep of one well- secured house in up-state New York as well as the stipend paid to a Dr. Vernon Grey - whom Jarod suspected was Kevin's mentor.
Then there were the transcripts of sims subsequently sold to the Tanaka organization - among others, Jarod wasn't surprised to discover - where Kevin simmed out optimal situations to avoid law enforcement entanglements for everything from drug trafficking to prostitution and political influence-peddling. There were even the transcripts of a number of sims run for Raines himself, where Kevin pointed out various scenarios and techniques to keep Centre activities out from under Triumverate scrutiny. Jarod smiled to himself grimly as he read through one of those - this fortuitous discovery was likely to cause no small amount of damage in and of itself.
There was no longer a chance that this would end up nothing but tilting at windmills. The evidence which, if presented to the proper people in law enforcement would implicate not only Raines and Lyle in the Centre but Triumverate dignitaries in scandalously unethical activities, was irrefutable and explosive. It was just as well that there was going to be a dinner meeting of what Jarod had come to think of as 'the Committee'. The time was approaching when the vulnerable would need to be sent to safety, and then careful leaks into Triumverate ears could start.
Jarod saved his work and then closed down his computer with a tired sigh. He had a rolled beef roast to slice into sandwich makings and the au jus to put together for the evening's entre. Cooking and kitchen work would give him time to think things through yet again, to see if there were any new holes or weaknesses to their collective plans.
Time was growing short.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sam looked up towards the air conditioning vent when heard a soft knocking on the metal grate, but he didn't jump as he had the last time. As he watched, the grate opened just slightly and the very edge of red Centre- related file folders began to extend just into view. The sweeper turned his head quickly, then breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the little red light on the surveillance camera wasn't lit. It had been one thing for Angelo to drop a little silver disc on his desk - having surveillance capture the image of a full-sized hard-copy file folder or two or three falling from the air vent would have been damning.
He stood, bent over his desk and stretched out his hand so that the folders wouldn't tumble to his desk and spill their contents into a jumbled and disorganized mess. "What's this?"
"Sam have all he needs now," Angelo whispered as he pulled the grate closed again. "Everything there."
"Angelo." Sam began with a slight frown. "Sydney and. well, they both are very worried about what was on the DSA - and Miss Parker will probably be frantic when she finds out. Sydney wanted me to ask you if you're the one who Raines and Lyle were talking - are you the hacker?"
The brilliant blue eyes glinted through the holes in the grate. "Angelo not in computers anymore," the empath managed in his slow, halting way. "Angelo help, but Angelo not the one."
"Do you know who the hacker is?" Sam asked quickly and even more softly, looking at his office door quickly and making sure that it was closed as well. No need for voices to travel where they weren't needed to go.
Those blue eyes sparkled mischievously, and Sam wondered, not for the first time lately, how anybody could have missed the obvious intelligence and wit within them. "Angelo know. Angelo help."
"They know about him," the sweeper began.
"Diversion," was Angelo's only response, and then Sam could hear the empath moving away from the vent - go off wherever it was that he went within the walls that he called 'home'.
"Shit!" Sam sat down heavily and quickly after shoving the incriminating folders into his briefcase and snapping it shut at his feet again before the surveillance could be reactivated. Jarod was right - Angelo WAS a loose cannon; and while he was obviously doing his part to contribute to the set-up of what was to come, the inability of any of them to direct or control his activities constituted a serious hazard all would have to keep in mind. What was more, there was now no doubt that there was an unnamed player - an even looser cannon than Angelo - complicating an already impossible situation.
With a mind that no longer really wanted to attend to the kind of paperwork Miss Parker had him doing at the moment, he nevertheless arranged himself in much the same posture and attitude that he had been in before Angelo's brief visit. It was important to preserve the illusion of continuity for when the camera came back to life. Besides, it was late in the day already. Quitting time was only a quarter-hour away.
He'd be glad to get the Hell away from the Centre today - that was for sure.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sydney opened the front door and swung Davy up into his arms for a quick hug before the lad was squirming to get down again. "Your father's in the kitchen," the older man informed the boy, then watched indulgently as the dark-haired child trotted off toward the back of the house. "And you're early," he continued, turning back to dispense yet another hug, this time to the dark-haired woman with one arm laden with plastic grocery sacks.
"I wanted a chance to talk to you before the whole gang got here," Miss Parker stated as she leaned into Sydney for a moment before pulling back. "But I need to get this dessert in the freezer before it melts first. I figure Davy will be set with Jarod for a while, and you and I can have a little uninterrupted."
"Anything wrong?" Sydney frowned at her as she too moved toward the back of the house.
"Not really. Just wanting to make sure things stay that way," she quipped mysteriously and then vanished through the kitchen door.
Sydney widened his eyes and blinked, then turned and headed for the living room, where he had been in the process of laying a fire in the fireplace. He and Jarod had decided that it would be he that informed her of the plans Raines and Lyle had been making before any of the rest of 'the Committee' arrived - that giving her the space and freedom to explode without a larger audience might be a wise move. Twisting newspaper into the kind of kindling needed to give the fire a healthy start was a good way to work off his nervousness at having to upset her yet again.
"We won't need that for a while," her voice informed him from the archway. "It was a nice day today, if you hadn't noticed."
"I had, of a fashion," he admitted, straightening. He opened his arms to her, and with a slight wrinkle of concern, Miss Parker stepped toward him again and let him hold her again.
"Sydney?" she asked softly, her voice no longer hiding her concern. She wrapped an arm loosely around his waist and held him back. "What is it?"
She felt him take a deep breath, then loose his hold on her. "Sit down, Parker," he said, commandeering a hand and pulling her with him toward the couch.
"Sydney! You're scaring me." Her voice had grown tight, even though she had allowed him to park her in a comfortable seat. "What's going on?"
"Remember I told you I had seen something that would probably give me nightmares?" he asked in response. When she nodded, he nodded back. "I wasn't fooling, Parker. Angelo gave Sam another DSA yesterday, and Sam brought it over here so that Jarod and I could see what it was about."
"And."
Sydney took another deep breath; there was no easy way to broach the topic, and so simply stating the truth was the only option open to him. "It was a discussion between Raines and Lyle, recorded earlier yesterday. They're going to try it again, Parker."
She frowned. "Try what?"
