CHAPTER 75
GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION
December 11, 2010
4:45pm
Carthis, Scotland
The New Centre
Peter didn't bother to knock when he entered the chairman's room. Bane was right behind the boy, not for physical backup but for emotional back up. The old man was stationed at his desk and appeared to be review a few papers.
"Hello Father," Peter said cooly sitting across from Parker.
"John what a..." Parker faltered as he looked up and saw Peter's attire."C-cain?" Parker asked questioningly taking in Peter's black long sleeve shirt, jeans, and spiked hair shocked the chairman .
"No Father, it's me John although I do prefer my real name...Peter," Peter said with an air of calmness. Parker's jaw dropped. "Why Father you seemed shocked. You honestly didn't think that this charade of yours would last forever did you?"
"John I have no idea what you're..."
"Don't lie to me!" Peter yelled. "I know what you did to me. To my family, the people who truly love me. You used me to hurt them."
"I did it all for you John," Parker replied.
"Liar! You did it for yourself. You wanted to see your empire in existence on last time before you died. You didn't want to die a failure," Peter sneered and before Bane realized what was going on Peter had pulled a gun from out of no where and had it trained at Parker.
"You are going to tell me everything. I want to know where my sister is. And what you had that twisted bastard Kaine gave Jack. Believe me if you don't tell me what I want, I will kill you," Peter threatened. The old man may have been dying but the aspect of death still frightened him.
"I-I'll tell you," Parker stuttered wondering how his perfect plan had failed. Wondering where how everything managed to go wrong. "The girl is with Raines and Cox on SL-19. They plan on using her DNA to restart Shadow. They then are going to harvest her ova, but before that they plan on extracting the knowledge of where the rest of the Russell children are being hidden. As for the boy, Gabriel. Cox devised the drug. It forces the boys to develop a fever, slowly the fever goes away but it then comes back stronger than before. The process repeats over and over until the boy dies."
"How do we cure it?" Peter asked horrified at what had been done to his baby brother. Parker looked at Peter bewildered.
"There is no cure, not a medical one. The cure lies in his brother. Cox said that the boy's twin is the only one who can cure his brother," Parker answered.
"He's lying. How can a six year old boy be the answer for a cure?" Bane spoke for the first time.
"He's not lying," Peter said softly.
"How do you know?" Bane asked.
"The voices are telling me that Jace is the only one who can help Jack," Peter said shaking his head in disbelief. "Tell me what did Cox mean by saying that, the cure lies in Jason."
"I don't know," Parker replied. Peter sensed that Parker was telling the truth. "I'll be posting my own sweepers outside of your room. If you try to leave you will be killed. I'm in charge now, your rein is over. Congratulations Father, I've just accepted my role as chairman of the Centre."
"Bane, let's go," Peter ordered. Bane followed Peter out of the room, locking the door behind them.
"Now what?" Bane asked Peter.
"I need you to gather at least a dozen sweepers that are loyal to me not my Fa- Parker. People we can trust. Think it will be tough?"
"Depends. Do they have to be sweepers?" Bane replied.
"I just need strong men and women that can hold their own. I may have placed myself in charge but Raines, Cox and Parker have more power here than I do," Peter said.
"There are three other guys in my group they were transferred from Blue Cove to England with me right before the Centre was brought down. I know a couple of younger sweepers who are just starting to realize what they have gotten themselves into and would do anything to get out. And there is a telekinetic on SL-5 and a telepath on SL-11 who would be willing to help out as well."
"Why would they want to help me?" Peter questioned, he was all to aware of what he had done as John and could not imagine just why Centre subjects would want to help him after the pain he had put them through.
"They know who you truly are. They're two of the very few that actually do," Bane answered.
"Then lets round them up. It's not quite the numbers I was looking for but three of your guys are equal to about nine normal sweepers," Peter commented. "We then, need to contact my family and find out just what they have planned. After that we find Alex."
"I just hope that she can hold out that long," Bane whispered.
"Don't worry. I know Katie she's tougher than she looks."
December 11, 2010
10:45am
Charlottesville, Virginia
Russell Family Home
They weren't as connected with Alex as they normally were. But it didn't stop the seven children from feeling Alex's pain as Cox rammed the letter opener through her left hand. It was no where near the amount of pain Alex had felt. To Aaron, Andros and the other five Files that were connected to Alex they felt her pain as though they had suffered a eighth of an inch cut across the back of their hand.
And though they didn't feel Alex's pain to the full extent they all heard her scream. So did another little boy. Keegan suddenly burst into tears at the same time Alex screamed. Mike and Maddie were too paralyzed out of shock to comfort their little brother. Concerned for Keegan Amy rushed over to her cousin and wrapped her arms around him not knowing what else to do.
Keegan's cries brought nearly everyone to the Black Files room. Greg and Jeremiah had their arms wrapped around Lissa. Mike was cradling Maddie. Aaron and Andros were looking down at the floor crying silently. Jake had a hand on either of the boy's shoulders trying to comfort them while the rest of the older Black Files were trying to do the same with Amy, Jason, Jack and Keegan.
"What's going on?" Alley asked she was holding AJ in her arms.
"Alex," Aaron whispered hoarsely.
"Is she okay?" Jarod asked frightened for his youngest daughter.
"They hurt her Dad. He jammed a letter opened through her hand," Andros cried. Morgan gasped, moving on autopilot she walked over to her sons pulling them into her arms.
