Chapter 2, Faculty Falter
"Still infighting, huh?" Carmen's voice was quiet though the coms, strained. Player could practically see the way her eyebrows were knit in pain.
Not even thirty seconds before, she had frantically been battling Coach Brunt, whimpering after every blow, letting out cut-off screams as her bones were cracked underneath the coach's tight grip.
Of course, Player was unable to see anything that was happening, and only could listen in. Now, he could only assume it was Shadowsan who appeared, seeing as how nobody else fought constantly enough with Coach Brunt to be listed as an infighter.
Carmen continued, still sounding broken, and though it was hidden, Player picked up on the fear in her voice. "Well, I wasn't going back with Coach, and I'm definitely not going back with you."
When Carmen's newcomer adversary spoke, Player immediately had his suspicions confirmed.
Shadowsan.
From Carmen's reports, easily the deadliest out of the five faculty members.
Shadowsan's voice was loud enough to carry through Carmen's coms, and Player tuned in, shoulders hunching as he rapidly tried to disassemble all security cameras and defense systems in the building. The cops needed to get in. As quickly as humanly possible.
"I did not come here to take you back." Shadowsan growled, voice lowering several notes. The noise of a sword broke through the coms. He cried in wrath, and Carmen let out a grunt of surprise, and then-
Nothing. No noise from Carmen. Not a peep from Shadowsan.
Fear constricted around Player, and he felt everything he knew getting torn apart. "Carmen!"
He waited two seconds in the silent void before crying out again. "Red?! Are you alright?! Please, respond!"
And yet, she still didn't answer.
Her communicator had gone offline, deadly silent. The tracker had vanished off of his computer, it was gone. She was gone. Fear overwhelmed him, and he gripped his mouse almost hard enough to break it.
It was the most scared he'd ever been. In his whole life, about anything.
Not even when she fainted from altitude sickness, and not when Crackle cornered her on the train, though that…well, at the time he had thought that was the most scared he had been. Now he knew better. That wasn't even close to… this.
"Red, talk to me." He quietly begged. "Carmen, please!"
His hands clenched, and Player desperately tried to regain the signal of her tracker. Nothing came up; there was not a single glitch or bug that released even the slightest hint of red. Somehow, Shadowsan had blocked out her tracker.
Maybe with an EMP, because even if he… disposed of Carmen, there'd still be a signal unless if he shattered her earrings, too.
"Carmen, it's Player." He repeated, desperately. "Respond."
And yet, she did not.
Silence reigned supreme, and finally Player gave in. His monitors' lights began to flicker off around him as the computers drifted off into sleep, and he sagged into himself, head burying itself into his palms.
He weakly reached up to mute his side of the communicator, so he could still hear Carmen even if she couldn't hear him. For, he really didn't want Carmen to hear him crying. If she was still…alive, that was.
Player sobbed into his hands the moment he was sure his side was mute, shoulders hunching. Everything was ringing; he couldn't focus on anything except I can't hear Carmen. She was in Shadowsan's hands. Who knew what he'd do to her?
Player whipped at his eyes furiously, knowing it was futile as more tears welled up. "Com'n, Player, think. Com'n!"
He urgently tried to figure out the location on his computer of all security cameras, checking for the room Carmen had been fighting Brunt in. Searching desperately, he managed to lock onto one camera, opening it up to his screen. He whipped at his eyes, not quite believing what he saw.
Except for Chase Devineaux' unconscious body, the room was empty. The grate on the floor was crushed open, Brunt's handwork. The goliath of a woman had vanished, along with Shadowsan and Carmen.
Carmen. Player eyed the torn coat and the trinkets barely visible at the edge of the camera. He quickly operated the self-destruct button that would blow up each of the objects; it was incredibly vital so that no tangible clues of Carmen Sandiego's presence were present. He knew it was a risk, if Carmen managed to escape Shadowsan and/or Brunt's clutches and come back to find them gone, but… it was too late now. The devices operated brief explosions each, getting destroyed in a quick flash.
Player hesitated thoughtfully, hands clenching and unclenching. He watched uncertainly as the police barged into the room, guns out as they searched about. They had arrived just as the dust settled, and they paid no attention to the ash, chalking it up to another weird thing in the building.
Player reached out, quickly contacting Ivy and Zack, switching to another computer, eyes still trained on the first one even as he clicked around at the second device. "Zack, Ivy?" He inquired urgently, carefully training his voce not to crack from pain.
"Playah!" Both siblings chimed at once, with duo tones of worry. "What's goin' on?! Why hasn't Carm check' up yet?"
"She's off the grid. I'm trying to pin onto her location. I need you guys to discreetly search the streets for her. If you find her, do not approach. Call me and the police; Interpol first, and then wait. Never let her out of your sight, if you can help it. Please."
