My head snapped up as I heard the door close softly behind the person who had just entered the room.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” Sydney’s calm voice asked me with a note of disdain I had never heard from him before.

I felt guilt welling up inside me, but knew that I had to stand my ground for once.

In a rather poor imitation of Miss Parker’s intimidating stance I raised the two sheets of paper that I had found half-hidden under a file.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this, Sydney?” I managed to not sound as afraid as I was at the prospect of him scolding me over going through his things without permission.

“Broots…” he started to explain, his expression softening which gave a sudden unexpected rise to my own anger.

“I am going crazy about Miss Parker’s disappearance over here and you know it! Why didn’t you inform me about this report?“

Finally channeling all my fears and worries into an angry rant helped considerably.

“I bet you think it’s just stupid little Broots who doesn’t understand anything…”

I trailed off in the middle of my sentence when I realized that Sydney was holding up a hand.

“Broots”, he said, his voice almost soothing, as if he was talking to an angry child.

I raised the substance report in my hand and dropped it onto the cluttered desk in front of Sydney where he picked the pages up.

“Explain that to me. What kind of medication was she taking?” I demanded to know, unable to make sense of all the long words and numbers in the lab-report.

Sydney stated a name in a hollow voice, but he could have spoken Chinese for all I knew.

“So?” I asked, my mouth dry and my hands sweaty.

What was I about to hear? That she was suffering from a terminal disease? What did you use that stuff for? Cancer treatment maybe? Even thinking about that possibility made my stomach turn with concern for her.

“It’s a fertility drug.”

I didn’t realize that my mouth had fallen open until I attempted to speak again, which was only several moments later.

“What?” I finally managed, my voice so hoarse that I could barely hear myself.

Of all things this was what I would have least expected. Why on earth would Miss Parker be on fertility drugs? As far as I knew bringing a child into this world was at the bottom of her priority-list, well, probably not even on it. And who could blame her? With her job, it wasn’t the most sensible thing to do.

“It has a pretty high success rate,” Sydney explained with a frown creasing his forehead. He looked as if he had aged during the last seconds, wrinkles around his eyes more obvious than usual. I had always assumed them to be laughter lines but now I understood that they were quite the opposite.

“I wasn’t aware that she…” I trailed off. What? That she was trying to conceive? That there was a new man in her life? That she had suddenly stopped detesting children?

“Well, how can we be sure that she has been taking those? Maybe it was a wrong prescription that she didn’t return or something like that,” I tried.

“I don’t think so.” Sydney seemed to be convinced that she had actually been on that medication. “I’ve researched a little bit about its side-effects.”

I swallowed, remembering Miss Parker being not only unusually quiet prior to her disappearance but also not feeling well.

“That would be nausea, dizziness, headaches… to name a few.”

Symptoms I had all seen in her. Fractures of scenes that I had regarded to be of no great importance at the time flew back to my memory.

Miss Parker grabbing my shoulder to steady herself. Miss Parker yelling at me that my new aftershave made her sick. Miss Parker rubbing her temples in angry frustration. Miss Parker asking me for painkillers.

Oh my god. Fertility drugs.

I didn’t care about this being Sydney’s office and thus Sydney’s office chair I feebly sank into.

It took me a moment to organize my thoughts, then I looked up into Sydney’s patient face, waiting for me to ask the inevitable question.

“Why?”

I could not recall having ever seen Sydney like that. Miss Parker’s ourbursts usually didn’t bother him, sometimes even caused amusement with him and he frequently ignored her curtness and her comments that ranged from plain sarcastic to intimidating or even offensive, but this time she seemed to have finally crossed the line.

His jaw-muscles were working while he spoke through gritted teeth.

“Just think, Broots.”

If even Sydney didn’t want to voice it, it had to be bad.

“Do you think she went off to find Jarod and…” I fell silent, fully intentional this time.

His nod came as no surprise, but still felt like a blow to the head, seeing stars and feeling pain included.

“Oh my god. She wouldn’t do such a thing, would she?” I asked and rambled on, as I did not receive a response. “I mean… It’s still her baby… She wouldn’t give her own child up to the Centre, would she?”

Sydney slammed his hand down onto the desk, crushing the sheets of paper flat onto its surface as if wanting to inflict pain on them.

“She would and she will.”

“Jarod will never allow this…” I said. “He would come for that baby.”

Sydney’s eyes remained closed as if he needed all his concentration not to lose it in front of me. His pain was almost palpable that very moment, the fact that he was torn between his loyalties very much apparent.

“Miss Parker is smart and the Centre is powerful. If she doesn’t want him to know, he never will.”

As reality sank in, I felt like I had to vomit.

“Do you think she’ll get him to sleep with her? Just like that? After all that’s happened?”

Sydney opened his eyes again, focusing on me with a frighteningly intense gaze.

“She is a very attractive woman, Broots. And she can be one hell of an actress.”

“Drop the act,” I commanded, wondering whether I should reach for a weapon or just make another great escape. I felt like a wounded animal, because although I was not physically hurt, she had served to damage my pride considerably.

