(This section does contain some violence that may not be suitable
for younger fans to read.)
"The Ties that Bind..."
by Sara Keating
Part One: The Fall
University of Virginia Library
"Ivy, I got it!" Zack cried, leaning precariously over the stone
railing to grab the book from the porch roof.
"Zack, watch out!" Ivy cried, as he started to overbalance and slide
off.
"Ivy, help!"
She dashed over, grabbed him by the ankles, and hauled him back over.
"Be careful!" She took the book and stuck it in the inside pocket in her
jacket. The only inscribed, autographed copy of Jefferson's Deist Bible known
to exist had just been retrieved from the rogue detective Lee Jordan.
"He's getting away!" Zack said, pointing toward the fleeing man. The
Acme detectives took off after the thief, pounding down the library hall to
the stairs.
"Freeze!" Ivy shouted.
"Give it up, Lee! We've got you!" Zack shouted, panting. He was tired,
they'd been working hard lately.
Lee desperately sped up, flying down the stairs and toward the door, Ivy
hard on his heels, Zack falling behind her. Lee made it out the door and off
the great brick portico before Ivy tackled him, bringing him down hard.
Ivy tried to wrench Lee's arms around to slap the cuffs on him; Lee
kicked and caught her hard in the solar plexus, freeing himself, then
scrambled to his feet and kicked her in the side. Ivy lurched painfully to
her feet, got punched in the face, blocked Lee's next punch, and slammed him
down to the ground again. He pulled something from his jacket; Ivy
barely saw the flash of the security lights on a sleek metal blade before fire
ripped through her leg. She let go of Lee in shock, feeling warm blood oozing
down her leg. Zack came pounding onto the library portico.
"No more!" Lee shouted raggedly, grabbing Ivy by the collar of her
leather jacket. He pulled the book back out of her jacket and sent her
toppling backwards with a backhanded blow to the face. "It's been a nice
game, Ivy, but I don't have time to play anymore."
"Ivy! You're going to be in jail forever for this, Lee!" Zack shouted.
Lee hurled something small and unaerodynamic that glinted faintly in the
security lights, then turned and fled. Zack tried to flee back into the
library.
The explosion was small, a contained boom; then the portico began
falling in on itself as its supports were knocked out or off-balance.
"Zack!" Ivy shouted, dread coiling up her spine, forgetting even the
shocking pain in her leg. "Zack, get out!"
Zack disappeared under a pile of bricks.
"Chief, C-5 us emergenecy assistance," Ivy said raggedly, clearing the
last of the bricks away from Zack. He looked awful, bloody and battered, and
she was afraid to move him. She ignored the pain in her leg and her side,
more worried about Zack. He'd flung himself backward, and most of the bricks
had missed his head, at least.
"Oh, no!" the Chief whispered. His image started to cry softly. "Ivy,
just tell me Zack will be all right. Please. Oh, no..."
Ivy was pale and shocky. "You tell me, Chief. Oh, Zack ..."
""How is he, Doctor?" Ivy asked some time later, floating a little from
the pain-killer. Lee had managed to miss the artery and the Achilles tendon,
but the slash had taken ten stitches to close. Her ribs and gut still ached,
horribly where Lee had kicked her, and her face was going to be a single, ugly
bruise by morning.
"It's pretty bad, Detective," the doctor said, gently. "He managed to
protect his head from the worst of it, but he still took some nasty blows."
"Is he going to make it?"
"We don't know," the doctor replied. "I'm sorry. If he makes it
through the next few days, he'll make it. He has a good chance since you got
him here so fast."
"Can I see him?" she asked, her fists slowly unclenching.
"Only for a few minutes," the woman said, and had an orderly show her
where the room was. "You were injured yourself, Detective, you should rest."
She shook her head. "I can't."
Ivy sank down into the chair and stared at him for a moment, dropping
her Acme ID on the table, taking off her communicator. "Little bro?" Zack
was pale and still, a respirator tube in his throat, an IV in his arm. The
outline of casts and bandages were clearly visible under the sheets. Ivy
rubbed her eyes against the sting of more tears. She was supposed to protect
him; she was the strong one, the responsible one. It wasn't supposed to end
like this.
