Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1 for the usual precautionary statements.
Author's note: For all those who have read this far, thank you!! Believe it or not, there's more to come.
The things I do…
Chapter VI
By Callisto
The Centre
Blue Cove, DE
The assault on Lyle was brutal and swift. Fortunately for him, Alex knew how to deliver a professional style beating, inflicting the most pain without needlessly prolonging the ordeal. Jarod impassively listened to and briefly watched the pummeling Alex delivered. Due to the conditioning of his early upbringing at the extremely violent hands of his foster father, Lyle weathered the beating with a measure of detachment. Alex stepped back only slightly winded after satisfying himself that Lyle now had at least a couple broken ribs, bruised kidneys and was slightly concussed.
When the commotion subsided, Jarod walked over, squatted down next to the prone sociopath and whispered harshly, "By the time he's done with you, there won't be a bone in your body that isn't at least fractured. If you want the next round to be endurable, I suggest you answer my questions honestly and completely." Lyle's only response was his ragged breathing.
Glancing up at Alex, Jarod shook his head disgustedly. Lyle could see them from the corner of his eye and realized with a sinking heart that they weren't buying his overly wounded act. Lyle knew for certain they would continue. His only hope for survival was Jarod's squeamishness and moral turpitude. He was therefore quite surprised when it was Jarod who lifted his aching body roughly from the floor and stared into his face angrily.
"Where is she? And for your sake, she had better be alive and unharmed."
Jarod's demeanor caused Lyle to pause. It was obvious that he was prepared to continue the beating where Alex left off in order to find out where Parker was being held. The analytical part of his brain filed away the information that his beautiful twin managed to do to Jarod what the Centre found out belatedly it had failed to do—secure Jarod's emotional dependence and unflinching loyalty. Realizing it was imperative for him to speak, Lyle swallowed hard and replied, "Let me guess, you're asking about my sister. She's on sublevel 8. I brought her in unharmed, what Raines has done to her since, I have no control over."
Jarod shoved Lyle's battered body away from him, slamming the wounded man onto the floor. A shuttering groan escaped wetly from Lyle's lips. Alex was at the computer on the desk and was typing in a series of commands to bring up the surveillance cameras. He quickly accessed the system and immediately began scanning through the sub-level holding areas, searching for his twin. When he was unable to find her, Alex slammed his gloved palms forcefully on the desktop in frustration. Wondering in hazy confusion how Alex joined Jarod and Parker's little rebellion, Lyle knew instantly the meaning of Alex's non-verbal outburst and quickly offered up a suggestion.
"If she isn't on sub-level 8, then she was probably moved to the incentive suite. Raines does that whenever she cooperates with him," Lyle said between short painful breaths. The loose, wet sound of his own breathing told him that he had underestimated Alex's physical prowess.
The clattering of the keyboard started again and the room abruptly went silent. Lyle leaned his head back in defeat as he tried to marshal his quickly ebbing strength. After a few seconds it dawned on him that the room was too quiet and cracking open his eyes, Lyle was surprised to find his captors standing over him with a look of tortuous murder in their eyes.
"She has to be there. It's too early for any of her tests to start and Raines doesn't come out of his cave for at least another couple hours. I swear I don't know anything else. She was there last night when I checked up on her," Lyle conceded reluctantly.
"What kind of experiments has Raines been subjecting her to?" Alex asked in a calmly, almost friendly voice.
"From what I can gather, it's mostly cognitive evaluations. There is something else going on but I've been shut out. Without Broots, the computer techs are useless and no one apparently possesses his ability to unearth classified files." The stone expressions in both pretenders' eyes made Lyle's blood run cold. "Wait, before you do anything I might regret give me a chance to bargain for my life. I swear I don't know anything else about Parker's whereabouts but there is something else I know that may be of interest," he continued desperately.
"All I want is Parker," Jarod replied with quiet anger.
"What I want is your blood, smeared all over this office," Alex said with firm conviction.
"What about Raines? Don't you want a piece of him? It was his experiments, his twisted imagination that made us all what we are today. Wouldn't you like to pay him back for all those happy childhood memories?" Lyle asked with frantic craftiness, gratefully watching a wary spark of interest enter Jarod's eyes. He didn't bother looking at Alex. He knew that sick bastard could only concentrate on one thing at a time.
"There's a safe in his office. I know where it is but I'm no safe cracker," Lyle began, pointedly staring at Jarod. "In the safe are records and notes on all of Raines' past, present and future schemes. If she isn't in the incentive suite, than those files will probably tell you where he moved her or at least what he has planned for her."
