The Look in Her Eyes, Chapter 14

What a long… long… long time. A lot of things happened in the past years and that includes the hit of Hurricane Maria to the island. I lost all my original notes for this story, as water poured into my house during the hurricane and everything got wet. So now… lets see how I end this story, why don't you join me? I promise that even though it is not the original ending, it will be awesome!

Scene 1

BUMP! "Off", Zack said as he touched his sore head bump that woke him up. "Where am I?... why so much movement?" He had a hard time standing up. "Hello!" he screamed.

"Good morning sweetheart." Kevin's voice came through the cracks in his crate.

"Uff, I though you were never going to wake up, bro!" Ivy was clearly happy now.

"Where exactly are we, and where are they taking us?"

"We don't know those answers, Zack, but all I remember is that we where shipped and now we are in this cargo trailer." Ivy explained. "I woke up just as they were taking us out of the ship, and we have been traveling for some hours now."

"I'm hungry and I need to pee."

"The corner is good for that." Kevin said as a matter of fact.

"Eww, but alright." Zack went and relieved himself. "What do you think Carmen is planning for us?"

"I don't think we are under Carmen's care anymore, bro."

"Is that a relieve or worrisome idea?"

"Both." Said Kevin and Ivy in unison. The truck kept its travel alongside the country road.

Scene 2

"In order flush out Carmen, we need to kidnap one of her henchmen." Dustin was explaining his plan to his own henchmen. "Find out where she will strike next and pin her down there."

"She bested us the last time, we know that even though the rest of the world see her as just a thief, we all know she is more a devil than an angel" Robert, Dustin's best man, said. "We need a bit more leverage."

"What do you propose?"

"An alliance with ACME."

"What?!... are you out of your mind?"

"Listen up, we don't have anything on us right now. Meaning, we don't have the chip, we didn't steal anything and we didn't kill anyone. We may be mixed up on this, but we got nothing. As far as I know ACME is only worried about their precious Carmen. Ask them to let us help them capture her. Let them spend their resources and when we both pin her down, we out best them and finish her off once and for all."

"It is a stretch, but, what do we got to lose." Dustin said as he picked up the phone.

Scene 3

"Welcome back gents and ladies." Carmen started the greeting on the Elite's headquarter.

"What a ruckus you have stirred my lady." Anik greeted Carmen with a bow.

"Did you expect anything less. I'm a world class criminal, I know how to make a scene."

"Unless it is only a show and not a go." Hannah lit her cigar mockingly.

"Go at it then." Carmen said while tossing the plans on the table.

At first there was a shock among the Elite's as they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Then someone snickered, then a laugh and finally applause.

"This is the best day of my life!" Exclaimed Marilyn. The room was filled with congratulations and joyful conversations.

Scene 4

The truck halted to a stop and the conductor and passenger got out. It was a tense moment in the trailer as Zack, Ivy and Kevin tried to hear where those people were. Some minutes passed and they heard nothing.

"Did they leave?" Zack whispered.

"I think so." Ivy whispered back.

"I think we have been abandoned." Kevin said.

"Well, now that we know we are alone… lets figure out a way out." Ivy said.

Scene 5

Sebastian was thinking over the past days' events, running all the scenarios over and over in his mind. But he always ended up in the same spot and in none of those scenarios he liked what he did. On the other side of the office building was Chief, grieving about how he couldn't exert any more pressure, even thinking about why he was still in charge of assigning cases to young detectives. He was so into his thought he didn't notice the commotion on one of the monitor feeds.

"Thoughts keeping you up at night as well?" Sebastian was at the door.

Chief was startled, but didn't respond. He hadn't spoken to any of the higherups ever since the incident.

"I have ran each and every detail and scenario in my head about a thousand times, and they always stay kidnapped."

Chief was not responding.

"Come on Chief, of course I would have wanted them safe and sound, but the stakes were too high."

"I know." Chief said sadly. "I still let them down. All this mess is my fault."

