CHAPTER NINETEEN

April 17 to April 20 2001

It cost Miss Parker over five thousand dollars to renovate her basement, all contributed by the Centre and designed to cage Jarod if she desired it. There were chains on the wall, a sun lamp, and a double door and soundproofing to prevent him from knowing what went on. She had a bed built into the wall, double sized and bought a blanket and pillows. (Miss Parker sometimes wanted to get away from it all and she might as well spend it amusing herself with Jarod's body, especially the crotch area, rather than arguing with her brother.)

She also bought one of those flight simulators, a large television flat panel monitor, and various other items. It was amazing how much knowledge that lab rat, monkey, although she was feeling more uncomfortable referring to him as that, did not have. She invested in several TV shows on DVD and tapes via Columbia House, going through an intermediary, of course.

Right now, however, Miss Parker was more interested in revising the rose bush that was fighting a losing battle against the drainage pipe that constantly dripped into the soil.

"I doubt that Jarod saw the Brady Bunch," she told Broots as she dug around the bush. .

"That was one of my favorite shows next to All in the Family," said the computer geek.

"That's enough. I see the ghoul from hell approaching. Wonder what Walking Dead has planned for this time? Here help me carry this to the shred." She handed Broots and Sam her gardening tools.

"Good evening Miss Parker, I brought over a barrel of Jarod's nutritional supplement seeing you're planning on getting him back. Is the controller working fine?"

"Of course Raines."

Willy and another sweeper struggled with a heavy barrel while Sam supervised. Before they got ready to put in the basement, she opened the lid and almost threw up.

"You can take it back," she said.

"It'll keep. It's nutritionally sound, with the correct amount of minerals, vitamins, and fiber," said Raines. "Our medical staff has analyzed the amount needed to keep Jarod functioning at prime capacity." He handed her a bowl and several plastic spoons. "If you notice, the red line at the top of the inner rim indicates his daily supply. He is to have six level spoonfuls a meal and followed by a glass of water, exactly eight ounces. No more, no less." ew

"I can feed Jarod myself without your help," she said after secretly dipping a small Ziploc bag into the glob behind their back and hiding it in a shrub. .

"Miss Parker, you don't know what you're doing."

"When you make Jarod's diet more appetizing to him, then I will accept it."

"Okay Miss Parker. I'll have the secretary type out a list of his nutritional requirements, calories, carbohydrates, and medicines. Be sure to follow the exact instructions. He gained quite a bit of weight since his escape."

After they left, she retrieved the package and sent it to a lab outside of Delaware. The technician informed her that it contains an experimental drug used on certain violent children. They put the drug, known as Neogenesis on the forbidden list after finding that soon after taking this, these children wound up missing. They investigated the parents thoroughly and suspected that it rendered the children defenseless against predators. A warning had gone out for parents to watch if any strangers offered their children candy or ice cream in an effort to lure them away.

The Centre would not tell her where all the other Pretenders were and on what sublevels, so she had to use subterfuge, or rather Broot's skills at opening doors and locating them.

Miss Parker substituted uncontaminated gunk for the Neogenesis doctored glob the Centre fed the Pretenders that although it contained the right amount of minerals, vitamins, and foliage, resembled something that you vomited. So that's what he calls nutritional supplement. It sure isn't food! Even looking at it made her throw up and it probably tasted just as bad as it looked. On a dare, she decided to try a teaspoonful and had to run to the bathroom after just a taste. It was worse than swallowing cow dung, plaster of Paris, vomit, and rotten meat, and Jarod had eaten that stuff for thirty years.

Cox withdrew Neogenesis cold turkey using one Pretender as a guinea pig. If he lived or died, the Grim Reaper did not care and neither did Miss Parker.

The particular Pretender went through the various stages in a matter of days. They had to inject him with a stimulant to get his heart going because the Centre was using him to test how to save a Centre employee over in Iraq from execution. They brought in the heavy equipment, worked on him when he flat lined at least once. When at last, it appeared he would not die; Miss Parker did an ultimate test after making sure that he had reverted to the condition he was born with. He landed on his feet with no injury after the Sweepers threw him off the platform at least three stories above the cement floor. He was able to break into a lock with his bare hands and he could distinguish danger to his person five minutes ahead of time which was why they needed four sweepers to toss him. All this occurred before she saw Lyle and her visit with the Father.

After that, Miss Parker packed her suitcase, took along some extra handcuffs, and after instructing the workers to finish the brick façade on the basement walls, drove from Delaware to New York City.

