Chapter Four
Gemini-M: I'm also glad that you finally had time to read my story. You had me worried- you'd disappeared! Anway, your 'pretty please' prompted me into action. I hope you like this chapter.
bloodymary2: your review actually had me squealing in joy- thankyou so very much. I love it when people tell me they have no idea what's coming. Now I really hope this lives up to your expectations.
HuntingPeace Thankyou.
Kendel17 Wow! Ten million metaphorical dollars? Just what I've always wanted. Of course I'll update. (ps. I understand the feeling of extreme sadness and desperation I feel when I hear a story I really like is going to take a while, I just never thought that anyone could feel that way about my humble little drabble. So thanks ;) )
Daisyz: I hope unpredicatable in a good way...?
Rev2004: I will. At least, I'll try to.
'Hey Sydney?' Broots looked up from where he had been tapping away at the computer, trying to dredge up some sort of clue on the whereabouts of Jarod. After he had gone missing for a few hours, he had been moved to a much more secure space, and yet had still disappeared without a trace, only four days later. One day after that, Miss Parker had not come into work, and sweepers had gone to her house only to find that she had packed her bags and disappeared.
'What is it Broots?'
'Do you think maybe they're together?'
Sydney glanced at the ever-present cameras, warning the tech not to say anything too incriminating, before he answered. 'They both went missing within a day of each other. It does seem somewhat coincidental.'
'But when she came in here whilst Jarod was doing the Wallace sim… his heart rate soared. He's terrified of her.'
Sydney gave the tech a steady stare. 'Fear isn't the only thing that will cause elevated heart rate Broots.'
Broots thought about that for a moment, then blinked a couple of times, and shook his head hard, as though clearing an uncomfortable mental image. He shot Sydney a pleading look, and the shrink shrugged in response.
'What I'd be more interested to know is what they're planning.'
'Huh?'
'It was very dangerous for Jarod to come in here, let alone for both of them. Even though Raines is out of the picture, her father could still do them serious harm, not to mention Lyle who's been lurking around. They wouldn't have done it without a reason.'
'So… what was their reason?'
On cue, Broots screen went blank. He jumped, then realised it was just the screen saver coming on. He hit the spacebar to clear it, then jumped again. Pasted across his screen in red letters was a message. Sydney leaned over his shoulder, reading with interest.
We apologise for the inconvenience
Underneath it said:
Deleting C/…
Beyond the C/ was a blur, as the filenames flashed past on their way to oblivion.
'Nooooo' groaned Broots, watching years of work flash before his eyes. Sydney had a faint smile on his face. He hadn't seen Jarod get near this computer once, yet it was an offline desktop- there was no way in externally. However annoyed he was at his protégé for endangering both himself and Miss Parker, he couldn't help feeling a slight twinge of pride at his abilities.
Broots wasn't nearly so happy. The tech had slumped in his chair and letting out small whimpering sounds as he watched the screen. Sydney patted his shoulder in a vaguely comforting manner.
oo00OO00oo
The two causes of Broots' anguish were currently watching the chaos they had created, from a hotel 500 miles away. Well, Parker was watching it, via the feed from the security cameras, hooked in to Jarod's laptop. There was a knock on the door to the room and she stood briefly to let the pretender in, before resettling on the couch in front of the laptop that was set up on the coffee table.
Jarod kicked the door shut behind himself, and sat next to Parker, wordlessly handing her one of the cups of steaming coffee that he held. They sipped and watched in silence for a while. The scenes that the feed was showing as it randomly scrolled through the sub-level cameras were better than anything that could be dreamed up in the head of a ratings-desperate television executive for the next reality TV hit.
'Poor Broots' commented Jarod after a little while.
'Yeah, this is going to be hard on gadget boy. Frankly though, it serves him right for trying to spy on me whilst I was on holiday.'
'He what?' Jarod's tone was outraged.
'It was really Daddy that made him do it, but that still doesn't mean he's going to get any slack over it.' Parker smiled wolfishly as the footage showed the look of absolute despair on Broots' face as his computer was wiped by a virus Jarod had personally programmed and loaded.
'That's hardly fair. It's wasn't really his fault, and besides, he didn't tell your father that you'd disappeared.'
'How do you know?'
'Because I found out that someone else was using the satellite cameras when I hacked in myself, but I couldn't find out who. So I figured whoever was doing it had discovered the same thing as I had. Despite that, your father never mobilised any sort of a team to track you down, and never asked you about it. Meaning he didn't know.'
'Huh.' Stated Parker, as a, non-committal response.
Having seen the majority of the fireworks down in the sim labs, Jarod reached out with his non-coffee arm and switched the camera feed up into the tower. There wasn't as thorough camera coverage in the more privileged half of the Centre, but Parker had taken care of that. Jarod wondered absently how she'd had any time to get any cover work done with all the cameras that she had planted.
A few people had severe reactions like Broots. Some tried things like switching off the power the moment they realised what was happening. Some began running around like headless chickens. None of it helped. The chairman knew within thirty seconds. His reaction was interesting. He simply sighed once then buried his face in his hands for a good ten seconds. Then he looked up at the fidgeting tech that had bought him the news and went into damage control. That didn't help either. By the evening, there was not one scrap of binary code on anything Centre related.
Parker and Jarod didn't watch to that point though. They had gotten distracted.
