A New Beginning...?
By: Athena

Part Two:

VILE HQ; Outside Paris, France 2:15 AM

	"Shhhh.... Please, stop crying, little one." Carmen held the baby in 
her arms, pleading with the girl to quiet. 
	Thinking the baby was tired, Carmen tried to rock her to sleep by 
sitting on the edge of her bed and rocking back and forth. But the child
continued to wail.
	Why DO babies have to cry so much? Carmen wondered, realizing that 
she'd never entertained the thought of caring for a child. Now circumstances 
had forced her to, and she didn't even know the baby's name.
	The little girl's hands kept reaching out for Carmen's chest. 
Suddenly the thought came to her. The baby was hungry! Why hadn't she thought
of that before?
	Carmen carried the baby down to the kitchen where she found some 
milk to warm up. As a small glass of milk rotated in the microwave, Carmen
thought about a bottle.
	She carried the child, still crying, to Sara's lab. Luckily, it was 
2 o'clock AM Paris time and the entire staff at the Manor was sound asleep,
all except Carmen and the child.
	In the lab, Carmen found a flask and a thin piece of rubber to
fit over it. She carried these back to the kitchen where she formed a 
make-shift bottle. Sitting down Carmen prayed that the child was hungry and
would cease its wailing with the milk. Suddenly, the crying stopped and was 
replaced by a quiet sucking sound the girl made as she drank her milk. 
	"What do I do with you?" Carmen wondered. 
	"I can't send you to an orphanage, I'm not cruel. Hmmmm.... Zack and
Ivy aren't old enough, besides they would only send you away.... The Cheif
is out of the question. He may have helped to raise me, but I was 12, not 
six months.... Suhara, maybe- No, I can't ask that of him."	
	The child had finished the bottle and stared up at Carmen with her
brillant green eyes, as though listening to every word the theif had said.
	"I suppose the only thing left is to keep you myself, little one."
	The girl smiled in response. There was something about that smile  
that touched a part of Carmen in way she'd never known before. She smiled
back at her new daughter.
	"I will have to give you a name, ma petite. Hmmmm.... Your eyes....
It must have something to do with your eyes...." Carmen yawned. She hadn't
slept for days. Thankfully the little girl appeared to be getting tired as
well.
	"Ah, I will think of something by tomorrow, my little one, I promise."
	As Carmen carried the baby up to her bedroom, she thought about 
those words, "my little one". This was HER daughter, now, HER little one. 
	A child, Carmen thought, perhaps this will be my greatest challenge,
yet....


Acme Detective Agency; San Fransisco, California; next morning, 8:00 AM

	"Come on, Zack, are you done, yet?"
	"Not yet, Cheif. Carmen put a lot of barriers on so that we wouldn't
be able to trace her."
	"Hey, little bro, Cheif. Want a doughnut?"
	Zack looked up from the computer terminal to see Ivy walk in, a box
of doughnuts in her hands.
	"Not really. They remind me too much of Sara Bellum."
	"I thought you said she was short one."
	"Yeah, but I don't like the idea of eating Sara's missing doughnut."
	Ivy looked at the half-eaten doughnut in her hand, disgusted. It 
found its way into the nearest trash can.
	"So, Zack, are you any closer to tracing Carmen than before?"
	"I think so. I might be able to get into her system in three or four
more hours."
	"Do you really think this is gonna work, Cheif?"
	"Ivy, I KNOW Carmen didn't shoot that woman. Even as a detective,
she never carried a gun. If I can talk to her, maybe we'll be able to find
out what really happened last night."
	"Any word yet on who the woman was?"
	"Sorry, that's classified information. I'm not even supposed to know
about it." 
	Zack cried out suddenly, "Ah man! I almost had it, too."
	"What's wrong, little bro?"
	"I was nearly in the VILE system when-" He cut off sharply staring 
at the screen in amazement. There, on the screen, was the main menu to the 
VILE operating system.
	"Hey, Zack, how'd you do that?" the Cheif asked.
	"I wish I knew. I really don't know."
	"So now what, little bro?"
	"Well, sis, I guess we could try the teleconference." He clicked on
the icon and another menu appeared. Scanning the names on the list, Zack 
found exactly what he was looking for.
	He clicked on the icon.
	"Carmen, here we come." 