"No, there is really not one person to blame. We all agreed, we were all in this together. We gambled and got fucked."

"Mind the language." Chief responded.

"Sorry," Sebastian said, noticing the monitor. "What is going on there?" Chief looked at the monitor as well.

Scene 6

"What is all the commotion?" Sebastian screamed.

"Someone left a trailer truck on our private road sir." Answered an ACME guard.

"A trailer truck? Have you checked it for explosives?"

"Yes, we did, sir. Heat cameras only see 3 bodies inside. We were waiting on Ronaldo to open the truck."

"Open it now, it is an order." Sebastian said as he walked to the door.

The operative went smoothly and carefully, this type of occurrences wasn't common in HQ. The teams carefully opened the lock and posted themselves around the doors. At the signal they opened the doors and stationed poised on the open door.

"Clear."

At the sound of that Sebastian entered the trailer and walked carefully to one of the crates. He tapped the crate three times.

"It's occupied."

Sebastian recognized Kevin's voice anywhere. "Kevin!"

"Yeah, I'm occupying this, but if you get me out, I can let you play in it as well."

"It is them, get them all out. ALL OUT!" Sebastian instructed.

Chief was happy seeing Zack, Ivy and Kevin get out of the trailer. He went straight to them along with the medical team to check them out. Everyone was celebrating that they had returned safely and in one piece.

Scene 7

After a much-needed bath and food intake the detectives where brought up once again to their lovely purple room. In there they were greeted by all the higherups, which were offering their apologies for all they had to endure. Chief and Sebastian also apologized and offered them payed vacations and other amenities.

"Look, we understand it was for a greater cause, no worries about it." Kevin said sitting down on a chair.

"I will make it up to you guys I promise." Sebastian took another seat. "Please all, sit down. There is one last thing of concern."

"One last thing?" Zack looked worried.

"Yes, unfortunately on to of Ivy's crate there was this letter attached." Sebastian took it out and placed the envelope on the table. Just a plain white letter sized envelope with the words 'From Carmen' written in red ink.

"Classy, but enraging at the same time." Ivy had a scorn on her face. "What does it say? And please don't tell me she is 'Sorry' for all this."

"Actually, I haven't opened it, I was waiting for all this emotion to settle down. But it has been a little more than an hour and we are all much calm now. So… shall we?" he asked to the room. They all silently agreed. Sebastian opened the letter and unfolded it. He started to read:

"I'm not as bad as you think. I keep my promises and my work ethics are clear. The job was completed and I return them to you safe as promised. The hardships they endured were necessary to keep them out of the now worldwide hunt of my head by Dustin. I warned this was a high stakes theft and that losing someone was a possibility, but that I would try and prevent that from happening. This is how I did it, enjoy.

On another note, the job was always the Chip. I could care less about the Blue God project and everything I said on this. No deviations on my part. You could say I really outdid myself with all this agenda, but it was all to liberate ACME of any ties to this underground mess. Yes, it had to be brutal, but worthwhile. Remember, if you can fool your friends, you can fool your enemies.

Cordially, Carmen"

The room was silent. Everyone deep in though about what she had wrote. It was true, the chip was recovered, the detective where back home and she never deviated from the Blue God project thing she insisted on getting. But was it really worthwhile?

"Is the hunt true." Ivy said looking at her hands.

"Yes," Chief answered. "Our intel says Dustin is offering 8 million dollar for Carmen's death."

"He wants her dead?" Ivy looked up.

"He wants all of Carmen's associate dead." Sebastian said. "We have confirmation that Dustin has assaulted many of her henchmen on different parts of the world. He has managed to kill 2 as of today. The rest are in intensive care in several hospitals. She has indeed managed to stay free of harm, but that is not going to last."

"Are we going to help her." Zack said bravely. Even though Carmen had been a bitch to them, this last act of hers cemented the idea she still cared about ACME in more ways than they could understand. She was still family.

