Chapter Five

Authors Note: In this chapter, Miss Parker happens to bag Star Wars. It's Miss Parker, not me OK? I happen to quite like the movies. Don't hurt me.

Parker was wary as she drove to work the next day. She fully expected to discover that the Centre had disappeared in the night. She was almost disappointed to find that everything seemed to be normal. Entering the building she stalked to the elevators and rode one down to the sub-levels.

As the doors dinged open her sweeper Sam intercepted her. 'Good morning Miss Parker,' He greeted her solemnly. 'What do you want?' she growled.

'There is a new addition to your team.' He said, managing to not put one iota of emotion into any of the words. Parker didn't say a word, just raised an eyebrow, indicating to Sam that he should lead on.

They entered the room where Broots, Sydney and Parker normally tracked Jarod. The other two members of the trio were already there, looking bewildered. Parker almost didn't notice the third person in the room but when she did she was struck speechless for the first time in her life.

Sam spoke into the resounding silence; 'Miss Parker, this is Jarod. He's from the Centre's division in England.

'Nice to meet you, Miss Parker,' Jarod said politely, doing a very believable English accent. He extended his hand to shake whilst his eyes spoke volumes. He was hugely enjoying her confusion.

'All right! What is going on?' She demanded, not taking Jarod's hand. Sam looked at her surprised. 'What do you mean Miss Parker?'

'What is he doing here?'

'The Centre just hired him. The triumvirate was getting worried that you might not be doing your job as you should be. He's here to help you lot do what ever it is you're supposed to be doing' said Sam in confusion, not understanding Parker's reaction. Mistaking her confusion for anger at the Centre meddling with her team. He shrugged then gave a nod to the three other men and left the room.

'What are you playing at Wonder boy?' snarled Parker, turning on the ginning pretender.

'Like he said, the Centre just hired me. They were very impressed with my credentials.' Said Jarod mildly, keeping his English accent up. He calmly straightened the jacket on his well-tailored suit.

'Like hell. What did you do?' Parker growled threateningly. Jarod just grinned and winked at her, looking for all the world like the cat that just ate the canary and got away with it too.

'Yeah, Jarod. How come they haven't got you locked in a small cage on S-L 26?' chipped in Broots as it became apparent that Jarod wasn't going to answer. Syd just stared at his protégé like he was seeing a ghost.

'Have you ever seen Star Wars Miss Parker?' Asked Jarod, his grin looking like it was going to split the top of his head off. He clicked in the general direction of the camera monitoring them and the red light flicked off.

'Get to the point lab rat. What's a crappy sci-fi flick got to do with anything?' Parker was seriously losing her patience. To make matters worse, Jarod didn't answer right away. Instead he picked up a jumbled rubex cube that had been sitting on top of Broots' computer. He began to twist it as he spoke.

'Well, the Jedi mind tricks work on more than just the weak minded. Anyone that was in the Centre yesterday doesn't remember me. Raines, Lyle, even your father have all forgotten that I ever existed.' Parker fuzzily considered the fact that Jarod's smile was like a small child saying 'Look what I've done, aren't I good?' her mind refusing to register what this meant for the moment.

'But. what are we supposed to be doing then?' Asked Sydney, marginally quicker on the uptake. Jarod placed the completed rubex cube back on Broots' monitor before answering.

'That's the fun bit. Well one of them anyway . . . No one really knows. They all either think it's above their security level or they just never bothered to find out.'

'Oh, that's brilliant labrat,' applauded Parker sarcastically 'what about all the paperwork that states that you exist?'

'It's all taken care of, trust me,' he said. Parker had to restrain herself from grinding her teeth at his absolute smugness and total self-confidence. He looked at her with a faintly bemused expression and the rubex cube floated into the air a little way and began to jumble itself.

Parker stopped trying to incinerate Jarod with her glare and abruptly started paying attention to the spinning cube. As with before, she could feel what he was doing and began to follow the actions in her own mind. As a result, when Jarod gradually loosened his control, the rubex cube kept rotating.

Broots and Sydney watched with amazed expressions as Jarod sighed and broke his gaze whilst Parker continued to stare intently at the colourful squares that were now twisting back into their correct positions.