I would have really expected her to give it up and just assault me now, but to my surprise, she didn’t. Her mere reaction consisted of an irritated look.

“I can’t follow you,” she finally said.

“My colleague just called to tell me that the nature of your head injuries is unlikely to have caused complete amnesia. I should have known it. Miss Parker, even you should know that there’s a point of no return.”

The sound of my cold voice seemed to startle her. At first, fear flashed in her eyes and I could see her muscles tense, but then she folded her arms in front of her chest. Her gaze steeled and she looked up at me with an unexpected determination.

“I think you have just arrived at that point,” she said, her voice very low and very menancing. It was just now that I realized that I hadn’t heard her speak like that even a single time since she had turned up in my hospital.

“I have no idea what just went wrong, but…”

“Miss Parker. I don’t know why you pretend to not know who you are, but I know damn well that this is a trap. Any attempts to convince me otherwise would be completely futile, okay? So stop acting and tell me the truth.”

Her reaction came quickly and violently.

“Damn it!” she burst out. “I told you I had no idea what you’re talking about! If you told me what the hell you’re suspecting me of, I could at least try to defend myself and convince you otherwise!”

I had always known Miss Parker to be persistent, but she usually knew when to give up.

“Miss Parker. Why don’t you just stop it and admit to it! You know very well who you are and why you are here! I’m not used to this rafinesse though...” I was surprised at how cruel my mocking voice suddenly sounded. “I hate you trying to capture me, but at least you’ve been straightforward until now.”

The rage welled up inside me, being fueled by the fact that I couldn’t help myself but realize just how damn good she looked standing there like that, all angry determination.

“We were equals in a game and now you broke all the rules.”

At first I was almost shocked to see that she was trembling, but then I embraced the fact that she was not frightened but angry. Very angry.

“How often do I have to tell you? I don’t know about any games! Tell me the rules and I’ll decide for myself whether I broke them or not!”

That left me speechless. Couldn’t she just admit to everything so we could return to common ground? What the hell was she trying to do?

Her left eyebrow shot up and she raised her hands into the air in a gesture of annoyance.

“I take it that you lied to me about us meeting in a hotel, then?” she asked, eyebrows raised, sounding deeply offended.

She seemed to take my silence as confirmation. She really was a good actress, I thought grimly. I could almost watch the facts sink in. Had she been an actress, she would have surely won more Academy Awards than she could display.

“Great,” she finally said, her rage still boiling, but voice lowered still. “Who’s playing the game now? If you know me, tell me who I am at once, and I’ll leave you alone for good.”
I shook my head in angry perplexity.

“I want to know why you’re here!” I once again demanded, almost yelling at her now.

There was no way I could have foreseen her next step. She practically flung herself at me and grabbed my upper arm so hard that I groaned painfully.

“Can’t you just shut up!” she almost screamed at me, her voice at breaking-point.

I grabbed her, too, to prevent her from hurting me but had underestimated just how strong she was. She wrestled her left arm free and frantically tried to free herself.

“Let me go!” she demanded, angry tears brimming in her eyes. “You might be the only person I know, but I’d rather be without you than have you insulting me like that!”

The gleam in her eyes should have warned me but I was way beyond caring right now.

“Yes, you better leave and go back to the Centre and tell them that you’ve failed once again. Another damn failure!”

The word failure seemed to trigger a kind of wrath inside her, that I had never witnessed before. She had been annoyed so often that I had lost count, but this was different.

“You never dare to call me a failure again!” she said, her voice suddenly so dangerously low that it sent a chill down my spine. Her eyes were gleaming with emotion but her self-control was suddenly firmly back, making her appear almost cold-blooded.

She gave me an unexpected shove so I tumbled backwards against the kitchen counter.

“Do not call me that,” she repeated, her voice softer now, sounding at the verge of tears. “Do not insult me that way and tell me who I am!”

She was almost pleading with me now.

“If you think that it was so easy to make me believe you, you are wrong,” I told her. She let go of me so suddenly that my arms dropped at my sides.

“I thought I could trust you,” she said. “But all you’ve given me were lies and deceit.”

She took a step backwards. “Whatever the reason why I was chasing you, it must have been a good one.”

Although I had ended up being the one with my back to the wall, she looked defeated as she turned away from me.

I just remained frozen in place, staring at her while at a loss for words.

I had been right about Broots being better off unaware of the turn of events, but since he had found the report I’d so carelessly left on my desk, it would have been impossible to keep him in the dark any longer.

We had agreed to go to a restaurant for lunch so we could discuss our findings without the prying eyes and ears of the Centre. So we sat at a table in some Chinese place just outside Blue Cove when a pretty waitress served us two plates of fried chicken.

When she had gone, Broots started picking his food aimlessly.

“She doesn’t know what she’s doing, does she?” he asked, hope shining in his eyes. He wanted to believe that Miss Parker wasn’t capable of such a heartless deed as much as I did.

“I think she is,” I replied, at the same time feeling sorry to have to deprive him of the rest of his faith in her.

Broots was silent for a moment.

