Jarod couldn’t decide what had surprised him the most—the fact that they had been caught or the fact that a presumably dead man had caught them. Larry, on the other hand, had trouble recognizing the grown blond man as his mourned son.

“I thought you were dead.” Jarod said.

“The rumors about my death have been. . .unfounded.”

Lyle stepped in. “One of our crews discovered Alex moments before he made it to the other world and did their best to. . .reeducate him. He’s much better now. Still a sociopath, of course, but now he only kills when I tell him too.” Lyle smiled. “Like a puppy, see?”

“You know how Alex is, Lyle. You can’t control him so easily.”

“Actually, this.” Lyle produced a remote from his breast pocket, “says I can.”

Lyle pressed a button on the remote and immediately Alex felt a jolt of energy traveling across his brain. His scream show how agonizing that pain would be.

“It’s very effective. Painful, yet not lethal.” He smiled. “The best part about it is. . .he was actually the one who developed this device. Alex may be second in ranking when compared to you, Jarod, but he's still a good pretender.”

Larry was trying to keep a calm resolve, not let his anger show but this was too much. He opened his mouth to speak, but the fury in him made it sound almost like a growl. “What have you done with my son?”

*/*

Meanwhile

The Centre

Miss Parker’s Office

After parting ways with Jarod and Larry, Miss Parker returned to The Centre to gather all the information possible about Alex and his parents. So far she had found nothing new to add to what she already knew.

Alex had been brought to The Centre as part of The Pretender Project at the age of 16. His grandparents had been part of the Centre’s top hierarchy. His father had been tested as part of the company’s policy regarding top members.

Apparently, Alex’s past had been entirely manufactured. Jarod had told her that Alex once claimed to destroy the only leverage The Centre had on him by killing his own family. The question regarding the need to produce a false past was one she had yet to find out.

Now she had more pieces of the puzzle than before, but the final picture was still a distant one.

Alex had been taken to The Triumvirate headquarters in South Africa and trained to be their “fixer”. His job, from what she had learned, was to identify the possible flaws in Jarod’s simulations or, in some cases, to make them fallible. It was no secret that The Centre had no morality to guide the usage of its projects. In a balanced like effort, Jarod pointed out the benefit use of each sim, while Alex would indicate its exact opposite.

Lyle had told her that Alex was too evil, too crazy to be reeducated. A statement such as that coming from a man like Lyle had to be at least considered. Her. . .father had declared Alex as Lyle’s personal maniac. She had reasons to believe that Lyle once possessed a great influence in The Triumvirate. The relationship between Alex and Lyle and the latter’s power over The Triumvirate was something she had never considered until then.

After the Emma Barrett incident and the following troubles with the Yakuza, that influence had decreased to the point that a sanction order on him had been issued. Lyle faked his death then and came back. Just like he had done before going to Africa. What if that sanction was related to his lack of success in training Alex?

One thing she never understood was how Lyle managed to climb the stairs of power—from a baby stolen at birth to a man capable of forcing control over The Triumvirate. What leverage did he possess and, more important than that, was that information still existent? Again, the duo Alex / Lyle came to her mind.

She remembered the time when she spoke to Raines, what he told her before Mr. Parker had shot him. Her mother had recorded a DSA explaining her plan. She hadn’t found that DSA yet, but Raines had said something else. “There’s still one person alive who knows the all truth.”

It was at that precise moment that Mr. Parker showed up and shot Raines in the back, preventing him to say anything else.

All the elements were connected—Larry, Alex, Lyle, Jarod, The Centre, The Triumvirate, her mother’s plan. Pictures circled her brain like a carrousel. And all was tied up to a simple piece of plastic.

The DSA.

If only she could find that DSA. But how? She couldn’t search The Centre floor by floor. But there was someone who could. In fact, it was possible that he already had the item with him.

“Angelo.”

She spoke softly, barely audible to anyone to herself, yet her call caught someone’s attention. The sound of something falling on the floor near the air vent made her get up and walk toward it. The man behind the grid said nothing.

She knelt to pick up the object and recognized it as the St. Christopher medal her mother used to wear. Before she could ask Angelo what he was doing with it, he was already crawling away leaving her with more questions to ask.

She returned to her desk and stared at the medal. Her mind returned to the forest cabin where the medal had been found. Her mother had worn it. Angelo told her that much. And something else, something she hadn’t truly acknowledged so far.

“Sydney knows all the secrets and lies.”

Her mother’s ring, the one that saved her life once, brought back another memory.

“Ask your father. He knows all the secrets.”

The relation between these two sentences was making her tremble inside. It couldn’t be.

Raines returned to her mind with one of his epitaphs. “There’s still one person alive who knows the all truth.”

And, finally, Alex, when she said she was looking for the answers only her father could give her.

“He’s not your father.”

Memories from her childhood came back like a flood washing away a world of sin and after its passage only one question remained.

Was Sydney her father?

The biological exams had pointed Raines as a more likely subject. But the samples could have been tampered before being stored. The samples analyzed were the ones belonging to Mr. Parker and his brother Raines. They could have switched it with the ones belonging to Sydney and Jacob.

Was it possible? Should she dare to believe it or prepare herself to face one more disappointment?

*/*

Jarod’s Lair

Lyle couldn’t hide his smirk. “Your son?” Lyle asked. “My, my, isn’t this interesting?”

“I’ll show you what’s interesting. . .”

Larry made a move to attack Lyle. Jarod tried to stop him but two sweepers grabbed him from behind and immobilized him.

Lyle made no move to protect himself.

A powerful kick in the knee was all it took to end the attack. Larry fell on his back and stared, incredulously, at the man who had stopped him.

“Why, son?”

“I’m not your son.”

The last thing Larry saw before the coming of darkness was Alex’s foot approaching his face.