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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
North of Blue Cove, Delaware
Sunday December 23
"All right we got a better lock on the position. The call came from this block... and according to our search last night that means there are two possibilities, this building and this residence."
"Okay then, later on, right after sunset probably, we'll drive by those two places and see which one it is. In the meantime lets get some floor plans for both places okay. Good job you two. Broots thank you for your help."
"Jarod I'll do anything to help you get Debbie back."
"Even if it means betraying the Centre and Miss Parker?"
There was a slight hesitation in his voice, before Broots looked up at Jarod with a determined voice and face. "Jarod, Debbie is the only family I have."
"Yeah I know, don't worry we'll get them back, maybe even tonight."
"You're going to go in that soon?" Broots asked quite shocked.
"Yeah I'd rather not waste any time. Marie can you please take Broots back to his room?"
"Sure Jarod. Come on Broots," she told him as she led Broots back to their makeshift holding room.
"So what do you think Jarod?"
"Hmm... I don't know... I've never trusted the Centre since I've escaped, and working with four of them so closely makes me kind of nervous..."
"I can imagine," Marie told him with a look of understanding and care in her voice which Jarod picked up on.
"Thank you for all your help Marie, I don't think I could have done this without your help.
"No problem Jarod. Well we should probably sleep some now, we've got a long night ahead of us."
"Yeah you're probably right..."
A few hours later they discussed their plan further, "So how do you want to play this?"
"I'm not fully sure yet, I've been thinking about it the past few hours."
"Jarod you were supposed to be sleeping." Marie told him with a slightly mothering tone.
"Hey who's running the show here? Me. I can do what I want to do!" he told Marie with a smile.
"Oh please, don't pull that 'This is my show' crap!" she replied trying to maintain a straight face despite the smile that was creeping across her face.
"Oh come now Marie, I must have my power somewhere," he told her as he realized that he enjoyed working with her.
"Yeah yeah whatever... let's get back to the task at hand shall we? So what do you have in mind?"
"Well I'd like for the two of us to go and check up the place, some back up would be nice. And I wanted to leave Broots here searching the Centre on these two locations, but I don't like the idea of leaving him here with access to the Centre mainframe especially with our other guest here. So I was wondering if you wouldn't mind staying behind and helping him out while I go check out the place."
"I'd rather go with you, but I'll stay behind."
"Thanks I appreciate it."
"So when are you leaving?"
"Actually I was going to leave now."
A slightly shocked Marie replied, "So soon?"
"The sooner I'm done with this mess, the further I can be from Blue Cove."
"Fair enough."
"Here's my cell number in case you need to reach me."
"Okay. Jarod take care of yourself and be careful," she told him with sincere concern for his well being.
"Hey I'm a genius I'm always careful," he told her as he started out the room after retrieving one of his bags.
"Yeah well I did sneak up on you in the alley a few weeks ago," she told Jarod's back with a smirk on her face. Jarod only looked over his shoulder with an equal smirk as he continued out of the building.
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Jarod was driving around in Marie's car and heading toward the second location, the house. He had already checked out the building and found it to be clean, at least in terms of it being crawling with Centre operatives. As Jarod turned down the street where the house was located he noticed that practically all the houses had some form of Christmas decorations outside, except one. In the pit of his stomach Jarod got a feeling that the undecorated home was the house he was looking for. As he slowly drove the street checking house numbers, the feeling became worse and worse as it became more evident that that house was the one. As he drove by a chill ran down his spine, normally he would have gone with that as confirmation of meaning it had to do with the Centre, but tonight he had to be sure.
Jarod then continued down the street a few blocks, before heading back in the direction he had come from. He ended up parking his car on the opposite side of the block where the target house was. As he was exiting the car, he paused to think. He then reached into his bag and searched around for a few things before getting out of the car and heading to the house that was directly behind the house in question.
Jarod was glad to see that the lights in this house were on as he walked up to the front door and knocked on the door. A few seconds later a woman appeared at the door slightly unsure of the man who stood on her porch, "Yes? How can I help you?"
"Good evening ma'am. I'm agent Jarod Curtis with the FBI," he told her as he pulled out his ID badge and held it up so she could inspect it thoroughly.
"The FBI?!?"
"Yes ma'am. Don't worry you're not in any trouble, I just have a few questions for you concerning your neighbors that live behind you."
"Well why do you want to know about them?"
"Well I'm not really at liberty to say, but they're involved in an ongoing fraud investigation."
"Really? I'm sorry Agent Curtis, won't you come in?" she asked him as she held the door open.
"Thank you very much, Miss?..." he asked her as entered the door.
"Oh I'm sorry, I'm Stacy Smith," she told him as she led him into the living room.
"Nice to meet you Miss Smith, I hope to not take up too much of your time. So what can you tell me about the people who live in that house."
"Well not much really. The house isn't inhabited all that very often, I mean occasionally it will show signs of life but not for very long usually."
"Really? And how often would you say that it's inhabited?"
"Well I guess maybe once month. Except I haven't seen anyone around there in the past few months til the past few days."
