Disclaimer: You guys know how it goes.

It seems that I'm having a little bit of writers block. And this is all I could come up with for this chapter. I'll fix it in at a later date. I don't know.

Chapter 3

Centre Hallway

Parker was on her way to her office when Lyle joined her.
" Where were you last night? I called about thirty times." Lyle said
" What did you want?" she asked
" You were supposed to meet Raines and I for dinner."
" I was tired. It was late and I decided to go home." she wasn't exactly lying.
" You weren't at home. We sent a sweeper to check on you."
"You sent someone to check on me? I'm touched." she said in a surprised voice
" There were no signs of struggle so we figured you just forgot about the dinner and went out on the town."
" Yes, by some miracle there are many things in this world better than sharing a dinner with the devil and his minion. she sighed.
" Parker we are a family. We need to…."
Parker stopped in mid stride, putting her hand up to stop Lyle.
" Just because we're related by blood does not make us family. It takes more than just blood. Our little family doesn't to have that certain " more". We never were Lyle. Never will be. The unfortunate demise of our father isn't going to change that. With the exception of Ethan and baby Parker, the rest of our so-called "family" can just go to hell." she walked away. Lyle scoffed.
" Ouch." his hand on his chest. " Ease up Parker, it was just a dinner invitation." he said
Parker waved him off and kept walking

She passed her office and headed for Sydney's lab. There was no one there. She walked up to the tech lab and Broots wasn't there either. Usually when Sydney went missing he was in the room were all of Jarod's little knick knacks were stored. So she headed in that direction. Sydney and Broots were seated on the floor rifling through papers.
" Hello boys." Parker said
" Broots and Sydney looked up acknowledging her, but were too tired to say anything.
" Are those the same things you were wearing yesterday." Parker asked.
" We've been here all night trying to see if we could pick up something about Jarod's whereabouts." Broots said.
" He's been non commutative for almost nine months. Nothing. He might have been captured by the Centre and being kept in…"
" Woah. Letting your imagination run wild there Sydney?" Parker laughed.
" You mean to tell me that you don't care about him not calling. No packages."
Parker smiled sadly at him " Jarod is fine Sydney. Calm down." she looked around the room
" Go home and change. The both of you. I'll see you when you get back." she said then left.
But before she could get out of the room, Sydney grabbed her arm.
" You've seen him." Sydney accused rather than questioned.
" Don't you think I would have told you." she lied
" I guess." he let go of her arm. " I'm sorry."
" You're just tired Sydney. You have to start taking care of yourself." Parker said
" I'm just worried."
" Come on Sydney, I'll drive you home. I don't think you should be driving." she motioned toward the exit.

"I'm sorry for grabbing you Parker" he said
" It's okay Sydney." she smiled
" I'm really worried about him Parker. The Centre has been very secretive about the pretender project these few months. I need to know what is going on."
Parker sighed. Then took a deep breath. She hoped there weren't any bugs in the car.
" I saw Jarod yesterday." she said
" Where?" Sydney was suddenly energized.
" Out of town."
" You've been seeing him?" he asked
" He kidnapped me last night." she said.
" Up to his old tricks." Sydney smiled
" He needed my help for a case he's working on."
" Must be a pretty big case if he can't handle it." Sydney said
" Yeah. This one is kind of out of this world. I couldn't even get a premonition." Parker said
" Something wrong?"
" No. The case was very weird. Symbols and all." she had a sudden flashback to the times she visited Africa.
" The witches in Africa. Some of them put symbols on their sacrifices. Kind of like spells. I saw one ritual that was supposed to help retain qualities. Like the one I saw was to give the witch the agility of a cheetah.

"Your father took you to see these things." Sydney asked

" No. I went by myself during my college summer break. I was studying Ancient Rituals for a project in my history class. I wanted to see them first hand so I took a trip. I met the triumvarate. They were nice."

" I take it this was before you grew up and cultivated that " Authority be damned" attitude." Sydney smiled.

" Was that a joke?" Parker laughed." So that's what these are.Ritual killings. The killer is searching for something within his victims."
" You seriously believe this?" Sydney asked
" These Africans can do anything. I've seen some pretty wild things in Africa. Besides I talk to the dead and can see into the future. I'm pretty much open to believing anything." she said " I need to get in touch with Jarod."
" I have a way of reaching him. It's a website. I've been posting messages all month, but I haven't been getting any response." he said
" So how do we know that he'll get it?" she asked
" We don't. But if he does get it. He'll get in touch."
" Ok. Let's send a message." Parker said
When they got to Sydney's house he turned on his laptop and went to the web page. Parker saw how many messages he'd left. He really missed Jarod. He was always more than just a project to him.And during the past months it was becoming more evident his feeling toward him.
Parker sat down and sent the message as Sydney went to change.
She left a message "I have a hunch. Come see me" and signed it " You know who."

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