Unknown area

“Visiting the sick?”

Lyle and Jarod both turned towards the voice as Parker closed the bathroom door behind her with audible thud. Jarod stared at her, his hands still pressing the pillow to Sydney’s face. He couldn’t believe that she had anticipated Lyle or the fact that she was in the room. Everything seemed distant, as if he was watching the scene unfold from afar, his body numb from the emotional rollercoaster he had had for the past week.

“Parker,” Lyle turned to her fully and smiled, “what are you doing here?”

She stepped towards Jarod and gently removed the pillow from his slack hands while keeping her gun expertly trained on Lyle.

“Stopping you from destroying any more lives.”

Lyle crossed his arms in front of him and tilted his head slightly. “You’re making a mistake.”

“I don’t think so,” his sister replied before releasing the safety on her gun.

She quickly stepped closer when she noticed the pretender swaying but was too late to stop him from collapsing beside Sydney’s bed. Warning Lyle not to try anything, she knelt next to the pretender, asking him what was wrong. Jarod shuddered before taking a deep, ragged breath. Pushing himself into a semi-sitting position, he glanced at Lyle.

“We…we have to find her,” his voice cracked as he uttered his next words, “Lyle….he’s buried her in the desert.”

She rose, keeping her concern for Jarod’s physical state bottled inside. Lyle was staring at her with clear blue eyes, a gaze she was familiar with.

“Where are they?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Lyle taunted, “but you have only about…” he glanced at his watch before mentally calculating, “…three hours left.”

His sister lashed out with her gun, connecting just below his right eye. A fresh cut appeared and Lyle reached up, wiping at the blood that had started to well up. Grimacing, he took out a handkerchief and pressed it against the cut.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Lyle sounded bored. “Now Jarod’s family will have to pay the price for your inability to follow simple directions.”

The menace was clear and Jarod used the linen to pull himself into a standing position.

“Parker, wait.”

The only reason that she didn’t shoot her brother was Jarod’s softly spoken words.

“If you let my family go…” he trailed off, wondering why he was once again trying to bargain with Lyle. It hasn’t worked previously.

“Jarod, don’t.”

Lyle grinned and stepped towards Jarod, ignoring his sister as she aimed her gun. “Take the gun from Parker and we’ll negotiate a release.”

Not giving Jarod time to process Lyle’s attempt at coercion, she lashed out with her gun and hit her brother savagely across the face. He crashed heavily sideways into the wall before he slid slowly down towards the floor.

“Reality check, Lyle. You’re not the one in control anymore.”

Jarod made a move to go towards Lyle and then looked hesitantly at her. She shook her head and he sagged back until he sat on Sydney’s bed, his whole demeanour one of defeat.

“You’ve just killed my mother, Parker.”

“I’ve never known you to give up so easily, Jarod.” Her voice was smooth and confident. “You’ve lived through thirty years of hell and he had you for five days.”

Silence followed briefly until Lyle let out a groan and shifted. “You really are a bitch, Parker,” Lyle said bitterly as he tenderly touched the emerging bruise on his jaw. “But you’re not the one in control, is she, Jarod?”

Jarod seemed to shrink into himself as he cradled his bandaged hand close to his chest. Lyle pushed himself upright against the wall, his gaze burning into Jarod’s form. “Have you ever seen a human being suffocate, Sis? It’s not an easy way to die.”

Jarod moaned and then locked eyes with her, pleading.

She broke the gaze deliberately and raised her gun, placing the muzzle directly to Lyle’s right shoulder.

“Where are they?”

Lyle shrugged. The gun pressed harder and she could see a thin line of sweat starting to form on her brother’s forehead.

“I won’t ask again.”

“If you kill me, Margaret dies.”

Jarod swallowed visibly and pushed himself into a trembling stance. Colour was slowly bleaching away from his features as the room started to spin. “Parker…” His voice faded as he reached out a hand.

She pulled the trigger.

“On my way. Should be there in thirty.”

“Just be careful.”

For a full five minutes he listened intently until the only sounds that filled his ears was the beating of his heart. Satisfied, he eyed the sky that had started to turn from cobalt blue to a lighter shade. It was nearing sunrise and he didn’t have a lot of time left.

Clearing the area with his hands, he managed to lift the lid.

“Good. Take two teams. I don’t care what you do to Lyle, but I want the pretender and Miss Parker back.”

“If they resist…”

“As long as they’re alive.”

“Understood, Sir.

Jarod nodded slowly. They both ignored Lyle, which was slumped against the wall, his hand pressed against a bleeding shoulder.

“Prognosis?”

Miss Parker tiredly pinched her nose. The gun in her other hand was getting heavy but she wasn’t about to let it go. Not with Lyle in the same room.

“The specialist said that with his age and the way he was struck…it’s not looking so good.”

Jarod sighed. Gently he touched Sydney’s forehead, wondering again how the Centre had managed to screw things up again. He somehow felt responsible for what Lyle had done to Sydney. To his mother. To J.

And if it hadn’t been for Parker, he would have…

He closed his eyes, trying to get the horror what he had almost done out of his mind. To purge it. He could feel the room start to tilt and had to swallow back his nausea. A soft hand on his arm brought him back and steadied him. He opened his eyes to look into hers. They were soft and filled with concern.

“You ok?”

He gave a half smile. “Yeah. Sorry.”

