CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Jarod had pretended to be a psychiatrist, but never, unless one counted Sydney and that time he helped that woman gain custody of her son, been under the scrutiny of Dr. Colby.

And Dr. Colby was not like Sydney. There was a photograph of Dr. Colby and his wife also a psychiatrist plus another of him in his mother's arms as an infant with several other people. Jarod examined it more closely.

Yes, this all made sense, the setting, and the small gravestone. He carefully took the photograph from the frame and examined the writing referring to a previous child, also a boy, who died before he was six months of age.

The Marshall's Office used the dead child's name for Dr. Cox, and perhaps this was a coincidence, but nothing to do with The Centre was coincidence. The Centre, that is, the old Centre, had access to information. They would have known about Dr. Colby's dead brother and had it not been that the Old Centre was no more; Dr. Cox would never have got away.

Now Cox was back and the CIA, MI-5, Interpol, and whatever, would be tracking down the strong men, dictators, tyrants, and immoral people to whom the Centre shipped the results of Jarod's sims.

"Please take a seat." Dr. Colby motioned to Jarod. "I know all about your life here in the Centre."

"So why am I here?" Jarod was fidgeting.

"Perhaps to discuss your experiences when outside, your reaction to certain things like, for instance, when you first eat ice cream, or when you first had a Twinkie."

"I cannot see the purpose, but actually I expressed in the latter, that it was amazing how they got the filling inside. It was an amazing process."

"I see and when ever you saw something, a toy, how to eat Oreo cookies, you expressed that same type of wonder as if you were a child."

"You can say that since I never experienced these as a child."

"Do you still do that?"

"Not as often. I get the, 'This was named after some man and why they named it after him, I have no idea,' or 'they had to call it something. Shows a lack of imagination.'"

"Ah the resentful type." Colby smiled.

"I presume so."

"And if Miss Parker or whoever it was is not around, for instance if you are going after a bail jumper, and you run across a child holding a popsicle, it would be dangerous for you to approach her and ask what that is?" He opened his notebook and taking out a pen, started writing. "Considering that child molesters masquerade as decent people and being around or wanting to be around children is one ways they snare their victims, another approach would be in order."

Jarod never thought about that before. Children had always trusted him and he never would have harmed them, but pedophiles approached children in the same manner as he did. Not only that sociopaths and psychopaths were able to lure them away using the same methods he did.

And there were other signs, the way he could just talk to people and get them to trust him. He always said his first name, but was that proper? Perhaps if he said, Agent Wilkes, and Jarod Wilkes afterwards, it would be better. "I didn't realize that my approach was incorrect. I felt that the child needed assurance and Sydney never taught me how to speak to younger ones."

Colby nodded. "But in life there are certain unspoken rules to follow and you have to remember that even though you would never harm a child, that child might be lured by someone who would use the same familiarity."

"I agree with you. However if the child is in danger or his family's in peril, how can one make the correct move to assist them? Sydney would ask how would I approach him?"

"That isn't right. You'll never change for all it does is reinforce your past experiences. However, I follow the Adler school, which entirely different from the Freudian method. So what's I'm going to do is to show a DVD of inoffensive ways to talk to youngsters that is put out by the police department as well as those that pedophiles and criminals use."

He put the DVD in the machine and they watched for fifteen minutes. "Now do you get the idea?"

Jarod nodded. "Yes, I do."

Colby took out the DVD and turned off the machine.

"We all know that we have demons in our past. The trick is surviving in spite of them. Now your past behavior shows that your reaction happened because of something in your previous life. For instance, because The Centre took you from your family, you go after those who harm children. Now I want to know about your goals."

"If it were years ago, I would say to find my family and bring down The Centre. I felt then that I could not have a family of mine own unless this was accomplished."

"I have a sister who married after trying to become the best business manager in the field. She was thirty at the time, in good health, and she felt that she and her husband were ready for that baby. Didn't happen. Why?"

"The Centre would go after my children."

"So you agree to sacrifice your life and your future to The Centre. You believe that people who never finished high school, who are basically ignorant and stupid, who have an IQ under 100 should have children, but not you." Colby leaned forward.

"I didn't say that and I have children"

"But The Centre created them without your consent and knowledge, Jarod and you believed, from what Miss Parker told me, that they took a scraping of one of your skin cells and combined that with another instead of putting the sperm and egg together. Now do you believe that not knowingly begetting children then made you happier?"

"I told you, the Centre would have gone after them."

