"Headed for the Future" by Belle Book Part One Los Alamos, New Mexico The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory was most known in America for its weapons development program, but it also had projects for peacetime purposes. One of them was kept even more secure than the weapons project -- or so they had assumed. It was a time-travelling project, authorized by the current President shortly after his second election, and recently put under the auspices of Acme, since it had its own time-travelling devices. Acme had attached two of its best agents to the project: Chase Devineaux and Ivan Idea. Ivan, as the inventor of the Chronoskimmer, was the one doing the most work on the project. Chase was in charge of security, and was very good at that. But even he couldn't have stopped the breach of security that would lead to what was about to happen next. The same day that Ivy, Zack, Globie, and Jaci had been chasing Carmen through the Prado Museum, Chase got a call from Ivan. He was to come right away to the main laboratory. He went to the main laboratory. There he met Ivan and four other scientists, all busy at work on something. "What is it?" asked Chase. "We thought that since you're a fellow Acme agent, you should be here to watch our testing of the new time- travelling device," said Ivan. "You mean you completed the theoretical side of it?" Chase asked. At that moment, they heard the sound of a helicopter overhead. The next thing they knew, they heard the sound of glass breaking from a window inside the lab. Chase was ready to turn around and attack the intruders, but then a female voice said, "Don't bother!" Chase turned around slowly and saw that seven intruders had entered through the window and had guns pointed on them all. Most were dressed in blue and wore masks, while one was dressed in black. That one wore a black hood covering his or her hair, and shaded goggles over the eyes. The one in black walked up to the table. On it was a little device resembling the Acme Chronoskimmer but somewhat different as well. The intruder picked it up, saying, "I'll take that, if you don't mind." While Chase didn't immediately recognize the voice, he did recognize two things. One was that the voice was the female voice which had told him not to call Security. The other, which Ivan also recognized, was that the others were dressed in the same blue that Carmen's henchmen were dressed in! Chase then said, "I don't think you're Carmen, for Carmen never dressed in black. She dressed in brown when she was a detective, and red after she left, but never in black. Besides, your voice isn't Carmen's voice." "Clever," said the woman in black, who promptly took the papers and fled, her henchmen following, keeping their guns pointed before escaping out the window. Immediately, Chase reached the window, where he saw the intruders push buttons on their belts. He now saw that they all wore backpacks, and then saw that the backpacks had rockets inside, for they flew up into the air! Ivan joined him, and together they saw the hood that the woman in black wore blow back, revealing a very familiar shock of black hair streaked with white! Chase said, "I'm calling the scientists in the Control Room right now, so they can track down the thieves! And then, I'm calling Acme!" Ivan asked, "Do you know who that was?" "I do," said Chase. "It's Sara Bellum! That's why I'm calling Acme." But at that moment, he noticed that Sara and her henchmen had flown into a helicopter hovering above the complex and that the helicopter had taken off. It was flying toward the southeast, Chase noticed. Chase then opened his cellular phone to alert the scientists in the Control Room to track the helicopter by radar. Once that was done, he called Acme. ________________________________________________________________ ACME Headquarters, about the same time that Sara stole the time-travelling device Ivy, Zack, Globie, and Jaci looked at the package they got from Carmen. It was a egg-shaped device which they opened at once once they got back to Acme. Inside was a platform- and a projector. Immediately the projector activated, showing an image of Carmen. The image said, "I'm going to steal a Japanese bridge in the City of Cream Cheese." "What does that mean?" asked Ivy. "Player, access cream cheese." The Chief said, "Cream cheese is among the most popular kinds of soft cheese in the United States. To make cheese, you have to go through four basic steps. The first is processing the milk to remove solids, and pasteurizing it to kill harmful bacteria. It then is treated to form what is called a curd. Curds contain whey, which must be expelled before cheese can be made. Once the whey is expelled, the cheese goes through one of three processes, depending on the type of cheese that is being made." He would've said more, except that Globie said, "Never mind, Chief. This isn't getting us very far." Zack frowned, then said, "Maybe we should be thinking of brand names of cream cheeses. What brands of cream cheeses are there in the United States?" "There's Philly cream cheese," began the Chief. Jaci then cried out, "Philly! That's one of the nicknames for Philadelphia, the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania, and the capital of the United States before the capital moved to Washington, D.C.! I should know that nickname -- I lived