Title: Hackergirl

Author: TrinityOne

Rating: PG

Summary: A 16 year old wiz-kid is believed to have told the entire world about Operation: Backstep. But when Parker Backsteps, he finds a girl very smilar to himself, who just happens to be living in the same orphanage where he grew up.

Uploaded: August, 2000

by TrinityOne
****

Prologue

A young girl was sitting in front a computer. Beautiful, blue eyes, blond, long hair, all in all very innocent. But now, she was sweating, her fingers almost danced over the keyboard. For weeks now, she has been trying to break into this computer. She knew that if she did, she would get to know everything about a hidden NSA- project called BACKSTEP. There was not much she already knew...Nothing but rumors and a newscast, but she knew nothing about the technical background and nothing about the crew. And that was what she was really interested in...and then she was in.

Suddenly, she became very calm, everything seemed to slow down. She knew if she made only one little mistake, she would be dead, but there were the most hidden secrets in the world, right in front of her eyes. She was only interested in the Backstep project, but she downloaded everything that seemed to be important. It took her a long time to get through all the information, but finally, she had everything she needed...And no one caught her yet. Once she was off-line she took her first look at the material. She set aside the personal information about the team and started right with the technical background... It seemed to be difficult, very difficult, since the technique was, in some parts, not even human. But she knew she could make it, she could understand the whole thing, better than anyone else...

Suddenly, the alert went on. Parker woke with a start from a terrible nightmare where he had watched Olga be killed. He looked around him, very confused and hoping that it had been really only a dream. He realized he was in his bed, but he was not too sure though... He passed his hand over his face which was bathed in sweat and let himself fall back on the bed. Then someone knocked on the door. Parker didn't answered, very sure that it wasn't good news to come.

The door opened and Olga entered the room: "Mister Parker, wake up and get ready, it's an emergency."

Parker sat up as he noticed it was Olga and needed his whole self control to keep him from running over to her and take her in his arms. Suddenly, she noticed his sweaty face and the distracted expression in his eyes.

Her eyes became darker and her voice softer: "Those dreams again?" she asked, sitting down next to him like she forgot the alert.

He rubbed his eyes and looked at her, almost like he was realizing for the first time she was there. He just hadn't expected this question. In fact, he hadn't expected her whole reaction.

Although he didn't answered her, she went on asking him about the dreams: "What was is about?"

He looked aside, avoiding her eyes. "The old things, nothing special." He made a move like standing up, but rested at her side.

"You want to talk about it? Perhaps it will help if you do."

Parker finally stood up, still unable to meet her eyes. "No, I am all right. I'll just take a shower and then come to the meeting. Just give me five minutes."

He had already moved towards the bathroom and now he closed the door behind him.

Just a few seconds later, she heard the shower. She sighed and then shook her head. That was just the way Parker was. If only he would open up one time, one single time, it would be easier for him to handle all his memories. Well, maybe he would tell Donovan later...

Suddenly she noticed that she was still in his room, watching the closed bathroom door and listening to the sound of the shower. She shook her head again and walked towards the door as the shower was turned off. She left the room quickly, not wanting him to catch her still in his room. And she didn't want to catch him with nothing but a towel on. She didn't want to be in such a compromising situation alone with him. At least that was what she told herself.

Some minutes later, they all met at the conference room. When Parker sat down next to Olga, she noticed his hair was still wet and she could smell his shower foam. Talmadge woke her up as he entered the room and started to talk.

"Well, this time it is not business as usual. Nobody died this time, but we have a serious security problem. A hacker broke into the mainframe of the NSA and copied all that she found about hidden projects like the Backstep project. All those programs were secured by very safe codes and no one thought they could ever been broken."

"Sorry," Parker interrupted Talmadge, "but am I right, you are talking about a women.?"

"Yes you are right. In fact, we are talking about a 16 year old girl."

"Oh my god," Ramsey sighed. "Now they are already using children for their espionage."

Talmadge made a move telling him to be quiet. "Well, if she was really only working for another country, our problems would be smaller."

"What could be worse than telling another country about our most hidden secrets?" Ramsey asked.

"Telling them to the whole world."

Suddenly, everything was quiet. No one of them moved, or even breathed, till Ramsey again broke the silence. "What?!"

Talmadge nodded. "She put all the information she had onto the internet."

Everyone was shocked. This was really a security disaster for the USA. Donovan shook his head as he couldn't believe it, Ramsey raised his arms in a gesture of disbelieving and doctor Ballard started to drum on the armrest of his wheelchair.

But Talmadge hadn't finished yet: "She had also created a virus which carried all the information with it and broke into every e-mail server in the world. I don't know the details, and I doubt that I would understand them anyway, but as the virus has finished its mission, everyone who has an e-mail account got the mail. You can imagine how the President reacted as he found the email this morning."

Parker snorted, trying to hide his laughter.

"That's not funny at all, Mister Parker," Ramsey hissed.

Parker ignored him and turned to Talmadge: "And what will be my part? I will have to go back and keep her from getting the information?"

"I doubt that would be enough. If she is really smart enough to crack the computer, she will try it again. Anyway, she already broke into the computer some time ago. A lot more time ago than we can go back."

"So there's no way to keep her from getting that stuff?" Parker asked.

"No, I am really sorry. I am afraid you will have to get rid of her." Parker was breathless with shock.

Then he simply said: "No!"

Everyone started at him. Parker was a Navy Seal, trained for killing. "I won't kill a 16 year old child."

"Parker," Talmadge tried to calm him down. "She is not only a child, but a dangerous one, too. She found out the most saved secrets of the USA. And now everyone knows them. We can be very lucky if we don't have third world war soon, and I personally doubt that the government will be able to explain everything."

But Parker wasn't willing to give up that simple: "Perhaps we are wrong and she didn't want to tell the whole world about it. Perhaps she only wanted to tell a few friends and things got out of control, or the whole thing was an accident. Things like that happen very often in the Internet. But press the wrong button, and suddenly BOOM, the information is where you didn't wanted it to be. We don't even know if she believed the whole thing. Perhaps she only thought it was a big joke..."

Olga looked surprised at him: "I didn't know you know so much about the Internet, Mister Parker."

He smiled without any humor. "I have a lot of time here, Miss Vukavitch. And I am not one to do nothing but read the whole time. Anyway, we don't know a thing about this girl. I guess its better if I first bring her over here so we can find out what she really knows and if she really wanted to put it in the net."

"Sorry, Mister Parker, but you are wrong," Talmadge started. "We do know some things about her, and the facts aren't speaking for her. She was born in 1983, in New York City, or rather, that's where she was found. The day of her birth is not exactly known either, but it was around New Year's Eve. Her parents are unknown. There is an unofficial rumor that her father was Alan Underwood."

Ballard interrupted him, his eyes wide open: "The computer genius? God in heaven, if that's true, she really must be one of the most intelligent human beings in the world, if she got anything from her father. His death was really a big loss for the science world. If she inherited his talents, she must be saved. Otherwise it would be an incredible loss for us."

