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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Part seven: Freedom of the Past, Pressure of the Future
The old man was standing in the door, a smile lighting his slightly wrinkled face. "Samuel," he nodded, surprising the younger man with the use of his given name. Far too often he forgot the name and it's prophecy. His mother had once held him in her arms and told him he was meant to be a listener, a problem solver. That's why she'd named him as she did. Sometimes, though, Sam forgot.
Ben waved the younger man in, pointing toward the living room down the hall from where the two men stood. "They're all congregated in there, planning, no less. Of course, I expect that of any daughter of mine." He grinned again, happy for the first time in decades. "Your Miss Parker is my baby girl you know, and all this time... I'm a grandfather too."
Sam couldn't help but grin widely, Ben's attitude and glee were contagious. For the first time in decades, Sam too felt as if things would be all right. "I think Monica said to tell you there's a surprise for you as well. An' it's one you're definitely going to like, son!" He patted the other man's broad shoulder and they tracked into the living room.
"Sam!" Miss Parker laughed, "I didn't expect you for another few hours," she looked better than Sam had seen her in a while, the yellow tint to her skin had faded, she no longer looked sick or tired, or even sad. Monica, Ben had called her. Well, Sam figured, she was definitely not Miss Parker anymore. She was just Monica. And Jarod was just Jarod. Funny how the most important people in the Centre had only one name.
Miss Parker was standing before him, and before Sam could break himself from his thoughts, she had enveloped him in an embrace. "I knew you'd find my note! Come now, we have much to do before something else happens, and I have a surprise waiting for you."
"Uhm, Miss Parker?"
"Monica, silly. Call me Monica, I thought my father told you to call me Monica?" She raised an eyebrow, and linked her arm through his, dragging him to the far side of the room where Jarod sat with two young children. All watched with amusement.
"Okay, Monica then. It's nice to see you happy," his words were almost bashful.
She laughed again, a lilting, innocent laugh. Not from sarcasm or irony, from joy and hope. She laughed as Jarod remembered her laughing from her childhood.
"You see, we only have a matter of time left. A short window in which we have to gain some control over the Centre's actions. We can't stop it as it is and it's far too late to destroy it. However, we can gain control and turn the Centre into what we want it to be," Monica Parker's dialogue began.
"Why just a short time?" Ben interrupted, for he too had been spared the tale until Sam arrived.
She shook her head, and Jarod watched with something akin to worry in his eyes as she continued. "I'm sick, very sick. The Centre can control me to a point. When I was younger, I was tested as a Pretender, the results were positive no less, but my mother, Catherine, made a deal with the Centre - the devil's advocates!- that they were to leave me alone, never train my ability, never harm her daughter. For some unknown reason, even after her death, they abided by their agreement. Perhaps it was too late to train me, or maybe Daddy -I still can't not call him Daddy- intervened. Regardless, the Centre never turned me into a Pretender.
"Instead, little over twelve years ago, they turned me into another project. A project I and the majority of the Centre personnel were aware of until just recently, Project Clairsentience. I gave birth to two children all those years ago, and given free reign over the world for the first year of their lives, then they were taken into the Centre. And that's how I was made to stay for another five years. During those years, Daddy had me convinced that I could have my children back if I'd sleep with the Yakuza -Tommy Tanaka, to be exact- and manage to get the money from him to essentially by my children from the Centre. During those years, the children were not trained as Pretenders, but were isolated from the outside world. They had free reign within the lower sublevels of the Centre, and could associate with the other children and employees," she switched gears, "Oh but I never slept with Tommy Tanaka for the money, no, I told him after the first few days we spent together what was going on. I have never held prositutes in very high regard, at least, I would never become one if I could get away with it, but Tommy was kind and good, he gave me the money and we became very good friends, even lovers for a short time. After the five years were over and I returned permanently from Japan to Blue Cove, Daddy told me the deal was off and that I would have to choose between my children, Jarod's and my children. I was distraught, upset, angry even! I still can't believe...
