Pretense

Chapter Three

Cade

            Samarah finally returned after spending a few hours alone.  Jarod had stayed in the living room of their hotel, typing on his computer, gathering information about WYS.  Jarod had only met Cade twice.  Cade was incredibly intelligent and he was the star of the Centre.  Well, apparently that had changed.  Cade was one of Lyle's first projects or first test subjects, depending on who was talking.  He was a protégé; he was everything the Centre had wanted.  Cade was obedient, talented, and special.  He was one of the few projects that had gone right.  Of course, the Centre had remained oblivious to his anger building at the misuse of his gift.  Telekinesis wasn't meant to be used for murder.  It'd proven to be easy to kill people with that gift.  He could send a knife to a given target from a mile away and never get caught.  But now Cade's wrath had turned on to the people who had developed his talent.  And Jarod understood the repercussions of a subject turning on the Centre.  He was one of them.  Fortunately for them, he didn't really want them dead.  He hoped Cade didn't want Miss Parker dead.  Or Sydney.  Or Broots.  Or Angelo.  But they could get caught in the crossfire, even if Cade didn't want them hurt.  He couldn't stand to see that happen. 

            Samarah placed her hand on Jarod's shoulder, bringing him out of his tumultuous thoughts.  She seemed calmer than before, but he could still sense her pain.  Seeing Lyle again had obviously thrown her for a loop.  Jarod could almost understand that, since he felt the same when he saw Sydney and Miss Parker.  But Lyle was evil and Sydney and Miss Parker were not.  Jarod smiled at her encouragingly, trying his best to make her feel better.  He hated seeing his friend in pain.  Samarah didn't deserve to be in so much pain.  She'd already been through enough.  They all had.  He knew it was time to talk to her about Cade.  Since Samarah had been in isolation for the majority of her life, she may not even know that Cade had become one of Lyle's pet projects.  For all he knew, Samarah didn't think Lyle was evil at all.  They had history, but Lyle could have easily kept his true nature hidden.  Since Samarah was so naïve from her isolation, it was possible for him to have fooled her.  She might not have been able to see his lies due to her inexperience.  Then again, he probably wasn't giving her enough credit.  She was sent out into the world when the others were not.  She may be better at detecting lies than he was.   Finally, he decided he would just tell her about Cade and Lyle.  She didn't need protecting from the truth.  The truth had a habit of coming out anyways, so he might as well be up front with her from the start.

"Project WYS."

"Yes.  Cade. The telekinetic thirty-two year old."

"You know that the project was transferred to Mr. Lyle, don't you?  About seven and a half years ago."

"Yes.  I know."

"You do?"  Jarod seemed genuinely surprised that Samarah was aware of Lyle's projects.  Little did Jarod know, Cade was the reason Samarah had grown disillusioned with the Centre and Lyle.  Maybe she would tell Jarod about the incident, but not yet.  She wasn't ready.

"Yeah.  I know.  I met Cade when I was seventeen."

Samarah was being let out of her cell.  Of course, she still had sweepers on either side of her, but she wasn't in her cell, which was the most important thing to her.  She grew tired of staring at the blank walls all day long.  She didn't care what she had to do, as long as it didn't involve her returning to her small room.  Dr. Raines had come into her cell to let her know about her release.  They wanted her to meet someone, another special person.  He had a different talent than hers.  This boy could move things with his mind.  He wasn't a whole lot older than her, probably not much older than Lyle.  He was twenty-three.  Samarah was just excited at the prospect of meeting someone new.  Actually, she was just excited at the prospect of seeing anyone.

            Samarah entered a large room and immediately surveyed the area.  In the center of the room, a table and two chairs were set.  A boy was sitting in one of the chairs, looking incredibly bored.  She knew the bored feeling, but she had hoped he would be as excited about meeting her as she was of meeting him.  Apparently, he wasn't excited about meeting her.

"Cade, this is Samarah.  She's a pretender."