"Well, it seems as she had her fathers talents, if he is really her father. Don't forget that this is not confirmed at all. Anyway, she is highly intelligent, with a photographic memory and an incredible talent for logical and analytical problems. But unfortunately, she is also in a very unstable state of mind. She is sometimes very hot tempered and she is not listening to any adults, or other authorities."

"Hey Frank, haven't there been rumors about Alan Underwood being your father?" Donovan laughed. Parker grinned back at him.

Ramsey shook his head: "Really sounds like your twin, doesn't it?"

Talmadge continued his explanation, without making any comments: "But there are some reasons for her behavior, or at least some facts that could explain it. She was given to a foster family when she was very young. But after some time, the youth welfare department realized, that she had been in the hospital very often. Always with broken bones, bruises and other injuries."

Parker looked extremely shocked, harder than it was normally for someone who killed several people himself, thought Olga. And he was shocked. And he had killed many people, but hearing about an orphan like he was, being treated like that by a foster family, was something he couldn't handle this easy, because it touched his oldest wounds.

"So, she was mistreated by her foster family?" Ramsey asked.

"That's what I was trying to tell you. Finally, she was taken from this family, when she was about 6 years old. That makes about 5 years of hell for her. And she didn't recover from that. It was already too late. At this point, she already lost her faith in adults, as well as her will to follow any of their instructions."

"That's something we can't blame her for, I guess," Parker threw in.

"No, you are right, but the story goes on. For about 8 years, she was a nightmare for every teacher or educator. She was very aggressive, incalculable and sometimes showed real signs of being mentally disturbed and paranoid. About two years ago, things got better when she found some real good friends at the orphanage she was in at the time. But one year ago, a terrible fire destroyed the orphanage and all of her friends where killed. As a result of that, she was in a coma for a long time. She didn't say a word for
months, and when she started to talk again, it was really only what was absolutely necessary. She pulled herself back in her own world."

"The Internet," Parker added. "And that's the girl you want me to kill? I really can't believe it."

"Look, she is highly intelligent, and the fact that she put the information in the internet is showing that she is definitely not normal. Perhaps she is only acting unstable to hide her evilness. We don't know!"

"You can't really believe this!" Olga shouted.

Talmadge sighed. "For gods sake, bring her over here and we'll see how everything is turns out. I just don't know how to explain this to Washington..."

Parker smiled.

"She is at the moment living in an orphanage somewhere in Pennsylvania, with some nuns."

Parker's eyebrow shot up: "You don't mean...?"

"Yes, I do. She is living in the orphanage where you grew up. I will give you all the details now. The others can go and prepare the Backstep," Talmadge finished.

Ten minutes later, everything was ready. Just before Parker could step into the sphere, Olga ran over to him: "Mister Parker!"

Parker turned and looked at her, as she went on talking: "Listen, she might have had a bad childhood, and she might be very similar to you, but please, remember one thing: being an orphan doesn't mean that she is a good human being."

Parker smiled at her: "I will keep that in mind, I promise."

She smiled back, and he turned away, stepping into the sphere.

"Engage!" And Parker started...

Pictures of a beautiful young girl flashed through Parker’s mind. A girl with long, blond hair and incredible blue eyes. He saw her sitting in front of a computer, her eyes starring at the screen, her face bathed in sweat. Other pictures came, she was lying on the floor, crying.

Suddenly, her eyes were wide in fear, as a SWAT-team entered the room. They took her from the floor. She was trying to escape, but she could get nowhere, but the corner of the room, where she was trying to hide herself. Her face was distorted; her eyes wide open starring in shock at the men who came to get here...

And then, it was over. Parker left the sphere. He was stressed out as he found himself in a big field, all alone.

"Oh, that’s great. Now I will have to walk a thousand miles to find a phone. Why the hell didn’t they remind me to take the cell phone with me."

He started to walk into the direction where he thought he would find a phone. Talmadge picked up the phone.

After listening, he nodded and turned to the listening crew: "Parker is in Pennsylvania. He is there to stop a hackergirl from putting the most secured secrets of the USA onto the Internet."

"Wow, that would make some fireworks!" Donovan shouted.

"Well, you are right. Olga, Donovan and Ramsey, you will fly over to Pennsylvania to help him."

"Can’t Parker handle one single girl alone?" Ramsey grinned.

"He asked for help. I will hand you her file to show you why he asked for help." It didn’t take much time to get her file and while the others were reading it, Talmadge left the room to make a phone call. As he came back, everyone had finished reading. They all looked a little bit shocked, but they had seen other things before.

"Well, now I can see why Parker asked for help. The girl seems to be very much like him," Donovan started the conversation again.

"Really seems like his twin. Who knows, since they are both orphans, they might be brother and sister," Ramsey added.

"I doubt that," Talmadge laughed, "But I have to tell you something different. I remembered having heard a rumor about Alan Underwood being the father of an incredibly intelligent girl. Now it seems like she is that girl."

Ballard was excited: "If that’s true, she might be very important for us."

"Yes, might be. But you read her file. She is not an easy girl to handle at all and it might be she doesn’t want to work with us. It’s not even a sure thing she will talk to us!" Talmadge reminded them.

"Parker will need all the help he can get. This is going to be a very piquant mission. Perhaps she has already started to create a virus that brought the information to every e-mail account in the world. If she gets the chance to start it...And, bye the way, she is in the orphanage Parker used to live in."

"You think he can handle this? Wouldn’t it be better if only we go there to get her?" Olga asked concerned.

"I don’t think we could keep him from going there anyway. He sounded worried about her."

"Why aren’t we just shooting her down. She is a security danger and she will always be one," Ramsey said, extremely stressed out by the whole story.

"Well, actually, that’s what I am asking myself...Perhaps they decided that she is too important for us. I bet Parker had a finger in it..." Ramsey still wasn’t sure that not killing the girl was right. But since he never agreed with anything, especially not if it seemed to fit into Parker’s plans, nobody listened to him.

"Now get ready to leave for Pennsylvania!" Talmadge finished the conference. But before Ramsey could leave, he caught him: "Listen: I know you don’t like Parker and you think he is the wrong person for the Backstep-project, but this time, he might be really the right one, the one who knows how to handle the situation. Only this time, listen to him and do what he wants you to do."

Ramsey nodded, but he didn’t seem to be very happy about it.

Some hours later, Olga, Donovan and Ramsey met Parker at the airport. Olga realized that he looked kind of tired, or rather, he looked burned out; and little bit whiter than usually. But she didn’t want to ask him about it, knowing that he would never give her an honest answer as long as Ramsey was around them.

Fortunately, they were put into two separate cars. Olga gave Donovan a sign, telling him to go with Ramsey. Donovan nodded and followed Ramsey to the car, which was closer to the plane. Olga and Parker got into the other car. Olga began to get really afraid, since Parker hadn’t said a single word since they met.

Finally, she couldn’t stand the silence any longer and broke it: "Mister Parker what is wrong? You don’t seemed to be alright."