By each other.
oo00OO00oo
A few months later, at the Centre building in Delaware
A zephyr of stale air stirred a few scraps of paper, lifting and twirling them a short distance down the corridor then dropping them in a scattered wave across the blackened tile floor.
The fire that had ripped through the Centre building had been fast and enormously destructive, leaving just enough time for complete evacuation and little else. Unfortunately, in the confusion and chaos, a few of the saner ex-inmates had organised an escape, and now most of the Centre's projects were scattered in hiding across the country, much like the scraps of paper that were now twitched a little further across the floor by the breeze, before stilling once more.
The fire had been one of the final blows- caused by wiring down in the sublevels that had apparently had the insulation nibbled away by the resident rats. At least, that was the story. There hadn't really been enough evidence left to confirm anything more. Now the Centre was a rapidly fading ghost. Removed electronically, then cauterised physically, all investors were well and truly heading for the hills, and most of the old employees were scanning the jobs sections in various newspapers.
'Wanted. A go-getting individual with good secret keeping skills, and a dedication to not getting shot.'
The few really big fish had presented a brief problem. The Centre had been removed in the eyes of the general populace, where it had never really existed in the first place. In the eyes of the government, and a few large corporations however, the Centre, their former source of hefty bribes, had merely fallen on hard times. With adequate craftiness on behalf of certain tower individuals, the stupid goons in charge of the country would have eventually helped them to re-establish, starting the same cycle of evil over again.
So Mr Parker caught a mysterious, incurable disease. Lyle crashed his car, and died in the ambulance on the way to hospital. Raines' oxygen tank malfunctioned, asphyxiating the emphysemic in his sleep. These were harsh but necessary final measures to ensure that no fiery bird rose from the ashes of otherwise complete destruction.
And as for the two instruments of this coup…
'I'm worried about you and her Jarod.'
'Why's that Sydney? We're certainly not.' Jarod grinned fondly as he watched his wife take out the heart and head of the paper target. He and his old mentor were sitting in the observation gallery that looked on to the indoor shooting range, watching as Miss Parker showed Broots how to shoot. It was his final penance for having spied on her all those months ago, and he was trying to make the best on it, nodding nervously as she gave him a few last instructions and handed him the gun.
'You never talk.' Commented Sydney. 'A lack of communication is almost always the root cause of marriage breakdown.'
'We don't talk. That doesn't mean we don't communicate.' Jarod didn't take his eyes of the shooting range as he spoke. Broots' first shot missed the target entirely.
'How so?' Asked Sydney, mildly curious.
'Isn't something like 80 percent of communication non-verbal anyway?' Sydney jumped slightly as Miss Parker spoke from behind him, having left Broots to practise his aim.
'Hello Parker. We were just talking about you.' Sydney smiled benignly at her but Jarod didn't miss the implication. Sydney wasn't prepared to drop the matter just yet, and wanted to draw Parker into the conversation.
'I know.' Replied Parker, sauntering around the seats where the two men sat, and sinking sideways onto Jarod's lap, so she was facing Sydney. Jarod put his arms around her waist, grinning. The two performed displays like this all the time now, but it did not alleviate the psychiatrist's nagging worry that they hardly ever spoke to each other.
'We really are honestly fine Syd.' Commented Parker, covering one of Jarod's hands with her own, and turning her head to briefly gaze into his eyes. He looked back, completely captivated by her.
'You don't seem fine. Part of being a couple is talking; it doesn't matter what about. Just so long as you keep speaking to each other, you re-affirm the bonds between you.'
'You'd make a good marriage counsellor' pointed out Parker mildly. 'You're avoiding the point.' Stated Sydney, determined in this.
Jarod sighed in mock defeat. 'You'd better tell him dear.'
They shared another look, and this time Parker could resist dipping her head for a brief kiss. Sydney waited patiently until they were ready to deal with him.
'You spent most of your life researching twin bonds Syd, so it shouldn't seem so strange to you. Jarod and I grew up together; apart from Timmy, we were the only two people in each other's worlds. We were meant to be together, always have been. We love each other. Our non-verbal communication is more like 100 percent.'
'She really shocked me when she first proved that she always knew exactly where I was.' Reminisced Jarod fondly. Sydney looked from one to the other.
'So you're saying you've got some sort of twin-like bond between you two?'
'Yup. Only less…sibling-like. Otherwise I'm fairly sure all this would be illegal.'
'Hmm. It could be something to do with Parker actually being a twin. She lost her connection with her brother early and so reformed it with you.'
'Something like that.' Grinned Jarod, amused by Sydney's scientist instinct to immediately form hypotheses. Sydney shook his head, and returned to watching Broots attempt to hit the target.
You'd better go rescue him. Commented Jarod silently, and Parker nodded. She stepped off his lap and he couldn't resist smacking her bottom as she sauntered towards the door. The pretender swore he could have heard her give a very un-ice-queen-like squeak. He grinned again. Sydney kept his eyes on the range, pretending to ignore them both, but the old man smiled slightly even so.
The End
Author's note: I suppose now would be as good a time as any to announce my upcoming hiatus from the pretender fiction. I'll be back as soon as my two latest obsessions fade, although who knows when that'll be. I've done this before when the shiny bauble of Firefly caught my eye. Thanks for your patience all. TTFN.