Chapter 3, Hush Hacker
"Woah, Carm, you're up late." Ivy blinked, looking up and taking a sip of her black coffee. "Somethin' keep you up?"
"No, quite the opposite, actually." Carmen said, staring at her phone uneasily. "Player didn't call."
"So?" Zack asked, waving an arm distractedly, before immediately sinking his teeth into a slice of cake.
Carmen wasn't exactly sure where he got that, because, as far as she knew, they had never even bought cake. But, then again, Player was in charge of finances. He probably had it delivered to them that morning.
"So…" Carmen rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh… Player actually calls me in the morning? He's… my alarm clock, basically? I guess?"
"So…he basically goes 'waky-waky-chocolate-cakey'?" Ivy inquired, her brow pinching in thought.
"Something like that." Carmen shrugged, sliding into her designating chair at their table. "So, what's for breakfast?"
"Chocolate cake." Zack said, sliding it forward.
"Wait, seriously?" Carmen groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "For all you know, Player meant that for dessert. Tonight. Also, Player did send it, right?"
"'ittle bro doesn't care." Ivy shrugged, passing over a cup of tea for Carmen. "Yea, Playah did. He also sent 'affles, but Zack ignored 'em and went ri' for za cake."
"Of course, you did." Carmen grunted, turning to Zack. "Besides the care package, has anyone heard word from Player?"
"Dunno." Zack shrugged. "Ya know that Playah doesn't 'all us. 'aybe Shadowsan's 'eard from 'im."
"'cept he's out on a capah." Ivy pointed out.
"Maybe Player's busy wing-manning him, then. And that's why he didn't call." Carmen suggested, more to herself then to them, walking over to the box sitting on the counter to fish out the waffles.
"He's due 'ack soon, ain't he?" Zack queered uncertainly.
"In 'bout an hour, yea."
"Okay, I'll try to ring up Player in the meantime. Shadowsan should be on his flight back by now." Carmen noted, shoving three waffles into the toaster. "Now, how do you cook waffles?"
"I think it's three 'ights." Ivy said, pushing the button to turn down the heat on the toaster.
"Naw, it's four 'ights." Zack assured her, charging over to correct her 'mistake'.
"Three!"
"Four!"
Carmen set it to three lights. "I'll give it an extra light if needs be later."
"See? Carm's smart." Beamed Ivy, patting her brother's back. "Now, ge' back to ya cake."
Zack trudged away reluctantly.
"Give a holler when they pop." Carmen ordered, trudging off to her room. She picked up her phone from its charger, checking the miscall category to make sure she hadn't accidentally slept through Player's call. Alas, she had not, instead resorting to speed dialing his number.
Three minutes and four calls later, Carmen switched over to trying to call Shadowsan instead.
He picked up on the first ring, greeting her warmly. "Carmen Sandiego, hello!"
"Do you know where Player is?" They both wanted to know instantly, prompting surprised pauses from each other.
"What do you mean you do not know where he is?" Carmen snapped uneasily, standing up from her position perched on her bed to begin pacing.
"I was about to inquire the same." Shadowsan responded, voice calm. "He cut out near the end of my mission. Thankfully, I already had completed the objective, and did not need his assistance any longer. It was still… troubling."
"He didn't call this morning." Carmen complained, grabbing her fedora before strolling into her walk-in closet to grab her coat. "Do you think VILE-"
"Hmph." Shadowsan grunted. "It is possible. Though, from what you told me about their destroyed headquarters, I doubt they would have time to search for your 'secret weapon'."
"True. But I'm still worried." Carmen admitted, doubling back over to her dresser to pull out her jumpsuit, and snagging her choker from her bedside-table.
"That is understandable." Shadowsan agreed, and Carmen ended the call on that note.
She got dressed into her classical look, touching her earrings. "Player, charter a plane to Onta-" Wait. Dang it. That's right.
"Carmen, they popped!" Ivy hollered.
Carmen entered to grab the waffles, snagging them and placing them onto a plate. She slapped some jam onto them – to which Zack and Ivy wrinkled their noses, but, like, what are you supposed to put on waffles?!
"Carm, what capah are ya dressed for?"
"No caper. Yet." Carmen grunted. "Busy waiting for Player. He didn't pick up, and Shadowsan told me that he cut out in the middle of a mission."
