This fic was written for Grizzly, who was the winning bidder in my "Pretender" fic auction for SupportStacie.net. With her permission, the story is being posted publicly.

The park in the center of Blue Cove wasn't exactly a bastion of covert security, but it was better than trying to hold a conversation in the Centre while waiting to see who popped out of thin air to scare the crap out of you.  Broots knew his boss would bitch a blue streak about having to trek into town, but he hoped she'd understand why he'd made the request once she heard what he had to say.

He also knew that despite any show of anger, Miss Parker would be grateful for the information.  She'd been half-crazed with worry for weeks now, and this would give her a place to start making things right.  But he was also pretty sure he was going to get the look... the "you did this without my permission" look that he hated.  He used to be terrified of it because he thought she was really pissed off that he'd taken some initiative or that she took that as him trying to show her up.  But after all these years, after all the close calls they'd endured together and having seen how deeply she cared about him and his daughter Debbie, Broots got it.  She wasn't angry about his ingenuity; she was terrified about what it might cost him if the wrong people found out.  It was one thing for her to set him on a course or order him to look for something.  Miss Parker would've taken the fall in that scenario.  But for him to act on his own, potentially being caught before she could accept responsibility, put him in the direct line of fire with Lyle and Raines.

After all the loss she'd endured, that possibility was unacceptable to Miss Parker when it came to him and to Sydney.  And Broots understood that.  But some things were too important, and the risk had to be taken, and this was one of those times.  He'd been so uncertain he'd even find something worthy of reporting back to her, trying to tell her before hadn't made any sense.  But now that he had actual information, he just wanted it to bring her some kind of relief from the stress she'd been under, even if what he'd uncovered was going to open the door on a dangerous mission he knew there'd be no talking her out of.

The squeal of her tires made him jump, and Broots turned toward the parking lot.  Miss Parker slammed the door of her Porsche shut and stalked toward him.  That was an intimidating sight to see, even if he knew they were friends.  Despite his resolve, he felt his heart speed up as she moved closer.  It nearly stopped, however, when a little boy ran past her while taking aim at his friends with one of those gigantic water guns.

The water hit her square in the chest, ruining what was surely an expensive silk blouse, and he watched her try to rein in her temper as the boy's worried mother rushed forward and apologized for her son's bad aim.

"Why don't you let him shoot you with it, and we'll call it even?"

The gravity of what he had to tell his friend weighed on Broots, but even so, he couldn't help but laugh at the stunned mother's reaction as she realized that Miss Parker was most definitely not kidding.  The frightened woman grabbed her son and ran off, and Broots waited as the brunette stalked toward him, twice as angry as she'd been when she got here.

"I swear to God, Broots, if you dragged me out here because you're spying on some boy Debbie has a crush on, you are a dead man."

Though he felt a familiar surge of nerves as he got ready to speak, Broots almost wished that he'd asked her to meet him here for something foolish.  Then she'd have just smacked him on the side of his head and ranted a little and this would all be over.  But he knew that really, she was about to start down a dangerous path, and there was no question she would follow it.  Not when what waited at the end was so precious to her.

"It's, uh... it's nothing like that, Miss Parker.  I, um..."

"This lifetime, Brootsie," she said, snapping her fingers.

"Um... it's... I think I figured out what happened to Ethan."

She was about to deliver another sharp rebuke when the reality of what he had said hit her.  Broots watched as his friend's entire demeanor changed, the flaring anger and short temper vanished as concern and fear took over her face.

"Ethan?  What... what did you find?"

"I got this idea that if I, um... if I duplicated this call tracing matrix that Jarod used on us once that maybe I could, you know, find something.  It's amazing, really... you write this program that listens to every line in the Centre, and it looks for certain words, then it records and downloads the conversations so you can--"

"Broots!"

Annoyed at himself for rambling, Broots shook his head.

"Sorry.  Anyway, it recorded a ton of conversations that contained the keywords I put in.  One word hit three times.  Illusion."

"And that has to do with my brother how?"

"Well, the project that Ethan came from was Mirage, right?  So knowing the Centre the way I do, I figured anything involving him would play off that word.  Lyle's kind of predictable that way and--"

Her grip on his jacket stunned him as she pulled him toward her.

"What does Lyle have to do with Ethan?"

"I think... Miss Parker, I think Lyle has him."

She let him go, stepping back as she tried to fight down a wave of panic.  Broots knew there was almost nothing worse he could have told her save for Ethan being dead somewhere, and knowing Lyle, her brother might have still been better off if he'd met that fate instead.

It had all started three weeks ago when Miss Parker had lowered her voice and asked Sydney if he ever remembered her mother losing her inner sense.

"I'm not sure what you're asking is even possible, Parker.  Even all the years you didn't know about yours, I don't think there's any doubt that that sense helped drive what you thought of as your instincts.  You may not have known it could go deeper, be stronger, but it was always there.  Why do you ask?"

"Because I can't... I can't feel Ethan.  That's... normally I can.  I noticed it a while ago.  I can pick out something that, I 'm not sure how to explain it, it's not his voice really or like I can see what he's doing, but I just... I know he's okay when it's there.  But it stopped.  It just... and if you can't lose your inner sense, then he must be hurt or..."

