The Major looked at the map. “Maybe we can figure this out, Jarod. Maybe we can eventually find a hidden base and work our way in, but the chances we are going to do it any time soon? Especially with her that pregnant. She can’t be going out there like that. Your unborn would be in danger.”

“They already are.” Jarod sunk his head into his arms as he collapsed the front side of him on the table. “Her ulcers. This stress. Lyle can’t be at The Centre more than five days. She already knows how this is looking, and that’s going to hurt even worse.” He covered his head, lying it completely on the table, not wanting to face the world right now.

He wanted to crawl up into anyone else’s skin right now. Anyone. But himself. If Lyle could only take over five days, and she was gone longer, they would send his clone back out. It wasn’t an option. “I can’t take her children away.”

“You can’t leave them in The Centre, Jarod,” his father reminded him.

“But The Centre doesn’t think their special. They think they are someone else’s now . . .”

Gemini watched the display in front of him. He moved toward Jarod. Very strange. He’d never seen Jarod do that before. He had seen Jarod do many things, and had heard many rumors of all the things he had done. But he never saw him break down before.

“This whole thing. It’s not right. I lost three people to him.” He held up another finger. “Without Pretending, a killer is about to go loose, I didn’t get in the proper position. And the next one. And the next one. And this, with Miss Parker to boot? It all feels hopeless. There’s no clues, except what’s in her head.”

And oddly, the Major seemed to understand his pain. He was actually holding Jarod quite closely. Gemini came closer. “Jarod.”

“A second, Gemini,” Major Charles said a little more roughly than usual.

Gemini nodded. He could tell he wasn’t needed there. He went down a ways to the bathroom. He was going to knock on the door, but heard the sounds of crying inside. He’d never caught Miss Parker crying during their stay.

Things must have been getting messy.

“Gemini?”

Gemini turned and saw Ethan. “She’s crying. Jarod’s not much better.”

“I know.” Ethan scooted Gemini out of the way and made his way into the bathroom.

Don’t be worried. Jarod gets out everything. He finds out everything. So what if I was the only one who could even draw a map to explain things? And that none of it exists on Centre computers? And . . . She wasn’t doing so hot. Miss Parker stared in the mirror, and then realized Ethan came into the room. She turned quickly. He didn’t even knock!

“You are having Jarod’s children,” Ethan said. “Jarod is your enemy. You are Jarod’s enemy.”

He said something like that before, but this time, it seemed to bring down the walls in her defense. “The voices?” She moved closer to him. “Do they say anything? Any name?”

Ethan shook his head.

“What do they say?” She asked timidly. It wasn’t like her, but right now . . . “Ethan? Please? We need help.”

Ethan came over to her and hugged her. “I care for Jarod. I care for you. But, you’re enemies. Jarod is your enemy. You are Jarod’s enemy. It doesn’t change.”

Miss Parker gently closed her eyes and then opened them. Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t say anything. Ethan’s gift was so much better than hers. “No chance? At all?”

No chance. At all.

Ethan held her as she went unconscious. He looked toward Gemini. “Get Jarod.”

Gemini nodded anxiously, feeling his heart race. He moved down the hall toward Jarod and Major Charles. “Jarod, Jarod! Come quick, Miss Parker is down!”

Although Jarod wasn’t feeling his best, he could do the same thing Gemini could. Get his emotions together fast when the situation called for it. Jarod raced down the hallway to the bathroom where Ethan was still holding Miss Parker. “Put her down, put her down!” He started checking over her. “Miss Parker? Miss Parker?”

“It can’t go on like this, Jarod,” Ethan said, but Jarod ignored him.

“Jarod.” Gemini looked toward Ethan. “Jarod. Is she going to be okay?”

“She just fainted.” Jarod looked back toward Ethan. “What happened?”

Ethan didn’t speak. “I’m sorry.”

“Ethan. He.” Gemini wanted to help. He didn’t want to tell on his brother, but he didn’t want Jarod not to know.

“Ethan, what did you say?” Jarod asked, harshly. “I told you not to stress her out before, didn’t I? What did you say?”

“He said that there was no way both of you could ever be anything but enemies,” Gemini tattled. He had to. Miss Parker was in danger. “You’re enemies and it can’t work any other way.”