Will's face was ashen. The only thought going through his mind was that it was his fault. Had he believed Alex she never would have been captured, she never would have been shot, she never would have been hurt.
He didn't even realize he was crying until he felt Jamie's arms around him, little Matty between them. Will buried his face in Jamie's hair, not wanting to face the gravity of the situation. He knew that his baby sister was strong, but Will didn't know just how much she could take before Alex gave in. And she had already been though so much in just two days. What Will wouldn't give to just turn back the clock.
December 11, 2010
5:11pm
Carthis, Scotland
The New Centre
It had taken Bane nearly thirty minutes to gather the hand picked crew that Peter would use to overthrow the Centre. Peter was smarter than Parker in the respect that Peter understood that when Parker died the New Centre would be thrown in to anarchy. There were too many subdivisions of the Centre, too many people that were loyal to their own greed. When Parker died Peter knew that a few of the groups would come together and try and overthrow him. But Peter was not going to allow for it to happen. If everything went his way the Centre would be nothing more than a bad dream by week's end.
The group was gathered in a sim lab on the first sub level. Peter was sitting on the table surveying the ten recruits, Bane stood to Peter's right. With just one look at the ten people Bane had selected John knew that there would be problems. There were five young sweepers standing side by side in an at ease military posture. Three of the sweepers were men the other two women. The youngest, a girl by the name of Minna was just eighteen. The other sweepers were Derek, Inara, Jiro, and Jiro's brother Akio.
Jiro and Akio were from Kyoto their parents had been killed when the boys were in their preteens. They were taken in by the Yakuza and trained. The brothers were then sold to the Centre for their skills. Derek -the oldest of the five sweepers- had no idea what he had gotten himself into five years ago when the ground work for the New Centre had begun. He had been contacted by Richard Parker himself when Derek had done a stint in Rikers for armed robbery. Derek soon discovered that robbery was one thing, the stuff the Centre was doing was something completely different.
Inara's parents had worked for the old Centre. When word got around that the New Centre had been formed Inara went to work for them in hopes she could makeup for the sins her parents had committed. She had been quite innocent in the ways of the Centre back then.
Minna was the oldest of six, her parents had been killed in the devil's storm when she was eleven. Her aunt and Uncle had helped she and her siblings over the past seven years. But when she learned of the money the Centre was offering, Minna couldn't pass up the offer.
Ten feet away from the sweepers stood three teens. They were none surprisingly triplets. Like Bane they were part of project Midas, all three had the characteristics golden eyes of the Midas assassins. Ajax, Achilles, and Ares had short black hair, tan skin, chiseled features, and stood at six feet even. They were a few months older than Bane but Peter got the distinct feeling that the triplets answered to Bane. For some reason the triplets reminded Peter of someone but the boy could not put a finger on it.
And last were Airell a telepath and Merlin a telekinetic. The last two stood far off from the other eight, glancing between Peter, Bane and the sweepers. Airell and Merlin were young but still four to five years older than Peter.
Peter sighed inwardly, he knew that it would be tough for the ten people Bane had brought to get along or even trust one another. Merlin, Airell, Ajax and his brothers were naturally leery of the five sweepers and held a lot of anger towards them. And the majority of them either hated or feared what Peter represented.
But all of that would need to be placed aside. It was time for the Centre to be completely destroyed, and with his family and the ten people who stood before him, Peter would accomplish his goal.
"So...who here wants to help me bring down the Centre?" Peter addressed the group a grin on his face. A silence filled the room as the ten people glanced around at each other trying to figure out if this was some sort of simulation. Except for Airell, who was looking at Peter a coy smile on her face.
"Hello Peter," Airell said to the boy. "I must say I am glad to hear that you have finally realized the truth."
"I just needed a little guidance from my sister...and my mother," Peter replied, he wasn't surprised that she had read his mind. Peter's memories of his true life informed him that he was use to having the random family member take a tour of his brain.
"Airell why did you address him as Peter?" Merlin asked the girl next to him.
"Because he's no longer John, Merlin. Can't you look at him and see the difference? He's not the same boy," Airell stated.
"Bane what in the hell is this?" Ares asked, in no mood for games.
"It's what it looks like Ares, an end to all of this. Peter wants to bring down the Centre for once and all," Bane answered.
"People tried that once it didn't work, remember. That's why were all here," Ajax snapped.
"So you're just going to give up because something did work once? Not everything, every plan is perfect. People make mistakes and things don't go as planed. My family screwed up, we didn't look far enough or dig deep enough when we brought down the Centre the first time. But now we can fix all that. I know everything that there is to know about the Centre. We can stop this for good," Peter spoke as he paced in front of the group.
"Is that right Master Parker," Jiro sneered, his Japanese accent quite obvious.
"My name is Peter. Don't call me Master Parker, or John, or John Parker. I was never a Parker," Peter said calmly, getting angry would only make matters worse.
"Oh so you aren't the same little shit who strutted around this building the past month?" Derek asked.
"No I'm not," Peter said simply. "You lot have no idea who I am. How ever I am about to inform. After that we can have a round of introductions. And then I would like an answer to my first question."
Please Review
Up Next: Pete tries to pull his team together. Melissa and Greg finally come to understand just who different their life at the Centre was from Alex's. And Adam gets a phone call.