She couldn't finish the sentence, but both Broots and Sydney had understood what she was afraid of.  Even if it was unlikely anyone from the Centre would actually kill Ethan, the damage done to him in his youth by Raines had caused lasting repercussions, and his near schizophrenic behavior at times could have put him in the path of any number of people who might do him harm.  Along with that, there was the legitimate worry over him getting sick or injured and being all alone.

They had tried everything they could think of, and Broots had truly understood how desperate Miss Parker was for some kind of clue when she'd taken the DSA of Ethan's birth... the one that contained the true images of their mother's murder by Raines... and given it to Angelo in the hope that the empath might make some connection with his unusual abilities.  But when even he couldn't seem to pick up a sense of Ethan's emotional state, Sydney had worried to Broots that he feared the worst, and they both knew Miss Parker was already starting to dread having to face yet another devastating loss.

That's when Broots had made the decision to try and find something, anything, to let them know what had really happened.  Jarod had used the phone Matrix once when he needed some breathing room to try to help out some friends, and it had taken Broots nearly six months to figure out the entire program.  The pretender had used it to splice together fake conversations he then recorded and delivered that had led Miss Parker on a wild goose chase through three states.  But the tech guru's purpose had solely been to find conversations that included the keywords he'd programmed it to search for in the hopes that something might provide a clue if someone at the Centre was involved in Ethan going silent.

"The illusion is in place.  Now we just need time for it to become real."

"He believes the illusion completely.  The lack of contact, the imagery... he's become certain it's real."

"You saw the drawings?  Yes.  I thought so, too.  As I said, the illusion has become reality, and now his grief for her will do the rest of the work."

There was nothing overt about the conversations, but the fact that they involved Lyle... that the person he was speaking to was routed to a Tower line that Broots couldn't identify, and the use of that word "illusion," that reminded him so much of "Mirage... it was too much for Broots not to draw the conclusion that whatever Lyle was doing involved Ethan, and somehow the young man's demented older half-brother was interfering with his inner sense, blocking the connection between Miss Parker and him.

"I don't know where he is... I'm not sure who's backing Lyle on this, but I mean, it's not just me, right?  This sounds like..."

Miss Parker nodded and sighed as her hands moved to her hips.  He knew she was running scenarios through her head, trying to decide what to do next.  Broots waited silently until she returned her attention to him.

"I want you to go back to the Centre and find Sydney.  Tell Sydney that I need this information to get to Jarod.  I don't care how, I don't even want to know how it happens... but I need it to happen now."

She turned on her heel then and started racing back toward her car.

"What are you gonna do?" he called out, but she just kept running, and a moment later, her Porsche roared out of the parking lot and out of sight.

*****

One thing Jarod had learned about his family members since beginning his round-the-world search for them was that despite their ability to disappear for years at a time, there were certain places each person always returned to.  So Jarod had created what he called his genetic loop.  He would periodically check out of his game of "I run, you chase" with Miss Parker, pick a starting point--varying it so it increased his chances of a well-timed run-in--and then he would systematically visit each of those locations hoping for at least an update of sorts on his mother, father, sister or brothers.

The trip following the genetic loop was as close to a vacation as the Pretender really ever took.  Though he was still hunting for his family, he was careful to keep a low profile during the treks, so he did not do pretends or leave clues behind, and in general, he didn't even log in to most of his e-mail addresses or websites because he wanted to minimize any chance that the Centre might try to follow him and end up capturing one of his loved ones.

Jarod had been at location three of this year's trip along the genetic loop for nearly a week, and he knew it was time to move on.  The old hunting shack where he and his father had hidden out after escaping Donoterase had become a sort of drop site for them.  The first time it had occurred to him to return, Jarod had found a letter from his father hidden under a loose floorboard.  The letter had told him that he was safe, that the clone--Jason--was doing well, learning what it was like to be a teenager free of the Centre and that, sadly, the Major had had no better luck finding Margaret and Emily than he had. 

After leaving Carthis, Jarod had returned here and left an update for his father in the same place.  This trip, he'd found his own letter gone, a new one in its place.  This one detailed a brief reunion with Emily, and Jarod was surprised to hear that Ethan had been the engineer of the meeting.  His father had gone on to detail some concern over Ethan's mental state and over his sense of isolation.

What had really worried both his father and sister, though, was Ethan's desire to return to Blue Cove.  And Jarod understood their concern even if he also understood well why his half-brother was so determined to go home.

Parker.

Though they had spoken infrequently since Carthis, each time, Parker asked hopefully if Jarod had run into their brother on his travels.  The worry she felt over the younger man was palpable, even over the phone, and it pained him each time to tell her that no, he hadn't seen or heard from Ethan either.

Their connection was baffling to him, and yet he was grateful for it because via Parker's cryptic mentions of "feeling like he was okay," Jarod kept a sense of connection to their shared sibling.  He was also glad to know that his friend had someone else left in the world to call family besides Raines and Lyle.  As angry as he might have been with her over the years, he couldn't imagine anything making him wish the nightmare of those two on the woman who hunted him, still, because they both knew she had no choice.