"I always thought I'd be the one to get hurt, trying to keep you out of
trouble," she said, one hand over her eyes. "How many times did we go after
Carmen? And she probably doesn't even know what happened."
She touched Zack's unbandaged wrist. "Little bro, I'll see Lee pay for
this if it's the last thing I do. I promise."
Ivy got up to leave the room.
"Ivy?" the Chief asked, his hologram peering around the edge of the
door. His image wasn't crying now, but it was unusually serious. "Are you
all right?"
"Stay with him, Chief?" she asked, voice pinched. "Please? I ... I
have to call Mom and Dad and tell them what happened. I don't want him to be
alone." She turned and set her communicator on the table, fighting back the
sickness in her stomach.
"Of course I will," the Chief said, looking like he was about to cry
again. "You'll be back?" he asked anxiously.
She nodded, something dark in her eyes. "Yeah. I'll be back."
The Chief's image floated the rest of the way into Zack's room. Ivy
took one last tortured look at Zack, and went out.
"Mom? Is Dad there - no, just get him on the extension," she said, her
voice shaking. "Please, Mom. This is more important than the game."
She waited a few moments. "It's - it's Zack," she told them, nearly
choking on the words. "He's been hurt, hurt bad. The Chief's with him right
now. He ... he might not make it." She told them the hospital and the room
number. "I did everything I could! I tried to stop him, but everything
happened so fast! No, it wasn't Carmen," she said, a half-hysterical laugh
bubbling up in her throat. "It wasn't Carmen at all. It was Lee Jordan.
Please, just ... just come. He needs you and Dad." She waited, said
goodbye, and fled down the hall. She stopped at the ladies' restroom, and
washed her face, the cold water steadying her.
"Sorry, Chief. I promised him ..." she said. The mirror wavered, and
she saw Zack vanishing under the falling bricks again, and her stomach
lurched. Then she saw only her own face again, the bruising already becoming
noticeable. "Please ..." She hadn't prayed in years, since her parents had
quit going to church. "Oh, God, don't let him die." She washed her face,
slipped back out of the ladies', and took a back way out of the hospital.
She'd had one of the local detectives bring her car to the hospital, in hopes
it wouldn't get stolen. Now she slid behind the steering wheel and drove
away.
The Chief kept track of various Acme reports regarding Lee, even re-
reading his entire dossier. After ten minutes, he started to get worried
about Ivy. "'Scuse me. Have you seen Detective Ivy around?" he asked a nurse
who came to check up on Zack.
"The redhead? She used the phone a few minutes ago," the nurse said, a
little disconcerted to be talking to a disembodied holographic head. "I'll
see if I can find her."
Twenty minutes later, the nurse reported that no one had seen her. One
of the nurses thought she'd gone to the ladies', but if she had, she wasn't
there now. Repeated pages had no results, and the Chief was nearly frantic as
the night wore on, hours ticking slowly by. Zack and Ivy's parents were due
in a half-hour; Acme had pulled strings and gotten them the fastest
transportation short of C-5ing possible.
"Ivy, Ivy, where are you? What were you thinking?" he asked,
rhetorically.
Someone slipped into the room and closed the door behind her; the Chief
took no notice at first.
"Chief?" whispered a shockingly familiar voice.
The Chief's image spun around, his jaw dropping and eyes bugging out.
"Carmen?!?" he hissed. "What are you doing here?"
Carmen got her first good look at Zack, and covered her face for a
moment. "Oh, no ..." she whispered. Her hand dropped, and the Chief saw pain
in her eyes for a brief minute. "What happened?" She sank down in the chair
Ivy had recently vacated. She was wearing plain, white clothes that made her
look like a nurse or a lab tech, with her black hair pinned up in a bun,
except for one recalcitrant lock; someone's ID was pinned to her lapel.
The Chief;s voice shook. "It was Lee Jordan; he escaped again.
Ivy and Zack were sent after him, but ... he ... " The Chief cried. "He
knocked down the portico with Zack on it. Now they don't know if Zack's going
to make it." The Chief looked at her, torn between giving the alarm and
having someone there to talk to. "Carmen, why did you come?" he asked.
