CHAPTER FOURTEEN

March 8, 2002 late evening to March 9, 2002 early am

When Jarod sat down in the pilot's seat and looked out the window of the plane, he had no idea why these two men and a security guard were trying to drag this woman back into a restaurant. Perhaps she pretended to get sick to get a free meal and they were on to her or it could be an act. He heard through the San Bernardino grapevine that they were making a prime time TV movie for a daytime television series to introduce a new actor who would be the romantic interest for the female lead who, according to the plot, had lost her partner to a vicious crime lord. Since the producer could not get the regular actress (she was in her ninth month), they had acquired a similar looking actress with an enormous amount of energy for she was also working at the set of a low- level film company.
As the soap opera was not Days of Our Lives, he had no interest in it, and neither did Miss Parker.

The reporter had taken a couple of sleeping pills, and was dead to the world, so Jarod needing to catch up on some knowledge he never got at the Centre, opened his lap top and checked for that particular show.

"What was the name of that show the one with the character named Dwayne?"

Miss Parker yawned. "Cast Your Cares. You heard of Mary Worth?"

"No."

"It was a comic strip about this overly helpful woman who butted into everyone's business. Someone had the brilliant idea of turning it into a Soap Opera. Mary Worth meets a widower and finds out his children are not the little angels she supposed they were. Dwayne, the grandson is a drug dealer and wants to keep his job secret from his dying grandfather and his step grandmother, the former Mary Worth because he is—wake up! And turn off the lap top!"

Jarod blinked his eyes. "I was resting my eyes. Soap opera? I'll stick to Days of Our Lives."

"When we get to the next town, be sure no one sees you with that camera, you understand me?" She got a nod.

The town they were going to had a yacht club, so which meant that the dead beat might be there. If he were, it would make Jarod's life a little easier. After belonging to Miss Parker was no picnic. She could kill him (or try to) after the appropriate children were born, that is two more sets. Jarod already knew what to do in that situation. He was fast enough to tear off the crucifix and jump far enough way to avoid the explosion and he was certain Miss Parker would only do it if she found herself aging at a faster rate than he. Jarod would have to make sure such a thing never happened. The Medicals had methods to reverse aging, but it applied to their own kind, not to homo sapiens. They might have to make Miss Parker a Dominant, but the only two methods used were unsuccessful. But then, Miss Parker looked younger than she really was. Perhaps the Centre did something to her when she was a child or she had good genes.

Jarod had someone else to worry about, Sam the Sweeper who had been on an extended holiday since before the Official Joining — something about a sick aunt. No one stayed away this long, and Sam probably still believed that Miss Parker had a kill order out for The Pretender. That meant that the aunt must be bedridden or dead, so Jarod had checked the out of state newspapers, looking for the obituary for an elderly woman whose name looked like this Sam's last name. It would no doubt read something like this:

"Miss Sarah — passed away after an extended illness. She will be missed by all. Miss —, a spinster was a member of the Animal Rescue League, The Flower Guild, and Antique Car Show. Until becoming an invalid, she participated in many events. As a young woman, she was the first in Delaware to win the coveted Doohinky Award. Funeral will be taken place at the Bethsada Synagogue on Friday. In lieu of flowers, donations will be gratefully received for the Animal Rescue League. Rabbi Jacob Goldberg proceeding. Burial will be at the Bethsada Cemetery."

He But he found no mention of an aunt or of Sam. San Bernardino only carried the major newspapers, not the small town ones. Was he waiting for them to get back and eager to obey her former Kill order? Jarod had to get Miss Parker's attention diverted so that he took the plane down a bit lower and checked the online local Delaware online newspapers, hoping they had more than "County sheriff fights crime," or "Former Student in District Twenty Middle School does his Best in Olympic!"

"What's wrong with you?" asked Miss Parker. He still had not closed the laptop.

"If anyone else worked for the Centre and was not caught in the takeover, they're going to get it. Do you know anyone Miss Parker? That heavy guy, for instance."

"Oh you're talking about Sam. I guess Roderick and the others made a clean search of the Centre. Anyway, I gave my sweeper some time off. Figured he deserved it. Why?"

"You were on the phone for a bit." He hoped she would not catch him looking through the Online Obituary columns.

