"Be Careful What You Wish For...,"  Part 5

	Paris had to be the most beautiful thing the Chief had ever seen in 
his life.

        It was so Metropolitan.

        it was so Ancient.

        It was so ...BIG.

        He was loving every second, and he wanted to absorb it all in but 
the young guy kept trying to make conversation with him, and the Chief felt 
compelled to keep up.

        "So anyway my name’s Charlie, and I started working for Carmen 
about... oh... A year and a half ago. I’m not really a professional thief 
just a normal guy who took a wrong turn. Had everything going for me, 
thought I was invincible, and then suddenly fate messed it all up when my
wife divorced me. Margaret was the best thing I had going for me and to lose 
her...well I sort of wasn’t thinking when I started robbing banks. I lost my 
mechanics job and the house but I didn’t care y’know? Somehow I thought by 
stealing I could get back the love of the woman I lost. At least that’s what 
my therapist says."

        "Uh huh," said the Chief barely listening.

        "But enough me, I’m probably depressing the heck out of you. Why 
don’t you tell me a little about yourself?"

        "Well there’s not really much to tell. I was born, I grew up and I 
joined the ranks of VILE yesterday. Life so far has been pretty boring for 
me. I’m hoping this job will spice it up..to say the least."

        "That it will do! I’m telling you the number of times I’ve had to 
ask our Madam Chairperson how a 5 inch deep gouge mark could be ripped in 
solid titanium....but she is a pretty lenient boss....nobody dies or gets 
beaten up if they’ve done something wrong, and full dental and health care 
for you and your loved ones for life! With no exceptions! I’m telling you 
most legal companies don’t give that sweet a deal! I was lucky to find a 
friend in here to pull a few strings..." Charlie turned and looked at the 
Chief questionably,  "What about your friend? The one who got you into all 
of this?"

        "Her? Oh well, I’ve known and cared for her from since.....well...
since before I can remember."

        "You two serious?"

        "What? No! I mean.. we’ve got a strong platonic friendship."

        "Uh huh,"  Charlie said with a knowing look.

        The Chief was outraged. "Hey!"

        "I didn’t say anything..."

        "You gave me a ‘I-know-what-you’re-really-thinking’ look! Listen, 
she and I are close but it would be impossible for me to like her like 
that!"

        "What, isn’t she pretty?"

        "She’s beautiful but..."

        "She married or seeing someone?"

        "No..."

        "She your sister?"

        "I’m pretty sure she isn’t!"

        "Then why can’t there be the possibility?"

        "Because, it’s impossible!"

        "Why?"

        ‘Why is right!’ The Chief thought ‘Why am I trying to explain 
anything to this guy? I don’t even know myself! Now I know what it was like 
when Carmen and I were arguing last night!’

        The Chief froze.

        Last night?

        Images. Feelings.

        A brilliant little girl from the orphanage named Carmen. Carmen 
working for him. Carmen, Detective of the Year. Carmen and Suhara. Christmas 
in Sweden, Austria.  Happiness. Carmen arguing for his life. Carmen saving 
him. Carmen restless, inconsolable.

        Carmen gone.

        He had been sad, angry. He had hated her! She showed up one day, 
trying to comfort him. She had talked to him inside of his own head. She 
told him that they couldn’t be allies, but they could still be friends. He 
agreed but only if she would be careful. He didn’t want to loose her. She 
was entering a dangerous business. She agreed.

        Ten years.

        She was gone again.

        It looked as though she was gone forever in a falling snow in a far 
away place. He cried. Nothing else. Just cried. She had promised! And now 
she was cold. So cold. He couldn’t bear it. His thoughts grew random, morbid.
He would never see her again. .....unless...no they wouldn’t make him see 
the body...there was too much he could do. She had been crushed, hadn’t she?

        An added shame. She had had great cheekbones. Zack had been right.

        Zack and Ivy.

        Brother and Sister.

        His Best friends.

        Zack and Ivy couldn’t do anything to cheer him up. He let the pain 
wash over him. Let it reach its most horrible point. Let it die. He stared 
through his pain into the real world and saw his friends in trouble.

        He returned renewed.

        She came back!

        He was stunned. He was angry! How could she have done this? A test? 
Of course he still cared about her! She laughed. In time so did he.

        But he also became more careful. More sensitive to danger.

        Yesterday.

        So close to being so cold.

        Not a test.

        She brushed it off.

        He didn’t.

        She accidentally angered him. It was a slip of the tongue. It was 
something she didn’t mean. He knew. He acted insulted. He had wanted to see 
how she would act.  She was apologetic. She was scared of loosing him. She 
now knew some of what he had felt. 

        Good.

        Pain!

        Darkness....

        Flying Chocolate Glazed Doughnuts?

        It was all so clear to him now! He was the Chief of ACME. Carmen was 
the head of VILE. They had been trying to capture her. She was human and he 
was a talking head.

        Wait a minute...

        HADN’T SHE HAD RUBBED HIS WRIST??????

        The Chief snapped out of it and looked down at his hands. He was 
human. But how? It was impossible! Wait a minute. He had heard Psycho Sara’s 
voice when he was lying on the operating table, in-between the bouts of 
pain. Could Carmen have done this to him? No, she had been sincerely 
worried and angry at Sara and had tried to get him out of there as fast as 
she could. (Even if it did hurt.) Well to whatever or whoever he had to give 
credit he was here. 

