There's a billion places like home. But only one of them is where you live. -Terry Pratchett

Parker only had half her attention focused on the paperwork she was reading. The other half was straining her senses for the inevitable footsteps that would come. It would most likely be her brother, come to gloat over Jarod being back, even though no credit could be assigned to him for it.

The footsteps would also herald her slow but sure demise in power. She barely registered the words in front of her eyes. She heard the footsteps long before he entered the office and was able to prepare herself, although she didn't look up from what she was reading.

'Morning sis' said the voice cheerily, although something in the undertones made her look up. Lyle was definitely looking less cocky than usual.

'What's up Lyle?' she asked cruelly.

'Dad wants to speak to you' he said, turning and walking out. Parker raised an eyebrow. Sending Lyle as a messenger boy? That was definitely unexpected. And although she had known she would have to talk to her father about not catching Jarod in New York, she suspected that this meeting would take a different tone entirely.

She strode confidently into the large luxurious office, hoping Mr Parker would buy the act. As usual, he did.

'Angel!' he greeted her with a smile on his face.

'Good morning Daddy' she replied.

'It seems that you have succeeded although how you managed it is beyond me. I'm very proud.' Parker was momentarily speechless in surprise. 'Since you seem to have so much sway over him I will recommend that you are put in charge of the pretender project. Congratulations Angel.'

'Daddy?'

'Jarod said that you...'

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'Found you in New York and showed you the logic in coming back to the Centre?' quoted Parker sceptically as the door to the cell swung open.

'It's true,' said Jarod from the same position she had last seen him. 'At least this way it won't be Lyle beating the crap out of me.'

'I won't beat the crap out of you unless don't you tell me why you're doing this.'

Jarod looked at her with a bemused smile. 'I thought we'd already covered this. The game's no fun if it's not real.'

'So you just stopped playing?'

'Oh no. I haven't stopped playing' he said mysteriously, a grin spreading across his face.

'Jarod' she warned him. He just grinned at her with an annoying twinkle in his eyes. 'You know, now I'm in charge of 'the pretender project' I could have the information beaten out of you.'

'You could.'

There was a staring contest. Parker lost. 'Well, while you're here, you might as well pay for your board' she sneered nastily.

'You want me to run simulations?' he asked, sounding incredulous. She nodded, expecting him to refuse. 'OK' he said calmly, dropping his 'shocked' act. Parker clenched her teeth to keep herself from saying something that could not be taken back.

'I'll go and get Sydney' she snapped tersely before turning on her heel and striding out.

It actually took longer to set up the sim than Parker had anticipated because the Centre hadn't been expecting Jarod to run sims so quickly. Finally Sydney suggested they just give him a quick training simulation and Jarod was ushered into the sim lab.

The simulation only being an easy one, he did it quickly. Then he was taken back to his cell, while Sydney analysed the results and Parker went to stew in her office.

*********************************************************************

For an entire week everything was quiet. Jarod calmly did the sims with no protest and wouldn't say a word to Parker on why he had come back. It was like waiting for a battle to start. She knew that all hell was about to break lose and the complete quiet and peacefulness only served to raise the tension. It was almost a relief when something finally did happen.

When it did, Broots was at the computer in his office, tracking down something for Parker. She was, as usual, standing just behind his left shoulder and breathing down his neck. He was scrolling through the downloading records, looking for a file that she suspected Lyle had hidden from her.

'Wait a minute, what's that?' she asked sharply, pointing to a massive file that had been downloaded by an outside computer. 'huh?' asked Broots, whose mind had been wandering.

'What was in that file?' she asked again, impatiently.

'Oh, um, sorry. Wow, it's like five times as big as anything else here'

'Can you find out what it was?'

'No, but I think I can found out where it came from. Maybe where it went if the server hasn't been blocked.'

'Do it.'

It turned out the file had come from the Centre's main data bank. That was the place where all the classified information was stored. To get in there from an outside source without setting eleven different alarm systems off was a feat only capable of one person that Parker knew of. 'Jarod' she hissed, when Broots told her.

