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Chapter or Story
Repercussions
pretender_gurl
SL-25: Isolation Ward
The Centre
April 12, 1994
15:40
Garr waited outside the cell until he heard the sounds of flesh hitting flesh ceased. A moment later Jarod and the three Sweepers emerged; one holding his hand to his mouth and Jarod hanging limply between the other two.
"The little shit bit me!" the wounded Sweeper cried.
Garr reached forward and pulled Jarod's head up by his hair. Jarod winced in pain, but made no attempts to free himself from the Cleaner's grasp.
"Nice work, boys," Garr said as he examined Jarod's bruised and bloody face. Then he addressed the Pretender. "What are you? Some kind of animal?" Garr said, bringing his knee into Jarod's groin.
Jarod grunted and doubled over in pain.
Garr just scoffed at the Pretender. "Get him to his space. Then call an orderly to clean him up. Our Boy Genius has a meeting with the Triumvirate Review Board."
Jarod looked up at Garr through swollen eyes and a shiver went through his bruised body. This was not a good day to perform in front of the Triumvirate. His mind was completely focused on blocking out his physical pain, and with adrenaline coursing through his veins, Jarod would never be able to calm himself into a relaxed state necessary for intense Pretends.
"Let…go…of me," Jarod whispered through the searing waves of pain as he lurched forward, trying to break free of the Sweepers.
Garr cuffed him upside the head. "For a genius, you're not a very fast learner. Here you are - defeated, surrounded by my men - and yet you still haven't learned your place."
"My…place?"
Garr leaned forward to whisper in the Pretender's ear, "The Centre owns you. You belong to us - always have, always will." v "Good luck, Lab Rat," the wounded Sweeper jeered as Jarod was dragged down the corridor to the elevators.
Mr. Raines's Office
The Centre
15:47
Sydney burst into the room without knocking for the second time that day. Raines looked up from his desk where he was on the phone.
"I'll have to call you back," Raines said into the receiver. He hung up the phone and stood to meet the fiery psychiatrist. "What do you want?"
"What have you done with Jarod?" Sydney asked, getting right to the point.
"I have no idea wh -"
Raines was interrupted when Sydney reached out and took him by the collar.
"I don't have time for your games! Where is he?" Sydney growled, his grip tightening around the pistol in his pocket.
The two men were engaged in a malicious stare-down when the door opened and a small, balding man stuck his head in.
"Ah, excuse me, but I have the information you requested, Sydney," Broots said.
Sydney gave Raines one last glare before pushing him away and following Broots out of the office.
"I've been looking all over this place for you! You didn't answer your phone so I went to your office and when you weren't there I checked the labs, then the bathrooms where one of the Sweepers said he saw you on the Tower elevator -" Broots rambled until Sydney interrupted him.
"Broots, what did you find out?"
"Oh! Right! Well, I was monitoring the emergency systems for my friend Shorty on account that he loaned me his accordion last week for the annual Tech Room Talent Show -"
"Broots…" Sydney said impatiently in an attempt to get Broots back on track.
"Oh! Sorry. Okay, so a call came through about ten minutes ago calling for an orderly to Room 2303," Broots hurried.
"Jarod's room," Sydney whispered. "Thank you Mr. Broots."
"You're welcome," Broots called to Sydney as the elevator doors closed behind the psychiatrist.
SL-23: Room 2309
The Centre
15:55
"Focus, dammit!" Raines yelled at the trembling child on the cot.
Jira was sitting on the bed with her eyes clenched tightly shut. Mr. Raines had asked her to Perceive a woman named Miss Parker and shown her a picture of a beautiful young brunette with pale blue eyes. Miss Parker was wearing a black gown with a yellow cord draped across her shoulders and a funny cap with a tassel. Jira was having a difficult time locating the woman. She was obviously trained in disguising her feelings.
Finally, Jira found her in the same place that she had found Jarod. This must be the girl he was thinking of when he escaped the Centre! she thought.
"I-I've found her, Mr. Raines," Jira said softly.
