I happen to like Jarod and will keep writing about him so that the title of this group will be what it was intended to be A PretendersHaven.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

As Captain Osbourne lay dying he had slipped something into Jarod's pocket and then he died.

With the explosion that rocked the station, Jarod barely had time to read the note as he traveled back down south. It explained that the Circle of Fire was a code used by the Major and his men during a mission when they were younger and that someone pretending to be Major Charles made others believe it had something to do with Celtic mythology and Indian lore. The paper also contained a photograph of the real Major Charles and the words, "give the ring to my daughter. Only if the Major asks about it, must you tell him, the mission is over."

That picture that he thought was his father was a lie, a Centre lie. They had failed to substitute another photo for that of his mother, but they had succeeded with his father. As Jarod ripped up the pieces of Walstaff's photo up, he wondered whether he was really the boy in the DSAs, but who else could he be? And why was his hair lighter down in the Centre. When he almost died during that plane crash, when he saw the figure of Faith, his hair had that auburn tint it got when he was out in the sun.

But there was no sun in the Centre, but perhaps it had to do with the special fluorescent light, he didn't look pale and even looking at his own skin then, it was not pale. Perhaps they had sun lamps down there. However, that was not important, he had to find out more about his father and about the Captain's last words.

He passed an abandoned snowmobile on the way back and further along what looked like a lump. The driver said,:"Some poor soul," radioed the Search and Rescue Unit, gave the location, and then they went on their way.

When Jarod got to the settlement, he found the RCMP constable and one of the Native police cordoning off a Quonset Hut and shooing the population away. He didn't want to bring any attention to himself — after all The Centre probably had some of its goons around —so he asked the driver to tell him what happened.

"Another death. We have almost six months of darkness here. Someone's bound to go off his rocker." He shrugged his shoulder. "Anyway whoever did this is probably dead by now."

Jarod remembered that abandoned snowmobile and the lump did look a bit like a body. Crime sure didn't pay up here.

The airport was cleared and planes were taking off. Not wanting to risk it by getting on a commuter plane, Jarod had flown in on a private plane courtesy of the Centre funds, and returned to Toronto where he left it at the airport to see the sights. .

He checked the Toronto Star, but saw no articles mentioning anyone needing help. Besides, he had no desire to do a Pretend then. He wanted to find his father, to have a real family, to be rid of The Centre and for some reason, he kept thinking of Miss Parker. He tried not to, but she was always on his mind. Her face was there when he dreamed. Maybe he could persuade her to leave The Centre and they could live someplace, and then there was another thought that entered his mind. What if she pointed a loaded gun at him and gave him another ultimatum, to live with her in Blue Cove but not in The Centre. Would he exchange one captivity for another?

But that was not his problem. His problem was getting adequate transportation. He got a ride on a bus and avoided customs by skipping off once over the border. He then made a quick call to the United States Air force. The Colonel agreed to see him.

"What does 'the mission is over' signify?" he asked, giving the man the description of the Captain and how he died.

"Back in 1970, the Air force asked for volunteers to fly over a section of Vietnam where the Viet Cong were planning to further disrupt communications, but we had a spy in our ranks. That was the reason for those rings. In them is a communications device. When the mission was completed or one survivor remained, the dying man was to give him a message."

"The Mission is over," said Jarod.

"We believe that spy is still here in the United States and if he were to know that there was one survivor, he would be after him."

"So he believes there are no survivors."

"The survivor has the remaining ring. Don't ask him about it, don't mention it."

"I will do that."