REPORT: PTB
FILE #: 316

The episode begins in the studio of the radio talk show host named Neil Roberts... one of the those hosts that likes to argues with his listeners about stuff that really doesn't have any bearing on real life. At the urging of Neil's producer, Angela Somerset, he takes a call from "an old friend", the Middle Man.... who is Jarod! Neil asks "Double M" if the PTB's (Powers That Be) are still chasing him. Jarod tells Neil about being stolen from his parents when he was three and that for the past three years he has been searching for them.... Neil, a usually tough guy, soften towards Jarod who he can relate too. Jarod hangs up and is headed out of Chicago.

The caller after Jarod tells Neil to open the package that he sent... Express Mail. Inside the package is a dead rat... and a picture of a girl with a note that says, "TIME'S UP!" Neil is in his basement and there are identical pictures and notes up on his bulletin board.... they are all from the same man. Neil decides that it is time to pack up and leave but he is a bit late.... as all his listeners, including Jarod.... hear a shotgun blast and then more gunfire from a smaller weapon... a .45... and then the intruder sets off a grenade.

Jarod, who was driving out of Chicago, does a 180 and goes back into Chicago... to the WLNJ Building. When he arrives, he puts of the microphone and answers a belligerent caller who thinks that all of the gun shots were a stunt to boost ratings. Angela says that she is going to call the police on Jarod, after he has finished the phone call. Jarod says that he doesn't think that she is going to because then she would have when the shots were fired. She then realizes that Jarod is the Middle Man and agrees to let him finish the show.

At Thomas' house, Miss Parker convinces Tommy to "sleep in"... but later finds that Tommy has bought a new house that he wants to restore... with her. There is only one catch... it is in Portland, Oregon! Miss Parker is not sure about this... she has her career and her family in Blue Cove and she must think of them. However, he doesn't see the decision as such a hard one to make... he tells her that he must leave soon.

In the parking garage at WLNJ, Jarod is in his car and he is listening to a replay of the man who called in to the show when all the gunfire started. He hears, in the background, Neil hitting the auto-dial to call someone on the phone. Jarod picks up the phone- he figured out the number by the tone of the keys... and calls the number.

Just as Angela is leaving the building, her cell phone starts ringing and when she answers it, she starts talking to the person on the other end as if they are Neil, however, it is not... it's Jarod. He tells her that he knows that Neil called her and that he is sure that Neil told her not to call the police. She caves and tells Jarod that Neil told her to keep up appearances until tomorrow and that if she didn't hear from him, he would be gone forever.

Jarod and Angela are in Neil's studio, in an abandoned building, from where the broadcast took place... The place is pretty trashed, and Jarod and Angela both see the board with all the pictures and notes. Jarod starts to examine the room and soon discovers that Neil may have escaped through the grenade through the back door. When Jarod takes a closer look by the door, he notices a smear of blood on the wall.

At the Centre, Broots brings in a real estate sign that says, "For Sale by Owner". Lyle soon realizes that the house that is being sold is Thomas'. He asks Miss Parker about it, but she doesn't tell him much.

Lyle leaves but Sydney and Broots pick up where Lyle left off, asking her if Thomas is moving away and if she will follow him to Oregon.... but she doesn't give them an answer. Sydney tells her that a long time ago the Powers That Be caused him to lose his family, and that she shouldn't let the same thing happen to her.

Back at Neil's studio, Jarod and Angela are staring at the bulletin board with pictures of Patricia Marie's photo all over it. Angela wonders if this Patricia is Neil's daughter. But whether she is his daughter or not, Jarod realizes, because of something that Neil said, that they have never met. Searching the bookshelves, Jarod finds a book on "Relativity" that has been hollowed out and inside he finds newspaper articles and photos of Patricia Marie in a wheelchair. Neil is following this girls life. Jarod realizes that he must find Patricia and Neil before the phantom phone caller does.

At WLNJ, Jarod is on the air taunting that man that destroyed Neil's studio. It doesn't take very long for the man to call into the show.

The man is on his cell phone, in his car... parked next to the EL tracks. There is a train passing by that Jarod notices. The man is a diabetic and has insulin in his car. He gets out of the car and begins to walk towards another car. Jarod asks if it is alright if they call him "Pavlov".... but the man says that Jarod should call him PTB. When Jarod asks his if he is a PTB... Pavlov says that he is the only one! Pavlov has his .45 ready and now we see that the person in the other car is Neil Roberts! Neil doesn't see Pavlov, because he is watching Patricia get off a train and head home at the Olympia Apartments.

Neil calls Angela at the studio, but Neil still doesn't know that Pavlov is behind him. Angela passes off the phone to Jarod, who starts to talk to Neil. Jarod is trying to make Neil understand that he is there to help Neil and not to hurt him. Then Jarod hears the train in the background and realizes that Neil is in the same place that Pavlov is.... and Jarod screams through the phone for Neil to get out of there! Neil drives away as Pavlov fires the .45 at the back of his car.