The Center
Outer access road 5A
Once Ethan finished his story, Parker, her arms still folded against her chest, stared through the trees at the distant surf. Suddenly entranced by a bright beam of light reflecting off the water, Parker listened to the voices in her mind. Abruptly she turned to Angelo, startling him.
"Angelo, Jarod and Alex are taking too long coming out. They are probably wasting time looking for me. Will you go back through the vents and bring them here?" she asked gently.
Angelo looked confused for a few seconds and then his face cleared as though he fully understood what she meant. Offering a bright smile and reassuring nod, Angelo turned and scurried back to the Centre's vents.
"Don't you think we should follow him?" Ethan asked uncertainly.
"No. We would only slow him down. He has a map in his head of the vent system. No one knows the way better than he does and he's able to travel about without making any noise or getting caught."
"Jarod's been a mess for the past couple weeks. He's missed you a lot since we left to find his mother," Ethan commented quietly after a few seconds passed without a word being exchanged between them.
"How did the reunion go?" Parker asked avoiding Ethan's obvious question.
"As well as could be expected. They were all overwhelmed at being together again. That is until Jarod asked me where you were. It was around that time that Alex showed up in a rage that you had been taken."
"It's bizarre to even try to envision Alex and Jarod working together. Alex almost killed both me and Jarod. The Centre certainly makes strange bedfellows, especially among its enemies."
"I suppose so. But at least in this case, it's not so bizarre. There is a common denominator that links them as well as me," Ethan said calmly, still staring at his sister.
"Really? Something besides the Centre?" she asked curiously, finally turning to look directly in his face.
"Yes. You. Somehow within the last few months, you managed to become an emotional nucleus for all of us, including Alex," Ethan said with proud affection.
Ethan's smile widened at the look of incredulous surprise on his sister's face. "There isn't any use in denying it or trying to hide from it. None of us had to acknowledge it to the other. It was just there. You've become a very important to all of us in different ways. I just hope you didn't count on being alone for the rest of your life," Ethan said with a light chuckle.
Raines' office
The Centre
The entire office was in disarray. The massive Chairman's desk was missing most of its drawers, giving the illusion of knocked out teeth. On the wall next to the desk, an art deco picture had been impatiently tossed aside revealing a now open panel. The wall safe was opened and the thick, heavy portfolios that had been stashed inside two soft-sided leather briefcases were strewn on top of the desk. Jarod had glanced at a few of the pages looking for any references to Parker or his family. As his eyes continued to comb through the dense material a light tapping in the ceiling started. Jarod looked up to find Angelo peering at him from the open air vent grate. The savant offered a quick smile and beckoned his old friend to leave with him.
"Daughter safe, come now," he whispered urgently.
Abruptly, Jarod glanced at his watch and exchanged a doubtful expression with Alex. Jarod looked up about to question his old friend when Angelo shook his head firmly and waved again for him to enter the vent.
"Hurry now. No time to talk."
His trust of Angelo was well founded and the news of Parker's safety assisted him in abandoning his perusal of Raines' files for another time. Unwilling to let go of the treasure trove of secrets they had just found, Jarod began hastily shoving the paperwork in his knapsack. Alex watched unhappily as Jarod set about the time consuming task of stuffing the bulky paperwork in his backpack. Glancing at a barely conscious Lyle, who had been duct taped in Raines' high-backed executive chair, Alex delivered a few punishing blows to Lyle's already bruised body, then moved his chair to a strategic position in the room where the surveillance cameras only partially scanned. The feel of ribs giving way to his abuse seemed to appease him as he watched Lyle, drenched in sweat, slump over into full unconsciousness. Turning Alex saw Jarod's feet disappearing through the vent opening. Looking at a nearby sheaf of papers, he saw a name on one of the papers that made him pause. This was the information he had been looking for but was unable to unearth anything even with the assistance of Klouchi's security clearance. Alex grabbed the other bulging briefcase and stuffed it inside his backpack. He scattered a few typewritten pages that appeared to the table of contents across the surface of the desk, along with some internal paperwork from one of the drawers he poured a corrosive acid over the pages. A slim plume of smoke rose up as the acid began eating away anything in its path.
When he was done, Alex hurriedly slung the backpack across his body and then jumped at the vent opening. Fortunately, Angelo realized what he was about to do and caught him. Pulling Alex upwards to the vent with surprising strength, Angelo assisted him until he was able to complete the task himself. After Angelo secured the grate, Alex tapped his remote control, commanding the security cameras to return to their usual surveillance.