"And yet you could have asked for help. For instance, Samantha and Rachel of the FBI would have known someone who'd take care of them and arrange for a safe place so you could visit them. People often discourage geniuses from starting families by saying that 'you might have a child who is mentally challenged.' The reason they say that is because they are afraid, yes afraid that any children you have might be smarter then them. Highly intelligent people have highly intelligent children, unless one marries someone who is not smart and even then growing up in a house with a lot of stimulation will help." He paused for a moment. "And yet you had sex with a woman from Argentina, Rachel Burke, and Zoe You also inferred being with this woman who was in charge of stunts and who's now in the Women's Security Prison back in —"

"That is entirely private and besides, I had no idea how it functioned."

"But even though you had no idea that your penis entering the vagina would create children, in two chances, you actually did. It's known as the instinct to procreate That's the reason some men have children by as many as twenty different mothers and why girls of twelve and under have kids by boys not that much older because that instinct is so natural. You don't need a book or a high IQ to learn how. It's natural."

To compare him to someone who wanted trophies was beyond him. He just wanted to be close to someone, to hold her in his arms and because of that, there were six children in the world, their mothers took care of them and now one of the mothers was dying. He decided to get the doctor off track. "What about Miss Parker."

"Do you believe that Miss Parker then would have harmed any of your children if she were the mother? But would Miss Parker then have said to them, 'these are mine and Jarod's children,' and believe that you being the father would be the reason to override her desire to protect them?"

"They would be able to persuade her. That's why."

"And yet in the case of Frederick and Margaret, she made them promise not to put them down below, so even with Raines's genes in her, Miss Parker would never let any of your children come to harm. Now I want to hear a condensed version of more of your life in the Centre. Let's say sims."

"All the time I did the sims, Sydney never mentioned money. I had nothing, except for that bank account, but it wasn't even mine. It was just so they could purchase stuff for my sims under my assumed name so that if something went wrong, I'd be blamed."

"But you stole. The old adage, 'two wrongs do not make a right' Jarod?"

"Then I would have been unable to help people."

"The Centre should have told you that you were in bondage, their property from the beginning. Actually you could have taken the stuff, and act as their agent. That was one of the prerogatives of high-class slaves. Their masters made them their business managers, their stewards, but The Centre didn't allow you to do that. I want your reaction to that."

Jarod let him have it, telling how he had to work at sims from morning until night, the danger he felt, how he became exhausted and later to escape, to then sneak back, find the DSAs, and the codes to the Centre finances, take what he considered they owed him so he could right the wrongs.

He had to buy the equipment necessary and he could not use a credit card. He knew Miss Parker's phone card so he used that for a time, but then he bought a cell phone — they were not like the ones now — rather than rent one. He had to pay for so much online time in advance. Yes, by denying him his name, it cost him more than normal. It was a good thing that he bought that large bag and those clothes at Goodwill. He could not afford them otherwise and not have enough to help those families.

And that darned psychiatrist accuses me of stealing, well I never could acquire them by working. The Centre would have found me sooner.

Jarod finally got the whole direction of Colby's talk. The Centre knew what it was doing, Mr. Parker, the Triumvirate when they kept him from experiencing a childhood, a normal life, when he had to wear that Centre uniform. They had done this purposely. If he hadn't that extreme physical as well as mental prowess, they would have caught him years ago.

"And perhaps taking something, a bargaining chip, was so that you could get information."

"I asked first, in fact several times."

"Correct." Colby took out his pen and wrote. "So you were not to blame for the results of the sims or perhaps I should do what our now resident Presbyterian does and say that you are responsible for your own sins, and actions, not those of others."

"Then I am responsible for the results of the sims."

"I did not say that. You are not responsible for the results. You are intelligence, perhaps you can find out."

"Then I was only responsible for the sim, if I saw that they would lead to danger, I had to warn them what it could be used for. I never expected they would use it in that way."

"Go on?"

"But then there are people who flirt with danger, like that Eve taking that fruit when she was told not to. Catechism. I guess I'm Catholic, my mom and dad were.

"I'm Methodist myself, but you get the idea." He got up. "So since you are still a slave, not to a habit, but one in person, how is that going to stop you from stealing? Miss Parker will never give you a wage, as for gifts, not enough."

"Do you realize that I am doing all the problem solution and you are just a sounding board? I think your diploma was a waste of time."

"Actually I worked long and hard for that diploma, but you are not the usual client. You have not held a regular job; you do not have a degree yet. You are taking your professional investigator's license, paid for by Miss Parker, and I would suggest that you concentrate on that field. You would be at an advantage others do not have. I see you were a conductor. Then you'd know where the violinists sit and if one of them brings out a viola, that something is wrong."

Jarod smiled. "That would never happen and I suppose the viola is a weapon in disguise."

