The road less travelled...

Wow, this story really is a success! I'm even being threatened for more! Yay! *lol*


So here's Chapter Three – Trouble At The Centre


Tribes
Cakobau
Annabelle-Marie
Andrea
Hayden
Jarod
Mike
Peter
Rachael
Tiffany


Naulivou
Bob
Candy
Chris
Louise
Meredith
Michael
Richard
Sarah


Broots finishing putting together his report about information that had come from the Centre’s contacts within CBS – which was the shortest he had ever written, as it contained exactly one sentence ‘No information available’ – and then turned back to his computer, starting to look for spoilers about Survivor: Fiji. He had already written up a very detailed dossier about the program, going back through ten seasons’ worth of information to prove his points. Sydney would no doubt have some psychological terminology that would fit, but even without all that mumbo-jumbo, Broots thought he had done a very good job of it.

Opening his Internet browser, Broots turned first to the official Survivor site so that, when reading various bulletin boards, he could match the names of those contestants he didn’t recognize with their pictures. He knew well that only a few of the competitors got much screen time in the first episode, so some people would be near-strangers to him. Without thinking, Broots clicked on Jarod’s profile and watched idly as it loaded. The next moment, he was staring open-mouthed at the screen and then he dived for the phone.

Miss Parker and Lyle burst into the Tech room the next moment and were peering over Broots’ shoulder almost before he could turn around.

“What the hell is he doing?” Lyle snarled. “Putting ‘Blue Cove, Delaware’ as his address? Don’t they check maps before they put these details on the Web? This place doesn’t exist!”

“Um, Mr. Lyle?” one of the other technicians interrupted at this point. “Blue Cove is on a couple of Internet maps. I haven’t checked any of the official ones yet…”

The technician trailed off as Lyle’s eyes narrowed and breath hissed from between his clenched teeth.

“Then get on with it!” he bellowed, before turning back to his sister. “Who the hell is responsible for making sure that Blue Cove is kept a secret?” he demanded.

“The same man who leapt out of a plane over the ocean several months ago,” Miss Parker replied evenly. “And I thought you were the person given the responsibility of ensuring that Blue Cove stayed off the map.”

Lyle’s mouth opened, but no sound came out, and he turned slightly pale. “Oh, fuck,” he breathed, and at that inopportune moment, the technician turned around again to announce that Blue Cove was on several government-published or otherwise ‘official’ Internet maps.

Seeing that Lyle was still stunned by his monumental error, Miss Parker took charge. “Find out what details they have about Blue Cove,” she ordered the other technician before turning back to Broots. “What else does Jarod have to say about himself?”

“He gives details of his family,” said Broots, scanning the information, “although he says the clone – I guess that’s who he means anyhow – is his son. His occupation is ‘problem-solver’ and he says he thinks he’s good at understanding people. He wants to be on Survivor ‘for the experience’.”

“Find out what other people have discovered about him,” she directed. “From your report, it seems like these people’s private lives become very public very fast, so people must want to know about him. Meanwhile,” she turned back to Lyle, “we’re going to have to figure out how to cover for this gigantic screw-up of yours.”

Everyone else in the room heaved a sigh of relief at the departure of the Parker twins and the conversation that usually buzzed in the room picked up again, although at a lower level than usual.

☼ ☼ ☼

“Lyle’s still at his T-board,” reported Broots when he arrived in Miss Parker’s office with his report on the Internet investigation of Jarod.

“Raines is going to put in a good word for him,” replied the woman as she took the report. “He could be back on our tails as soon as today or tomorrow, so let’s have plenty of information to keep him quiet. What do we know so far?”

“Survivor: Fiji began filming six months ago,” said Broots as he sat down opposite her, having given Sydney a second folder with the same information. “It lasted forty-three days. After they leave the show, all the survivors voted off before the jury stage go on holiday. Usually there’s someone on the ’Net who knows who went where, but nobody seems to have any ideas this time.”

“I suppose the remaining survivors holiday for the rest of the time so that their family and friends will not know whether they were on the jury or not,” Sydney guessed and Broots nodded.

“It’s weird,” the technician remarked, scratching his head. “Both this season and last seem to be really light on spoilers. For Palau, season 10, some websites even had the order of who was voted off when by the second week, but not this time nor the last, in Guatemala, at least until the first members of the jury were picked.”

“And we’ve lost some of our contacts,” reported Miss Parker, “including most of our people in CBS – all the ones connected to reality programs plus a few others. I guess they did some investigation in an attempt to stop spoilers being leaked and our people were among the casualties of that.”

“D… does Raines know?” asked Broots, and it was clear that he was worried about being asked to convey the bad news.

“He was busy with Lyle’s T-Board, so I reported it to the Tower,” replied Miss Parker, with a rather smug smile. “They wanted to know why Raines hadn’t told them, so I don’t think he’ll be in our hair for a while either.” She turned to Sydney. “Somebody’s reporting is a little light on,” she remarked with heavy sarcasm, waving the single sheet from the folder at him.

“It is an inescapable conclusion,” the psychiatrist retorted. “The pursuit is over.”

“Jarod has found a new way to protect himself,” rasped a voice from the doorway and, as if to contradict Miss Parker’s previous suggestion, Raines entered the room, toting his usual oxygen tank.

Sydney nodded in agreement with the other man’s assessment. “We can no longer pursue Jarod or his family in the same way,” he agreed and handed Miss Parker an article that had been neatly clipped out of a newspaper.

She drew in her breath sharply at the sight of Jarod standing in a group with his father, mother, sister, brother and ‘son’. Her eyes narrowed as she looked up.

“How long have you had this?” she hissed.

“About twenty minutes,” came the reply. “It came by fax from our Oklahoma office. I decided to leave it for this meeting instead of chasing you through the halls.” He studied the photo for a moment before looking up. “Jarod has sacrificed his anonymity and that of his family for the security that fame will give them.”

“Our hands are tied,” Raines snarled. “People will discover what he’s been doing over the past five years and he will become some sort of pathetic hero to them.” He eyed Miss Parker with fury. “If you had only managed to get hold of him earlier…”

“If you only managed to keep hold of him when he was back here,” she countered coolly, “or if the people you sent to ‘assist’ us had only been more helpful…”

Broots looked up, startled, as a realization struck him. “But if they start investigating his activities over the past five years,” he interrupted, “it could mean our descriptions get circulated, too.”

“And for that reason,” Raines spat, “there will be a new pursuit team.”

“…which will be no use at all,” Sydney told him. “Even if this pursuit team succeeds in finding Jarod, there will be a national outcry at his disappearance, and if we get hold of any of his family members in an attempt to ‘persuade’ him to return, he will go to the media at once.” He met Raines’ infuriated gaze. “I would even suggest that Jarod would cause a similar uproar in the media if anything happened to the three of us.”

Raines stared at Sydney for a moment, his face working with hatred, before turning on his heel and leaving the room. Through the frosted glass door, the trio in the office could see that a team of sweepers had confronted him and that an argument of sorts was taking place. A moment later, Raines was physically dragged away.

“The Tower,” Sydney said knowingly.

Miss Parker glanced at the older man. “Do you really believe Jarod would do that? As regards us, I mean?”

“I believe so,” replied Sydney. “And even if he should decide not to, the Tower would not know that for certain until they attempted it. The risk to them is therefore substantial, and provides us with an element of security.”

“How ironic,” she murmured. Then her eyes fell on the article on Sydney’s desk with the picture of Jarod’s family. “So now what?” she demanded.

Broots couldn’t help his response. “I guess we wait and see what happens on the show on Thursday.”