If Carmen Sandiego had bothered to look at a clock she would have seen that it was just after midnight. As she walked down the darkened hall, her heels clicking with every step she took, she scanned the shadows for possible dangers. Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming from the darkness behind her. She was fully prepared to deal with whomever the approaching person was, but she knew she would quickly have to plan her next move. A subtle noise came from across the hall as the brilliant beam of a flashlight danced in the darkness. She held her breath and cautiously manuevered from the dimly lit corridor into an adjacent display room. As the guard softly tread past he whistled nonchalantly, seemingly oblivious to the events which were currenty unfolding.
Again the air became still and heavy with anticipation as Carmen began the task at hand. Only the barely inaudible click of her heels against the marble tiling broke the heightened ringing in her ears, and she quietly remembered in silent reasoning the ability to control the adrenalin rush which accompanied these esoteric activities.
A large metal and glass display case hardly presented an obstacle to the master thief,but tonight was different. She fought to keep her thoughts clear and deepened her concentration towards manuevering past the thin web of laser light beams which protected the display case from possible tampering....

Carmen crouched, muscles tensed, focusing her attention on the glass case. She eased forward, picturing in her mind the path she had mapped out that kept her out of the line of sight of the lasers' bright lidless eyes. For a brief second her thoughts clouded over, and she shook her head to bring her mind back to where she was. Delicately she weaved through the silver beams, knowing that she had just enough time to follow her exact path before the guard returned.
A wave of exhaustion swept over her. She had not slept in nearly forty-eight hours. Sleep had not been an option. There was too much at stake. Her body trembled slightly, crying out against the tension.
Suddenly the room swam before her. She put her head down, waiting for the feeling to pass, but it did not. A sudden blackness overcame her. She put out one hand to steady herself... Suddenly the scream of an alarm pierced the air. Carmen gently eased her prize out of the case, fighting back exhaustion. Her favorite detectives were undoubtedly be arriving soon, and she carefully wrapped the ancient item up in a piece of heavy scarlet silk. She dropped two roses in place of her prize, and turned to escape as she heard footsteps pounding down the gallery.

***
Outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art , police busily surrounded the block with yellow tape. Angry New Yorkers on their way home from work honked their horns and yelled to the officers at the barricades. In short, Carmen Sandiego had once again caused chaos in the heart of Manhattan.

Ivy saw all of this and shook her head. Carmen's trail here was hours cold now, and in NYC, she could be absolutely anywhere.

Just then, Zack walked up to Ivy and handed her two beautiful roses, one red, one white.
"These were all she left at the scene of the crime, sis. It's our only clue." He shrugged exhaustingly. "I'm stumped."

"Well, let's think about what we know for starters," Ivy replied, trying to be optimistic.
"Carmen stole an ancient Egyptian necklace of lapis lazuli....."

"What is she thinking? Blue is so not her color!" The Chief smirked as he magically popped out of nowhere.

"Very funny, Chief, but we're trying to catch Carmen here," Zack scoffed.

"Good. But, if you're going to be doing that, you might want the clue she sent to Acme....."

"WHAT CLUE?" Ivy and Zack gasped at the same time."Hmm, that may explain the white rose," Zack interupted.

"Maybe," the Chief replied, "But let me go on, ok?"

"Oh, right, sorry," Zack replied.

"Ahem, to continue," the Chief shot back, "'See that the colors are together in a row. There's three that you'll see primarily.'"

"That's it?" Ivy asked.

"Yup, that's it," the Chief replied.

"O....kay...," Zack replied scratching his head.

"Maybe Carmen's on a color scheme? Isn't blue the strongest color when you look through a prism or something? Maybe that's why she started with that one?" Ivy asked.

"Beats me," the Chief replied. "Though I think you got something there about the prism thing."

"Yeah, you can see all the colors through a prism," Zack replied. He then thought a sec and said, "Whoa, wait a sec, 'primarily...' Perhaps Carmen's after objects of the primary colors. There's 3 main colors, red, yellow and blue."

"Ok fine, that may be the theme of the thefts, but what is Carmen after?" Ivy asked.

Zack asked Ivy to examine the rose again and she handed it to him. He stared at it and noticed that one of the petals didn't look real. He plucked off the fake petal and realized it was a note. "Hey Ive, there's more here. Check out this." Zack read the note. "It says... look behind you"?