They made a detour to the school to see Frederick who said the principal was planning a little excursion and "I will enter your intelligence service, however I need an outside man." Miss Parker said she would do something about it, but it would take time. After that, she and the sweepers went back on the highway.

She, Broots, and Sydney took pictures, acting like typical tourists while Sam waited in the car with Debbie who came along as well. They did not trust the Centre and especially not Mr. Lyle who might switch from wooing and eating Oriental girls to wooing and chomping down on Debbie. . Miss Parker even switched from her normal seductive business attire to something more sedate for she wanted to set the girl a good example. (She knew that Debbie changed into a Brittany outfit when her father was not looking.) Miss Parker took the young lady shopping at Saks, Fifth Avenue, Maceys, and had her hair done at the finest salon, which made Debbie feel like a princess.

They drove to a local Catholic School and Miss Parker waited while Broots enlisted her for the short time they would be in New York. Now Broots had been raised Baptist, but for some reason, there was no Baptist school in Blue Cove, he was too busy to home school and he did not like the public school so he had enrolled Debbie in The Blessed Virgin school in Blue Cove until that new Protestant school got built, if it ever would. Since it could be reached from the Centre via a tunnel, it had Pretender children, who attended it without even seeing the outside air. You might say the latter were show children.

Quote. "The Centre is not as bad as rumored. See these children who have the Pretender gene attend along with some of our youngsters. They're not locked in their rooms and isolated, are they?" End of quote.

Several of the Centre sweepers' and staff's children went there, making in addition to the normal Roman Catholics which numbered from the Centre at least forty (half rumored to be from one family, although whose or whether this was true was hard to speculate), two Reformed Baptists, one, Jewish, four, Lutheran, and three, Anglican. The rest either home schooled their children, taught them in the Centre school, or used the public school, either because they were waiting for a Private Protestant school to be built, were cheap, or just did not care.

Anyway, the New York school was within a block of a fine hotel where they stayed and close by was the office of a gynecologist. Miss Parker made an appointment. Her periods were late.

"So am I going through menopause?" asked Miss Parker.

"Far from it. You're pregnant and if I'm not mistaken, you might be having twins at least."

"Twins? Then the stick didn't lie."

"It's always best to make certain. Now, be sure to see your doctor when you get back to Delaware," he said as he wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to her. "I'm giving you a prescription to help you. Don't worry, it's safe for pregnant women." He put her hands on her shoulder in the manner of a fatherly old man, which indeed he was. "Now remember cut down on coffee and tea, a good herb tea would be beneficial and are you a vegetarian, Miss Parker?"

"No Doctor."

"I'll have the receptionist give you a diet to follow. You need to eat some cheese or meat at every meal and more frequently. No three square meals a day for you."

"Thank you, doctor." She checked the diet sheet and made a note to stock up on some Gouda and Edam cheese. For some reason, she had a craving for them. Maybe Jarod's part Dutch, she thought with a smile.

She had tried to get pregnant once before with Thomas, but when he left for that trip, her periods started and combined with her ulcer, almost proved fatal .

But, as she thought about her condition, she remembered if Raines and Lyle heard about it, they might put the babies down to the sublevels to become the next unwilling Pretenders or strap her on a bed while a quack performed an abortion. Jarod could not tell anyone—that is, until the babies were safe.

She got in the car, made an excuse that would satisfy Sydney asking, "What was that about?"

"He says I don't have to worry about cervical cancer."

"Nice to know. Now where?"

"To the hotel. I have to change. We're going to retrieve Jarod."

Once in, she checked the battery, and reinserted a new lithium one. Using the coordinates, she located a red dot between several buildings near the Central Park District. Now dressed in her typical outfit, she got in the car and followed by the others, drove towards the Pretender's location.

Sam was going to park the car in back, but Miss Parker stopped him. "Take the car to the front," she told Sam, giving him a thousand dollar bill. "That'll be enough for you to get home."

"Thanks Miss Parker."

"Remember not one word to anyone, especially not to Mr. Raines and Mr. Lyle. Oh and enjoy your time with your nieces and nephews."

She waited until after he got on a bus to his sister's house in Brooklyn and entered the building. Even before she turned on the tracker, she sensed Jarod's presence. She had just started to turn it on when a short man, just about five feet three inches, rather stocky, and with dark wavy hair approached her.

"Miss Parker?"

Miss Parker froze. "Yes, I am Miss Parker."