Carmen brushed a hand over Zack's forehead, his whole face starting to
turn ugly with bruises. "I thought that it might a trick of Ivy's, to lure me
into the open when I heard it on the news." She wasn't looking at the Chief,
but at Zack, and the mask slipped a little. "It's such a challenge trying to
escape her," she said, with a slight smile. "But she doesn't play with
something important to her. And Lee's capable of almost anything; with a few
more brains, he could turn into another Maelstrom." She paused, and the mask
slipped away completely. "I didn't want to believe it, Chief. I don't know
what I'd do without them; the game's only as good as the chase."
"You may have to," the Chief said. "Ivy's gone."
"What?" Carmen asked, sitting upright. "Gone where?"
"I don't know," the Chief whispered. "I don't know. I can't raise
her."
Carmen looked at the table. "Chief ..." she said, picking up Ivy's
communicator and her ID. "Ivy would never leave these lying around." She
looked at the ID and badge, remembering her own, earlier version with a pang.
Had it been that long since she left?
"Oh, no ..." the Chief said. "I knew something had happened to her."
Carmen shook her head, worried about something else. "I'm afraid it
could be worse than that, Chief. Think about it. What would Ivy do?"
"You think she's gone after Lee? Alone?" the Chief said, horrified.
"But that's crazy!"
"Is it?" Carmen asked.
"Noooo," he agreed, reluctantly. "She might, Ivy's so impulsive
sometimes. And with what happened to Zack ... she might not be thinking
clearly."
Carmen was silent for a while, thinking, trying to talk herself out of
the insane idea. "Chief?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you want me to find Ivy?" she asked. She was surprised at herself
when she said it. Whatever happened, there wasn't any going back from this;
she remembered from her own Acme days the first time a partner got injured,
the first time she couldn't do something to stop it. It would be even worse
for Ivy; at least she had never had a sibling to be partnered with.
The Chief's image was shocked. "You'd do that? I'd think you'd be
planning your next caper."
Carmen winced. "I'm not heartless," she said softly. "And if ... if
things had been different ... " She stopped. "I'm rather fond of her. Of
them both."
The Chief was silent. "Thanks, Carmen. You'd better get out of here.
I think that's their parents coming."
She stood up. "I hope Zack recovers, Chief," she said, and slipped back
out of the room, still carrying Ivy's communicator and badge.
Ivy remembered that Lee had taken several vacations in Williamsburg, and
stayed at the same hotel each time. She also remembered that there was
someone there notorious for fencing stolen documents, and thought Lee would
head straight for familiar territory. She staked out the hotel, and close to
dawn, she saw Lee come back out of the hotel with a bag, jump in a late-
model Chevy, and drive away. She tailed him at as much distance as she dared,
her muscles stiff from sitting all night; her leg hurt so much it was
difficult to work the pedals.
Lee didn't seem to notice the tail for the first hour or so, but it was
getting increasingly difficult for Ivy to stay awake. When he pulled into a
fast-food restaurant about an hour and a half later, she followed him and
appeared to be fixing some sort of problem with her car. In reality, she was
planting several tracers on Lee's car.
Ivy backed out of the parking lot; she found a cheap clothing store to
get some new clothes, and a motel for a few hours sleep, all paid for in cash.
She showered, scrubbing the scent of dust and blood from her, set the alarm,
and sprawled across the bed. Her first dream was of Lee, taunting her,
holding Zack's bloody body like a fisherman posing for a photograph. Then she
dreamed for the rest of the night about Zack, lying helpless in the hospital
bed. She woke up to find she'd been crying in her sleep.
She checked the tracer unit; the signal was faint, but indicated that
Lee was still within range, heading northeast. She washed her face and rinsed
out her mouth, put on clean clothes, and headed out after him.
Carmen frowned, sitting secure in her car, and wondered why she was
doing this. The Chief was heartbroken; she had never seen him so upset
before. She closed her eyes, remembering Zack lying there, the bruises
developing on his face; that hurt, more than she would have thought possible.
After all, he was her opponent, not her friend, wasn't he? She shook her
head. They might have started out that way ... but if they weren't really
friends, still, she cared about them both more than she admitted to anyone,
even herself most of the time. Without the chase, the game would have no
meaning ...
"Now, if I were Ivy, what would I do?" she said, and smiled suddenly.