"It is out of our hands." Chief said sadly. He was a bit fuzzy because a phone call wanted to interrupt the meeting but as much as he ignored the call came back and back.

"What is it Chief?" Sebastian noticed the call icon.

"This call has been active for much of our conversation. It is from an untraceable source, but is very persistent."

"Put it through."

"Well, Hello there! Finally, an answer." Dustin's image came through the conference call. "And here I though the police were never going to show up, haha!"

The entire room was taken aback by this sudden intrusion to their meeting. A world class scum like him was now talking to them straight through. Kevin got up and was going to say something when Sebastian calmed everybody down.

"Sit! And be quiet, all of you!" Sebastian looked around menacingly, everyone obeyed his command. "What do I owe your call for? Speak fast as my ears may not like the sound of your voice that much longer."

"Tsk, tsk, such a grumpy bunch. Why be mad at me when I have done nothing to you guys? It was all Carmen's doing, she is the one that is waist deep in all this shit." Dustin said as he rearranged his bowtie.

"Agreed." Sebastian said, surprising everyone, even Dustin. While he was distracted Sebastian pressed a button. The button opened a small camera near the conference center phone. Ivy saw this tiny action and wondered what advantage did Sebastian had.

"Well, that went better than expected. Now that, that is out of the way, on to business." Dusting peered closer to the phone camera. "We now both have a common enemy by the name of Carmen Sandiego. We both also know she is impossible to catch. Neither of us has had the chance, even though we have come very close to it. Still she eludes us both. Do you agree?"

"Yes."

"Good, good, now I offer you a deal. I don't care anymore about the chip and the info on it. All I care is to take Carmen down. I will forego all my nasty business in getting the chip back from you guys, using all my means necessary for it if… you guys team up with me to capture Carmen." Sebastian was taken by surprise, Kevin, Zack and Ivy were shocked. Chief and the rest of the higherups were speechless. "Well, I see you guys are actually surprised… why would that be? I mean, she has made you guys look like fools many times, why would you guys be surprised that someone else would like to help you finish this?"

"What surprises me is that you came to us." Sebastian responded with skepticism.

"Well… you guys have the brains, and we have the brawns. What I'm asking here is very simple, if you guys provide the resources and references to where Carmen is, I can provide with the man power to take her down. Yes, I have a bounty on her dead head, but… here is the thing, I'd rather see her rot in jail than in the dirt. You catch my drift?"

Sebastian was quiet.

"Come on… what do you say? I'll be like a ghost, no one will ever know we where there and you guys take the glory of bringing Carmen to justice."

Sebastian was silent and thoughtful. Kevin started to say in a low voice, "Let it go. Stop. We don't do this anymore." Sebastian looked at him with a stern eye. He leaned forward and rested his hands on the table. Breathed in heavily and exhaled.

"Fountain of 'Tore de Mare'. Intel says she will strike the statue there in a couple of days as the preparations are nearly in place. More henchmen than usual, I guess you know why." Dustin agreed. "She may not be alone. That is all." Sebastian ended that still looking down at his desk.

"That… is… all. Thanks for that. See you in… how many days?"

"Three as minimum. Preparations on her part where near complete. She could strike in three days or even more. That is all we can make out of our info." Sebastian had his hands now behind his head, still looking down.

"Alright then. See you guys in three days, lets hope she doesn't stall." Dustin cut off and the monitor went static.

Chief and the higherups where staring at Sebastian, but Kevin, Ivy and Zack where only staring at where Sebastian had his eyes on the table. A familiar face was showing on the conference screen, and for a moment their hearts lifted in happiness.

"Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth…" Sebastian said still looking down.

"…Life for a life." Carmen's voice could be heard from the conference phone.

Sebastian smiled and Carmen hung up. He looked up at Chief and saw Chief's happy face. Then saw how relieved Kevin, Zack and Ivy where. They owed Carmen this much.

End of Chapter 14

Back with a vengeance!