“Beware the soulless ones…”

“Who are the soulless ones?”

“The destroyers. The anti-life. The soulless ones. They will destroy you, as they destroyed my kind. As they will destroy all kinds…”

“Who are you?”

“I am pain. I am loss. I am grief. I am implacable, unstoppable! I am passion made into fury, love twisted into hate! I am

VENDETTA

-Vendetta: The Giant Novel, Peter David

You’ve tried to beat me before but never again from this day… You tried to take all control but you couldn’t take it away…

It wasn’t known how much time they left; it was safest to assume they had none. He lifted his head from her shoulder and breathed in deeply, taking in her scent as he did. Out of habit, he straightened his tie.

She knew they couldn’t stay where they were forever, but her heart was heavy as he pulled away. The air had turned cold and it was even colder when he stood up. She shivered in the short-sleeves she wore and a sigh escaped her lips. She felt as though she was still dreaming; everything they had uncovered was so surreal that it couldn’t possibly be true. A coat was dropped into her lap.

She looked up at him, but he wasn’t looking at her; he was plotting their escape. He was pale, she noticed. She saw his hands trembling. Her attention wandered and she twisted a lock of hair around her finger.

He moved even further away to the other side of the desk. She grabbed onto the edge of the desk and pulled herself up. Her head protested, still throbbing persistently, but she ignored it and walked over to him.

“Get the files,” he told her as he climbed onto the desk chair and began to undo the screws in the ventilation grate once more. His tone was sharp and cold; none of his earlier weakness was evident.

Meekly, she obeyed, retrieved the files, and handed them to him. After removing the grate, he laid the files in the shaft. Just as he was stepping down from the chair, they heard voices on the other side of the door. The handle jiggled fiercely.

They know...!

She froze, but he flew into action. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over to the chair. Startled, she stumbled as she stepped up. Unable to wait for her to pick herself up, he lifted her up onto the chair and all but shoved her into the shaft.

There was now a scrapping noise at the door; they were cutting through the lock. Hastily, he lifted the grate back up.

“Wait!” she cried, suddenly afraid of his intentions. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look it,” he grunted as he pushed the grate into place. He couldn’t take the time to tauten all the screws properly so he tightened them only as much as necessary to hold the grate in place.

“What about you?” Her voice was choked with panic.

“Forget about me.” He stopped abruptly and stared at her through the vents. “Do you remember the schematics I showed you of the Centre?

She nodded.

“Follow the vents back to my office, but you have to wait before getting out. A couple of hours at least- there’ll be Sweepers all over the place. The grate isn’t secured, so you’ll be able to push it off. There’s another shaft in the lower part of the wall behind

my desk. Go down that one and follow it to the outlet. You know what to do from there?”

“Yes, but…”

“No buts! Just do as I say!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“How many times do I have to tell you- I can take care of myself! If you do what I’ve told you, this all be over in a couple of days. I’ll take care of business here and then I’ll come get you.”

He turned to leave and she was terrified that she’d never see him again.

“Bobby.”

“What!?”

“Be careful.”

He glance at her and a pained look crossed his face. And then he was gone.

She watched as the door was flung open and Raines’ Sweepers flooded the room. Two of the burly men grabbed him brutally and pinned his arms behind his back. Flanked by Willie and Tony, Raines entered the room with a menacing, exultant sneer.

You won’t take it away…

“Well, well, well,” Raines clucked. “What do we have here?” He circled the younger man, dragging his cart behind him. “Stealing confidential documents from the Centre again, Mr. Lyle?”

He glared at him in arrogant defiance. He responded by kicking the cart as hard as he could. The cart skidded and slammed against the wall, ripping the oxygen line from Raines’ nostrils. The man shrieked in pain.

Retaliation came swiftly as the back of Raines’ hand struck him across the face even before he had retrieved his life-support.

“You conceited….” Raines growled obscenities before composing himself. “Careful, Mr. Lyle,” he said in mock deference, “I have more than enough evidence to seek your immediate Removal.”