Her hand drifted whisper-soft down his arm until it met the bandage that started at his wrist and wrapped around his mutilated hand. He didn’t look down at where her fingers had stopped. He was concentrating all his attention on the features of her face, on the lines that had formed over the years, on her eyes and the way that her lips softened whenever she had allowed her compassion to emerge. He was seeing all of it and was startled when he noticed her eyes shining briefly with unshed tears before she turned his hand palm up.

“The Centre’s legacy,” he managed to say when he finally broke his gaze and looked down. Thumbless. Like Lyle, a mistake that he paid for.

“No. You survived, Jarod.” She looked up and met his eyes, holding him in her gaze, trying to make him understand. “You survived intact.”

He didn’t reply. He understood her sincerity and it almost broke something inside him. But he wouldn’t allow himself the luxury of that feeling until he knew that his mother and J were safe.

Until all of them was safe.

And the only way that would happen was if he destroyed the Centre.

“You ok?” he asked breathlessly, eying the dwindling night sky. She nodded and managed to get a foothold. He couldn’t prevent the sigh of relief when she let go of his hand and he had to stop himself mentally not to press it against his side.

Wiping the sweat away, he started upwards again. He found the place where his mother had slipped. Careful, he moved past and when he rolled onto the top of the small hill; his hand went immediately to his side and pinched.

“J?”

His mother’s whispered question brought him back and to their situation.

“I’m fine. We have to move.”

She started to question when he stopped her with an urging hand on her arm. He could see the white of her eyes when she heard the same thing he had.

The familiar beat of blades was starting to fill the air. Slowly sliding just over the crest, he looked east towards where the rising sun was just starting to show. The spec was a dark dot against the background and rapidly growing.

“They know where you are. You have to get out of there.”

Broots’ panicked voice still sounded when the door towards the hall burst open and Willie entered with five men behind them, guns tracking towards where she and Jarod stood besides Sydney’s bed.

When silence met his statements, Broots whispered, “M…miss Parker?”

“They’re already here.”

All the sweepers had silencers and in her experience, that had never bided well for the recipients. The hallway doors were closed, shutting them out again to the rest of the hospital, keeping the drama inside Sydney’s room.

Jarod was slammed against the wall and she heard his grunt of pain.

“He’s clean.”

“Where’s the Major?” It was Willie’s dark voice that sounded beside her. She started to turn and stopped when the gun pressure increased.

“A little out of your league, Willie. Marking territory in a bigger dog’s neighbourhood could get you killed.”

“Shut up, Parker.” A hand curled into her hair and yanked her head back. “Now where is he?”

She didn’t answer and was rewarded with another painful jerk.

“How did you find us?”

She could feel Willie smile and it sent warning shivers down her spine. This wasn’t good. Jarod was finally pushed into view, his face impassive but she could see the anger shimmering behind his eyes.

“I heard you got engaged, Miss Parker.”

Definitely not good.

“Charles, what’s wrong?”

He leaned slightly forward to peer at the instrumentation of the helicopter before looking at his wife. “The Centre has found Jarod and Miss Parker and they’re holed up in Sydney’s room.”

He rolled away from the squirming bodies and managed to avoid a staggering sweeper with a bullet hole that was spurting blood. Willie grunted and when he turned he heard a gunshot from the mass that was Miss Parker and the dark sweeper.

Before he could start back towards them, he glimpsed a sweeper lining up towards him. He twisted, bringing the centre of his body out of line of the barrel. Felt the passing wind of the bullet. A second later the sweeper jerked and then sagged before collapsing.

He turned back to Parker, his hand cradled close to his body was throbbing and a small patch of red had started to stain the white of the bandage. He heard his dad’s voice but ignored it. His attention was on her form, draped over Willie’s.

“Parker?”

It was a breathless whisper, more a thought then something said out loud. Then Willie’s hand relaxed and she pushed away from the man beneath her, her hair wild and out of place, the gun nestled in her right hand. A wet patch of blood stained the front of her shirt and then he was kneeling beside her, looking for injuries.

“I’m fine, Jarod. It’s his blood.”

His legs felt like jelly when he heard those words and he clutched her into his arms, crushing her against his body.

“I…thought…” he started brokenly. She shushed him into silence and then a new pair of hands touched his hair and he looked up into his mother’s face.

A smile lit up and he pulled her into their embrace.

“The FBI has raided a company called the Centre today and had found numerous violations…”

Jarod turned down the volume and looked at Sydney’s comatose state. “We’re finally safe, Sydney. They’ve found Raines’ document and what he and the Centre had done to Kyle and the rest. The Triumvirate have been put on the watch list and if they ever put foot in this country, they will be apprehended.”

Sydney didn’t respond. Jarod leaned closer. The words he was going to say was for Sydney’s ears alone and long overdue.

“I forgive you, Sydney.”

For a brief moment after that a ghost of a smile tucked at Sydney’s lips. Then he sighed and as tears started to drip down Jarod’s cheeks, he slipped away.

He heard the door open behind him and then the Miss Parker’s arms surrounded him. He turned and buried his face in her chest and held tight as he grieved. Later, when all was calm again, did she say, “You’re Sydney’s legacy.”

Jarod smiled sadly and looked directly at her. He had his family. The Centre was gone. And he had Sydney’s training and caring and love that had kept him sane for thirty years inside that hell.

Tracing the soft lines of her face, he leaned in and gave a soft kiss. “Thank you.”

She frowned briefly. “For what?”

“For always having been my friend. You kept my soul intact.”

“And you did mine.”

He had nothing more to say and so he held her to him, feeling peace enfold them both. He was finally free of the Centre’s evil. And deep inside he knew that’s what Sydney had always wanted.

For him to be free.