"Check, Playah!" Ivy assured, excitedly. "We'll take a looksee around Poitiers for the Boss!"
"Yeah, no worries, little bro!" Zack promised, waving his hand eagerly. "We'll find her!"
They aren't taking this seriously enough. Player thought in frustration, fingers clenching tightly. His fingernails bit into his palm, hard enough to draw blood. He ignored the red in favor of uncurling his hands to click at his keyboard, switching to the city-wide network of security cameras, searching in all secluded areas of the city for any movement. He rapidly hacked into the maps of the grate system, trying to find all entrances and exists to the shafts.
But hardly any of them were secluded enough for VILE, and the ones that were had no activity within them. He muted himself from the entire system, glaring at his hands.
He gripped his head, tugging at his hair in frustration. Where in the world was Red?! Where was Carmen?!
No signal from Zack. No feedback from Ivy. Nothing at all from Carmen.
He scowled at Zack and Ivy's icons – a bright orange and dark blue bowler hat respectively – as they crawled slowly across his computer's graph-screen. They could just be moving slowly in perspective, as his view was increased to the full city-length of Poitiers and they couldn't exactly move fast without a car, but logic was lost on Player.
He shoved himself to his feet, grabbing his rubix cube from his desk and began scrambling it as he paced, twisting each layer with vigor. His eyes kept drifting back to the computer as he fidgeted with it, solving it and rescrambling it multiple times over. Remember, Player, every problem has a solution. He told himself, sliding back into his chair. You just need to look at it from a different angle. He stared at the computer.
But what could the other angle be?!
Well, he figured quietly as he looked down at the rubix cube between his fingers. If Carmen's conversation had been anything to go by, Shadowsan had somehow put Coach Brunt out of commission. He had done something to Carmen to cancel out her communicators. He didn't hurt her, though, because there was no sign of blood anywhere in that room. Coach Brunt had escaped later.
It made sense, in an odd way.
But that begged the question. Where had Shadowsan went with Carmen? And how did he do it without harming her?
His computer crackled.
"Player? Are you there?"
Player's head snapped up, staring at the speakers in shock. He surged forward, clicking the button to unmute himself, leaning toward the mic eagerly. "Red?!"
There was a second of silence, and Player panicked again. Then, excitedly, "Player! Oh, thank goodness."
Carmen was okay. She was okay!
Player choked, covering his mouth against the oncoming sob.
"Player?" Carmen asked, sounding worried and fearful. "Are you okay?"
"Carmen, you have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice! What happened? How-how are you okay?!"
"It's okay, Player, it's okay." Carmen soothed, gasping quietly. "I'm okay. Shadowsan-he-he saved me. Everything's alright."
"He what you?!" Player demanded, whipping at his eyes, finally able to quench the salty tears.
"He saved me!" Carmen said, voice rising in unconcealed excitement. "He's the one who found me by the road in Argentina, Player! He's been helping me from day one! He broke the Cleaner's helicopter's engine, and the coat was empty!"
Player couldn't help laughing at that. "That's great, Red!" Wait, no, this isn't right. This is Shadowsan she's talking about. It's a trap. It's a trick. Has to be. Don't get caught up in the joy. Be serious, Player. Deal with this with a clear mind, think about this logically. "Are you sure it's not a trap?"
"Not…" Carmen hesitated, voice lowering considerably. "Not entirely, Player. But it's…he didn't even try to kill me just now. It's more of a gut feeling, really."
"A gut feeling." He echoed uneasily. "Based on a gut feeling, you went back to Poitiers to rescue a detective and left with an evil VILE mastermind?" Player lifted his arms, trying to emphasize just how strange that was. "The worst one, too! Besides a 'gut feeling' what makes you think you can trust him?" He squinted suspiciously, wondering why she wasn't listening to his point. "And what exactly was he doing in Argentina 20 years ago, anyway?"
"That's exactly what I want to know." Carmen agreed. "There's more to the story; there has to be. And the only chance of finding out will be to keep Shadowsan…" There was a beat of silence, followed by disappointment. "Close."
"Let me guess, ninja disappearing act?" Player scoffed, only half-amused. The other half was stifled worry that Shadowsan hadn't stuck around. If he was really so adamant about protecting Carmen, why hadn't he stayed?
"Something like that."
"I'm sorry, Red."
"Don't be." Her voice filled with happy surprise, followed by a soft grunt as she forced herself to probably stand. "He left something behind."
"What?"
"A present." (Player decided not to tell her that it didn't answer his question.) "Have Zack and Ivy meet me at rendezvous. I have a feeling we're gonna have new capers to plot."
Not too soon, I hope. Player thought to himself, figuring out just what Shadowsan had left behind. Not sure if I'll be able to handle another scare like that.