No threat of Raines’ could make him show any subservience. The hatred he had toward the man was palpable; had he been free he would have killed Raines.

Should I expect the worst? But I’ve seen the choice you make… It’s written all over my face

and there’s nothing left for you to break!

Ruthlessly, Raines’ grabbed Lyle by his hair and yanked hard, but the younger man didn’t even flinch. “I’m only going to ask you this once, boy,” he hissed, “where’s the girl?”

Fire coursed through his veins as he fought against the men restraining him. Getting as close to Raines as he was allowed, he smiled maliciously. “I. Don’t. Know.”

Raines shook his head, released him, and leaned away. “Mr. Lyle, you are a clever one, I must admit,” he said in a patronizing tone that he knew the other man abhorred. “But you are no Pretender. You forgot to dismantle one of the cameras.” He gestured to the picture that contained the spy cam. “I know your girlfriend is in the Centre. We heard your entire conversation… Now where is she?”

“What? Not clever enough to figure it out?” Lyle returned haughtily. Abruptly, he lunged for Raines, surprising the Sweepers who almost lost their grip on him. He was caught and forced to his knees, so he had to content himself with spitting on the man’s shoes.

Raines glared at him rancorously.

How far would you go to try and take it away? How far would you go? Can’t you see that I won’t break!

“Still the same stupid boy, aren’t you?” Raines stared down at him with a strange, almost pitying look. “I suppose some things never change.”

He turned his back on Lyle and walked a few steps away. “You’ve really put me in a terrible bind, Mr. Lyle,” he said resuming his business tone. “I mean really, I can’t enforce your Removal- the Director has not given her approval… yet,” he put a baleful emphasis on the last word. “But we simply cannot allow you to get away with your treachery against the Centre.”

“You can’t do anything,” he spat defiantly, “When my father-“

Raines tossed him a scornful look over his shoulder. He turned back to his captive. “When your father what? Hears about his son’s plight will come to the rescue? If that’s what you think then you are greatly mistaken, my boy. Your father won’t do a thing to help you- he never has and he never will,” he shook his head in amusement, obviously enjoying the scenario. “Who do you think you are? Miss Parker?”

He gave a sharp nod to the two holding him captive. Unimpressed with Mr. Lyle’s futile struggle, Raines regarded the man with cold indifference. He had waited so long for this moment…

“Willie, Tony,” he barked at his lackeys. “Escort Mr. Lyle to his cell.”

You’ll see me when the fire dies- when I expose all of your lies… Your tears will become my fuel…

I’ll watch the demise of you…

She watched the scene unfold with horror that melted into fury. Her gaze turned cold as her now steel gray eyes locked onto the person of Raines. Her mind took in every detail of the vile man and stored it away for future reference, determined not to lose the memory.

It took everything within her to remain still when they dragged him mercilessly away. His order to her echoed in her head and she tried to obey… she truly did, but…

She couldn’t just leave him behind…

This is the end and you’re gonna burn! How far will I go? Now that the path is clear… How far will I go? What you don’t see you will hear…

“B-but, Miss Parker,” Broots protested under her duress. “That kind of tracking would take days, weeks even, to do right. There’s just no way to accurately trail Mr. Raines’ whereabouts in an hour! Do you know what would happen if we got caught in his office?!”

Parker gave him a withering side look. “Calm down, Sparky,” she snapped. “Is there some way to backtrack and find out what he’s been up to in the past few weeks?”

Broots considered the matter unhappily. Finally, he shrugged weakly. “Yeah, probably,” he admitted, “But even that would take hours to sort out.”

She straightened up and sighed in frustration. “There’s got to be some way to get those files.”

Broots muttered something under his breath.

Her eyebrows raised in dark curiosity. Leaning over his shoulder until they were cheek to cheek, she stood there several seconds until he began to squirm. She clapped a titanium grip on his shoulder.

“What was that?”

The poor technician nearly swallowed his tongue. Resisting the urge to close his eyes, he timidly repeated his earlier statement.