Parker looked down at his hands, fighting with himself. "Look, you can imagine that this mission is not so easy for me. Too many ghosts have started to walk around again. That’s all."

Olga sighted, knowing he was not telling her the whole truth. "That’s not everything. I don’t believe it is."

Parker looked up, straight into her eyes. "At first, they wanted me to kill her. To kill a 16 year old child. They didn’t know if it was really her goal to provoke all that stuff that followed her action. We knew nothing about her. But they wanted me to kill her. It was like with Walter. I don’t want to make the same fault again, let this happen again. Not this time."

"I can understand you, but you shouldn’t forget that she is not like Walter. She is not autistic. She can be blamed for what she’s doing. And at least, being an orphan doesn’t make her a good human being!"

Parker laughed sarcastically.

"What’s up?"

"Nothing, that’s just exactly what you said to me before I Backstepped." They arrived at the orphanage.

"Okay," Parker took the control, "At first, we will go to the Mother Superior and see what she could tell us about Elay. Then we decide what to do."

"Francis!" they heard a call from the other side of the court. It was the Mother Superior.

"Francis?" Ramsey looked very puzzled.

Parker grinned. "The Latin version of Frank," he explained.

Donovan tried to hide his laughter. "And you leave it like that? If someone different would call you Francis, you’d be killing them."

"Actually, I have never thought about it," Parker simply replied. The nun had arrived.

"Nice to see you again without any holes in your body."

"What do you think of me?" Parker laughed.

"I don’t think something of you, I know you." Then, she became serious: "It’s better we continue this conversation in my office."

They followed her. In her office, they start to talk about Elay. Parker had already called earlier the day to tell her they needed information about her. At first, she was not that happy about it, but since she knew Parker nearly his whole life, she knew that he wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t really important.

"Okay, tell us something about Elay. It is really important to be honest. Otherwise, everyone is in great danger." The nun nodded, without asking what kind of danger he was talking about. She knew that he would tell her if he could.

"Em, what I know about Elay... She is very similar to you. Don’t get me wrong, you know I don’t think of you as a mean person but you know yourself. You have been difficult. So is Elay. First of all, she doesn’t want to take any orders at all. From anyone. The teachers stopped trying to teach her a long time ago, since there’s nothing left that they could teach her. And that’s the problem. How do you expect a highly intelligent girl to take orders form people when she knows they know so much less than she does? She is unable to do that, unable to accept that there are people knowing less than her that are still wiser. And usually, she isn’t even talking to other people. I guess she is afraid of getting too close to others, since the time she lost her best friends in that fire two years ago. Since that time, she has opened herself to no one, listens to no one and seems to care about nothing. You know I’ve only known her for about one year now. Some things, I only know by hearing. I think she is not a lost soul, so I called some people that knew her to find out if there’s something we can do to help her. But I found nothing...She is such a complex person, I could go on talking about her for hours, but I guess you have some special questions. "

Parker began to speak: "Yes, we do have special questions. What to you think about her, umm, let’s say criminal assessment? Do you think she has one?"

"You mean do I think she is criminal?"

"Well, more if you think she could commit a crime."

"Not at all. She never showed the will to get things without having worked for it. And if there is something that makes her get mad, than it is injustice and crime. Even though I don’t know of course her definition of crime, she is the last person I would think about when it comes to crimes."

"Actually, what we are talking about is more a kind of terrorism or espionage," Ramsey threw out.

"What? That’s something I really don’t believe. Elay being a terrorist? Not at all. You seem to forget that after all, she’s still nothing but a child."

Parker sighed, "I guess I have to be more precise..."

"Parker!" Ramsey shouted, "you are kidding. You can’t tell her everything."

"Don’t worry, I won’t. But I guess we should tell her at least what kind of crime Elay is blamed for." Turning back to the nun, he continued to speak: "What she is blamed for, are computer crimes. She broke into a lot of computers, including the high-security computer of the NSA. There, she copied some of the most hidden secrets of the USA. I can’t tell you what it was about, but you can be sure that if this gets out to the world, it could possibly lead into the third world war."

The nun was shocked. "And you really think that Elay could do something like that? I can’t believe it!"

"Well, we know she has been breaking into the computers and there are signs that she is planning to put the information she found onto the Internet, so the whole world will be able to read them. What we are now trying to find out is, if that’s really true, if she is really planning that. What do you think?" Parker asked.

"That’s a hard question. You know, Elay doesn’t talk much, so I don’t know much about her political points of view, but I am sure she is for something she called "general knowledge". She once wrote an essay about it. That means everybody should be able to get every existing piece of information. But are you sure she believed that what she found was real, and not just a joke? If this information were really this important, I could not imagine her being so stupid as to provoke the third world war. You shouldn’t forget that we are talking about a highly intelligent girl, and not a computer-games playing, bored kid. And she is a very curious child as well. She isn’t asking lots of questions, but I have seen her spending many hours in the library searching for answers to things she hasn’t understood. I think the only thing she wants is knowledge."

Parker nodded: "I really hope you are right, because otherwise, she’s a real big problem. But something different: How do you think she will react when we catch her? I am sorry for it, but we will have to arrest her."

"I saw that coming. Well, I think the only thing she will do is not answer a single question you ask her."

"Where can we find her now?" Ramsey finally took his chance to finish the conversation that didn't seem to please him at all.

"She should be on her way to lunch now. I will show you." The team followed her into the garden, where a lot of children were walking around.

Parker was the first to see her. She was as beautiful as he saw her in his visions. Her school-uniform was tight, and because it was a warm day, she wasn’t wearing a blazer. The first buttons of her white blouse were open, more buttons than the nuns usually allowed the girls. Parker started to walk faster when he saw her. Unfortunately, she saw him, too.

Suddenly, she stood still in shock. Then, she turned around and started to run. Parker reacted immediately, running after her. He blamed himself that he forgot that she already knew everything about the Backstep-project, as well as the team-members faces.

The girl was fast, but Parker was fast as well. She knew the whole ground very well, just as he did. In his teenager years, he had spent a lot of time together with his best friend Johnny searching for hiding places and hidden ways to get away from the protection and the watching eyes, if only for a short time.

He followed her through the garden. Then he saw her jumping over the back wall of the garden, into the next one, using some old rocks lying around. Now they were in the old part of the orphanage's garden, where a lot of trees and plants took his sight. It became harder for Parker to follow Elay.

Suddenly, it came into his mind like a flash. He knew where she was trying to hide. In the back of the garden, there was hole in the ground, he remembered, which lead into the old canalization. If she got there, he wouldn’t be able to catch her. Even when he was younger, it was difficult for him to get into the hole, now he was way too big for it. He was sure that she wasn’t. He ran faster, now that he knew where she was running.

Suddenly, she screamed and fell to the ground...

It took him only a few seconds to get to her. She was on her knees, holding her right shoulder and whimpering in pain. As he kneeled down beside her, she looked at him with an incredible look of fear and pain in her eyes. She tried to hide again, but Parker took her on her left shoulder, holding her down on the ground.

