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Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc. and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM, TNT and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.

Author's note: In this part, I wrote what may be a lot of bullshit about computer's programs and what you can do or can't do with the Internet.
Forgive me, I'm barely able to type on my keyboard, so I invented everything just for the story. Anyway, who knows what a genius can do with a computer?
Thanks to Ra-chell!

THE ARABIAN PHOENIX part 3
By Stefi


The Centre, Lyle's office.

The night was cloudy and cold, or maybe it was the Centre that made it seem cloudy and cold.
Lyle stroked his temples trying to sooth the headache and hopefully, he would manage to sleep that night.
The last weeks had not been so restful, too many things worried him.
His sister was gone, Jarod was helping the Centre to find her..
No, the pretender's attitude didn't persuade him, Jarod had something on his mind, Lyle would bet on it!
And Mr Parker didn't see it! Once again, the Chairman was making an huge mistake!
The Centre was becoming a staggering building, ready to collapse and Lyle had no intention to be involved in it.
He had the strange feeling as if he had no purpose in staying there anymore.
He wasn't used to handling his own feelings, Lyle always thought he didn't have any. But if he would have had the bravery to read inside himself, honestly, he could have recognize what he felt and calling it by its name.
It was sorrow, pain, loss. He missed the child.
Nobody knew it at the Centre, but Lyle often went to visit his little brother. Secretly, avoiding the cameras, he went into the nursery and played with the baby. Lyle wasn't certain they were brothers, but he felt a bond, a connection with him and the baby felt it too. In whatever moment the twin went into the nursery, he always found the child awake, waiting for him.
And Lyle took him in his arms, telling him funny stories he invented there and then, that made the child laughing merrily.
Lyle had realized with amazement that his brother didn't fear him. That he was always happy to see his big brother and he welcomed him with friendly bubbling.
Once, Lyle had tried to scare him only to see the reaction, but the baby didn't get confused and tried to imitate the grim face, laughing.
Later, he had fallen asleep in Lyle's arms, his little head on his shoulder with such total confident abandon as to be touched.
(I will not see him anymore) Lyle thought, staring in the night. He hoped Parker would take care of him.
Parker. It was hard admitting but Lyle missed her too. In some ways, he missed his sister.
The competition, the pressure, it was her who gave some taste at the fight! Certainly not his father and even less Raines!
Two dead men, that's what they were, two dead men that someone had forgot to bury. They still thought they were the most important people at the Centre.
But it was Parker the one who Lyle liked to cross swords with.
The Centre could have been hers. She really could have ruled it perfectly!
With a little more bravery, Lyle dug deeper inside. And it came out what hurt him the most: Parker was the only link to his past and to his mother.
She had never attempted to talk him about Catherine, to share her memories with him. But in a hidden corner of his heart, Lyle had always hoped that maybe, someday...
And now, everything was over. He would never have his past back to complete him. He would always feel that lack inside.
Lyle turned his back on the camera and took a picture out of his jacket pocket. It was a picture taken from a surveillance's tape: the child and Parker. She too went to visit him often. (And now they're gone.) Lyle sighed.
"Bobby.. sad.." Lyle turned abruptly toward the voice, and the picture slid away from his hands.
"What the hell.. Oh, it's you, Angelo. What do you have on your mind, scaring me that way!"
The empath made his way closer to Lyle "Bobby.. confused.."
"It's you, the confused one, remember? And what are you doing here?"
Lyle recoiled as if Angelo was some disease. He didn't like to be read like an opened book, and Angelo seemed to see right through him.
On the other side, Angelo always felt scared of Lyle. Like Parker, Lyle had high and impassable walls to protect him but a perceptive man like Angelo managed to read him through the walls. And what he saw in Lyle, scared him. But this time was different. The walls didn't exist anymore, and Angelo saw something.
Something he liked. Slowly, Angelo picked up the picture from the floor and with kindness he caressed the two people on it. Lyle asked himself why he was staying there to hear the confused muttering of that idiot.
"She.. inside.. you." Said Angelo.
"Excuse me?" Lyle wasn't sure he understood.
"She.. inside.. you.. " The empath repeated "Listen.. to her.. and.. Bobby... free.."
"She? You mean Catherine? My... mother?"
Angelo nodded, giving him back the picture "Listen.. and .. Bobby.. free.."
Lyle stared the strange man who slowly sat on the floor, in the dark.
Then, Lyle moved his gaze to the picture, thoughtfully.
Eventually, he put it inside his pocket and walked to the door.
"See you, Angelo." And left, closing the door after him.
Angelo stayed on the floor. He had an intent look, like he was hearing some strange sound far away. He listened for awhile.
Then Angelo smiled "Bobby free." He whispered, joy all over his face "Bobby free."