VILE HQ; Outside Paris, France; same time

	"Ah, little one, you have to learn to stay awake during the day so 
that you sleep at night," Carmen told her sleeping daughter as she put her
in the crib Carmen had set up in her computer room. 
	She watched the child, HER child sleeping, enjoying her rhythmic
breathing and the look of peace on her face.
	Carmen glanced at her watch. She had to get some work done. The 
errands she ran for baby supplies had taken her all morning. Then
she had to learn the hard way how to change a diaper.... And to top it all 
off, she still hadn't thought of a name for the baby. 
	Her eyes.... they're so green, like emeralds, she thought. An idea 
came to her. The Spanish word for emerald - Esmeralda! It was perfect and 
coupled nicely with her own last name, Esmeralda Sandiego.
	The master theif sighed as she sat before her computer. Wery from the
exhertion of the last few days. 
	I really should tell Acme that they can give up on that little caper, 
she thought. Just as her hands touched the keyboard to leave an e-mail for 
Acme, the silent alarm on her computer warned her that it was being hacked 
into. She lifted an eyebrow, curious, waiting to see who would dare try 
something like that.
	The teleconferencing program on her computer was executed, and she
suddenly found herself looking at the Cheif. Her face lit up. There was so
much she had to tell him.	
	"Cheif! How did you get into my systems?"
	"Well, Carmen-"	
	"That's alright. It doesn't matter. I have some news for you."
	"Carmen, there's something I have to tell you...."
	"I have something to show you, Cheif, or rather someone."	
	Carmen flashed her engnimatic smile that was always present when she
was being cryptic. 
	She arose from her seat and walked over to the crib. The Cheif waited 
in silence, knowing that Carmen wouldn't listen then to anything he said then.
	Speaking softly to Esmeralda, Carmen carried the baby to the computer
so the Cheif could see. 
	"Carmen, what's that?!?!" the Cheif asked, shocked, as were Zack and
Ivy who, unknown to Carmen were watching the whole thing from Acme's computer
room.	
	"Shhhh, Cheif, she just woke up. And it's not what; it's who."
	"Alright, WHO is that?"
	"This is my daughter, Esmeralda. I suppose she'd be a sort of 
grand-daughter to you, Cheif."
	"Me, a grandpa?!?!?! No way! Hey, wait a minute! Uhhh, Carmen, you're
not married...."
	Cooing at Esmeralda, who laughed softly, Carmen shook her head, not
relizing what the Cheif meant.
	"Then how.... Oh, never mind...." 
	The Cheif looked at Carmen, seeing her, truly, for the first time
that day. Rather than her trademark fedora and trenchcoat, Carmen wore a 
dark blue pullover sweater and a pair of jeans. Her dark hair was pulled
back into a French braid. 
	"Carmen, where's your hat? And your coat?"
	"Huh? Oh, I don't really like red all that much. I don't know why I 
wore it all those years...." she lied, remembering that particular shade
of red on the snow from the night before that matched her hat and coat.
	The Cheif began to worry about Carmen. She certainly wasn't acting
like herself. Maybe she did- No! He wouldn't even think that. He trusted 
Carmen, she was like a daughter to him.	
	"Carmen, I'm sorry I-"
	Esmeralda began to cry, cutting off the Cheif.   
	"Alright.... I suppose you're hungry. Let me get you a bottle."	
	Carmen put the baby in her crib while she went to the other side of
the room to get a bottle of out of the bottle warmer. Esmeralda still 
wimpered but the Cheif was able to talk over it.
	"Carmen, I have really BAD news."
	"Nothing's THAT bad, Cheif," Carmen replied, dropping some 
milk on her wrist from the glass bottle. Satisfied, she began to carry it 
back to the crib.
	"Carmen it is. Interpol is looking for you to arrest you on murder
charges."
	The glass bottle fell to the floor and shattered. Carmen stopped dead
in her tracks, reliving the events of the previous night at Mount Vernon.
	"Carmen? Carmen, hello, anybody home?" The Cheif noticed the 
horrified look on her face. For a moment he really believed that she had done
it.
	Esmeralda's cries brought Carmen back to reality. She looked down at
the shattered bottle and went to prepare another one.
	"Carmen, all you have to do is tell me that you don't know anything
about this murder. I can pull a few strings and-"
	"Cheif, I can't."	
	"What!"
	Back at Acme, Zack and Ivy reflected the Cheif's surprise. Carmen, a
murderer. The thought was incomprehendable. Now Carmen herself was saying 
that she was involved.	
	"Cheif, I didn't kill anyone!" Carmen shouted, aware of what he was 
thinking. She picked up Esmeralda and carried the child and a fresh bottle to
her computer chair.
	"You just said that you can't deny not knowing anything about this."
	Carmen sighed. "I- It's too hard to explain. I can't right now, 
Cheif. I'll try to tell you later but...."
	"Carmen I NEED to know! If you're convicted they could KILL you! Even
if you did-"
	"Cheif! I said I didn't kill anyone! I've never even carried a gun!"
	Quietly the Cheif spoke to Carmen, in what he hoped was a fatherly
voice, "Carmen, I've known you for a long time. For a minute, I actually 
thought that you had killed her, but I know that you couldn't have done that.
BUT Interpol doesn't know that. They'll arrest you for this and 90% of all 
criminals they arrest are convicted of their crimes. They have ties to the
court systems, Carmen. And even if not for murder, you'll be sent to jail for
all of your other crimes. Think about your daughter."
	Carmen looked down at the child, her green eyes staring back at the 
master theif. "I am thinking about Esmeralda. That's why I can't tell you 
right now, Cheif. Please, leave me alone. I'll contact you later."	
	The Cheif nodded and left. 
	Carmen really was thinking of Esmeralda's well-being. From what she 
had seen, the man who killed Esmeralda's mother would probably want to kill
Esmeralda as well. 
	Murder!?! I have to do something about this to clear my name, Carmen
thought. But what?


To be continued....