“Are you telling me my son is alive?”

The question was one Larry never expected to ask. He had seen the bodies. Why would he suspect anything? Suddenly he recalled.

The Voices.

He had never heard his son or his wife voice inside his head. Could this mean they were still alive?

Jarod didn’t how to answer.

“I really don’t know.” He said. “What I can say almost for sure is that Alex didn’t die at that car crash as you thought he did.”

“Can’t it just be a name coincidence?” Miss Parker asked.

“I don’t think so.” Jarod retorted. “Alex was brought from Europe. France, to be more accurate. He told me this personally.” He looked at Larry. “Considering your gift, I don’t think there’s any coincidence here. Especially not with The Centre involved.”

“What happened to him?” Larry’s plea was intense. “Tell me all you know. I need to know the truth.”

Jarod and Miss Parker shared a look. This wasn’t going to be easy. How to tell someone who lost his son that, not only had his son survived, but that he had grown into someone consciously evil? Jarod knew he had no place to lie to this man. Something about him seemed oddly familiar. What it was, he couldn’t quite place it. Not yet, anyway.

“Alex was brought to The Centre around 1977. That boy you mentioned earlier, Mr. Raines, the one with the oxygen tank, became one of The Centre’s top people. He is the second in command to Mr. Parker. He was assigned to monitor your son—”

“You’re wrong, Jarod. Dr. Thompson was the one in charge of Alex. Raines told me that.”

Jarod shook his head. “Dr. Thompson was a façade. Raines was the one in charge of Alex’s training.”

Larry felt like asking what this training was. Somehow he knew he wouldn’t like the answer so he remained quiet, letting Jarod choose his words.

“Alex was inserted in the Pretender Project and trained to do simulations. The project had various faces, some official, others not quite. According from records, I was the first. Next came Lyle and Angelo, Eddie, Damon, Dannie, my brother Kyle, Miss Parker here, although she was never an integrant part, and later on. . .Alex. Most of us were inserted in the project at an early age. Alex, on the other hand, arrived at a time when we were eons ahead of him. He had a lot of catching up to do so Raines decided that—.”

“Before you go any further, there’s something I need to ask.” Larry said.

“Go ahead?”

“What’s a pretender?”

“Pretenders are individuals whose special gifts allow them to process information faster than the average people.”

“Like gifted children?”

“It’s more than that. A pretender processes all the existing information about a topic and, if a problem appears, he knows exactly how to solve it.”

“In very few words, they’re genius who can become anyone they want to be.” Miss Parker complied.

“That’s right. I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Miss Parker grinned. “And they call you the genius.”

“Please continue.” Larry said.

Jarod nodded. “Our advance on Alex forced Raines to use extreme measures. In other words. . .”

“Torture,” Larry completed the sentence for him.

“At the time, none of us knew what was being done to him. I saw him when he arrived and, after that, only a year later when he was inserted in the project for good.

“The Centre had us believed that our simulations were being used to help people. Instead they were being sold to the military, terrorists, drug dealers, Mafia, Yakuza, anyone who paid the highest bid. Alex, Damon and, I think, Kyle were trained to alter the usage of our simulations in order to, for example, turn a vaccine into a deadly virus.”

“They turned my son into a murderer.”

It was not a question.

“I don’t know what was done to him while he was away.” Jarod continued. “Alex was a rebel like you said, but his heart had turned from gold to lead. He enjoyed twisting the simulations’ benefit results to more devious ones. He had become what the specialists refer to as a sociopath; an individual who. . .”

“I know the term.” Larry interrupted, obviously not wanting to hear the definition of what his son had become.

“Once I discovered the truth I decided to escape. I asked Eddie to come with me and made arrangements to escape during the night. Angelo helped us by looping the surveillance cameras.”

“So, he was the one.” Miss Parker said.

“You’d surprised if you knew what is capable off.” Jarod told her. “Anyway, when we were running down the corridor, Alex called from his cell and asked to come with us. I hesitated. I had simmed my escape plan for two people only and the rumors about Alex’s usage made him hard to trust. Still, we decided to give him a chance.

“Unfortunately, something went wrong. He slipped and fell into the Rehydration Core. I grabbed his hand and tried to pull him up, but he slipped from my fingers.”

Jarod’s mind instantly recalled that moment when he saw Alex disappear in the mist.

“Eddie and I always assumed he had died then. He didn’t. Instead, he was taken to The Triumvirate headquarters in South Africa to be reeducated.”

Seeing the look in Larry’s face, Miss Parker anticipated his question. “The Triumvirate is a stockholders group who controls most of The Centre’s current activities. Including the Pretender Project.”

“Thanks.” Jarod said. “During the first years of my escape I had no reason to believe Alex and survived. A few months back, however, he resurfaced. He wanted to exact vengeance on all those he felt were a menace to him. He killed Eddie, tried to frame me for the deaths of several NSA agents, and kidnapped Mr. Parker.

“I was trying to stop him when he fell into the ocean. His body was never found, so there’s a chance he may still be alive.”

Jarod’s mind traveled to the scene at the Opera House, at the precise moment when Alex had said, referring to Miss Parker: You have no idea how important to you she really is. And after today, you’ll never know.

Things needed to be straightened out. Once and for all. As soon as this situation with Larry was solved, he promised himself he would go talk to her.

“You haven’t heard about him after that?”

“We didn’t look. Other problems came up.” Miss Parker answered.

“Very well, then.” Larry said. He tapped the table, thinking what their next move would be. He closed his eyes and listened. For minutes, he remained still. Finally, he reopened his eyes and spoke. “The first part of my mission was to find you two. That part is done, so it’s time to move forward.”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Jarod asked.

“I’m an old man, Jarod, and I have nothing to lose, except my life. Which I will give gladly if it means putting a stop to The Centre. They took everything we had. It’s time for them to feel the same. And most of all, I want to know what happened to my son. I want to look at him one last time. Ask for his forgiveness.

“But I need your help. I can’t do this alone. I feel you had your quarrels, still do, but I say it’s time to decide. Are you with me?”

Jarod nodded. “We’re going to need a plan.” He added.

“We already got one.” Larry pointed to the scrolls. “What about you?”

Miss Parker was quietly considering her options. Like Larry, she also had her eyes closed and was listening.

Jarod was about to say something when he felt Larry nudging him. Looking at Larry, he saw him shaking his head. It was her decision to make. Jarod nodded in agreement.

Miss Parker opened her eyes. She had a determined look on her face—one that Jarod knew very well. Whatever her decision was, she wouldn’t change her mind about it later. The question was: what had she decided?

“I’m in.” She said.

Jarod smiled to himself. He had dreamed about taking aggressive measures against The Centre dozens of time but had never put anything into motion. He always knew he would need her at his side to succeed. Now, after so many years, that moment had finally come.

*/*

An hour later they left the cabin. Jarod and Miss Parker cleaned the snow covering her car and the three hopped in.

Jarod had stashed his car in the woods nearby. Once they got there, they would split up. She would return to The Centre and start digging for information, while Jarod and Larry would go to Jarod’s current lair to analyze the scrolls.

All things planned, Miss Parker turned the engine on and drove away.

No one noticed the extra pair of footprints next to the cabin.