"I was wondering when you'd get to that," a voice teased as they turned round.

"You shouldn't work so hard, Carmen," Ivy said as she tensed to spring. "Why bother with a clue when you came to speak to us face-to-face? Or did you forget something?"

"I have forgotten many things," Carmen said in a grave voice that threw the two detectives off guard. "Many of them you wouldn't believe if I told you." She smiled, but they could see that it was forced. "It's more fun this way anyway."

She tossed them another rose that she held in her hand, this time a red one. "You have the clue partly correct," she told them. "*Color* is the *primary* clue. And it has several meanings. As for the second,

Red is what you now see,
White is what used to be."

Then she turned and ran. The two detectives scrambled to follow but a smoke grenade stopped them in their tracks. Carmen left no trace.

The Chief, who had been silent all this time, spoke up. "Well, I'm confused."

Ivy looked at the two roses. "She said color was the primary clue. We have a white rose and a red rose. What could that mean?"

"Well," Zack said slowly, "if it's referring to a theft, she might be after something belonging to or related to the Dukes of Lancaster and York in the 1400's."

"Of course!" Ivy exclaimed. "The Wars of the Roses! Yorkists used a white rose as their symbol, Lancastrians a red one."

"But what did the little bit poem she thew at us mean?" Zack wondered out loud.

"Color's the primary clue, again," Ivy said. "Red is what you now see...isn't red kind of Carmen's trademark color? She always wears it, her vehicles are always that color..."

"Yeah..." Zack said slowly, turning thoughts over in his mind. "And white is what used to be. Could she be referring to the Agency?"

"Well, think." Ivy said. "What else could white symbolise?"

"Surrender."

"I think that's being a little too hopeful, Zack."

"You're right." He frowned.

"Some cultures wear white at funerals," Ivy mused. "White can mean purity, resurrection, light..."

"That's an awful lot of possibilities," the Chief grumbled. "Jeez. Even Carmen's not usually *that* cryptic."

"Wait a minute," Ivy said, peering again at the roses in her hands. "Maybe there's a reason for that. If the clue points to the Wars of the Roses, and also to herself as she is now and the Agency..."

"Some kind of internal struggle?" Zack looked doubtful. "Something must have come up for her to start to question herself. She wouldn't do it spontaneously. And it must be something big, too. Think of all the things that haven't changed her. Lee Jordan, Maelstrom, Avalon..."

Ivy frowned. "Well, I guess the only thing we can do is to follow the clue to its end. Chief, C-5 us to England!"

***
But not far from England was Carmen herself, flying a much more outdated vehicle than usual. She was in no particular hurry. As a matter of fact, she wasn't exactly sure what was on her mind. What she was sure of was that her little detective friends would have to wait significantly longer than she would to find out. She had no intention of going straight to the trap sight on no hours of sleep. Power naps were only for dire emergancies, and this certainly did not quailify as one. Besides, she had other things and clients she needed to attend to first. She eventually arrived at location 407.1 in London. She changed into her favorite Armani navey-blue velvet suit with the manderine collar and set to work on the billions of things that the Queen of a technological empire had to dael with. Still, she allowed her mind to drift.
'I'm playing with their heads,' she thought absently and smiled a coy smile, 'I do love doing that.'
It wasn't as if Carmen meant to be irritating, in a way she WAS "surrendering" a great criminal, it just wasn't herself. When ever she had a thorn in her side, someone that was continueslly harrassing her with pesky assasins or bounty hunters, or just felt that they could take over her turf without asking her divine permission, she would hand them over to her detecives and they would do the rest. Most of the time Carmen simply gave enough information as to have the police do there job, but this man she wanted to embarass in particular.
Though she knew the detectives wouldn't understand the inside joke about the rose and its "primary colors". No one would. It was just something for her and the man that tried to betray her, Galhager Nightingale. She had a little scheme going on, promising a transaction, a settlement of 5% revenue that she got from the RSV560, a revolutionary device that would help create phantom satellites on radar so that pirated and criminally owned satellites could not be detected on satellite recall. It had been done before, but Carmen had perfected it to such a level that she was sure to make another billion off that item alone.
But Nightingale had wanted a piece of the action and a tech war had ensued,but amongst all actions taken in this little war, one amusing thing stuck in her mind the most, what he had did to her rose garden. Out off the assaination attempts and data bombs, he had had the audacity to spray-paint all her white roses red! Two acres of Victoria whites, ruinded! And that little note,

"Just thought I'd coordinate your lovely garden to that audacious outfit you wear when your out fishing for compliments from the media. Ah red! The most wonderful of the simple and savage colors. Primary colors! How I love all three! You'll see, because the next thing I'm doing is painting your empire, your fat account and a circle on your forehead the same lovely color, red.