in the area before I went to Acme when I was fourteen to train! It's a nickname people from the Philadelphia area would recognize." "If Carmen wants us to go to Philadelphia, what does the Japanese bridge have to do with the clue?" said Ivy. "Player, cross-reference Japanese bridges with the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," said Zack. A screen came up and the Chief said, "In 1883, the famous Impressionist painter Claude Monet settled in Giverny, France, near Vernon. He had a country home there, and he painted garden scenes and waterlily decorations. One of his earliest pictures of the garden was one painting he called the 'Japanese Bridge and the Waterlily Pool -- Giverny.'" "Isn't it in the Philadelphia Museum of Art?" said Jaci, trying to contain her excitement. "It still is," said the Chief. "In fact, despite the fact that it was painted in 1899, it's in the Twentieth Century Collection of paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art." "The Japanese bridge in the City of Cream Cheese!" said Ivy. "Carmen meant 'Japanese Bridge and the Waterlily Pool -- Giverny' in the Philadelphia Art Museum in Philly, PA!" "She must be after that painting!" said Globie. "I wonder why, however." "Let's find out," said Zack. "Player, C-6 us to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!" Globie activated his BCCC at the same time the C-6 Corridor opened, and all four disappeared inside the tunnel. A second later, the Chief received a message. What he heard made him say, "Oh no! Not more trouble! I'll have to alert the rest of Acme, including the ones who are going to Philadelphia." "Who are they?" asked Chase Devineaux. For Chase had just put in the call to Acme. "Ivy, Zack, Globie, and Jaci," said the Chief. "They are going to Philadelphia to catch Carmen." "So, Jaci's going back to her old home area while chasing Carmen," said Chase after a moment. "I thought she was in Madrid, working as an agent in cases taking place in Spain. I hear she's become quite skilled at stealth." "She was," said the Chief. "But she saw Carmen break into the Prado Museum, and alerted Acme. Zack, Ivy, and Globie went along to help catch Carmen. Jaci's superiors allowed her to leave her duties so she can help the others chase Carmen down." "I see," said Chase. "Well, alert them. Chase signing out." He then broke the connection, leaving the Chief to alert Acme. ___________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pa. Carmen had her communications device tuned in to conversations at Acme, to make certain the detectives were on their way to Philadelphia, but that also enabled her to over- hear the conversation between Chase Devineaux and the Chief. Now she was really angry. 'I thought Sara was over trying to take over VILE,' Carmen thought. 'I'll have a word with her myself. And I know just where to find her -- as soon as I steal Monet's painting and get away. I may have to postpone the rest of my thefts until I stop Sara.' With that plan now firmly in mind, she entered the Twentieth Century section of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There it was. "Japanese Bridge and the Waterlily Pool -- Giverny" by Monet. Once she had that painting, she would let Art Forger, a former painter who was now a forger of artwork, produce a perfect copy of it. She'd hired him just for this series of thefts, to copy the paintings she planned to steal. In return, while she returned the original paintings, he'd send the copies to their intended address -- the home of Beverly D'Angleo, the former head of the Golden Gates Girls' Orphanage. In a week, it would be her birthday, and Carmen knew which paintings she liked. But she didn't want to steal the paintings and give them to Beverly, so Carmen had decided on secretly mailing copies to Beverly. But as Carmen picked up the Monet painting, she suspected the other two paintings she needed would have to wait. _________________________________________________________________ Outside the Twentieth Century Section "What do you see?" asked Zack. Ivy looked inside. There was Carmen, and she'd just picked up a painting. "I see Carmen just picked up a painting," Ivy said. "It looks like a painting with a lot of waterlilies and a bridge." Jaci looked at the painting herself. Sure enough, it was the painting Carmen had mentioned in her clue. The one by Monet, with a Japanese bridge overlooking a waterlily pool. "That's the one," Jaci whispered back. She then heard Globie say, "Let's get Carmen now!" And before Jaci could stop him, he stepped inside the door- way, saying, "Great day for an arrest, huh, Carmen?" Ivy was right behind him, and Jaci and Zack were right behind them. Carmen turned and said, "Normally, I'm happy to see all of you on my trail, but not this time. This isn't a game anymore." "What do you mean?" Globie asked. "The Chief will tell you soon enough, I suspect," said Carmen. "So, come and catch me, detectives." With that, she raced toward the nearest exit, with the detectives right on her tail. The Philadelphia Museum of Art had two wings, both of them reaching a dead end. At each dead end, there was a window facing Fairmount Park. Carmen had to run toward the dead end on the left side of the Museum, with Zack, Ivy, Globie, and Jaci right behind her. But that didn't faze her, since she had enter- ed through the window