"Thinking like Ivy. Now there's a challenge. She'll be trying to either
follow Lee or predict his next move."
She thought for a bit, thinking of what Lee had said or done during the
time he worked for her or that nightmarish time when he had held Avalon
captive. He had talked about Virginia once or twice ... and she knew of
someone there who resold stolen documents. "Now where ... Williamsburg,
that's it," she said, and started the car. On the way, she called in a few
favors and talked to some of her henchmen, and made one special phone call.
"He was in Williamsburg just a few hours ago, Carmen," one of them told
her. "Was bragging about how he was going to make everyone forget about you."
"Oh?" Carmen said, negotiating the exit into Williamsburg. "How was he
going to do that?"
"I dunno, but he was talking about documents, old ones."
"Thanks, Sara."
Old documents ... she mulled that over while she drove through
Williamsburg, looking for the hotel a contact had told her to look for. She
spotted it by Ivy's red car parked nearby; Ivy was sitting in the front seat,
watching the hotel. It was close to dawn by then. Lee came out of the hotel,
and drove away; Carmen followed Ivy following Lee. Carmen chuckled briefly,
then sobered. She caught up with Ivy at the motel, finally, and debated what
to do. Ivy looked awful; her bruises were really coloring up and the
bloodstained rip in her pants didn't help. She clearly hadn't slept or eaten
since she left the hospital.
"Chief?" she said, trying Ivy's communicator.
"Carmen! You took off with Ivy's communicator!"
"What did you expect, carrier pigeons?" she replied, smiling.
"Pigeons? Pigeons? Do you know what they would do to my circuits?" the
Chief complained. "Where are you?"
"Ivy's at the Gate Motel a few hours outside Williamsburg; I think she
planted tracers on Lee's car."
"Is she all right?"
"I'm not sure," Carmen replied, thoughtfully.
"I'll notify the local Acme office," the Chief said.
"Carmen out."
She debated, then went into the Chinese restaurant next to the motel,
and took a window seat where she could keep a close watch on Ivy. She'd found
Ivy, after all; that was more than the Chief had expected. She remembered
her old Acme days, the thrill of the chase from the other side, and, with a
half-smile, working with Zack and Ivy to recapture Maelstrom. Hot and sour
soup, kung pao chicken, jasmine tea, and fortune cookies; how many nights had
she grabbed dinner on the run as a detective? Or spent dinner playing chess
with the Chief? She shook her head. She'd always done something unexpected;
it had delighted the Chief. Until she left.
She paid her check, took the leftovers, and left, waiting another two
hours for Ivy to emerge from the hotel room. If there were Acme agents
around, they were doing a remarkably good job of hiding themselves. Somewhat
to her own surprise, she got out of the car and called to her.
"Ivy?"
Ivy looked around blankly, then stared at Carmen. "You? What are you
doing here, Carmen? I don't have time for this." She sounded bewildered.
"The Chief sent me, Ivy. He's worried about you," Carmen replied,
wincing at the banality of the words. "You look awful." Ivy's eyes were
dulled with pain, dark circles marked under them, and she looked barely able
to stand.
"Gee, thanks, Carmen," Ivy replied, climbing painfully into her car,
sounding mostly annoyed now. "Like I said, I don't have time for this. I
have to find Lee before he gets out of range." She started the car.
"I'm hurt, Ivy. Four years trying to catch me, and now you don't have
time for me?" Carmen replied, shaking her head. Ivy was worse off than she'd
thought. "Every Acme agent that isn't looking for you is looking for Lee,
Ivy. You don't have to do this alone."
Ivy barrelled out of the lot without answering.
"Chief?"
"Yeah, Carmen?"
"She's not all right. She didn't even try to catch me; said she didn't
have time."
Carmen got back in her car and sped off after Ivy, wishing she'd thought
to bring along some tracers of her own or at least attach a few of Ivy's to
Ivy's car.
"That's bad," the Chief said. "The local office just reported that
someone just stole every copy of George Washington's papers they had."
"Lee," Carmen said. "It certainly wasn't me, this time."
"It's his style," the Chief replied. "Nice flowers."
Carmen smiled. "I thought Zack might appreciate them. How is he?"
"No change, Carmen. Oh, report coming in. Later. Chief Out."
Carmen shook her head. It almost felt like old times.