Cheerio!
Nightingale"


'Of course you are.' Carmen said, still smiling. She had such plans for him.And the detectives would fit in perfectly with her plan to utterly humiliate him. "Nobody ruins Carmen's victory rose garden and gets away with it!", she excalimed, throwing on her Floricci silk nightgown and falling into bed.

"Nobody"

Carmen slept with a smile.


***
London, England...

A blue flash of light appeared, and Zack and Ivy appeared.

"Great. I thought we were supposed to go to York, and we land in London!"

"The C-5 really needs work, Chief."

The Chief appeared. "It's a computer crash back at HQ, so that's why."

"OK...."

"But where could Carmen be?"

"Hey, isn't that Tilbury Docks over there?"

"Yeah, in fact it is."

"And isn't that Carmen's yacht over there?"

"Let me do a licence check first."

The Chief disappeared, and the duo went for a snack. When they returned, the Chief was there. Looking a bit worried.

"Is something wrong, Chief?"

"No...I..."

"Oh, spit it out, will you?"

"OK! OK! The yacht belongs to Carmen, but..."

"But what?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"Never mind, sis. Let's go and nab Carmen!"

"Good idea, Zack. We've got Carmen in our grasp this time, little bro."

"The last time you said that, Carmen escaped."

"Oh hush, will you?"

The duo crept slowly towards the yacht, and boarded quietly. They located Carmen's bedroom, and slowly opened the door.

"On my mark, little bro...One...two..THREE!"

The duo lept on the bed, and smothered Carmen with the blanket. Then, Ivy jumped into the blanket, and Zack climbed out.

"Sis?"

A few minutes later, the struggle stopped. The London police arrived, and Zack removed the blanket cover.

And there, on the bed, was a handcuffed Carmen Sandiego, all tied up.

"You did it, Sis! We captured Carmen Sandiego!!"

"All right!"

"So you did, Ivy. But can you keep me?"

"Yeah, I can."

Carmen struggled, and the cuffs emitted an electric pulse that stunned Carmen, knocking her unconscious.

"Take her away, boys."

"Let's call the Chief and tell her the good news!"

The London Police took Carmen away, and Zack pressed the communicator button, and the Chief appeared. "What happened? I wanna the 411 now!!!"

"You won't believe what happened, Chief."

"WE CAPTURED CARMEN!"

"You DID? ALL RIGHT! PARTY!"

"So, what was that thing you were so worried about?"

"Oh, nothing. Let's just go back to HQ and PARTY!!!"

"Let's go!"

Zack and Ivy activated their BCCCs to HQ, and in a blue flash of light, they were gone.



Carmen awoke with a startled gasp. At first, the darkened shadows of her room played suspiciously with the fear that still raced in her heart. Once the reality of her surroundings settled in, she brushed a lock of raven hair from her eyes and felt the cold sweat across her brow. It had been just a dream, a very bad dream.
What exactly was it about this Globie character that he had become obsessed with her capture. It didn't make a difference, not in the long run. She had played this game of cat and mouse far too long to let some newcomer prance in on familiar territory and ruin one of her best plans yet. But why now? Had the lack of sleep allowed her thoughts to become uncertain and unclear? Tonight was not a night for another entangled web of dreams to consume her needed time for rest. There was too much at stake for that.
Yet her mind had started once again, too concerned with the events to come. It seemed that when her body cried out for rest that her mind refused to quiet the perpetual working of unconscious thoughts. Carmen let out a deep sigh as she buried her head into the soft pillows lying beside her. The coolness of the ivory satin sheets soon warmed as her consciousness began to lose focus and she once again drifted back to sleep.



Keep going...