“It’s what the voices say,” Ethan said.

“What?!” Jarod started to breathe hard and just looked at him incredulously. “Do you have any idea what she’s been through?” He tried to stir her again. “Come on, come on, Miss Parker.”

“It’s true. I’m sorry,” Ethan said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t bring her. You brought her though, and she is where she needs to be now. To make the decision.”

“She is in no condition to make any decision,” Jarod said. He wanted to be nice to Ethan. He cared for him. But he stressed her out to the max! The voices, even she had them a little. Ethan’s was stronger, and they led them to the right direction before. But. “Why?!”

“Any longer, and you’ll lose all three,” Ethan said. “Her stress isn’t The Centre, Jarod. It’s you. You are the enemy. She is your enemy.”

“I’m not the enemy anymore,” Jarod said boldly. “The voices are wrong, we aren’t enemies. We aren’t.”

“That’s not true,” Ethan said. “You want it to be, but it’s not.” Ethan approached slowly. He took his hand and placed it along her heart. “Her biggest fear is you. If she stays in The Centre, you or your family will take away her children. Yet, if she doesn’t, then your clone will be set loose. For good.” Ethan looked straight at him. “You are enemies.”

Jarod continued to breathe hard. “There has to be something else.”

“There isn’t.”

“There has to be something else!” Jarod yelled. “Dig deeper, find out more.”

“Ethan’s gift doesn’t work like that, Jarod,” his dad said from the doorway. “There’s no way we can find this killer clone of yours in three months without having him come out. The little we do have was just from Miss Parker’s own mind. Now, we’ll investigate and we’ll get there but-“

“Not before they are born,” Ethan said to him.

Jarod closed his eyes and lifted her limp body carefully. “We are enemies. We can’t work this out.” He didn’t want to believe it. "Anything else? Anything?"

“There is something else,” Ethan said. “I don't know what it means. Beyond the Glass.”

“Glass?” Jarod heard her groan. “Glass?”

///“Jarod. Miss Parker has The Centre. As long as the Angel’s beyond the glass there, everything will be alright and I can see you!”///

“I hung out with my mom for days,” Jarod said. “She wouldn’t say something like that, phrase it like that. Beyond the glass. She didn’t talk like that.” The scrolls. “She must have been saying something from the scrolls.”

Miss Parker opened her eyes and saw Jarod. She tried to scramble away, but he didn’t let her. “Hang on, I know what he said to you, Miss Parker.” Jarod looked toward Ethan. “Glass. Would glass work? The plexiglass, before I left, Sydney replaced it on my behalf. Secretly.”

Ethan concentrated. “Beyond the Glass. She is your enemy. You are her enemy.”

“Wait.” Jarod looked toward Miss Parker. “I get it. It’s risky . . . but it’s the only way. There’s no more information. We have to do this.”

“Do what?” Miss Parker asked.

“I have to stay in The Centre.”

“No, Jarod. No, it’s too risky!” Major Charles said.

“No. Mom said it best. As long as the Angel is beyond the glass, it’ll be okay. Mom even stayed with me for days, no visible worries we’d get caught at all. We even Pretended in The Centre itself.” He had to trust that she knew. She had read the scrolls. “As long as Miss Parker is in The Centre, it’s safe.”

“What are you talking about?” Miss Parker asked. “And will you let me down yet? This. Is weird.”

Jarod just smiled at her. “You’ve Pretended to be my wife before, don’t you enjoy a little Bridal style, honey?”

“Jarod. I am not in the mood.”

“Ah, you always use that excuse. What is it this time, a headache?” Jarod joked.

“Okay.” Ethan smiled at Jarod. “Jarod is my sister’s enemy. My sister is Jarod’s enemy.”

“And that doesn’t change.” He understood it now. He understood it now!

“What the hell is everyone talking about? And Jarod, damn it, I’m not kidding. Put me down. Jarod!” She kicked her foot.

Jarod laughed and finally put her down, but once he did he gently hugged her. “It’ll be okay. Until we nab him, we’ll be okay.”

“How?” she asked.