"For another hybrid Pretender." He reached for a hand, anticipating the moment when her mind could wrap itself around what his words implied.
He could tell when that moment arrived, for her eyes widened and grew very dark, and her head tipped as she looked at him in horrified disbelief. "Syd. No."
He brought his other hand up so that he had a very secure hold on her while he chafed her hand. "They were talking about having brought in some homeless women from New York City, who are having any harmful drug problems cleansed from their systems so that one of them can serve as surrogate. They called it 'Project Redux'," he finished, his voice tight with sarcasm.
"You're. you're sure?" She had grown quite pale.
"They made mention of not needing either you or Jarod for at least this last try," he said softly, wishing there were some way to soften the blow. "And Lyle spoke of being in the process of getting the Tanakas to help finance and house the project once things got fully in motion."
Miss Parker turned her head toward the archway, through which the sounds of Davy's delighted interaction with Jarod could be heard at a distance. "Tommy would get a big kick outta doing something like this," she mused aloud. "I always had the impression that Daddy. Mr. Parker. was never UNhappy that Tommy and I were having." she paused, then modified herself with a guilty glance at Sydney's face, ".were involved. I think there were some intents back then of aligning with the Yakuza. I think I was part of the deal." She took a deep, disappointed breath. "Like I was a cut of meat."
"Parker." Sydney pulled on the hand that he held until she tipped into his shoulder.
She settled onto his shoulder and tucked her face into his neck, never more glad that she had this kind of relationship with him. "I'll be OK," she sighed with a hitch in her voice. "I'm glad you told me this way, though." She felt his arm go around her and a gentle hand begin to rub her back slowly and soothingly. "No wonder you looked so tired today. Here and I was thinking that the stress of all the waiting and planning was starting to get to you - and I was thinking about getting Jarod to watch Davy so you and I could have a relaxing evening, maybe go to the Chuckle Hut for a change."
"I'm not going to be much in the mood for the Chuckle Hut for a while," he shook his head, then bent slightly and kissed her forehead. "But I appreciate your concern - maybe when this is."
".all over. I know." she finished for him. "What was Jarod's reaction?"
Sydney gave a soft snort. "Disgust, anger - although he hides his upset better than you do when it comes to this. He was concerned about your reaction too."
"I'm not that fragile anymore, Syd," Miss Parker straightened and sat up, not entirely moving out of his hold. "I can't afford to be right now. But I tell you." and her grey eyes began to glint with a hard inner glow, ".they better not have gone any further with these plans when we bring things down around them."
"What if they have, Parker?" Sydney's question was soft but inescapable. "Jarod seems to think that we're almost to the point of sending the kids away - but that doesn't mean that Raines or Lyle won't push ahead with Redux. What will you do."
The hard glint died, leaving the grey hauntingly vulnerable. "I'll take care of the woman, see that she has the best possible medical care, and then I'll raise my other child with Davy." She shrugged with an air of resignation. "What other choice would I have?"
"I just wanted to make sure you'd thought it all the way through," he stated gently as he tucked a dark tendril of hair back safely behind an ear for her. "And whatever you ultimately decided, I would support your decision."
She tipped forward again and rested against his shoulder again, grateful when his arm wrapped around her again. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Sydney," she said softly. "I lean on you so often now - I don't know what I did before."
"You leaned then too," he responded dryly. "You just went about it in a very inefficient manner - and would only accept my support on your terms." He would have said more, but at that moment, the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of another of the parties to the evening's meal and meeting. "Come on. I'll get the door - you go make sure that the table is set for seven."
"Sam's coming too?"
"Yeah," Sydney said as he rose and stretched out a hand to help her to her feet. "If things are getting down to the wire, he needs to be in on the final plans."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
For the first time since finding out he had a son, Jarod felt twinges of jealousy and knew at the same time that he had no basis for them, considering the circumstances. Davy had been elated to discover that Sam had been included in the meal plans, and had greeted the hulking ex- wrestler with nearly the same level of enthusiasm and fondness that he had lately showered on his newly-discovered father. What was more, Jarod had watched as the stoic and standoffish sweeper's face had softened and split into a wide grin that was as delighted as it was demonstrative while interacting with the boy.
Here was part of the life in Blue Cove that he'd not expected either - the fact that Sam had served as another father-figure to his son for years along with Broots. The near-wrestling moves that Davy used with the man showed that Sam had been quietly training the boy in self-defense for a very long time, something he himself had yet to have considered necessary. There was a sense of repartee between them that was still under development between father and son, as much because Jarod didn't have the experience in father-son relationships that Sam obviously did. The Pretender raised his eyes and saw Sydney watching him with a look of understanding, and Jarod suddenly appreciated that Sydney had probably had much the same kinds of feelings toward him - not to mention what his emotions might have been in regard to Mr. Parker for all those years.
Then the Broots' had arrived, and Jarod was finally able to appreciate in full the boisterous and healthy family cohesiveness that had evolved between these very familiar people in his absence. In many ways, it made him a bit homesick - and for the first time that day, he wondered how big his little nephew must be getting now. It had been a week since his last call home to check up with Ethan on his languishing practice and his mother's health, as well as to fill him in on the progress that had been made. The more recent news had yet to be delivered - and Jarod had been waiting until he knew the results of this evening's planning session before he would call again.
But before he had a chance to become completely withdrawn into the role of outside spectator, Davy had come looking, caught him by the hand and dragged him off and into a quick round of video competition with both Broots and Sam. The fierce competition was suspended so the family could gather around the fully expanded dining table - at which seven people was approaching the comfort limit - and then continued after the meal while Debbie and Miss Parker took care of clean-up duties.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It was late, and Lyle was tired. He had spent the better part of the latter afternoon in Records, systematically collecting the folders holding the documentation that Raines wanted destroyed immediately. Now here it was, well into the dinner hour, and he had yet to leave the Centre. Instead, he was standing in front of the incinerator in his shirt sleeves, sweating, going through each folder as he fed it to the flames so that he would, in the morning, be able to report that he had personally seen to the destruction of these papers personally.
The job was tedious. There were seventeen years worth of falsified efficiency reports to go through and feed page by page into the hot fire, reports that had imbedded in them the progress reports generated by Dr. Grey and the team that had overseen Shadow's training and subsequent work. There were seventeen years worth of sims that Shadow had run - some of which had been sold as Jarod's work in years gone by, but the latter twelve years worth had been simply sold unattributed to the highest bidder. In the last six years, the bulk of those sims had been aimed at streamlining and protecting Yakuza drug operations and shipping to ports on both sides of the continent.
