Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1for the usual statements
The things I do…
Chapter IV
By Callisto
Jarod's lair
Green Lake, WI
Shortly after learning of Parker's capture, Jarod spent the remainder of the day and all of the next speaking to his mother exclusively. He asked her the questions about his birth, identity and capture which had been plaguing him most of his life. He included questions that came up during his brief stay on Carthis as well as doubts Alex had raised in his mind after he shot Mr. Parker. Margaret stared at her son solemnly, never questioning how he knew to ask these questions. She was relieved to finally share the secrets she had been forced to keep with her son. She answered as many questions as she could, pausing often to control her emotions—especially her guilt over losing her eldest child to an organization determined to bend him to their will.
The next day, Jarod spent picking Alex's brain about the technical details concerning the Centre and Triumvirate servers, he then sequestered himself in the barn loft for several days, never coming out or speaking to anyone except his new ally. Alex was surprisingly calm and industriously coordinated his and Jarod's ideas into a definitive course of action, while inhabiting the lower portion of the barn. He had returned to his old, amiable, scary self often mirroring Jarod by disappearing into the barn for most of the day and emerging only for an occasional snack.
The rest of Jarod's family were torn between their disbelieving happiness in finally being fully reunited and the pervasive guilt over the cost. Margaret viewed both Ethan and Emil with a mixture of horrified empathy and grim understanding. It wasn't a shock to her that the Centre had managed to create two more people to serve as their slaves and experiments. From what she could see, both were exceptional individuals in their own right, despite the attempts made to capitalize on their talents. Fortunately for Emil, Margaret was eagerly willing to accept him as her own son. The explanation concerning his name caused much amusement as Emily recounted Emil's thought process. She assured her mother that his choice of name was due in large part to his admiration of a certain famous French novelist and only partially because he wanted a closer connection to his sister.
Ethan mysteriously became more at ease over the loss of his sister; however, he too withdrew from the family but to a much lesser degree than Jarod. Ethan spoke to Alex as much as the other would allow and appeared intrigued by his half-brother. It was obvious that Ethan had received some valuable input from his voices but he refused to talk about it with anyone.
At the start of the second week of his sister's abduction, Alex's patience had run its course. He announced that he would be leaving for the Centre the following day, with or without Jarod. His declaration was greeted with disapproving silence. Major Charles rose from his place next to his wife on the couch and quietly excused himself. He left the house and strode purposely towards the barn, resolute on getting an answer from his son and to offer his assistance. He could understand Jarod's horror at losing the woman he loved but he wouldn't allow his son to continue to wallow in recriminations and descend completely into a mindset of vengeance.
Turning to Alex, Ethan looked at him and said in a quiet voice, "there's no need to rescue her yet, no one at the Centre will harm her," he explained incompletely.
"How do you know? The voices chiming reassuring tunes in your head? So far as I can see, they haven't helped her at all. I'm not taking any chances on Lyle playing nice because a few disembodied voices that only you can hear says so," Alex sneered cruelly.
Ethan stared at his half-brother emotionlessly, as though he already knew what Alex's reaction would be, further irritating the sociopath. Alex was about to verbally strike out again when a sudden miasmic feeling enveloped him, culminating in a rush of blinding, throbbing pain in his head. Gritting his teeth, Alex waited for this latest spell to pass. When he partially regained his equilibrium, Alex glanced at Ethan who continued to watch him impassively.
"I guess now I can understand your concern," Ethan replied as he took Alex by the arm and assisted him to a nearby chair. "Our mother was very gifted and passed her abilities on to all of us. Yours seems different than mine or Morwen's, how does it work?"
Margaret, Emil and Emily were watching Ethan and Alex with interest and had witnessed Alex's curious near-fainting spell. They sat quietly waiting to see if Alex would brush off the question or answer Ethan honestly. When Alex didn't immediately reply, Ethan continued, "the voices said that you were touched by our mother's abilities as much as I or Morwen. It helps sometimes to talk about it, to know you're not alone; Morwen realized that when she discovered her ability and started using it."
"I don't know anything from this so called 'inner sense'," Alex said disgustedly. "Sometimes I get overwhelmed with a rush of emotions that I know aren't my own. It's the reason why I always knew I had a connection with someone else. The things I feel don't always make any sense. It was sometime later, after I started working for the Triumvirate that I learned the truth of their origins. My Centre training helped keep the spells at bay, almost erasing them completely. Now they're coming back with a vengeance."
"Can you communicate with her? Have you ever tried?" Ethan asked excitedly.
"When I was a kid, I thought if I concentrated on a particular feeling that I could get the person projecting it to answer back but it never worked. I only feel what she's going through when the emotion is particularly strong and she's in the mood for sharing. Get that look off your face, I'm not a human cell phone," Alex snapped dismissively.
"Looking at a bright light, like a candle, helps me. Give it a try, maybe you can get through to her," Ethan insisted.
"This is ridiculous! All I know is that she needs out of there and I'm going to make sure it happens," Alex retorted as he started to rise.
Ethan stood above his brother, blocking him and demanded with equal determination. "Before you ride off into the sunset to rescue her, tell me what she was feeling. What did you sense from her?"
