CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Dec 3 2001

Mr. Lyle knew something was up for more than half the staff was missing and when he questioned Sydney about it, Sydney said he did not know what was going on. He was too busy training the new Pretender.

Ted had come back, minus Dora. There was no struggle. He just hailed the two Sweepers. They did not have to kill him. As for Dora, no one knew where she disappeared.

"Just got in the car," said Monte.

"He said that Dora couldn't get pregnant. Said Raines's chance of getting a Pretender that way was a failure," said Barry.

"Did he think that we let her catch him for that? Is he another Jarod?" asked Mr. Lyle.

"No sir. Jarod would have taken off, but Mr. Raines was rather peculiar. Maybe he told Ted to pretend to let Dora catch him and get her pregnant, and steal the babies back to the Centre. You know how he is, very loyal."

"Using a Pretender to voluntarily make Pretenders, a noble concept," said Lyle. "See that Ted gets the use of the grounds. Keep him satisfied. I don't want another Jarod on our hands. With Ted, we don't need to resort to Raines's methods. A little tender love and
the next Pretenders won't want to leave."

He had started on his "tender love and care," much to Raines's objections. Certain Pretenders were allowed on the grounds, notably those created in the Centre. Of course, Lyle made sure that no airplanes flew over head and if any did, the Centre had a machine that froze the instrument panels and they made sure that not only were there no survivors but that the crash was not reported in the media. The Pretenders were guarded. The sweepers were ordered to shoot to kill if they got too near the outer edge of the Centre grounds. So far, there had been no deaths. Pretenders were too valuable an asset.

Raines's method had been a failure. With that Inner Sanctum, he had created uncontrollable Pretenders, more savage than civilized As for their reproduction, it would take time to examine each new one's DNA to make sure that there was no incest to pass down defects and destroy forever the Pretender gene.

Lyle also knew the experiments with Jarod backfired. Instead of making him cower more, they made him more determined to thwart the Centre and sister had developed cunning, no longer the adult little girl. He had to get Miss Parker to cooperate. Perhaps, he could hand Sis full control of the Centre and leave for Hong Kong to see this Mary Lang he met over the Internet. He hoped she was not a fat housewife with blackened teeth.

"Monte go to Security and Records and get that new guy, Mike. Tell him to bring his laptop."

"That thing?"

"He's the same age as Giuseppe, but hasn't had the experience and hurry back. I'll need your signatures."

Fifteen minutes later, Mike finished the document and made four copies. He was rather jittery.

"Going someplace, Mike?"

"Yes Mr. Lyle. The gardener is sick. They want me to fertilize that experimental rose bush on the grounds."

"Okay, take the laptop, lock up Security and Records." He watched Mike leave and told Monte, "Be sure no one gets in or out of the grounds unless I or Miss Parker say so." He looked at the signed documents. "Barry, take one of these to Miss Parker, put one in the
files, I'll keep one, and one will be a back up in case someone misplaces the others and call me back when you're finished." He handed him a cell phone and a note. "Use this access number."

"Right Mr. Lyle."

Lyle spent the rest of the afternoon, checking his files, asking about Raines, and getting the same answer. He had not returned from the Spa although he did make a couple of phone calls. Lyle had them analyzed but there was nothing wrong with them. No one had pierced together bits of Raines's words into a sentence, the voice analyzer showed no odd inflections of pitch. It was Raines all right.

Mr. Lyle could see Ted out in the grounds occupied with a blonde. The blonde, Yvonne, was a recent acquisition, having been in the French Centre. She was also a Pretender, having infiltrated the Haute Couture and finding how that industry operated. One of the things the Centre had experimented was to let certain Pretenders believe they were free by 'releasing' them. They had sent (sent being the operative word for being hooded, put in a coffin with holes in the top, and taking out in a room several feet below the Seine) Yvonne to Paris because the Centre did not have the facilities to turn her into a fashion model in Delaware. The Centre was not interested in Fashion, but they could use notions such as buttons, jewels, for communicative devices.

Lyle looked towards the experimental rose bushes and saw Mike working there, digging around the ground, pouring in the fertilizer, watched by some of the sweepers. He went to the other window and saw nothing but the cliffs and the sea. When Barry returned from Miss Parker, he would go for a jog.

While Mr. Lyle waited, he wrote a couple of memos, telephoned the Italian Centre office, and then talked to Mary Lang on an internet chat room. The conversation took the half an hour for Barry to return from Miss Parker's house and it was now dark.

"Was she ever surprised."

"Yes, rather pleasantly. Although she had her hands fill with the kids."

Lyle yawned. "She has her private lab rat and sex slave with her. What was he doing, sleeping?"

Barry snickered. "Wasn't there, although I could tell by the smell. I have a girl friend, you know. She gave me a story that he had to do some business for her."

"I'd better get on the grounds to see if he sneaked in. When my sister says that Jarod is doing some business for her, she means he's stealing some files."