Sighing, Jarod forced his thoughts away from Parker's family and back to his own.  He put the finishing touches on a letter to his father, slipping in a coded message he hoped Jason would be able to decipher that suggested a way for them to meet and try to find Margaret together.  The code was one he'd developed as a child, and so far, the only two people who had ever been able to read his enciphered messages using this particular system of code were Miss Parker and Kyle.  It was perhaps an assumption that Jason would be able to as well, but Jarod was willing to bet on it.

With the message and letter safely tucked into their hiding place, Jarod returned to his laptop and logged into the first of the three e-mail boxes he still checked while he was on one his "loop" trips.  One was an e-mail that Ethan had used to contact him on a few occasions, but it had no new messages.  The next was an address that was used exclusively by Angelo.  More than once, urgent Centre updates or newly uncovered secrets had found their way to him via his old friend, and when Jarod saw a message had come in today marked urgent, he quickly clicked on it.

The information was scant, but there was enough for the Pretender to understand why Angelo wanted him to have it.  Jarod read through the message a second time and then he shut down his computer and packed it away.  Moments later, his bags in hand, he headed outside to his car, ready to make the trek to meet up with Miss Parker.

*****

There were easier ways for them to find out if Lyle had Ethan and where, and Parker had considered every one of them before settling on good old-fashioned surveillance.  Broots could hack into her evil twin's GPS and try to track where he'd been lately, but there was no guarantee Lyle had used his own vehicle to travel to the site where Ethan was being kept.  She could have also asked the tech guru to pull Lyle's cell records to try to determine who he'd been calling at what locations and try to narrow it down that way.  But as often as her brother usually left some thread dangling in one of his plans that would ultimately hang him, his ego was really his soft spot.  He was too cocky to think she'd catch on, too much in denial of his own limitations to remember all the times she had bested him before.  So he wouldn't be looking over his shoulder, expecting her to be tracking his every move.  His tone on the recordings confirmed that.  Lyle's chest was puffed up, his belief in himself at an all-time high.  He didn't think anyone could stop him.

She couldn't wait to prove him wrong.

The high-rise that mirrored the one Lyle lived in was only seventy-percent occupied.  The idea of having a slightly eccentric artist lease one of the ground-floor units as "studio space" wasn't half as off-putting as it might have been if Blue Cove's real estate market were doing better, and one who could pay first, last and a full security deposit within an hour of signing the contract was even better.

Parker had set up in the building this morning, bringing in supplies and enough equipment to keep her cover in place.  She told the doorman to expect her business partner's arrival and explained that she wasn't yet showing, so for security's sake, until she was actually ready to see clients, she'd be keeping the door locked.  The doorman seemed unfazed and agreed to buzz her when her partner showed.

By lunchtime, the cases of "art supplies" she'd brought in were unpacked.  The microphone and camera she'd successfully installed in the air ducts of Lyle's apartment were transmitting clearly, and she had eyes on both entrances to the parking garage.  His cell phone calls were ringing through on a second line in her studio thanks to Broots, who she had told to leave town on a vacation with Debbie as soon as he finished plotting the fake travel itinerary that would make it look like she had gone off to follow a lead on Jarod solo to avoid having Lyle trail after her.

Mostly, the calls were either from sweepers working various ends of projects for Lyle and women who had conversations with her brother that Parker was fairly certain would make most professional call girls blush.  But she listened, trying not to lose her breakfast, while she stood on the other side of a large canvas that hid the electronics from view, systematically moving easels and paints and canvases around to make her cover hold if someone from the building needed entry.

She was idly stroking paint on one of the blank surfaces when the intercom buzzed.

"There's a Jarod Prescott here to see you."

Parker wiped her hands and strolled over to the door, not at all surprised.  She had never doubted that Jarod would find her.  For all the trouble she had tracking him down most of the time, he always seemed to be able to pop up in her life at will. 

She opened the door to find Jarod with a suitcase in one hand and a bag of takeout in the other, a messenger bag she assumed carried his laptop strapped over his chest.

"Hey, Doll.  I figured you'd be hungry.  Get much work done yet?"

She fought the natural urge to roll her eyes at the nickname and hugged him as he leaned in and kissed her cheek.

"You'll be pleasantly surprised.  And I'm starving.  It better be good."

The doorman gave her a polite nod as she waved and said thank you before closing the door.  By the time she turned around, Jarod had disappeared behind the oversized canvas hiding her equipment.

"You weren't kidding," he called out.  "You have gotten a lot done."

Chuckling, Parker made her way to where he sat already tinkering with the monitors and recorders.  She reached into the bag of takeout and pulled a container of fried rice and some chopsticks free of the plastic.

"Sadly Lyle's spent his whole morning on tertiary military projects and phone sex.  Seriously, it's a miracle I haven't shot myself."

The look he gave her told Parker that he knew the attempt at humor was just that.  The truth was that she'd already drunk half a bottle of her ulcer medication today, and she felt like crap.  Two bites of rice had already made her feel full, but she hadn't eaten since last night, and she knew she needed to keep her body fueled for whatever was coming with regard to Ethan and Lyle.

"You want to fill me in on what I don't know?" Jarod asked, as he moved to his bags and pulled out his laptop.

