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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Disclaimer: The Characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots and The Center are all property of MTM, TNT and NBC Productions and are used without permission. No money has been involved here and no infringement is intended. 11/15/2002
A Voice Heard in Ramah (Part 3) By Phenyx
Miss Parker strode confidently down the corridor. Her heels clicked sharply on the tiled floors as she made her way back to her office. Other Centre employees quickly scooted out of her way as Parker glared at them. She was fuming and looking for an excuse to bite some heads off.
She had just left Mr. Raines' office. As usual, Raines and Lyle had been an opposing force that Parker had to withstand. Lyle's parting shot about her attire had nearly earned him a punch in the face.
"Do you really feel the need to wear mourning this long? Or are attempting to find out how many black outfits are stuffed in your closet?" Lyle had snickered.
Parker had wanted to scream. Baby Parker had been buried only one week ago. Her grief was still a tangible thing, though it no longer kept her from sleeping. There were other concerns troubling her at night these days.
Work at The Centre went on as usual. No one seemed to care about the little boy's death. Sydney and Broots had conveyed their sympathies, but neither had seen the child in ages. They had no emotional attachment to him.
Lyle seemed to have forgotten that the boy existed. Parker had watched him carefully during the funeral. He had seemed bored. Parker had watched him whispering to Raines during the service and she suddenly realized that Lyle knew. Lyle knew all about Progeny. He had known that the child they buried that day wasn't his brother. Lyle knew he was burying a nephew, while Parker buried her son.
The week that had followed had been a long lonely ordeal for Parker. She desperately wanted to talk about the revelation that she had other children. She needed to talk about the child she had just lost. But the past seven days had gone by with no word from the only person Parker could have talked to about these feelings. Jarod had disappeared and no one had any clue were he'd gone.
Parker's feelings had wavered from hurt to anger and back again at Jarod's abandonment. With each day that passed, she became more anxious, snapping at Broots constantly. At night, she would stare at the ceiling, waiting for the phone to ring. Sleep, when it came, was troubled and uneasy.
So now any small thing would put Miss Parker on edge. The meeting with Raines and Lyle had been brief but it had been a grueling exercise in self- control for Parker's pent up rage.
"I need to start smoking again." She groused as she stormed in to her office and sank sullenly into her chair.
A heartbeat later, Parker bolted back up and dashed to the door to lock it. She looked warily around the room for signs of her intruder. Glaring like a beacon in the middle of Parker's neat desktop were four tiny rectangles of orange candy. The PEZ were laid end to end, forming a simple square. Next to the candies was a matchbook imprinted with the words "Blue Swan Cocktail Lounge" and an address in Dover.
Parker snatched the items from her desk and quickly wiped away any additional traces of sugar with the palm of her hand. She made a circuit around her office searching for any other items that may have been left for her to find.
Her heart was pounding fiercely in her chest. "Jarod?" she whispered. Only silence answered.
Is he mad? Parker asked herself.
The candy had not been on her desk when she had left for her meeting, of that she was sure. She had been gone for no more than twenty minutes. Parker was certain that Jarod had been here during her brief absence. He was walking around The Centre in the middle of a busy weekday.
Stunned and a little frightened, Parker looked down at the items Jarod had left for her. The four orange PEZ sat in the palm of her hand. Their meaning was blatantly obvious. The four candies represented four children.
The message in the matchbook was even simpler to understand. On the inside of the cover, written in Jarod's distinct block letters was simply 8 PM, followed by today's date.
Parker glanced at the clock and sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon. Perhaps she would get a head start on the weekend and leave a few hours early. With the mood she had been in lately, no one would suspect anything if she took off for a couple of days.
Tucking Jarod's tiny mementos into one pocket, she turned on her heel and left the room. She needed to breeze through Sydney's office to lay the foundations of an alibi regarding the next day or two.
~~~~
Parker sighed as another moron slithered onto the bar stool beside her. "I'm not interested." She glared icily at him.
Unfortunately, this goof was young and full of bravado. He didn't take the hint.
"Come on, sweetheart." The young man cooed. "Don't know if you'll like it if you ain't willing to try." He motioned to the bartender. "Let me buy you a drink, darlin'."
Parker pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed deeply in an attempt to calm her jangled nerves. She couldn't afford to make a scene. So providing this idiot with a new hole in his head was not such a good idea.