“You run The Centre. You own The Centre, Miss Parker.” Jarod looked directly at her. “All the security. All the cameras. All the gates. People can’t leave without your say so. Without your knowledge.”

“Duh. I have access to everything The Centre could have. What are you thinking about?” she asked.

A short explanation later . . .

“I don’t like it. I still don’t like it,” the Major disagreed. “I really don’t.”

“I do,” Ethan disagreed.

“I have complete control,” Miss Parker said slowly, looking toward Jarod. “You want me to make everyone believe, you are always in The Centre.”

“But I am not always going to be there,” Jarod confirmed. “I have to Pretend. I have to save. I have to find The Triumvirate, out here. Most of all, I want to keep an eye on the twins.” He looked down toward her stomach. “All this stress, it hasn’t been good.”

“I could put you down as maximum security.” She was starting to see it. “But I can’t ride over the big boys, Jarod. When the Triumvirate visits, they expect results fast.”

“They’ve never bothered to see me before,” Jarod pointed out. He would have remembered them, as a child or as an adult. “As long as they know I’m locked up, I doubt they’d do anything. If they do, try and delay them. Have Broots say it’s a bad malfunction in the program that takes twenty four hours to fix. I can be anywhere in the world and make that deadline.”

“Hm. Lyle then?” Wait. What was that? She hadn’t seen that since he was a child. That barely uncomfortable side glance and small . . . awkward almost steely eyed sigh?

“Give him the same excuse,” Jarod said, trying to cover up something.

///“Okay. Okay.” Lyle held his hands up. “A Centre plane will be ready to take my sister and her new fiancée and kid out of here for their sabbatical. So, I will see you?” He pointed at Jarod. “Tonight.”///

///“There it is,” Lyle said devilishly as he bit his lip. “No words. No look. Do you know what you look like right now? Like Broots,” he said rubbing it in. He laughed. “Now, making Broots look like that, putting a scare into the weak? It’s no fun. No, but getting someone like you to finally drop that mask you always put up. I will remember this face for the rest of my life.”///

Dry River. Trying to steal Jarod’s thumb. My Pretender is scared, but he’s hiding it. Jarod was not easily scared. Visibly, he was fine, but there was still something there. “I want to talk to Broots.”

“I’m sure he could make it work,” Jarod said.

“I still want to talk . . .” She paused. “Does this mean I’m marrying Broots?” She looked toward Jarod. “ . . . well. That’s . . .”

“We’ll see when the time gets closer,” he said, not delving any farther. He gave her the phone to contact Broots.

-------------------------

Secluded Island

Debbie came over toward her dad as Broots opened up a strange suitcase. He stared at it.

“Dad?” she asked, pointing to all the liquid filled tubes. “What’s that?”

“Something I’m supposed to take, sweetheart,” he said, “but something I don’t want to.” He looked back toward her. Jarod. Taking her away. That much mistrust. Even with just the three he had taken so far, he felt such a profound change.

He also remembered seeing the result of the focus treatments, testing them. Miss Parker repeating the same lines while something treacherous was not very far away. Sometimes, close enough, that it could reach.  To do that, without any of the liquid courage they called ‘focus’?

But Jarod’s threat was clear. Focus was wrong. The suitcase held over thirty doses along with their syringes and needles. It wasn’t any compared to what Miss Parker had been shoved into taking by Raines, but Lyle took the same amount he had in front of him.

“Dad?” Debbie asked again. “Is Miss Parker going to become my new mom, or not? Because. I keep hearing things, and we are living with her.”

“Oh, Debbie. I really didn’t want to . . .” He looked toward her. She was really starting to grow up. “We have to tell lies now, to protect Miss Parker and the unborn kids of her and Jarod. Remember?”

She nodded. “They are still Jarod’s?”

“Keep that between us,” Broots insisted. “Anyone else knowing could put Miss Parker in danger.”

“I get it,” Debbie said. “There are problems too, that you aren’t telling me.” She sighed but hugged her dad. “I’m supposed to keep acting like she will be, until this gets fixed? Because, I love Miss Parker. I pretended she was my mom too,” she said. “But, the real thing?”