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

The Centre, SL-5

"I can't believe that Jarod would ever do such a thing!" Sydney stated, paced back and forth.
Broots sighed deeply. This day seemed to begin in the worst way possible.
"Maybe it's only a trick, Syd." He replied hoping to calm down his friend.
"Maybe. And maybe not." The shrink didn't know what to think.
There were things happening.. the very things he would have never believed could happen! Parker catches Jarod and takes him back.. Jarod who then decides to work for the Centre..
"Good morning, sirs!" The happy voice of the pretender made the two men jump "Ready for work?"
Broots looked at Syd, who spoke with rage in his voice "How can you..." He cut himself off seeing the Chairman and Raines walking into the room.
"Well." Mr Parker smiled happily "Mr Broots, you'll work side by side with Jarod"
"Yes, sir." Broots answered flatly.
"And you, Syd, will help too!" The Chairman continued.
"I don't see what kind of help I could give." Sydney retorted.
"Like you did in the search for Jarod," Mr Parker explained cordially "You'll be the shrink, to understand and foresee my daughter's moves."
"Miss Parker has never been my patient, I can't-"
"Oh please, Syd." Jarod cut him off "You underestimate yourself. Of course, you'll be able to help us." The pretender addressed his new boss "Mr Parker, I'm sure Sydney will be useful in this job. After all, who knows Miss Parker better than him?" Jarod grinned. His words were a shaft but Mr Parker was too satisfied to have Jarod at his own command to notice it.
"Right, Jarod, right!" He nodded, laughing. Raines, strangely, didn't talk but he paid great attention to the words said and the attitudes of those people.
(Maybe, this is the right time to take Parkers down) He thought.
"Well!" Jarod clapped together his hands "I think it's time to begin the hunt"
"Hunting Parker." Underlined Sydney, still hoping in a awakening of his protégée. Did he really mean to go after her?
"Right, Syd." Jarod showed his teeth in a perfect Parker-style "It's time for my little, old, childhood friend to taste the life she made me live the past years"
Mr Parker and Raines exchanged looks, the tool they used with Parker worked even with Jarod!
"We'll let you work, then." The two moved toward the door "Let us know if there is news." The door closed after them, but Jarod stayed still.
"Gone?" He muttered, keeping a threatening look on Sydney.
"Yeah." Answered the tech.
"Is it safe talking here, Broots? Syd, keep looking at me as if you could kill me." The pretender continued.
Sydney crossed his arms, clenching his teeth "Are you saying..?"
"Had you thought I would have gone after Parker?" Jarod asked with low voice "C'mon, Syd, you know me. And maybe this way, I can find a way out"
Syd's eyes grew wide and abruptly the man turned around, faking rage and disgust. Inside, he felt relief and shame for having thought such bad things about Jarod.
Broots looked at them "If we talk with low voice, they can't hear us."
Jarod sat next to him "Well, what did you do to try to find Parker?"
"I checked all transport's lines, bus, airlines, trains, and the hiring of cars and.. I found nothing, nothing at all! The last track is in Blue Cove where she filled up the car and then.. " the tech snapped his fingers ".. she vanished with the child and everything!"
"The credit cards?"
"I checked them, too. She never used them till now. And before you ask, I checked her bank accounts. Nothing. The money is still there, she didn't make withdrawals or better, she didn't make any that one could notice."
Jarod stroke his chin "It seems almost.. that Parker.. had planned.. the whole thing." He thought about it for awhile, then he stood up "I would like to look at her computer."
Broots words stopped him, as he went to the door "You'll find nothing."
"No offence meant.. " Jarod said "but maybe you missed something."
"No offence taken." Broots answered "But it's hard missing SOMETHING when there's NOTHING to miss. She erased everything."
"Everything?!?"
"Demagnetized, it's the right word." Broots looked at Syd then at Jarod "Her computer has been totally cleaned."
"And.. " it was Syd's turn to ask ".. are you sure it was.. Parker.. who did it?"
The tech bit his lips "I think.. yes, I think so." Had he to talk?
Broots didn't know what was the right thing to do.
Jarod and Syd were staring at him, as if they could read his thoughts. Broots began to sweat.
At last, Jarod asked "The Centre's Mainframe? Have you checked it?"
"No! No, the.. no, I didn't.. "
"Broots!" Jarod called "One only 'no' is enough. C'mon, let's give it a look."
"We'll have to ask permission from Mr Parker." Syd made notice to his protégée.
"Sure." Answered the pretender, with an huge grin "How much do you bet he'll give it to me?"