This blond buffoon was the fourth brave soul who had tried to get friendly with Parker since she had arrived. The Blue Swan cocktail lounge seemed to be a popular place for the blue-collar crowd. At 7:00 on a Friday night, the place was nearly packed.
Parker had been unable to find a booth to hide in. So for the past 45 minutes she had sat at the bar, nursing a single drink, while she defended herself from unwanted advances and waited for 8 PM.
Staring at the man with her most withering glare Parker hissed, "I don't need to sample a thing to know that it's revolting." Her voice was sharp and ice cold. "So, unless you would like me to create a new orifice for the insertion of my foot, you will leave." She paused a heartbeat for effect. "Now."
The young man swallowed before quickly retreating to a nearby table to join his friends.
Parker had barely returned to her drink before a voice purred, "BRRrr. I almost feel sorry for the guy."
She turned to see Jarod standing beside her, a tired grin on his face. "It's about time you showed up." Parker said.
"I'm five minutes early." He replied.
"I know." Parker sighed. "But I've been here awhile, fending off the masses." She gestured toward the group of men gathered around her latest victim.
Jarod chuckled. "I wish I'd been here sooner. Watching you perform the Ice Queen routine is always amusing."
"Keep it up, Buster, " Parker warned, "and you'll be on the receiving end of that routine."
"Gee, I wonder what that would be like?" Jarod rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Let's go." He said abruptly.
"Where to?" Parker asked as Jarod led them to the parking lot.
Jarod didn't answer but instead walked past her car to stroll nonchalantly down the sidewalk. Parker hurried to keep up with him as he rounded the corner and crossed the street.
Two blocks later, Jarod took them down an alley that emerged in the back lot of an inexpensive motel. As they walked up to one of the rooms, Jarod dug a key from his coat pocket and opened the door.
"Are you hungry?" Jarod asked as he escorted Parker into the room.
Parker shook her head as she glanced at her surroundings. It was a small but clean room. There was a double bed along one wall and a small dresser against the other. The only other furniture in the room was a small round table with two chairs.
On the table there was a white bag from a local fast food joint, two bottles of Dr Pepper and a manila file folder. Next to the bed was a pile of Jarod's belongings, consisting of his silver DSA case and a black backpack.
Jarod wordlessly went to the table and offered Parker one of the beverages. When she declined, Jarod shrugged, opened the bottle and took a long swallow.
"I'm starved." He said as he dug into the bag and pulled out a cheeseburger. He flopped into one of the chairs and gestured meaningfully at the folder.
Parker picked it up cautiously. "What is this?" she asked him.
"Progeny." Jarod answered as he inhaled his burger. "Everything you could possibly want to know about it and some things that you don't." he warned ominously.
"Were you really in my office today, Jarod?" Parker asked, as she sat in the opposite chair.
Jarod looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. "Yes." He replied. "I've been there at least once each day this week."
Parker's jaw dropped in shock.
"By the way," Jarod said in an exaggerated whisper, "your secretary has been making long distance calls from your phone when you're not around." He pulled a second burger from the bag, unwrapped it and took a bite.
"I wouldn't be too harsh with him about it though." Jarod said gesturing with the sandwich. "His mom has been having trouble with a violent boyfriend, so he calls her at work to talk with her about leaving the creep."
Parker blinked for a moment at the nonsense Jarod was spouting. "Who cares?" she squeaked. "What have you been doing, spying on me?" She slammed the folder on the table top in fury.
Jarod rubbed at his temples and sighed deeply. "What did you expect Parker? I needed information about Progeny and I needed it fast." He stood quickly, grabbed the DSA case from the floor and slapped it on the table top with enough force to make Parker flinch. "Why dick around when everything I wanted was right there in The Centre?"
"But how?" Parker choked. "How did you."?
"Look," Jarod interrupted her sputtering. "I've spent the last ninety hours playing commando in a place that makes my skin crawl. I have discovered things that will haunt my nightmares for years to come. I'm tired and I'm hungry and I'm really not in the mood to argue with you."
He glanced at Parker's confused face and sighed again. "Let's just say that Centre security is designed to keep some people in and others out. Once you're on the other side of the wall, there is little to prevent you from moving around if you know where the cameras are located."
