"Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost..." Part 2
			By Meg Clark

	As she drove down the road that lead to the mansion, Carmen Sandiego let down the top to
her convertible and let the cool night breeze ruffle her thick black hair.  She was glad to be 
coming home from such a stressful night, even though she hadn't had a bite to eat since she went
out.  She looked down at the bright red stain on her dress and chuckled.  Never had she seen 
such an imbecile like that man at the café.

	"Oh well," she said to herself, "Maybe Sara can get this out."

	The gravel of the narrow rural roads crunched under her tires as she came upon the huge
wrought iron gates at the end of the driveway.  Two large "V"s were twisted into the bars on 
each gate.  Two guards looked up at her as she stopped the car beside them.

	"Your shift's over, boys.  Let the computer take over," she said.

	"Thanks, Boss. Hey, what happened to your dress?" one replied.

	"Nothing," she sighed, "Now come'on; it's freezing out here."

	She punched in the code on the key pad attached to one side of the gate and drove 
through.  

	When she finally walked through the front door of the mansion, the butler took her coat 
and hung it on a nearby coat rack.  He stopped, gave her a peculiar look, and looked at her 
dress.

	"Excuse me for asking, Mademioselle, but what happened to your dress?"

	Carmen was getting a little annoyed with this, "Nothing," she answered with a little 
more emphasis.

	Mentally exhausted, she wandered into the living room.  She smiled contentedly at the 
warm glow of the fireplace and the cushy soft carpet under her feet.  She looked around and 
suddenly saw Professor Sara Bellum. She was bent over and searching around the carpet and under 
sofas and chairs with a magnifying glass.

	"What are you doing up?" Carmen asked her.

	"Oh!  Carmen, don't scarre me like that!" she exclaimed, standing up rapidly, "I was 
looking for my mice, you haven't seen any more arround, have you?"

	"No...just how many are you missing, anyways?"

	Sara took out a calculator.

	Carmen's eyes widened, "Oh no..." 

	Sara threw back her head and laughed out loud, "Hee, hee, hee!  You arre so gulible!  
By the way, what happened to your---" she stopped in mid-sentence when she saw the look of 
complete aggrivation on Carmen's face, "Neverrmind."

  	There was a pause and Carmen changed the subject, "What are you testing?"

	"How to incrrease intelligence in small mammals such as mice to allow them to 
comprrehend human commands," she replied very matter-of-factly.

	"I take it you mean mind control."

	"Whatever floats yourr boat."
	
	Carmen chuckled, "Well, goodnight, Sara," she said, leaving the room. 

	Sara muttered something like "Goodnight" back to her as she bent down to search the 
floor again.	

	It was going to be a stressful day tommorrow.  Carmen and Tourise Classe were going to 
be putting the finishing touches on the ballroom for the Halloween Masquerade that was only a 
few days away now.  Carmen had already taken care of the parking and booked several bands to 
play, and Tourise was handling the food and decorations.   

	"It's going to take a good night's sleep and a bucket of cold water to get me up 
tommorrow, " she said to herself as she headed up the spiral staircase and to her bedroom.

*			*		*		*		*		*

	Meanwhile, at a local hotel, Darien DeMarco was still contemplating what had happened to
him at the restaurant.  As he unpacked his clothes and put them in the drawers of the dresser in
his room, he dreaded what he knew was coming soon.  He glanced nervously over at a video phone 
on his nightstand and shuddered.  He sighed, untied the bowtie around his neck, and took off 
his tuxedo jacket tossing it onto the bed nearby.  He bent over the dresser and looked at 
himself in the mirror.

	"You are beau-ti-ful, you know that?  You are just too much," he said to himself 
unbuttoning the very top of his tuxedo shirt and rolling up his sleeves, "So what happened to 
you tonight?"  

	His conversation with himself was suddenly interrupted by a loud beeping from the video 
phone. 

	"This isn't going to be good," he muttered, and taking a deep breath he sat down on the 
bed next to the phone and turned on the video camera.

	In a few moments, Commander Jackson appeared on the screen.  His face stern and cold as 
ever.

	"Come in Agent Romeo.  Are you reading me?"

	Darien cleared his throat; he spoke in his most serious tone of voice, "I read you and
see you, Commander."

	"Update me on your mission."

	"I have located Ms. Sandiego and I am currently in the process of carrying out the plan,
sir."

	"And..."

	"I located her at a local restaurant and confronted her--" Darien choked, he didn't 
want to say what was coming up next, but he knew the Commander could tell when someone was 
lying to him.

	"Continue."

	"It didn't go exactly as planned, sir."

	The Commander's face went rigid, "What?" he asked, his voice began to rumble and his 
gray, stonelike eyes suddenly seemed to burn an evil shade of red.