Lyle wiped the sweat from his brow. The uncomfortable heat was merely a counterpoint to his ire at having to do this at all. No doubt his direct superior was at home enjoying a decent meal and relaxing before bedtime - without casting a single thought to the time it would take the younger Parker to carry out his record-cleaning orders. With a grunt of frustration, Lyle flipped the next red folder into the flames virtually unread, choosing not to personally scan 1998's sim records and sales receipts. All that was left now were the few hard-copy Redux files that had been generated in the last four months, and he could go home.
He flipped open the first file - and found himself staring down at a blank piece of printer paper. Stunned and with shaking fingers, he leafed through the entire folder and found not one piece of printed material. He set the folder aside and reached for the next, and found the same disturbing lack. Seven thick folders had held the sum of the work that had been put into Redux - from viability reports on the remaining embryos in cryo-stasis to contract negotiations with Tommy Tanaka to cost estimates on insemination procedures, pregnancy housing and monitoring, delivery and then housing and training the hybrid Pretender virtually from birth - and all were gone.
Lyle felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. Security hadn't reported any unusual activity in Records that would account for the amount of time it would have taken for all of these files to have been found scattered under various headings and categories, much less removed and replaced with blank paper. At least, no Security report had crossed his desk in that regard, and he knew that Miss Parker ran a pretty tight ship when it came to Internal Security matters. His shoulder still ached from his last run- in with her.
So who. and when. and how?
Lyle shuddered despite the heat and quickly tossed the folders with the blank papers into the flames of the incinerator and slammed the metal door shut again. He could honestly say that he'd collected all the folders from Records and destroyed them personally. He just wouldn't let his boss know that the most important - the most damning - of the data had been compromised, and compromised from within the Centre itself.
The Tanakas were going to be furious at being cut out of Redux and all the potential profit it offered them. And Raines would be furious at the new evidence of a serious security breach.
Lyle grabbed his suit jacket from where he'd tossed it across the cart with cases of other documents scheduled for destruction the next morning and headed off down the hallway as fast as he could. Something was telling him that perhaps the time was rapidly approaching when a disassociation from the Raines hierarchy of authority might be in his best interests.
Who could he go to? Who would want the kind of services he could offer?
Who could protect him?
Lyle punched the button for the elevator with a sense of near-panic. He'd scan the DSAs for Records in the morning, but was fairly certain that finding any anomalies in the visual surveillance of the vast room would be like finding a needle in a skyscraper-sized haystack. He'd tell Raines he'd done as he was asked - and that would placate the old ghoul for a while.
Hopefully that would give him the time he'd need to get an escape plan put together that could be set in motion at a moment's notice. Something told him he'd need it - and soon.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Six people stared down at the dining table, now covered with documents, stunned by what they'd just read.
"Angelo brought you all of this?" Miss Parker managed finally, grateful once more that Syd had taken her aside before the meal to prepare her for what was coming.
"This evening, just before I came here," Sam nodded. "He said this was all of it."
"It's enough of it, that's for sure!" Broots leaned back in his chair and cradled his mug of tea against his chest.
"Well, we wanted a smoking gun," Jarod commented as he sat forward and rubbed his hand in his beard thoughtfully. "And between this and what I downloaded this afternoon, I think we have everything we need."
Sydney's eyes began to sparkle. "You found Kevin!"
The Pretender nodded, a grim but satisfied smile on his face. "Buried in one of the last places Raines or Lyle would think about cleansing: Accounts Receivable. Once I had the project name, I simply followed the money straight into Raines' own computer terminal and copied everything he had saved. I know where Kevin is housed, who is taking care of him, what kind of work he's been used for - everything. Raines may have ordered Lyle to destroy the hard-copies, but I have the computer files those hard-copies came from."
"Oh, man!" Broots grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Just keeping another Pretender will piss the Triumverate off no end!"
"You should see some of the sims Kevin ran that were aimed directly at creating disinformation to be fed TO the Triumverate to keep them from finding out about all the underhanded projects he was working on," Jarod shook his head. "Like I said, I think we have enough. The questions we need to tackle now are, number one, is it time to send Debbie and Davy and the others off; and number two, what will be the best way to feed this information to the Triumverate so that it will act on it in a timely manner."
"Uncle Jarod, can I say something?" Debbie's voice spoke up in the pause that followed.
"Deb," Broots frowned, and his voice sounded a warning.
"Wait a minute, Broots. Let her have her say," Jarod countered, holding up a hand. "After all, we've been working at implementing her basic idea for weeks now - certainly she's earned the right to have her opinions heard." He nodded at the young lady. "Go ahead, Deb. What is it?"
Debbie swallowed and looked at each of the faces gazing at her expectantly. "I know many of you know what I'm going to say - and I know that all of you I've spoken to already have given me an argument - but I'm going to say it again. I don't want to be sent off into exile - to what you consider safety. But I think I've finally figured out a more appropriate reason for staying that you might find more acceptable: I think removing Davy and me from the picture jeopardizes the entire plan too much."
Miss Parker blinked. "What do you mean, jeopardizes the plan?"
"Well, for one thing, your not having Davy around will be noticed, especially since Raines and Lyle have always had the hots to get their hands on him since you got custody. Besides, I've babysat for him, remember? When he's not in school, and even on afternoons after school when he is, you call him nearly every day." Debbie's expression grew intense. "If we have to assume that Raines and Lyle still have your phone tapped, then how are you going to manufacture an answer to your regular check-up calls to Davy? And what if you don't make them at all? Won't that raise eyebrows now too?"
Jarod looked across the table at Parker. "She's got a point," he had to admit.
"You were going to send me with the kids and Angelo," Sam spoke up finally. "If Debbie's right, then wouldn't my not being at work everyday cause comment too? I don't take any more vacations than you do, Miss Parker."
"See what I mean?" Debbie pushed her advantage as much as she dared.
"What if Sydney took the kids up to White Cloud instead?" Miss Parker asked suddenly as the thought occurred to her. "It wouldn't cause comment because it's happened before. We could still get Angelo out of the Centre, because Angelo's presence IN the Centre is such a nebulous detail to begin with. That Angelo would be going with them to White Cloud, then, would just not be known outside this room." She glanced over at the older psychiatrist fondly. "Besides, it would get you out of harm's way too."