“I said Jarod could figure this out.”

Her grip tightened. “That’s what I thought you said.” She paused then added for good measure. “Right now, I don’t want to hear that name.”

Broots nodded nervously and apologetically before immersing himself in his work.

The phone began to ring.

Parker and Broots briefly froze and Sydney watched Parker with interest. He struggled to hide an amused smile at Jarod’s timing.

The phone continued to ring.

Parker reached into her coat and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, ignoring the phone.

Under the circumstances, Sydney had little patience with her rather childish refusal to answer Jarod’s call. He eyed her sternly.

“Parker… aren’t you going to answer your phone?” he prodded.

Her gaze slid over to him then back to her cigarette as she lit up.

The phone continued on insistently.

He lifted his hand to his forehead and rubbed his temples, tempted to answer the phone himself. And then there was silence.

She raised the phone to her ear, but didn’t say anything immediately.

“Miss Parker?” Jarod sounded a bit confused.

Again, she didn’t answer immediately. “What?”

This time it was Jarod who paused; he had never heard such venom from her directed at him before.

“I-I’m calling to check-in.”

“Why?” Her words were laced with the disgust that was typically reserved for Lyle.

Jarod was baffled with her attitude. He was the one who should be upset with her, not the other way around.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded, heat rising in his voice. “What kind of question is that?”

“You lied to me. You are in the Centre.”

Indignation welled within him, as well as bewilderment- how could she possibly know?

“I guess that makes two of us then, doesn’t?” he retorted sullenly. “Why the lies, Miss Parker? Why did you feel it was necessary

to tell me you didn’t go back to the Centre?”

The anger in his accusations only further infuriated her. She was irate that he should dare be upset with her when he lied as well, but what really churned and fueled her harsh tone was the guilt that stabbed her. She knew he spoke the truth…

“Don’t get holier-than-thou on me, Jarod,” the sentence ripped from her mouth with far more spite than she felt. “Face it, you are no more a saint than I am.”

If Jarod was going to respond, she made sure that he wasn’t given the chance. “If this is how you want to play. Fine. But you’d better be careful, Wonder Boy, because I won’t come to your aid if you get caught. You are on your own.”

Broots stared at her in disbelief, unable to believe what he’d just heard. Sydney, even more disturbed, walked over to her.

“Parker,” he searched her eyes imploringly, “you can’t be serious about this.”

She looked away from him, her face unreadable, and walked away.

“Keep searching,” she told Broots.

Broots nodded, but looked to Sydney. “She’s not serious,” he stated, looking for confirmation from the doctor. “She’s just upset,

right? She wouldn’t leave Jarod if he got caught, would she?”

Sydney sighed. The situation was beyond anything he thought would ever happen. He was, in all honesty, annoyed with both

Parker and Jarod; Parker for being so stubbornly unmovable and Jarod for being equally so.

What made Jarod think he had to be the one to return here?

He placed a friendly hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “I don’t know, Broots. I really don’t know.”

Stretching out a nervous hand, he gently brushed the hair from her face. She was in a deep slumber and obviously tormented by strange dreams. He put his palm fully on her slight shoulder and shook her. Her eyelashes fluttered but she resisted waking.

Darkness was the only thing that met her sight. She blinked several times, trying to get her bearing. Everything was hazy and she couldn’t grasp the memories of what had happened. Slowly things cleared in her mind and she sat up abruptly, slamming her head into the low ceiling of the airshaft.

“Careful.”

“Who’s there!?” The voice put her in flight mode. She couldn’t see who was speaking to her.

“Mia,” the voice replied in a child-like tone.

She frowned in puzzlement. In time her vision adjusted to the dark surroundings and she could make out the outline of someone in front of her.

“Mia,” the voice said again, “Need help.”

She shuddered, more than a little creeped out by the things that crawled through the Centre.

“Who are you?”

“Follow.”

“No way… Not until you tell me who you are.”

“Angelo. Help. Come. Follow.”