Jarod crouched beside Parker's chair and placed one hand on her arm. "I wasn't spying on you." He said gently. "I wanted to check up on you."
He stood suddenly and turned away. "Hell," he admitted ruefully. "I wanted to hide and there were only two places I felt safe. My old quarters, and your office." Jarod shrugged.
Parker shook her head in amazement. "I can't believe that you were sneaking around, right under our noses, for days."
"Why not? Angelo has been doing it for decades." Jarod smiled sadly. "It was Angelo that found out where the children are being kept."
Parker's eyes grew wide. "Are they in The Centre?" she asked fearfully.
Jarod nodded, his face grim. "If I could have gotten them all out on my own, they'd be here now. As it was, I nearly decided to free the ones I could and go back for the others. But I was afraid that Raines would move the children I'd left behind and we'd never find them again."
Parker caressed the folder with her fingertips. The stack of paper within contained all the information she needed about her children. Centre memos and impersonal reports. Parker suddenly pushed the folder away and looked up at Jarod longingly.
"I don't want to read this," she whispered. "I can't bear to look at those cold words written about my own kids." Parker's blue eyes pleaded with Jarod's brown ones as she asked, "Please, just tell me what you've learned."
Jarod slumped in to the empty chair. He grabbed his drink from the table and took a long swallow while he organized his thoughts.
"You already know that the hospital harvested your ova while you were being treated for the ruptured ulcer." He began.
Parker nodded.
"As it turns out," Jarod explained, "the medication that you were taking in the weeks prior to hospitalization wasn't treating your ulcer at all. They had been giving you fertility drugs to increase ovulation. As a result, they were able to harvest an impressive number of eggs. Ten oocytes is a very successful number of cells.
Anyway, they were all transferred to The Centre and immediately fertilized with my sperm." Jarod winced and began to blush. "Do we need to go into how they got that?"
Parker shook her head quickly. "No, no. Go on." She said.
Jarod rubbed his fingertips across his forehead and continued. "Only nine of the ova actually fertilized. The tenth was non-viable.
Once fertilization was complete and cellular division occurred, they were frozen while Raines found surrogates to carry individual embryos.
Once a surrogate was accepted into the project, a medical team would perform a procedure to implant a single egg in her body. The nine procedures took place over a span of about four months."
Jarod paused long enough to sip at his soda.
"The Centre's IVF program is really top rate. Of the nine, only two failed to implant and become actual pregnancies. A third surrogate miscarried during the first trimester.
Six of the surrogates carried a fetus to full term and gave birth. There were two girls and four boys.
An added aspect of the Progeny project was that the children would be raised in different environments. It seems that Raines wanted to see which form of child rearing created the most effective pretender."
Jarod glared at the now empty bottle in his hand for a moment then went on. "One of the girls was placed in a foster home, much like Ethan had been. There were two parents that would provide affection but still allow the Centre influence over her life. She was known as Progeny Gamma.
It seems that none of them were given real names, just project titles." Jarod shook his head sadly and shrugged. "She succumbed to S.I.D. when she was eleven weeks old."
Parker's shot Jarod a suspicious look. "Can we be sure that it was crib death?"
"There's nothing to make me think otherwise." He reassured her. "They needed to resuscitate her when she was born and she'd had a lot of trouble breathing at first. Babies like that are always at higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome. Besides, the documents I found indicate that everyone, including Raines, was very irritated when she died."
Parker nodded, "My brother." she halted and started again. "The child Brigette carried had trouble breathing for a while too. Raines worked hard to keep him healthy."
Jarod agreed. "Baby Parker was actually the youngest in the project. He was born three weeks after Gamma died."
"Explains why my father was so worried about Brigette at the time." Parker remarked.
"Brigette gave birth to Progeny Alpha." Jarod continued. "He was being raised in the same manner that you were, Parker. He was being brought up in society with a loving motherly influence from you and an emotionally stern father figure in either Raines or Lyle.
I believe that they planned to tragically remove you from his life at some point, just like they removed your mother." Jarod looked to Parker as if trying to gauge her reaction.
"God." She whispered.
"It gets worse." Jarod promised. "Raines wanted several of the infants raised like I was, for obvious monetary reasons. However, they also wanted to prevent any desire in these children to leave The Centre. So Raines came up with a brilliant idea.