        And out on his own. What was he going to do?

        "Rodger? Rodger? Are you all right?"

        Charlie? The Chief looked up. Charlie had pulled over and was shaking
him. Several concerned bystanders were milling around discussing what to do.

        "What happened?"

        "That’s what I want to know, were you having some kind of seizure?"

        "I...I don’t know," The Chief told him as he began looking for some 
escape route. He knew now that he needed to get away. Fast. "I’m cold, but 
I’m not dizzy or tired. Maybe if I walk around..." he offered.

        "Good idea. Here, take my coat. If you get dizzy sit back down. I’m 
going to call the company doctor." He was already punching in the number on 
his cell phone.

        The Chief got up and started walking. He didn’t stop.


       
        There have been very few times when Carmen Sandiego has lost it 
completely. The few times it has happened in the past it was due to a 
mixture of excessive pain stress and emotional torture.   Like most 
career-powered criminals Ms. Sandiego has a natural knack for retaining a 
queenly cool during any situation no matter how intense. But as noted
earlier there have been a few times in her life when she has lost all 
control and has dissolved into a blubbering nervous wreck. 

        This unfortunately was one of those times.

        Fortunately for her, Carmen had seen it coming and had retired to 
her room minutes before she had lost it. In her defense one would have to 
point out that it was unavoidable. Sara had taken the time she needed to 
create a very good robot. The identifying marks had been programmed only 
showed up when necessary (locks that required ID, eyescans, etc.) and so 
there had been no fingerprints, or identifiable shoe prints. The surveillance
cameras had been shorted out because of the last blackout so there was no 
footage of him moving anywhere. The only person that had been in the hallway 
in the past 24 hours was reported as a VILE employee. Without knowing how 
the Chief had gotten out Carmen had her henchmen sweeping the hallways, the 
walls, the ventilation ducts. Nothing. And Zack and Ivy were still getting 
more upset by the minute.

        And along with everything else one has to realize the tremendous 
personal stress Carmen was under. She had been having one of the longest 
days in her entire life before all this had started happening. By this time 
it was about three in the morning and she desperately needed a couple hours 
of sleep to sort everything out. Plus the Chief had really been like a 
father to her. He had cared for her and been there for her through ACME and 
VILE alike. He had never turned away or asked her to consider what she was 
doing to her morals or had tried to force her to do anything. He had cared 
for her completely and unconditionally, and if one does not count Suhara (and 
a few others who had helped her for only a couple of years), he was probably 
the only one who had done so in her life. She also felt at least partly 
responsible for the Chief's condition by not at least asking Sara about the 
various mysterious projects she had going all the time.

        All this had built up over the past hour and had left her pitifully 
crying into a pillow wondering what she had missed. Her cat Carmine was 
getting very concerned (as cats go) and had been nuzzling Carmen with her 
head trying to comfort her. After a few minutes Carmen realized what was 
going on and she gently picked her cat up. 

        "I’m all right now girl," she told her as she stroked her, "I’m just 
a little...confused. I just can’t figure out where the Chief could have 
gone. No one saw him leave and there’s no way we can salvage the surveillance
videos.....and you have to hand it to Sara for creating a really untraceable 
robot huh?"

        Carmine tried to look sympathetic.

        Carmen wiped some of the makeup-lined tears off her face. "I just 
can’t understand why there isn’t any trace of him anywhere! Nothing 
disappears without a trace, especially here! He couldn’t have walked out 
without someone bumping into him, noticing him...."

        She froze.

        She jumped off her bed, accidentally dropping Carmine in the process,
replaced her hat and flew out the door.



        The rumbling in his stomach had grown louder in the past hour, and 
the Chief had become really concerned. He didn’t know what it was, if it was 
serious and what he should do to make it stop. He had been wandering the 
streets since he had left Charlie calling the doctor. The streets had gotten 
dark and cold. 

        The trenchcoat that Charlie had given him had covered up the 
incriminating VILE uniform he was wearing but didn’t do much to shelter him 
from the cold. What did normal humans do if this situation arose?

        The Chief sighed and put his hands in the coat’s pockets. What was 
he going to do? Something hit his hand inside the coat pocket. Interested he 
pulled it out. It was Charlie’s wallet! ‘He must have forgotten to take it 
out when he gave me his coat,’ thought the Chief. He looked inside. 

        There were several credit cards and a large wad of bills, a 
membership card to an American micro-brewery club and a VILE ID card. There 
was a picture of him and a young lady dressed as a bride. His wedding photo. 
It had been battered and torn at one edge and on the back was written in 
fading pencil: 

        1990


        Forever my love.

        Your Margaret.



        ‘Poor guy,’ briefly thought the Chief. He searched through the rest 
of the wallet but found mostly dust. He looked at the wad of bills. ‘Well, 
Charlie won’t mind if I got a place to stay for the night right?’ 

        His stomach growled in agreement.

        He had almost forgot about his stomach. Maybe if he ate 
something....

        He turned and started off for the McDonalds he had seen a while 
back.

	To be continued...