About the veal thing, I figured Jarod's aversion to veal because veals are baby cows.

He'd probably not want to eat suckling pig either.

CHAPTER EIGHT

March 7, 2002

Jarod had lost his usual energy. He wanted to lie down and fall asleep, but he had been up since five with no rest the day before, the examination had taken longer than he expected, and so by the time, he was back with Miss Parker, he could have lain on the floor and not get up for at least a couple of days.

The months since the healing had flown past so fast that Jarod felt like he was twenty years older, the months having consisted of removing the rest of his scsrs, going on leads, and taking the various examinations of a Detective license, which he found out was not a one State fit all. He had spent so much traveling, that he felt he was back on his own Pretend, because Jarod had to look for any man meeting the Deadbeat's description, and avoid them, take on a disguise, and remove it once he entered the examination room of the States would not accept an online or mail in application. Since he missed his family, he had to return to Blue Cove and go out again, sometimes with Miss Parker and the children in tow, sometimes alone, sometimes with a travel companion, sometimes in a convention with other 'business' types who carried samples in their briefcase. Yes, he really had to dig down into his stock of tricks for this one.

Yes now when they were ready to leave for California, he couldn't do so much as open his eyes. Why didn't the Deadbeat have an easier hobby like gambling, then they could go to Atlantic City, or Las Vegas?

MacLean decided to go along with them. The story of a man who reneged on his child support payments intrigued him. He packed his suitcase and went into the living room where Jarod was dozing on the floor and Miss Parker was bending over him, shaking him with one hand, and the other one, well MacLean did not want to know. Besides, he was tired of that lecture Lewison gave him about low emotional levels; the Dominant social structure (which resembled that in ancient times — after all, they had not been here that long) and an owner can do anything to his or her property without killing him or her.

Well finally, Jarod was awake, shook his hair loose, tucked what was out in, and asked, "Are the children ready?"

"You get them ready. We're about to leave," said Miss Parker.

"The female's supposed to care for the children."

"But you're the Favorite. I got their toys in the car." She waited until Jarod came out with two under one arm, two under the other, and Jeremiah on his shoulders. "Say that's not the way to carry them."

Jarod just ignored her and put the kids upright, fastening them in their seat belts, he then went back inside to get the camera, laptop, and other essential materials. Miss Parker decided she had better keep quiet about the whole thing. They had to get to the airport or rather to Lambourni's airport.

MacLean felt rather uncomfortable sitting in the back row with the children. They had their seat belts on, but he knew that they were agile enough to get out and no doubt kill him. Jarod, however, glared back at the children with a threatening type of stare.

They traveled along the highway, turning along this hill towards Lambourni's airport or rather Lambourni 2, the other one being in New Jersey. The Centre used to own most of it, but with the takeover, its scope gradually disappeared. The Dominants now were in control, except for a section designated for Miss Parker or Lady Angela, as they called her. Her private plane, that held at least six adults plus cargo and had a jet engine, was ready

"Something's bothering me," said MacLean, "you said two percent of about two hundred, that is four were unaccounted for. Didn't the Inner Sanctum hold more than four?"

"The Centre held records of every breeding, I know that's distasteful," said Miss Parker, "but that is true. Mr. Parker senior also wrote down the names of those on the Lost Ships minus birth certificates and marriage licenses, naturally. After the takeover, we were able to match as close as possible DNAs. It was not possible in 1998, or previous. Four of the Dominant captives were unrelated to any of the group."

"So who are they?"

"Maybe they're not from the Lost Ships," said Jarod, "Carla, Frederick's concubine, is one of the Mexican Dominants, snatched by the Mexican branch of the Centre when an infant. There is also another girl. This means there are two others."

"Two, but why did you say four?"

"A male and female of the Dominants who originated in Mexico would not be acquainted with Delaware customs, let alone any part of New England. They'd think Californian because that's what the Dominants told them to think since they would be hiding there."

"You talk as if they are robots."

"When you were to go over to Africa, to South Africa, what did they tell you?"

"Oh that South Africans often spoke Afrikaans, a Dutch dialect, and that in other parts, you had to know French."