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

The Centre, Mr Parker's office

"But sure, Jarod! It's obvious that you can have access to the mainframe of the Centre!" Mr Parker stood up from his chair "Do you think you'll manage to find my daughter this way?"
"Well sir, Miss Parker made sure of erasing all her notes and files, but.. certainly, she couldn't do the same in the main database, right? So, yes, I think we can find what she has to hide in this way." Jarod nodded, smiling to the Chairman.
"Excellent!" Was Parker's reply "Keep me informed."
"Yes sir!" Jarod turned around to leave and ran into Raines, who was entering that very moment "Sorry, Doctor Raines"
Raines followed him with his dead eyes till the pretender vanished behind the doors. Then he addressed Mr Parker.
"What.. was he.. doing.. here?"
"Oh, nothing important. He asked to have access to the mainframe to check the last movements of my daughter."
The satisfied smile of Parker made the devilish doctor tremble.
"Don't.. tell me.. you.. authorized.. him.."
"Of course Raines, what kind of questions you do ask!" Parker made an annoyed gesture. What did he think, Raines? That he was crazy?
Raines with his eyes popping out of his head managed to take a breath and ask "BUT ARE YOU CRAZY?" Another deep breath "And why didn't you offer him the keys of the Centre? Better still, why didn't you say to him 'C'mon, Jarod.. take my place here, it's all yours!', eh?" Raines grabbed the handle of the oxygen cylinder and opened it at maximum, trying to fill up his lungs.
Mr Parker laughed contently "My friend, I think I never heard you talk so much in one only breath!"
If looks could kill, Parker would be dead in that very moment!
"Raines, you worry too much! Don't you see the revenge that burns inside Jarod? He'll find my daughter, I'm sure of it!"
(This man will ruin all of us!) Raines thought.
"By the way." continued Parker "What do you want?"
Raines calmed himself down. "Lyle.. Have.. you.. seen.. him?"
The Chairman seemed losing a bit of his good mood. "No. Not today."

