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Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc. and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.
Miss Parker and her mother where guided towards an elevator while Marion led Jarod in the other direction. He threw a quick glance over his shoulder and saw Miss Parker glaring darkly at the blond woman by his side. His heart rose slightly as he realized that at least some of that glare was from jealousy. Then Marion tugged on his arm, silently demanding his attention.
Two tall blond men leading Miss Parker and her mother into the elevator. Inside Miss Parker noticed a large row of buttons, several indicating an extensive system of sublevels. ‘Finally,’ she thought, ‘not so different from the Centre at all.’
The tall man on their right side pushed the lowest button and a slight jerk indicated that the elevator obeyed the command. Nothing indicated how fast they where going down, but soon another light jerk indicated the end of their journey.
As soon as they stepped out, Alexander, the blonde man from the plane, stepped in front of them, blocking their path.
"Sorry, Ladies, but this is where you two part company." He turned towards the two goons who had led the women this far.
"Martin, Kevin," he addressed the two men, "begleiten sie Mrs. Parker zu ihrem Raum.
"Oh, no!" Catherine protested after hearing him say that she was supposed to have her own room. "Marion promised that I could stay with my daughter."
A condescending smile appeared on Alexander’s face, "And you believed her?"
"Mom," Miss Parker stepped in; "please just let them take you to your room. I’ll be just fine on my own." The last thing she wanted was a fight here in the middle of the floor. She had no idea what was going on here, but she had the bad feeling that she would find out soon enough.
{Angel, hon----)
"NO! Alexander roared. "No telepathic conversation! "
It was hard to tell who was more surprised, mother or daughter.
"You heard me?" Catherine was astounded.
"Look around," he pointed over to the men he had ordered to take her to her room. "We don’t just all resemble each other, we all also have what you would call ‘telepathy’ to some extent. Our gift is not a natural occurrence, as it is with you and your daughter; we’ve all been genetically enhanced. We are the first designer humans." Alexander seemed almost proud
"The Centre is still working on cloning and genetic manipulation for the Pretender project, but they are only in the very first stages with their research. We have already succeed in achieving exactly the effect we want with our enhanced mental abilities, and now, with the DNA from the little one you carry, we will soon surpass the Centre’s Pretender Project too. "
The way Alexander casually divulged top secret research results to them made the knot of worry in Miss Parker stomach grow even bigger. This wasn’t a good sign; not at all. The knowledge that they were all in big trouble was no surprise to her, she’d known it from the moment she awoke on that damn plane, but Alexander’s revelations of Pagode secrets were now making her wonder just how big of trouble they were in.
Suddenly another part of the conversation sunk in, "---and your daughter".
Lyle! That mental scream, the emotions that came with it----now it all made sense. And other incidents that had happened when she was just a little girl came up in her mind as well; knowing when her Momma wanted her, even though she hadn’t called, hearing her mother’s voice in her head after a nightmare, even Jarod’s words "You have the voice of your mother inside of you", could now be seen in a different light. But why had she forgotten that non-verbal communication she used to have with her mother? She had no idea, but it raised yet another question, why had it suddenly stopped? She couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 the last time she remembered hearing her Momma in her mind. What had happened? More and more questions popped up into her mind as she digested the information Alexander had given them…
*****
Jarod had no illusions as to what was on Marion’s mind as she led him further into the Pagode building and into a different elevator. She was guiding him with one of her arms linked through his, and as much of her body as humanly possible glued to his side. In a way her obvious interest was flattering, but it also made Jarod extremely nervous.
"Where are we going?" Jarod asked, still trying to decide whether or not he liked what was going on. Of course he hadn’t expected that their captors would allow them to stay together, but Marion’s aggressive semi-seduction was quite a shock.
Marion. While the elevator ascended to the penthouse floor he tried to bring up anything he might have learned about her while investigating the Centre. Catherine’s reaction to her indicated that she was one of the children Catherine had smuggled out of the Centre. Things were falling into place in his mind; she’d told Catherine she had taken over the Pagode from her foster mother, so she, at least, had to have been involved with the Pagode. It made him wonder if they had been involved, in some way, on the attempt on Catherine’s life. He decided to try to do a Sim on this later. Right now he needed to recall all he could from Marion’s Centre file.
She had been tested for Pretender abilities and had been deemed not good enough to train. She’d been one of Raines’ subjects, but he couldn’t recall that he had read anything about her being subject to any of Raines’ less humane experiments.
His musing were interrupted when they reached a big double door at the end of a long corridor. Marion pushed the doors open and dragged Jarod into the room.
For a moment the Pretender was speechless; this was completely different from all the offices he knew from the Centre. The wall in front of them was one huge window offering a breathtaking view over Berlin. Jarod was so caught into the view he missed Marion’s approach entirely.
"If you promise to be a good boy I can take these off." Marion purred into his ear as she lightly rattled chain on the cuffs.
Jarod stiffened slightly when she pressed herself against his back, one hand reaching up to bury itself in his hair. He could feel her breath on his neck and the heat from her body where she was pressed against him. Her sweet perfume made him feel a bit dizzy. His body wanted to respond as any normal male would. He suddenly found it hard to breathe, much less concentrate on his situation.
