It appears that Jarod and Miss Parker won't go on their trip to find out their origins if the law has its way. How are they going to get out of this situation? Who's at the door? Lambourni or is it someone else? And if it were Lambourni, remember he used to work for the Mob.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Miss Parker sat down on her chair nursing the youngest, and reading the letter that came up on the screen, which, along with others, Jarod had scanned into the computer. It was much easier than opening an envelope or reading it while all her children tried to get her attention.
Jarod had done more than scan the letters most which he put together after Mr. Parker or Raines put them through the shredder, but he had put links to certain files. He was sure glad The Centre changed its disposal tactics, figuring it would be easy to shred them and carry the bag down to the incinerator. They didn't reckon on Angelo and the others "ghosts" in the Centre retrieving the evidence.. It was horrify to see all the evil written down just as factual data. Seeing the immense damage The Centre had done made her ashamed of her blasé attitude when she first started to pursue Jarod.
Things were different. For the last few days, Miss Parker had sent letters, information out to various law enforcement agencies and the military. She had an advantage over Jarod. He could only do one person or one family at a time. She could reach thousands and when she read her newspaper and heard of a certain strong man kicked out his office, or heard of a drug now banned by the FDA, she knew she had a small part in removing that evil.
"Mother footsteps," said Jarvis.
Miss Parker turned, careful not to dislodge the youngest from her breast. She did not want to admit to Jarod that she really wasn't the motherly type and if she did, the baby might start squeaking, she'd get angry. So she pretended that this was the cutest baby in the whole world instead of the little squawking thing she was and that when she got old enough, she could wear a Parisian original as if she was born to it. "Maybe it's Uncle Broots."
"Mr. Broots no relation."
She smiled. "It's a term that we use, for grown up friends. We call the women, Aunts, and the men, Uncles, Jarvis. Now I've got to read this letter." She put the youngest down in the bassinette that one of the Centre "employees" had made. It was quite well done, although she didn't approve of that cave woman scene, but since the Pretenders were in reality hunters, it was original — a Cro-Magnon woman brandishing a spear fighting off a Sabre Tooth Tiger, while her man is in the distance fighting off a cave bear.
"Grandfather's writing. Grandfather Funny Mouth." Jarvis climbed up and looked at the screen, the innocence of a baby, no not really a baby, a toddler.
"You can only make out a few words, can't you, Jarvis?" I hope, she thought. It still appeared strange to have a child not yet two who looked older than his years, but then Major Charles had fooled The Centre to believing his son was older than he really was.
Jarvis climbed down and went over to the puzzle that Sam had put on the table. All the other children, except for the infants, were busy trying to put the pieces together and looking at Sam like little vultures.
"Now no bothering Uncle Sam," said Miss Parker.
"Right," said Jeremiah and motioned to his siblings. He had something behind his back.
Something was up, she thought. "Sam, could you see Dr. Colby and find when Jarod's appointment is?"
"Is he a bother?" asked the sweeper.
"No, but Eileen Danvers, the new secretary, had a dental appointment today, and Dr. Colby said since she couldn't make it, he'd ask Jarod to come in instead. Everyone here's going."
"He has Sydney."
"Sydney is too close. Oh when's yours?"
"Next Thursday at nine a.m. unless something comes up or I survive" He looked suspiciously at the children and left, leaving five little disappointed faces and Miss Parker to read the letter.
'Angel. If you read this, you know that I am dead. Perhaps my heart gave up, or old age, but no matter, there is something you have to know. You wondered why I married Brigitte and why so long after your mother's death? Yes, I suspected my brother, Abel, but hadn't the courage to stop him.
When we brought Jarod into the Centre, we knew there was something different about him. My father had told me of these imitators, he called them pretenders and that term stuck. We had Sydney, our psychiatrist handle him, and Jarod become our most valuable commodity.
I watched while the doctors took samples and the first spawn grew. But then, I failed to see the coldness of my brother's face whom my father and mother thought was too weak to survive. It took years to find him, but when you and your brother were born, we took precautions by naming your brother Lyle, and Raines arranged his adoption with a family in which the father had the same first name. You can't separate a Parker.'
"So that's how Daddy was able to find him," she said aloud.
"Find who?" asked an unfamiliar voice.
Miss Parker turned. Jarod and his crew were there along with several men whose clothes shouted Law Enforcement and they were rather threatening.
"I'm reading a letter. Could you come back later?" she snapped.
"Perhaps I should read it with you," said the strange man showing her his badge. "Agent Riley, FBI."
"Oh go ahead, you intend to do it anyway."
'But enough of our history. I knew I couldn't have children, and yet I didn't want another child of Raines. Your mother, God bless her, was a good woman but she fought against The Centre. The World needs a strong influence, we're it. An accident in the lab, destroyed, I thought, the results of Jarod's donations, but when I had the team investigate, I found it was no accident. It was my brother's doing. He destroyed only those with an X chromosome so to have an excuse to make a clone.'
"X chromosome?" asked Riley.
"Male," said Miss Parker, thinking, idiot.
"Why?"
"Oh you know people think women are more docile." She gave him her sweetest evil smile and continued reading, seeing how this big strong FBI agent shook.
'Well Angel, all was not lost. I found a batch of the DNA that had the X chromosomes. However since there were an excess of the female DNA, I had those thrown in the incinerator. You know about biology, too much inbreeding and the stock deteriorates. The Centre and the Triumvirate is expanding. There is a demand for more Pretenders and with those milk cartons, we cannot go and get them the old way. I arranged for certain donors, poor women who needed to carry something inside even if it was one of Jarod's spawn. As you know The Centre felt it unnecessary to continue using our female staff, so many going in and out of the Renewal wing.'