The Progeny Delta project is actually three boys being raised together in The Centre. The three of them are insulated from the world and are cared for by kind, firm mentors like I was. But where I had one mentor for my entire stay at The Centre, the Delta project has continuously changing personnel filling that role.
These boys have had a never-ending series of caretakers so that they could never get attached to any one of them. Any emotional investment they have is in each other."
Parker smiled hopefully. "So they've always had each other to depend on."
"And," Jarod added, "it's an incredibly effective way to enforce discipline. Should any one of them fail to follow instructions or begin showing signs of disobedience, that individual would not be the one punished. The other two would get the punishment instead."
Parker closed her eyes as she shook her head in dismay. "Do what you want to me, just please don't hurt my brother." She whispered.
"I should think that it is a diabolically effect method of control." Jarod agreed. "I know it would work on me."
"All indications are that the Delta aspect of Progeny is highly successful." Jarod continued. "The three boys are educated and well cared for. Their simulations are already starting to generate income for the Centre."
"They aren't old enough to understand that they are prisoners. Or that they are being used." Parker said.
Jarod reached for the second bottle of Dr Pepper and popped it open. "They're not old enough for kindergarten for pity's sake." He said gruffly.
"What about the last child? The other little girl?" Parker asked.
The haunted look that Jarod flashed at Parker caused her to lean forward anxiously. Jarod sighed as a frown creased his brow.
"She is the Epsilon project." Jarod capped what was left of his soda and firmly placed the bottle on the table. He swallowed hard. When he began speaking again, it was in a sharp clinical tone that betrayed the emotions he was trying to control. "The Progeny Epsilon environment has been complete isolation. There has been no stimuli, no interaction, no affection, nothing.
Even as an infant, she was kept in a crib 24 hours a day. Someone would come in and stick a bottle in her mouth to feed her. No one ever picked her up." Jarod explained. "When she was old enough to hold the bottle on her own, even that contact with other people ended."
He leaned toward Parker to stress his next words. "Until about six months ago, she was locked in a room with nothing and no one. She was raised on pure instinct. Aside from grunts and screams, she's non-communicative. Parker, no one has taught her to speak."
"I can't imagine treating anyone like that." Parker whispered, tears misting her vision. "What changed six months ago?" she asked.
Jarod placed his elbows on the table and rubbed his fingertips in circles on his forehead in despair. "Lyle began educating her." He said haltingly.
Parker suddenly couldn't stop shivering as her skin broke out in goose bumps. "It's bad isn't it?" she asked.
The haunted look in Jarod's eyes answered her question and a single tear slipped down his cheek as he nodded.
Jarod closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. A moment later, when he opened his eyes, Parker saw no trace of the emotions that were tearing at his soul.
Parker took a few seconds to control her own pain as she followed his lead. They had work to do. There was no time for frivolous sorrow over things that couldn't be changed.
"Do you have a plan?" Parker asked him.
Jarod nodded. "We move tomorrow night." He said simply, ignoring her look of surprise at his short notice. "I'll explain my plan in the morning." Jarod stretched. "For now, I need to get some rest."
Parker watched him as he stood and removed his jacket, tossing it on to the chair. "When was the last time you slept, Jarod?" she asked with concern.
Jarod flashed her a crooked grin. "When did I pass out on your couch?" He asked in response.
Jarod tilted his head at her and sighed. He nudged the DSA case across the table toward Parker. "I stole these DSAs from the archives. I made copies, so they won't be missed. This is everything The Centre has on the children." He paused. "The Epsilon disks are difficult to watch. But I think it will be easier in the long run if you to understand what we are up against."
Parker nodded fearfully as she pulled the case closer and opened it. There were fewer disks inside than she had expected. But then, there were only four years worth of surveillance here. Parker was accustomed to the thirty years worth of disks that comprised Jarod's life.
The identifying labels on the DSAs indicated that there were two sets of disks. One set was lined up to the left of the viewer the other set was to the right.
Parker glanced expectantly at Jarod, hoping he would give her some direction as to where she should start. However, he had already stretched out on the bed and kicked off his shoes. Within moments, he had closed his eyes and drifted into an exhausted slumber.