	"She sort of g-got upset with me, s-sir, and left--"

	"She WHAT!?!" the Commander screamed, "I'll have your head on a stick if you screw up 
one more time, Agent Romeo!!!  I'll transfer your sorry butt to Antarctica!!  Do you understand 
that, you little maggot?!"

	"Yes, sir!"

	"Good!  Now you'd better not even think about messing up one more time or you're MINE!!" 
he shouted, and slammed his fist down on the End Transimission button on his console.

	The screen before Darien went to static, and with a groan he collapsed on the bed.

	
*			*		*		*		*		*

	The next day at ACME Headquarters, Ivy was pacing angrily back and forth in front of 
Zack; still bitter from the loss of control over the mission.

	"CrimeNet doesn't even have a plan we had a plan a good one they didn't they just took 
all of our hard work and planning and jumped right in and threw us out who do they think they 
are--" Ivy's ranting was suddenly cut off by her brother.

	"Ivy!  Stop and take a breath before you pass out on the floor!  I'm sure they'll get 
Carmen and bring her in."

	"That's exactly the point!!  They're going to get her, not us!!  And we did all of the 
work!  If it hadn't been for us they wouldn't have had a clue where to even start looking for 
Carmen!  And now THEY get to bring her in!" she shouted.

	"Isn't the point here that she'll be brought to justice?"

	"But they haven't spent years tracking her and learning her every behavior and every 
move!  We don't even know if CrimeNet capable of catching someone like Carmen!"

	"Ive, they solve murder and terrorist bombing cases.  I'm sure they won't have any 
trouble with V.I.L.E."

	"Well, I'm going to make sure of that.  I'm going back to V.I.L.E. Headquarters to find 
out what CrimeNet is up to," she said, folding her arms.

	"Uh...I know I say this a lot, but, it that doesn't sound like such a good idea.  The 
Commander isn't someone I'd like to mess with," Zack warned, but he knew it was no use trying 
to talk his sister out of anything; she was as stubborn as a mule and kicked twice as hard.

	"Zack, you wouldn't want to mess with a first grader!  You can either come with me or 
stay.  The choice is yours." 

	Zack sighed, "I guess I can't let you go alone...but don't say I didn't warn you!"


*			*		*		*		*		*

	"A little to the left, Roger!" Carmen shouted at the guard at the top of the ladder, 
"No, no!  You're other left!"

	"Having fun?" Tourise Classe said smartly as he walked up to her and smirked.

	Carmen looked at him and sneered playfully, "Funny.  It'll be worth it when Halloween 
rolls around."

	"Oiu."

	They were standing in the middle of an enormous ballroom adorned with candelabras, 
streamers, long buffet tables, and, of course, plenty of room to dance.  The guard Carmen was 
directing was hanging a huge banner across the top of the large stage in front of the ballroom.  

	"There!  That's perfect, good job," Carmen said with satisfaction.

	She and Tourise looked up at at the banner that read, "V.I.L.E. HALLOWEEN MASQUERADE"  
Suddenly there was a loud voice from behind them.

	"Hey, Carm!  Lookie what I found at the local candy shop!" 

	It was Moe Skeeter, with Lars Vegas following close behind.  Moe was holding a large 
bowl of candies shaped and colored like eyeballs.  As he came up he set the bowl on a nearby 
table and held two of the eyeballs up to his own eyes sticking out his tougue.  Carmen shook 
her head and chuckled.

	"Zat eez disgusting!" Tourise exclaimed.

	Lars gave Moe a hard smack in the back of the head and caught the two candies that flew 
out of his hands, tossing them back into the bowl.  

	"Sheesh, ya have no inner child, ya know that?" Moe grumbled, rubbing the back of his 
head.

	Suddenly Lars looked down.  His face grew pale and his eyes widened.

	"A MOUSE!!!" he screamed and lept into Moe's arms, knocking him backwards into the table.

	Candy eyeballs went rolling everywhere, and despite the mess Carmen and Tourise were 
both laughing as a tiny white lab mouse skittered across the floor, picked up one of the 
eyeballs, and ran off.  

	Tourise was still laughing when Carmen caught the sight of movement from the corner of 
her eye.  She turned and saw a young man walking towards her.  As he approached she realized 
that it was that man from the café!  She thought about calling the guards, but then a plan 
started to develope in her mind.  She smiled at the thought of payback for the other night.  

	When he was about three feet away from her, he whipped a single red rose from his jacket
with a casual glance to her.  She smirked and folded her arms giving him an equally coquettish 
look.  He moved closer to her and touched her nose with the bud of the rose.

	"Hey there, Lovely.  We're a couple of gogeous people.  What would you say to a night 
of wine and roses on the town?"  he spoke with an egotistical air.