"Parker," Sydney frowned, "I don't WANT to be out of harm's way. When things start to come down on Raines and Lyle, we want to have our 'plausible deniability' unquestionable - and if inconsistency draws attention, as Debbie has pointed out."
"But when things start coming down for Raines and Lyle, there's no good reason for you to STAY in harm's way, Syd," she protested back.
"Now you understand how I'VE been feeling about being sent away," Debbie leaned and commented quite pointedly to Sydney in a dry stage whisper. "No fun, is it?" The psychiatrist shot her a sharp look overshadowed by frustration.
"Can it, you guys! Jarod, what are you thinking?" Broots interrupted the squabble when the tech saw that Jarod had leaned back in his chair, steepled his fingers and was now staring off into space.
The others fell silent and turned their gazes to the Pretender too. Jarod took his time considering the points that everyone had made and a few of his own, following each option to its logical conclusion. "Parker's right," he announced finally, sitting forward again. "Sydney should take the kids and Angelo to White Cloud for the weekend, and take Sam with him." He held up a hand as Sydney opened his mouth to protest. "Part of your participation in all of this has been to provide an atmosphere of constancy lately. You've been at work, as has Broots and Miss Parker and Sam. Debbie has continued to plan her move off to college. Nothing, save my living in your house, has changed at all. Your taking the kids for a weekend at the cabin would not be out of the norm, would it?"
"No, but."
"That's just it, though. Not being out of the norm, getting the kids out of harm's way would cause no comment at all - and would be happening right out in the open. Sam, I take it you've had your share of outings up there with everybody too, right?" The sweeper nodded. "There, then. Again, nothing that hasn't happened before to cause comment - it happens out in the open, which in and of itself will be reason to not cause comment; and it takes care of getting the innocent out of the way the way we wanted in the first place."
Broots ran his hand over his bald pate. "So you're saying we put things in motion now, so that everything starts to fall apart on or about Friday?"
Jarod nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying." He looked over at Sydney and Miss Parker. "You two could prepare the stage a bit - have lunch together in the cafeteria and discuss Sydney's 'outing' with Debbie and Davy as if you were just planning it. If I know the Centre grapevine, word will spread so that when Syd DOES take off with the kids, like we say, it won't cause comment. You could even discuss the reasons why you would be including Sam in this." He smirked in the sweeper's direction. "Maybe to give Debbie some self-defense pointers before she leaves for college?"
"The three of us could have lunch, and I could bring that up as a concern," Broots nodded, finding the plan quite feasible.
"Alright - that takes care of the kids and Angelo. What about this, though?" Miss Parker's index finger pointed sharply at the details of the de-tox process being undergone by the kidnapped homeless women.
"If we move now and use all this information to get Raines and Lyle taken care of properly, then we can just let these women go back to New York before any further harm is done to them. And maybe by going through de- tox, some good might actually come of their experience after all," Jarod answered kindly. "And if everything goes as we hope, you won't have to worry about raising anybody but just Davy."
"So," Broots sighed, feeling the issue of getting the kids to safety had found a compromise solution, "how do we bring the Triumverate into this without tipping our hand?"
Jarod's eyes began to sparkle. "I've had a couple of ideas about that. Lemme run them past you, and see what you think."
Feedback, please: mbumpus_99@hotmail.com
"Yes?" Miss Parker glanced up from her paperwork to see who it was that was knocking on the glass door of her office, then waved Sydney in. "What's up?" she asked while she looked back down at the form she had been reading and signed her name. When he didn't answer her question quickly, she glanced back up at him. "Sydney?" she inquired at the sight of his tense face.
"There's been." He stopped, not wanting to say much with the cameras recording every word. His face smoothed visibly, but Miss Parker knew that such a worried face took a lot of effort to erase. "I was wondering if you and Davy might like to come over to my house for supper tonight," he modified quickly. "I meant to ask you in the car this morning, and I was so involved in thinking about my latest research project that I entirely forgot to mention it."
She nodded. She'd heard the hesitation in his voice and understood his reticence. "At least you're learning to wait until Friday nights to invite us over, Grandpa," she commented with a fond smile on her face and worry in her eyes. "That way Davy doesn't have to be in bed so soon, and can spend some quality time with you." She rose and came over to him and smoothed a hand against his upper arm. "You're looking tired, Syd," she spoke very softly. "You're not letting planning out those twins studies keep you up late nights, are you?"
"Not at all," he hedged, reading between the lines of her actions and words. "I just watched something last night that came about as close to giving me nightmares as anything has in a while." He smiled gently at her and brushed a quick kiss against her cheek. "Don't you worry about me so much." He turned to leave, then twisted back to look at her again over his shoulder halfway through the door. "Oh, and I invited the Broots too. Tell Davy to bring over that new game of his. I know I may be no competition for him, but Broots or Debbie might give him a run for his money."
Miss Parker smiled at him, a smile that didn't make it as far as her eyes this time either. "I'll tell him. Maybe we can get a game of Trivial Pursuit going tonight for a change?"
"That sounds like a good idea," Sydney nodded. "Seven?"
"Want me to bring anything?"
"Just an appetite - and maybe dessert. A friend of mine made a rolled beef roast for me the other night that makes the most delicious sandwiches." Sydney hated talking in double-entendre. He had grown rusty at it in the months and years since the hunt for Jarod had been suspended, and didn't appreciate having to brush up those skills again. "Broots is bringing salad."
"Gotcha. See you tonight, then." Miss Parker watched her old friend slip back out of her office and drew her hair through her fingers and away from her face. She could tell that the stress of the planning and waiting were beginning to wear on him - hell, she corrected herself, it was beginning to wear on all of them. But her relationship with Sydney was special, and it deserved special handling to protect it. She decided that when she saw him that evening, she'd make arrangements for Jarod to watch Davy while the two of them took one of their frequent evenings out together. Jarod's coming had disrupted that schedule of regular outings - something she would remedy tonight.
The more things stayed the same, the less indication they gave that something was going on.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jarod stared at his computer screen with a frown bent between his brows. There was no record of a Kevin in any respect that would have Raines interested to the extent the DSA had indicated. Seven Kevins were listed on the Centre employment rolls - two in Clerical, one as sweeper, one medical doctor, two as janitorial and one security guard - none of whom had any regular contact with anybody from the Tower.
