"Be careful what you wish for...." Part 6 "So you had never seen him before?" Carmen asked intently. "No but he said he was a recruit so I didn't pay much attention. He seemed to want to leave pretty badly so I told him how to get to garage. He took off pretty fast." "Was there anything unusual about him?" "Not really. The fact that I hadn$t seen him before is the only reason I remember him. Can I go? My wife is going to eat me alive!" Carmen ignored him. "Did he have a really nasal voice?" "Yeah.......yeah he did!" "Thank you. If you remember anything else call, please." "Sure, sure," the guard promised quickly as he made for the door. The Chief had been spotted around ten. Could he still be in the building? Maybe he tried to talk Charlie into giving him a ride. With the way Charlie talked he could definitely still be in the building. Carmen raced down to the garage with strength she didn't have, and prayed it wasn't too late. On a park bench the Chief looked up into the sky while he munched on a hamburger with the works. Life was good. He had had the good misfortune of getting to the Mickey D's just before it closed and, after listening to the gal at the counter rant on about American culture ruining French culture, bought the largest Value Meal he thought he could afford. (Try converting dollars to Francs as fast as you can in front of an attendant who doesn't want anything to do with Americans and see how far you're off.) He would probably have to wait till morning for a bed and breakfast to be open. He had always wanted to try one of those things. And now he could! He could do everything he had wanted to do everything Zack and Ivy and everyone else had teased him about! Zack and Ivy? Shoot! What would they do without him? He wanted to enjoy his humanity for as long as he could. But shouldn't he call and tell them he was OK? Hey! He was the most overworked employee on the entire force! He worked an 18 hour day everyday of the year. Shouldn't he get a sick day too? "Yeah! The Aux systems can take care of the basic stuff!" He shouted into the night. "I should have a break! I'm worth it!" he finished wondering if he sounded too much like a hair coloring commercial. He marched off to find a pay phone. "All right. We know his general area and where he was last seen thanks to Charlie," Carmen told herself. "And he has enough know how to stay out of danger for a few hours. We'll just have to wait until he pops up." "Boss?" offered a voice behind her. Carmen turned. It was Em Ploie. "Yes?" "May I make a suggestion?" "Of course." "We've got a surveillance team looking for him round the clock and you look like you've been to the ends of the Earth and back. Go get some rest, and we'll call you when we get some trace on him." Carmen smiled. "Thank you, but I'm going to wait until I get word. I just need a pot of coffee and a lot of bright lights." "Sorry to break it to you but the coffee ran out at midnight," she told her boss pointing in the direction of the coffee machine. "We've got some warm cream and a couple open packets of sugar if you want it...." "No thanks. I'll just splash some cold water on my face and..." Suddenly the lights went out. "Great! What happened now?" yelled Carmen. A flashlight appeared at the end of the hall and shone right in Carmen's eyes. "Sorry boss! We were trying to retrieve the memory off of the erased video cameras when we did...something....we'll have it up and running in a few minutes though!" "What? Listen, we know were he is and what he looks like! We don't need the old memory on Surveillance! Could you turn off that thing?" "Really? Boy do I feel stupid! We'll get the lights on as soon as we can!" said the flashlight as he disappeared around the corner. The dark hall was silent for a few minutes before Em Ploie spoke up. "So, do you want me to try to find an all-night mini-mart?" "No, I'm going to try to get to bed before my head hits the floor or something else happens to me. And I'm going to pray they have the electricity back on line when I wake up." There are a lot of things that are different between reading about Paris and experiencing Paris. For instance you can read about the fact that you can only make a call from a Paris pay phone if you have a special, limited use, prepaid phone card and be interested. If you are experiencing it panic tends to quickly set in. Fortunately the Chief had found an old discarded one that had two minutes left on it. He did as the instructions on the booth said and typed in ACME's number hoping to get through. "ACME detective agency, where Knowledge is Power. My name is Kelly. How can I help you?" droned ACME's receptionist. "Yes, I was wondering if I could speak to the local detectives Ivy and Zack?" "May I ask who is calling?" "Rodger. Tell them I have info for them on the Chief that they might find interesting." "One moment please." She told him and put him on hold. The Chief hummed along with the background music. "Is that 'Rumor in St. Petersburg'?" he wondered out loud. He didn't have enough time to find out. Ivy came on the line and crisply asked him what he wanted. "Ivy it's me! The Chief! Don't you recognize my voice by now?" "What? ..... Chief? ......No...It....But...." "Listen, I'm fine! I was able to get out of Carmen's Manor and I made it to a major city. I'm just calling in sick." "Huh?" "I'm just not feeling like myself right now, and I'm taking the day of to sort things out. I'm sure you can manage with the Aux systems, right?" "Yes....but...." "I know this really isn't the nicest thing in the world to be doing to you guys, but this is a once in a lifetime thing and, frankly, I want to enjoy it! I'll call you back in twenty four hours." He began to hang up the phone. Ivy stared screaming something about a bomb, but he didn't want to listen. They weren't going to make him feel guilty about it. He knew anyone would make the decision he did. And he was going to call them back in a day. He would!......... Now to find that bed and breakfast... To Be Continued...