CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
About the same time that Jarod was waiting for the Dominant parents to arrive, Sam was getting off at the airport. He went to the Hertz counter, wrote a check, and then turned to see a familiar face.
"Sam the Sweeper," she said in her cool voice, "I presume you're here for the same reason that I am." She whispered in his ear. "Dispose of the evidence."
"Sometimes you sound like Miss Parker."
She shrugged, throwing back her blonde wavy hair. "I was her first teacher. We cannot have weakness in the Centre and after her poor mother died, she had to learn from an expert."
Sam just snarled. "I always looked after Miss Parker. What makes you think you're much better than me?"
Lady M waved a very elegant hand. "Because you resented all those years chasing Jarod for her, denying yourself a family. Don't you just hate him? What he made Miss Parker give up?" She could see the darkness in his brown eyes. Her plan was working.
Now Sam had no resentment about not marrying. He did not want to leave a widow with children if he was killed and Jarod, for all his reluctance, would have shot him if the sweeper, on orders from Miss Parker, Raines, or Mr. Lyle, had to wipe out a busload of schoolchildren in order to get the Pretender. That gas was not as bad as the other suggestions made.
Sam had to go along with her. If Jarod was killed in the process, he would marry Miss Parker and raise the children. He probably would need help in that process. They were homo dominants, but why should this woman play God? They were innocents. Trouble was that Sam realized he had helped destroy other innocents with the same makeup in the Centre. "What do you want?"
"To find out where they are, Miss Parker and that toy of her, Jarod."
"I fail to see why you regard him as a toy."
"A diversion. Once we get rid of the children, he will be back in the Centre and then I will be in control with you, Sam as my right hand man." She smiled. "You know we need a firm rule and with Lambourni leaving for New York and New Jersey, according to rumors, his sons won't be any trouble. They'll be too busy attending law school to bother about the Centre and THE OTHERS will be going back to California or whatever rock they crawled back from under."
"I sometimes forget you are a woman."
"Are you interested, Sam?" She placed her gloved hand on his shoulder.
"You're not Jewish."
She turned back angrily. "Does that make any difference?"
"To me, yes."
Lady M opened her purse. "I am sure a substantial cash incentive would help." He waited until he put it in his wallet. "Now you drive." It would be a pity to sacrifice the two little boys, no three, including the now named Jeremiah, but it was necessary. In the matter of state, boys grew up into men and they were dangerous.
She had learned it studying ancient history, how the Egyptians plotted to kill the Hebrew boys, how in other cultures it was common to execute all but a few of the males, and how in Roman times, the gladiatorial combats took care of any foreign slaves rising against their masters.
And there was one thing she wanted to see, Jarod's face full of hopelessness as his future died with him. The little girls would grow up in the Centre not knowing their father, and then married off or whatever at an early age and as soon as they had children, she would kill any male issue, and leave the girls alive. By that time, Jarod would be dead, (no doubt from overwork), but Lady M would be certain that, at least in this sense, there would be no more of THEM.
How to get rid of Frederick, however, was going to be a problem. Mr. Parker had protected him and he had that Giuseppe to watch over him. THEY'RE too loyal!
They drove towards the coastal area, but had to make a detour, passing the high-end houses of the professionals. Most of the houses were empty, but in one, someone opened the curtain a bit, and then quickly closed it.
"Must be the Maid," said Sam.
"Yes," said Lady M, "now when are we going to get to Miss Parker's cabin?"
"We should be there in an hour. Traffic!"
An hour, thought Lady M, an hour and it'll be over for Miss Parker and doom for Jarod. She opened her purse and looked at the paper. Miss Parker would never have another child after this. Too bad about her 'cancer'. She pretended to wipe a tear from her eye.
