It wasn’t his everyday phone ringtone. It was the other.

When Sydney realized this, he almost jumped from the couch and ran to the study, the phone was hidden in a secret compartment inside the third closet of his desk.

He found the mobile and answered worriedly.

“This is Sydney.”

“I wish this was only a drill”

When Sydney heard Jarod’s voice, he knew that something was really wrong. “I thought our next contact was due for your birthday, Jarod.”

“Do you have access to your DSAs archive?”

“Give me two minutes. Broots is with Angelo in another room.”

“In the meantime, I suggest you take a sit. And a beverage. We don’t want to be the cause of your first heart attack.” Miss Parker stated, stepping in the conversation.

 

A few checks on the security of the line from both sides and the phone call had turned into a video conference.

After watching the DSA twice, Sydney asked Broots to stop and zoom the video at the specific frame where Gabriel’s face was more visible.

Angelo put his hand on the screen, “Gabriel”, he said.

“I don’t understand. Why suddenly this SIM would be so important after forty years?” Broots asked them.

“He is the man tailing us. I want to know everything about him before depriving him of his family jewels.”

“Parker…” Jarod scolded her, with Broots sniggering from the other side of the screen.

“That man is dangerous, Jarod! He is the eighth red file, the one we didn’t remember anything about!”

Sydney cut in their quarrel, “That SIM was authorized by the Triumvirate. At that time I didn’t know anything about the red files, I didn’t understand their idea to make you prented all together like that. Especially I couldn’t figure why they wanted to involve the chairman’s daughter, too. Now everything is clear.”

“Clear?” Parker questioned him.

“I was told that the Triumvirate wanted to establish what kind of training we were supposed to give the pretenders. But I wasn’t informed that those eight kids were all red files, that they all carried the pretender gene in their blood.”

“How did they justify Miss Parker’s participation, then?” Jarod asked him.

“They told me that they needed a girl in the group, to evaluate how she would affect the kids’ behavior during a SIM.”

“Well, I think I affected you damned good, didn’t I Jarod?”

“Parker, will you please stop it?!” Jarod begged her, worn out by her sarcasm.

“I can’t believe this, we had met Lyle when he was only a kid…and I didn’t remember!?” Sydney asked himself.

Jarod sighed, “Parker and I were wondering the same thing. The only rational explanation is that they made us all forget about this SIM.”

Broots nodded, “Like they did with the memory of you and Mrs. Parker talking when she was pregnant with Ethan?”

Jarod felt a lump in his throat, “Exactly.”

“Well, now I remember everything. The SIM was lead on competitive basis. Your team won, Jarod, but the Triumvirate wasn’t interested in the final result. They just wanted to know which pretenders they could train to be...”

“Psychotic?” Parker asked.

“Mean.” Sydney corrected her.

“Love, hate…Good, evil…” Angelo murmured, still concentrated on Gabriel’s face.

“Yes, Angelo”, Sydney nodded at him.

“Angelo was excluded because of his empathic skills, and you were already under my supervision. They thought better than take you away from me after that demonstration of complicity between us.” 

“Pure luck, I guess.” Jarod stated, sardonically.

“Don’t confuse their real purpose with kindness, Jarod”, Parker cut him off. “They just wanted you to work at your best. And you and Sydney were a perfect duo. Just like Pavlov and his dog.”

Sydney talked on, “Eddie and Alex were committed to the Triumvirate, they came back to the Centre only years later, not long before you ran away in 1996. Once again, I wasn’t told about their arrival.”

“And I suppose Lyle was brought back to NuGenesis and later Raines managed to make the Bowmans adopt him.” Jarod continued.

Sydney nodded, “I believe it’s true that Mr. Parker wasn’t aware about Lyle being his son, at that time.”

“And in the meantime…Raines was given custody of Kyle, the smarter pretender he could have, seeing that I wasn’t available.” Jarod concluded.

“But what about Miss Parker?” Broots asked, “I mean, why wasn’t she exploited, like Jarod and Kyle, or – or…discarded like Lyle?”

“She was the chairman’s daughter, after all. Your father would have never allowed it, Parker.”

The woman nodded sheepishly and sighed, Jarod put his arm around her shoulders.

“So, what happened to Gabriel?” Jarod wondered, finally getting to the point.

Sydney shook his head, “I thought he’d been sent away, just like I’ve been assured they’d done with Timmy.”

Angelo looked down. He was feeling empathically all the pain in that room and from the other side of the computer screen, but nobody’s pain was stronger than his very own.

“You think he was brought to the Triumvirate, too?” Miss Parker asked Jarod.

“Where else?” Sydney answered with another question. “We were sure that Jarod and Angelo were all was left of the pretender project. We’ve been wondering for years how the Centre could survive without Jarod’s skills. Now we have our answer.”

“You mean that this man, this – Gabriel…he’s the one who’s been performing simulations for the Centre all these years? That he worked in Africa, with Alex?”

Jarod shook his dead, “I’m sure Alex didn’t know about him. He wouldn’t have accepted another pretender to compete with. But this is the only plausible explanation. The pretender business has been the Centre most important source of profit all along.”

Sydney followed Jarod’s reasoning, “And Raines’ death must have shuffled the cards. They must have realized that Lyle wasn’t as keen to find you as they wanted him to be, so they put someone else on your tracks.”