"What’s up with you? You are behaving like I want to kill you!" he through out. Her face crashed in total horror then went expressionless.

"Aren’t you?" she asked, with a voice just as cold as her face. Parker was shocked by this sudden change. She seemed to be change into another person from one second to the other. Perhaps she lost her self-control for a second, Parker thought. She isn’t as cold as she wants me to believe. But something even more shocking was her voice. Even with the coldness in it, it had still the softness of an angel’s voice.

Parker needed some seconds till he was able to speak again: "Why should I do that?" He saw her fighting with herself, unsure if she should admit knowing whom he was. Then she realized that she had already given herself away by running from him.

"I must have done something incredibly wrong. That’s why you are here. You made a Backstep to keep me from doing it., isn’t that right? You were instructed to kill me, just as you were to kill Walter."

"I did not kill him!" Parker replied.

"I know, but if you had followed your orders correctly, you should have done it."

"I was not ordered to kill you!"

"Really?"

"I swear by the Mother Superiors rulers."

She gave him a little smile. "You know what? I almost broke your record!"

"Wow, and that in only one year. Now I know what she meant..."

"When she said what?"

"Doesn’t matter. Anyway, I am sorry, but I have to take you with me to Never Never Land."

"Why there?"

"You will get the details later."

She sighed. "I really have no choice, do I?"

"No."

She sighed again and tried to get up, but sank back with a sound of pain.

"Let me see your shoulder." She stopped moving as Parker examined her shoulder. "You have dislocated your shoulder," he finally said. No answer came from her. "I can fix it, but it will hurt for a second..." he added. She looked up at him. The fear was back in her eyes.

"Only for a second?" she asked, no coldness anymore in her voice. She now sounded more like a little child and her eyes were the eyes of a wounded animal. For the first time since he met her, her real age came again into his mind...

"Yes, only for a second, than it will be better," he finally replied. She hesitated, then nodded, but still a little bit unsure. Parker put one hand on her shoulder and with the other he took her elbow. She whimpered a little bit, afraid of the pain that was sure to come.

"Try to relax," he convinced her.

She laughed ironically, "Not that easy."

Parker knew that she did not trust him at all. If he could fix this, and he could get her trust, perhaps he could help her get through all this. He knew if she wouldn’t work together with them, she could get into trouble more dangerous than a dislocated shoulder. So he took his hand from her elbow and started to massage the other shoulder. As he realized here she was more relaxed, he suddenly took her elbow again and pulled the bone back in its place. She didn’t even have the time to scream, as short as the pain was. With a puzzled look on her face, she started to move her shoulder a little bit. She smiled a little bit, because the pain had nearly gone away.

"Thanks," she simply said.

Parker nodded, smiling, and pulled her off the ground. But she was still unable to walk. She stood only on one foot.

"What’s up now?" he asked, beginning to loose his nerves.

"I guess I sprained my ankle."

Parker didn’t wanted to loose time again, so he pulled her on his arms and carried her back to the others. She wasn’t even trying to keep him from carrying her like a child.

"She seems like someone who has surrendered," Parker thought. But he knew that it could have been a fake. She was highly intelligent, but also kind of paranoid. He grinned ironically, because he had to confess to himself that he didn’t really believe that. But he was sure she didn’t trust him yet. "And she doesn’t have a reason to trust me."

Anyway, his intuition told him that she wouldn’t be trying to escape again...Not now...The others came towards them. He noticed Olga´s eyebrows shot up as she saw him carrying Elay.

"Oh good, you caught her," Ramsey breathed hard. He was still out of breath because the others had been running after him.

"Only because I felt!" Elay replied, now with an arrogant impression on her face. Nothing was left of the horror and the fear that had been on her face only a few minutes ago. Parker was impressed by her self-control.

"Where’s all your computer stuff? Come on girl, we will find it anyway," Ramsey turned to her. She said nothing, but she was trying to freeze Ramsey with her eyes. Parker set her on the ground, slowly, so she could stand on one foot, holding onto him.

"Please Elay," Parker tried it, "He is right. We will find it anyway, since I know every single hidden corner of this place. I spent nearly my entire youth discovering them. But you could spare me that."

She looked at him, they were nearly fighting with their eyes, but finally she looked down. "Okay. Everything is in a room in the old nunnery’s vaults. I’m gonna show you and make sure you don’t break any of my stuff."

Ramsey turned his eyes to the sky, but he kept his thoughts. Parker nodded and pulled her back in his arms. She guided them through the old vaults, which could have also been called a labyrinth. Parker wasn’t sure if he really would have been able to find her room. It was a totally mess of disks, computer printouts and lots of electronic stuff Parker never had seen. Most of it seemed to be self-made. Even with the help of two policemen, it took them a very long time to get all the stuff in their cares. The whole time, Elay said nothing, but it seemed to Parker that she was not far away from crying. Some hours later, they were back at Never Never Land. She hadn’t been speaking the whole time. As they were there, they met immediately all at the conference room.

"I heard everything went good."

"Yes, there were no big problems. By the way, where is she now?" Parker asked.

"At the doctor." Talmadge sat down. "Okay, now let’s start the hard part of it all. Parker, what do you think? What should we do with her?"

Parker leaned back in his chair. "I actually don’t think it was really on purpose that the information were put onto the Internet. She just doesn’t seem to be that kind of person. She surely knew how important the whole thing is. And she knows everything about us. That’s why she was trying to escape. She was afraid I would kill her for what she knows and since she is so intelligent, I don’t think at all she would ever be so stupid to provoke the third world war. I guess her only crime was curiosity." Parker was citing a line from the movie "Hackers".

"Pah", Ramsey made. "To me, she seemed to be ice-cold and very aggressive."

Before Parker could say something, Olga replied: "Well, even I would react like this if someone would be as impolite to me as you were."

"But she’s a criminal. All of you seem to forget this."

"She is a child, that went through a lot of bad things. You seem to forget this." Olga replied.

"Let’s stop this!" Talmadge finished the argument. "Perhaps we should first listen to her. Bring her in.", he said in the intercom. Just a moment later, they entered the room accompanied by two MIBs, and she walking on crutches. She sat down after Parker has left his chair to make room for her.

"What do you think? Why are you here?" Talmadge asked her. Her face was expressionless, when she answered.

"Because I saw thing you didn’t want me to see."

"Ah, that’s how it’s called know. You know how we call this? Computer-crimes!"

"That’s only a question of definition!" she replied very calm.

"Ah, come on. Tell us whom you have been working for! The Russians?"

"Oh my god!" Elay said very surprised. Parker could see that her surprise was not real, but he was sure he was the only one noticing that. "What is she planning?" he asked himself, but Elay has already kept on talking.

"Why isn’t he in an hospital?" "

What the hell are you talking about?" Ramsey asked her. It seemed like he could loose his nerves every second.

Elay turned to the rest of the crew: "I always thought amnesia is a serious illness...?" Now Parker could see that everyone except Ramsey has realized that Elay was playing with him.