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

The Centre, Mainframe's room

"I still don't understand how you made it!" exclaimed Broots full of admiration.
Jarod smirked "Charme, mon ami!"
Sydney smiled, shaking his head but Broots kept on looking around nervously.
"C'mon, my friend" Jarod reassured him "It's okay! We're here with the permission of the Chairman!"
"Yeah, sorry." The tech muttered.
The pretender moved his attention to the screen "Let's see what Parker was doing with my files"
He typed and read, opened files and closed them again. Then he searched in other sectors, typed again and searched even more.
"Broots." Jarod called, handing him a sheet "Please, check these files on another computer, meanwhile I'll check these other ones."
Broots took the note and began working. He knew what he would find, but chose to wait that Jarod discovered himself the conclusions.
The waiting didn't last a long time. The pretender stopped typing, he leant on the chair's back and stared the screen.
Sydney looked at him "Jarod, have you found anything?"
"About Parker? No Syd, and this is really odd! But I found something else, even more odd." Jarod glanced at the tech who was avoiding to look at their side.
Sydney didn't miss the exchange of looks, and puzzled, asked.
"What Jarod? What did you find?"
"Someone.. " Jarod glanced again Broots "infiltrated through the mainframe computer of the Centre."
"WHAT?!?" Sydney jumped but instantly recovered from surprise.
".. and he's copying and sending a lot of files somewhere." Jarod concluded.
"An hacker?" asked the shrink.
"Maybe. Or an informer." Jarod turned around the chair to find himself in front of Broots.
The tech began to shake his hands, to defend himself.
"No, Jarod! I-I don't know anything, okay? I would never, I mean, this is the Centre, my God!, I would be crazy to.. you can't believe I-I.. "
Sydney turned his head from one to the other.
"Jarod!" The shrink exclaimed "You're not.. What do you think? Broots would be the informer?!?"
The pretender kept his gaze on Broots "Maybe not. But certainly he knows something, or everything, about it. Isn't it so, Brootsie?"
The poor geek shook his bald head, trying to find an explanation for them
"I wasn't sure about it."
"You weren't sure!" Jarod was incredulous "A man with your skills doesn't recognize an hacker's passing, doesn't realize about a leak!"
Broots held up his head and stared at the two "It's really so! I didn't realize! This one is not the usual hacker, his movements are not detected by security's programs. I don't know why, I-I-" The tech left his chair and got near Jarod and Syd "I've never detected him, I mean, there weren't traces, nor alerts about some intrusion nor about leaks!"
Jarod frowned "What are you saying? That this guy.. "
"He comes in and goes out, as he pleases, and no one notices it." Broots completed, nodding "Have you seen how many files he opened and copied and sent? And yet, there's no news about leaks!"
Sydney added "If there were, we would know it, by now"
Jarod turned around again on the chair and stared at the screen.
"An intruder who manages to avoid any check or tracking-device, a ghost-program that doesn't leave traces.. "
"Well," Syd objected "Here in the mainframe it left them."
"But they have not been detected Syd, we have had to search for them!"
"Every day, new programs-" Broots began, but Jarod cut him off.
"This is the Centre, Broots! It's from here that new programs come! There's a leak and the Centre doesn't know it!"
The trio stayed silent for a moment.
Strangely the thought that the almighty, ubiquitous Centre didn't know something of such importance, made them almost panic. What the hell was happening, there?
"Broots" Jarod asked "What made you notice this hacker, without traces nor anything?"
Broots opened his arms "I don't know. It can sound absurd but.. it was a feeling. I don't know how to explain it, I mean, I never saw anything happening! I never thought about an hacker! Yet, I felt something was wrong." He stroke his bald head "And I.. sometimes, I thought.. like I was.. imagining, I mean, everyone seemed mad, here, and I felt so.. nervous, you know.. for Miss.. Parker and you Jarod, here again and.. I wasn't sure, that's all"
"Why didn't you tell me, about it?" Syd asked.
Broots gave him a strange look "I tried, Syd, but you too were so upside down.. I didn't manage to talk to you.. "
"You ran a damn risk, Broots!" Jarod said "If someone finds out about this story, you'll.. "
"Please, don't say it!"
Sydney intervened with a logical question "What do we do now? Have we to inform Mr Parker?"
Jarod shook his head "Not for the moment. I want to know who is this guy and how he manages to enter in the mainframe without alerting the security system."
"Well," Was Broots suggestion "let's check it! Maybe there's some error or.. "
