Part Six

“Debbie?” Parker asked, striding purposefully toward the coffee table where the girl had seated herself beside her father. Her eyebrow lifted as she watched the girl turn the laptop toward her. Before she could continue, Broots cleared his throat.

“Debbie, uh… Debbie wanted to help. She’s pretty good at this stuff,” he couldn’t help but smile with pride. “She found something that might be important.” Fidgeting in his seat, Broots leaned forward. “This is the Gemini file.”

Crouching beside Debbie, Parker eyed the screen carefully. “This isn’t anything we haven’t seen before,” she pointed out.

“Right, right,” Broots nodded, “but it is something we haven’t seen in a while. It was wiped from the mainframe when you were locked in the psychiatric hospital, you know, after Jarod and the Major were able to liberate Jim from Donaterase.”

“Psychiatric hospital?” Major Charles frowned, pitch rising.

Ignoring the older man, Miss Parker squinted at the screen and then flicked her gaze toward the computer technician. Placing a hand on Debbie’s shoulder, she offered the girl a small smile. “Good work, Debbie. What do you think it means, Broots?”

Shrugging, the man replied, “I don’t know yet, Miss Parker. But if the Gemini files have been replaced, it could mean they’re trying to restart the project. I haven’t had time to compare the information here with what we already know about Gem-Jim, that is, or about Mirage. If there have been any alterations, it may give us some idea of what they’re planning with Illusion.”

“Have you found the Mirage file, as well?” Major Charles asked from his position behind Parker. The younger woman stood as he spoke, both gazing toward Broots. Debbie’s fingers flew to the keyboard, hitting the Alt and Tab commands, switching the screen to the Mirage file.

Sighing, Major Charles nodded and let his eyes fall on Parker’s as she glanced over her shoulder.

“I’m going to run a search for files that may be linked to these two while I’m checking for alterations,” Broots shrugged again. “I’m not really sure what we’re going to find, if anything.”

“Thanks Broots,” Miss Parker nodded. “Hey Deb, why don’t you come help me in the kitchen for a little while? I was thinking cupcakes, or maybe brownies. Something with chocolate.”

The girl’s eyes flashed with pleasure, “Sure!” Leaping to her feet, she started for the kitchen.

“I’ll meet you in there in a few minutes,” the brunette called after her, crossing her arms and whirling on her friend. “Broots, do you really think Debbie should be…?” she began, shaking her head.

“She understands more than either of us give her credit for, Miss Parker,” Broots offered. “She’s my little girl…” his voice trailed off, “I never wanted Debbie to know so much about the Centre. But I can’t protect her from everything.”

“Just be careful what she sees, Broots. We don’t have any idea what may be in those files,” Parker reminded him, voice low. Broots nodded fretfully as she turned her back and headed for the kitchen.

“Miss Parker?” he called, before she could pass through the doorway. Watching her turn toward him, eyebrow raised, the tech began to speak.

“There’s a file attached to this one,” he cleared his throat. “I didn’t want Debbie to see it. It looks like it’s rigged with a tracking program masked as a self-destruct timer. I’m fairly certain I can reroute traffic to make it look like the person opening the file is somewhere else.”

“What’s in it?” Parker queried.

“I don’t know yet, Miss Parker. But from the way they’ve got it set up, I get the feeling it’s something they know you – or Jarod – would want to see. Or maybe Mr. Parker,” Broots added at the last moment. “It looks like the file has been there for some time. I can’t be sure who was intended to find it.”

Running a hand through her dark locks, Parker sighed and turned sideways. Placing her hand on the door to the kitchen, she nodded. “Find out what’s in that file, Broots. It may lead us to what we’re looking for.”

“Yes, Miss Parker,” Broots nodded in return, eyes flitting toward Major Charles. “I think it might be a good idea if Jim helped with this. Two pairs of eyes, you know, to make sure the Centre can’t trace us back… There’s always the possibility…”

“I have other safe houses, Mr. Broots. If we’re going to need to move, now is the time to do it,” Major Charles interrupted. “We find what we need now, when it’s not too complicated to move everyone.” Broots watched the Major as his eyes drifted to the side, pausing in his speech. “As Parker’s pregnancy progresses, this becomes more risky.” Shifting on his feet, the older man headed for the stairs. “I’ll send Jim up to help you. We need to know what’s in that file.”

--

“Can we ice the brownies, Miss Parker?” Debbie asked, half-turning from her position at the kitchen counter as the other woman entered the room.

“Sure,” the older woman smiled, walking forward and reaching into the cabinet for the box of brownie mix the girl couldn’t reach. The girl took the box from her hands and began perusing the instructions.