The change in Ethan's demeanor caused Alex to pause. There was a subtle hint of menace and violence shinning devilishly in his eyes. A small spark of respect touched Alex and instead of brushing his younger sibling aside, he answered him. "She's exhausted, bone tired and has a crushing headache. I've felt that way before, when they wanted me to create a complex sim, pretending to be both the target as well as the antagonist, anticipating numerous outcomes and ramifications as well as designing the operation. Whether you're used to it and especially if you're not, sims are exhausting mentally as well as physically. They're trying to use her like they used me and Jarod."
Backing off, Ethan considered Alex's analysis of their sister's situation, measuring it against what the voices were telling him. Reluctantly he had to agree with Alex that now was the time to act. Knowing his sister would need him; Ethan nodded absently to himself and resolved to go with Alex.
In the barn, the Major looked around dourly at the evidence of Alex's inhabitation. Climbing the ladder to the upper loft, the Major found Jarod staring at his laptop monitor unblinkingly. He walked over to his son and sat across from him. Jarod continued to ignore his father's presence as he started typing feverishly on the keyboard. After a few minutes, Jarod looked up at his father.
"It's been over a week since anyone in the family has seen you. We're all worried about you, son. Talk to me, what are you working on? If you have a plan to help Miss Parker, tell us. You know we'll help all we can or at least give you some moral support," the Major said struggling to control his emotions.
Deftly dividing his attention, Jarod answered his father. "Alex and I have been having lengthy discussions about the Centre and the best course of action to take. What he has been telling me has filled in some of the holes in my own understanding of the Centre. I always suspected their methods to be brutal, but this is beyond anything even I could have imagined. What it all boils down to is this: there isn't much you can do to help us. Alex and I will help each other for now since our goals are the same. We both want Parker back and we want the Centre out of our lives permanently . Alex still wants to bring it down; I want to build the life I was denied with Parker." His voice cracked softly since he hadn't used it most of the day.
"What are you doing with the computer?"
"I've developed a backup plan to in case we aren't successful. If we are, this will be the icing on the cake," Jarod answered with a ghost of a smile.
"Alex just announced he is leaving for the Centre tomorrow, are you going with him?"
"Yes. I want Parker back with me, where she belongs. This will be the last time the Centre takes anyone away from me," Jarod replied as his focus shifted to another thought going through his mind.
"I know I sound like a broken record but if you thought I didn't trust Parker before, I trust her twin even less. Whatever you do, we need a contingency plan just in case things don't go the way you expect. We need to know if something has gone wrong immediately, rather than biting our nails wondering what has happened to you."
"I understand why you feel that way. However, Alex has the lead on this; his tactics are more immediate than mine. I've already implemented my strategy but its effects are more long term and will be more destructively effective. I'm just about finished here. I'll come up with a plan we can all agree on to keep in touch so you don't worry."
"When you go, try to keep your own guilt over this situation in check. Ethan explained what happened to us, she did this for you. All couples have arguments, don't let that cloud your judgment."
Staring at his father, Jarod realized Ethan had kept to himself that his and Parker's argument had been contrived. The fact that he had genuinely affronted her still niggled at Jarod's heart.
The Centre
Blue Cove, DE
Lyle lounged in his office chair and considered his options. His newest project had proven his value to both his new father as well as the Triumvirate. Innovation had always held an interest for him and implementing a strategy to breathe life in an abandoned plan was almost fun. Glancing at his notes, Lyle knew this project would be a thumping success and would hopefully buy his way out of the Centre and return him to his rightful place in Africa. The only regret in his mind was that his lovely twin would not be there with him to envy and wonder at his glorious return. Currently, his sister was performing well under Raines' special brand of pressure which caused him some concerns. Raines was still running tests and administering study sims to find out Parker's strengths as a pretender. At first her test scores were average but when Raines started with the threats to actively use a sweeper team to ferret out Broots and Sydney's whereabouts, her performance improved dramatically, so much so as to cause Raines to temporarily reward her by allowing her to return to the more comfortable rooms Jarod had once used.
What concerned Lyle was the fact that his sister was performing far better than even Raines had anticipated. Still she wasn't on a level with Jarod but one of the hopeful psychiatrists, during a monthly assessment meeting with the Tower, let it slip that had she been trained from childhood she might have been a viable back up for Jarod. The psychiatrist was eager to be assigned to a talented pretender and Parker was shaping up as a likely candidate who possessed untold depths of potential. Lyle had taken those tests only 5 years ago at the behest of the Triumvirate, shortly before his fall from grace. His scores were just above average, indicating that while he wasn't a genius, he wasn't in any way an intellectual slouch either. This introduced a bevy of ideas to his mind, mainly that perhaps he had been told yet another lie and Parker wasn't his twin sister after all. Or that the damage he had suffered at Mr. Lyle's hands when he was a child had affected him in more ways than one.
He wanted to talk to Parker once again but all access to her had been strictly prohibited except for Raines and the one proctor/psychologist who was a Sydney type clone. Lyle had been quick to notice the subtle flicker of disgust that sparked in Raines' eye when he asked for some quality time alone with his sister. That evil, duplicitous old man had taken his request the wrong way, just as Lyle had wanted. He decided there wasn't anything he could do but wait until Parker clashed with their mother's murderer causing him to return her to the stark cells in retaliation. Perhaps then to get her to cooperate, Raines would then allow Lyle his audience with her. If she had the right answers to his questions, then maybe he would extend an offer she would find difficult to refuse: half control of the Centre, a bifurcation of leadership and power which would lead the Centre in a whole new and prosperous direction.