"There probably isn't much more than Sydney was able to get out to you -- don't tell me how he did that, by the way.  I'm better off not knowing.  I haven't been able to... Something made the connection between Ethan and I disappear.  I thought maybe he was hurt somewhere or... Anyway, Broots decided to play hero, found the phone calls, and here we are."

A wave of guilt passed over Jarod's face as she spoke, and Parker sighed and leaned against the desk where he sat.

"You didn't know he was in trouble," she said before taking another bite of food.

He kept his eyes focused on whatever he was doing on the computer and cleared his throat.

"I shouldn't have been out of touch for so long."

She wasn't sure how to respond to that.  Anything she said to try and reassure him was likely to draw them into a discussion she wasn't sure either of them was ready to have yet.  At least Parker knew she wasn't ready.  So she just took another bite and waited for something to break the silence between them.

"I've been thinking about the things Lyle said, in the calls that Broots recorded?"

Jarod finally stopped tinkering with the computer as he spoke, and Parker saw that he had hacked into the security system of Lyle's building, garnering camera views of his hallway, the main lobby and the elevators.

"We're going to have to be very careful when we find him."

Parker's brows knitted together as she looked at Jarod.  He reached into the bag of food and drew out a package of egg rolls, which he started munching on before continuing.

"Unless he's met someone while he's been on the run, the only 'hers' in Ethan's life are his adoptive mother, Emily, you and your mother.  He has concrete emotional and visual memories of his adoptive mother's murder, and those would be difficult to manipulate.  He doesn't know Emily well enough to create an entire brainwashing scenario around her.  But his emotions with regard to you and Catherine are incredibly real even if they are only partially established, and that makes them easier to twist in his mind.  They've obviously convinced him of something regarding the 'her' Lyle mentioned to achieve some sort of control over him."

"So if it's me or Mom, seeing my face..." Parker nodded, understanding but unwilling to try to and imagine what could be happening to her brother or what he was now prepped to do after Lyle's machinations.

"There he is."

Parker moved to get a better look at the onscreen camera angle Jarod was pointing to.  Lyle's Centre vehicle pulled into the garage and a moment later, her twin climbed out and headed alone into the building.  The various camera links they had established gave them a view of him from that point on.

Lyle took off his suit jacket as soon as he was in his apartment, tossing it over a chair.  Then he poured himself a scotch and paced around the living room as he drank it.

"Whatever he's up to, it must be almost time to pull the trigger," Parker observed.  "He gets restless like this when he's about to set something off."

Jarod nodded, and the two sat in silence, eating, waiting.  And then Lyle's cell phone rang.

"This is Lyle."

Parker watched as Jarod clicked a command into his computer and a program opened up over the different security camera views, code suddenly racing across the screen.

Even though they couldn't hear the words spoken on the other end of the phone call, both Parker and Jarod knew this must be whoever Lyle was working with or for within the Triumvirate.  It would have to be someone that high up for them to have the ability to block the transmission of their calls so completely.

"Yes, she's following up on some leads regarding Jarod.  She should be gone for a few days at least."

While Lyle listened to whoever had called him, Parker saw Jarod's program begin to lock in specific sequences of letters and numbers as it continued to run systematically, searching for something.

"Very well.  I'll run the final test tonight.  I'll report back as soon as we're good to go."

Lyle hung up, downed the rest of his drink and then headed for the bedroom.  Parker turned her attention to Jarod's laptop screen, looking on as he typed in several commands and the isolated sequences began to translate into words.

"It's me.  I understand that Miss Parker is away from Blue Cove."  She read the line aloud and then shook her head.  "How the hell did you do that?"

"They're using an encoding device I built during a simulation on ways to protect classified information shared over cell phones.  It was supposed to be a government contract for the President's office."

"But we still don't know who's talking."

"I'll work on that later," Jarod promised, the rest of the call translating.

"Then it's time for us to make our move.  I want the project to go forward as soon as possible, and I'll expect you to handle the cleanup personally.  And be thorough.  If your sister finds out what's happened, I won't be able to protect you without endangering my position with the rest of the Triumvirate.  They are not amenable to her termination."

Parker scoffed.  "Nice to know someone's interested in keeping me alive, I guess."

Jarod turned his attention to her.  "So whatever this is, it's not Tower sanctioned.  Someone on the Triumvirate is going rogue with Lyle."

"He's always been someone's pet there.  I thought it was Mutumbo, but since he's long since burning in Zulu hell, it's got to be Hesanzi or Boerhinger.  Swalesi hasn't been around long enough."

Their discussion was cut off by Lyle's reappearance.  He had changed into jeans and a flannel button-up shirt.  She couldn't remember ever seeing him dressed so casually.

"We better get ready to move," Jarod said.  He switched screens on the laptop, the view now duplicating the camera views Parker had established earlier, and then picked up the computer.

"I've got a car waiting on the street.  Both exits from Lyle's building force you to turn right on Patriot Street.  We're in the gray coupe."

They moved quickly from the studio, locking it securely behind them, then they made their way out onto the street.  As soon as they were settled in the car, Jarod eyed his laptop and watched Lyle stroll through the parking garage door.  He bypassed the cars both Parker and Jarod recognized as his personal ones, including the duplicate Mercedes that replaced the one the pretender had used for target practice a few years ago.