Back at Neil's place, Angela is thinking that Pavlov has killed Neil, but Jarod is not so willing to believe that. Jarod gets onto Neil's PC and starts looking through the files... but soon discovers that everything is encrypted, and not even Angela knows the password. It doesn't take Jarod long, however, to figure out the password to Neil's PC and gain access to the files... where Jarod learns that Neil has been paying for Patricia's care... and has been funding research from the New Vista Foundation for the nerve disorder from which she suffers. Neil had her moved to a new assisted care facility six months ago.... when the threats started.

At the Centre, Miss Parker enters her father’s office as he is trying to hang the family portrait from his wedding to Brigitte. Mr. Parker finishes with the picture which remains crooked... so Miss Parker helps him. However, she is caught off guard when he starts discussing Thomas and the move to Oregon. Mr. Parker is disgusted that Thomas thinks that Miss Parker would consider leaving her family. Miss Parker is disappointed by his attitude towards it.

Mr. Parker asks Miss Parker if she knows why he calls her "Angel"... she doesn't... he say that when she was three and a half years old, that he was on a high ladder checking a leaky sky light... but before he took the last step, she screamed to him..."Daddy- broken!" If he had taken that step, he would have fallen 30feet onto the rocks.... and that her mother said that she was his guardian angel and so he has been calling her angel ever since. At the end of his little story he adds, "If you leave me, I might as well be dead." She is trapped now, and she knows it.

Jarod and Angela go to see Patricia at her apartment and learn that the thing that helped her to start fighting to get well instead of giving up was a series of tapes... made by Neil... that were made by a man that she has never met. She thinks that his voice is what gives her the will to keep trying.

Outside, in the hallway, Jarod and Angela are trying to understand why Neil would devote his life to someone, without meeting her or telling her who he is. Unseen by Jarod and Angela, there is someone else lurking in the hallway... someone holding a .45........

Jarod is back at WLNJ... he is talking about PTB's and how they can take your life away from you. Angela tells him that Pavlov is on line one. Jarod takes the call, and Angela starts the program that is trying to triangulate Pavlov's location.

Pavlov is in his car... giving himself a needed dose of insulin. Jarod is still talking to him... feeding his anger, trying to keep him on the line. Little does Jarod know... but Pavlov has gotten into Jarod's head and knows about him. Pavlov jumps down Jarod's throat and calls him an orphan boy. Then Pavlov cuts the connection. Angela tells him that the trace didn't work because Pavlov cut the connection to soon. An angered and frustrated Jarod knocks all of the papers off the desk.

At Thomas' house, Miss Parker sits at the wheel of her car. She isn't making any move to get out of the car to go inside to talk to Tommy. She is thinking about everything in her life and Sydney telling her to take a chance with happiness. She thinks about Broots saying that her father would freak if she left and her father saying that he might as well be dead. She finally gets out of the car... her decision made...through a window we can see her talking to Thomas... it is clear that she is not going.

Jarod is back in his car... looking through a U.S. Army database on his laptop. There is a service record for Neil Michael Roberts. He was a staff surgeon in an Army hospital at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina... where Patty's parents died. Jarod hears a noise outside of his car... he gets out to look around and finds himself with a .45 in his back.

Neil forces Jarod to the wall. Jarod tries to get Neil to give him the gun.... telling him that he needs his help or Pavlov will kill Patty. Neil puts the gun down and tells Jarod that Patty's condition is his fault. There were government experiments on Patty's mother while she was pregnant. Neil got results that suggested there might be an adverse reaction, but he was ignored and convinced by the PTB's to go along with the experiments. Neil was then transferred and didn't know about her until he heard about her parents car accident. Since that time, he dedicated himself to speaking up... but he still didn't have the nerve to tell Patty about himself.

At the Centre, Lyle is reading a piece of paper. He says, "The powers that be are everywhere... they take your loved ones away from you." He wants to know who wrote this stuff.... Broots tells him that it was from a talk show that comes out of Chicago. Miss Parker and Sydney indicate that it is Jarod. Miss Parker and Lyle start to argue about Thomas... and then the phone rings and Lyle then tells her that "The Shop teacher is here."

In the Centre Lobby, Miss Parker meets Tommy. Miss Parker asks him what he is doing here and he tells her that he didn't mean what he said about it being her father and this place talking. Miss Parker starts to get defensive and starts talking about a commitment and he reminds her that it IS a commitment! They continue to argue and bit, but finally Tommy says, "Please don't make me leave part of my life here." Miss Parker walks away and leaves him standing there. She doesn't know what to do... so can't decide. And she doesn't realize that Raines is watching and has seen the entire thing.

Miss Parker is at home and the phone rings.....after waiting for a while she finally picks up the phone... expecting it to be Tommy... however it is not... it's Jarod and he is just calling to tell her that he only sent the sign so that she would know that Thomas was selling his house. Jarod then realizes that she and Thomas have already discussed it. She tells him that Thomas is moving to Oregon and he wants her to go... Jarod tells her that she should and she thinks it is only so that she will stop chasing after him. She then tells him that it is too late anyway... and Jarod know that she picked a fight with him.... he then reminds her that her mother was trying to get her away from The Centre before she died and now that it all Thomas wants.

