December 8, 1999
16:45
Bangkok, Thailand. Home of seven million people. Virtually improbable to find a person who doesn't want to be found. And with only one clue to go on, definitely impossible. The keycard was one of hundreds of thousands issued by the Bank of Thailand, and only led to box number 00-29, which turned up empty. Zack was obviously disappointed that his hunch ended up as a dead end. He and Tatiana returned empty handed. Ivy, however, was a bit more interested in the case when they returned to ACME Headquarters and told her the news.
"What! I mean, are you kidding me!" Ivy practically yelled at Zack when he told her the news. She lowered her voice when someone outside her small office peered in her doorway. She motioned for Zack to close the door, before continuing excitedly, "What the crap is the deal Bro!"
"Jeez, Ivy!" he replied, baffled at her appearing enraged over what was normally termed a 'smaller' thing. "Get a grip! It's not the first time we followed a bad lead. You know sometimes it isn't so obvious. So why are you freakin' out?"
"Little Bro! Don't you get it! I'm not freakin' out except for the fact that this just puts us one step closer to getting Carmen! We have the evidence that the person concocting this wanted us to find! There wasn't supposed to anything in the account box. Try out the number," she smiled at him when he looked at her strangely, before continuing, "On the account. It is a code for something. Go figure it out. I'm gonna work on the other stuff that was in the envelope, and try to profile this guy in the meantime."
Zack looked at her strangely again, before turning to leave. "How did you know about the account meaning something?" he asked before exiting through her office door. "It would have saved us an extremely long plane ride if you had just told us before!"
Ivy shuffled around the file on her desk, clearly not sure how to answer his question. "It just came to me Bro," she began, clearly grasping for straws. She now knew that Carmen's son was behind this little escapade that they were working on, but she had yet to figure out why. And she wasn't willing to tell anyone without concrete evidence. "It reminded me of that time in Switzerland where we got the pass-codes for several accounts, and they were all worthless. They were just code for something else . . . remember?" She hoped he bought it . . . it was partially true after all.
"Oh . . . uh, yeah. I remember. Good thinking, Ivy," he smiled as he opened the door and began to leave. "The Apollo statue. Who could forget? Anyways, I'll get this to the comp lab. Catch ya later!"
Ivy smiled a bit sadly to herself. It was too easy. No wonder Carmen did it all the time. She looked back down at the file, concentrating on the surveillance photo of the man now termed as 'Carmen's son'. What in the world had he to do with this was still what baffled her. "Was he trying to get his own mother captured?" she wondered. It was the only valid explanation that came to her mind when she thought about it. And the more she thought about it, the more she was determined to find some answers.
January 1, 2000
01:30
Standing by myself,
My back to the wall,
All alone,
Avoiding one more dagger from trusting,
Fragments of my heart,
Torn from the pain, thrusting
My hearts in pieces,
Broken from not rushing into your arms,
Crushed from staying away.
I want to be left alone, all alone
All alone with you
All alone with you
I'd rather have confinement solitary
Than put my heart on the chopping block again
So lonesome without your love
Serenaded the wall
Waited for your call
Deserted
Except for the memory of you
Ivy covered her ears against the blaring stereo in Zack's downtown Washington DC apartment. She was still there, not willing to leave because this was the last time she would see her brother for six months. She was being transferred to the Paris branch of ACME, her life long dream now being accomplished. She was going to be a successful spy, living in the most beautiful city in the world! But she was still going to miss her 'Little Bro' something awful. But it wasn't enough to keep her at this lame party any longer. She just didn't understand his choice of music. It was depressing. And it reminded her of a certain someone . . .
"Oh law! I have to get outta here!" she thought to herself, avoiding the reminiscent feelings that were sure to come on soon. "Zack!" she yelled, trying to be heard over the music. "Zack! I'm leavin'! Where are you Lil' Bro!" She walked through the crowds of her co-workers still dancing and celebrating the New Year, into the kitchen where they were mixing drinks for midnight. She spied Zack and Tatiana getting a little too 'happy' with the vodka. "Oh law! Zack! What are you doing?" she yelled just as the song stopped playing in the living room.
"Geez Ivy! Think you could be any louder! I think the Chief coulda heard that!" Zack frowned at Ivy. She was getting more and more frustrated as the seconds ticked away.
"Well, I just came to tell you I was leaving. And it is about time you turned the cruddy music off anyways!" she smarted off back at him. The surprised look on the faces of the others in the room told her that she was about to go too far. She took a deep breath, and tried to straighten out her thoughts. Zack hadn't been the only one drinking, and it was starting to tell.
"Ivy, you had too much to drink, huh?" Zack was smirking at Ivy's unusual bad attitude. "Sorry you gotta leave Sis, but maybe it's a good thing."
"Yeah, Zack. I don't think I need to be around anyone right now anyway. I think I'll get Josha to take me to the airport early. Have you seen him?" she looked around in the crowds, knowing Josha would be the one, keeping the keys, and calling the designated drivers. She spotted him fending off a group of intoxicated females, who normally were very reserved around the guys in the office. "Funny how booze'll change a person completely." she thought to herself. "I'll see you around, Bro," she said over her shoulder to Zack, knowing that he was bound to come see her before she left in a few hours for Paris.
"Later, Sis. I'll be around to see you off when we get everyone outta here," he told her, looking around at the now dwindling throng, and then looking at his watch. 1:45am. "What time's your plane leave?"
