"A Dish Best Served Cold, Part 6" (A bit of caution to younger readers of the violence of this section.) HOTEL OLYMPUS GARDENS, 8:47 PM Carmen strode arm in arm with Morgensen. She felt happy. It had been a while since she had let anyone escort her like this. It felt...good. She let out a sigh. "Something wrong?" Morgensen asked. "Not at all. I was just remembering...someone." "Your husband?" Carmen laughed. "No, I'm not married." "A lover, then?" Carmen looked off into the distance. "Yes..." she said softly. "I'm sorry." Morgensen said. "I appear to have touched a nerve." "No." Carmen said reassuringly. "Just a bitter memory." "He left you?" Carmen politely disenaged herself from the burly Swede and sat on the rim of the garden's fountain. Morgensen sat next to her. "In a way." She was being evasive now. She didn't want to think about it. "Although you could say that I left him." "Where is he now?" "Dead," said the master thief. "Have you ever thought about rejoining him?" Morgensen asked. His ornamental dagger slid soundlessly into his left hand, out of Carmen's vision. Carmen looked at Morgensen in shock. "I find that a rather tasteless question, Mr. Morgensen. Good evening." Carmen stood up to leave. In a blinding motion that belied his build, Morgensen was up and holding Carmen around the waist with his left hand while his right held the dagger to her throat. "It may be tasteless, but right now it would seem to be rather relevant, wouldn't you say, Ms. Sandiego?" Carmen swallowed out of reflex, but her emotions were nowhere near fear. Her face contorted into an expression of anger rarely seen by anyone except those few henchmen who had SERIOUSLY angered her. "I don't know who you are, or why you want to kill me," she said quietly. "But I can tell you this; you have picked the wrong person's vacation to ruin." ACME HQ, SAN FRANCISCO, 6:28 AM. "Chief, will you calm down?!" Zack said as he combed through Acme's files. Behind him on the oversized monitor, the Chief was his usual model of calmness and restraint. "CALM DOWN?! How can I calm down?! Both Carmen and Ivy are in danger from one of the most vidictive criminals of all time! There's absolutely no way we can get ahold of Ivy, and if I put in a call to the Athens police, that may cause Enge to act quicker! I don't know what to do!" "First off," Zack replied. "Look at this." The Chief moved from the main monitor to a smaller one next to the one Zack was looking at." "Ooooh, prison footage. You're right, Zack, Carmen and your sister can wait, this is MUCH more exciting." he said sarcastically. "This is the footage from Leavenworth on the night Enge broke out." Zack explained. "I've gone over it ten times, but Enge doesn't make a move." "So?" the Chief asked. "Enge managed to fake out the security cameras. Any one of Carmen's lackeys can do that." "ALL of them?" Zack asked. "In the most famous federal prison in the country? I don't think so, Chief." "Why are you so concerned about the night Enge broke out of prison anyway? It's not like we're going to learn anything from it. He's out, what more do we need?" "Because Leavenworth hasn't issued ANYTHING on Enge's breakout in the past two months!" Zack exclaimed. "You would think that an escaped convict as dangerous as Enge would result in the government issuing a nationwide manhunt or something. Let me try something..." Zack began typing furiously. "What are you doing?" the Chief asked. "I'm hacking into Leavenworth's medical files. I'm sure that in twelve years Enge must have had a physical or something while he was there. It's just a hunch I have." After a few minutes of hacking, during which the Chief mad a point of whistling and not looking in Zack's direction, Reginald V. Enge's medical file was on display. As Zack and the Chief read over it, cold dread crept over them. "This is impossible!" they both exclaimed. The file read: "November 17, 1995-- Stab wound to the heart during fight in exercise yard. Dead On Arrival." "This is bad, Zack. This is even worse news than I thought." the Chief said. Zack nodded his agreement, voicing the question that was on both of their minds. If the man in Athens after Carmen wasn't Reginald V. Enge, who was he? HOTEL OLYMPUS GARDENS, ATHENS, 8:56 PM There has never been a real scientific study on the effects of driving a six-inch stilletto heel into the foot of a relatively healthy human male, but a good case could now be made for Svenson Morgenen to be the first research subject. Carmen faced off with the assassin, who was now limping on his right foot, the lady's shoe still stuck to it by the heel. His expression was now anger and the knife was being held in a decidedly more threatening manner. Carmen kicked off her remaining shoe and