After he hangs up the phone, Jarod clips on a tag that will gain him entrance to the Army Advanced Research Projects... it says, "Major Jarod Turgidson". Jarod goes into the Federal Building.

Later, Jarod tosses a file on the table in front of Neil. Jarod tells Neil that the testing continued after Neil left and it got worse. Neil says that he did shows about it and Jarod says that it is because of the shows that the Army shut the program down. Jarod says that the head of that project was Colonel Willard Spence and when the Army conducted their internal investigation, Spence was made the scapegoat and that he went to Leavenworth for 7 years. He developed diabetes with he was in prison . Neil sees that Spence's PO (parole officer) is in Olympia Fields which is close to Patty.

After seeing all the information that Jarod has obtained, and seeing the ID badge that got Jarod in to obtain it, Neil comments that he has been following the story of a man who shows up in odd places and defends the weak and abused. He goes to the file cabinet and pulls out a file that is on him... there are clippings of all Jarod's last pretends in the file! Jarod asks Neil why he didn't expose him on the show and Neil says that he only exposes bad conspiracies.

Angela arrives... she is happy to see Neil and they hug. Then she says that there is some "people" at the station who are looking for Jarod. Men wearing suits and one’s name was Sam. Jarod says that they are "Sweepers" and when Neil questions him he tells him that they are the powers that be.

Lyle and Sydney are on The Centre jet waiting for Miss Parker and Broots... Broots comes aboard and says that no one has seen Miss Parker. Lyle says "That's it. We're out of here." Lyle calls the pilot and tells him to go. They leave without Miss Parker.

Jarod goes on the air with Neil's show. In his car outside of WLNJ, is Pavlov/Spence. He hears Neil's voice on the radio thanking Middle man for subbing for him.

Lyle drives up and jumps out of the car, followed by Broots and Sydney. He meets Sam, who says that Jarod must have gotten past him because the show has already started... and Jarod's voice is coming over the radio at the station. Lyle runs to the studio... and everyone follows.

Spence called the show and is now on air with Jarod... Jarod is taunting him... telling him to come to the studio and take revenge on all of them. Spence says that he plans on getting revenge but not wear Jarod thinks.

Lyle, Sam, Sydney and Broots all burst through the doors and are headed for the broadcast room... Jarod is still taunting Spence on the phone.... a man attempts to stop Lyle and Lyle pushes him into the nearest wall and keeps going. They all burst into the studio only to find Neil instead of Jarod. On air, Robert says, "Well, look here.... the powers that aren't."

Spence arrives at Patty's apartment... he kicks in the door and starts to shut up the place... then from behind Jarod grabs him and puts something over his mouth and nose.... Spence goes limp... Speaking into a microphone worn like a headphone and wearing a portable transmitter..... Jarod tells Neil that the show is "all yours." Neil knows that Patricia is safe, and that Jarod caught Spence.

When Spence awakens, he realizes that he is in a wheelchair and that someone has taped him to it. Spence struggles.... Jarod comes over and tells Spence that he knows what he did. Reminding Spence that Patricia is one of his victim and that there are others.... Spence says that he has already been to prison for that... Jarod tells him that he doesn't know what prison is ... that prison is the one that you wake up to every morning even when you are free in the world.

Spence starts to need his insulin... Jarod rolls a doctors instrument table out in front of Spence... with syringes on it... Spence reaches for one of the needles but Jarod tells him that only one of them is insulin and the others have a potentially lethal drug in them. Finally, Spence admits that he stalked Neil and that he tried to kill him. He wants Jarod to tell him which syringe has the insulin and Jarod says that they all do. Jarod has tape recorded the whole thing.

Later, Jarod takes Patricia to the studio to meet Neil and when she hears his voice, she recognizes it as the one from the tapes. Jarod says that the man behind the voice is waiting to meet her. Jarod takes Patricia in and she sees Neil and smile at him... he is shaken at the meeting but says that he hopes that she will forgive him.

Thomas is sitting in his bed... miserable. Miss Parker walks in and takes off her jacket. She puts her gun and her keys on the nightstand and sits on the bed beside him. Thomas knows that this means yes. She tells him that there are things about her that she need to know before they can make a life together. He tries to stop her and she tells him to listen. She tells him that she has dark places inside of her... he stops her saying that he know that she thinks if he sees they he will reject her but she has to remember that he is a fix-it man and they will deal with it together. She tells him that she supposes that that makes her his new project.... and he says but this one he will never sell. She rests her head on his chest.

On the radio, we hear Neil's voice saying that sooner or later everyone hits a crossroads in their life. Once again, Jarod is driving out of Chicago, and as he goes Neil tells him to watch his back and to never quit... somewhere up ahead is Jarod's crossroads.