"Maybe wi-fi went out?" Ivy shrugged.
"Power-outage?" Zack suggested.
"Maybe." Carmen acknowledged. "That wouldn't be too…out of the box. Either of them. I'm considering heading over to Ontario, though. If I can find out how to buy plane tickets."
"We're set on food for a while." Ivy said slowly, eyes narrowing as she tried to figure things out. "Playah said once that he pre-orders our food. For an entire week beforehand."
"That's good. Let's just hope taxes aren't due anytime soon." Carmen said, munching on her waffle.
"Taxes? Food? Plane tickets? Alarm clock? Is there anything Playah isn't in charge of?" Zack muttered, gazing down at his chocolate cake in newfound interest.
"Actually…no." Carmen admitted. "He's in charge of pretty much everything. I don't know how to do half the stuff he does."
"Huh." Ivy mused, returning to her coffee.
"Yeah." Zack agreed, carefully separating frosting from the actual cake. "I'll save you for later."
"Ew." Ivy stuck out her tongue at Zack's antics, and the conversation faded to a close.
The rest of the day was filled with Carmen pacing, trying to figure out how to book a private jet. When that failed, she tried to just get a seat on any old plane, but that proved to be futile, too. Carmen simply couldn't figure it out. At one point she thought she got it, but then couldn't figure out how to pay for the ticket.
When Shadowsan got back, he tried to help Carmen, before realizing he had no idea how to pay for it, too. He had just used his personal savings when traveling to France to Brazil, but he didn't know how Player managed to do it with VILE's funds.
"I was not the bookkeeper of VILE. I was not taught such financial skills." He had bluntly stated, staring down in unhidden disgust at the keyboard.
So, traveling to Ontario was out for the count. Maybe Zack could've driven them, but it would've taken too long, especially if they wanted to be there within twenty-four hours.
Carmen resumed pacing.
Even while Ivy and Zack were forcing Shadowsan – literally forcing; they had tied him to a chair and held his eyes open – to watch a random Disney movie that Carmen didn't care to learn the name to. She had no idea how they even got him onto the chair in the first place, even less how they were able to keep him in place long enough to put the ropes in place.
Only ten minutes into the movie, Zack and Ivy shoved Carmen out of the room because "ya pacin' is the pits, Carm! Take ya worry elsewhere!"
So, she did take her worry elsewhere. She took it into the room Zack and Ivy had prepared for Player "In case the little dude ever came to visit, Carm!" and looked around, biting her lip. A white hat sat perched on the bed post, forcing her to smile a little.
Player, she thought uncertainly, reaching over to finger the hat's bill, where are you?
He didn't call all day long.
Or that evening.
Or that night.
Carmen stayed awake all night in her bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for him to call.
Around 5:30 AM, she began to pace in her room all over again, hoping the siblings couldn't hear her from their room next door. She checked her phone multiple times to make sure it was fully charged, and Player hadn't called, and she had somehow missed it. She made sure it was at top volume and not on vibrate, and then paced for another five minutes before double-checking again.
At 6 AM on the dot it began to ring.
She dived for it, her shoulders relaxing at the white hat-icon, and she picked up.
"Hi, Re-"
"Player!" Carmen seethed at hearing his voice, starting to pace again. "Where have you been?! I've been worried sick! You'd better have a good explanation, or else I'm going to force you to book me a flight to Ontario so I can shake some sense into you!"
"Okay! Okay! Geez!" Player laughed, sounding incredibly amused instead of apologetic. That only made her more annoyed. "Power outage, and wi-fi went down. My phone was in the process of getting repaired after it got a bug. Power came back on a few hours ago, and since you were supposed to be asleep by then, I didn't call. Sorry."
"Well, I wasn't asleep!" Carmen growled. "I was worried sick! I thought VILE had somehow…I don't know!"
"Sorry." Player repeated, beginning to sound just the slightest bit remorseful. "I would've given you some heads-up had I known the power was going to crash."
"I know." Carmen sighed, doing her best to calm her frazzled nerves down. "I know."
"But…eh…you do know that you still had power and wi-fi, right? You could've looked up what was going on in Ontario if you were worried."
Carmen facepalmed, and Player burst out laughing at the sound of frustration.