"In short, I vented my frustrations quite vocally and was told to take my son or leave him there. I took him, of course, and delivered him to a safe house, told him I loved him and that should he need me, to just concentrate as hard as he could and I'd know. I would help him, I would take away his pain. Just as I told his sister before I visited her last. To never lose hope, never lose heart, and never let them in, never let them break their spirits.
"Then, my memory of the six and a half years previous was wiped, I was beaten, and left in the Centre infirmary and told I'd been in a car accident. Shortly afterward, I took over Corporate. And a little over a year later, I took over the search for Jarod. All the while I experienced things ranging from migraines to ulcers to nightmares, silently whenever I could. I never wanted anyone to know, and some doctors could not explain it. I didn't understand myself, until several months ago when I dreamed of my children, my NIkolas and my Katya. I took it upon myself to find them, and found Nikolas through the dreams, basically, and brought him to my home. Together we found Katya and we made plans to rescue her when I fell extremely ill. By then, NIkolas and I had discovered that this project I became, Clairsentience, was exactly what the word means. Extra sensory perception of physical things, sights, sounds, touches, feelings... everything. And all of these years I'd been taking on the pain Katya and Nikolas couldn't or shouldn't have to experience. Both emotionally and physically, because of the... training, in essence, I had experienced during the first six years of their lives. I became a project Raines would be proud of."
Her words were bitter, angry, and she finally let go of Sam's arm and dropped her angry stance to sit beside Jarod on the sofa, and gather her children into her arms. "Since I was already so attached to my own children and had had them taken from me, they began the same thing with my baby brother, Parker, they call him. When they realize I'm alive, they'll hurt him to find me. He won't feel the pain, I will, and eventually it will bring me from hiding, so they think. And to a point, they're right. I plan to get my brother from that place before they can hurt him, because they can and will very easily go over that limit and kill him just to get to me and Jarod, and the children. The project itself isn't very valuable. The research on human connections, brain triggers and things of that nature are. They will even help further the Pretender project, proving that only approximately 150 people in the world can experience this connection, only those with the full Pretender gene, or Super-pretender gene. Jarod and I are full Pretenders, our children have the other gene though, which is stronger and makes them more succeptable to these things, all the more reason they had to be rescued from that... place! That's the only difference between the two, they're more likely to fall because they're more likely to try the projects, they are more, as I said, willing. We can't stop their nature, we can only stop the Centre from wanting to exploit it."
"Hasn't worked before," Jarod broke in, also bitter, but then he grinned, "Of course, we've never been on the same side before. At least, not in years." His eyes were full of affection, even love, and Miss Parker watched him with amusement in her own.
Sam smiled and then turned to look at Ben, who smiled back, the two both saw what Miss Parker was oblivious to.
"Katya, Nikolas," Ben interjected, "this is your mother and father, and now my friend, as well. Sam, these are my grandchildren, Katya and Nikolas." Sam smiled at the two children, and they grinned back.
"Mama, it's time for Uncle Sam's surprise!" Katya giggled, cuddling against her mother's side. Miss Parker laughed silently at Sam's surprised look, then stood, reaching out her hand. "That's right, sweetheart. Come along everyone, Sam's surprise is on the patio."
Ben reached the french style doors first, and slid them open quietly, then the troop filed outside. Nikolas yanked on the sleeve of the ex-sweeper's dress shirt and told him to close his eyes in a voice so soft only Sam could hear it. He did so without question, and only opened them when he felt a tug on his other shirt sleeve.
Ben, Miss Parker, and Jarod stood back at the door, and watched as Katya and Nikolas led him to the end of the alcove. Sam saw his surprise right away, in the form of a woman propped against the back of a lawn chair.
"Mother!" Sam cried, running to her and whirling her in his arms.
"Samuel, put me down before you hurt yourself! Or me! I am an old woman you know!"
Sam grinned as he sat her down, suddenly feeling like a little boy again. He grinned back at Miss Parker and her entourage, then took her hand and walked her into the house.
His Miss Parker certainly had given him a new life, and his old one back as well.