Colby then went to get a box and handed it to Jarod. "This contains several DVDs and a headphone, the latest in technology. It gives many experiences that you probably never witnessed, fads that were common during your years at the Centre, plus popular music. I have tried to keep it to what the normal family does, what your father and mother, although I never met them, would have done."

"Thank you. Oh one more thing. My son, Jeremiah's getting rather out of hand."

"Be firm, set limits. Get close to him. The child's been through a lot, the same thing that you went through at first." He handed Jarod a book. "This is a good book on child- rearing, it does not believe that spanking is wrong, but that it should be a last resort."

"Yes, I investigated it on one of my pretends."

He wrote something on his pad. "It's a gift. Since I hear you are going to Europe soon with your family, here's a list of child psychiatrists that can specialize in highly intelligent children. They do understand English."

"Well I speak Swedish, Italian, French, and Spanish. Thank you. I'll tell Miss Parker. She's been with the children most of the time."

"Good and if you have any other questions or need any other solutions, that's my web site and my cell phone number."

Jarod went out the door and into the Centre elevator, and pressed the button for the Tower, thinking of all the other employees and possessions of the Centre and Doctor Colby raking in the dough. If it had been the Old Centre, he would not have minded, but this was a new and better one. He entered the elevator, and was just about the close the door when Sydney entered.

"Hello Jarod."

"Hello Sydney, or should I say, Doctor Green."

"Just Sydney, you know we're friends."

"You weren't really. What floor?"

"The same as yours, I have to see Miss Parker."

The trip up was in uncomfortable silence. It was as if they were strangers, the bond that had held them together was now broken. Both men realized now what went wrong, Sydney's fear of the Centre, and Jarod's being treated as an experiment rather than a human being. They had called it The Pretender Project and his notebooks, The Red File. It made had made it easier for The Centre to eliminate or to use drugs on their Pretenders. It was as if they were not even persons.

I recently learned Raines had many of the male Pretenders killed at birth," said Sydney," and that is part of the reason they wanted you back. Mr. Parker realized there were not enough male Pretenders to do the most dangerous sims."

"So why wasn't I allowed out."

"I think that I or another mentor was to use what we learned by watching you to instruct the other Pretenders."

"I saw no other instructor."

"No, but they were there, watching through the video cameras, possibly taking notes."

"They took my sperm, my DNA as if I were an animal I was their prime stock and they decided what of my children were disposable." This was a fact rather than a question.

Sydney nodded. "Actually, some were saved and shipped out in spite of Raines's desire to eliminate those with the X chromosome. The Triumvirate and the other Centre satellites wanted Pretenders with your genetics, preferably males, but because of what Raines did, they didn't have enough. The order went to get you back alive. That's why Mr. Parker sent Miss Parker out with us. Usually if a Pretender escapes, they'd just send out her or another hunter with the Sweepers."

"But I know that's what they did."

"I didn't realize it."

"But you should've Sydney, if I was considered your lab rat; wouldn't that be one of the natural outcomes?"

By now, they were at The Tower. Miss Parker had finished getting the babies in the pouch over her sweater and motioned for the two girls who had arrived to get the other children.

"Sam's got the car gassed up and we should arrive at the hospital by seven tonight."

"Right, and what about my father and Gem?" Jarod was still worried about Colby's talk. If Miss Parker had known that Giuseppe was his son, would she have put him into the sublevels? And would she have done the same to Frederick and Margaret? He didn't want to have these doubts.

"Your father and Gem are in Lambourni's van. He told me about the boy's problem and I had one of the cryogenic units put back into circulation. They're setting it up in the van right now. Gem'll be in it for most of the trip. They've given him sleeping pills and he should sleep for the whole day."

"What?"

"Yes Jarod. He'll stay a teenager a little longer. Oh don't worry, The Medicals put him on a schedule, so he can get out and have fun and we have this." She showed him a pair of head-phones, and dark glasses. "I see you have some as well."

"And DVDS from Colby. Who else is going?"

"Antonio, he's going to be the baby's godfather, Margaret's being brought in by the Medicals, and then there's Broots. Debbie's with Antonio. Sydney's coming as well. You don't seem too pleased, Jarod."

"Well I was thinking that you all had such nice happy families."

"You wanted just us and the children?"

"Why yes. I'd be driving, and then we'd stop at McDonalds, something I was denied to do."

"Oh you want to be a real father."

"I am a real father."

Her expression dropped as if she finally realized something. Even in California, he was busy looking for Dead Beat, and the other times before, he was helping with the Column or going through the Merging. He never actually took his children to Chuckey Cheese or to the Fair, not even to a video arcade. Other fathers did it, but not a possession of the Centre, no they weren't allowed to.

"Okay." She got on her cell phone. "Sam, you get in the other car and follow us. Jarod's driving."