"So if you went to California, you'd have to know about surfing, Hollywood stars, some Spanish. In New England, you learn about chowder, baked beans, the Theatre. Different culture. The two probably joined and had twins or four, and two were either killed or died."

"Four unaccounted for."

"When we get back, I'll talk to the Medical Councilor whoever he or she is and have him look into it," said Miss Parker, "I wonder what the penalty is."

"He's called the Head of the Medicals and we could make things easier by cloning Raines and killing him again and again," said Jarod.

"Sure, sure and I'm Mary Queen of Scots," Miss Parker replied as she put her left arm around him and unzipped his fly. "I hope the trip will be easy."

"You know it will. You read the weather report as well." He stopped the car and they got out.

Jarod was going to pilot the plane and MacLean hoped that Miss Parker would not do anything to distract him. Seeing a man fondled rather disturbed the reporter, well even if the man was a Dominant and impervious to the usual "Oh that feels good!" along with the appropriate heavy breathing of a normal human. Perhaps the Dominants were more in danger from the humans than the humans from the Dominants.

MacLean looked through the book Lewison gave him, skimming through the traditions of their origins, the ones assumed in the nineteen nineties and the newly revised version which told of an experiment in World War 11 of creating a nemesis against Hitler's Aryans and how the experiments were sent to Mexico except for the two lost ships.

The book had a CD inserted in it which the reporter had looked at , seeing how Mr. Parker, senior caused the two lost ships to be shipwrecked, and consequently hunted down and persecuted the survivors, enslaving most in the Centre. It was a new revision, having in the back, the cleansing of the Centre, but MacLean was not interested in this. He wanted to learn about the Dominant culture.

"All right MacLean, we're taking off. Better leave the reading till later," said Jarod. Miss Parker got in besides him, by her actions was going to do everything with her hands to arouse him. Jarod had his eyes on flying the airplane, but if he had to put it on automatic pilot, they could make love at that moment with no trouble and no foreplay.

The reporter returned to his book, looking up, noting the Dominant display of affection when Jarod cupped the side of her face against his, stroking it with his right hand and keeping up a steady scream of conversation, telling her the places he had been and what he did. He did ask about his sister, and his parents. It appeared he had not seen his mother for over a year. The Centre had kept the family on the run; the father and daughter one place (Lyle had killed his younger brother), the mother going another, the daughter almost killed by the Centre, etc.

MacLean picked up more information from the Book. The New Species, Dominants, 1.6rs, or Pretenders bore four children at a time. That meant that Jarod had three true siblings, the terms for fraternal or identical. However, at the time that Jarod was born, the NuGenesis Medical Facility, a satellite of the Centre, did not know that his brother and sisters would be as strong and as intelligent as he, so they disposed of them.

As for Jarod's own species, those in Mexico, they were unaware that he ever existed until one of them, a man called Lambourni appeared where he should not have been, in New England, rather than in Mexico, New Mexico, California, or Nevada. However, with the Mexican Pretenders or Dominants having their hands full fighting the authorities or trying to keep their existence secret — MacLean was unsure of what really went on.

Once their leader, Tom Daniels married Sloan Parker, the Dominants were now free to investigate the New England situation and began to close in on the Centre.

However, they would not tell Jarod, for the Dominant law was very clear. They still worked on the eye for an eye concept. He would now be obligated to kill any responsible including their families and that would bring the homo sapien against him. Right now, the homo sapiens thought he was a field investigator for Miss Parker's company.

Jarod had forged papers, done things that were illegal, mostly because Sydney was told to keep him from moral decisions and what Sydney told him was more to do with his own prejudices rather than truth. MacLean closed the book.

"So you used a placebo?" Miss Parker asked Jarod.

"It had a temporary effect. Made him think he was going mad and did I tell you about the psychiatrist?"

"Yes Jarod. When will we be there?"

"A few hours unless you want us to stop down and get something to eat in a restaurant."

"That will be perfect."

No wonder the Dominants wanted to exterminate us, thought MacLean, Jarod's hungry already and we just got on the plane half an hour ago.