"Yeah, it is. And now, what do you want to tell me?" Ramsey was very confused now.

"He REALLY doesn’t know it?"; she asked, then turned to Ramsey: "Listen to me! It might be hard for you, but you must know it..."

"WHAT!?!"

"Mister Ramsey...The cold war is over...For several years now."

Everyone nearly died laughing. Everyone except Ramsey and Elay. Ramsey was seethed with rage and Elay was only trying to look innocent and surprised like she couldn’t understand why the others were laughing. But she wasn’t playing very well this time.

Talmadge was the first who had himself under control again: "Well, don’t worry. Mister Ramsey is not ill. But anyway, you know what a Backstep is?"

She nodded.

"So, Parker came back to keep you from doing something incredible stupid..."

Everyone has now calmed down, except Ramsey, who was still angry. But he was smart enough to say nothing this time.

Now it was Elay who looked puzzled. She really doesn’t seem to know Talmadge was talking about. "To keep me from doing what?"

"To keep you from putting all the information onto the Internet."

"What!" she called out. "Why should I do something like this? That could provoke the third world war. Jesus Christ. That’s the last thing I would do." She seemed to be dead serious, just as her surprise seemed to be real.

"Fact is, you did." Talmadge said.

"I can’t believe it, I really can’t believe it." Elay shook her head. "Are you sure it was me? I mean, perhaps it was a mistake and someone different was responsible. Or it was an accident from me? Something went wrong?" Parker felt sorry for her. It must be incredible to be blamed of being responsible for the third world war.

"Don’t worry." Parker tried to calm her down. "It didn’t happen yet. And it won’t happen. That’s why you are here."

"Bring her back to her room." Talmadge said to the MIBs. Elay followed them without making any problems, her face still in shock.

"So, what’s next. You want to kill her now like some Nazi-assholes, just because we are not able to keep her secrets?" Parker said angrily.

"No," Talmadge tried to reassure him, "But that’s really a serious problem."

"Why not keep her here? If she’s as intelligent it seems, she might be a good help. And I don’t think she could make more problems here than outside, since she knows everything about the Backstep-project anyway." Ballard proposed.

"That’s a good idea. You know, I am not the youngest anymore and there’s no one that could be a possible successor for me. I am sure she would make a good job. If she’s interested of course." Mentnor added.

"What do the rest of you think? I am of course not sure how Washington would greet this solution, but here, we could keep her under control much easier than anywhere else," Talmadge turned to the others. "Of course we have to ask her first. It would be a great break, since there are no people her age here. And we must find someone who lives here all the time and who is willing to look after her."

Parker smiled: "No problem."

"That’s crazy!" Ramsey broke in. "We are talking about ...About a computer terrorist and you are talking about teaching her everything you know about the Backstep-project. And I think it’s a very stupid idea to give Parker the responsibility of her."

"Don’t worry," Parker grinned, "I think I can handle this stress, I would like to do it, really."

"I am not talking about you, Parker, I am talking about the girl. God, you will drive her crazy."

"But Mister Ramsey," Olga smiled, "I thought we were talking about a terrorist. Since when do you care for terrorists?"

"Pah," Ramsey answered, knowing he was about to loose. "Do what you want, but don’t blame me if all this goes wrong." With those words, he left the room.

"I guess we all need some rest now. It has been a hard day for all of us. I will call Washington now, and tomorrow morning, we will meet again and decide what’s finally to do." Talmadge finished the meeting.

But Parker still had a question: "What if Washington doesn't agree? What will happen to her?"

Talmadge sighted: "Then I guess Washington will take her and decide."

It seemed like Parker still wanted to say something, but then he left the room very fast.

Olga followed him. "Mister Parker," she shouted after him.

Parker turned and waited for her.

"Let’s take a walk around. I want to talk to you."

Parker nodded and they left the building.

Outside, Olga started to talk again: "Please, don’t blame yourself. You did everything you could. Now it’s up to Washington to decide. I know you are still sorry for Walter, but she is no autistic. She wasn’t used by anyone and she knew she had committed a crime when she broke into the computer. I know it is even harder for you, because her childhood is so similar to yours, but after all she made her own decisions."

"Olga," Parker said with a sound in his voice, which showed there was more to come. "Walter isn’t dead. I brought him to the orphanage where I grew up, the orphanage where Elay lived. He is happy there. "

"I knew something like that." Olga smiled. "But why?"

"I saw what they did to him, I saw what he suffered under them. I didn’t want him to spend the rest of his life like a...like a labor rat."

"I am impressed. I hadn’t expect something like that from you."

"Why? Because I have been a soldier? You should know me better. Or what do you think, that I am heartless killer?"

Olga looked down. "Of course not. But this is a new side of you, a side I haven’t seen before."

Parker laughed. "Perhaps you are bringing out this side." Then he became serious, nearly sad. "It seemed like all of you forget that I have a son. I know how children can be sometimes. They can’t be blamed for everything they do. And at sixteen, it might be even harder. Not a child anymore, but not yet an adult."

"You are right. I sometimes forget that you have a son. It just doesn’t...doesn’t fit to you. I mean, being a father. And don’t you think that your behavior has more to do with your childhood than with your son?"

Parker smiled, but it was a sad smile. "Might be, I don’t know. But I must confess something. There seems to be more behind it. The story’s not over yet. I am sure."

"How did you come to that idea? "

Parker shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea. It’s just a feeling. Just like with Elay. I knew she wasn’t a bad person, but I also know that she’s not only a child."

"You mean like a sixth sense. Now you are getting childish."

Suddenly, Parker stopped. "You really think I am a heartless, childish, unromantic fool, don’t you." His voice and his eyes showed a kind of looseness, and of pain.

"No that’s not true." Olga replied a little bit too fast. "But sometimes, it seems so. That doesn’t mean I don’t like you." Spontaneously, she took his hands. "Believe me, I like you anyway. I like this childish, unromantic fool, and I know you are not heartless. You have proved that several times. And if you were different, you wouldn’t be our Parker."

"But I am not the kind of man with whom you would spend the rest of your life, am I?"

Olga looked down, unable to meet his eyes. "That’s a hard question Mister Parker, a question I am unable to answer."

Parker tried to get his hands free to turn around, but Olga held them tight. "I can’t tell you I love you, that would be a lie. But I can tell you I like you very much and with every day, my feelings change a little bit. That’s all I can tell you at the moment."

"Yeah, that’s exactly what I expected." Parker wasn’t trying to hide his pain any longer. Finally, he turned away.

"Mister Parker," Olga shouted after him, but he only raised his hand, a gesture that showed he wasn’t able to take any more of her kindness, but also a last try to keep his pride.

Olga stayed alone in the dark. She was torn inside. On one side, she was happy, because she knew Parker wouldn’t try any more to dig on her. But on the other side, she was sad about that. He had been trying so hard and so long to impress her... It was like she could nearly feel his pain. Or was it her pain? She was so confused. She knew Parker was an adult, and he should be able to handle this, but....