Several moments passed as the three men watched Parker in silence. 'The hardest bit is not levitating the cube but getting all the sides right,' said Jarod so just Sydney and Broots could hear. More loudly he said; 'Parker remember the headache.'

The cube fell, bounced once on the monitor and landed on the floor. Parker stumbled forward but Jarod was there to catch her. Supporting most of her weight he helped her to sit on a vacant chair. She put her elbows on her knees and cradled her head in her hands.

Jarod reached into one of his suit pockets and pulled out a packet of Panadol. She looked up, grabbed the packet and popped two tablets into her mouth, swallowing them without water.

'What did I say about overdoing things?'

'You bastard'

'It won't last too long this time'

'Where's my gun?' she mumbled half-heartedly.

Jarod shrugged helplessly at Broots and Sydney. Just then they all heard a groan from the vents. Frowning, Jarod stood and walked over to peer into the dark ventilation system.

The three members of the pursuit team watched as his face broke into a brilliant smile and he pulled the cover off the vent. 'Angelo!' he said with joy. The empath all but fell out of the vent, still groaning.

'Daughter, pain.' He moaned, holding his head. Parker glared at Jarod realising that Angelo was picking up on her thumping headache.

Jarod realised the same thing. 'Parker can you try and shield your headache?' he asked. She started to say 'I don't know how' but stopped and thought of a brick wall around her thoughts.

Angelo straightened immediately. 'Very good' Jarod complemented her with surprise. She had been able to do it first time.

The empath looked around the room and when he spotted Jarod standing next to him his face brightened. 'Jarod' he said in recognition.

That one word caused every member of the room's hearts to sink. Angelo had been in the Centre yesterday- he shouldn't recognise Jarod.

At the sudden drop in room temperature Angelo looked around and frowned in confusion. 'Worry' he stated in confusion. The four other people in the room looked at each other and then Jarod spoke. 'Angelo, I wiped everyone's memories of me yesterday. You shouldn't remember me.'

'Angelo remember. Jarod make bad men forget but can feel Jarod. Angelo block.' He covered his ears with his hands in demonstration. Jarod nodded thoughtfully in understanding.

Broots just swallowed nervously and stared but Sydney smiled at his protégé then wandered over to one of the filing cabinets to get some documents. He'd lived a long time and seen stranger things. Besides, he figured that if someone came to check if why the camera wasn't working, they would need to look like they were doing some work.

After a moment, Broots followed his lead and called up some of his other work on the computer. Suddenly Angelo looked up and scampered back into the vents.

A moment later two sweepers entered to check why the camera wasn't working. Miss Parker raised her head and glared at them doing a very good impersonation of someone without a skull splitting headache. The sweepers tiptoed nervously around her then pulled up a chair underneath the camera. To their confusion it started working again the second one of them levered the cover off the control panel. Shooting suspicious glances in the general direction of the other occupants of the room they left again.

Broots watched them leave thoughtfully and the room fell silent. Parker lowered her head back into her hands. 'Well at least it's a chance to get some of my other work done,' the tech joked half-heartedly. The fact that both Jarod and Parker had some great mystical powers made him feel a bit worried. Where had they got them from? What did they mean?

His musings were broken as Jarod walked over to stand just behind him. Broots considered that that was just how Parker stood to make him really nervous. 'You know there was another reason for doing this. Other than just getting the Centre off my back.'

'And what would that be Jarod?' asked Parker caustically.

'Who knows what dirt I could dig up from the inside? My family, your mother . . .' He stopped. He knew he had Parker's attention. Sensing that this would be an opportunity to see a master at work, Broots surrendered his chair at the computer. Jarod thanked him and sat down.

As his fingers danced rapidly over the keyboard both Sydney and Parker drew closer to stand behind him next to Broots. They barely even noticed as the sweepers entered again to puzzle over the camera that had stopped working the second they had left the room.

Broots watched in utter amazement as Jarod opened up parts of the Centre mainframe that he didn't even know existed. All sorts of thing fell out of the woodwork.

'Hey look Miss Parker. It's your permanent record.'

'Get away from that.' She snapped. Jarod snickered and complied.

For a little while Jarod just played around, not uncovering anything too major. Then a he came across a file simply called "red_filestheory.doc"