CLUED IN
by Erin Mills
based on characters owned by Broderbund
Software, Dic Productions and Parker Brothers
"One minute, fiften seconds remaining..."
Carmen Sandiego stared up at the Leaning Tower of
Pisa. It wasn't the real tower, of course. Just a
holographic representation. She was putting herself
through her bimonthy workout. You didn't get to be the
world's greatest thief by sitting around, allowing your
skills to deteriorate.
So twice a month, Carmen would run through her own
obstacle course, with the added problem of being on a
two minute time limit on each level. She felt it was only
fair to her henchmen, after all she designed the course.
She took the grapple and rope from a nearby table,
twirled the grapple a few times and let it fly. It didn't get
all the way to the top, but it was far enough that the
master theif felt she could get to the top with little
difficulty.
Carmen scaled the rope, pulling herself up with easy
hand over hand strokes. Within seconds she had gotten
halfway up. She smiled. She was going to break her old
record.
Back at the equipment room, Lars Vegas and Moe
Skeeter were doing inventory.
"Hey, Lars."
"What is it?"
"Did you take that rope that needed to be rewoven to
Art Encrafts yet?"
"No," the henchman replied. "I thought you did."
"Well, I didn't take it!" Moe snapped.
"So who did then?"
After a moment the two of them realized that they
were in BIIIIG trouble.
"Thirty seconds." came the sleek female voice of the
VILE 9000 mainframe.
"Child's play," Carmen said. She was three-quarters
of the way up now. Nothing was going to stop her.
Suddenly, without warning, the rope abover her
frayed and snapped. Carmen let out an involuntary
scream as she fell to the floor of the training room.
The emergency saftey system kicked in, inflating an
airbag to break her fall. Unfortunately, it didn't inflate
enough. Carmen landed in the airbag and sank to the
floor without any change in speed.
The thick vulcanized rubber of the airbag prevented
her from breaking any bones, but as she sank into the
rubber and connected with the floor she felt an thud on
the back of her head and stars exploded in her eyes
before she sank into unconsciousness...
After a while, she became aware of voices.
"...I think she's coming around."
Carmen opened her eyes. Everything was a blur. After
a few moments things began to come into focus. There
were two people standing over her.
"I say, Scarlet," came a male voice with a bad British
accent. "Are you all right?" There was something familiar
about the voice that Carmen couldn't place.
"Of course, she's not all right, Colonel," came an
equally familiar female voice. "You've just hit her with a
croquet ball!"
"It was an accident!" the British voice protested. "I was
merely trying to knock Green out!"
Carmen sat up with a groan. She felt two pairs of
hands supporting her. She closed her eyes, shook her
head, then opened them again.
She was not prepared for what she saw.
Zack and Ivy were kneeling in front of her. Well, this
was not so surprising, but the way they were dressed
was. Ivy was in a black and white maid's uniform while
Zack was wearing a tweed suit. He also had a cheesy
looking mustache the same color as his hair, he wore a
monocle in his left eye and he was smoking a pipe!
"Zack? Ivy?" Carmen stammered, "What happened?"
The two siblings looked at each other, confusion
evident on their faces.
"I thought your first name was Blanche, Mrs. White?"
Zack asked Ivy, in the same bad accent. "Pardon my
impertenance."
"It is." Ivy replied. She looked at Carmen. "Ooh, you
must have taken a nasty crack on the head, Miss Scarlet.
You had Colonel Mustard and I worried sick."
"Colonel...Mustard?" Carmen frowned. "What?"
Zack and Ivy...or rather Col. Mustard and Mrs. White
exchanged glances.
"Yes, so sorry about that, Scarlet." Zack replied. "I
was knocking Green's ball out when you walked up from
the mansion. The ball hit you square on the ol' noggin."
"What? Mansion? What's going on here?" Carmen
demanded. She hated being bewildered like this.
"Hey, Mustard!" came another male voice. "What's
holding up the game?"
"Just a slight mishap, Green," Mustard yelled back.
Carmen watched as "Four Chin" Hunter strode over a
nearby knoll. He was dressed in a three piece blue suit,
with the exception of a green vest and tie. He came up to
the group.
"I'm afraid that while I was knocking you out, I
knocked poor Scarlet out, too." Zack chortled at the bad
joke. Mrs. White helped Carmen stand up.
"You'll feel much better when you've rested for a bit,
dear," she said. Carmen couldn't help but feel that this
was a strange thing for Ivy to say. It was so unlike her.
The master thief allowed herself to be led inside a
sprawling three story Gothic mansion. She was still
feeling bewildered. The last thing she remembered was
falling from the top of her psuedo-Tower of Pisa. Now,
she was evidently at some lavish estate out in the
country.
Ivy..er.."Mrs. White" led Carmen through the great
hall of the mansion. From one doorway a couple emerged.