She searched the recesses of memory, trying to summon up any information of an Angelo, but Lyle had not spoken of him as far she could recall. She hesitated, and then a thought came to her.

“Do you know where Bobby is?” she asked eagerly. “Can you take me to him?”

Angelo paused thoughtfully, then answered. “No Bobby here.”

She sighed. Obviously, he had some sort of… mental problem. She wondered if he even knew how to get out of the ventilation system.

“Yes,” she argued. “Yes, he is here.”

“No.” Angelo was finished discussing the matter. “Come. Follow.”

“I can’t. I have to find Bob-,” she paused, then tried a different tactic. “I need to find Mr. Lyle.”

This was a name Angelo knew well. He stared at her with wide eyes that she couldn’t distinctly make out. His knees pulled close to his chest and he put his hands on either side of his shaking head.

“No,” his voice came out in a whisper. “No. Boogeyman. No.”

She slapped her fist into her thigh. Great. I’m never going to get anywhere with him!

“Do you know where Mr. Lyle is?”

Angelo stopped shaking his head and looked at her intently. “Lyle,” he said finally.

“Yes,” she encouraged, leaning forward excitedly.

“Boogeyman.”

She groaned.

“Come. Follow.”

“Fine, fine,” she said in resignation. “I’ll follow.”

And he led her through so many tunnels and passageways that she became convinced that they were going to forever wander the ventilation system of the Centre.

Apparently, the doctor had a power over Lyle that he had not ever realized.

They dragged him into the sublevels of the Center to an area Jarod was unfamiliar with. A series of rusted, decaying metals doors lined the dim hallway. Pegged on each one was a solitary number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…

The group halted at Door Number Six. Jarod didn’t miss the look of utter terror on Lyle’s face as he was physically thrown into the tiny cell.

Following Willie’s lead, Jarod took up his guard post inside the cell door. His gaze swept over the chamber taking in the site of the cracked mirror on the wall, the prison-like toilet, cot, and… tub in the center of the room. Jarod’s puzzlement grew.

Two Black Coats, who took over for the Sweepers who had been holding Lyle, joined the crew. It was obvious they had done this before, and judging for Lyle’s reaction to them, he had been through it before as well. Jarod ventured a glance at Willie. The man’s face was indecipherable and his gaze was glazed-over. Jarod fought the urge to squirm.

Lyle struggled admirably against the Black Coats, but was eventually overcome and strapped to the bed. Raines obscured Jarod’s view, but he could hear his nemesis’ cries.

“No!” his voice came out in gurgles- he was still fighting against them. “Gbsh… stop! No!”

Raines moved and Jarod could see his collection of hypodermic needles filled with various fluids. With their hands now free, the two Black Coats stripped Lyle of his tie, shirt, belt, and even his shoes and socks, leaving the man with only his undershirt and pants. The articles of clothing were sealed in a bag and tossed into the hallway.

“Come now, my boy,” Raines shameless taunted, holding one of the syringes upright and injecting a spray into the air. “We’ve been over this so many times before… fighting will only make it worse.”

Jarod’s head spun the more he struggled to figure out what he was witnessing. He tried to remain as stoic as his partner, but a slight frown creased his forehead.

The fluid in the first syringe looked like oil. Lyle glared at Raines, still as defiant as ever and he swore the worst obscenities he could conjure up. Raines merely scoffed as he plunged the needle into his victim’s forearm.

“Fight while you still can if it’ll make you feel better, boy,” Raines told him, picking up the next needle. “In a few minutes you’ll no longer have any muscle control.”

Jarod’s eyebrows rose as his confusion soared. His mind brought up all the muscle-paralyzing toxins he knew of and boiled the record down to… botulism… No, that wasn’t possible… was it?

In silence, Raines injected a second syringe into Lyle who had very little motor skills left. Then the mad doctor turned and walked away. After several minutes had passed, he addressed the Black Coats. “Undo the restraints and turned him over.”

Once done, Raines returned to the bedside and picked up the last syringe- this one was ink-filled- and thrust it into the base of his motionless prey’s skull.