“Let’s not go there, Debbie, okay?” Broots assured her. “This whole thing, it’ll get worked out way before then. No worries. Trust me,” he chuckled. “There’s no way someone like Miss Parker is actually going to marry me.”

Then his phone to contact her directly, rang.

--------------------------------------

Major Charles Secret Base

She took it. “Okay, out of the bathroom,” she insisted to everyone. Once everyone was safely out, she listened for Broots to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Broots.”

“Yes, Miss Parker?”

“Why . . .” Her mind was charging in different directions. Why she was asking what she was asking. “Did Lyle ever do something to Jarod?”

“Um. I don’t know? When you were missing, after you got shot and Jarod was taken in, nobody was allowed to see him at all.”

///”Hello Miss Parker. Is there something I can do for you today?”///

“He hurt my geek,” she whispered, before she even knew what she said. She quickly corrected herself. “In your expert opinion. What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think it was good.”

Lyle loves to torture. He couldn’t on me, and he still found a way by not letting me talk while he pushed me down deeper. He loves torture. She hit her hand on the sink. He hurt Jarod, that son of a bitch!

Jarod wouldn’t admit how much he hurt him, but she knew him. Knew his subtle signs. His uncomfortable, weary signs. When things didn’t go right. He didn’t want to admit it, wouldn’t admit it. He was the defender of all, big and little. Not to mention, he thought Lyle killed his brother. He wouldn’t show any weakness. “If Lyle comes near Jarod again, I’ll kill him.” That never stopped her before. “ Do you have control of every single piece of The Centre, and can you keep Lyle out of it indefinitely?”

“Well? I do. I mean, most likely, I could keep Lyle out.”

“I want it set up so that if Lyle even sneaks in there, all the alarms and whistles go off. I don’t want him near him.”

“Um. Sure.”

Miss Parker hung up the phone and came out of the bathroom. “So. What is the new plan?”

“Not just new. Solid.” Jarod nodded toward his dad, his dad finally agreeing. He looked back toward Miss Parker. “You stay at The Centre. Cut the sabbatical, this isn’t doing anything except giving people time to discover I’m not there. Slow down your role a little more on investigating though. Keep it more business,” he said. “During that time, I’ll be out here on Pretends. I’ll come back every Weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Make it a tradition to go down and see me that way no one asks questions. It’s just, easily fitted there for your busy schedule.”

“If he’s not there when someone wants to see him,” Major Charles spoke. “Then call him and have Broots make up a malfunction excuse if it’s too long to get back in a reasonable amount of time.”

“Pretends. Africa. The Centre. Not an easy mix,” she said.

“Yes, but, it’ll work,” Jarod said. “Except for one thing? Broots. Treatments. Cease. Your father had the right to stop your treatments, you have to stop his.”

“End the focus?” she asked. “It’s not bad.”

“It’s not good,” Jarod disagreed. “No more.”

She sighed. “I can’t say that to The Triumvirate. But, I can lie,” she agreed. “The tests after the treatment is supposed to be over . . . to see if he had enough . . . it will be extremely tough on Broots.”

“You mean bulldogs and snakes trying to bite and eat at you? It will be tough,” Jarod agreed. “But he’d do anything for Debbie. Stop the treatments.”

“It’s that necessary?”

“Yes.” Jarod looked toward his father, then back to her. “I’m Angel and Onyssius’ father. That doesn’t change. But.”

The Major laid his hand on Jarod’s shoulder. “This probably isn’t going to get taken care of by the time they are born,” he said gently for his son. “Since another man will be the father to everyone else, then Jarod has to . . .”

Let Broots play father.

“No more treatments,” Jarod insisted. “Ends now, it ends now.”

“It ends now,” she agreed for him. “What happens then, after they are born?”

“We’ll discuss it later.” That’s all he went with for now.

“No more ideas of stealing?”

“No. As long as no one thinks they are special, no reason.”

Miss Parker looked toward Major Charles. He seemed to understand.

“No one’s coming after them. Jarod is technically there,” Major Charles said.

“So no more worrying, okay?” Jarod insisted. “No more stress.”

“The Centre is unpredictable,” Miss Parker said. “There’s no telling what could happen, Jarod.”

“I’ll keep Emily away, I promise,” Major Charles said. “She won’t go in alone, and I won’t help her.”

