CHAPTER 7

A HISTORY LESSON

October 29, 2010

8:29am

Unknown Location

Holding Cell

"Gather round you two it's story time," Pete said. The twins sat Indian style in front of their older brother. "Now you two know how I'm adopted right?" Jason and Jack nodded their heads. The boys had never thought anything about Pete being adopted. Close to half of their family was adopted but that fact meant nothing to the twins, they were raised with the belief that you don't have to be blood related to be family.

"You two also know how the Centre stole Dad from Grampa Charles and Grams 'cause he's a pretender, like us right?" Once again the twins nodded in reply. "Well about twenty one years ago the Centre made a clone of Dad. Dad discovered his clone three yeas after he escaped the Centre. He had just been reunited with Grampa Charles at the time. The two of them managed to get the clone out. That clone is Uncle Chris. A few years after Chris had been created the Centre created sixteen super pretenders from the genetic material they had stole from Momma, Dad, Aunt Julia, Uncle Lex, Lyle,

"Who's Lyle?" Jason asked.

"Sorry, I meant Bobby," Pete said correcting his self, none of the younger children knew who Mr. Lyle was. "Like I was saying they used Bobby and a bunch of other people. These super pretenders became known as Phoenix and the Black Files. You two know them a bit better as Will, Alley, Jake and the others."

"A few years later I was created. My biological mother is Gramma Catherine. My biological father is Richard Parker, former chairman of the Centre. See Will and Alley were originally created to take over the Centre but the Centre was unable to control them. So I was created due to the Centre's inability to control them. When I reached proper age I was to take over control of the Centre. "

"The older man, the one that was here first is my biological father. He was imprisoned after the fall of the Centre but somehow managed to escape. He wants to use me to restart the Centre, and the two of you as well."

"Why us why not Will, Alley or the others?"

"Well they tried with the others and found them to hard to control. Then there is the fact that the two of you are pretenders and quite young and Parker believes that the two of you will be easy to manipulated," Pete snorted. "Parker has no idea what he's gotten himself into. The two of you are more stubborn than Mom and Dad combined." Pete said, the twins grinned taking Pete's statement as a compliment.

"Pete Momma, and Daddy are gonna find us right? I mean they probably have the Feds and the local police force, the coast guards and the CIA lookin' for us right? I bet even Uncle Bobby is searching for us," Jack said and Pete fought the urge to wince. It was easy to for get that though the twins were quite brilliant they were still very innocent of the ways of the world.

Pete knew that the only people other than the immediate family looking for the boys would be Sam's co-workers, Bailey, Samantha, and Rachael. Jarod would keep the abduction out of the papers out as well as the government agencies.

One could argue that Jarod and Morgan were being paranoid but the two had a slight mistrust of anyone they did not directly know. The two still had fears of that someone would try to take advantages of their children's special gifts even though the Centre was defunct. After the Centre had fallen the Russell's had managed to keep their names out of the papers once again out of safety for their family. So Pete knew that no group other than the family would be searching for him and his brothers. Besides Pete doubted that there was anyone -other than his family- that was equipped enough to even find he and his brothers.

But Jack did bring up an interesting point though. Was Lyle assisting in the search? Lyle was after Pete's brother and the twins Uncle. For some reason Lyle had always been kind to the Morgan and Jarod's youngest sons. When Lyle had learned of the twins existence he had set up a trust fund for the two boys. Needless to say the family had been a bit leery of Lyle's intentions towards the twins. But after a few well placed threats on his life made by Morgan, Jarod, Sydney, Lissa, Greg, and Jeremiah, the family had come to the conclusions that Lyle's intentions were more or less good.

"Jack I'm sure Momma, and Daddy are using ever available recourse to find us," Pete assured his brother. It wasn't exactly a lie but it wasn't the truth either.

Ten minutes later Bret returned with three trays of food for the boys. One each tray was fresh fruit, oatmeal, and surprisingly a pop-tart. Pete looked at the bowls in shock

"What ran out of green gruel?" Pete asked.

"Young Master Parker I'm unsure of what you believe your father's intentions to be, but let me assure you that your father only wants the best for you and your nephews. He wishes to offer the three of you the world," Bret said.

"Tell him thanks but we pass," Pete replied. "Do me a favor Bret ol' boy and sample all three of those oatmeals." Bret did as Pete asked and then prepared to leave. "Hold it English. You aren't going anywhere until I'm confidant that food hasn't been laced with anything. Take a seat and get comfortable" Pete said.