Carmen blinked. Sarah Bellum dressed in a stylish blue
dress, and...Carmen blinked again, not believing what
she was seeing. It was the Chief! Or rather it was a man
whose face and hairstyle resembled the Chief's. The man
who looked like the Chief was dressed in a dark suit with
a purple bow tie.
"What happened?" Sarah asked. "Is she all right?"
"Nothing to worry about, Mrs. Peacock. Miss Scarlet
just took a nasty bump to the head, that's all." Ivy replied.
"I have some aspirin in my suitcase, if that will help."
the man said. He even sounded like the Chief, only not
as hyper.
"You're a dear, Professor Plum. I'm taking her to the
kitchen for some ice." Now THAT was completely out of
character for Ivy. Carmen seriously doubted that the
fiesty detective would ever call anyone a "dear."
In the kitchen, Carmen sat down at the table while Ivy
placed some ice in an ice compress and handed it to her.
Carmen held the bag to the growing lump on the back of
her head and tried to think.
Thinking proved to be out of the question, however,
when Lee Jordan, dressed in a black suit and
clean-shaven storde into the room, an expression of
concern on his face.
"I just heard. I told Mustard to place the croquet hoops
further away from the house." he said. Carmen stared
wide-eyed, unable to speak.
"He just can't stand to lose, if you don't mind my
saying so, Mr. Boddy." Ivy replied. "Put him in any
competitive situation and he goes berzerk."
"True, Mrs. White." Lee replied. "Very true." He knelt
down in front of Carmen. "I am so sorry, Miss Scarlet. I'll
see that the Colonel apologizes at dinner tonight."
"What are you doing here, Jordan?" Carmen hissed.
Lee and Ivy exchanged bewildered glances.
"I'm sorry, I don't follow you." Lee answered.
Carmen stood up. "If this is one of your sick and
twisted little games, I'm not playing. I don't know how you
mananged to trick Zack and Ivy into going along with you,
or Sarah and Four Chin for that matter. And I'm not even
going to try to figure out how you gave the Chief a body.
But I do know this, either you take me back to wherever
you found me or so help me, I'll call the police and have
you busted for kidnapping!"
"Kidnapping?" Carmen was surprised that Lee had
the gall to look shocked. "My dear Miss Scarlet, don't you
remember? I invited you and the rest of my dear friends
up here for the weekend! There has been no kidnapping.
You arrived here yesterday. Your luggage nearly gave
poor old Didit a hernia. We do this every month. Don't you
remember?"
Carmen looked for a moment at the look on Lee's face
and realized that he was telling the truth. Carmen shook
her head.
"I don't feel so well..." she mumbled. Lee took her
arm.
"That's hardly surprising." he said, escorting her out
of the kitchen. "Let me take you to your room, and you
can get some rest. Hopefully, you'll feel better by
dinnertime."
In her room, Carmen lay on the bed in thought.
As far as she could tell, from what she had heard, she
was at a mansion out in the country somewhere, either
Britian or New England, she guessed. Lee was the
owner of the mansion, and she, Zack, Four Chin, Sarah
and the Chief were his guests. Ivy apparently worked
here as a live-in maid. Yet all of them went by other
names, and seemed to think that she was someone else
as well.
There was also something familiar about the names.
Something that her mind had hsnagged onto but couldn't
quite remember, probably as a result from the blow to the
skull.
She carefully got off the bed and went to the red
leather briefcase on the desk. Maybe there was
something in here she could use to figure out what was
going on.
Inside the briefcase was a revolver and a newspaper.
There was a news item circled in red ink on the
newspaper. Carmen picked up the paper, being careful
to avoid touching the gun.
"Boddy Industries Goes Public
Mr. Reginald Boddy, chairman of Boddy Industries
has announced that shares of Boddy Industries stock will
now be traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange.
Shares are going for $500 dollars each. Economists
report that the announcement will send Boddy Industries
profits through the roof."
In the margin of the newspaper in the same red ink
was note in handwriting that Carmen recognized as her
own.
"Boddy's net worth: Millions. He really should get
married. Especially at his age."
Carmen looked at the note, then at the gun in the
still opened breifcase. She almost had it...something was
on the verge of breaking out. She looked up.
Her reflection in the mirror surprised her. She was
dressed in a casual but elegant sleeveless red gown,
with a gold heart-shaped locket around her neck. Her
hair was down, with the wave of hair that consistenly
obscured one side of her face in position. As she looked
at herself, the penny finally dropped.
Mrs. White, Colonel Mustard, Mr. Green, Mrs.
Peacock, Professor Plum, Mr. Boddy...and Miss Scarlet.
She had somehow ended up in a real-life game of
Clue! But that was ridiculous.
Carmen thought. She reached over and
pinched her arm.
"Ouch!"
Then, it wasn't a dream? Was this reality after all? And
if it was...
Cold dread seized her stomach.
If it was, then sometime this weekend, Mr. Boddy was
going to die!
To Be Continued...
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