The old man was standing in the door, a smile lighting his slightly wrinkled face. "Samuel," he nodded, surprising the younger man with the use of his given name. Far too often he forgot the name and it's prophecy. His mother had once held him in her arms and told him he was meant to be a listener, a problem solver. That's why she'd named him as she did. Sometimes, though, Sam forgot.
Ben waved the younger man in, pointing toward the living room down the hall from where the two men stood. "They're all congregated in there, planning, no less. Of course, I expect that of any daughter of mine." He grinned again, happy for the first time in decades. "Your Miss Parker is my baby girl you know, and all this time... I'm a grandfather too."
Sam couldn't help but grin widely, Ben's attitude and glee were contagious. For the first time in decades, Sam too felt as if things would be all right. "I think Monica said to tell you there's a surprise for you as well. An' it's one you're definitely going to like, son!" He patted the other man's broad shoulder and they tracked into the living room.
"Sam!" Miss Parker laughed, "I didn't expect you for another few hours," she looked better than Sam had seen her in a while, the yellow tint to her skin had faded, she no longer looked sick or tired, or even sad. Monica, Ben had called her. Well, Sam figured, she was definitely not Miss Parker anymore. She was just Monica. And Jarod was just Jarod. Funny how the most important people in the Centre had only one name.
Miss Parker was standing before him, and before Sam could break himself from his thoughts, she had enveloped him in an embrace. "I knew you'd find my note! Come now, we have much to do before something else happens, and I have a surprise waiting for you."
"Uhm, Miss Parker?"
"Monica, silly. Call me Monica, I thought my father told you to call me Monica?" She raised an eyebrow, and linked her arm through his, dragging him to the far side of the room where Jarod sat with two young children. All watched with amusement.
"Okay, Monica then. It's nice to see you happy," his words were almost bashful.
She laughed again, a lilting, innocent laugh. Not from sarcasm or irony, from joy and hope. She laughed as Jarod remembered her laughing from her childhood.
"You see, we only have a matter of time left. A short window in which we have to gain some control over the Centre's actions. We can't stop it as it is and it's far too late to destroy it. However, we can gain control and turn the Centre into what we want it to be," Monica Parker's dialogue began.
"Why just a short time?" Ben interrupted, for he too had been spared the tale until Sam arrived.
She shook her head, and Jarod watched with something akin to worry in his eyes as she continued. "I'm sick, very sick. The Centre can control me to a point. When I was younger, I was tested as a Pretender, the results were positive no less, but my mother, Catherine, made a deal with the Centre - the devil's advocates!- that they were to leave me alone, never train my ability, never harm her daughter. For some unknown reason, even after her death, they abided by their agreement. Perhaps it was too late to train me, or maybe Daddy -I still can't not call him Daddy- intervened. Regardless, the Centre never turned me into a Pretender.
"Instead, little over twelve years ago, they turned me into another project. A project I and the majority of the Centre personnel were aware of until just recently, Project Clairsentience. I gave birth to two children all those years ago, and given free reign over the world for the first year of their lives, then they were taken into the Centre. And that's how I was made to stay for another five years. During those years, Daddy had me convinced that I could have my children back if I'd sleep with the Yakuza -Tommy Tanaka, to be exact- and manage to get the money from him to essentially by my children from the Centre. During those years, the children were not trained as Pretenders, but were isolated from the outside world. They had free reign within the lower sublevels of the Centre, and could associate with the other children and employees," she switched gears, "Oh but I never slept with Tommy Tanaka for the money, no, I told him after the first few days we spent together what was going on. I have never held prositutes in very high regard, at least, I would never become one if I could get away with it, but Tommy was kind and good, he gave me the money and we became very good friends, even lovers for a short time. After the five years were over and I returned permanently from Japan to Blue Cove, Daddy told me the deal was off and that I would have to choose between my children, Jarod's and my children. I was distraught, upset, angry even! I still can't believe...
