Unexplained

Chapter Two

Information

Los Angeles, California

Sydney and Jarod waited patiently for the bars to lift. She walked ahead of Jarod, stopping in front of the plexiglass. A wide smirk fell into place as Sark saw her. He slowly made his way to Sydney and hardly noticed the man behind her. Jarod looked over Sark's face for any sign of recognition, but there seemed to be no problem. Afterall, Jarod had only met Andrew Raines one other time, when they were children. "Mr. Sark, we have been searching for Sloane since we found my father captured by him. We can't locate him and we need your aid. If you do help us, we will be able to make it worth your while."

Sark slowly scanned Sydney suggestively. "Oh?"

"We'll keep you from getting the death penalty." She replied, put out. Jarod chuckled, thinking that their relationship sparked a memory of one of his. Ah, Miss Parker. Sark's eyes reminded him so much of the Ice Queen. They were cobalt blue, though his weren't nearly as stunning as hers. Of course, he was slightly biased on this one. Sark finally focused his attention on Jarod.

"Do I know you?"

"I don't believe so, Mr. Sark."

"He's new, Sark, so don't start tormenting him."

Sark tilted his head, studying Jarod.

"What's his name?"

"There's no reason for you to know that. Now tell me about Sloane..."

"I'm Jarod Masters."

"Jarod...Okay. You remind me of someone."

"I get that a lot."

"All right, if this little exchange is done, I'd like to know what you think of my offer, Sark."

Sark turned away from the two and stopped in front of the steel plank.

"I really don't know. I mean, the death penalty hardly seems worse than being stuck in this delightfully small cell for the rest of my life."

"If that's the way you want it."

Sydney started to stride away from Sark, but Jarod remained.

He whispered quietly, "You've never been able to control what you were doing."

Sark's head whipped up and met Jarod's gaze.

"What?"

"I would take this deal. There's no reason for you to be put to death for what you've done. You had no way to stop yourself."

Sark narrowed his eyes. "How would you know that? I'm a cold-hearted psychopathic murderer."

"You're nothing compared to some people I knew."

Sark fell quiet as he watched the new agent curiously.

"Sydney?"

She stopped and whirled around.

"Yeah?"

"I'll take the deal. I'll need some paper, a pen or pencil, and the exact time to give you some of the information."

"The exact time? Why would you need that?"

"Trust me."

She snorted. "Mhm. I'll see what I can do about getting you the paper."

"Time's ticking."

She rolled her eyes at her nemesis and nodded towards Jarod to get him to follow her. Jarod could feel Sark's eyes watching him as they made their way out of the corridor and he started to worry that maybe he'd let too much out too soon.

Blue Cove, Delaware

Broots tapped the keys to the keyboard quietly in Mr. Raines' office. He cursed his current job wondering what on earth had made him apply for it. He scanned over the files in the hard drive and came up empty. The only thing left was to search his desk. Broots opened the drawers and found nothing except paper, pencils, a few disks with nothing important on them and one locked drawer. So, Broots, becoming quite the expert at picking locks, started immediately. A red folder lay in the center of the drawer named Christmas. He opened it and found nothing except a sheet of paper that read Andrew Raines-successful. Broots realized he was grinning like an idiot and tried to remove the smile from his face. It vanished quite quickly as he heard voices, Lyle and Raines, coming towards the plush office. Broots groaned quietly before squeezing himself into the space between the desk. Raines was talking to Lyle, "I'll need you to go to Nairobi. Sloane is there and I need you to go to make sure everything is set up correctly. I've word that the parachute my brother jumped in was found on the shore of Madagaskar, but he was no where to be found, nor were the scrolls."

"Yes, sir."

"The jet is ready, but whatever you do, don't tell Miss Parker about this. I'll have enough trouble as it is getting her to Nairobi, and I've got to get Jarod and these scrolls. If I don't, Arvin may decide that it doesn't matter I introduced him to Rambaldi. He'll simply kill me."

"I'm on my way, Dad."

Raines grabbed one of the files off of his desk and the two walked out of the office. Broots sighed in relief before scrambling out from the under the desk.

*Rambaldi? Nairobi? Sloane? Andrew Raines?* He had to get to Miss Parker. And soon!

Miss Parker picked up the picture of herself and her father, correction Uncle, from her desk. She missed him. Even though he'd never quite been the Daddy of the Year, he'd always taken care of her. Raines had told her they were searching for his body but had turned up empty. A sliver of hope ran through her when he'd informed her. Why? She wasn't sure. She was snapped out of her reverie when Broots tumbled in the door. She quickly replaced the frame to it's proper place on the desk.

"You aren't going to believe what I just overheard."

"Broots, this is the Centre. I'll believe just about anything."

She sounded tired. In truth, she was exhausted. She simply didn't have time to be tired. Broots bent over her desk. "I found a project called Christmas. All it said was Andrew Raines-successful. I don't know who Andrew Raines was or what exactly was successfuly, but that's what it said. I'll look more up about Christmas, but I don't want to raise any flags."

"I thought you said you overheard something."

"I did. Mr. Raines and Mr. Lyle. Mr. Raines sent Mr. Lyle to go make sure something was set up in Nairobi with a Mr. Sloane. And you aren't supposed to know. According to Mr. Raines, it's going to be hard enough to get you there."

"To Nairobi?"

"Yes."

"I haven't even heard of going out of the country."

"They're still looking for the scrolls and your father. Apparently they found the parachute but not Mr. Parker or the scrolls."

Miss Parker nodded, digesting all the information Broots had just handed her.

"I'm thinking I should pay a visit to my darling brother."

"He's already gone."

"Okay. You keep looking for this Project Christmas business and I'm going to go talk to Ethan. I feel like I need to talk to him. Maybe he can help."

"All right."

"Broots, be careful."

"I always am."

Broots sent her a timid smile and left her behind.