Thanks for the reviews, made the appropriate changes in Chapter One.
CHAPTER FOUR
The technical room on Sublevel five was almost empty except for a lone technician who peered over a table full of chips and wires and who was busy inserting them into the back of a wooden hand mirror. "Have you finished yet?" asked Mr. Parker. "We have to get it to Sydney before too late. Jarod might die. He's the Centre's most valuable property." He didn't want to go the process of getting another Pretender, or even taking one of the in house products and training him. These latter were more dangerous.
The technician looked up at him, his face beady with sweat. "Almost there. Why not bring him into the Centre washroom and have him look at the wall mirror there?"
Mr. Parker scoffed at such a suggestion. This technician had made a fatal error although he did not know it. Centre employees had been killed for lesser offences.
"Because Jarod must not know what he looks like and besides he has to see himself in actual flesh tones. Now hurry up. He can't last much longer."
Jarod indeed was in no shape for anything, lying on the floor, shivering, almost a skeleton. "I don't exist. I don't exist."
"What about the doctor? Can't he see that the kid's starving?"
"No, all he sees is the substitute." He turned to another view of the Centre where the Centre makeup men were applying dirt to the boy's face.
It took half an hour for the mirror to be ready and the technician decided to give Mr. Parker a try. "It works by human sweat. As soon as Jarod sees 'himself' we'll have someone enter Sydney's office and remove it. The incinerator will take care of it."
"Hmm," said Mr. Parker with a smile, "I never knew I looked that young."
"Wait a minute. I'll have to adjust it for an adult."
"What do you mean?"
"It wouldn't look good, sir for you or Sydney to see the other Jarod. Here. Now if you turn it towards yourself, you'll see yourself, but if you turn it to Jarod, he'll see the other boy. It's a matter of scientific reasoning."
"We depend on your good judgment," said Mr. Parker.
"Thank you."
He waited until the technician left and turned to Gar and another sweeper. "Kill him and incinerate the remains. Also find his family and dispose of them as well."
"Yes Mr. Parker."
"Oh and place this back on Sydney's desk."
Mr. Parker smiled. He was better than Raines, better in that he was able to disguise his true nature. He had everything he wanted, the power, and the control. Jarod would belong to the Centre and until the boy was an adult, he was no threat.
However once he approached manhood, Jarod would be dangerous and not even the Neogenesis put in his food would keep him under control.
Mr. Parker had plans for the young Pretender. He would not dispose of him as the others nor put him on the work detail, repairing the lowest sublevels. He had already written a legal document giving Jarod to his daughter. Of course, he didn't know whether a more permanent arrangement between Jarod and his daughter would be permitted, but if a later Jarod, one in his teens threatened to leave, all Mr. Parker could do was to give Sydney the document and let the good doctor persuade the boy that it was best for him t remain.
He turned to the screen showing Sydney come up to Jarod with the mirror.
"Here Jarod," said the psychiatrist, showing Jarod 'his' reflection. "That's what you look like."
The boy weakly raised his head and smiled as the Centre movie technician snapped his fingers at the other boy who imitated Jarod's action and voice.