"What the hell is he playing at here?"

Parker asked the question as they watched Lyle climb into an older Range Rover with some body damage and weathered paint.  Jarod shook his head, as mystified as she was.

"Whatever it is, let's just hope it leads us to Ethan."

*****

There was little chance that Lyle would pick up their tail on him, not just because of that monumental ego of his that Parker was counting on as their ally, but also because, as Jarod could attest to, Miss Parker's ability to track her prey was beyond impressive.  He watched silently as she monitored her speed and distance constantly, making sure she was never close enough to alert her brother to their presence, yet never endangering her position behind him.

The majority of the ride had been silent, and Jarod had been mostly comfortable with that.  He wasn't honestly sure what to say around her anymore, not now when it had become so obvious to them both after Carthis that they were trapped between their feelings for each other, whatever they were--neither of them was ready for labels--and the presence of the Centre in their lives.

What struck him as odd, though, was that the Centre was also the reason they had something--someone--they would both fight to the death to protect.  Ethan was a part of both of them, of their parents... their family.  He kept them united in the face of everything that had existed for generations solely to tear them apart.  And Jarod wondered if either Lyle or his Triumvirate co-conspirator understood what they were in for if anything happened to their younger brother.

Parker began to turn left onto a rural road that was taking them out into the farmlands where long-term farmers and renters trying to revive the industry worked hard days growing sweet corn, potatoes and watermelons.  They drove for nearly 30 miles, and then Lyle turned down a dirt strip with an address carved into a wooden plank staked in the dirt, a house setting back about 300 yards from the road.  They continued on, driving past the turn, until Parker spotted a grove of trees half a mile away.  She pulled the car in behind them, shielding it from view.

"Are you carrying?" she asked, and Jarod nodded, pulling a small automatic from his jacket pocket.  He tried not to be offended by the way she rolled her eyes at the weapon before she climbed from the car and headed for the trunk.  Jarod met her there a moment later as she checked the chamber of a Smith & Wesson 9mm.

"Keep the pea shooter as backup.  Take this for your primary."

Jarod did as she instructed, tucking the gun into his waistband as Parker added a second gun to an ankle holster hidden beneath her pants.  After grabbing a pair of binoculars, she moved to close the trunk, and Jarod returned to the car and pulled a few pieces of small electronic equipment from his bag.

"We should parallel the street from here," he said, "give me a chance to see if he's got any alarm triggers on the perimeter."

Parker nodded and started off in the direction that would take them on a path shadowing the road Lyle had driven down.  They were cautious, uncertain who Lyle could have watching the area, but they moved fairly unencumbered and when the brunette motioned toward an area filled with tall grass, he nodded and followed her in until they made it to a spot that afforded them the best view.

The SUV Lyle had been driving was parked in front of the house, and though the men that dotted the surrounding landscape appeared to be hardworking farmhands, the zoom capability of the binoculars quickly revealed the familiar faces of several Centre sweepers.  Jarod pulled out the device he'd built that could pick up on alarm sensors that were tripped via broken laser lines or motion-detection planes.

"They stayed low-tech.  Nothing I can pick up security-wise on the perimeter."

"There's a shed about 100 feet from the house, rear left," she reported.  "Three sweepers, one trimming the branches of that back hedge, one working on the flower garden on the north side of the property.  Third is on the fence repair, south side."

As she poke, Jarod let the information filter in, painting a picture in his mind.  Eyes closed, he melded her descriptions with the vision he already had absorbed of the property.  Now he added the movements of the men, the tools likely near their hands, the weapons probably concealed and at the ready.  He let it all gel together, computations and percentages racing through his mind as the picture became more and more clear.

"I'll take out the sweeper in the back," he said.  "You make your way into the shed.  Once I have his spot occupied, I can move toward the house to get a look inside."

She nodded her agreement, and they both rose up and started to move toward the back of the property, looking for the best approach.  As they topped a rise that partially hid them from the view of the farmhouse, Jarod stopped, feeling Parker's hand on his arm.  She motioned that she was going to continue around the rise and head down from the extreme right of the house.  Jarod nodded and started down toward his target.

Using the most basic of methods, the pretender picked up a few stones from the ground and hurled them behind the sweeper working at the hedge in the back of the house.  The man turned, predictably, in search of the source of the noise, and Jarod moved in, subduing him quickly with a chokehold.  He hoisted the unconscious man over his shoulder and raced toward the shed where Parker was already waiting for him, door opened.

While he peeled off his own clothes, Parker stripped the sweeper, tossing the garments Jarod's direction.  The last thing she handed him was the small radio the man was obviously using to stay in touch with the other guards who were out of his field of vision.  Jarod redressed as quickly as he could and then raced out to the guard's former position, careful to mimic the movements he'd seen earlier so that anyone who might peer out from the house wouldn't detect a change that might catch their attention.

For five long minutes, Jarod forced himself to maintain that position, exercising patience when all he wanted to do was race up to the house and see if Ethan was inside.  He knew the wait was just as torturous for Parker, but he registered no movement or sound from the shed.

Finally, Jarod turned, his hand brushing across his forehead in a gesture designed to shield his face from any close scrutiny by someone who might be watching.  When he neared the porch, he spied a box of tools and headed for it as if he was in search of something for his work at the hedge.