The short man bowed down, taking her right hand and kissing it lightly in a sign of respect. "May I introduce myself, Doctor Umberto Pasqueles. Could you come to my office?"

It took some persuading, but when Miss Parker saw the certificates from a reputable University in Sicily, a Hospital in Rome, and various other institutions, she figured that she better humor this doctor.

"What is this about?" She looked at her watch and the compact in her purse. It was flashing. Jarod was close, possibly about two hundred yards away either in the floor below or in the elevator.

"I'm a medical hypnotist," he said to Miss Parker who showed no surprise at this revelation, "If you are willing, I can help you see things you may have forgotten." He opened the door to his office and going to a desk in a semi-darkened room, turned on the tape recorder. "Jarod left me a note and I believe you should listen to this."

Miss Parker grew pale, angry, and then tears came to her eyes as she listened to the tape. She felt betrayed, by Mr. Raines and her uncle. How could they do this to her? She started to have conflicting emotions but quickly stifled them and became cold once more. "All right, Doctor, but I don't want any tapes shown to any one excerpt me, not even in evidence to the police."

"We practice doctor patient confidentiality. Now Miss Parker, I want you to relax."

"Where is he?"

"I am sure that he's around. I doubt that he'll get far. I saw him try to use a credit card, but the taxi driver called the police".

She looked again at the certificates and a paper that indicated that the doctor was preferred sas a Special Witness in court cases. In the margins were the notations, "placement of ad, center top, bold print," and "placement of ad, center top, italics." Dr. Pasqueles was advertising his services in either, a medical journal or on a web site. Besides the ad was a photograph of the doctor in black and white.

"All right do I lie on the couch or sit in a chair?"

"Anyway you please. Now just look at me." His voice became low and monotonous as he waved the metal object in front of her. A classical piece played on the CD stereo, a quiet restful piece interspersed with the sound of waterfalls.

Miss Parker saw her mother come via the dream like state, which unlike most dreams were true recollections of her past. She saw herself kissing Jarod as a child, saw for the first time, his reaction of surprise mingled with fear and pleasure and she telling him her name. The hypnotist led her through her childhood, her times spent being part in Private school and part tutored by the Centre teachers.

She learned that rather than being a couple of miles and named Saint Mary's Academy for Young Ladies, the so called Private school was a set of classrooms in the Centre where she and other children of the staff took lessons from Sister Elaine who with other Sisters had come to the Centre specifically for that purpose. And she remembered how Daddy took her to a room with a big movie screen and gave her soda pop to drink.

Gradually the scene on the movie of trees and meadows passing became a trip to Saint Mary's, reinforced by the car seat she sat on. To further the illusion, they wheeled the car down the hallway and since the post hypnotic suggestion made her believe she was in the country, it was easy to keep her in the Centre. The only times she really was out was on special occasions, birthdays, holidays, or when someone at the Centre kept an eye on her. When she grew up and was considered dependable, they let her go out on her own. Was all her childhood a lie? And then she recalled the horrible incident that her father took her in to breed with Jarod.

She tried to wipe the memory, but it was coming clear though the fog. She never knew how much it hurt. She recalled living in a daze for the few months until the fetus was viable. They dared not implant the baby in the womb of a surrogate. It was too precious. It was a Parker and they removed it before she broadened. All she knew was seeing a tiny preemie in a special incubator and Daddy pointing out, "my grandson." That is, before they hustled her out.

The next encounter with Jarod still hurt, and she wondered why. She was still slim thanks to Centre science and she felt sick, knowing that they chained and handcuffed Jarod during the incident. Making him think he was in the Centre just to help humanity what a lie, she thought.

The hypnotist went through the years, up until the time her brother asked her into his office and then the doctor back-tracked. "Jarod said Raines implanted fear of you into him."

"It was when I was with the others. When we were alone, Jarod seemed okay, but his eyes would be on me, wary as if checking for weapons and looking for a way to escape."

The doctor made a note of it and then put down his pad. "Now I'm taking you back to a time after the second conception. You will see this as partaking in a movie, but you will feel no pain. Think of reenacting a crime scene for the police years after. Who do you hate most?"

The answer was clear. "Raines."

Pasqueles went deeper into her subconscious, probing the innermost secrets, secrets that not even Miss Parker knew. He learned that Miss Parker told Jarod her first name and how she looked about to see if anyone else heard.