“They are safe.” Three words she had longed to hear for so long. Jarod wouldn’t get them. His family wouldn’t get them. No one knew how special they were.

“But.” Jarod held his finger out toward her, pointing crudely. “To do this. To put myself into that position, a position you know I am not going to like.” His eyes were hard.  “You know what I want afterward. Once I get rid of the clone.”

“I’ll Pretend with you for the Sim atonement.” No more ‘for now’. Jarod was pushing the line of everything to stay in the place he most despised. Staying in The Centre again. Not for a day or two. Weekends, for months, and probably more between when he could for appearances.

“And nothing happens while my kids are in you, I mean it. I absolutely-“

“I won’t do anything,” she promised.

“But something happened, both you and Broots were really relaxed this morning,” he accused her.

The Major shifted slightly away from Jarod and sighed. What was that? Did they have their own little talk while she was on the phone?

She gave him an odd look. “I needed a massage.”

“Where?”

“In that private little area most women like to call . . . their back and feet.” she practically spat. “You put too much scare into my other little geek to get anything else.” Then her eyes went wide and she glanced toward him. “That came out wrong.”

“Lordy, I do not want to be here. Gemini, let’s go get something to drink from the kitchen.” Major Charles and Gemini both left to the Kitchen area.

Jarod rubbed his jaw.

Miss Parker rubbed her chin. “Sorry.”

“That’s all I was as a kid to you, wasn’t it?” Jarod asked her bitterly. “Just the geek in the back of The Centre?”

“So. You’re a geek. I didn’t care.”

“You didn’t say were a geek.”

She held her hands up. “Forget it.”

“No. I am a Pretender, not a geek.”

“I know. It slipped out.” She winced. “I just, something happened to me.”

“Broke your focus. That’s what I wanted to do,” Jarod said. “So I’m not like poison ivy. Instead, now, I am what you used to see before it. Which, apparently, is a geek.”

“Jarod. You’ve never been anything but a geek. I didn’t care,” she said.

He snorted.

“I didn’t mind.”

He looked away then back, still clearly annoyed.

“Fine, if it makes you feel better.” She groaned and looked at her own feet a second before matching his gaze. “I liked you as a geek. You didn’t know anything. There was no bad influence around you.” She looked off in the distance. “I was called Angel, but you were a real one back then.” She looked back toward him. “The only safe, pure place.” Her eyes, meeting his again. Then she moved away again.

Oooh. Geek wasn’t a bad thing to her. She wasn’t making fun of him. “I’m sorry. I thought, I just thought-“

“I wasn’t there to poke fun at you, if that’s what you were thinking.”

“No, I get it now. I’m sorry,” Jarod apologized. “In the Centre. A little boy that knew nothing of the treacheries of it, or the outside was . . . salvation to you.” He looked back toward her. “I’m not that anymore. I’ve been out here six years. Even before that, in the Centre, I still grew up. Figured things out.”

“I know that. Habit. Focus, it’s . . .” she sighed. “It changes you, bit by bit, and little by little. So, I feel . . . weird,” she admitted. “Sometimes I physically see you as a child again.”

Jarod walked toward her, looking all around at her, before his eyes settled back on hers. “I can still be here though, for you. I’m not . . . the same, but I’m still here.” Realizing that feelings were stirring up in him. Deep inside, like Carthis. He knew they were at a turning point again.

But, that turn. Clones. The Centre. It wasn’t just them secluded on a faraway island with a blanket and tea. He patted her shoulders. Not yet. They needed to work on trust and friendship.

 “Thanks. Jarod.” Finally, he got a decent smile from her.

A smile. She smiled. At him. She patted his chest in a friendly manner too and turned away. “I did give him a blowjob though.”

---------------------------

Dark Africa

Through the miles of wilderness, the beautiful canyons and rivers that inhabit Africa, a voice calls out into the majestic sky . . .

“Kyyyyyyylllllee!” Jarod Hades yelled over his favorite sitting rock spot. “Oooohhhh Kyyyyyllee!” It usually took about a day to cross a full boundary area. He’d been calling Kyle for days. “You little prick, stop ignoring me,” he said in a huff. “I met your big broooooooooother!” That should get him. Usually when a Pretender started to hear the long sounding echoes, they at least went in that direction. Kyle should at least be close enough to hear him better.