stood her ground. Morgensen moved quickly, rushing in with the blade, adrenaline keeping him from feeling the pain in his foot. Carmen spun out of the way, the blade taking a portion of her skirt, en route. The master thief leaped up to the rim of the fountain. For once, she cursed the fact that she didn't have her coat with her. Morgensen dashed towards the fountain and leaped, trying to tackle her. Carmen's mind worked faster than it had before and at the last possible second, she grabbed Morgensen's outstretched hand and, using her own body as a counterweight, swung him into the statue of Poseidon that served as the fountains main body. Her calculations, however, were not quite accurate. The innertia caused by swinging Morgensen kept her spinning. She lost her footing She waited until her vision cleared and sat up, thoroughly annoyed. Her dress clung to her body and her hair resembled a thicket of black seaweed. Next to her, Morgensen floated, unconscious. Flipping him onto his back so he wouldn't drown, Carmen patted him down, looking for other weapons. All she found was an envelope. Carmen hauled herself out of the fountain, sat on the rim, and opened the envelope. The ink had run on the message inside but the words were still fairly clear: "Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe. Remember thee? Yea, from the table of my memory I'll wipe away all trivial fond records All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past That youth and observation copied there And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, yes, by heaven. O most pernicious woman!" Carmen thought. <"Hamlet." Act One, Scene Five. But why would an assassin be carrying around a quote from Shakespeare?> "Carmen!" HOTEL OLYMPUS ROOM 527, 9:05 PM MacInnes waited paitently, assembling his rifle. The rifle was like a lady. She had to be treated with respect, lest she decide not to aid you. MacInnes was that rare breed of men who enjoyed his work. Originally an errand boy for the Irish Republican Army, he had dropped out when he discovered that a freelance assassin could make more money in six months than he had ever seen in his life. Indepedence was fine, but it didn't make you rich. And the rush you felt whenever you had killed someone with your own hands was better than any narcotic to be found. The scope was snapped on and the silencer twisted into place. MacInnes inserted a shell into the rifle and aimed out the window. He had a clear view of the gardens, all he had to do was wait. Ah, there she was by the fountain. Totally unexpecting what was about to befall her. Enge would be pleased and MacInnes would be ten million dollars richer. He pulled the trigger. HOTEL OLYMPUS GARDENS, 9:06 PM "Carmen!" Carmen looked up to see Ivy dashing towards her. She stood up as the detective approached. "Ivy? What's happening?' "Get out of the open!" Ivy shrieked. "There's a man called MacInnes aiming a rifle at--" The shot made little noise as it was fired. For her it was like slow motion. The stumbling of the body, the long fall as her long time adversary hit the ground. She held her breath as she looked at the other woman, and felt the nausea as she saw the blood trickling from the wound. Carmen dashed across the courtyard to Ivy's fallen form. The bullet had entered her back and she had fallen forward on her face. Carmen got down and turned Ivy over, cradling the detective's head in her lap. Ivy's breathing was shallow and her eyes were closed. Carmen felt for a pulse. It was faint. "Ivy?" Carmen asked, on the verge of hysteria. "Ivy, come on. Wake up." Ivy made no response. Carmen began to panic. "Ivy, don't you dare die on me!" she demanded. "I lost Matt and I'm not about to lose you, too! Zack and the Chief would never forgive me. Wake up!" Carmen lightly slapped Ivy's cheeks. The green eyes opened slightly. "Carmen..." Ivy wheezed. Carmen held Ivy closer. "It's all right, Ivy." she soothed. "I'm here. I'll get you help. Just relax. Don't move unless you have to." "...Enge..." Ivy whispered. "It's...Enge..." Carmen's eyes widened then she regained her composure. "I'll worry about that later. Now, I need to get you to a hospital. I'll have them bring my car around." Ivy shook her head, then reached into the pocket of her jacket and dropped her communicator in Carmen's hand. "...C-5..." she murmured before lapsing back into unconsciousness. Carmen switched the communicator on. Instantly the pink window appeared along with the Chief. "It's about time, Ivy. Do you know how worried--OH, MY GOD! Carmen, have you gone completely insane?!" "It isn't me, Chief." Carmen said. "I'll explain later. Right now, Ivy needs a doctor. Player, C-5 us to the nearest emergency room. Now!" To Be Continued...