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THE CENTRE – SIM LAB

Gabriel’s last revelation was still echoing inside their minds. Sydney didn’t know if he should feel sad for this man’s destiny or not. He was another victim of the Centre, the worst victim, actually. Grown up as a Triumvirate marionette and with connections to nobody.

Still waiting in the car outisde of the Centre, Jarod was devastated by the truth. If Gabriel wasn’t bluffing, if he was really dying, then why did he orchestrate the kidnap? Why did he care so much about the future of the Centre?

“You are dying?” Sydney asked Gabriel.

“I’m afraid so. Unknown genetic desease. I don’t know if it depends on the way they tested me when I was a kid or if it’s something that I developed in Africa. Maybe this is what eventually happens to every single Red File. It looks like we are not supposed to live long.”

“And you are spending your last days in this hole instead of retiring on an island? I still don’t understand your will to bring Jarod back. You shouldn’t care anymore.”

 

Jarod mentally thanked Lyle for posing this question.

 

“I am a devoted follower of the Vespasians creed. This is my last duty. If my interpretation of the Scrolls is correct, I am the man who must vow his superiority to the ultimate sacrifice, which is death. I was the only one who could give power to the Centre. With Jarod on the run, the pretender project would be over, without me.”

Gabriel turned on the lights in the lab. The whole room was just like Sydney remembered it. A huge open bowl was stationed in the middle of the huge atrium. Sydney had distinct memories of using it with Jarod and with Jeremy. He remembered having one of his most sincere conversations with Miss Parker, in that place.

 

Parker was looking at the bowl with a loving expression, she seemed almost a child, “When I went down to talk with the boy. It was, um… It was so surreal being with him. It was like I was suddenly 11 years old again.”

“And yet...” Sydney began.

“And yet?”

“And yet the boy is Jarod in every way except the most important one. He doesn’t have Jarod’s soul.”

“And he didn’t have you.”

Sydney’s expression meant everything to Miss Parker. They were more than colleagues, they were friends. They were connected in a very peculiar way. He was her guide. He was the most fatherly figure she had ever have. And in spite of being Mr. Parker’s daughter, she had inherited all of her mother’s best traits.

She was such an incredible human being, and Sydney was so proud of her.

 

“Welcome home, Sydney.” Gabriel shook him from his reverie.

Sydney walked towards the bowl and stared at it. If he was sure of one thing, it was that Ethan would never, ever, finish inside of it like his father and uncle.

“Why didn’t the Triumvirate order the kidnap of other children? You could create a new generation of pretenders, like we did in the sixties.”

“We couldn’t. The Red Files were our last hope. We tried to create the pretender gene in our labs, but we couldn’t. Something is missing and we can’t figure out what it is.”

“And NuGenesis?” Lyle demanded.

“Jarod destroyed everything. One of the last gifts he left for us before disappearing.”

“This is why you want him back so badly.” Lyle finally understood.

 

“And this is why they also want my kids.” Jarod said.

He had heard enough. It was time to act, he couldn’t stand there and wait anymore. He opened the car door and started to run towards the Centre. He had his own ways to get inside without being noticed.

 

“And Ethan and Katie?” Sydney asked.

Gabriel smiled, “As children of two Red Files, they have the pretender gene. Simple genetics. They inherited it from their parents. And we believe that they also developed their mother’s inner sense, especially the girl. We only need to bring it to the surface and use it to our advantage.”

“The last pretenders. To ensure a long prosper future to the Centre.” Sydney commented.

“Bloodlines and money. Same old story.” Lyle nodded to himself.

“Precisely.” Gabriel concluded.

“Sydney!” A voice interrupted their conversation.

Sydney turned around to see Miss Parker being dragged down the stairs of the lab by Jude. Behind her, Chuntao was urging Katie and Ethan to follow their mother.

“Parker!” Sydney exclaimed, “Are you all right?” he asked.

The woman nodded, then she casted a look at her children. Sydney tried to convey his real feelings in his expression. He couldn’t give himself away, but he needed Parker to understand that he was just pretending.

“So, let’s see what you can do, Sydney.” Gabriel prompted the old man.

Lyle was staring at his nephew and niece. He was admiring how beautiful they were. He had not seen Ethan for almost ten years, and yet he still looked like that little bundle of joy he’d taken away from the Centre.

But the real surprise was Catherine. The girl looked so much like her mother that Lyle was amazed by the resemblance. Now he knew how charmed Jarod felt everytime he looked at his daughter.

Sydney approached Ethan. The boy seemed calm and relaxed. He was looking curiously at the bowl. Sydney couldn’t help but remember Jarod when he had seen the same bowl for the first time.

