Lulu got them to Alec's second safe house quickly. Her scanners kept a vigilant search for the slightest abnormality as they rolled into the underground garage.
The outer facade of the building was deceptively plain but when the scrolling door closed behind them and the low lights and soft music faded up it revealed the modern albeit sparsely decorated space. Alec hadn't visited that location for a while but there was one thing about the property that was unique- it was once a bomb shelter that he'd converted into an impenetrable room from which he could still access his networks and retain remote control of his comm devices and other machines.
Right then though he had different uses in mind. He needed to get Parker somewhere safe where he could figure out what had been done to her and undo it.
He lifted her off of the bike and over to the large white sofa in the center of the room, depositing her gently before peeling off the rucksack and his gloves, jacket and helmet.
"Code 2," he called into the room as he marched over to Lulu to push the machine into a docking bay in the corner. The dim lights darkened slightly and the entire wall next to Lulu's parking area flipped to reveal an assortment of computer and video screens all mirroring the information he'd left at his primary location. The door to the garage bolted loudly behind him and a corrugated metal wall scrolled into place around the room. He didn't know what threats were coming but he would not be caught off guard. Paranoia had become his best friend since he'd lost the team that had his back.
He turned back to Parker.
The adrenaline in his body was evening out and it was beginning to sink in that she was alive. She was alive and there with him again.
Alec walked over to her and sat on the coffee table in front of the sofa, staring at the face he long ago willed himself to forget. He lifted his hand to touch her but froze in midair. Something was holding him back. Something he couldn't name. He didn't know if it was everything that Sylvia had said or his own fear that Parker was not the same person he once knew. He didn't know if it was his fear that he would fail her again or that this was all some sort of dream but he couldn't touch her. Instead he got up and walked over to his computer wall and began plugging away.
He had so many questions; needed so many answers and he didn't know where to begin. He thought he knew all there was to know about Hastings but the night's unexpected events assured him he hadn't even scratched the surface.
Why was Parker in Hasting's Institute? How was Sylvia involved? What exactly happened three years ago?
He tried to research Sylvia but he wasn't surprised that the name she'd given him during their time in the hospital wasn't real. He even ran the photo he had of her from the video his helmet captured, but that proved unsuccessful. 'Sylvia' for all intents and purposes didn't exist, and his frustration was mounting.
He chastised himself again for being naive.
Never again- he promised himself. No one would get that close.
But even as he said it he knew he would always make one exception.
He turned to look over his shoulder at the beautiful sleeping woman in the middle of the room. Her hair still looked like spun gold and her lips still pursed, even in her sleep but, he realized she was paler than he remembered. His jaw clenched and something inside of him flared to life. If he found out that Hastings hurt her, had been hurting her for three years, there would be no place the man would be able to hide from what Alec planned to do to him.
Alec stared at her. She looked so small and defenseless…but then Sylvia's words came to his thoughts again: "… infinitely more powerful than you can imagine."
He wondered what she meant.
He turned his focus back on the screens before him and forwarded through the video footage his helmet camera recorded, concentrating all of his attention on Sylvia and Parker.
Dammit.
He realized that he didn't actually capture them in the moments before Parker fell; his attention and the camera were focused on the guards who'd surrounded him. He played the video again and again, slowing it down a few frames before Parker fell to see if there was anything that caught his attention…and then he decided to isolate the audio for clues.
Success.
There, amid all the noise and confusion, he clearly heard Sylvia's voice utter a single word.
"…Sono?" he repeated and said the word over and over in his head hoping for some kind of recollection but he could think of nothing.
He typed the word into a search engine and exhaled a hard, fast breath as the infinite possibilities collected on the screen.
"This is useless," he said out loud as he dropped the keyboard on the desk and pushed himself away from the console.
In the quiet of the space the gentle strums of the music that had been playing since he entered caught his attention. He realized that a song he'd hated for the past three years had just begun to play. He listened to it and a small smile curled the corners of his lips because he realized the song didn't have the same hold over him that it had in the past.
"Something always brings me back to you. It never takes too long."