She shook her head to get it clear. It has been a long day. Now she wanted nothing but a shower. She went back to her office and packed her things. Five minutes later, she left the base so fast that it looked almost like an escape.

Parker went back to his room. He wanted nothing but some sleep, but at first something to drink to forget his pain and his sadness. But this was not the way this night was going to end...

Suddenly, Parker heard someone crying. At first, he thought it was only an illusion, but as he went forward, the crying was getting louder. Then he stopped in front of a door, where two MIB where guarding the door.

"What’s up?"

"We don’t know. She has been crying since we brought her here," said the first MIB.

"And you hadn’t took a look to see what’s up?" Parker was angry. "Let me in."

The two men looked at each other, feeling unwell. They didn’t know how to handle a 16-year-old crying girl. That was not the type of situation they were trained for. And now they were happy that Parker wanted to clear up this situation, but they knew that he was definitely the last person Ramsey wanted to have here.

"Come on guys.. I'll take it if Ramsey gets mad. You can leave. I'll stay." They were still unsure, but they knew that if he wanted, Parker could beat the two of them without even getting out of breath. And they knew he would, so they left. Parker entered the room.

As Elay heard the door, she looked up, ready for hiding. She relaxed when she saw it was Parker.

"Hey," Parker started. "What’s up with you? Anybody been unfriendly to you?"

Elay blew her nose. "No, they are all very nice." Parker set down next to her and stroke over her head.

"So, tell me what’s up. You want to go back home?"

"No", she nearly shouted. "I mean, you know, it wasn’t really bad there, but...I just don’t fit in there. There’s nobody I can really talk to. I actually don’t miss this place."

"And why are you crying?" She first looked down, then up in his face. She searched for something, a sign that told her she could trust him.

"Please trust me. I only want to help you." "I know," she smiled. "Otherwise, I would be dead now. But they aren’t all like you. They think I am dangerous."

"It’s that what you are worried about? What will happen to you?" Parker asked her, thinking for the first time, how hard all this must be for her. She knew about so much bad things the government had done.

Why shouldn’t she think that they would kill her, too? But something he couldn’t understand was that she seemed to trust him, even though she knew about all the things he had done when he had been a soldier, perhaps better than the others in the team, since she had access to all the high-security files. Was there something else she knew, something that made her trust him, of was it only because their childhood was pretty much the same.

"Elay", he tried it again, "listen. Even though they might think you’re dangerous you are still nothing but a wiz-kid. You haven’t done something that would justify your death. And at last, you are too important for them. Don’t worry any longer, okay?"

She nodded, drying her face with her hands. "Thanks".

"I’m always there for you. If you feel bad again, you can come to me." "Okay," she answered now more calm. After a short break, she added something, something Parker hadn’t expected at all. "Walter was right. He knew I could trust you."

"What?! You know Walter?" Even though Parker knew that he was living in the orphanage, too, he had never thought that the two could know each other.

"Sure I do. You know, he talks a lot about you."

"So, he hadn’t forget me? It’s nice to here that," he smiled. But then, something different came into his mind. "Has there ever been someone searching for him?"

"Not in the orphanage..."

"What do you mean?" Parker was confused.

Elay grinned: "I don’t know who exactly has been searching for him, but I saw the file. Don’t worry, they will never find him. I faked some things, like the autopsy-report. Very easy, if you got access to their computers."

Parker smiled inside. Elay looked to be proud about it.

"Thank you."

"It was for him, not for you", she smiled gently.

"Yeah, sure..." A break. "Everything’s alright now?" then he asked. She nodded and let herself fall back on her bed. "Sleep now. Everything will look better tomorrow."

She smiled and closed her eyes. Silently, Parker left the room.

Suddenly, he realized that he had forgotten to tell Elay about the possibility that she could stay here. But perhaps, it was better that way. He knew that she would have asked him what would happen to her, if Washington wouldn’t agree. And he had no answer to this...

In his room, he was trying to get asleep, but he couldn’t. Too many things were running trough his mind. Memories from his childhood, pictures, words, feelings. Elay reminded him so much of himself, how he had been in her age. This feeling of fighting alone against the world. But if she really could stay here, perhaps he could help her against that feeling. He didn’t want her life to go the same way his life went. Of course, she was no Navy-Seal, but who knows...

Suddenly, he realized that he was trying to change his own past by changing her future. If there had been someone in his life, at her age, perhaps he would now be somewhere else, together with his wife and his son...

"Stop it!" he told himself. "Elay is not like you. She might be similar to you, but she is not you. She seems to be stronger, more able to make it." Finally, he fall asleep, dreaming of his childhood...

The next morning, they all met again at the conference room. Talmadge seemed to be relaxed.

When everybody was arrived, he started: ""Good news. Washington agreed. Elay can stay here, if she wants to. There’s no problem with it, and since you seemed to be the only one she is listening to", he turned to Parker, "it will be left up to you to take care of her."

Parker smiled.

"But what if she doesn’t want to stay here? I mean, imagine...’s not so exciting here for a young girl," Donovan said. The others nodded.

"Well, then she will go back to Pennsylvania. Of course she will be under special surveillance to keep her away from computers. It seems like finally, Washington decided that she is not this dangerous..."

"I don’t think she will choose to go back to the orphanage. I had a little conversation last evening. There’s nothing that makes her stay."

"When did you talk to her?" Ramsey asked.

"She was under surveillance since we left Pennsylvania. My men had order not to let you speak with her."

"I told them to go." Parker replied, trying to hide a big grin.

"You did what?"

"I told them to leave. Look Ramsey. She was crying and your two MIB aren’t the ones to comfort her. And anyway, where could she hide? She could never leave the base, even if she had left her room."

Ramsey wanted to say something, but a look from Talmadge made him keep silence. "The best way to find out what she wants is to ask her," he finished their usual argument. He said something in the intercom and some minutes later, she entered the room guided by the two MIB. As they saw Ramsey's angry face, they left very fast.

Elay still looked tired and nervous, but not anymore so anxious. Parker again stood up to give her his chair, but this time, she was too nervous to sit down.

"Listen", Talmadge turned to her, "there are now two possibilities for you. The first is, you go back to Pennsylvania, returning to your former life, but you will be kept under special surveillance, because you won’t be allowed to touch a computer."

Elay's face crashed down, tears sparkling in her eyes.

"Oh", she nearly whispered.

"I know that sounds hard for you since you are a computer crack, but that’s what Washington had decided."

She swallowed hardly. "And the other possibility?" she asked.

"You stay here at Never Never Land."

Elay opened her eyes widely.

"But that would imply that you won’t have lots of contact with other people in your age...Doctor Mentnor would take you as his protégé. So, what do you say?"

"What do I say? God in heaven, that’s the best thing that ever happened to me!"

"Okay, so... Doctor Mentnor will train you to be his successor and Parker will be your guardian."

"Really?" was everything Elay was able to say.

"Yes, really. But you must be aware that you will have to stay here, unless someone is with you. There aren’t other people your age here and probably, you won't even go to a regular high school. That depends on the results of the test we will give you. No matter how the results are going to be, Doctor Mentnor will teach you everything he knows."