"In short, I vented my frustrations quite vocally and was told to take my son or leave him there. I took him, of course, and delivered him to a safe house, told him I loved him and that should he need me, to just concentrate as hard as he could and I'd know. I would help him, I would take away his pain. Just as I told his sister before I visited her last. To never lose hope, never lose heart, and never let them in, never let them break their spirits.
"Then, my memory of the six and a half years previous was wiped, I was beaten, and left in the Centre infirmary and told I'd been in a car accident. Shortly afterward, I took over Corporate. And a little over a year later, I took over the search for Jarod. All the while I experienced things ranging from migraines to ulcers to nightmares, silently whenever I could. I never wanted anyone to know, and some doctors could not explain it. I didn't understand myself, until several months ago when I dreamed of my children, my NIkolas and my Katya. I took it upon myself to find them, and found Nikolas through the dreams, basically, and brought him to my home. Together we found Katya and we made plans to rescue her when I fell extremely ill. By then, NIkolas and I had discovered that this project I became, Clairsentience, was exactly what the word means. Extra sensory perception of physical things, sights, sounds, touches, feelings... everything. And all of these years I'd been taking on the pain Katya and Nikolas couldn't or shouldn't have to experience. Both emotionally and physically, because of the... training, in essence, I had experienced during the first six years of their lives. I became a project Raines would be proud of."
Her words were bitter, angry, and she finally let go of Sam's arm and dropped her angry stance to sit beside Jarod on the sofa, and gather her children into her arms. "Since I was already so attached to my own children and had had them taken from me, they began the same thing with my baby brother, Parker, they call him. When they realize I'm alive, they'll hurt him to find me. He won't feel the pain, I will, and eventually it will bring me from hiding, so they think. And to a point, they're right. I plan to get my brother from that place before they can hurt him, because they can and will very easily go over that limit and kill him just to get to me and Jarod, and the children. The project itself isn't very valuable. The research on human connections, brain triggers and things of that nature are. They will even help further the Pretender project, proving that only approximately 150 people in the world can experience this connection, only those with the full Pretender gene, or Super-pretender gene. Jarod and I are full Pretenders, our children have the other gene though, which is stronger and makes them more succeptable to these things, all the more reason they had to be rescued from that... place! That's the only difference between the two, they're more likely to fall because they're more likely to try the projects, they are more, as I said, willing. We can't stop their nature, we can only stop the Centre from wanting to exploit it."
"Hasn't worked before," Jarod broke in, also bitter, but then he grinned, "Of course, we've never been on the same side before. At least, not in years." His eyes were full of affection, even love, and Miss Parker watched him with amusement in her own.
Sam smiled and then turned to look at Ben, who smiled back, the two both saw what Miss Parker was oblivious to.
"Katya, Nikolas," Ben interjected, "this is your mother and father, and now my friend, as well. Sam, these are my grandchildren, Katya and Nikolas." Sam smiled at the two children, and they grinned back.
"Mama, it's time for Uncle Sam's surprise!" Katya giggled, cuddling against her mother's side. Miss Parker laughed silently at Sam's surprised look, then stood, reaching out her hand. "That's right, sweetheart. Come along everyone, Sam's surprise is on the patio."
Ben reached the french style doors first, and slid them open quietly, then the troop filed outside. Nikolas yanked on the sleeve of the ex-sweeper's dress shirt and told him to close his eyes in a voice so soft only Sam could hear it. He did so without question, and only opened them when he felt a tug on his other shirt sleeve.
Ben, Miss Parker, and Jarod stood back at the door, and watched as Katya and Nikolas led him to the end of the alcove. Sam saw his surprise right away, in the form of a woman propped against the back of a lawn chair.
"Mother!" Sam cried, running to her and whirling her in his arms.
"Samuel, put me down before you hurt yourself! Or me! I am an old woman you know!"
Sam grinned as he sat her down, suddenly feeling like a little boy again. He grinned back at Miss Parker and her entourage, then took her hand and walked her into the house.
His Miss Parker certainly had given him a new life, and his old one back as well.