He glanced at her indifferently.  He didn't speak or smile.  He hardly even acknowledged her at all.  Samarah walked forward, taking the chair opposite of Cade.  She wanted to talk to him, but he didn't seem very open for conversation.  She watched him for a few more minutes until he broke the silence.

"Stop looking at me already.  It's not like you've never seen a man before."

Her eyes had narrowed considerably at his comment.  First, he didn't say anything to her and now he was griping at her.  She hated it when people were rude.

 "Well, you didn't even say hello.  I was watching you because I was afraid to talk to you.  I thought you might bite my head off."

"I might still if you don't stop staring at me."

Samarah stood angrily, wondering which was worse, meeting this guy or staying in her room all day.  Well, she wasn't going to take his treatment of her.  She had plenty of other guys being cruel to her.  Dr. Raines for one.  He wouldn't be happy if they didn't talk at all.   She had to try to talk to Cade to avoid the consequences of defying Dr. Raines.

"You have no right to talk to me that way.  Dr. Raines wanted us to meet.  It's not like I had a big choice in this matter. "

"You were staring at me like I was a freak."

"We're all freaks here at the Centre.  I pretend to be someone I'm not.  You move things with your mind.  Big deal.  Get over it.  You're older than me, but you act like you're five."

Cade flicked his eyes and the chair moved back against Samarah, knocking her down.  Samarah glared at him from the floor and stood up indignantly.  She wanted to punch him, but she'd face consequences if she did.  So instead she turned on her heel and went to bang on the door for James to let her out.  James was the only sweeper she liked and he probably wouldn't force her to stay in the room with the jerk, despite his orders.  He did let her out and Samarah only stopped to glance back at Cade.  He was angry at being used by the Centre, which Samarah understood.  What she didn't understand was why he was taking it out on her.  She walked on through the door and didn't look back again.

            "He was cruel. I met Cade a few times also.  He was always so angry, especially when Lyle took charge of him. I can understand being angry with Lyle around-"

Jarod glanced down.  He'd forgotten that Samarah actually liked the guy.  Or used to. 

"Anyway, Cade was the basis of project WYS.  He's been used in several key diplomatic assassinations.  He can be a mile away and kill someone with just a flick of his eyes.  He just has to concentrate on what he's using to commit the murder.  If he used a knife, police would look for a stabber that would be near the victim.  Not someone from a mile away."

Samarah nodded at what he said.  She'd gathered as much when she'd found out about Cade's recent training when she'd still been at the Centre.  She'd discovered Lyle was in charge of Cade the way Dr. Raines was in charge of her.  She wasn't sure who had left her the file, but it had been in her cell when she'd returned from a job.  She'd reacted badly, but realistically.  She'd allowed herself to feel for Lyle and he'd been betraying her the whole time.  She'd felt so angry with him and she'd let him know it.  Samarah shook her head, no longer wishing to relive her days with Lyle.  She had to focus on what Jarod was telling her.  He was explaining his plan to bring Cade down.

            Cade stood outside a small motel building.  He'd tracked Samarah and Jarod to the building.  They were surprisingly easy to find, considering the Centre had been searching for Jarod for years.  Cade was also surprised that Jarod would be so close to the Centre.  He'd underestimated Jarod's attachment to Miss Parker and Dr. Sydney.  Well, lucky for Jarod, he wasn't after them.  He just needed Samarah.  Cade climbed the stairs quietly, not wanting to alert Samarah and Jarod of a new presence on their floor.  He stood outside room 254C and examined the doorknob.  It was locked at the moment, but he would remedy that easily.  He focused on the metal and could see in his mind the turning of the gages that kept the door lock.  He heard the click and he tried the door handle.  It opened easily.  And the look on Jarod and Samarah's face was priceless.  Jarod jumped to his feet but Cade punched him before Jarod even had a chance to fight back.  Jarod fell to the floor unconscious as Cade grabbed a hold of Samarah.
"I never really liked you, Samarah, so I don't regret doing this."  He placed some chlorophyll over her mouth and picked her up as she slumped.  He carried her away from the room, away from Jarod.