"Good. Now what is she doing? Become Miss Parker!" Raines said emphatically.
Jira took a deep breath and focused all of her energy on this woman.
>She was sitting on a huge bed with something that looked like a computer, twirling a small, silver disc in her hand. Fear - she was afraid to see what was on the disc. Pushing the disc into a slot. Heart aching as she remembered her feelings for the boy on the screen. Then the shock as the video played on past the point that her disc had ended at. Raines drugged her, father beating her, becoming a guinea pig for a mind-altering serum. She watched in horror as a Sweeper carried an unconscious teenage girl to the Centre's infirmary. And that's when the lies began. She turned off the machine and threw herself onto the bed, weeping with shame and anger.<
"She's watching something, a video I think," Jira reported.
Mr. Raines sighed with relief. He interpreted Jira's answer to mean that Miss Parker was watching a movie. The idea that the "video" could actually be a DSA never entered Raines's mind. He assumed that Miss Parker was watching a movie and not thinking about the Pretender at all. It appeared that the memory serum he had used eight years ago was still doing its job and Miss Parker had no idea what really happened that day in August.
"Good. Now get to work on that simulation for tomorrow. And I want to see complete cooperation, or the consequences will be severe. Am I clear?" Mr. Raines growled.
Jira nodded and immediately walked over to the desk where the simulation materials were waiting.
Parker Mansion
Blue Cove, DE
16:00
Miss Parker cried until she had no more tears left. She was struggling to come to terms with the DSA she had just seen. She had turned her back on her one true friend and the first boy she ever loved. Jarod had tried to save her and in doing so brought the wrath of Mr. Raines down upon himself. And her father…
Miss Parker didn't know what to do, what to think. After her mother died, her father had tried to buy her compassion rather than spending time with her as her mother had. Miss Parker was brought directly to the Centre after school by her father's Sweepers where she stayed until all hours of the night, sometimes even sleeping on the sofa in the Chairman's office. It was loneliness that drove her to explore the Centre's deeps. She had found Jarod by accident the day after they met in front of the Triumvirate.
Miss Parker reached under her mattress and pulled out a leather-bound diary. Her name was embroidered on the front in gold thread. She flipped through the pages until she found the date she was looking for.
April 23, 1979
Today I went to the Centre with Daddy because Momma is visiting some orphanages in New York. I wanted to go with her, but Daddy said I've missed too much school and Momma didn't argue with him. After my last class, Daddy's Sweeper came to my classroom and took me to the Centre in one of the big cars like Daddy drives.
I did my homework in Daddy's office and colored a picture for Momma, but then was very bored so I went exploring. I snuck into the lobby and found a stairwell that I had never been down before. I slid down the railing because Momma wasn't there to tell me it's not ladylike. There was a door that led to a dark hallway at the bottom of the stairwell. It had a 21 painted on the door. I went through the door and saw a light at the end of the hallway. I crept very carefully to the light and found myself on a little balcony.
Looking down over the railing, I saw a boy sitting at a table in the middle of a big room. It was the same boy from the glass box that I saw yesterday! I think Daddy said his name was Jarod and that he's a subject in an experiment, whatever that means.
Jarod was looking at some pictures in a book. I walked down some stairs so that I was in the same room as him. He heard me, but he didn't look up. He must have thought I was someone else, because when I spoke, he jumped in his chair. I know it sounds silly, but there was something about him that made my stomach do a somersault, like when Momma says she has butterflies in her stomach. I didn't like that feeling very much, so I pushed it away like Daddy taught me to.
"You're afraid of me aren't you?" I asked Jarod as I came up from behind him.
"No," he lied.
"You were yesterday. I could tell," I told him, leaning over the table. I was trying to scare him so that I wouldn't be the only one so jumpy.
"I was nervous. You have soft skin," he said with a smile that made my stomach flip-flop again. I wish he would stop making it do that!
"You didn't even touch me!" I said, and it's true - there was a glass wall between us!