She hardly paused to hear the end of his sentence, she was already striding towards the pretender's cell.

'Alright lab rat. What's the game?' she barked, bursting into the cell. He had been dozing on the bed and he shot into sitting position, reaching for his crutches and blinking blearily at her before registering. He let go of the crutches and shifted so his back was leaning against the wall. 'Hello Miss Parker.' He greeted her dryly.

'Cut the crap PEZ head. What was it that you down loaded?'

'You know Miss Parker, if you exercised your patience a bit more you might have done a better job tracking me down.'

'I didn't want to track you down. I thought that was what this whole thing is about.'

'Yes. It is' He said calmly, then laid his head back down and closed his eyes.

'Jarod' she warned him in a low voice.

'I told you. Patience. You'll see soon.' He lazily waved one hand in a dismissing manner, not bothering to open his eyes. A muscle under Parker's eye twitched. Setting her face in a carefully neutral position the exited the cell. She was planning brutal and extended ways of getting him to talk as she strode back to her office.

She entered her office only to find Broots waiting anxiously for her. 'Not now Broots' she ground out, dreaming up a really imaginative way to leave Jarod a bleeding mass that could still sim. 'But Miss Parker . . .' started the desperate tech.

'I said; NOT NOW.'

'I found out what was in that downloaded file.'

Parker paused in her violent musings to pay full attention to Broots for the first time.

'Well?' she asked impatiently. Broots gulped. 'It was, well, it was pretty much your father's permanent record... Sort of. Like, everything he's done since he's been at the Centre. Every order he ever made, ever scheme he ever schemed, every betrayal, every kidnapping, every single little thing.'

'I didn't know something like that even existed' murmured Parker, in wondering awe of the horrors that file would contain. 'No wonder it was so large.' She had long ago accepted that her father wasn't a nice person although a blind spot still remained as to his regard of her.

It very suddenly came to her all the things Jarod could do with that information. 'I'll be on SL-20' She called back to the slightly stunned technician as she breezed towards the elevators.

'So what are you going to do with it brain boy?' she asked, throwing the cell door open. For a second time Jarod jerked directly into an upright position before realising it was her. 'They might as well put a revolving door in here' he joked mildly.

'Answer the question'

'I can't. You asked the wrong question.' He replied with a crocked smile. He spoke in French. Parker sighed.

'What's the right question?' she replied, matching his choice of language.

'What are you going to do once I release the information to the right people?'

'Huh?'

'Well you could let Lyle or Raines take the chairmanship and spend the rest of your life on the run. Alternatively, you could seize the position you've been groomed for since the age of eight.'

'And why do you want me as the chairman Jarod?' she asked suspiciously. He cocked an eyebrow and she answered her own question. 'Because then I'll actually want you back here and chase you properly.' She nodded in understanding. Another question surfaced. 'So why did you come in during this whole thing?'

'For some reason the eye of the storm is always the calmest-'

'So is watching the storm from a long, long away' muttered Parker.

'-and besides, the people who will receive the information will be suspicious that I orchestrated the whole thing if I was out free when it happens.'

'But you did orchestrate the whole thing.' She pointed out the obvious.

'Do you think they'll think of that?'

'Who is this 'they' anyway?'

'It doesn't matter. But I would go and make sure you're in the right place in the right time right now, if I was you.'

'You're not me' she growled, annoyed at his assumption that he could tell her what to do.

'But I can be' he said sweetly, somehow managing to imitate her perfectly just by the position of his head and the intonation of his words

'Jarod, don't even try it.' There was a pause as the challenge crackled in the air. 'What makes you think you'll be escaping once I'm chairman?' she asked him.

'I got in, without setting off one alarm, with broken ribs and a broken leg.'

'We'll see.' She said, and turned on her heel and left the cell. Off to make sure the tower fell the right way when it toppled.

TBC . . .