Foreword: I've decided to establish a time frame with the first post by setting it immediately after "La Vie de Luxe." V.I.L.E. members may start their "adventures" with receiving their bonuses; you're allowed to do what you will. ACME, based on this, the ACME building has recently been removed; write freely, your own discretion is advised.
In the darkness, Carmen struck a lighter. The action devised a small flame, and the thief smirked behind its flickering glow as her careful hands repositioned the blaze towards a sensor. Fire detectors immediately responded with a loud wailing siren and a spray of pressurised water.
In front of her, a steel door unlocked while warning signals flashed across nearby LCD screens that the system detected and contained a fire.
"Well, it still works," she surmised, the sprinkler having dowsed both her and the lighter she held. "There shouldn't have been water," Carmen stepped down from the desk she stood on, and then took off her coat, "but, at least we have access."
The men with her, also drenched, agreed that water was unnecessary, but they had gained much-desired accessibility to this portion of the building.
Carmen Sandiego and a selected handful of henchmen were inside ACME's stolen tower. This prize was well worth the lengths she had meticulously teetered. Early last year, she discovered through sources that ACME had plans to renovate, at the same time digitising their documents. The thief created a plan then, and waited patiently until operational offices began moving out of the main building for temporary ones inside the academy. She wove a story across Saigon, Paris, Quebec, and ended her spree in the fortified city of Luxembourg where an unforeseen team of agents nearly sealed her fate. Her ruse had worked marvellously, and while ACME's finest were distracted, her silent team struck in San Francisco.
Ingeniously, ACME's private corridor system played a crucial role in the theft of its control centre. No matter how she had pictured her success, the sight, the tangibility of the 16-storey building was astounding.
Inside, only hours after she had escaped from Luxembourg, VILE's ringleader began the exploration phase of her plan. With passage granted by the fire alarm, Carmen walked through the room of records. Many files were marked with a stamp to indicate their entry into ACME's new digital system. Older and out-dated documents, however, were marked for further review. Carmen looked through a few, recognised traces of her former self, and decided, "Mm, we'll have to burn these."
A sneeze interrupted her superficial walk down memory lane. All heads turned to one another, then to the direction of the source: the offices. Although Vincent had ensured that sensors detected only him, Flag, and the hacker before powering the corridor that transported the building, they obviously missed someone else.
VILE's men quickly scoured the area, and upon discovering where the sneeze came from, led their leader into Chief Weller's office. There, staring wide-eyed at her visitors, a little girl sat shielded behind a large wooden desk.
Being a scrupulous planner, Carmen had prepared for the possibility of stowaways: a renegade detective, a hapless janitor, she even had a plan devised to deal with a certain Field Director, but a child was out of her scope.
With composure, she greeted her miniature intruder, "Hello, I'm Carmen," her voice was assuring, "And you are?"
"Hailey," the little girl hesitantly sounded, swinging her feet against the leather chair, "and I'm hungry. It rained in here, did you see?"
That name was familiar, and Carmen felt herself flushing at its significance.
"That doesn't help," muttered a hand by the codename of Simon.
"Yes, it does," she contradicted, "Chief Weller's granddaughter."
An understandable silence permeated until Simon spoke again, "What should we do?"
Moving to Hailey, Carmen replied, "Nothing, we'll give everybody the bonuses they were promised so they can head home for a few weeks." Kneeling to the level of the six-year-old, she smiled, "And we'll have to get you home without reaping abduction charges, somehow."
Hailey giggled, reciprocating to the stranger's expression.
Turning to Simon, the thief took another tone, "We're adjourned," she instructed, "and tell Fumigalli to meet me, immediately, my quarters."
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