Ethan looked exactly like him.

“Ethan, do you trust me?”

The boy glimpsed at his mother, who nodded in approval. Then he looked at his sister. Katie was worried, she didn’t like that room at all. It felt cold and dark. But setting apart that feeling, Katie could feel something else. She knew that they could trust Grandpa Sydney.

“We are going to make a test now. It will seem a little weird at the beginning, but all you have to do is follow my instructions.”

“No!” Parker threw herself between Sydney and Ethan. “You won’t do this to him, too!”

Jude moved faster than Lyle and dragged Parker away from the man.

“Come on, Parker. It’s just a sim, after all.” Lyle mocked his sister, trying to keep his attitude on a low profile.

“Let – go – of – me!” she shouted, “Sydney! Don’t!”

“I have no choice, Parker. Don’t you see? There’s nothing we can do about this.” Sydney murmured.

“Jude” Chuntao stated, observing the scene while a furious Parker tried to escape from Jude’s hold, “Take Miss Parker to her cell. It’s time to introduce her to her new friend.”

“Wh- what friend?” Sydney asked.

“But the electroshock, of course.” Chuntao explained.

 

Jarod was crawling inside the air ducts of the Center, he was on his way to reach the SIM lab. Sweaty and tired, he was acting on pure instinct. Rationally, he knew that he was a fool, that as soon as he would touch the floor of the lab they would cuff him and close him into a cell, but he wasn’t following his mind.

His heart had taken the lead.

And when he heard Chuntao pronouncing the word ‘electroshock’, his stomach flipped over.

 

Lyle stared intently at his ex-fiancée. If until that moment he had thought about her as an imprudent woman, now he was eventually realizing that she was really mean.

‘Gosh, I think I might have loved this Chuntao even more’.

But was it true, indeeed?

Lyle had fallen in love with her when he had first understood that Chuntao could actually help him to change, that his past sins would disappear, that with her he could put an end to his purgation.

He couldn’t deny this, he’d changed deeply.

A former monster and killer ready to redeem himself.

And now, there he was.

He stared at Miss Parker, dragged away by Jude and probably goint to die because of one reason: he wasn’t strong enough to avoid it.

“Mom!” Ethan screamed.

The boy tried to run towards his mother, with Katie sobbing next to him. Gabriel was faster and took him by his shirt. Ethan stopped and turned to gaze carefully at him.

Gabriel noticed that the boy’s eyes were just like his father’s. He snapped his fingers, inviting Chuntao and Jude to wait.

“Listen to me, boy. If you’re as smart as your parents are, you already know I’m no person you can test.”

“I do, Sir.” Ethan replied.

“You don’t want me to be obliged to kill your mother, don’t you?”

Lyle swallowed hard, staring at his sister. Miss Parker was paralized, full of terror. For the very first time ever, she feared for her life. And Ethan and Katie would never make it without her in that hell.

“Nope, Sir.”

“Good boy.” Gabriel caressed Ethan. “Chuntao. I think Miss Parker’s rendezvous with electricity will have to wait.”

Chuntao wasn’t glad to hear that. She didn’t like that woman. She’d always secretly loathed her.

She’d been Tommy Tanaka’s fiancé, before his decision to betray Chuntao with Miss Parker, who had only been a seasonal affair, while they’d been together for two years.

Obviously, Parker wasn’t aware of this particular skeleton in Tommy’s closet. But Chuntao was so willing to let her know.

“Now, where were we? Oh yes, Sydney. Will you please put the boy into the bowl? Simulation number 1.”

Sydney remembered every facet of his work with Jarod. He had used the bowl many times, also during Jarod’s first SIM at the Centre.

One of the fastest sims was the one that took place on 13th Apr, ’70, just a few minutes before Catherine Parker’s presumed death in the elevator.

Jarod was simming the Apollo 13 accident in that bowl. The infamous Houston-we-got-a-problem disaster had occurred that same day, 21:07:53 CST. The Centre had immediately been involved by NASA to try and find a solution to bring the astronauts home safe. And jarod had found a way.

But Jarod was eleven, in 1970. And he was a far more trained pretender than his son.

Ethan didn’t even know what a SIM was.

Sydney had worked with Jarod for the first time in 1963, when he was just a four years old baby. Now Gabriel wanted the doctor to perform that very first SIM with Ethan.

Sydney’s determination was fading. He didn’t want the boy to sim, he didn’t want his little sister seeing him become a labrat. And most of all, he didn’t want to betray Parker and Jarod’s trust.

“Doctor.” Gabriel approached him. “I'm starting to doubt your resolution. I think I should ask Chuntao to go on and bring Miss Parker down.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”










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