Marion slithered around to his front, never losing her contact with his body, and twined her arms around his neck. She didn’t look anything like Nia, but for some reason he was irresistibly reminded of her. He struggled to pin down what it was that made him think of her; anything to keep from responding in a way that would get him in trouble with Parker later.
Marion gazed invitingly into his eyes, and suddenly Jarod identified the resemblance; Nia had looked at him similarly, like a woman, like a caring woman. Parker had only looked at him like that once----the night they-----
‘Stop!’ He told himself sternly. ‘Nia DID care, Parker was drugged. As for Marion, well,’ he had the feeling he’d find out soon enough.
"We will have a great time, Jarod." Marion told him in a low, husky voice. "No more loneliness, no more Sims, and you’ll never have to run again. Nobody would dare to try take you away from me. What a team we’ll make! We’ll run the Pagode together and then, not to long from now, we will take over the Centre as well. "
She reached behind him to undo the cuffs, never breaking eye, or body, contact. Jarod tried not to lick his lips nervously. ‘Sydney, why didn’t you ever teach me what to do in a situation like this?’ He wondered, slightly desperately.
"We will have everything we always dreamed of." Her voice was a beguiling whisper. "The dream every one of us Centre children shared will come true for you and me. We will finally have our own family, our own children." She felt Jarod stiffen under her hands and frowned slightly, unhappy with his reaction.
Soothingly she slid her hands up and down his sides, frown vanishing as she smiled at him again.
"I know that woman carries your child, Jarod, but don’t worry, we’ll keep it with us and raise it together. You know that she does not care about it, that it was just another project she did for the Centre, but we both know better." She snuggled even closer, as Jarod’s arms went hesitantly around her. Her words were striking buttons in him, the longing for a family, the fear that Parker hated the baby as much as she seemed to hate him.
He wasn’t ready to believe everything Marion was telling him, his logic told him that if she ran the Pagode she had to be at least as ruthless as Raines, but she was persuasive, and beautiful, and very, very willing. Besides, he needed to hear all of her plans, didn’t he?
"We will give your baby a real home----with a real daddy and a real mommy."
*****
"The last time I was here it was a small building, if you could have called it a building at all. Nothing ground level or above was habitable, much less useful." Raines hissed in disgust. He looked out of the window of the limo over the streets to the impressive Pagode building. People hurried in and out constantly. A never ending stream of cars crawled over the streets between the building and the car where he was sitting, many of them depositing or picking up visitors to the glass and metal building.
"Is everything set up?" Rains asked the man hidden in the shadows beside him.
"Yes, our informant will be meeting us as scheduled." As the man answered he also leaned forward, revealing his nearly paper-white skin and pale, white hair.
Two tall blond men leading Miss Parker and her mother into the elevator. Inside Miss Parker noticed a large row of buttons, several indicating an extensive system of sublevels. ‘Finally,’ she thought, ‘not so different from the Centre at all.’
The tall man on their right side pushed the lowest button and a slight jerk indicated that the elevator obeyed the command. Nothing indicated how fast they where going down, but soon another light jerk indicated the end of their journey.
As soon as they stepped out, Alexander, the blonde man from the plane, stepped in front of them, blocking their path.
"Sorry, Ladies, but this is where you two part company." He turned towards the two goons who had led the women this far.
"Martin, Kevin," he addressed the two men, "begleiten sie Mrs. Parker zu ihrem Raum.
"Oh, no!" Catherine protested after hearing him say that she was supposed to have her own room. "Marion promised that I could stay with my daughter."
A condescending smile appeared on Alexander’s face, "And you believed her?"
"Mom," Miss Parker stepped in; "please just let them take you to your room. I’ll be just fine on my own." The last thing she wanted was a fight here in the middle of the floor. She had no idea what was going on here, but she had the bad feeling that she would find out soon enough.
{Angel, hon----)
"NO! Alexander roared. "No telepathic conversation! "
It was hard to tell who was more surprised, mother or daughter.
"You heard me?" Catherine was astounded.
"Look around," he pointed over to the men he had ordered to take her to her room. "We don’t just all resemble each other, we all also have what you would call ‘telepathy’ to some extent. Our gift is not a natural occurrence, as it is with you and your daughter; we’ve all been genetically enhanced. We are the first designer humans." Alexander seemed almost proud
"The Centre is still working on cloning and genetic manipulation for the Pretender project, but they are only in the very first stages with their research. We have already succeed in achieving exactly the effect we want with our enhanced mental abilities, and now, with the DNA from the little one you carry, we will soon surpass the Centre’s Pretender Project too. "
The way Alexander casually divulged top secret research results to them made the knot of worry in Miss Parker stomach grow even bigger. This wasn’t a good sign; not at all. The knowledge that they were all in big trouble was no surprise to her, she’d known it from the moment she awoke on that damn plane, but Alexander’s revelations of Pagode secrets were now making her wonder just how big of trouble they were in.
Suddenly another part of the conversation sunk in, "---and your daughter".