With a shrug, Parker picked the disk closest to her right hand and slid it into the viewer. She then settled in and began to watch the lives of her children unfold before her.
A Voice Heard in Ramah (Part 3) By Phenyx
Miss Parker strode confidently down the corridor. Her heels clicked sharply on the tiled floors as she made her way back to her office. Other Centre employees quickly scooted out of her way as Parker glared at them. She was fuming and looking for an excuse to bite some heads off.
She had just left Mr. Raines' office. As usual, Raines and Lyle had been an opposing force that Parker had to withstand. Lyle's parting shot about her attire had nearly earned him a punch in the face.
"Do you really feel the need to wear mourning this long? Or are attempting to find out how many black outfits are stuffed in your closet?" Lyle had snickered.
Parker had wanted to scream. Baby Parker had been buried only one week ago. Her grief was still a tangible thing, though it no longer kept her from sleeping. There were other concerns troubling her at night these days.
Work at The Centre went on as usual. No one seemed to care about the little boy's death. Sydney and Broots had conveyed their sympathies, but neither had seen the child in ages. They had no emotional attachment to him.
Lyle seemed to have forgotten that the boy existed. Parker had watched him carefully during the funeral. He had seemed bored. Parker had watched him whispering to Raines during the service and she suddenly realized that Lyle knew. Lyle knew all about Progeny. He had known that the child they buried that day wasn't his brother. Lyle knew he was burying a nephew, while Parker buried her son.
The week that had followed had been a long lonely ordeal for Parker. She desperately wanted to talk about the revelation that she had other children. She needed to talk about the child she had just lost. But the past seven days had gone by with no word from the only person Parker could have talked to about these feelings. Jarod had disappeared and no one had any clue were he'd gone.
Parker's feelings had wavered from hurt to anger and back again at Jarod's abandonment. With each day that passed, she became more anxious, snapping at Broots constantly. At night, she would stare at the ceiling, waiting for the phone to ring. Sleep, when it came, was troubled and uneasy.
So now any small thing would put Miss Parker on edge. The meeting with Raines and Lyle had been brief but it had been a grueling exercise in self- control for Parker's pent up rage.
"I need to start smoking again." She groused as she stormed in to her office and sank sullenly into her chair.
A heartbeat later, Parker bolted back up and dashed to the door to lock it. She looked warily around the room for signs of her intruder. Glaring like a beacon in the middle of Parker's neat desktop were four tiny rectangles of orange candy. The PEZ were laid end to end, forming a simple square. Next to the candies was a matchbook imprinted with the words "Blue Swan Cocktail Lounge" and an address in Dover.
Parker snatched the items from her desk and quickly wiped away any additional traces of sugar with the palm of her hand. She made a circuit around her office searching for any other items that may have been left for her to find.
Her heart was pounding fiercely in her chest. "Jarod?" she whispered. Only silence answered.
Is he mad? Parker asked herself.
The candy had not been on her desk when she had left for her meeting, of that she was sure. She had been gone for no more than twenty minutes. Parker was certain that Jarod had been here during her brief absence. He was walking around The Centre in the middle of a busy weekday.
Stunned and a little frightened, Parker looked down at the items Jarod had left for her. The four orange PEZ sat in the palm of her hand. Their meaning was blatantly obvious. The four candies represented four children.
The message in the matchbook was even simpler to understand. On the inside of the cover, written in Jarod's distinct block letters was simply 8 PM, followed by today's date.
Parker glanced at the clock and sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon. Perhaps she would get a head start on the weekend and leave a few hours early. With the mood she had been in lately, no one would suspect anything if she took off for a couple of days.
Tucking Jarod's tiny mementos into one pocket, she turned on her heel and left the room. She needed to breeze through Sydney's office to lay the foundations of an alibi regarding the next day or two.
~~~~
Parker sighed as another moron slithered onto the bar stool beside her. "I'm not interested." She glared icily at him.
Unfortunately, this goof was young and full of bravado. He didn't take the hint.
"Come on, sweetheart." The young man cooed. "Don't know if you'll like it if you ain't willing to try." He motioned to the bartender. "Let me buy you a drink, darlin'."
Parker pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed deeply in an attempt to calm her jangled nerves. She couldn't afford to make a scene. So providing this idiot with a new hole in his head was not such a good idea.