"That’s...That’s incredible. A dream is coming true. Wow, I can hardly believe this is true..."

Talmadge laughed as her saw Elay’s youthful enthusiasm. "So, I guess that’s pretty much it. We will handle you your computer now. You are going to need it. You want to go back to Pennsylvania to get the rest of your things and say goodbye?"

"Yes, that’ll be great."

"Okay, so everything’s clear. We will give you a guard; you can go right back today. You’ll be leaving in one hour. That’s it." Talmadge nodded to them, showing the meeting was over.

"See you this evening", Parker smiled at Elay. She laughed back. "Yes, see you this evening."

"You really get along well with her?" Olga asked Parker later the day, when they were doing some more stress tests.

"Yes, I can. Why? Do you think I am a bad influence for her?"

"Please don’t talk like this. It was just a question."

"She knows that I can understand her, because I know how it is to grow up that way. That’s why she is listening to me. And that’s it."

"Yeah, that’s really good for her. I mean, it might be that having someone who understands her help to fix her life better than..."

"Better than I did?"

"No. Look, you are saving the world almost every week...What could be a better way to spend your life?"

"Well, I think I could imagine one..." Parker replied.

Olga gave him a little smile. "What could be better than saving the world?"

"Mhh. Perhaps if the world knows who is the one that saves their lazy asses."

Olga laughed. "Yes, that’ll be better. Perhaps, one day, we will tell the world. You’ll be a hero then. You are already a hero."

"Yeah, of course." But Parker voice sounded expressionless.

"You don’t seemed to care?"

"No, I actually don’t. I care more about the people around me than about the whole world."

"The world hasn’t been very nice to you, right?"

"Yes, perhaps. But I have done wrong myself. Anyway, that was a long time ago. It’s over."

"It is? I think Elay shows that it is not," Olga returned to their first topic.

"I don’t want her to make the same mistakes I made. Not if I can prevent it."

"How come you care so much about her? Only because she is similar to you? Or is there something else?"

Parker looked puzzled. "What else? Do you think she is my sister or what? Or my daughter? She is way to old to be."

"Yes, of course. That’s true." Then, there was silence between them, until Parker sighted. "I don’t know. I really don’t know what it is. Between her and me. She seems to have exactly the same character. Even thought I’ve only known her only for such a short time."

"You have thought about her being your sister, right?"

"Yes, I did. But she doesn’t look like me at all."

That doesn’t prove anything. If it helps you, I could make a blood test, to see if you two are relatives."

Parker looked into her eyes. "You would do that for me?"

Olga smiled. "Yes, of course. It doesn’t take too much time."

Parker looked nervous. "How long does it take?"

"I’ll start right now, if you want. It won’t take so long."

"That would be great."

"Ok, see you later."

"Yes, thanks." They had finished the tests, but Olga laid aside the results and started right with the blood tests. She had to confess to herself that she was nervous and excited. What if Parker was right?

She knew that the chance was near zero, but she couldn’t help asking herself. She worked faster than usual, but also more concentrated. Fortunately, she had still some blood from the doctor’s examination. From Parker, she had some blood anyway.

As she was waiting for the results, she thought about Elay. She was really much like Parker, but one thing was different. She didn’t seem to be unhappy with her character. She didn’t seem to have a real problem with being different from everybody else. Perhaps, Parker was wrong. Perhaps, she didn’t need as much help as he thought. She knew that Parker had had big problems with being an orphan and being different from the others when he was young.

Elay didn’t seem to have these problems. Or rather, she seemed to handle them in a different way. It seemed more like she was using her character as a kind of weapon. That was the impression Olga got when she saw how Elay was handling Ramsey.

And now, she seemed even more self-confident, now that she was with people who had her IQ.

A short "beep" woke her from her thoughts, showing the results were ready. She looked at them.

And held her breath for a moment. That was impossible. It just couldn’t be. Elay was not Parker’s sister, or his daughter. What she was, seemed to be absolutely impossible....

They all met at the conference room, after Olga had ask Talmadge for a meeting.

Elay wasn’t there, because she was already on her way to Pennsylvania. Olga started immediately after everyone had arrived.

"Thanks for coming. To talk clearly, I made a blood-test to see if Elay and Parker are, in any kind of ways, relatives. Well, she isn’t his sister, as far as I could tell. It seemed to be more paradox."

"What are you trying to tell us? That she is his daughter?" Ramsey asked. His faced was bothered and bored.

"No, but that’s actually not far from the truth. After the tests, it seems like..."

Suddenly, the door was slammed open.

"Elay!" Olga shouted. The girl was wearing Doc Martens and cut off jeans and a top. And in her right hand, she had a gun. It was posed exactly on Olga.

"Shut up!" she screamed. Nobody moved.

"Who are you?" Parker finally asked.

"Parker, are you insane or what? That’s Elay" Ramsey spoke out, what all of them thought.

But Parker stood calm. "No, she is not."

"Frank, who else could that be? Of course you are disappointed, but you got to face the truth. Elay´s not what we thought she is" Donovan said.

"He’s right. I am not Elay. My name is Celeste. And you," she waved the gun through the room. "Are coming with me. And no tricks."

She took Olga, who was next to her, and pointed the gun on her head. They followed her. Parker was confused. The girl didn’t make a single fault. She was moving like a trained soldier. There was no way they could knock her out without bringing Olga in danger. They went to the hangar.

Elay was waiting there. He now could imagine how they got in here. They must have kidnapped Elay right when she left the base. Then this girl went back in. Perhaps they had Elay in the trunk. He just hopped that the man who was with Elay was all right.

A man was posing a gun on Elay’s head, but her face was expressionless. Celeste stopped besides her. They looked exactly the same, but now, Parker could see that the look in their eyes, and also their bearing. That was what made Parker so sure who was Celeste and who Elay.

"Ah, here they come," the man said. "Celeste, take care of her, so they don’t give each other silly ideas." Celeste nodded and concentrated herself on Olga. The man took down his gun. Elay didn’t make a move, but Parker could see that she relaxed a bit.

"I am sure you have a lot of questions," the man began. "But let me explain everything. First of all, my name is Doctor Frank Smithson. And now, I want to tell you a story. In the year 1968, at the end of the Vietnam War, I started an experiment, supported by the U.S.-Army. An experiment to create the ultimate soldiers and assassins. Lots of people have tried this, but no one was as successful as we were. Or goal was not to create soldiers who followed every order, but soldiers who didn’t need orders, or fewer orders. Natural born soldiers. To reach that goal, we made several babies, whose genetic material was changed by us. In the year 1970, the first generation was born. But they were too unstable. Most of them ended up killed by each other, or they committed suicide when they were really young. Except one."

At this point, he stopped.

Parker swallowed. "You mean...Except me?"