His voice was soothing, and the music in the background dispelled all Miss Parker's fears. He learned that Mr. Raines told Miss Parker, "You will kill Jarod. You will hunt him down." He learned that this command conflicted with her father's, "We need Jarod alive. We need him." The hypnotist decided to switch over to Mr. Parker and Lyle. "Now Miss Parker, the veil will be lifted on hidden conversations with your father regarding this Jarod." Having learned that Miss Parker was raised by her uncle, Pasqueles knew that Miss Parker did not think Raines, although her biological father, was regarded in her eyes as her parent.

"Daddy kept us apart. I don't like the nuns. They're so strict."

He chose which incidents he wanted her to recall. Pasqueles heard Miss Parker's imitation of her father's voice, saying "We must retrieve our property" and thought it regarded Jarod stealing money from the Centre. He was soon to learn different when Miss Parker blurted out something that happened in the recent past.
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"Jarod. He's mine. Daddy would have been so proud of me. Frederick, Margaret. On the Island. The curse. She broke the spell! Daddy's gone." A few minutes later, "I'm so alone."

"Why are you alone? Who's coming?" asked Pasqueles. She's like a little girl, he thought, even when she believes she acts as an adult. Too close attachment to parental figure,' he wrote in his notebook.

Miss Parker whispered things the Renewal Ward removed from her mind. "Daddy said we need Jarod alive, we need him to create others like him. He's escaped from the plane." Her voice deepened to resemble Lyle's. "You'll have no trouble capturing Jarod now." It then changed to her regular voice. "Yes. I told him that I would hunt him down " She imitated her brother's voice again. "He'll work for the Centre." Her brother's voice became more sonorous as she remembered. "You will find Jarod and you will not kill him. That will be up to me. You will forget all of this except you will go after Jarod but you will not kill him."

With that the hypnotist woke her up. "What do you remember?"

"Raines and Lyle gave me conflicting rules. That's why I wanted to kill Jarod and couldn't."

"Jarod being yours. I cannot understand that, Miss Parker. You aren't into?"

"Of course not," she snapped. She recalled the conversation with her brother.

She spoke the whole conversation, her's and her brother's and "the bar code is just under the skull. It grew over it."

"A bar code?"

The hypnotist decided that this was enough. He shut off the tape and rewound it, making a note of the digits. He had to erase that last recording, for if he kept it, he might tell the police and there were two children to consider. He decided to reverse Mr. Raines's instructions. "You will not kill Jarod. Mr. Raines was jealous. He hated your brother. He hated you. Mr. Raines is evil. When he told you to kill Jarod, he lied." He thought of telling Miss Parker that the certificate was false, but the signature of the attorney and two witnesses were underneath.

Miss Parker was now awake. A rush of memories assaulted her brain, memories of Mr. Raines telling her to kill Jarod sometime after Jarod had been away for a couple of years.. It was when Raines went through that false conversion of the Triumvirate's undertaking.

"I have to go now," she said, "I know you are trying to delay me, but it won't work. You see I know where Jarod is." She plopped a stack of bills on the table. "Fresh from the bank, unsealed. No fingerprints. I'm not that stupid, Doctor. Oh by the way, if you heard my first name under hypnosis, kindly forget about it."

"Don't worry, Miss Parker. It's the Swedish version, isn't it?" he asked as she walked away.

"My maternal grandfather was Norwegian and my paternal grandmother was French." She turned on her tracker. Yes, he was going down the street towards the bad part of town.

"Broots, Sydney, the alley at Fourth, block it but think of something entirely different."

Miss Parker came from the other way, hiding in the shadows, seeing Jarod walk towards where Broots and Sydney waited. They drove the car, blocking that end.

Jarod turned around, seeing Miss Parker with a gun. He looked up at the walls and the open window four stories up with the fire ladder, but he had not returned to a Dominant long enough to know that he could jump up there and escape.

"You're coming back, Jarod," said Miss Parker, "I have more things for you to do." She tapped her gun. "The back seat, Jarod."

She moved in besides him and showed that the gun was loaded and put it back in her purse. "If you as much as try to fight, I will use it." She started to unbutton his trousers and then she started to cry. "I remember everything."

He tried to put his arms around her, but as usual she pushed them away so he decided to placate her. "So do I." He remembered his first time, now knowing what they did, knowing that probably there was another Parker Pretender out there. He wondered what lies the Centre told the boy's adopted parents, if his father was in the pen serving time for murder or spousal abuse, and with each passing minute as Miss Parker had him, Jarod thought how the Centre had cheated him and his anger grew.