Lyle had said "projects we've been giving Kevin lately." That was the way his work as a Pretender doing sims had been described in some circles. So Sydney was right; Kevin must be a Pretender - and one that WASN'T anywhere in Centre records. Jarod shook his head in disbelief. No - it was impossible that there was no record. After all, Raines had ordered Lyle to destroy the records of this Kevin's activities - so obviously they existed SOMEWHERE.
So where to look - before Lyle accomplished his assigned task and deleted all reference to Kevin's existence?
He began by first logging in as a regular IT sysop to check who was online already, so as not to run the risk of detection by logging in as someone already in the system. With the Centre on alert, precautions previously superfluous were now essential. Then Jarod typed in a couple of high-level passwords, including one he'd 'borrowed' from Mr. Raines' own system nearly eight years earlier. He'd never actually used that one before, preferring to save it for a case of extreme need. This was such a situation - there was no need to send up any red flags about unauthorized high-level access to the sensitive inner workings of the Centre; and going in under Raines' ID and password was one sure way to avoid detection.
With a few more knowledgeable keystrokes he accessed the Centre's collective financial records, brought up the general ledger and then zeroed in on accounts receivable. Raines had mentioned that the Centre had, of late, been selling sims to Japan - so unless the money from those sales were going into a private account that didn't benefit the Centre as a whole, a record of the payments would be here. somewhere.
Each payment entered in the ledger had been crossposted to individual receivable accounts. Jarod limited his investigation to just the last two months' worth of income, then began to cross-reference project names listed on the individual receivable account ledger page with current projects listed as active elsewhere. Within fifteen minutes of cross-referencing, Jarod was beginning to be able to eliminate unlikely account numbers and project names, and had accessed the accounts payable to double-check his nebulous theory. Within an hour he'd shut down his connection to the Centre mainframe and brought back up the files he'd saved to his hard drive for closer scrutiny. He was impressed.
The subterfuge used to hide the information from casual detection had been exceedingly clever. Raines had hired efficiency experts - at least, on paper - nearly ten years earlier. These so-called 'efficiency experts' had worked all this time without being paid at all - not a single paycheck or payment check had been cut ever - funding for them had simply been re- routed from unrelated and virtually unscrutinized petty cash accounts on a roughly rotating basis. What HAD emerged from these experts had been regular reports, filed with Raines' office. Buried and encrypted within each and every one of those reports had been progress reports on a project named Shadow.
Once he had a name to search for, he'd used his log-in AS Raines himself to access Raines' own terminal in his office - and taken copies of the files pertaining to Shadow directly from the source. Shadow was Kevin - and had been an on-going under-the-table project, from all indications, for well over eighteen years. Jarod found computerized copies of the intake forms on an eight-year-old male, much the same as those Jarod had found for Raines' previous attempt to steal the boy Davy ten years earlier. But Kevin had never been put through the entire intake process. Again, petty cash accounts had been tapped to supply funding for the upkeep of one well- secured house in up-state New York as well as the stipend paid to a Dr. Vernon Grey - whom Jarod suspected was Kevin's mentor.
Then there were the transcripts of sims subsequently sold to the Tanaka organization - among others, Jarod wasn't surprised to discover - where Kevin simmed out optimal situations to avoid law enforcement entanglements for everything from drug trafficking to prostitution and political influence-peddling. There were even the transcripts of a number of sims run for Raines himself, where Kevin pointed out various scenarios and techniques to keep Centre activities out from under Triumverate scrutiny. Jarod smiled to himself grimly as he read through one of those - this fortuitous discovery was likely to cause no small amount of damage in and of itself.
There was no longer a chance that this would end up nothing but tilting at windmills. The evidence which, if presented to the proper people in law enforcement would implicate not only Raines and Lyle in the Centre but Triumverate dignitaries in scandalously unethical activities, was irrefutable and explosive. It was just as well that there was going to be a dinner meeting of what Jarod had come to think of as 'the Committee'. The time was approaching when the vulnerable would need to be sent to safety, and then careful leaks into Triumverate ears could start.
Jarod saved his work and then closed down his computer with a tired sigh. He had a rolled beef roast to slice into sandwich makings and the au jus to put together for the evening's entre. Cooking and kitchen work would give him time to think things through yet again, to see if there were any new holes or weaknesses to their collective plans.
Time was growing short.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sam looked up towards the air conditioning vent when heard a soft knocking on the metal grate, but he didn't jump as he had the last time. As he watched, the grate opened just slightly and the very edge of red Centre- related file folders began to extend just into view. The sweeper turned his head quickly, then breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the little red light on the surveillance camera wasn't lit. It had been one thing for Angelo to drop a little silver disc on his desk - having surveillance capture the image of a full-sized hard-copy file folder or two or three falling from the air vent would have been damning.
He stood, bent over his desk and stretched out his hand so that the folders wouldn't tumble to his desk and spill their contents into a jumbled and disorganized mess. "What's this?"
"Sam have all he needs now," Angelo whispered as he pulled the grate closed again. "Everything there."
"Angelo." Sam began with a slight frown. "Sydney and. well, they both are very worried about what was on the DSA - and Miss Parker will probably be frantic when she finds out. Sydney wanted me to ask you if you're the one who Raines and Lyle were talking - are you the hacker?"
The brilliant blue eyes glinted through the holes in the grate. "Angelo not in computers anymore," the empath managed in his slow, halting way. "Angelo help, but Angelo not the one."
"Do you know who the hacker is?" Sam asked quickly and even more softly, looking at his office door quickly and making sure that it was closed as well. No need for voices to travel where they weren't needed to go.
Those blue eyes sparkled mischievously, and Sam wondered, not for the first time lately, how anybody could have missed the obvious intelligence and wit within them. "Angelo know. Angelo help."
"They know about him," the sweeper began.
"Diversion," was Angelo's only response, and then Sam could hear the empath moving away from the vent - go off wherever it was that he went within the walls that he called 'home'.
"Shit!" Sam sat down heavily and quickly after shoving the incriminating folders into his briefcase and snapping it shut at his feet again before the surveillance could be reactivated. Jarod was right - Angelo WAS a loose cannon; and while he was obviously doing his part to contribute to the set-up of what was to come, the inability of any of them to direct or control his activities constituted a serious hazard all would have to keep in mind. What was more, there was now no doubt that there was an unnamed player - an even looser cannon than Angelo - complicating an already impossible situation.