This blond buffoon was the fourth brave soul who had tried to get friendly with Parker since she had arrived. The Blue Swan cocktail lounge seemed to be a popular place for the blue-collar crowd. At 7:00 on a Friday night, the place was nearly packed.
Parker had been unable to find a booth to hide in. So for the past 45 minutes she had sat at the bar, nursing a single drink, while she defended herself from unwanted advances and waited for 8 PM.
Staring at the man with her most withering glare Parker hissed, "I don't need to sample a thing to know that it's revolting." Her voice was sharp and ice cold. "So, unless you would like me to create a new orifice for the insertion of my foot, you will leave." She paused a heartbeat for effect. "Now."
The young man swallowed before quickly retreating to a nearby table to join his friends.
Parker had barely returned to her drink before a voice purred, "BRRrr. I almost feel sorry for the guy."
She turned to see Jarod standing beside her, a tired grin on his face. "It's about time you showed up." Parker said.
"I'm five minutes early." He replied.
"I know." Parker sighed. "But I've been here awhile, fending off the masses." She gestured toward the group of men gathered around her latest victim.
Jarod chuckled. "I wish I'd been here sooner. Watching you perform the Ice Queen routine is always amusing."
"Keep it up, Buster, " Parker warned, "and you'll be on the receiving end of that routine."
"Gee, I wonder what that would be like?" Jarod rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Let's go." He said abruptly.
"Where to?" Parker asked as Jarod led them to the parking lot.
Jarod didn't answer but instead walked past her car to stroll nonchalantly down the sidewalk. Parker hurried to keep up with him as he rounded the corner and crossed the street.
Two blocks later, Jarod took them down an alley that emerged in the back lot of an inexpensive motel. As they walked up to one of the rooms, Jarod dug a key from his coat pocket and opened the door.
"Are you hungry?" Jarod asked as he escorted Parker into the room.
Parker shook her head as she glanced at her surroundings. It was a small but clean room. There was a double bed along one wall and a small dresser against the other. The only other furniture in the room was a small round table with two chairs.
On the table there was a white bag from a local fast food joint, two bottles of Dr Pepper and a manila file folder. Next to the bed was a pile of Jarod's belongings, consisting of his silver DSA case and a black backpack.
Jarod wordlessly went to the table and offered Parker one of the beverages. When she declined, Jarod shrugged, opened the bottle and took a long swallow.
"I'm starved." He said as he dug into the bag and pulled out a cheeseburger. He flopped into one of the chairs and gestured meaningfully at the folder.
Parker picked it up cautiously. "What is this?" she asked him.
"Progeny." Jarod answered as he inhaled his burger. "Everything you could possibly want to know about it and some things that you don't." he warned ominously.
"Were you really in my office today, Jarod?" Parker asked, as she sat in the opposite chair.
Jarod looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. "Yes." He replied. "I've been there at least once each day this week."
Parker's jaw dropped in shock.
"By the way," Jarod said in an exaggerated whisper, "your secretary has been making long distance calls from your phone when you're not around." He pulled a second burger from the bag, unwrapped it and took a bite.
"I wouldn't be too harsh with him about it though." Jarod said gesturing with the sandwich. "His mom has been having trouble with a violent boyfriend, so he calls her at work to talk with her about leaving the creep."
Parker blinked for a moment at the nonsense Jarod was spouting. "Who cares?" she squeaked. "What have you been doing, spying on me?" She slammed the folder on the table top in fury.
Jarod rubbed at his temples and sighed deeply. "What did you expect Parker? I needed information about Progeny and I needed it fast." He stood quickly, grabbed the DSA case from the floor and slapped it on the table top with enough force to make Parker flinch. "Why dick around when everything I wanted was right there in The Centre?"
"But how?" Parker choked. "How did you."?
"Look," Jarod interrupted her sputtering. "I've spent the last ninety hours playing commando in a place that makes my skin crawl. I have discovered things that will haunt my nightmares for years to come. I'm tired and I'm hungry and I'm really not in the mood to argue with you."
He glanced at Parker's confused face and sighed again. "Let's just say that Centre security is designed to keep some people in and others out. Once you're on the other side of the wall, there is little to prevent you from moving around if you know where the cameras are located."