Miss Parker gasped at how her father had used women as breeders, not only those of the staff who were put through the renewal wing and later went back to work as if nothing happened, but poor disenfranchised women off the streets who later disappeared permanently. "He didn't!"
"Didn't what?" asked the law enforcement officer.
Miss Parker just glared at him and Jarod did as well. Only the latter had a murderous look on his face.
"If you're looking to find that I had anything to do with this, you're mistaken. All our mail, email, and regular is time stamped. See?" she asked.
"Okay, but what does this prove other than The Centre is responsible for the death of thousands."
"That few?" asked Jarod, "I thought it was more like millions."
"It seems you know more than you let on."
"Yes I do, Agent Riley. The Centre kidnapped, stole, or bred a certain type of individual, a genius who is able to take on the personality and characteristics of another. They set up several fronts, including the Nugenesis Fertility clinic to find out the parents who would produce that type."
"Oh come on."
"It's true," said Miss Parker, "we thought that the Nugenesis clinic experimented with the DNA of the specific couples, you know add a certain gene to the batch that would make the kid set fires just by thinking."
Jarod's mouth gaped open.
"Oh quit with the act of surprise. I checked and I know, you checked."
"Right. When The Centre isolated these individuals, kept them from learning about culture, gave them the information they wanted them to see, no radio, no television, no Christmas, no Easter, no Advent, no Birthdays, no —"
"I get the idea," said Riley, "so The Centre used these to perform the sims and these geniuses had no idea what the sims were used for."
Jarod added a bit more information for emphasis. "Or if they objected, they were either punished or assured that the sim was to protect the evil."
"And it depended on the whim of their employers, I suppose," said Riley, still not convinced that someone as smart as a genius could be kept in the dark as to the true purpose of the simulations.
"If your handler was Raines, you'd get punished, but if it was Sydney, you'd be assured. He suspected but —" Jarod took out a file and handed it to Riley who read through it.
"I'll get back to you, Miss Parker," Riley said as he examined the written evidence of the Centre's crimes. "This is interesting."
Meanwhile Miss Parker got back to the letter giving the reason for her father's marriage to Brigitte. .
'Raines destroyed most of Jarod's male sperm so to have an excuse to create a clone. As for the others, that I saved, the Centre would place the children in certain of our satellites and to make sure that none of the male spawn met with an accident, I called on the son of a friend of mine, a friend who owed me a favor for putting his son through medical school.'
Jarod looked over Miss Parker's shoulders. "That must be Cox." He made a mental calculation. "That method is similar to that used by the Costa Nostra, known colloquially as a favor you can't refuse."
"Well let me finish reading."
"When was this written?" asked Riley"
She looked at the date on the letter. It was written soon after Brigitte's death."
'Yes The Centre and the Triumvirate knew about Brigitte when she first went to work for them and of her peculiar medical situation. I called my secretary who left the appropriate message on Raines' desk — he believes she's his secretary. Of course, I never expected her to try to kill me, I thought I could get hold of her first, but Raines was quicker.
'I had the doctor destroy all the sperm except those of Jarod and fertilized one of your eggs I implanted in Brigitte and made Raines believe he was the father, by substituting the child's DNA. Brilliant, Angel.
'Oh about the child. He'll have everything and when the time comes, if I die, you will be in charge of his training. If you bring him to the Tower, remember that you must guard him carefully The child will be a Super Pretender, the most valuable possession and you and Lyle will be his masters."
So, thought Miss Parker, he would imprison, no enslave his own grand nephew to further the Centre goals and all the time, I thought Daddy was protecting me but no, I was just a donor to produce a Pretender and how many of my eggs has he taken to get the correct one?
"You appear a bit annoyed," said Jarod.
"Of course I'm annoyed. All my father cared about was The Centre, not about my son."
"Well you knew it and that rivalry with your brother, although I could never understand why you cooperated with him."
"Because Lyle was my brother. I figured he'd change."
Jarod shook his head. "Lyle'll never have changed. You think that Raines corrupted him?"
She nodded.
"How long did it take for Raines to change him? Two years? Ten?"
She shook her head. It was not that long. The seeds of Lyle's nature were already growing inside him. If she and Jarod had stayed longer in Nevada after talking to his adoptive mother, they might have learned of small animals being tortured, other children being tormented — things which the then Bobby, would have kept hidden and which a loving mother would attribute to someone else. Miss Parker turned to see Riley go through her desk, find nothing, and then head for the closet. The FBI agent came out with a holster set complete with revolver and bullets and he was smiling. "Well what do we have here?"
"You put that back!"
"Why Miss Parker? Is there something you want to hide?"
"That's Jarod's Christmas present."
"A revolver?" asked Riley.
"Yes."
"And what did he get you, Miss Parker, a derringer?"
She shrugged her shoulder at his ignorance. "Of course not. Perfume."
Another agent brought out a detective's manual, a set of business cards with the title Angel Investigations plus a letter from another company of the same name requesting that they had a trademark and would they please comply with their request and change their name. Attached to it was a copy of a letter that Miss Parker had sent out to the above company saying they would comply with their request. The new cards Angela Investigations were behind the stapler along with a copy of the registration from the Trademark Office. There was also another letter stating that "due to my pregnancy The
Angela Investigations will be on hiatus until further notice.
"I guess with having four, no I mean, nine children around, you haven't much time, for ah investigating."
Miss Parker ignored Riley's sarcasm. She had had enough of this. She had done all she could to turn The Centre from evil unto good, not to mention about worrying that Patricia might die and now the law had come to destroy what little she had done.
She needed a miracle and now it looked as if no miracles were forthcoming. At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
"Thank you Blessed Mother," she prayed and went to open the door.