"Master Parker, I do not has time for your childish games. You father is quite ill and I do need to tend to him." Bret replied in his upperclass English accent.

"Old man's dying then?"Pete asked with indifference, but found himself intrigued.

"Your father is ill young sir. Now please eat your breakfast before it becomes cold. Good day Master Parker," Bret said and left.

"Pete you really think the food is drugged?" Jason asked his brother. Pete took a look at the food on the trays. He tossed the twins an apple each after carefully inspecting them.

"These look fine, no puncture marks. Pop-tarts look good too. Now eat up," Pete instructed. The boys greedily ate the pop-tarts, and fruit.

Jason glanced over at the bowls of cooling oatmeal as he munched on his pop-tart. "I don't care if that stuff wasn't laced with anything, there's no way I'd eat it."

Pete chuckled at his little brother's comment. The twins held a strong dislike towards oatmeal, and anything that resembled it, due to a prank Pete and Adam had pulled. When Jason, and Jack were three, Adam and Pete had placed a very realistic spider in each of the boys morning oatmeal on April fools day. The boys had been scared for life, and were unable to even look at oatmeal with out shuddering.

"Pete what was that English guy sayin' 'bout that old guy what's his name? Mr. Parker," Jack asked.

"Apparently the old man is sick. It makes since now, why the three of us are here. Parker's more than likely dying and doesn't want to die without his legacy in tack. The Centre was all he ever had and now it's gone."

"And he's gonna try to use us t' rebuild the Centre?" Jason asked.

"He can try all he want, but I won't allow for the Centre to return," Pete stated.

October 29, 2010

9:21am

Riker's Island, New York

Riker's Prison

"Mail for you Jamieson," said the guard tossing two envelops to Bobby. Neither letter had a return address. Bobby knew that first one -addressed to Robert Jamieson- was from his children. Each week they wrote to him telling Bobby about their week. The letters had started coming a few months after Bobby had been imprisoned. The first few letters had been written by Lissa over a course of six months. They then immediately stopped for three months.

It turned out that Greg had discovered that Lissa had been writing letters to Bobby. There had been a three month long argument between the brother and sister. Jeremiah had wanted no part in the argument, yet Greg and Lissa constantly tired to bring him into it. Finally unable to stand it any longer Jeremiah forced his brother and sit down and talk about it. It turned out that Greg wanted Bobby to have no part in their lives, while Lissa did. In the end Lissa got to write her letters. Two weeks later Greg started writing the letters with her. It took Jeremiah a bit longer -almost three years, and even after four years Jeremiah's letters were quite sparse- to join in on the letter writing but he eventually did.

Bobby had come to cherish each letter, for each showed the evolution of the relationship between Bobby and his children's relationship. They had yet to call him Dad or anything of the sort and probably never would, Sam was the one who the triplets called Dad. But they did acknowledge Bobby as their biological father, it was more than Bobby felt he deserved after all he had done to his children and their family.

Bobby inspected the second envelope. It was a 8½ inch by 11 inch manilla envelope addressed to Mr. Lyle. Bobby frowned, he no longer went by Mr. Lyle. A year after he had been incarcerated he legally changed his name to Robert Jamieson with his sister's and father's blessing. No one since had referred to Bobby as Mr. Lyle

Bobby opened the second letter curious. Out fell three silver chains, each with the eye of Ra attached to them and a small piece of lapis dangling from the pendant. For a second Bobby's heat stopped beating. His only thoughts were of those of his children's well being. Bobby knew that his children wore the exact same necklace. All of the children did in fact, it was a family custom started by Sam. The former sweeper had given Will and Alley had given the twins such a necklace for their second birthday.

Bobby, calmed himself and studied the three necklaces. He was then filled with an intense feeling of relief, and then and overwhelming sense of dread. Bobby had realized that Jeremiah, Greg, and Lissa's stone pendant was onyx not lapis. Lapis was worn by the Russell children. But their were so damn many of them, Bobby had no way of telling which children the necklaces belonged to. He began to mentally list all of the Russell children. Jarod and Morgan had eight children, Ethan and his wife had six. Which meant that three of the fourteen children were missing.

Bobby poured the rest of the envelopes contents onto his bed. Out came a letter and a picture. He unfolded the letter. There was a single sentence form out of letters cut from newspapers and magazines. 'The Centre Shall Rise,'. Bobby swore. He then reached for the picture. It was a black and white photograph of Pete, Jason, and Jack. Scrawled at the bottom were the words 'The chosen.'