Jarod looked at him a little skeptical. Not even him, a pretender, had ever been able to get into the Centre's mainframe without to be found out by the security system soon or later. Anyway, it was one way like another else, he might just as well try.
"Okay, here's the security system." Jarod tried to open the files and instantly a warning appeared on the screen, asking the password.
"Broots?"
The tech gave him the password written on a sheet of paper and Jarod typed it. A new warning told them the password wasn't right and the access was denied.
"Hey! What does it mean?" Broots asked. Jarod didn't answer and tried with some other files, but the result was the same.
Sydney shrugged "They changed the password and then? It's enough to ask about it to Mr Parker."
"Why there's no alert?" Jarod exchanged looks with Broots, who nodded, understanding what the pretender was thinking.
"You're right Jarod, typing a wrong password the alert would have to go off, and instead.. " The tech was silent abruptly, thinking about the reasons of such mess.
Jarod too was thinking and suddenly he understood "HE changed the password! The hacker re-programmed the security system! He can always enter and exit without being detected because he programmed the system in such a way as to be recognized and accepted! That's why there were no alerts: according to the system, he's NOT an intruder!"
"But is it possible?" Sydney didn't understand a lot about computers.
"Well.. " Jarod shrugged "He did it." He typed again "Let's see if we can discover when that has happened." After some seconds waiting the answer was in front of them.
"Good grief!" Broots breathed as Syd at last sat down beside them.
Jarod clenched his teeth "This story is going on for months!"
"But how did he manage to do it?" Broots asked "For acceding to the security system, he had to know the previous password! And why did nobody notice him? It would have been enough to check in like we are doing now and he would be discovered!"
Jarod was still staring the screen "Well, why do you check in the Mainframe, Broots? Because you know about a leak. But.. if you don't know anything, for what reason would you check?"
Sydney said his own thought "Because you're searching for other things, like we did. We were searching to track Miss Parker and instead we caught an hacker."
"And what use is this for?" Jarod replied "We can't track him, we can't stop him, he shut us out by changing the password!"
"But we could try to identify the new one-" Broots suggested
"It'll take days!" Was Jarod's remark.
"-and we could delete the files, so he couldn't copy anything else." The tech completed.
Jarod moved his gaze on him, lightly annoyed "You can do it if you want. But I have an idea that if you try to delete the files, something in that program will prevent you."
Broots glanced at the screen puzzled. Computers and programs were his daily bread and it irritated him not understanding what was happening.
"Jarod." Sydney talked with low voice "Who can it be? Who can be so smart to do these things? And where is he sending all those files?"
The pretender shook his head. "I don't know, Syd. Many people can do a program or re-program a system, getting himself in a mainframe.. the point is that those things shouldn't be possible HERE!" Jarod slammed his hand on the desk "The Centre has got a security system that you'll never find somewhere else. An hacker can try to infiltrate and managing too, but he will always be discovered!"
"A regular hacker would be." Broots mused "But.. what if he's a genius?"
The tech looked up at the other two "A genius could do it!"
"The boy!" whispered Syd and Jarod turned his head toward him shocked.
"He and your father have to have found some way to accede the mainframe! And maybe they're searching.. don't know, something about your mother! Your past!"
"Maybe! Maybe." Jarod stroke his face, feeling tired "It can be but I hope they'll stay away from here and-"
"Anything?" Mr Parker's voice boomed behind them and with a fast move Jarod hid the screen from the Chairman's sight.
"Not yet, sir." Broots answered.
"We're checking all over again. It'll take time." Jarod explained as Syd frowned, going on to play his part.
"Oh!" Mr Parker seemed not to pay attention to their words "Have you.. seen my son, by chance?"
The trio exchanged looks, puzzled "Mr Lyle? No, sir. We haven't"
The boss nodded and without saying more, he left.
Broots collapsed on his chair "Whew!"
Jarod began to close all the files they opened and smirking, he glanced at the tech "Scared? C'mon, Broots!"
"What do we do, then?" Sydney came back to the previous problem "Do we talk with Parker?"
Jarod shook his head "Not for now. Let's search for Miss Parker. Tomorrow, we'll see."


End of part 3


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