“What do you mean you met him?”

Jarod Hades smiled as he saw Kyle. “Hi there. How are you? Yep, I met him. They let me out for a whoooole day. I discovered popcorn balls this time. Ooh, and I flew too,” he chuckled. “It was a fun experience.”

“Who did you kill?” Kyle asked him.

Jarod Hades shrugged. “A boring couple he reunited. I hung them on the wall, framed his Jarod Heart’s identity. Did you know your brother was once Pretending to be a male escort? Gah. That guy gets all the fun.”

“Jarod did whatever it took to save lives. He was the saver. Not the decider,” Kyle answered him back. He looked down below him at the rivers. “Don’t kill my brother. Or you know I’ll kill you.”

“Don’t care about him. He’s not in my focus.” Jarod Hades reached in his back pocket and pulled out a book, showing the cover. “Still waiting on her.”

Kyle glanced at the book. His brother’s clone always had a copy, carried it everywhere he could. His focus was on a woman, Miss Parker. It was a hunter of his brother so he really wasn’t concerned that much.

“She was supposed to be carrying the twin angels,” Jarod Hades said mysteriously. “Know what that means?” His eyes were wide, staring at Kyle like the madman he was.

He could have never been able to trick Kyle into believing he was Jarod. His cruelty. His smell. His eyes. While he had some strange qualities that reminded him of his brother, he was nowhere close to Jarod. He didn’t have any of the heart or soul of him.

“I don’t care,” Kyle said. “I don’t know what twin angels mean. Is that the only reason you called me here?”

“It means she’d be carrying the chosen ones kiddos.” Jarod Hades wiggled his book. “She was supposed to be carrying your brothers’ kids. Geez, you don’t know nothin’.”

“A hunter. Carrying Jarod’s kids.” He was stretching it. “I don’t believe it,” Kyle said. “He ran from them. They are ruthless, cruel, and care to do nothing but catch him. If I could get my hands on them, I’d set them up and I’d kill them. That would free us.”

“Well, you were right. Turns out it was false. Good for me.” He clung to the book tighter. “She apparently is having regular Management kids. You know, Parkers. A few more months though. Just a few more months.”

“A few more months what?” Kyle asked.

“I’m going to have her in this cage with me.” He chuckled. “Won’t that be fun?”

Kyle looked away, then back at him. “They are going to get her for you? Why?”

“Haven’t you been listening? Don’t you ever listen, Kyle?” Jarod Hades groaned. “I miss Alex. He listened. Hey, who’s on the other side of your boundary?”

“None of your business. None of my business,” Kyle assured him as he sniffed. “Why are they getting you one of my brother’s hunters?”

“So I can make the twin devils.” Jarod Hades chuckled. “After the birth of this regular pair. They think her daughter she named ‘Angel’ might be it. But, just in case? I get momma afterward.”

Kyle looked back at him. “Hm.” He looked back out across the view, then turned to look at him again. “What about the babies?”

“What about them?”

“They won’t have family.”

Jarod Hades shrugged. “That Centre place will raise them. They are Parkers.”

“Their dad?”

Jarod Hades sighed. “I planned on killing him. Do I have to let him live? Would that make you talk more to me? Because I miss talking to Alex. I’m a sociable kind of guy.”

“No.”

“Well, I’ll kill him then. He’s a hunter too.”

“More kids. Raised by The Centre. No mom or dad, but they were evil anyway. It’s like a sick and twisted game.” Kyle looked back at the smiling clone. “Are you done bragging?”

“No.” He rocked back and forth on his rock. “It’s a good feeling. That itch I’ve always had. I’ll finally be able to get it scratched. Just a few more months. A few more months.”

 “Don’t let her near my side of the boundary. This is your only warning,” Kyle said to him.

“Why?”

“Because if I see her, I’ll figure out a way to kill her,” Kyle said, staring straight at him.

“Yeah. There’s that bloodthirst I heard about,” Jarod Hades smiled.

“I decide who lives or dies,” Kyle said. “And dying is better than living with you.”