Lyle! That mental scream, the emotions that came with it----now it all made sense. And other incidents that had happened when she was just a little girl came up in her mind as well; knowing when her Momma wanted her, even though she hadn’t called, hearing her mother’s voice in her head after a nightmare, even Jarod’s words "You have the voice of your mother inside of you", could now be seen in a different light. But why had she forgotten that non-verbal communication she used to have with her mother? She had no idea, but it raised yet another question, why had it suddenly stopped? She couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 the last time she remembered hearing her Momma in her mind. What had happened? More and more questions popped up into her mind as she digested the information Alexander had given them…
*****
Jarod had no illusions as to what was on Marion’s mind as she led him further into the Pagode building and into a different elevator. She was guiding him with one of her arms linked through his, and as much of her body as humanly possible glued to his side. In a way her obvious interest was flattering, but it also made Jarod extremely nervous.
"Where are we going?" Jarod asked, still trying to decide whether or not he liked what was going on. Of course he hadn’t expected that their captors would allow them to stay together, but Marion’s aggressive semi-seduction was quite a shock.
Marion. While the elevator ascended to the penthouse floor he tried to bring up anything he might have learned about her while investigating the Centre. Catherine’s reaction to her indicated that she was one of the children Catherine had smuggled out of the Centre. Things were falling into place in his mind; she’d told Catherine she had taken over the Pagode from her foster mother, so she, at least, had to have been involved with the Pagode. It made him wonder if they had been involved, in some way, on the attempt on Catherine’s life. He decided to try to do a Sim on this later. Right now he needed to recall all he could from Marion’s Centre file.
She had been tested for Pretender abilities and had been deemed not good enough to train. She’d been one of Raines’ subjects, but he couldn’t recall that he had read anything about her being subject to any of Raines’ less humane experiments.
His musing were interrupted when they reached a big double door at the end of a long corridor. Marion pushed the doors open and dragged Jarod into the room.
For a moment the Pretender was speechless; this was completely different from all the offices he knew from the Centre. The wall in front of them was one huge window offering a breathtaking view over Berlin. Jarod was so caught into the view he missed Marion’s approach entirely.
"If you promise to be a good boy I can take these off." Marion purred into his ear as she lightly rattled chain on the cuffs.
Jarod stiffened slightly when she pressed herself against his back, one hand reaching up to bury itself in his hair. He could feel her breath on his neck and the heat from her body where she was pressed against him. Her sweet perfume made him feel a bit dizzy. His body wanted to respond as any normal male would. He suddenly found it hard to breathe, much less concentrate on his situation.
Marion slithered around to his front, never losing her contact with his body, and twined her arms around his neck. She didn’t look anything like Nia, but for some reason he was irresistibly reminded of her. He struggled to pin down what it was that made him think of her; anything to keep from responding in a way that would get him in trouble with Parker later.
Marion gazed invitingly into his eyes, and suddenly Jarod identified the resemblance; Nia had looked at him similarly, like a woman, like a caring woman. Parker had only looked at him like that once----the night they-----
‘Stop!’ He told himself sternly. ‘Nia DID care, Parker was drugged. As for Marion, well,’ he had the feeling he’d find out soon enough.
"We will have a great time, Jarod." Marion told him in a low, husky voice. "No more loneliness, no more Sims, and you’ll never have to run again. Nobody would dare to try take you away from me. What a team we’ll make! We’ll run the Pagode together and then, not to long from now, we will take over the Centre as well. "
She reached behind him to undo the cuffs, never breaking eye, or body, contact. Jarod tried not to lick his lips nervously. ‘Sydney, why didn’t you ever teach me what to do in a situation like this?’ He wondered, slightly desperately.
"We will have everything we always dreamed of." Her voice was a beguiling whisper. "The dream every one of us Centre children shared will come true for you and me. We will finally have our own family, our own children." She felt Jarod stiffen under her hands and frowned slightly, unhappy with his reaction.
Soothingly she slid her hands up and down his sides, frown vanishing as she smiled at him again.
"I know that woman carries your child, Jarod, but don’t worry, we’ll keep it with us and raise it together. You know that she does not care about it, that it was just another project she did for the Centre, but we both know better." She snuggled even closer, as Jarod’s arms went hesitantly around her. Her words were striking buttons in him, the longing for a family, the fear that Parker hated the baby as much as she seemed to hate him.
He wasn’t ready to believe everything Marion was telling him, his logic told him that if she ran the Pagode she had to be at least as ruthless as Raines, but she was persuasive, and beautiful, and very, very willing. Besides, he needed to hear all of her plans, didn’t he?
"We will give your baby a real home----with a real daddy and a real mommy."
*****
"The last time I was here it was a small building, if you could have called it a building at all. Nothing ground level or above was habitable, much less useful." Raines hissed in disgust. He looked out of the window of the limo over the streets to the impressive Pagode building. People hurried in and out constantly. A never ending stream of cars crawled over the streets between the building and the car where he was sitting, many of them depositing or picking up visitors to the glass and metal building.
"Is everything set up?" Rains asked the man hidden in the shadows beside him.
"Yes, our informant will be meeting us as scheduled." As the man answered he also leaned forward, revealing his nearly paper-white skin and pale, white hair.