Outer access road 5A Blue Cove, DEAlmost 30 minutes later, Parker and Ethan heard footsteps in the adjoining forest and turning their attention to where Angelo had previously disappeared, Jarod and Alex emerged. Both men paused several feet away from their vehicle staring at the person they had risked their freedom to rescue. They stood like statues staring at her, until Parker slowly walked towards them. Before she had a chance to take too many steps, she found herself enveloped in a heartfelt embrace. Relishing the feel of being in his arms again, the loneliness she had been contending with for the past month made her hang on to him with equal passion.
Once she was free from his arms, she stepped away and stared at her lover with interest. He had lost weight and appeared careworn and emotionally spent. She stepped up to him again and pressed her body to his as though attempting to imbue him with a measure of her own strength. Jarod bowed his head and accepted her gesture wholeheartedly using the moment to allow his hands to take in as much of her as possible.
Alex watched his former nemesis embrace his newly acknowledged twin with a surprising confluence of emotions. His jealousy of Jarod seemed to have found a new lease on life as he watched his sister lovingly reward her would-be rescuer. On the surface, Alex shrugged imperceptibly and trudged towards the waiting SUV carrying his heavy backpack.
Within minutes all four adults were in the SUV and packed ready to go. Before Ethan could start the engine, Parker stopped him. "Where's Angelo?"
"He said this was his home and he could take care of himself," Jarod answered, staring with a small measurement of astonishment into Parker's obviously concerned face.
"No. I told him I wouldn't leave without him and I meant it," she said firmly as she swiftly alighted from the truck.
"Parker, wait," Jarod called out as he followed her from the vehicle. "We don't have a lot of time before the Centre realizes something's wrong. He said 'not to worry' that he would take care. Angelo understands what he's doing. This is the only place he knows, where he feels comfortable. If we take him with us, we'll be easy to track down because of the care he requires," Jarod reasoned quietly.
"You don't understand. He kept me going. He helped me keep focused on what I needed to do to get out. Without him, I don't know if I would have been able to keep myself together."
"I do understand. When I was locked up all those years, Angelo came whenever he could to keep me company. Despite the way he talks, he's a grown man who's perfectly capable of making sound decisions for himself. Give him that respect," Jarod asserted as gently as possible.
Parker stared into the forest for several more seconds before releasing a breath of acceptance. A small groan of frustration escaped from her as she turned abruptly and returned to the truck. Jarod sighed audibly as he followed his lover and the vehicle sped off. Angelo watched from outside the access grate, curious to see if she would return for him. He felt as though his heart would free itself from his chest when he saw her jump out and run towards him. Her mother was reestablishing her hold and influence on his friend's mind. The cloud of remorseful loyalty to her father and the Centre had finally lifted and released her. To him, she would no longer be thought of as Daughter but as Friend, like Jarod. Angelo reentered and secured the grate as he began the long trek back to his hiding place. He wondered how long it would take Son to find the DSA he had stuffed in his backpack.
Several hours later just as they were rolling up in a mall parking lot to change vehicles, Alex leaned over trying to spot a small bag he had stowed behind the driver's seat at Parker's feet. Parker seizing the opportunity quickly eased her arm around her twin's shoulders, gently pulled him towards her and buried her face in his soft hair. "Thank you. Ethan told me it was you shooting at Lyle and his minions in the alley." She then kissed his hair and released him.
Ethan glanced at his half-brother and found the other attempting to hide the pleased and deeply needy expression on his face. Ethan smiled as he parked the truck next to the cars they would use to reach their next destination. "Morwen, I think you should tell them what you told me about this rescue attempt," Ethan said with obvious amusement.
Turning to Jarod, she stared balefully at him, reminding him of her former persona. "You didn't trust me to know what I was doing? As you noticed, I didn't need any help getting out of the Centre, instead I had to wait for you and the other genius to finally come out. How exactly did you two big brains expect to get me out of the incentive suite Raines had caged me in?"
"We had a plan in place but as it turned out you had already left before we could implement it. This wasn't a point of not trusting you, we both are fully aware of the lengths both Raines and the Centre will go to get their captives to bend to their will, that thought alone drove us to act. Anyway I needed to talk to you, see you, hold you, etc," Jarod answered as he ran his fingers lightly through her hair.
Partially mollified, Parker decided to discuss this in more detail when she had a chance to be alone with him. They had plenty of catching up to do. "Where are we going, now? Back to Wisconsin?"
"No, we're going to Pennsylvania for a few days to make sure the Centre hasn't picked up on our trail," Ethan said as he fished the last of the bags out of the SUV and relocated it to a waiting car. After hugging her youngest brother and nodding with a smile of thanks at her twin, Parker and Jarod got into the second car and drove off.