Ivy had nearly forgotten about Carmen, concentrating on the tracer unit.
Lee's signal was growing stronger as she drew closer to Washington, DC. The
pain in her leg had died down a bit, but the leg was incredibly stiff, and she
still ached horribly all over. Her head was starting to ache, too, and it
took all her effort to stay on the trail. Lee wasn't going to get away. She
couldn't let him escape. Her mother's angry words echoed in her head. "We
only let him join Acme because you said you'd protect him!"
Carmen was having trouble keeping up with Ivy; Ivy's driving was
getting more and more erratic as the day wore on, and it was almost impossible
to predict where or what direction she was going to turn. They were almost to
Washington, and Carmen was afraid she'd lose Ivy altogether once they got into
the city, though she had a suspicion where Lee was going.
"Chief, Ivy's en route to Washington. She's nearly there, actually."
"I'll alert all Acme agents," the Chief said. "Protect all original US
documents. Kinda feels like old times, eh, Carmen?"
She chuckled. "Almost, Chief. Carmen out," she said, spinning through
a nearly impossible maneuver to follow Ivy's sudden turn. It was a miracle
she hadn't caused a crash yet.
Where was Lee going? Washington held any number of important historical
sites and places with immensely valuable objects. Ivy tried to think through
her headache. The Smithsonian Museum of American History was holding a
display of drafts of the Constitution, Declaration and other important
documents this month; she wrenched the car into another turn, the trace on
Lee strong now, indicating he was within a few blocks.
Carmen decided to follow her hunch and head for the Smithsonian; if Lee
was stealing documents, the display would be sure to attract his attention.
She veered off from Ivy and took a shortcut, arriving at the museum just in
time to see Lee running up the steps. She dashed after him, hearing another
car screech to a stop behind her.
"Lee, freeze!" Ivy shouted, scrambling up the steps after them.
"You again?" Lee shouted mockingly, without turning around. "Forget it,
Ivy, you don't have what it takes."
Ivy didn't respond, but charged up the steps after Lee, shoving past
Carmen without saying a word. Carmen noticed uneasily the fresh blood on
Ivy's leg, and went flying after both of them.
Ivy was seeing red, and not Carmen this time; it was a film over her
eyes, as if the entire world had been drenched in blood. She forgot about the
pain with the adrenalin rush, tackling Lee before he could break into the
document case. He threw her off and scrambled to his feet, delivering another
hard kick to her side; this time she could hear the bones crack. She
staggered to her feet and slammed Lee in the face with a right hook, then
kicked his legs out from under him. He took her down with him, grabbing her
shoulders to slam her head into the floor; she flipped him over, wrenched
free of his grip, and slammed her knee into his crotch. She hit him in the
face and the shoulders, over and over, until someone grabbed her shoulders and
dragged her off.
"Ivy, stop! Look at what you're doing!" Carmen said, horrified, trying
to hold onto the struggling detective. "Stop it!"
The red film suddenly cleared, and Ivy saw Lee's unconscious, battered
body, face blanching. She nearly collapsed then, only Carmen's arms holding
her up. Carmen lowered her to the floor. "Ivy, it's over. It's all right."
Ivy buried her face in her hands and started to cry, wordlessly. Carmen
took the cuffs from her and locked Lee to a water pipe; he wouldn't wake up
any time soon.
"Ivy?" she whispered, putting her arms around the detective, now
seriously worried; she'd seen Ivy angry often enough, worried more than a few
times, but she had never seen her crying. Voices were echoing up the stairs,
calling for Ivy; Acme agents looking for her or Lee or both. She didn't have
much time. "Ivy?"
The detective looked up. "Run, Carmen." She buried her face in her
hands again, and wouldn't look up or speak again.
Carmen wrapped her coat around Ivy, and fled just as the first of the
Acme agents came into the room.
Detective Gia dashed through the door, stopped and stared. A flash of
dark hair showed Carmen escaping out the window, but one look at the room
convinced her not to worry about Carmen. Lee was unconscious, battered and
bruised, handcuffed to a water pipe. Ivy was sitting slumped near the
document case, sobbing, her face buried in her hands; Carmen's scarlet
trenchcoat had been carefully wrapped around her.
To be continued....
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