"Yes I did, in here," he said, pointing to his head. "Hold out your hand like this."
I don't know why, but I did what he said to.
We held our hands out like we did yesterday when the glass was between us, with our palms facing towards each other and closed our eyes. I didn't even realize it, but our hands were moving together.
"Can you feel it?" he asked me.
I could. His hand was rough and cool in my mind. I felt drawn to him in a way that I had never felt before.
Then we touched. Just for a moment our hands touched and there was an energy that shot through me and left my hairs standing on end. We both jumped and pulled our hands back. I had to close my eyes for a second to catch my breath. I'm beginning to dislike the way this boy pulls down my defenses!
Then he asked me my name, my first name. I walked around to his side of the table and whispered it into his ear.
"That's beautiful," he said with a huge grin. I smiled back at him.
"My Momma named me because my Daddy wasn't there when I was born," I explained.
"I've met your mother. She talked with me when I first came here, when I was missing my mother," Jarod said.
"Where is your mother now?" I asked. His eyes clouded over and he looked down at his lap.
"I don't know," he whispered. I felt bad because he was so sad.
Jarod told me that his parents had left him with the Centre so that his abilities could be molded or something like that. He said that he lives in the Centre all the time and that Sydney takes care of him. My Momma is friends with Sydney and he's known me for a long time. I told Jarod that Sydney is very nice and that he will take care of Jarod, but I don't think that helped very much. Jarod obviously still misses his parents.
I glanced at my watch and jumped up. I had been gone from the Tower for over an hour! I was afraid that Daddy would notice that I was gone, so I told Jarod I had to leave. He reached out and grabbed my hand.
"Wait! Will I ever see you again?" he asked me with concern in his eyes. I just smiled and told him that I hoped so.
Miss Parker looked up from the diary with tears glistening in her eyes. Yes, she and Jarod had met many times after that, culminating with the event she had just watched on the DSA player. There were so many times that Jarod had been there for her. It was time that she was there for him.
SL-23: Room 2303
The Centre
16:00
Sydney punched in his security code on the keypad outside Jarod's room. As soon as the door slid back, he rushed in to find Jarod lying on his cot and a Centre orderly dressing a laceration on the Pretender's forehead.
"Jarod! What happened?" Sydney cried, standing over his protégé.
"I believe the official term is 're-education'" Jarod said dryly, wincing as the orderly dabbed the cut with hydrogen peroxide.
"I'll take it from here," Sydney said to the orderly who readily handed over his charge. He had just finished aiding the doctor who stitched up a Sweeper who had been bitten by the Pretender.
"Jarod, why did you try to escape?"
"I just wanted to find Miss Parker. I wasn't planning on escaping."
"Well, they were very strategic, weren't they? The only broken bone is a chipped carpal and there's nothing to be done for that," Sydney said, holding up an x-ray. He turned back to Jarod. "Your wrist will be sore for a few days, but it should heal without incident."
"Of course it will. Heaven forbid that they damage their most prized possession," Jarod said bitterly.
"Jarod…" Sydney began in a warning tone. He disliked it when Jarod belittled himself and at the same time implicated Sydney for his mistreatment.
"No. It's been made quite clear that I'm Centre property. I'm here to serve, to do what I'm told."
"Jarod, you're here because you have a gift that can help others. Your work can benefit mankind."
"And give the Centre a healthy profit margin," Jarod added, sitting up and shrugging into his Centre-issue shirt. He fumbled with the buttons, trying not to aggravate his wounded wrist. "I hear the Review Board is waiting."
"I can re-schedule the simulation if you're not feeling up to it," Sydney offered.
"I'd rather just get it over with," Jarod answered without emotion.
"It is fairly straightforward, Jarod. I have every confidence that you will be able to perform up to par."
"You always do, Sydney," Jarod replied as he picked up a blank red notebook from his desk and headed for the door.
Sydney felt a hand squeeze his heart as he watched his protégé limp out of the room. Shaking his head, he followed the Pretender to the elevators.