Lyle's voice droned softly from inside, and though Jarod couldn't make out the words he was saying, he could tell the man's chatter was constant, though his tone seemed relaxed.  Banking on his nemesis being too engaged to be checking up on his guards, Jarod moved quietly to the steps and eased up to secure a view into the house.

The first thing he saw was Ethan.  His younger brother looked as if he'd lost twenty pounds and the dark circles under his eyes spoke volumes about the state of his well-being.  Jarod felt his neck tense, but he fought down the urge to rush in.

While Ethan sat stiff in a chair at the dining room table, his eyes fixed on a computer, a continuously changing series of light patterns reflecting on his face, Lyle paced at the opposite end of the kitchen.  But quickly, Jarod realized the movement wasn't aimless.  Lyle was creating a rhythmic pattern with his steps that seemed to duplicate the timing of the light patterns Ethan was mesmerized by.

"I'm glad you found the information you needed, Ethan.  I'm very glad.  Now that you've gotten your answer, what will you do?"

"What needs to be done," Ethan replied, his eyes never wavering from the computer screen.

"Will you hesitate?" Lyle asked.

"No."

"Will you have mercy?"

"There is no mercy in me."

"So what will you do?"

"What needs to be done."

The exchange horrified Jarod, more so for the complete lack of personality he saw in his brother than even the obvious control Lyle was exerting over the younger man.  But his concern ratcheted up several notches as Lyle stopped walking and used a remote to stop the light flashes on the laptop facing Ethan.  After a beat, Ethan blinked and looked up at Lyle and smiled.

"The headache is better.  Thank you."

"I'm glad I could help," Lyle replied, grinning.  "I hate to see my patients suffering.  I know this is only a temporary fix, but until you're strong enough for the surgery you need..."

"I know you're doing all you can," Ethan said, cutting Lyle off.  "To tell you the truth, the longer we wait for surgery, the better.  I'm not sure I want to remember more about that night."

Lyle nodded reassuringly and patted the younger man on shoulder.

"I understand.  I'm just so sorry I wasn't able to save your sister, too."

Ethan slouched and closed his eyes.

"You're not responsible for what happened to her."

Jarod slumped against the wall a moment.  This was his worst fear, that whatever Lyle had done to Ethan to create this so-called "illusion" involved his emotional connection to Parker.  It was surely the point at which Ethan was most vulnerable, and Lyle had clearly taken full advantage of that for his own purposes, though to what end remained unclear.

Moving back toward the hedge, Jarod made quick work of tossing a few more trimmings into a nearby wheelbarrow, then he moved toward the shed.  As he dumped the cuttings into a compost pile, Parker pushed the door open just enough to hear him.

"You take the sweepers out front.  I'll go in alone to get Ethan.  Somehow Lyle's convinced him you're dead, and we need to find out what that triggers before you see him."

He gave her no chance to argue, moving away quickly back toward the hedge.  In his peripheral vision, he saw Parker creep from the shed, moving toward the front of the house.  Jarod gave her a few beats, and then he shifted as well, making his way toward the back door.  They were running blind from here, neither able to confirm the actions of the other, and all he could do was hope their timing was in sync.

Moving as quietly as he could, Jarod stepped through the back door, leaving it open to prevent any noise from alerting Lyle to his presence.  The rear of the house was made up of a laundry room and half bath.  Jarod eased around the laundry room for a view into the kitchen and saw that Lyle was still too close to Ethan for him to move.  To his right, from outside, he heard a slight shifting against the dirt, something that could easily have been the result of an animal scurrying by.  He knew that meant Parker had at least one of the sweepers down.

The car pulling toward them was unexpected, and Jarod froze, hoping she had somewhere to take cover.  He couldn't see the vehicle, but he heard its engine turn off, a door open and close, and then footsteps on the front porch approaching the door.

"Who's that?" Ethan asked, and Lyle started walking toward the front of the house.

"Not sure.  Maybe a patient?  Sometimes my nurse will send folks straight here if I've already left town."

With Lyle away, Jarod was poised to make his move if Parker could neutralize their recent arrival.  He waited at the ready as Lyle opened the door.

"Hello, sir.  Can I help you?"

Lyle stepped back to allow whoever had come to step through the open entryway.  And Jarod tried to fight back the gasp that wanted to rip out of his throat at the sight of who it was.

Raines.

He wondered what game Lyle and his father were playing as he tried to listen and get a sense of where Parker was.  Then Jarod felt her beside him, and he knew that whatever was about to go down, they were going to have to make their move together.

But before anything else could happen, Ethan stood, his body tightening as if every muscle in his being were suddenly pained.  He looked around the table and saw a sharp knife sitting beside a loaf of partially sliced bread.  And then he picked it up and, without a moment's pause, hurled it into the center of Raines' chest.

The old man fell to the ground beside Lyle, and rather than reacting in horror, Parker's twin brother smiled as he stared back at Ethan.

"It's what needed to be done."

The robotic, emotionless tone was back in Ethan's voice as spoke before returning to his seat.  Jarod felt Parker nudge into him as she moved to hide behind the door.