With a mind that no longer really wanted to attend to the kind of paperwork Miss Parker had him doing at the moment, he nevertheless arranged himself in much the same posture and attitude that he had been in before Angelo's brief visit. It was important to preserve the illusion of continuity for when the camera came back to life. Besides, it was late in the day already. Quitting time was only a quarter-hour away.
He'd be glad to get the Hell away from the Centre today - that was for sure.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sydney opened the front door and swung Davy up into his arms for a quick hug before the lad was squirming to get down again. "Your father's in the kitchen," the older man informed the boy, then watched indulgently as the dark-haired child trotted off toward the back of the house. "And you're early," he continued, turning back to dispense yet another hug, this time to the dark-haired woman with one arm laden with plastic grocery sacks.
"I wanted a chance to talk to you before the whole gang got here," Miss Parker stated as she leaned into Sydney for a moment before pulling back. "But I need to get this dessert in the freezer before it melts first. I figure Davy will be set with Jarod for a while, and you and I can have a little uninterrupted."
"Anything wrong?" Sydney frowned at her as she too moved toward the back of the house.
"Not really. Just wanting to make sure things stay that way," she quipped mysteriously and then vanished through the kitchen door.
Sydney widened his eyes and blinked, then turned and headed for the living room, where he had been in the process of laying a fire in the fireplace. He and Jarod had decided that it would be he that informed her of the plans Raines and Lyle had been making before any of the rest of 'the Committee' arrived - that giving her the space and freedom to explode without a larger audience might be a wise move. Twisting newspaper into the kind of kindling needed to give the fire a healthy start was a good way to work off his nervousness at having to upset her yet again.
"We won't need that for a while," her voice informed him from the archway. "It was a nice day today, if you hadn't noticed."
"I had, of a fashion," he admitted, straightening. He opened his arms to her, and with a slight wrinkle of concern, Miss Parker stepped toward him again and let him hold her again.
"Sydney?" she asked softly, her voice no longer hiding her concern. She wrapped an arm loosely around his waist and held him back. "What is it?"
She felt him take a deep breath, then loose his hold on her. "Sit down, Parker," he said, commandeering a hand and pulling her with him toward the couch.
"Sydney! You're scaring me." Her voice had grown tight, even though she had allowed him to park her in a comfortable seat. "What's going on?"
"Remember I told you I had seen something that would probably give me nightmares?" he asked in response. When she nodded, he nodded back. "I wasn't fooling, Parker. Angelo gave Sam another DSA yesterday, and Sam brought it over here so that Jarod and I could see what it was about."
"And."
Sydney took another deep breath; there was no easy way to broach the topic, and so simply stating the truth was the only option open to him. "It was a discussion between Raines and Lyle, recorded earlier yesterday. They're going to try it again, Parker."
She frowned. "Try what?"
"For another hybrid Pretender." He reached for a hand, anticipating the moment when her mind could wrap itself around what his words implied.
He could tell when that moment arrived, for her eyes widened and grew very dark, and her head tipped as she looked at him in horrified disbelief. "Syd. No."
He brought his other hand up so that he had a very secure hold on her while he chafed her hand. "They were talking about having brought in some homeless women from New York City, who are having any harmful drug problems cleansed from their systems so that one of them can serve as surrogate. They called it 'Project Redux'," he finished, his voice tight with sarcasm.
"You're. you're sure?" She had grown quite pale.
"They made mention of not needing either you or Jarod for at least this last try," he said softly, wishing there were some way to soften the blow. "And Lyle spoke of being in the process of getting the Tanakas to help finance and house the project once things got fully in motion."
Miss Parker turned her head toward the archway, through which the sounds of Davy's delighted interaction with Jarod could be heard at a distance. "Tommy would get a big kick outta doing something like this," she mused aloud. "I always had the impression that Daddy. Mr. Parker. was never UNhappy that Tommy and I were having." she paused, then modified herself with a guilty glance at Sydney's face, ".were involved. I think there were some intents back then of aligning with the Yakuza. I think I was part of the deal." She took a deep, disappointed breath. "Like I was a cut of meat."
"Parker." Sydney pulled on the hand that he held until she tipped into his shoulder.
She settled onto his shoulder and tucked her face into his neck, never more glad that she had this kind of relationship with him. "I'll be OK," she sighed with a hitch in her voice. "I'm glad you told me this way, though." She felt his arm go around her and a gentle hand begin to rub her back slowly and soothingly. "No wonder you looked so tired today. Here and I was thinking that the stress of all the waiting and planning was starting to get to you - and I was thinking about getting Jarod to watch Davy so you and I could have a relaxing evening, maybe go to the Chuckle Hut for a change."
"I'm not going to be much in the mood for the Chuckle Hut for a while," he shook his head, then bent slightly and kissed her forehead. "But I appreciate your concern - maybe when this is."
".all over. I know." she finished for him. "What was Jarod's reaction?"
Sydney gave a soft snort. "Disgust, anger - although he hides his upset better than you do when it comes to this. He was concerned about your reaction too."
"I'm not that fragile anymore, Syd," Miss Parker straightened and sat up, not entirely moving out of his hold. "I can't afford to be right now. But I tell you." and her grey eyes began to glint with a hard inner glow, ".they better not have gone any further with these plans when we bring things down around them."
"What if they have, Parker?" Sydney's question was soft but inescapable. "Jarod seems to think that we're almost to the point of sending the kids away - but that doesn't mean that Raines or Lyle won't push ahead with Redux. What will you do."
The hard glint died, leaving the grey hauntingly vulnerable. "I'll take care of the woman, see that she has the best possible medical care, and then I'll raise my other child with Davy." She shrugged with an air of resignation. "What other choice would I have?"
"I just wanted to make sure you'd thought it all the way through," he stated gently as he tucked a dark tendril of hair back safely behind an ear for her. "And whatever you ultimately decided, I would support your decision."
She tipped forward again and rested against his shoulder again, grateful when his arm wrapped around her again. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Sydney," she said softly. "I lean on you so often now - I don't know what I did before."
"You leaned then too," he responded dryly. "You just went about it in a very inefficient manner - and would only accept my support on your terms." He would have said more, but at that moment, the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of another of the parties to the evening's meal and meeting. "Come on. I'll get the door - you go make sure that the table is set for seven."