Jarod crouched beside Parker's chair and placed one hand on her arm. "I wasn't spying on you." He said gently. "I wanted to check up on you."
He stood suddenly and turned away. "Hell," he admitted ruefully. "I wanted to hide and there were only two places I felt safe. My old quarters, and your office." Jarod shrugged.
Parker shook her head in amazement. "I can't believe that you were sneaking around, right under our noses, for days."
"Why not? Angelo has been doing it for decades." Jarod smiled sadly. "It was Angelo that found out where the children are being kept."
Parker's eyes grew wide. "Are they in The Centre?" she asked fearfully.
Jarod nodded, his face grim. "If I could have gotten them all out on my own, they'd be here now. As it was, I nearly decided to free the ones I could and go back for the others. But I was afraid that Raines would move the children I'd left behind and we'd never find them again."
Parker caressed the folder with her fingertips. The stack of paper within contained all the information she needed about her children. Centre memos and impersonal reports. Parker suddenly pushed the folder away and looked up at Jarod longingly.
"I don't want to read this," she whispered. "I can't bear to look at those cold words written about my own kids." Parker's blue eyes pleaded with Jarod's brown ones as she asked, "Please, just tell me what you've learned."
Jarod slumped in to the empty chair. He grabbed his drink from the table and took a long swallow while he organized his thoughts.
"You already know that the hospital harvested your ova while you were being treated for the ruptured ulcer." He began.
Parker nodded.
"As it turns out," Jarod explained, "the medication that you were taking in the weeks prior to hospitalization wasn't treating your ulcer at all. They had been giving you fertility drugs to increase ovulation. As a result, they were able to harvest an impressive number of eggs. Ten oocytes is a very successful number of cells.
Anyway, they were all transferred to The Centre and immediately fertilized with my sperm." Jarod winced and began to blush. "Do we need to go into how they got that?"
Parker shook her head quickly. "No, no. Go on." She said.
Jarod rubbed his fingertips across his forehead and continued. "Only nine of the ova actually fertilized. The tenth was non-viable.
Once fertilization was complete and cellular division occurred, they were frozen while Raines found surrogates to carry individual embryos.
Once a surrogate was accepted into the project, a medical team would perform a procedure to implant a single egg in her body. The nine procedures took place over a span of about four months."
Jarod paused long enough to sip at his soda.
"The Centre's IVF program is really top rate. Of the nine, only two failed to implant and become actual pregnancies. A third surrogate miscarried during the first trimester.
Six of the surrogates carried a fetus to full term and gave birth. There were two girls and four boys.
An added aspect of the Progeny project was that the children would be raised in different environments. It seems that Raines wanted to see which form of child rearing created the most effective pretender."
Jarod glared at the now empty bottle in his hand for a moment then went on. "One of the girls was placed in a foster home, much like Ethan had been. There were two parents that would provide affection but still allow the Centre influence over her life. She was known as Progeny Gamma.
It seems that none of them were given real names, just project titles." Jarod shook his head sadly and shrugged. "She succumbed to S.I.D. when she was eleven weeks old."
Parker's shot Jarod a suspicious look. "Can we be sure that it was crib death?"
"There's nothing to make me think otherwise." He reassured her. "They needed to resuscitate her when she was born and she'd had a lot of trouble breathing at first. Babies like that are always at higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome. Besides, the documents I found indicate that everyone, including Raines, was very irritated when she died."
Parker nodded, "My brother." she halted and started again. "The child Brigette carried had trouble breathing for a while too. Raines worked hard to keep him healthy."
Jarod agreed. "Baby Parker was actually the youngest in the project. He was born three weeks after Gamma died."
"Explains why my father was so worried about Brigette at the time." Parker remarked.
"Brigette gave birth to Progeny Alpha." Jarod continued. "He was being raised in the same manner that you were, Parker. He was being brought up in society with a loving motherly influence from you and an emotionally stern father figure in either Raines or Lyle.
I believe that they planned to tragically remove you from his life at some point, just like they removed your mother." Jarod looked to Parker as if trying to gauge her reaction.
"God." She whispered.
"It gets worse." Jarod promised. "Raines wanted several of the infants raised like I was, for obvious monetary reasons. However, they also wanted to prevent any desire in these children to leave The Centre. So Raines came up with a brilliant idea.
