CHAPTER NINE

Years before, Catherine Parker with the help of Jacob Green had helped the most important Pretender children escape. True, there were others, but they had been created in the Centre and were not dependable. The Centre had found out that the desire for returning to ones' parents and then the despair and resignation made the Pretenders work better and accept their fate

Those who never knew that there might be someone out there had nothing to lose so they botched the simulations, lied about results, and since they knew the hiding places, were quite good at avoiding punishment. The Centre had to train at least one hundred new Sweepers to keep the born Pretenders in line.

And then there were the ones created through Jarod. The evil bald headed man had arranged with the Triumvirate to have some shipped out to Africa, but Mr. Parker had stopped him. "If we do not find Jarod, we will have to train one of them."

"And how do you know that he is their donor?" Raines asked.

"Because when Jarod was to give a sample because of that epidemic we faked, I was with the doctors who inserted the sample into the recipients."

"I couldn't use them because you insisted that no drugs should be tested on them."

This had made Raines angry, but hearing about the deaths of most of the former escapes, had pleased him. He checked the list. There were a couple that remained, but pretty soon when they went in a hospital or a clinic, they would die.

It was ironic that those Catherine had stolen from the Centre had died of a variation of a disease that wiped out thousands back in the early twentieth century. It was also ironic that traces of this variant left the body immediately after death and that its effects mimicked ordinary colds and mild diseases that just left ordinary people with a slight fever. But the Pretenders were not ordinary. The Centre had done tests to find out how to find and kill them. It had also placed its doctors and nurses, one to each clinic and hospital around the United States. No matter how far the kids had escaped, they would soon die.

And to make matters worse, Raines knew where the kids were all along. He just had bided his time until they were adults so the Centre would not be held to blame and now he had succeeded.

Life was sure getting pleasant for him as he sat in his black chair, enjoying one of those rare moments of peace, watched down by the stark picture of his grandfather and grandmother on their wedding day. Raines had wished he had gotten the later paintings that hung in the chairman's office. Still he could see the cold calculating and superior look and the room echoed Lamech's cold and sterile vision. And he knew that across the aisle was the office designated for Miss Parker when she got Jarod.

Unfortunately he learned that she was going to leave as soon as she brought the Pretender in. Well, Raines smiled, the more opportunity for me to torture him.

He adjusted the controls in his Oxygen Tank and spoke into the intercom. "Don, as soon as Willie arrives, I want to see him right away."

"Yes sir," With that the connection shut off.

Raines hated using Don. That 'employee' showed so much disdain for him, and Raines suspected that Don had altered the controls so he got less oxygen, but he couldn't prove it. Don was too clever. Well that's what came from using one of those in house Pretenders. At least, Don was good at spying on Centre visitors, making them feel at ease, and pretending to be a visitor himself. That was the reason he was here in the Tower and still alive.

There were other things to do. Jarod's brother Kyle had escaped and there were reports that Jarod was either going to or on the farm of that former nun. With that, Raines smiled.

Willie soon arrived. "Did you send for me?"

"Yes. Don, close the door and stop snooping."

"Right sir." The door shut very slowly.

"We have Jarod."

"When do we bring him in?"

"Not yet. We're waiting for the okay from the Chairman. It's going to be a cooperative effort. Meanwhile Kyle has escaped and Jarod's found out about Catherine and Margaret's friend."

"What Miss Parker doesn't know? We could have had Jarod here all the time."

"But we have to make him believe that his father does not look like Major Charles. He still isn't convinced. Do you have the photograph?"

Willie produced it.

"Excellent. Now I heard that there's this idiot working at Harriet's farm, the nun whom Kyle had threatened, I want you to take Otto, he's the new Centre hypnosis and persuader, and this." He opened his drawer and took out a small canister. "The gas."

"The gas?"

"I lied about destroying all of it. Find that country bumpkin and use it to convince the retard that he saw this man," he showed him the photograph of Theodore Walstaff, "instead of him." He then showed the photograph of Major Charles.

"I will do it and gladly."

Raines then waited until Willie left and then asked Don to connect to the Chairman's office.

"There's no answer, sir."

"See if he left a message."

"I will sir."

For a while there was silence and then the chairman's voice mail came on. "This is Mr. Parker. I am taking an early lunch. Please do not contact me until I get back." It then disconnected.

Raines fumed. It was these early lunches or late lunches or business conferences that kept him from catching the Pretender. He needed Mr. Parker's approval, not like what Miss Parker had, the full authorization. But, he smiled slightly at this, with Jarod's spawn already being ready, there was no need for Jarod to be alive — unless the Pretender begged him for mercy and allowed himself to be taken — now Raines determined that if Jarod ran, instead of a bullet in his leg or his shoulder, the bullet would be in his back.