facing Fairmount Park, and since she had urged the helicopter to pick her up there. As she reached the dead end, Globie yelled, "We've got you now, Carmen Sandiego! You can't escape!" However, at that moment, Carmen reached into her coat with her left hand (her right hand held the Monet painting). She threw something down, which immediately emitted smoke! When the smoke cleared, Carmen was gone. "It was only a smoke bomb," Jaci said. "She must have gone out that window!" They looked and saw Carmen racing toward a helicopter parked outside Fairmount Park! "Catch her!" Ivy yelled as she now led the chase. But they were too late. Carmen had already reached the helicopter and by the time they neared it, it had already begun to ascend into the air. By the time Ivy could make a jump for it, it had gotten clear. Once it reached a certain height, the copter blades disappeared, a jet engine emerged, and Carmen was gone. That's when the Chief appeared. "Carmen got away, huh?" he said. "Yes," said Globie, furiously. "And she told us she wasn't playing a game anymore. When I asked her what she meant, she said that you could tell us." "She listened in?" asked the Chief, amazed. "We don't understand, Chief," said Jaci. "Sara Bellum broke into the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and stole a time-travelling device Acme had been aiding the scientists there on. We sent our two most top-secret agents there to assist them: Ivan Idea and Chase Devineaux!" "How did Sara find out about the device if Chase was at the lab? He's one of the best at security work," Jaci said. "And undercover work. I should know -- he stopped his undercover work temporarily to work with me for a year after I became an agent, and I learned some of his stealth tricks." "He remembered you," said the Chief. "He doesn't know how Sara found out, but Ann Tickwatee and Kim Yoonity were sent there to help him and Ivan find out. Ann and Chase are going to interview the scientists, while Kim and Ivan are going to check the computer records." "The question is: did Carmen authorize the theft and use the paintings as a diversion? Or did Carmen find out about it by listening in and decide to find out what Sara's up to?" asked Ivy. "And where's Carmen going now?" "Well, most likely, Carmen's going to be heading toward wherever Sara is," said Jaci. "So, once we find out where Sara is, we'll go there and nab both Sara and Carmen." "Chase told the scientists in the Control Room at Los Alamos to track the helicopter Sara was using to its location," said the Chief. "He promised to let me know when they found it for him. He didn't say how long it would take however." "Then let's go back to Acme Headquarters until we do find out," said Zack. Ivy was about to tell the Player to C-6 them back to Acme when the Chief said, "Hold on a moment. I think Chase has something." "Then let's hear what he has to say," said Ivy. The Chief disappeared and was replaced by the face of Chase Devineaux. "Go ahead, Chase," said Ivy. "Ivy, Zack, Globie, Jaci, I just got word from the scientists in the Control Room here as to where the helicopter Sara and her henchmen used went." "Where did they go?" asked Jaci. "The helicopter went southeast from Los Alamos toward Guadalupe County, New Mexico, and -- yes, it appears it's now in De Baca County. They're looking for some facility there right as we speak," said Chase. "We think Carmen's heading to wherever Sara is," said Jaci. "We don't know yet whether Carmen authorized the theft or whether Sara did it without Carmen's know- ledge, though I suspect the latter. After all, Carmen has her own time-travelling machine. Anyway, we have to find out where Sara is if we are to have any hope of finding out where Carmen is heading to." "You have a good point there, Jaci, concerning the fact that Carmen has her own time-travelling machine and therefore probably doesn't need another one," said Chase. "Still, it's just possible Carmen's old one malfunctioned and she needs a new time-travelling device to make it work." "How much longer will it be before we can find out where Sara is?" said Ivy. Chase was about to speak, when he obviously got a report. He looked it over, then said, "You're in luck. I just got a report which indicates that there's some facility approximately 40 miles south of Fort Sumner, near the Pecos River." "Give us the coordinates," said Ivy. Within a minute, the coordinates were given. "There you are," said Chase. "I have to go now and help the newcomers find out how Sara found out about our device. Chase Devineaux out." Once Chase signed off, Ivy said, "Player, C-6 us to these coordinates, near the Pecos River, New Mexico." Globie turned on his BCCC again, and twin doors opened at the same time. Globie went in one door, the other three inside the other door. Once inside and on the way to New Mexico, the Chief said, "Ah, New Mexico. New Mexico is called The Land of Enchantment because of its scenic beauty and its rich history. It's main industries include petroleum, gas, uranium, potash -- used to make fertilizer to help increase food production -- cattle-raising, and sheep- raising. As you would no doubt know, Jaci, Santa Fe is the oldest seat of government. It was the capital of a Spanish province in 1610. New Mexico's largest city is Albaquerque, founded in 1706. Next stop, New Mexico!" To be continued...