"Sam's coming too?"
"Yeah," Sydney said as he rose and stretched out a hand to help her to her feet. "If things are getting down to the wire, he needs to be in on the final plans."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
For the first time since finding out he had a son, Jarod felt twinges of jealousy and knew at the same time that he had no basis for them, considering the circumstances. Davy had been elated to discover that Sam had been included in the meal plans, and had greeted the hulking ex- wrestler with nearly the same level of enthusiasm and fondness that he had lately showered on his newly-discovered father. What was more, Jarod had watched as the stoic and standoffish sweeper's face had softened and split into a wide grin that was as delighted as it was demonstrative while interacting with the boy.
Here was part of the life in Blue Cove that he'd not expected either - the fact that Sam had served as another father-figure to his son for years along with Broots. The near-wrestling moves that Davy used with the man showed that Sam had been quietly training the boy in self-defense for a very long time, something he himself had yet to have considered necessary. There was a sense of repartee between them that was still under development between father and son, as much because Jarod didn't have the experience in father-son relationships that Sam obviously did. The Pretender raised his eyes and saw Sydney watching him with a look of understanding, and Jarod suddenly appreciated that Sydney had probably had much the same kinds of feelings toward him - not to mention what his emotions might have been in regard to Mr. Parker for all those years.
Then the Broots' had arrived, and Jarod was finally able to appreciate in full the boisterous and healthy family cohesiveness that had evolved between these very familiar people in his absence. In many ways, it made him a bit homesick - and for the first time that day, he wondered how big his little nephew must be getting now. It had been a week since his last call home to check up with Ethan on his languishing practice and his mother's health, as well as to fill him in on the progress that had been made. The more recent news had yet to be delivered - and Jarod had been waiting until he knew the results of this evening's planning session before he would call again.
But before he had a chance to become completely withdrawn into the role of outside spectator, Davy had come looking, caught him by the hand and dragged him off and into a quick round of video competition with both Broots and Sam. The fierce competition was suspended so the family could gather around the fully expanded dining table - at which seven people was approaching the comfort limit - and then continued after the meal while Debbie and Miss Parker took care of clean-up duties.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It was late, and Lyle was tired. He had spent the better part of the latter afternoon in Records, systematically collecting the folders holding the documentation that Raines wanted destroyed immediately. Now here it was, well into the dinner hour, and he had yet to leave the Centre. Instead, he was standing in front of the incinerator in his shirt sleeves, sweating, going through each folder as he fed it to the flames so that he would, in the morning, be able to report that he had personally seen to the destruction of these papers personally.
The job was tedious. There were seventeen years worth of falsified efficiency reports to go through and feed page by page into the hot fire, reports that had imbedded in them the progress reports generated by Dr. Grey and the team that had overseen Shadow's training and subsequent work. There were seventeen years worth of sims that Shadow had run - some of which had been sold as Jarod's work in years gone by, but the latter twelve years worth had been simply sold unattributed to the highest bidder. In the last six years, the bulk of those sims had been aimed at streamlining and protecting Yakuza drug operations and shipping to ports on both sides of the continent.
Lyle wiped the sweat from his brow. The uncomfortable heat was merely a counterpoint to his ire at having to do this at all. No doubt his direct superior was at home enjoying a decent meal and relaxing before bedtime - without casting a single thought to the time it would take the younger Parker to carry out his record-cleaning orders. With a grunt of frustration, Lyle flipped the next red folder into the flames virtually unread, choosing not to personally scan 1998's sim records and sales receipts. All that was left now were the few hard-copy Redux files that had been generated in the last four months, and he could go home.
He flipped open the first file - and found himself staring down at a blank piece of printer paper. Stunned and with shaking fingers, he leafed through the entire folder and found not one piece of printed material. He set the folder aside and reached for the next, and found the same disturbing lack. Seven thick folders had held the sum of the work that had been put into Redux - from viability reports on the remaining embryos in cryo-stasis to contract negotiations with Tommy Tanaka to cost estimates on insemination procedures, pregnancy housing and monitoring, delivery and then housing and training the hybrid Pretender virtually from birth - and all were gone.
Lyle felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. Security hadn't reported any unusual activity in Records that would account for the amount of time it would have taken for all of these files to have been found scattered under various headings and categories, much less removed and replaced with blank paper. At least, no Security report had crossed his desk in that regard, and he knew that Miss Parker ran a pretty tight ship when it came to Internal Security matters. His shoulder still ached from his last run- in with her.
So who. and when. and how?
Lyle shuddered despite the heat and quickly tossed the folders with the blank papers into the flames of the incinerator and slammed the metal door shut again. He could honestly say that he'd collected all the folders from Records and destroyed them personally. He just wouldn't let his boss know that the most important - the most damning - of the data had been compromised, and compromised from within the Centre itself.
The Tanakas were going to be furious at being cut out of Redux and all the potential profit it offered them. And Raines would be furious at the new evidence of a serious security breach.
Lyle grabbed his suit jacket from where he'd tossed it across the cart with cases of other documents scheduled for destruction the next morning and headed off down the hallway as fast as he could. Something was telling him that perhaps the time was rapidly approaching when a disassociation from the Raines hierarchy of authority might be in his best interests.
Who could he go to? Who would want the kind of services he could offer?
Who could protect him?
Lyle punched the button for the elevator with a sense of near-panic. He'd scan the DSAs for Records in the morning, but was fairly certain that finding any anomalies in the visual surveillance of the vast room would be like finding a needle in a skyscraper-sized haystack. He'd tell Raines he'd done as he was asked - and that would placate the old ghoul for a while.
Hopefully that would give him the time he'd need to get an escape plan put together that could be set in motion at a moment's notice. Something told him he'd need it - and soon.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Six people stared down at the dining table, now covered with documents, stunned by what they'd just read.
"Angelo brought you all of this?" Miss Parker managed finally, grateful once more that Syd had taken her aside before the meal to prepare her for what was coming.
"This evening, just before I came here," Sam nodded. "He said this was all of it."
"It's enough of it, that's for sure!" Broots leaned back in his chair and cradled his mug of tea against his chest.
"Well, we wanted a smoking gun," Jarod commented as he sat forward and rubbed his hand in his beard thoughtfully. "And between this and what I downloaded this afternoon, I think we have everything we need."