Alec turned to look at Parker again as the song Gravity by Sara Bareilles filled the air around them. It haunted him for so long; the thought that he'd failed her, that she was gone and he would never see her again. The words of the song always seemed directed at him…but not anymore. Parker was alive and with him. His throat tightened and he felt his eyes get moist. He eased his head backward and let the words of the song wash over him as he let go of the sadness and anger he'd held onto for so long. There would be no place for that anymore. He would never let her go again.
As the last piano strains faded into another song he was struck with an epiphany that slowly took root. Sylvia was not American.
He opened his eyes and sat bolt straight. He remembered that he'd always heard a slight hitch when Sylvia spoke, like someone who'd practiced their accent away.
That's why he couldn't find her in his identity search. He wasn't searching in the right place. If he could discover where she was from, then it might help him figure out a way to help Parker.
He cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders and neck in preparation.
"Ok, Syl…it's on now."
He opened the photo he had of Sylvia once again and cross referenced it with every country he linked to Hastings' dirty dealings.
The list was extensive and Alec's fingers were numb before too long.
Hours passed as he sat staring at the information being collected. His eyes began to burn and his stomach complained loudly for something to eat. He rubbed his eyes and stretched before he headed into the pantry in search of some non-perishable grub, sparing Parker an anxious gaze as he walked past her.
He just rested his hand on the lever to the pantry when the red flashing from his computer screen reflected on the walls in front of him. He turned to see that Sylvia's face had been matched. He was back at the console before he even realized he'd moved at all. He stared at the picture on the screen, his eyes dancing between the older and newer versions of Sylvia. It was her. He was convinced.
"You've had a little work done Sylvia," he chided the image on his screen before he scrolled down at her bio at her name and nationality.
"Demara de Castro, aka Julia Giuseppe, Julia Demarco, Cristina Felix, Francisia…" he stopped at the next name and felt an icy chill.
This couldn't be a coincidence.
"…Moreau." He sighed heavily.
"This just keeps getting better doesn't it?" he grunted as he continued to search the bio, "Ok. One thing at a time. First Parker, then the connection to Moreau."
"She was a Spanish citizen," he continued speaking aloud to himself.
He acted on his hunch and tried to translate the word Sono from Spanish to English.
"Dammit," he cursed quietly as the search results yielded nothing but as he leaned back in his seat a line in her bio caught his attention. Demara was not born in Spain, but moved there with her family when she was a child. She was originally from a small country called Galicia.
His excitement grew as he researched the translation of the word 'Sono' from Galician to English.
The result on the screen pinged instantly and Alec jumped out of the chair and clapped loudly.
The word 'Sleep' leapt off of the screen.
"That's what I'm talking 'bout," he rubbed his hands together calculatingly as his mind began to assess what his discovery meant. Parker had been programmed. She was being controlled by Demara. He inhaled deeply- he'd have to hack Parker.
"Ok, so… Sleep…" he repeated as he realized that there could be any number of ways for Parker to be deprogrammed.
He looked at Parker and snapped his fingers. Nothing.
Dammit, didn't that always work in Vegas?
He clapped his hands. Parker didn't budge.
He bit his lips in frustration, realizing that the key was probably a related word.
He once again sat at his computer and looked for the Galician translation to words that might have roused her.
He entered 'awake' and the said the translation aloud.
"Acordado,"
He turned quickly to look at her. She was as still as ever.
He searched and shouted several more words.
Wake up. "…espertar."
Arise. "… xurdir."
Rise. "… aumento."
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
He passed his hands over his face in frustration. He was running out of options. He was beginning to think he should have brought Demara along for the ride.
Demara.
Another epiphany.
Perhaps Demara was the key.
Alec pulled out the keyboard and opened his audio manipulation program. He said all of the translated words and recorded them into the program before manipulating them to repeat in a simulation of Demara's voice. Then he played each one.
"Acordado," the synthesized voice called but Parker didn't move.
"Espertar." Nothing.
"Xurdir." Nothing.
"Aumento." Alec stared at her his stomach taunt from holding his breath. Parker didn't move.
He lowered his head into his hands and sat silent and exhausted. Every muscle in his body was tense.
"Where am I?"
He heard the small voice and looked up instantly. His eyes met with Parkers, awake and wary. He was frozen where he sat.
Maybe it was exhaustion, maybe he was hallucinating; he stared unblinkingly at her for what seemed like a lifetime. His mouth couldn't form words.
"…and who are you?" she asked him pointedly.