"Get him out of there now," she whispered.

"But--"

"Now!"

Jarod rushed forward, gun trained on Lyle.

"Ethan."

There was no response at first, and then Ethan looked at him.

"Jarod?!"

"Come with me."

"Why are you holding a gun on Dr. Morris?"

"Ethan, come with me, right now."

Jarod put his body in front of Ethan, stepping backwards to try to force his brother to move.  With no choice, the younger man did just that, stepping out through the open back door.

"Where do you think you're going, Jarod?"

Lyle sounded smug, sure of himself.  It made Jarod want to scream.  Instead he said nothing, slamming the door shut behind him so Parker would know they were clear.

"Jarod, what is going on?" Ethan asked, his voice plaintive.

"Ethan, I know you don't understand what's happening, but I promise you, you need to be as far away from here now as I can get you."

"But Dr. Morris has been helping--"

"Dr. Morris is your half brother, Ethan -- Mr. Lyle.  He's not helping you.  Just... please, trust me."

The confusion on his brother's face broke Jarod's heart.  Clearly Ethan had bought into whatever good guy routine Lyle had been playing, and now he was left feeling unsafe and betrayed, reality warring with what he'd been sure he knew the past several weeks.  But Jarod knew all he could do now was get Ethan away from here.  He grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him along as they ran back toward the car Parker had hidden earlier.

"I don't understand.  Why would... why would Mr. Lyle... what does he want from me?"

Ethan's questions spilled out as Jarod opened the back door of the car and pushed him inside.  Jarod jumped into the driver's seat and started the car so he could be prepared to move at a moment's notice, then he turned to face the confused face behind him.

"Ethan, do you remember what just happened in the house?"

"I was talking with Dr. Mor--with Mr. Lyle, and you came in and ordered me to leave with you."

"What do you remember about Mr. Raines?"

At the mention of the name, Ethan's face fell and out of nowhere, tears flooded his eyes.

"He killed my sister.  He killed Parker trying to catch me."

The basics of Lyle's plan fell into place in that instant.  He had somehow concocted a scenario in which Raines had killed Parker, injuring Ethan in the process, and helpful 'Dr. Morris' had been treating Ethan, using that as an excuse to give his patient whatever drugs or therapies were needed to interfere with his inner sense and to complete the brainwashing that had resulted in Ethan's violent outburst, which he seemed to have no memory of.

"Ethan, I need you to listen to me.  I know that everything in your head is telling you that Parker is dead.  But he was lying to you.  She's alive.  She's alive and she's been looking for you."

"She is not alive!"

The emotion in Ethan's voice was unnerving.  He truly believed his sister was lost to him, and Jarod could only imagine the mental torture he'd been subjected to in order to make that belief so real.

"We were driving... we were driving and they were chasing us, and they shot at the car and... we crashed.  And I reached over and I tried to help her, but she was... they had shot her and she was... she was gone."

"But it isn't true, Ethan, I swear it."  Jarod glanced over his shoulder for any sign of the woman they were discussing, then he put his full attention back on their brother.  "I realize you can see it, and I know you feel the pain of it, but Parker is not dead."

"Then why can't I feel her?  Why can't I find her?  If she was alive, they'd tell me she was alive.  But there's nothing... she's dead and now I can't hear any of them.  It's gone.  Everything is gone."

Jarod knew there was no way to break through Ethan's grief quickly enough to deal with Parker's inevitable arrival.  And though he hated to do it, he reached into his bag and secured the small packet of medical supplies he always kept with him.  After preparing a syringe of a mild sedative, Jarod climbed from the car and moved to the backseat, pulling his now sobbing younger sibling against him.

"It's all right, Ethan.  I promise.  It'll be all right."

Ethan barely flinched as Jarod sank the needle into his arm, and a few moments later, his cries began to fade as sleep overtook him with the help of the drug.

Ten minutes later, a twig snapped toward the back of the car.  Jarod jumped out of the car, gun aimed, and found Parker kneeling down by the trunk.

"I didn't want him to see me until you said it was okay," she said, and he nodded, helping her up when he saw her arms were laden down with the laptop from Lyle's kitchen table and several CDs and notebooks.

"He's out.  I had to sedate him.  What happened with Lyle?"

Parker moved to the passenger seat, placing the items she'd brought on the floor.

"Chained to the bed pumped full of some combination of the drugs he had laying around.  I brought the empty vials in case you need them.  And that wasn't Raines.  It was a mask.  Lyle sacrificed one of his own sweepers to perform his little test on Ethan."

"Well, given what they've put the kid through, I guarantee you, Raines will meet the same fate the next time Ethan sees him if we don't find a way to undo all of this."

"What did Lyle make him believe?" she asked as he closed the driver's door and put the car into drive.

"That Raines murdered you right in front of him... because you were protecting Ethan from him."

Parker sighed deeply and turned in her seat, glancing at the sleeping form on the seat behind her.

"You'll find a way, won't you?  To fix this.  Because he can't... he can't keep carrying that inside him."

Her voice broke and Jarod felt his stomach knot up at the sound.  He glanced from the roadway toward her.

"I'll find a way, no matter what it takes."