“We need eggs, oil, and water,” she shared, eyes lifting to Parker’s in silent direction. Chuckling to herself, the brunette turned to the refrigerator and retrieved the carton of eggs and placed them on the counter, then reached into the cabinet again for a bottle of vegetable oil.

Debbie tore into the ingredients as soon as she had deposited a mixing bowl on the counter.

“You realize the brownies aren’t going anywhere, right?” Miss Parker’s tone was amused.

Rolling her eyes, the girl laughed. “I really want some chocolate,” she offered, turning her back to the older woman and ripping open the bag of brownie mix.

“Debbie, can I talk to you about something?” Parker asked, hoisting herself up onto the counter beside the girl.

“Sure, Miss Parker,” the girl shrugged, fleetingly turning curious eyes on the older woman.

Shifting to find the most comfortable position and leaning back against the overhead cabinets, the older woman smiled gently at the girl. “Thank you for helping your Dad today. You’re a very smart girl, Debbie, and I appreciate that you want to help me – all of us. I just want you to understand that the Centre won’t care who you are or who you aren’t – they don’t care about collateral damages or innocent lives. More than anything else,” Parker’s voice was soft, “I want to know that you are safe.” She reached out a hand and pressed it against the side of the girl’s face.

“You don’t want me to help,” the girl stated, voice hurt and eyes wide. “I can take care of myself!”

“On the contrary, Debbie,” the brunette was firm, “I absolutely want your help. I just want you to promise to be very, very careful. And please understand that there are some things that we can’t ask for your help with, and don’t be hurt that we want to protect you from those things, okay?”

The girl’s shoulders slumped. “I thought…” she sighed. “I know they did bad things to you, Miss Parker. I know where babies come from, I’m not a child. And I know you didn’t know they were doing things to you. It makes me so angry! I just want to make them pay for hurting you,” the girl eyed her feet and lightly kicked the cabinet in front of her. “I want us to have real lives, like normal people, and I want you to have your baby and love it. And I want to babysit. I want us to be safe and happy and I want them to pay for hurting you!” Turning round eyes up to the brunette, “I want to help.”

Parker drew her bottom lip between her teeth, blinking back a wave of heat that was building behind her eyes. “You make me happy, Debbie. You and your daddy, and my brother and Major Charles and Jim and Ben. I think this baby will make me happy, too.” She tugged at the girl’s shoulders and tucked her in to her left side before tugging her arm upward. “Come sit up here with me.”

Once the girl was seated on the counter, brownie mix temporarily abandoned in the mixing bowl, Parker pushed her hair behind her ears. “Debbie, you’re right, I didn’t know what was happening to me at the time. And no, it wasn’t right,” her words were careful and low. “And yes, that’s how I got pregnant. The Centre has done a great number of terrible things – and most of them had very little to do with me. This wasn’t their first attempt at producing genetically engineered children – you said you knew where Jim came from?” Watching the girl nod, Parker continued. “If we don’t stop them, it probably won’t be their last. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from the Centre, it’s that getting even, making them pay – it’s not worth it. We can fight them, and we can win. But you can’t ‘get even’ with someone – or something – that has no conscience. The only way we can hurt them is by damaging their ability to work on these projects and make money. Some of the things in those computer mainframes will give us the ability to hit them where it hurts. We can expose them to government agencies, the media, and in some cases, to each other. But a lot of the information we’re going to find is worthless. You see, the government pays the Centre to do a lot of what it does, or at the very least, they know the Centre is doing things it shouldn’t be. And sometimes, the projects they conduct have bad effects on one person, but could save thousands of others,” taking a deep breath, she shook the image of a dying Faith from her mind. “We can’t know – for every single thing they do – what the good and bad effects are. Some of their experiments, though – like this one,” she pulled the girl’s hand to lightly touch her stomach, “are performed for all the wrong reasons. So we hit them where it hurts – in projects like this one. And then we go to the safest place we can find and try to hold them off so we can live our lives.” Holding Debbie’s right hand against her stomach, Parker reached forward and again tucked a loose strand of hair behind the girl’s ear. “You are a big help, Debbie. I just don’t want you to have to see all of the bad things the Centre has done… and all of the bad things I have done.”

Debbie’s eyes held Parker’s, emotions passing clearly through their locked gaze. “I love you, Miss Parker. No matter what, okay?” Debbie reached forward, locking both arms around the older woman and burying her face in her chest. “You’re my best friend.”

Breathing in the scent of the young girl’s shampoo, Parker closed her eyes against the onset of tears at the girl’s simple, honest statement. In a moment of unguarded honesty, she replied, “Thank you, Debbie. You’re my best friend, too.”