"Damn it," Bobby yelled as he flung the letter, picture and necklaces against the wall. He had hoped that none of the younger children would ever become involved in the insanity that was the Centre. It was his worse fear that his children and the others would become the next generation of Centre screw ups. Lord knew Jeremiah and the rest of the Black Files had enough issues as it was.

Bobby calmed himself and reached for the other letter. It had been shipped FedEx and was much lighter than the normal weekly letter from the triplets. He read the letter written in Jeremiah's minuscule but tidy print.

Robert,

A few hours ago someone -remnants of the Centre more than likely- abducted Pete, Jace, and Jack. I don't need to tell you what they could do with the boys. If you know anything, anything at all, you know how to get in contact with me. In case you're worried about me, Greg and Lissa, don't. We're fine, or we will be once we get the boys back.

-Jeremiah

P.S. I swear if you played any part of this, I will kill you before Aunt Morgan or Uncle Jarod get the chance.

Bobby sighed after reading the letter form Jeremiah. The boy had never truly for given Bobby for all the things he had done as Mr. Lyle. Not that Bobby could blame Jeremiah. After all Bobby had killed Jeremiah's mother in front of the boy. Granted he had not known that Jeremiah was there but Bobby doubted if he had known that Jeremiah was in the air vents if it would had changed anything.

Jeremiah had other reasons on why he was still so guarded around Bobby. Jeremiah had always been very protective of his younger sister and cousins, especially his cousin Alex. Jeremiah had become so protective of the younger girl -as had all of the boys from the Black Files- because Alex was the one who often found herself under the fist of Mr. Lyle. Jeremiah felt that if he truly for gave Bobby for all of the things he had done than he would be saying it was okay that Lyle had beat Alex and put her in a two week coma, or that it was okay that Lyle had branded Alex fourteen times.

"Hey Mitchell," Bobby yelled through the bars of his cell.

"What Jamieson," Mitchell asked as he walked over to Bobby's cell.

"I need to make a call," Bobby told the guard.

"Can you pay?" Mitchell asked, Bobby slipped the guard a fifty and Mitchell passed Bobby a cell phone. Bobby dialed a series of numbers.

"Hello," Jeremiah said on the second ring.

"I knew nothing of the abduction," Bobby stated.

"I believe you," Jeremiah replied. The boy was one of few words and always got to the point.

"I got a letter today from whoever orchestrated the abductions. Inside were the boys necklaces, a photo of them with the words 'The chosen' written on it, and a letter saying 'The Centre Shall Rise,'," Bobby told Jeremiah.

"Can you send them to me?" Jeremiah asked

"Where?" Bobby asked.

"Hold on," Jeremiah said. In the background Bobby could hear Jeremiah tapping away furiously at his laptop. " Address is 914 Wilmington Dr. Moriarty New Mexico, P.O. Box 10518. Send it over night. If it's not there when we're ready to leave someone will stay back, and wait for it."

"Alright... Jeremiah, be safe. All of you."

"I will. And...t-thanks," Jeremiah said and quickly hung up the phone. Bobby smiled as he passed Mitchell back the phone.

"One of your kids?" Mitchell asked.

"Yeah, Jeremiah. He said thanks," Bobby said amazed. Never had Jeremiah said such a thing to Bobby. "Hey Mitchell, think you could send this out?" Bobby asked as he picked up the photo, letter and the boys necklaces and passed them to the guard.

"What's in it for me," Mitchell said and Bobby slipped the guard a hundred. "See Jamieson this is the reason my boys are going to Harvard," Mitchell replied as he placed the money in his pocket.

"Who was that Jer?" Sam asked his son.

"Robert. Who ever took the boys sent him a letter, a photo of the boys and their necklaces. Robert's sending it to a P.O. Box I registered at the post office in Moriarty, New Mexico. I want to see if any of us can read anything off of the things sent to Robert. Hopefully the package will be at the post office before we leave in the morning. If not some of us may need to stay behind," Jeremiah said, Sam was surprised that Jeremiah had spoken so much. Those were the most words Jeremiah had used in close to a month.

"Alright. I'll tell Jarod, and Mor about it the next time we stop," Sam said. Jeremiah didn't reply he just stared out of his window watching the scenery fly by.

"Jer you okay?" Lissa asked her brother.

"'M fine. Bob said that he didn't know anything about the boys being taken until he got today's mail."

"You don't believe him," Greg stated.

"Actually -for the first time- I do," Jeremiah said.

You guys are killing me here. Please, please, please review.

Up next: More of Cain and Able, and Pete, Jason and Jack are separated