Sydney's eyes began to sparkle. "You found Kevin!"
The Pretender nodded, a grim but satisfied smile on his face. "Buried in one of the last places Raines or Lyle would think about cleansing: Accounts Receivable. Once I had the project name, I simply followed the money straight into Raines' own computer terminal and copied everything he had saved. I know where Kevin is housed, who is taking care of him, what kind of work he's been used for - everything. Raines may have ordered Lyle to destroy the hard-copies, but I have the computer files those hard-copies came from."
"Oh, man!" Broots grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Just keeping another Pretender will piss the Triumverate off no end!"
"You should see some of the sims Kevin ran that were aimed directly at creating disinformation to be fed TO the Triumverate to keep them from finding out about all the underhanded projects he was working on," Jarod shook his head. "Like I said, I think we have enough. The questions we need to tackle now are, number one, is it time to send Debbie and Davy and the others off; and number two, what will be the best way to feed this information to the Triumverate so that it will act on it in a timely manner."
"Uncle Jarod, can I say something?" Debbie's voice spoke up in the pause that followed.
"Deb," Broots frowned, and his voice sounded a warning.
"Wait a minute, Broots. Let her have her say," Jarod countered, holding up a hand. "After all, we've been working at implementing her basic idea for weeks now - certainly she's earned the right to have her opinions heard." He nodded at the young lady. "Go ahead, Deb. What is it?"
Debbie swallowed and looked at each of the faces gazing at her expectantly. "I know many of you know what I'm going to say - and I know that all of you I've spoken to already have given me an argument - but I'm going to say it again. I don't want to be sent off into exile - to what you consider safety. But I think I've finally figured out a more appropriate reason for staying that you might find more acceptable: I think removing Davy and me from the picture jeopardizes the entire plan too much."
Miss Parker blinked. "What do you mean, jeopardizes the plan?"
"Well, for one thing, your not having Davy around will be noticed, especially since Raines and Lyle have always had the hots to get their hands on him since you got custody. Besides, I've babysat for him, remember? When he's not in school, and even on afternoons after school when he is, you call him nearly every day." Debbie's expression grew intense. "If we have to assume that Raines and Lyle still have your phone tapped, then how are you going to manufacture an answer to your regular check-up calls to Davy? And what if you don't make them at all? Won't that raise eyebrows now too?"
Jarod looked across the table at Parker. "She's got a point," he had to admit.
"You were going to send me with the kids and Angelo," Sam spoke up finally. "If Debbie's right, then wouldn't my not being at work everyday cause comment too? I don't take any more vacations than you do, Miss Parker."
"See what I mean?" Debbie pushed her advantage as much as she dared.
"What if Sydney took the kids up to White Cloud instead?" Miss Parker asked suddenly as the thought occurred to her. "It wouldn't cause comment because it's happened before. We could still get Angelo out of the Centre, because Angelo's presence IN the Centre is such a nebulous detail to begin with. That Angelo would be going with them to White Cloud, then, would just not be known outside this room." She glanced over at the older psychiatrist fondly. "Besides, it would get you out of harm's way too."
"Parker," Sydney frowned, "I don't WANT to be out of harm's way. When things start to come down on Raines and Lyle, we want to have our 'plausible deniability' unquestionable - and if inconsistency draws attention, as Debbie has pointed out."
"But when things start coming down for Raines and Lyle, there's no good reason for you to STAY in harm's way, Syd," she protested back.
"Now you understand how I'VE been feeling about being sent away," Debbie leaned and commented quite pointedly to Sydney in a dry stage whisper. "No fun, is it?" The psychiatrist shot her a sharp look overshadowed by frustration.
"Can it, you guys! Jarod, what are you thinking?" Broots interrupted the squabble when the tech saw that Jarod had leaned back in his chair, steepled his fingers and was now staring off into space.
The others fell silent and turned their gazes to the Pretender too. Jarod took his time considering the points that everyone had made and a few of his own, following each option to its logical conclusion. "Parker's right," he announced finally, sitting forward again. "Sydney should take the kids and Angelo to White Cloud for the weekend, and take Sam with him." He held up a hand as Sydney opened his mouth to protest. "Part of your participation in all of this has been to provide an atmosphere of constancy lately. You've been at work, as has Broots and Miss Parker and Sam. Debbie has continued to plan her move off to college. Nothing, save my living in your house, has changed at all. Your taking the kids for a weekend at the cabin would not be out of the norm, would it?"
"No, but."
"That's just it, though. Not being out of the norm, getting the kids out of harm's way would cause no comment at all - and would be happening right out in the open. Sam, I take it you've had your share of outings up there with everybody too, right?" The sweeper nodded. "There, then. Again, nothing that hasn't happened before to cause comment - it happens out in the open, which in and of itself will be reason to not cause comment; and it takes care of getting the innocent out of the way the way we wanted in the first place."
Broots ran his hand over his bald pate. "So you're saying we put things in motion now, so that everything starts to fall apart on or about Friday?"
Jarod nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying." He looked over at Sydney and Miss Parker. "You two could prepare the stage a bit - have lunch together in the cafeteria and discuss Sydney's 'outing' with Debbie and Davy as if you were just planning it. If I know the Centre grapevine, word will spread so that when Syd DOES take off with the kids, like we say, it won't cause comment. You could even discuss the reasons why you would be including Sam in this." He smirked in the sweeper's direction. "Maybe to give Debbie some self-defense pointers before she leaves for college?"
"The three of us could have lunch, and I could bring that up as a concern," Broots nodded, finding the plan quite feasible.
"Alright - that takes care of the kids and Angelo. What about this, though?" Miss Parker's index finger pointed sharply at the details of the de-tox process being undergone by the kidnapped homeless women.
"If we move now and use all this information to get Raines and Lyle taken care of properly, then we can just let these women go back to New York before any further harm is done to them. And maybe by going through de- tox, some good might actually come of their experience after all," Jarod answered kindly. "And if everything goes as we hope, you won't have to worry about raising anybody but just Davy."
"So," Broots sighed, feeling the issue of getting the kids to safety had found a compromise solution, "how do we bring the Triumverate into this without tipping our hand?"
Jarod's eyes began to sparkle. "I've had a couple of ideas about that. Lemme run them past you, and see what you think."
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