Barry checked his revolver and followed Mr. Lyle outside into the Centre grounds. They checked the usual entrances, but that was a hopeless gesture since the main one went outside the Centre grounds. No one used it except for Angelo who usually returned.
Besides one could not seal it because it supplied fresh air down to the subterranean areas of the Centre and Lyle could not spare anyone to smooth the walls to prevent escapes nor could he block the air vents leading to the various hallways and rooms that made up the
Centre. It would mean importing oxygen tanks and bringing up suspicion from various sources such as the FBI, and other organizations.

They had enough trouble ordering all those sun lamps and fluorescent lights for the sub section of the Centre and inserting them into the walls so the majority of the Pretenders would get a healthy doze of Vitamin D and thus be able to keep them in the lower sections of the Centre indefinitely.

Mr. Lyle put on a special pair of goggles and looked around, checking for shapes. "Great!"

"What is it, sir?"

"Kids. Must be from the neighborhood. I told the guards to be on patrol. Remember what happened the last time?"

"I wasn't here."

"Had to take those two boys to the Renewal Wing, remove their memories of the Centre and implant new ones and had to pay off that guy at the Sports Arena to say the boys were playing baseball. Get back in the building and get some extra guards. I'll go have a talk with them."

He strode over to the children, but they seemed to anticipate his actions and moved further into the middle of the Centre grounds and mocking him.

"Try to catch us old man!"

"If you hurt, we'll tell our dad and he'll beat you up!"

"Yeah, we're not scared of you, " and Lyle could hear their voices, whisperings of Dracula, and Monsters. It appeared they thought the Centre was haunted and had a whole fable made up of its occupants.

Running ahead, the children wore torn jeans, castoff shirts, khaki pants, and Goodwill outfits, the clothing of the poor. Most were barefoot, although the girls wore sandals and some of the boys wore runners, courtesy of Salvation Army. Like most of the people of the area, they were white. The people of this part of Delaware were Scottish, English, Dutch, German, and a few Ulster Irish with a sprinkling of Italian mixed in.

The children seemed to be playing a game, jumping over an invisible wall. Lyle came closer, seeing them leaping over a patch of grass. Well, children he thought I'm not going to fall for that.

He stepped into the patch and then suddenly his feet gave way. Screaming, he plunged into a hole, the sides of which were smooth and the top being at least six feet over his height. His feet connected with something. It was a man's corpse, feet folded up to his chest, and rather cold as if taken from a freezer. Lyle felt a gaping hole in the chest. He tried to move off it, but there was no room.

"Kids!" he hollered, "Robbing a graveyard isn't funny!"

The children just looked down at him. M. Lyle tried to search for a foothold, but the sides were too smooth. Whoever had made this hole removed any roots and it would take him too long to make a foot hold. He took out his revolver and using the handle, pounded a
small notch in the earth, using that as a handhold. He made about four of them and was now four feet up to the top and that is when he saw a dark shadow passing over the top, covering his view.

"Look if you're going to make an air vent here, wait until I get up!" He puffed, making the next insert and then froze in terror when he heard a scraping sound, and saw the view of the sky now disappearing as something gradually moved to block the top of the hole.

"Stop!" he yelled.

Someone moved the object aside so he could now see adult faces and recognize a voice. "Put some burlap over the hole. We have to initiate the Column with blood."

Up on the surface, Lambourni took out a small sharp knife and went over to the Column, making a small indentation. He then went over to Jarod. "Take off your shirt."

"What's going on?"

"The ceremony has to have blood from someone who is of us and yet not of us and who will live. This is the first part." Before Jarod could protest, Lambourni made an indent on both sides of his spine, just below his neck and smeared the blood on the indent on the
top. "Now for the lowering."

Several men raised the Column.

Meanwhile Lyle could see through the burlap a familiar face, a man with light brown hair, and blue eyes who did not smile.

"When I get out of here, Ted, I'll use the cattle prod on you!" hollered Lyle, but the one above with his companions either did not hear him or refused to listen as they removed the burlap and placed the column over the hole, gradually lowering it,

Lyle used his fingers to claw for an exit, chipping away with a penknife he had in his pocket, trying frantically to escape his doom so his body could avoid the massive stone but it was fruitless.

Ted just snickered, as he and the others lowered the Column. Down below, Lyle saw the sky disappear, replaced by blackness, a blackness that lowered until it touched his head. He jumped down, but the object came towards him. In a panic, he tried
to chip the sides of the tunnel, trying to enlarge the hole so his body could avoid the massive stone but it was fruitless.

He crouched; the Column just a few inches from his head, and then it descended, stone meeting flesh, his hands fruitlessly trying to raise it, his palms bending backward. His last shriek brought no mercy from the watchers above as the heavy cylinder of stone crushed his skull, and reduced his flesh to so much pulp and sinew, but he was unaware of this for darkness fell on him and the searing heat of eternal hell fire welcomed him.