"Since when recently?" he asked as his curiosity peaked.
"I think it was Thursday night that I saw the lights come on in the house."
"Have you ever seen any of the occupants?"
"No I'm sorry."
"That's all right. Is there anything else you can tell me about them?"
"No there isn't. I don't really see much going on over there."
"Well if you can think of anything else please call me at this number," he told her as he handed her a card for Agent Jarod Curtis.
"I sure will Agent Curtis. Are they dangerous?"
"We don't believe so ma'am. Again thank you for all your help and have a good evening." And with that he left and climbed back into his car. He went a few blocks before turning back down the street where the house was which he drove by one last time. Once he had passed it he pulled out his cell phone.
-Jarod?
-Yeah it's me, all right I want you and Broots to focus the search on the house. I think that's where they're holding the kids.
-Okay Jarod we'll get on it right away.
-Thanks, I'll be there in about fifteen minutes, I'll see ya then.
-See ya then Jarod.
Back at the mental hospital, Marie was telling Broots to search the mainframe for any information on the house.
"Let's see if it's a Centre safe house first."
"Sounds like a good place to start Broots."
After five minutes of searching Centre records under the watchful eye of Marie, Broots came upon some unsettling information. "Oh my god... it's a Centre safe house?"
"What?" Marie asked, somewhat shocked that the Centre would go to such lengths to capture one man.
"Here look, it's a Centre safe house and it's been one for the past ten years. And it's currently being used in a project."
"Well which one Broots?" she asked him as she looked over his shoulder at the computer screen.
"I don't know which one quite yet but give me ten minutes... what are you going to tell Jarod?" he asked Marie with a trace of fear concerning the fate of his little girl.
"I don't know... I feel I ought to call him and let him know, but then he probably won't come back and-"
"Don't tell him if he's going to leave already please!" he pleaded with her.
Marie looked into Broots' pleading eyes and saw that his fear was genuine as was his lack of knowledge and participation in the situation at hand. "You really had no clue that the Centre was behind this did you?"
Broots was taken aback by the implication, "Of course not! I would never let anyone kidnap Debbie to get someone back to the Centre. I try and shield her from it as much as possible."
"I believe you, but what about the others?"
"I don't think they would willingly allow their children to be kidnapped."
"What about Miss Parker, she doesn't have anything invested in this."
"No she would never do that to me or Debbie, she won't admit it, but she cares for her a lot," disbelieving that Miss Parker would harm Debbie. "No it's not any of them but it might be someone else at the Centre."
"Well we better find out Broots and soon, hopefully before he gets back."
Sunday December 23
"All right we got a better lock on the position. The call came from this block... and according to our search last night that means there are two possibilities, this building and this residence."
"Okay then, later on, right after sunset probably, we'll drive by those two places and see which one it is. In the meantime lets get some floor plans for both places okay. Good job you two. Broots thank you for your help."
"Jarod I'll do anything to help you get Debbie back."
"Even if it means betraying the Centre and Miss Parker?"
There was a slight hesitation in his voice, before Broots looked up at Jarod with a determined voice and face. "Jarod, Debbie is the only family I have."
"Yeah I know, don't worry we'll get them back, maybe even tonight."
"You're going to go in that soon?" Broots asked quite shocked.
"Yeah I'd rather not waste any time. Marie can you please take Broots back to his room?"
"Sure Jarod. Come on Broots," she told him as she led Broots back to their makeshift holding room.
"So what do you think Jarod?"
"Hmm... I don't know... I've never trusted the Centre since I've escaped, and working with four of them so closely makes me kind of nervous..."
"I can imagine," Marie told him with a look of understanding and care in her voice which Jarod picked up on.
"Thank you for all your help Marie, I don't think I could have done this without your help.
"No problem Jarod. Well we should probably sleep some now, we've got a long night ahead of us."
"Yeah you're probably right..."
A few hours later they discussed their plan further, "So how do you want to play this?"
"I'm not fully sure yet, I've been thinking about it the past few hours."
"Jarod you were supposed to be sleeping." Marie told him with a slightly mothering tone.
"Hey who's running the show here? Me. I can do what I want to do!" he told Marie with a smile.
"Oh please, don't pull that 'This is my show' crap!" she replied trying to maintain a straight face despite the smile that was creeping across her face.
"Oh come now Marie, I must have my power somewhere," he told her as he realized that he enjoyed working with her.
"Yeah yeah whatever... let's get back to the task at hand shall we? So what do you have in mind?"
"Well I'd like for the two of us to go and check up the place, some back up would be nice. And I wanted to leave Broots here searching the Centre on these two locations, but I don't like the idea of leaving him here with access to the Centre mainframe especially with our other guest here. So I was wondering if you wouldn't mind staying behind and helping him out while I go check out the place."
"I'd rather go with you, but I'll stay behind."
"Thanks I appreciate it."
"So when are you leaving?"
"Actually I was going to leave now."
A slightly shocked Marie replied, "So soon?"
"The sooner I'm done with this mess, the further I can be from Blue Cove."
"Fair enough."