*****

A wave of nausea passed over her as Parker walked toward the Chairman's office with a large manila envelope in her hand.  The idea that she was about to do this, that she was ostensibly saving Raines' life, helping him, was at odds with every desire she'd felt toward him in the past five years.  But it was the step she had to take if she wanted to protect the people she cared about.  So as she arrived at the door, she cleared her throat and took a moment to center herself before she knocked.

"Yes?" Raines' shouted, and she entered to find him looking frustrated and angry.

"Is something wrong?"

"Your brother has chosen a highly inopportune time to disappear.  We had a meeting at the tower this morning.  Have you seen him?"

Parker took a deep breath and nodded.

"I have, though the last time I did have him in my sights, he was chained to a bed at the address on the cover of there."

She handed Raines the large envelope of papers and CDs.

"Would you care to explain yourself, Miss Parker?"

"Your son, chip off the old block that he is, decided that sharing the power around here wasn't really what he wanted.  So he's been plotting your assassination."

As Raines stared at her, his anger growing incrementally with each new piece of evidence she went over, Parker recounted a sanitized version of the events of the past few days, dovetailing her cover story--the lead on Jarod--with her realization that Jarod was in fact looking for Ethan and had cottoned on to Lyle's plot.

"Jarod managed to escape with Ethan while I was dealing with my darling brother.  I tried to follow their trail, but... at any rate, I can't guarantee what sort of shape you'll find Lyle in.  I didn't pay much attention to the combination of drugs I shot him up with when he wouldn't shut up about how he was going to kill you and have me sent to Renewal Wing.  But that's where you'll find him."

With that, she turned on her heel, anxious to get as far away from her biological father as she could get.  Every time she was this close to him, the reminder that his demented DNA made up part of her being left her sickened, terrified of what might be lurking inside of her. But before she could make it to the door, Raines said her name.

"Yes?" she answered, turning back toward him.

Raines moved closer, studying her.  And then he smiled.

"Thank you.  It seems you've saved my life."

She felt her stomach turn over, but she refused to let him see how horrified she was at the idea that she was responsible for keeping him alive.

"I wouldn't expect it to become a habit.  But Lyle crossed a line by involving Ethan.  Of course, I wasn't able to find out which of the Triumvirate members was helping him.  I guess you'll have to get that out of him... and watch your own back until you do."

Finally she made it out of the door, and Parker walked toward her office, her thoughts shifting from the nightmare of her family ties here in the Centre to the brother she had let go into Jarod's care, knowing that for the time being, there was little else she could do to help him.

"You'll find a way, won't you?  To fix this.  Because he can't... he can't keep carrying that inside him."

"I'll find a way, no matter what it takes."

The words played back through her mind over and over as days and weeks passed with no word on how Ethan was.  It was better that way, she knew, so there was no possibility of the Centre catching any hint of where they were hiding.  But she worried over him constantly, wondering if and when she would ever see him again.

With no pretender to hunt as Jarod stayed off the radar, Parker filled her days with security reviews and sweeper training, and she tried not to care about the rumors spreading that Mr. Lyle had become a permanent resident in the Renewal Wing, his care personally supervised by Mr. Raines.  She even let Sydney, Broots and Angelo's goofy yet well-intentioned efforts to distract her pass by without her usual assortment of glares and sharp words.  Mostly, Parker tried to find ways to be patient, because she knew that Jarod would keep his promise. 

So it wasn't a surprise really, just a sudden realization, on the night that she was awakened from sleep not by a nightmare or by an ulcer attack but by the return of that thing... that feeling that connected her to Ethan in a way she would never be to anyone else in the world.

Its return brought tears to her eyes, and Parker basked in the restoration of something that she hadn't even realized was so vital to her until it was lost.  But now it was back, and the gratitude she felt for that overwhelmed her as she drifted back to sleep.

When she woke in the morning a few weeks later and went downstairs to find Ethan sitting in her living room waiting for her, Parker walked to him and pulled him into a tight embrace, her brother returning the hug just as intensely.

"It's not safe for you to be here," she said, and Ethan laughed.

"It's not safe for you to be here, but here you are."

As much as she hated the thought of sending him away, for his own good, she reminded him that Jarod was his family, too, that he'd be better off sticking close to his brother.

"I know Jarod's my family," he replied.  "I love him.  But I need to be here.  This is... I need to be here."

She didn't give any agreement, but dropped the subject as they headed in to find some breakfast and coffee.  When her phone rang an hour later, she was fairly certain she knew who was on the other end.

"What?"

"Let him stay," Jarod said, his voice tinged with sadness.  "He's better, the programming is broken.  But the pictures in his head... they haven't faded completely  He needs to feel like he's taking care of you for a while.  Let him."

Parker leaned against the living room window and peered outside, wondering if Jarod was watching her as they spoke.

"Thank you for helping him."

"Thank you for realizing he needed our help.  If we'd been any later..."

"I'll let him stay," she said, finally realizing that even if her brain was certain it wasn't a good idea, her heart had wanted to give in from the first moment.

Jarod disconnected the line and Parker returned the phone to its cradle, heading back to the brother who she realized would always be an unbreakable connection between her and Jarod.

One of many, she thought... but she pushed the others aside for now, saving those complicated thoughts for another day.