"Yes, you are right. Except you. But you weren’t exactly what we wanted. Psychological studies showed that it would be more efficient if we used women. Women with an innocent look. That was also necessary, because we recreated our goals. The war was over. What was needed now in the world where assassins. And innocent looking women are not so conspicuous. So we took your genetic material, changed it a little bit and voila, the second generation. And now, here they are. Celeste and Elay. They are more than sisters. Actually, they are the same person."

"But that’s not everything, right? They are my clones or something like that. That’s what Olga found out."

"Well, they are your clones, even though their genetic material is a little bit different," the doctor replied. "Oh, I forgot something. The U.S.-Army stopped supporting the project after the first people had been killed. I kept on doing them by myself."

"But there are two things I don’t understand. Why have Elay and Celeste been growing up separately? And how come people say Alan Underwood was Elay’s father?" Parker asked.

"Well, your second question is easy to answer. Of course we needed a surrogate mother for the children. And Elay’s surrogate mother had an affair with Alan Underwood, right before the time Elay was born. That’s where the rumor came from. Your first question is not so easy to answer. But let me try. Separating the two of them was part of the experiment. We wanted to know if they would become similar, even if they grew up separately. As you can see, Celeste is a trained killer. So don’t try to fool her. She could kill you without even thinking about it. Because she was educated by us. And we made her the perfect killer. No conscience, no feelings, no problems."

"But what happened to Elay? You lost her or what?" Donovan asked.

"No, that was also part of the experiment, I told you. We didn’t only wanted to know if they would become similar without knowing each other, but also if Elay would become as aggressive and as conscienceless as Celeste, even if she lived with normal people. At first it seemed like she was exactly how we wanted her to be. But at the last minute, it seemed like she had changed."

It was you who put all the information onto the Internet and you made it look like it was me. But why?" Elay screamed out.

The doctor looked puzzled. "Yes, that was what we had planned, but they caught you before we could do this. How do you know? Anyway, we wanted to put you into an extreme situation. And now here it is. There you see," he pointed his finger on Parker, "the one who is your, well, I guess they don’t have a word for it yet. He is more like your father, more like your brother. But he was a mistake. He is too uncontrollable. And now," he turned to Elay, "you are gonna kill him!"

"What?!"

"Yes, I will give you my gun and you’re gonna kill him. That’s what you are made for, what you are created for!"

"I will not kill anyone!" Elay emphasized every word.

"All right. It’s your choice. But then Celeste is going to kill you. Because if you don’t kill him, it’s you who is the mistake."

"That’s okay. Kill me."

Celeste looked confused. "Doctor, I thought we wanted to take her with us. You said she is like me. Nobody ever talked about killing her."

"Celeste, baby. Face the truth. We thought she was like you. But she is not. Can’t you see? She is a mistake. We though we could set her out in this world and she would become just as perfect as you are. But she is not. So kill her."

Celeste still looked confused, but she pointed the gun on Elay. The gun was not even shaking. The two girls were starring at each other like they were looking into a mirror.

"Which one of us got to be like who?" Elay asked Celeste.

"What do you mean? And don’t try to confuse me, it won’t work."

"Look at your life. You’ve been locked up the whole time. Locked in a cage. The only thing you know is what they’ve taught you. You had no choice. No possibility to make your own decisions what you want to learn and what you don’t want to learn. How could you separate what’s right and what’s wrong? How could you?"

It seemed like some doubts were coming into Celeste’s eyes.

"How could you?" Elay almost whispered.

"Kill her!" the doctor shouted.

And the silence was broken and the life came back into Celeste. She turned around and shot the doctor in his head.

One single shot, perfectly placed. He was dead before his body hit the ground. A tear streamed down Celeste’s face.

Elay stepped forward and placed one hand on Celeste’s shoulder. "It’s over. You are free now."

"No, I will never be free. Everything I have ever learned was wrong. Everything. You know how many people I have killed without even thinking about it? You don’t. And you can’t imagine how I feel now. I’ll never be free."

With these words, too fast for someone else to react, she placed the gun on her temple and she pulled the trigger.

"No!" Elay cried, but it was too late.

She took Celeste’s body in her arms and cried. Parker rushed over to here and to her. Gently, he laid the lifeless body on the ground and took Elay in his arms.

She turned to him and hid her face on his shoulder. Tears were streaming down her face and her body was shivering...

Epilogue

Some weeks later...

As Parker paid the taxi, the driver turned to him. "Hey man, at your place, I would ask your woman where the hell your baby girl got the blond hair from."

"Oh, don’t worry" Parker laughed, "it’s a genetic thing."

He was still laughing when he followed Elay and Olga into the restaurant. The two women looked good together. Olga in a simple black dress, Elay in a short silver one. Parker was dressed well, too.

Mike, Patricia and Jimmy were already at their table.

"Daddy, Daddy!" Jimmy screamed and flew into Parker’s arms.

"Hey buddy," he laughed. "There are two people I want you to meet. This is Olga and this is Elay. Be nice to her, she is now your foster-sister."

"Hi Olga, hi Elay," Jimmy smiled, but then, his attention went back to his father. He took him by the hand and pulled him over to their table. Parker greeted Mike and Patricia and introduced them to Olga and Elay. They set down and made their choices. It was a very relaxed atmosphere and they had a good conversation.

But suddenly, Elay’s beeper went on. "Oh no, it’s Isaac. I hope nothing bad happened. I’m gonna call him. I’ll be right back."

She took her cell phone and left the table. There was silent now on the table, everyone was eating.

Then, Patricia cleared her throat. "Frank, may I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Well, how did it happen that Elay is now your foster-child?"

"Because I am the only one that is fast enough to catch her when she hides," Parker laughed.

"Frank," Olga said, '"you are making yourself smaller than you are. In fact," she turned to Patricia, "he is the only one Elay will listen to. She wouldn’t take orders from someone else."

"Wow, you must have impressed her."

"No, I don’t think so. I guess she just knows that I can understand her. Her childhood was very similar to mine."

"Oh, okay." The conversation stopped, because Elay came back.

"And, what’s up?" Parker asked her.

"Oh, nothing bad. Isaac just wanted to tell me that my solution for the security hole in the GSF-software was right."

Jimmy suddenly looked up. "You know about that hole?"

"Sure I do. And you?"

Jimmy smiled. "It would be a shame if I didn’t," he said with a seriousness in his voice that sounded nearly funny, because of his youth. "But do you know how to use the UNIX-shadow-break?"

Elay nodded and grinned.

Patricia looked confused at her son. "What’s that? A computer game?" '

Jimmy was filled with indignation, but before he could say anything, Elay answered. "Not exactly, but it so not far away from it."

Patricia didn’t seemed to believe this answer, but she left it like that. Only a few moments later, Jimmy and Elay were caught in a conversation that the adults couldn’t follow.

The only words Parker could understand were "NSA," "Mainframe" and "hack". He shook his head. Jimmy was only ten years old. He turned back to the adult’s conversation and some seconds later, he had already forgotten his thoughts.

Jimmy and Elay had realized Parker’s puzzled look, but they relaxed as they saw him shaking his head.

They looked at each other and started to grin...

The End