"I have a perfect right and remember you're not dead, yet."

"Thanks for nothing. So when are you going to kill me? After we get the dead beat or after the next two quadruplets?"

Miss Parker was rather pensive for her. "I wanted you dead at first when Raines and Lyle told me to do that simulation. It made me sick thinking of getting on top of you, I was already to shoot you, but then I thought well, what a way to make you suffer. You'd be anticipating the bullet to put you out of your misery, but then you wanted me back on you. Puts a whole different angle plus I learned that The Centre told Sydney not to tell you the facts of life."

"So would it have made a difference if you learned this before you started chasing me?"

"I suspected it and it would not have made any difference. You belonged to The Centre and unknowingly to me."

He ignored this last remark for by this time, he had found the correct web site and arranged the laptop so Miss Parker could see the monitor and then went back to the controls.

"It was the curse. You would have never done the things you did otherwise." He looked at her face, seeing the affirmative.

"Well if the curse had been removed before that simulation, I would have still done it, but only to assert my ownership; not to punish you. You realize that, don't you?" She paused. "And then I would have taken out my gun and marched you to the Church and tell the Priest to go through a special ceremony and to be sure that nothing would make you free, would not register the marriage in the court."

"Trouble you did not know about the chip yet."

Miss Parker shook her head. "No, but I'm sure that you would have cooperated nonetheless."

Jarod had to admit he would have. He had been waiting for Miss Parker to put down her gun since she first chased him and to say, "I'm not taking you to the Centre. I want you for myself. Kiss me you fool!" Of course then he would have let her take him in her arms instead of trying the other way around — if it were not for that pain inducer she used all the time he tried without her asking. It stung!

Suddenly they heard a small voice trembling with alarm. "Mother!"

"What is it, Jarvis?" Jarod asked his son as both he and Miss Parker turned around.

"Did twice."

"Did twice what?"

"Mommy shake you twice."

"You're mistaken Jarvis," said Miss Parker, "I did it only once."

"Twice one all red, and one all people."

Miss Parker looked at Jarod. "He has the five minute sense already. "

Jarod by now had put the plane on cruise control and reached for the Dominant book. "I was drugged since I was an infant. Lambourni would know. He never was and he's a Progeny."

She grabbed the book from his hand and started skimming through the pages, looking for anything partially resembling the five-minute warning, but seeing nothing, turned to the children and questioned them.

"Adrian did you see Mother shake Jarod twice?"

Adrian shook his head,

"Did you see anything twice?"

"Angry lady get out twice camera people. Funny once, real next."

Miss Parker questioned the other two and got two different events. Jeremiah did not remember that far back, probably because the Centre may have removed his earlier memories. She turned back to Jarod, glancing at the open laptop. It was there. Sam, the Sweeper, the one who had a family emergency. He did not know about the Centre takeover and the death sentence on the former employees, and now she learned he would not be coming back. He was dead by a cancer that he kept secret. He had no nvalid aunt. He just wanted to get some time off while he prepared for his coming death.

The obituary column mentioned little about him, other than he was a Reformed Jew; his grand parents had died in the Holocaust. Someone had smuggled both his father out and, paid for his education. Later the young man met and married a Ruth Meyer a camp survivor. She died soon after her son's birth and his father became a workaholic, leaving Sam to his own devices, but he seemed to make out okay.

He served in the Vietnam War "with distinction" and eventually a private Think Tank approached him after he unsuccessfully tried to get a job. Vietnam was very unpopular then. Jarod looked at the obit, noting that the services was at the Bethseda Synagogue and burial was at the local Jewish Cemetery near Blue Cove and he knew who had arranged for Sam's father's education and who no doubt kept him from finding any other employment The Centre.

They were now approaching their destination. Miss Parker said calmly as if trying to hold onto her emotions, "I have to make a call, Jarod. Land the plane, get out, take the camera, and pretend like you're a tourist so that dead beat doesn't get wise. I'll look after the children."

The plane skidded to a stop. Jarod got out, leaving Miss Parker and the rest. After giving the usual flight information, etc., he went to a drug store and picked up a pen and notepad, and a book on boats. After this, he started to take pictures, concentrating on the yachts and checked each one on his book.