	Carmen simply smiled and moved back a step.  He moved with her.

	"Mmmmm, sound's fun," she replied in a whispery voice, she took the rose from him and 
moved back even more, still smiling face to face with him, "I bet you're quite a Casanova."

	The man followed her as she moved ever backwards, keeping his eyes on hers, "Well, I 
must admit, I've never met anyone that equals my--"

	His voice was suddenly cut off as his legs went flying out from underneath him.  He 
landed flat on his back on top of a sea of candy eyeballs that Carmen had lured him into 
slipping on.  Tourise cringed, Lars and Moe laughed hysterically, and Carmen stood with a 
satisfied smile on her face. 

	She watched in amusement as he tried desperately to get back on his feet.  Everytime he 
thought he had a foot or hand firmly planted on the ground, he would crash to the ground once 
more.  Carmen observed him scrambling around for quite a while longer.

	"Maybe next time you should watch where you're going," she said angrily to him, throwin
the rose at him, "Because if you don't...I will."

	She turned to the guard standing behind her, "Show him to the door."
	
	The guard gave an evil chuckle, hoisted the man up by his shoulders, and dragged him 
towards the front door.

*			*		*		*		*		*

	"Ouch!" Ivy cried, "Be careful!  You're bruising my shoulders!"

	"Well, stop moving around down there, you're gonna make me fall!" Zack replied, he was 
standing on her shoulders looking into one of the windows at V.I.L.E. Headquarters.

	"You weigh a ton!" Ivy complained more, "What do you see?"

	Zack squinted his eyes and looked in, "A guard.  Dragging some dude by his shoulders."

	"Where are they going?"

	"The front door.  The guard's opening the door.  He's picking up the man.  And he's--
Ouch!  That's gotta hurt!"  

	"Come'on, Zack.  Let's go take a look," Ivy said, letting him down onto the ground.

	They ran around the mansion and peeked around the corner.  A young man was getting up 
off the ground and dusting himself off.  He turned towards the door as it slammed shut.  He 
threw a rose to the ground and muttered something.

	"What'd he say, what'd he say?" Ivy said, poking her brother impatiently in the side.

	"Stop it!" he hissed, batting her hand away,  "Something like, 'I'm not giving up so 
easily' or something."

	"Giving up on what?" Ivy whispered to herself.

	Zack turned to her, "Got your camera, Ive?"

	"Yep," she replied, and took out a small pocket camera from her jacket, "Say fromage!" 
she joked, snapping a few pictures of the man.

	"This oughta give us something to go on," Zack said, looking at the polaroids, "Who do 
you think this guy is?"

	"Why Zack!  I didn't think you liked this idea," Ivy said smiling.

	He shrugged his shoulders, "Hey, I could get into this."

*			*		*		*		*		*

	"Round three, Carmen," Darien said to himself as he brushed back his hair.

	He was standing in a room outside of a hallway at V.I.L.E. Headquarters.  

	He continued thinking as he waited in the doorway, "I didn't grab her attention with a 
casual introduction.  Not even with flattery.  It's about time I tried the direct approach," he 
said, a smile crossed his face as he heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway.
	
	He waited and listened.  He heard a few men, probably guards, a foriegn sounding woman,
and ,yes, a soft voice that belonged to Carmen.  He smiled again, waited for the voice to come 
closer, and stepped into the hallway.  He grabbed Carmen and leaned her back in his arm, giving 
her a long kiss on the lips.  Suddenly he felt her struggling and hitting him, so he let her 
back up and smiled slyly.  But his face fell and his eyes widened with shock and surprise when 
he saw that the woman in his arms wasn't Carmen.  Two burning eyes full of rage glared at him 
from behind a pair of laboratory goggles.

	"Oops," he squeaked.

	"HOW DARRRE YOU!!"  Professor Sara Bellum shreiked at Darien.

	She broke herself from his grip and smacked him hard across his face.  As Darien looked 
around he saw Carmen's guards looking at him in astonishment.  Carmen herself was standing for 
a while, but then had dropped to the floor in uncontrollable laughter.  He could just about 
feel himself sinking through the floor. The two guards looked at each other, and then at 
Darien.  

*			*		*		*		*		*

	As the door of the mansion slammed shut behind him for the second time, Darien wondered 
if he was losing his touch.  He stood on the doorstep staring at the ground in shock.

	"This woman changes all the rules," he muttered. 

	As he sighed and started to leave, a small red flier fluttered to his feet.  He picked 
it up and read it.

	"V.I.L.E. Halloween Masquerade...October 31...at headquarters...," he read, and looked 
towards the house, "I have one more chance.  Obviously, she isn't who I thought she'd be.  
Looks like I'll just have to wing it..."


					To be continued...