            Miss Parker had called Broots into her office.  Sydney was already there waiting for her explanation.  She'd found something.  Or rather she'd be given something.  She'd left her office for lunch and when she'd returned, a DSA was sitting on her desk, propped up next to her computer.  She'd popped it into her computer and watched it feeling completely fascinated.  Now she was going to share it with everyone.

"This has to do with Lyle and Samarah.  I haven't found anything on project WYS, but this explains part of Lyle's relationship with Samarah."

The two crowded around the screen as she pushed the play button. 

Samarah was laying on her bed, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.  The door opened quietly and she jumped up excitedly. 

"Lyle!"

He shut the door with a click.  He was smiling and just looked generally happy.  He shed his suit jacket before wrapping his arms around Samarah.  She leaned into him, pulling him down for a kiss.  They seemed like a normal couple for a second, if they weren't locked in a private cell with almost no adornment at all. 

"I'm glad you're back, baby girl.  I always worry about you when you are away."

"Why?  This wasn't that much different from any of my other missions.  I was just being a teacher."

"So you could test a child."
"On her intelligence."

"So she could be used as a test subject if she passed."

Samarah's eyes widened as she studied Lyle.  He couldn't possibly be telling the truth.  The Centre would have had to kidnap that girl for her to work at the Centre.  They wouldn't do that.  Would they?  Lyle's face softened as he watched the surprise fall across her features.  She hadn't known why she was testing the girl.  A wave of remorse and guilt crashed over him, but he immediately squashed the feelings.  He had no say over Samarah's assignments, so he couldn't possibly feel guilty about what she'd been sent to do.  She was the one that didn't question her assignments. 

"You didn't know, did you, Samarah?"

"No.  You aren't serious are you?  Lyle, tell me I didn't just send another child here."

"You didn't send her here."

"So you weren't serious?"

Lyle didn't answer, just kissed her soundly.  Samarah pulled away to take another breath, their foreheads pressed together.  She loved Lyle, even if she didn't understand the feeling very well.  He made her feel safe and comfortable and happy and she just wanted to be with him so badly sometimes.  She took another deep breath, enjoying his scent.  He smelled slightly of aftershave, a scent she'd become accustomed to and enjoyed quite a bit.  Lyle's hand rose to cup her cheek.  He lifted her head so she would meet his gaze.

"I love you, Samarah." 

Lyle didn't know what had possessed him to tell Samarah he loved her.  He knew he did, but he'd never planned on telling her.  Maybe it was the guilt he was trying so desperately to cleanse himself of that had driven him to tell her.  Maybe by telling her his feelings, he would be off the hook.   Maybe he was diluting himself.  No matter what caused him to blurt it out, the look of pure pleasure on her face made up for whatever doubts he was having.

"I love you, too, Lyle."

Miss Parker looked up to see Sydney and Broots' reactions.  They seemed as surprised as she had been when she'd seen this tender Lyle.  He was kind to Samarah.  He was gentle with Samarah, even.  Kind and gentle were not words associated with Lyle.  Evil.  Cold.  Cruel.  Psychotic.  Yeah.  Kind.  Gentle.  Loving.  No.  Broots was the first to comment.
"Lyle was in love with a pretender, a subject of the Centre?  That must have gone over well with the Triumvirate."
"Unless they didn't know.  If you'll notice the time on that scene, it was pretty late at night.  It was almost as if Lyle snuck in to see her."   

Sydney tilted his head.  "Lyle having a clandestine love affair with property of the Centre hardly seems real, but it seems to be the best explanation.  That would explain all of the tension between Samarah and Lyle on the phone earlier."

"So it would." 

The three turned their attention back on the screen, where a frozen image of Lyle and Samarah stayed.  They seemed happy.  What had happened?  Why had Lyle become so evil?  And why had Samarah left?