“Take him to the tub.”

Jarod’s eyes followed them as they dragged Lyle’s limp body to the tub that was filled nearly to the brim with water.

“Stop,” Raines said suddenly. “Drop him.”

The Black Coats stared dumbly at their master. Raines snapped his fingers and pointed to the floor. They released him. The drop garnered a slight groan from Lyle.

Raines turned on Tony. “You,” he pointed at Jarod. “Get over here.”

Jarod obeyed and as he stood next to Raines he couldn’t help but to be intimidated by the man who suddenly seemed enormous with supremacy.

“See if he’s alert enough to feel anything.”

Jarod looked up at Raines as though to ask how. Raines handed him a knife. If he were correct in his assumption that the injected toxin was an accelerated form of botulism, Lyle would still have some movement in his lower body. As he sliced the bottom of the

under-director’s left foot, he was bemused to discover that he felt no sense of vindication. Lyle’s foot jerked lethargically as the paralysis was taking over.

“That’s enough,” Raines told him, nodding to the other two.

Jarod returned to his post and watched as the thugs relentlessly beat the catatonic man. Of course, his morality choose this instant to nag him as it reminded him that Lyle was worth more to him alive than dead at the moment. And besides, he had promised Miss Parker that he would leave Lyle to her if he found her brother first.

Parker…

In that moment, he remembered his anger with her and decided that he was no obligated to keep his promise.

“Dr. Raines,” he said, stepping up to the man after some internal debate. “Don’t you think this is a bit extreme?”

Raines shot him a lethal glare. “Go back to your job,” he hissed. “This is not your concern.”

“Don’t we need him to find the Seventh Member?”

“Not anymore.”

“What will the Tower say?”

And then Raines turned on him. Slowly, he advanced on his newest Sweeper with a suspicious air.

“When did you suddenly sprout a conscience?”

Jarod didn’t baulk or retreat, but internally he was desperately seeking a way to cover himself.

“I didn’t,” he replied stonily. “I just want to make sure our bases are covered.”

Raines eyes him dissatisfied. Much to Jarod’s relief, the man walked away.

“The tub,” he barked, suddenly winded. He inhaled deeply the fresh oxygen from his tank as the Black Coats hoisted Lyle, bloody and broken, into the water.

Jarod watched as Lyle slipped underwater in a cloud of red.

Her anger at Jarod had turned to intense worry. However, she had no intention of backing down from her threat. A threat that she did regret making. Feeling that she had no other recourse, she headed to her father’s office to see, if by some miracle, he might actually be of some assistance. Granted, he couldn’t know about the Jarod situation, but perhaps he could shed some light on the Project Heptagon.

She arrived at the door of Mr. Parker’s office and was not intercepted by any grotesque creatures. She knocked repeatedly. There was no answer. Alarmed, she tried the knob. It turned easily and clicked. Shouldering the door open, she stepped into the room. Everything was still and quiet. Parker frowned.

“Daddy?” She examined the office carefully and was thoroughly baffled. There was nothing out of place in the room and least not as far as she could remember. In fact, there was nothing to indicate he had been in his office for the last several days.

She put her fists on her hips unhappily. This was the confirmation that something was defiantly awry.

Daddy’s gone… How convenient…

She sighed and was suddenly aware of the weight of the phone in her pocket. She took it out and uttered another sigh. Her finger hovered above the redial button and she wondered if he would even answer.

Monday finds you like a bomb… It's been left ticking there too long… You're bleeding…

“Look, I’ve already told you everything I know!” Jarod glared up at Raines.

Raines stood above him glowering. With the chair Jarod was sitting in and Raines’ cart there was barely enough room to move in the former custodial closet of the sublevel.

“That simply isn’t good enough, Mr. Tony,” the old man wheezed. “Are you working for Mr. Lyle?”

“No! I swear I don’t know the guy!” He pulled back from Raines’ putrid breath.

“Then why such concern back there?”