"Here's my cell number in case you need to reach me."
"Okay. Jarod take care of yourself and be careful," she told him with sincere concern for his well being.
"Hey I'm a genius I'm always careful," he told her as he started out the room after retrieving one of his bags.
"Yeah well I did sneak up on you in the alley a few weeks ago," she told Jarod's back with a smirk on her face. Jarod only looked over his shoulder with an equal smirk as he continued out of the building.
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Jarod was driving around in Marie's car and heading toward the second location, the house. He had already checked out the building and found it to be clean, at least in terms of it being crawling with Centre operatives. As Jarod turned down the street where the house was located he noticed that practically all the houses had some form of Christmas decorations outside, except one. In the pit of his stomach Jarod got a feeling that the undecorated home was the house he was looking for. As he slowly drove the street checking house numbers, the feeling became worse and worse as it became more evident that that house was the one. As he drove by a chill ran down his spine, normally he would have gone with that as confirmation of meaning it had to do with the Centre, but tonight he had to be sure.
Jarod then continued down the street a few blocks, before heading back in the direction he had come from. He ended up parking his car on the opposite side of the block where the target house was. As he was exiting the car, he paused to think. He then reached into his bag and searched around for a few things before getting out of the car and heading to the house that was directly behind the house in question.
Jarod was glad to see that the lights in this house were on as he walked up to the front door and knocked on the door. A few seconds later a woman appeared at the door slightly unsure of the man who stood on her porch, "Yes? How can I help you?"
"Good evening ma'am. I'm agent Jarod Curtis with the FBI," he told her as he pulled out his ID badge and held it up so she could inspect it thoroughly.
"The FBI?!?"
"Yes ma'am. Don't worry you're not in any trouble, I just have a few questions for you concerning your neighbors that live behind you."
"Well why do you want to know about them?"
"Well I'm not really at liberty to say, but they're involved in an ongoing fraud investigation."
"Really? I'm sorry Agent Curtis, won't you come in?" she asked him as she held the door open.
"Thank you very much, Miss?..." he asked her as entered the door.
"Oh I'm sorry, I'm Stacy Smith," she told him as she led him into the living room.
"Nice to meet you Miss Smith, I hope to not take up too much of your time. So what can you tell me about the people who live in that house."
"Well not much really. The house isn't inhabited all that very often, I mean occasionally it will show signs of life but not for very long usually."
"Really? And how often would you say that it's inhabited?"
"Well I guess maybe once month. Except I haven't seen anyone around there in the past few months til the past few days."
"Since when recently?" he asked as his curiosity peaked.
"I think it was Thursday night that I saw the lights come on in the house."
"Have you ever seen any of the occupants?"
"No I'm sorry."
"That's all right. Is there anything else you can tell me about them?"
"No there isn't. I don't really see much going on over there."
"Well if you can think of anything else please call me at this number," he told her as he handed her a card for Agent Jarod Curtis.
"I sure will Agent Curtis. Are they dangerous?"
"We don't believe so ma'am. Again thank you for all your help and have a good evening." And with that he left and climbed back into his car. He went a few blocks before turning back down the street where the house was which he drove by one last time. Once he had passed it he pulled out his cell phone.
-Jarod?
-Yeah it's me, all right I want you and Broots to focus the search on the house. I think that's where they're holding the kids.
-Okay Jarod we'll get on it right away.
-Thanks, I'll be there in about fifteen minutes, I'll see ya then.
-See ya then Jarod.
Back at the mental hospital, Marie was telling Broots to search the mainframe for any information on the house.
"Let's see if it's a Centre safe house first."
"Sounds like a good place to start Broots."
After five minutes of searching Centre records under the watchful eye of Marie, Broots came upon some unsettling information. "Oh my god... it's a Centre safe house?"
"What?" Marie asked, somewhat shocked that the Centre would go to such lengths to capture one man.
"Here look, it's a Centre safe house and it's been one for the past ten years. And it's currently being used in a project."
"Well which one Broots?" she asked him as she looked over his shoulder at the computer screen.
"I don't know which one quite yet but give me ten minutes... what are you going to tell Jarod?" he asked Marie with a trace of fear concerning the fate of his little girl.
"I don't know... I feel I ought to call him and let him know, but then he probably won't come back and-"
"Don't tell him if he's going to leave already please!" he pleaded with her.
Marie looked into Broots' pleading eyes and saw that his fear was genuine as was his lack of knowledge and participation in the situation at hand. "You really had no clue that the Centre was behind this did you?"
Broots was taken aback by the implication, "Of course not! I would never let anyone kidnap Debbie to get someone back to the Centre. I try and shield her from it as much as possible."
"I believe you, but what about the others?"
"I don't think they would willingly allow their children to be kidnapped."
"What about Miss Parker, she doesn't have anything invested in this."
"No she would never do that to me or Debbie, she won't admit it, but she cares for her a lot," disbelieving that Miss Parker would harm Debbie. "No it's not any of them but it might be someone else at the Centre."
"Well we better find out Broots and soon, hopefully before he gets back."