He turned to another part of the book. The Council, a sort of Dominant Supreme Court/Parliament/Judges decided everything. MacLean was not sure about the equivalent category in homo sapien terms, although the title Lords of All We Survey came to mind. Even the Chosen, until their full state, had to bow to the Council's wishes. The Supreme Chosen was under their thumb until he was past his thirtieth birthday, an unusual situation because they had to flee Mexico shortly after he got the tattoos.

Normally a Mentor trained the Chosen until he was twenty. However, Tom Daniels had to return to his mother for a few years and then his Mentor came and got him, which meant he had to do the appropriate exterminations of certain people and take the same amount of education in the same amount of time. According to the book, Tom went to work at fifteen, which would have been twenty-two human terms or perhaps it was twenty-five. The Dominants did not go to schools then. They learned from their Mentors and being quite intelligent, they picked up how to read, write, calculus, physics, the whole bit by absorption or osmosis.

Jarod showed little outward affection no hugging, smooching or kissing and no reaction to love making. The reporter, decided to look for a sign from Jarod, perhaps an eyebrow going up or his nose twitching or maybe it was that darn hand stroking.

The New Species were always reviving the Book and MacLean read a couple of paragraphs that told in strong language how evil the Centre was. He started to read what they would do to those who hunted their kind down and imprisoned them as Pretenders in the sublevels, but got visibly sick after the first few sentences of "gorging out their eyes," "cutting out their tongues, pulling out their teeth," and "tearing off their flesh with tiny sewing pins," and other such niceties. The rest of the descriptions were so horrible that he closed his eyes while turning to the next chapter, hating what would happen if the Centre had recruited them instead of hunting them.

He had to back up a few pages to read the chapter about the household servants, especially the Favorites and learned, because the Dominants wanted a large middle class, they had to use the Favorites for that. To accomplish this, the Favorite's body belonged to his or her owner, and 'especially that part used for procreation (according to the book) can be utilized without the will or specific desire of the Favorite, as long as permanent injury does not occur or render nil the effects." It was a nice way to describe forced arousal and it did make MacLean gag.

The Centre had told Miss Parker from the time she was able to understand that Jarod was property, so much beneath her, that he could not even touch her without asking permission and she was to let him know that. Jarod's position in Miss Parker's household was lower than that of the children and she used him with no regard to his privacy. That Jarod was so much in love with Miss Parker, and his 1.6 nature gave him a natural self esteem in spite of his treatment, did not alleviate MacLean's opinion altogether.

Jarod had never been free, except when he thought he was as a small child, and besides he had always been in love with Miss Parker, but MacLean still could not stand that hand stroking of the face that the Pretender did when Miss Parker did some of that utilizing that part meant for procreation. I guess that protects them. By the time, we run looking for a dictionary, the male's buttoned up his pants, the female's straightened her skirt, pulled up her pantyhose and when a couple of bug eyed homo sapien voyeurs come in, they hear, "Excuse me what are you doing in our room?"

They were coming for a landing. Miss Parker turned around to talk to the children telling them they were going to get something to eat.

"Yes mother."

She then turned back to kissing and fondling Jarod while he returned her affection in good old Dominant (blast it) face stroking with hand style and saying "love you" without the expected raise and flutter in his voice.

They landed at the private section of a public airport, walked over to the building and then into the airport cafeteria. And MacLean noted that Jarod did have a very big appetite. I mean how could he put away those two large sirloin steaks, mashed potatoes with gravy, mushrooms, onions, vegetables, etc, a large ice cream sundae, coffee, etc and go back for seconds and thirds and fourths. However, he shied away from the breaded veal cutlets and even with Miss Parker telling him "it's not poison," he would not touch them. "But they're cute when alive," he said, "and have such sad eyes."

As for the children, they were always going over to the dessert section and coming back with two more pies, ice cream, jello, etc. and the maitre de had this worried look on his face, usually reserved for someone about to descend into abject poverty and ruination.

"Jarod hardly got anything to eat when he was in the Centre," said Miss Parker. "He was starving. Oh, I'd better make a note of this cafeteria. They'll probably not let us in anymore." She did manage to leave a larger than usual tip.

Then they got back to flying.