“I told you already.”

“Tell me again.”

An exasperated sigh escaped the Pretender’s lips. “Rumor has it that Mr. Lyle is one of the hot shots here and since I’d like a long career with the Centre, I thought it might be a bad idea for all of us to kill him!”

Raines stood back. His lips stretched out over his lips in what Jarod could only assume was a smile. His heart raced and tension knotted in his back from prolonged exposure to the Centre. The need to run was building in his system.

“I like you, Mr. Tony,” Raines said with false niceness. “And because of that I’m going to give you one more chance to tell me the truth about your association with Mr. Lyle.”

“I told-“

Raines shushed him into silence. “No, no,” he said bowing slightly. “I want to give you a moment to consider how you answer.”

And with that he exited the closet.

Some days there's nothing left to learn from the point of no return…

When the door reopened, it was Willie and not Raines who walked in. Jarod relaxed his guard a little too soon. He thought that Willie’s coming to get him was a good sign…. He was wrong.

In the time it took to blink, Willie had bound the Pretender’s wrists behind him and locked him to the chair.

“Yo, Willie,” Jarod let out a dry laugh. “What’s up?”

“Sorry,” Willie said, though he didn’t sound apologetic. “Boss’s orders.”

“Wha-?” Jarod never had the chance to finish his word because of the fist that struck his jaw with a crushing blow.

His head snapped back sending a searing pain racing down his spine. He tried to lift his head back to its original position, but the moment he did, Willie dealt him another blow.

Jarod moaned as his vision blurred. He could feel blood trickling down his chin from the corner of his mouth.

Hey, hey, I saved the world today… Everybody's happy now… The bad things gone away and everybody's happy now… The good thing's here to stay… Please let it stay…

Jarod tried to shake off the pain but Willie continued to batter him. And then suddenly it all stopped.

“Hey, boss!” Willie yelled from the doorway.

Raines entered the room again and Willie shut the door behind him.

“Is he ready to-?” Raines stared at his Sweepers. Cautiously, he ventured closer to Jarod. Nearly nose-to-nose with him, a delighted, wicked smile spread over his lips. “Well, what do we have here?”

Jarod looked bleary-eyed at the man who seemed to float in and out of his line of vision. His head was too clouded for him to wonder what Raines was referring to. He saw the man reach out for his face and…

Jarod cried in pain when Raines suddenly and viciously ripped off the prosthetic chin that had come loose from his face.

There's a millions mouths to feed but I've got everything I need… I'm breathing and they’re hurting things inside… I've got everything to hide… I'm grieving…

Raines snickered. “So there’s a another rat loose in the Centre. I wonder which one we’ve caught this time?” He saw the area around “Tony’s” nose that had been cracked and was now peeling. He tore the false nose off as well.

And the doctor was taken aback for a moment.

“I don’t believe it,” he whispered in stunned amazement. Then he laughed a twisted cough of a laugh. “I don’t believe it. Jarod has come home.”

Raines watched with immense satisfaction as terror filled the Pretender’s eyes. He snickered again. Finally, luck was with him! Not with Mr. Parker, not with Miss Parker, not with Lyle, and not with Jarod. It was with him. This was too much! With Jarod back at the Centre, he only had to find the Seventh Member before he would be free to dispose of Mr. Parker and take over. And as wonderful as that would be- it wouldn’t be able to compare with the final destruction of Lyle and Miss Parker, who had been the bane of his existence for so long.

Miss Parker…

What was Jarod doing here exactly? What would have lured him back? It had to be Parker, the doctor decided.

And then a phone began to ring. Raines glance sharply at Willie who shrugged. He had the Sweeper search the Pretender who faded in and out of consciousness; Willie discovered the ringing phone in Jarod’s jacket pocket.

Raines stared thoughtfully at the communication device. He was certain their Pretender was being aided by someone within the Centre. Someone… and then it came to him.

He answered the call and with a sly smile wheezed into the receiver.

“Hello, Miss Parker.”

Do the good thing…