Ivy thought for a moment. "I think it leaves at eight. But I'm gonna get Josha to help me finish packing and then take me over to the airport. I figured I'll have plenty of time to sleep on the plane." She started out the door, with Josha grabbing her keys, so she couldn't drive. She smiled up at him before turning back to yell back in the kitchen, "You better come see me Zack! Bye!" and she walked out the door.
Josha took her hand gently in his and led her down the street toward her car. Ivy could tell he had something on his mind, because he was unusually quiet. Practically mute, in fact. Ivy had a funny feeling in her stomach, and was about to enlighten him to this fact, when he suddenly piped up with, "So Ivy, when are you going to be back in the states?"
"Josha, we have been over this a zillion times already," she slurred, now getting a slight headache from walking so fast. "What are you getting at?"
"I was just wondering," he replied, slightly frowning. "You are a mean drunk, you know it?"
Ivy laughed at this remark, and then frowned. He wasn't the only one to have told her that. "Maybe I should quit drinking," she thought, slightly hurt. "Or maybe not. What is the matter with Josha? It can't be that bad"
Josha looked at her funnily, like he had something he was waiting to say to her, but she wasn't in the right state of mind to take it. "Ivy, I want to ask you something," he began, thinking that if he just got it out in the open, it wouldn't be so hard to take, "You know how we've been kinda dating for about a year now? Well, except for when you were working here in DC over the last part of summer break," he stopped, realizing that he was about to go off topic, and then he rushed into his next words, in a hurry to get it over with, "Ivy, willyoumarryme?"
Ivy stopped dead in her tracks, suddenly sober. She looked up into Josha's slightly red face, with a questioning look. "What?"
Josha took a deep breath, and enunciating each word, repeated, "Ivy, will you marry me?" And then seeing the shocked look on her face, he continued, "I know this seems out of the blue, but I have been planning to ask you for a while now, even before you were transferred. But the timing just never was right. I had to ask you now before you left, so . . ."
Ivy kept staring at him with her mouth wide open. She snapped out of it when Josha stopped talking and looked at her as if he expected something. "Oh crap! He wants an answer now! Oh thanks a lot Josha! Great timing!" she thought to herself, before smiling coyly at him and walking on towards her car, ignoring the startled look on his face.
"Ivy!" Josha rushed after her "IVY! Where are you going?" He stopped her as she grabbed the handle to her car door. She spun around, laughing as he sputtered about an answer.
"I'm going to Paris!" she said, and laughed again, as she started running to her car. "Josha, I figure, since it took you this long to ask, it would only be fair to let YOU wait some time for an answer!" she turned her back to him and reaching her car, unlocked the door, and was about to open it, when Josha wrapped his arms around her waist, and bent over her shoulder.
"Ivy Darren! Will you marry me or not?" he whispered into her ear. He hugged her closer, and propped his chin in the crook of her neck, waiting for an answer. Ivy thought it was funny that he was now holding her in place, preventing her from moving without giving him a response.
"Josha, I have to go to Paris. You realize that if I was to say yes, it would change nothing," she whispered to his reflection in the car window, "I still have to go."
Josha spun her around to where they were now face to face, and he bent down until they were inches apart. She could feel his warm breath dance across her face, and it tingled against her cold cheeks. "Ivy, I know that you still have to go; that's why I asked you now. Because I love you, and I want you to have a reason to come back."
"But I already have plenty of reasons to come back!" she huffed. "I have Zack, and ACME and you, and my family, and. . ." she trailed off when he bent down closer and placed his mouth over hers, lightly at first, then as she responded to him, he pushed deeper until she had to pull away for loss of breath. She smirked up at him, "Well, that's another reason I have to come back. So, yes, Josha. You have convinced me that I cannot live without you and I must marry you or I will die of . . ." she searched for something to fill in the end of that sentence, but stopped when she noticed Josha a little perturbed. "What?" she laughed.
"Are you taking this seriously?" he questioned.
"Of course I am. I wouldn't be joking if I didn't take it seriously," she replied, and arched her eyebrow at his questioning look
Josha smiled down at her, thinking to himself that it was a bit strange that he could love her even when she was incredibly stupid, like now.
Ivy's widening grin answered his question. He hugged her tightly to his chest and gently kissed her forehead. "Let's go get you finished packing, Ivy," he said. "The sooner you get there, the sooner I can come see you."
Ivy laughed lightly at his backwards logic. "Men in love! Jeez!" she thought to herself.
07:30
The color red was the leading blessing and curse in Ivy's life. This color caught the attention of all passers-by, benefiting Ivy in her line of work (endlessly chasing after Carmen Sandiego), but hindered her in her desire for unrecognition at times. One of those times being now.
She had made her emotional goodbyes to Josha, and then to Zack. She was now staring at the reflections in the massive glass panes that overlooked the departing planes. She was attempting to ignore the glances that her shoulder-length flaming red hair attracted from the passing travelers. The more she tried to ignore them, the more they seemed to bore into her back like daggers. It might not have bothered her so much, but her mind was uneasy when she flew on missions. She just couldn't get over the enormity of the planes, or the expanse that she had to cover in them. Yes, the fearless Ivy Darren was afraid of flying.
However, even that fled from her mind at this point, for one pair of curious eyes had not wandered on with the rest of the crowds. She could feel their continued presence, and the uneasiness that followed surged through her body, eventually finding its way to her neck muscles. The muscles tightened into her readied position of fleeing or fighting, which in her case, usually meant the latter.
Her bright green eyes meticulously scanned the reflections, eventually finding the pair of eyes that had been studiously fixed on her for the past half-hour. She sighed heavily, and frowned darkly at the reflection, despite her usual cool headedness, for the owner of the curious eyes was someone, unfortunately, who she knew all too well . . .