“If only there was a way to warn Jarod before he… you know.”

He looked thoroughly uncomfortable with the topic, but still couldn’t let go.

“There is no way to contact him,” I said and let the fork sink back to the plate as I had realized that same moment that I wasn’t hungry at all.

When I looked up, Broots looked so drained of energy that I felt sorry for him.

So I reached over the table and patted his arm.

“Maybe Jarod’ll contact us in time. Otherwise we can only hope that she’ll not succeed.”

It is pretty scary how our instincts sometimes just seem to switch our brain off. One moment I was leaning against the counter, watching Miss Parker’s retreating back, almost relieved that she was about to leave, the next I called her back.

I didn’t know why I had just done that, but when she turned back around, I found myself unable to keep my bad attitude.

“Are you crying?” I asked, willing myself to shut up or plain sent her away.

“You will never see me cry,” she growled but her voice trembled and the tears gradually began to fill her eyes.

Maybe it was my attraction to her or maybe it was some instinct that told me to believe her against the odds and every logical consideration.

“Please,” she said. “Trust me and I’ll trust you. I am not lying to you, I promise, Jarod.”

I was torn inside. My brain told me to keep my distance, the rest of me wanted nothing more than to approach her and wrap my arms around her.

As if she had foreseen that my brain would be defeated in that fight that was going on my head, she was already awaiting me when I closed the remaining distance between us with one fierce step.

My arms went around her that same second she slung hers around me in an embrace. It was her who raised her hand to reach for my cheek and in a last attempt to prevent the unavoidable, the rational part of me made me catch her hand before it could touch me.

Miss Parker looked at our joined hands, then lifted her gaze and locked it with mine.

She did not pause to wait for my consent but kissed me right away.

Her lips tasted salty from the tears she had denied to have cried. I knew it was wrong to be doing this. I knew it very well but that couldn’t prevent me from playing along. Nothing could.

Her body felt perfect against mine and my last conscious thought was how I just didn’t care what assignment she was on that moment.

Even if she caught me this time, this would be worth it.

Or so I thought.

Centre Surveillance System

Four weeks prior to Miss Parker’s disappearance

Miss Parker sits behind her desk, a full bottle of pills in her hand. She reads the label then reaches for a glass of water. She puts the pill into her mouth and swallows the water.

Afterwards she stares into space for a moment, then rubs her forehead in exasperation. She jumps, startled, when her cellphone begins to ring.

Flipping it open, she growls an irritated “What?!” at whoever is calling.

She listens to the voice at the other end for a moment, then bites her bottom lip in pain. She quickly reaches for the bottle of ulcer medication that sits on desk next to her laptop, cap already unscrewed.

She gulps the medication down and it is evident that the dose must be too high.

She inhales deeply before she speaks for the first time: “I am not in the mood to talk to you, Jarod,” she tells him and hangs up before he can reply.

She switches the phone off and tosses it back onto the table.

Don’t get me wrong. I really like Chinese restaurants for the food. If you know what I mean… Today, however, I got more than I’d bargained for. And since I usually want everything, this happens only ever so often.

While I’d been sipping my wine and had been trying my best to break open that brick stone of a fortune cookie, I’d suddenly heard familiar voices. Quite familiar and so I didn’t have to look to be sure that they were Sydney’s and Broots’.

Interesting enough, I thought, leaning back on the bench in the booth that I sat in to be able to listen to them through the various plants that divided my table from theirs.

At the beginning it was hard to make out what they were saying, but it didn’t take them long to get so agitated that they were foolish enough to raise their voices.

I didn’t mind in the slightest, though. But I would certainly never let them in on one of my more important projects since they definetly lacked the ability to provide secrecy.

I could feel my eyebrow shoot up involuntarily when it finally dawned on me what exactly it was that they were discussing.

That was one way to buy freedom from the Centre for herself! I made a mental note to whistle my approval the next time I’d see my sister.

That was why our father had been so calm about his little Angel’s disappearance. The girl was on a mission that would most likely prove to be very profitable for the Centre.

It was very nice of the shrink and the tech to fill me in on the newest developments, but that didn’t mean that I would tell them about what they didn’t suspect.

I didn’t mind about Broots being so single-minded but with Sydney’s experience with the Centre I would have expected him to be aware of the fact, that the Centre wouldn’t have gone to such lengths if it had just been about creating their own Pretender or getting hold of Jarod.

They usually had a hidden agenda that they had probably not even told my sister about. I neatly folded my napkin and finally succeeded in cracking the fortune cookie open.

Quickly walking out with my back to the still agitatedly talking fools who would never realize who had just witnessed their exchange, I walked towards the door.

Work at the Centre was fairly boring lately and it had been a long time since I’d been faced with a good challenge, I thought when I sat down behind the wheel of my Mercedes. Besides, I was pretty curious what they had come up with again and who knew, maybe there was some profit in there for me, too.

Before I turned the key in the ignition I straightened the piece of paper I had extracted from the cookie and read what it said.

“You will soon find out that not everything is what it seems.”

I smiled to myself. Very approriate indeed.