The Progeny Delta project is actually three boys being raised together in The Centre. The three of them are insulated from the world and are cared for by kind, firm mentors like I was. But where I had one mentor for my entire stay at The Centre, the Delta project has continuously changing personnel filling that role.
These boys have had a never-ending series of caretakers so that they could never get attached to any one of them. Any emotional investment they have is in each other."
Parker smiled hopefully. "So they've always had each other to depend on."
"And," Jarod added, "it's an incredibly effective way to enforce discipline. Should any one of them fail to follow instructions or begin showing signs of disobedience, that individual would not be the one punished. The other two would get the punishment instead."
Parker closed her eyes as she shook her head in dismay. "Do what you want to me, just please don't hurt my brother." She whispered.
"I should think that it is a diabolically effect method of control." Jarod agreed. "I know it would work on me."
"All indications are that the Delta aspect of Progeny is highly successful." Jarod continued. "The three boys are educated and well cared for. Their simulations are already starting to generate income for the Centre."
"They aren't old enough to understand that they are prisoners. Or that they are being used." Parker said.
Jarod reached for the second bottle of Dr Pepper and popped it open. "They're not old enough for kindergarten for pity's sake." He said gruffly.
"What about the last child? The other little girl?" Parker asked.
The haunted look that Jarod flashed at Parker caused her to lean forward anxiously. Jarod sighed as a frown creased his brow.
"She is the Epsilon project." Jarod capped what was left of his soda and firmly placed the bottle on the table. He swallowed hard. When he began speaking again, it was in a sharp clinical tone that betrayed the emotions he was trying to control. "The Progeny Epsilon environment has been complete isolation. There has been no stimuli, no interaction, no affection, nothing.
Even as an infant, she was kept in a crib 24 hours a day. Someone would come in and stick a bottle in her mouth to feed her. No one ever picked her up." Jarod explained. "When she was old enough to hold the bottle on her own, even that contact with other people ended."
He leaned toward Parker to stress his next words. "Until about six months ago, she was locked in a room with nothing and no one. She was raised on pure instinct. Aside from grunts and screams, she's non-communicative. Parker, no one has taught her to speak."
"I can't imagine treating anyone like that." Parker whispered, tears misting her vision. "What changed six months ago?" she asked.
Jarod placed his elbows on the table and rubbed his fingertips in circles on his forehead in despair. "Lyle began educating her." He said haltingly.
Parker suddenly couldn't stop shivering as her skin broke out in goose bumps. "It's bad isn't it?" she asked.
The haunted look in Jarod's eyes answered her question and a single tear slipped down his cheek as he nodded.
Jarod closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. A moment later, when he opened his eyes, Parker saw no trace of the emotions that were tearing at his soul.
Parker took a few seconds to control her own pain as she followed his lead. They had work to do. There was no time for frivolous sorrow over things that couldn't be changed.
"Do you have a plan?" Parker asked him.
Jarod nodded. "We move tomorrow night." He said simply, ignoring her look of surprise at his short notice. "I'll explain my plan in the morning." Jarod stretched. "For now, I need to get some rest."
Parker watched him as he stood and removed his jacket, tossing it on to the chair. "When was the last time you slept, Jarod?" she asked with concern.
Jarod flashed her a crooked grin. "When did I pass out on your couch?" He asked in response.
Jarod tilted his head at her and sighed. He nudged the DSA case across the table toward Parker. "I stole these DSAs from the archives. I made copies, so they won't be missed. This is everything The Centre has on the children." He paused. "The Epsilon disks are difficult to watch. But I think it will be easier in the long run if you to understand what we are up against."
Parker nodded fearfully as she pulled the case closer and opened it. There were fewer disks inside than she had expected. But then, there were only four years worth of surveillance here. Parker was accustomed to the thirty years worth of disks that comprised Jarod's life.
The identifying labels on the DSAs indicated that there were two sets of disks. One set was lined up to the left of the viewer the other set was to the right.
Parker glanced expectantly at Jarod, hoping he would give her some direction as to where she should start. However, he had already stretched out on the bed and kicked off his shoes. Within moments, he had closed his eyes and drifted into an exhausted slumber.
With a shrug, Parker picked the disk closest to her right hand and slid it into the viewer. She then settled in and began to watch the lives of her children unfold before her.