Jarod nodded, “Someone who could pretend to be me.”

“I must admit they were pretty clever, this time. A pretender to find another pretender. This is insane.” Parker admitted.

They kept all quiet for a while, pondering all those thoughts.

“It’s our fault. We shouldn’t have let this go 10 years ago. We should have put an end to the Centre once and for all, instead we decided to make one of those David-fucking-Copperfield acts you were so good at.”

Jarod wasn’t really hurt by Miss Parker’s words, he knew that she was right.

“We did it for our children, Parker. We did it to protect them, to give them a better life than we had. And at least for ten years, it worked.”

Parker sighed, staring at him. She didn’t want to fight with Jarod, she was just worried and exhausted. A couple of days had been enough to turn her life upside down. Now she was starting to realize that they’d been living in a dream. Their whole life had been a mirage. A house of cards that was collapsing under the strenght of the Centre blow.

“There’s nothing you could do, Parker”, Sydney tried to support Jarod, “And when you and Jarod ran away, the red files were a well-dead topic, anyway.”

“That’s because after finding out who Parker’s brother was,  I thought we were over with them. Lyle was back at the Centre, I was sure that Alex had died during our escape from the Centre and I believed Eddie had disappeared forever, or worse that he’d been killed. Even if I didn’t remember Gabriel, I trusted what his red file reported.”

“What?” Parker asked him.

Jarod sighed, “Certified the uselessness of his contribution to the pretender project, he was senteced to spend the rest of his life in renewal wing…”

“Which meant he was like dead.” Parker finished for him.

“Oh God.” Broots murmured.

“There is one thing I don’t understand, though”, Jarod stated, “Why is he here?”

“What do you mean?” Sydney asked him.

“Well, for all I know, all the pretenders exploited by the Centre have always been caged, locked inside. No contacts with the ‘outside’ world, no friends, no relationships. But Gabriel is here, in Maine. He looked like a free man, to me, it didn’t look like he was following orders!”

Parker nodded, “Jarod is right. He was behaving more like a sweeper than a fugitive pretender.”

“Maybe he’s run away from the Triumvirate, just like you did.” Broots guessed.

Jarod shook his head, “You know what was the first thing I did after finally being outisde on my own?” Jarod smiled slyly, “I used all the money I had to buy Pez. I didn’t eat anything but Pez for two days.”

Parker, incredibly, chuckled, “What was the second?”

Jarod grinned at her like an idiot, “I called you.”

Sydney opened his mouth in astonishment, and so did Parker.

“I don’t remember talking to you before the Village People-conversation!”

If Broots and Sydney were surprised by that remark, they didn’t show. They were accustomed to the couple’s eccentric anecdotes.

“Well that’s because when you answered the phone and I heard your voice after all those years, I was too scared to talk to you. So I had to come out with something like, ‘Uhm, I’m calling for a survey, are you in possession of a goldfish?’ – and you answered – ”

Parker opened her eyes wide and grinned, “No, but you’re going to sleep with a bunch of them if you ever call me again!”

They all started to laugh. Angelo was giggling too, he was enjoying the tranquillity of that moment.

“Needless to say, the day after I was watching The Godfather.” Jarod waited for the laughs to fade before continuing, “What I meant is that a pretender escaping for the first time would rather enjoy his newfound freedom, before starting to think about the rest of his troubles. And Gabriel looked satisfied and totally careless, like he’s been out here for a while.”

“So this leads us to option number two. He’s searching for you, Jarod.”

“Maybe he’s been trying to contact me and he’s just being cautious. Maybe he needs my help.”

“No.” Angelo exclaimed. “Jarod, good. Gabriel, evil.”
“I think he’s right, Jarod.” Miss Parker warned him. “I know you always tend to see good in people, but that man really gave me the creeps. Even more than Lyle. I think nothing good can come from him.”

Jarod shrugged and sighed, “Well, then you and the kids are leaving today. I’ll meet you at Ben’s after this story is over.”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Miss Parker shouted, her voice laced with impatience.

“I’ll take care of Gabriel, but I don’t want you and the children around, if he’s really dangerous. I’ll try to lure him so that I can talk to him honestly.”

“Talk to him?! Jarod you don’t know anything about him, he might be there to kill you!” Broots returned, gasping from time to time.

“Then I’ll take the risk. I don’t want to scare him away by involving the authorities, or worse the Centre!”

“Jarod, I won’t let you face that man like a martyr, are we clear?”

Sydney interrupted their quarrel, “I think she’s right, Jarod. This is an enemy you can’t face on your own. Think about that SIM. The three of you were later educated canonically. But Raines’ pretenders have always been manipulated to be mean. You’ll need my help to deal with them.”

“I know that. But I messed up your lives too much in past. I’m not going to cause further confusion, now that you have a relative stability. Debbie is going to college and your grandson is just four, Sydney. I won’t deprive Nicholas and Michelle of your presence!”

Parker was still quiet, but Jarod knew that she was ready to explode. So he bent down to end the conference call.

“Jarod!” Sydney prevented him from pressing the mouse button. “Please don’t do this. Gabriel is dangerous…”

“Danger!” Angelo shouted, a worried expression on his face.

Jarod watched his three friends on the other side of the screen.

“Danger is my middle name.”

Sydney watched helplessly as Jarod’s screen faded to black.