A REAL Mission:  Impossible, Part 3
                                       by Belle Book

Outside the Israel Museum, on the other side of the fence

        Ivy and Zack stood watching Carmen enter a police van along with two guards
assigned to guard her at all times.  After all, Carmen was the world's most elusive thief.

        The van was going to take Carmen to the airport, where a special jet was being
preparedto send her to Gehenna Prison.

        "I still can't believe it!" cried Ivy in sheer delight.  "We just caught Carmen
Sandiego! And this time she wasn't thwarted by a rabbit's foot, like she was the last time
we caught her."

        "No, and she wasn't able to take advantage of any secrets we had like the first
time we captured her.  The time when we used our Tigress scheme," added Zack.

        "Well, she has only herself to blame for getting caught.  For once her little
gadgets were unable to help her," Ivy said.

        That's when an Israeli reporter came up to them and asked in Hebrew, "Zack! 
Ivy!  I just heard Carmen Sandiego had been captured!  Is that true?"

        Zack knew Hebrew, so he said, "Yes, that is true.  Look over there," and he
pointed to the police van, still with its door open.  And inside was Carmen.

        Before the door closed, Carmen called out to the detectives, "Well, detectives,
I always knew you were very good.  Looks like this time the best person, or should I say
people, won." Then she added, almost to herself, "Or did they?"

        Then the door closed, the policemen got into the front of the van, and the van
sped away.

        The reporter turned back to Zack and Ivy and asked, "How did you catch the
world's most elusive thief?"

        After translating the sentence to Ivy, Zack turned back and said, "Apparently
by accident.  Carmen's escape device failed, then the police arrived before she could
get away."

        "What did Carmen mean by her question as to whether the best people won or
not?" asked the reporter.

        "Good question," said Zack.  "I don't know."

        "Will Carmen wind up at that new prison Acme built recently?"  asked the
reporter.

        "We are confident that she will.  And this time she won't be able to break
out," said Zack.

        Then the reporter went over to talk to some policemen who remained at the site
of the arrest, and the Chief appeared to Ivy and Zack.

        "How about that for good fortune?" said the Chief.  "We just happened to catch
the world's best thief, Carmen Sandiego!"

        "Will she be headed for Gehenna, as we suspect she will?" asked Ivy.

        "Oh, she'll be headed there, all right," said the Chief.

        "Well, we did it, little bro!" said Ivy, actually hugging Zack.  Zack returned
the hug.

        But deep down inside, he wondered why Carmen had questioned whether the best
people won or not.  Did she have something else up her sleeve?  Or did she still believe
she was the best, and was just having a difficult time accepting the fact that they had caught
her?



At Acme Headquarters, in Paris, France, around six o'clock, French time

        The V.I.L.E. agents were in a state of absolute shock.  Even Sara Bellum could
hardly believe it.

        They had just learned on the news that Carmen Sandiego had been arrested at the
Israel Museum while attempting to steal the Dead Sea Scrolls.  And that she would be
sent to that new prison, the one that nobody would be able to break out of.

        Now the vast majority of Carmen's henchmen were wondering, WHAT IN THE WORLD DO
WE DO NOW?
        The henchmen who thought that way knew Carmen was a good employer, and one who
was more than willing to get her henchmen out of jail ... as long as they had obeyed her
instructions beforehand.  She was not a tyrannical employer, one who inspired only fear and
little else.  She really cared about them.  And that was the major reason why almost all of her
henchmen obeyed her instructions to the letter while carrying out one of her assignments.

        Sara Bellum, however, had different thoughts.  She had once cherished the dream
of eventually becoming the best thief in the world, and replacing Carmen.  In fact,
jealousy had caused her to go mad and actually try to replace Carmen, with ultimately 
disastrous results.  It was only Carmen's awareness that Sara had gone mad and Sara's 
promise to seek professional help that had allowed Sara back into V.I.L.E.  Even Sara had 
to admit that Carmen was not a tyrant, that Carmen really cared about her.  But now, with 
Carmen in prison, Sara saw her dream of replacing Carmen come to life.

        So she waited until everyone finished talking at once, expressing their
feelings of shock and disbelief.  Then she spoke up.

        "I know you must be in a state of shock and disbelief.  But we must start
thinking of ze future of V.I.L.E.  Carmen is not capable of leading us because she has been
arrested.  As a result, I will be ze new leader of V.I.L.E., since no one can break out of ze
new prison."

        Everyone looked at her with a look of worry on their faces, then nodded.



The next day, at Gehenna Prison

        It was nine o'clock at Gehenna prison.  The security cameras had just picked up
the approach of a police van.

        Now special sensors designed to activate the gates only for police cars and
vans activated the gates, and the gates opened, allowing the police van inside the
courtyard.

        A policeman stepped out from the passenger side of the van and opened the door
at the back.  He said, "Well, here we are.  Welcome to your new home, Ms. Sandiego."

        Carmen stepped out of the van.  Special cuffs were attached to her wrists, ones
that would be taken off as soon as she entered her special prison cell.

        She looked around the courtyard.  The prison was a dark, forbidding place,
built out of gray stone.  She could not see any of the special security devices surrounding
the courtyard, like the magnetic force field around the perimeter of the courtyard that was
supposed to alert the guards that a prisoner was trying to break out, but she knew the devices
were there.

        Then as the guard led her to the entryway of the part of the prison that housed
the cells, Carmen noticed a sign above it.  It said,
                                        Gehenna Prison
                             Abandon all hope ye who enter here

        Not a very encouraging welcome to her, Carmen thought, then she reminded
herself that it wasn't supposed to welcome her or anybody else stuck in this prison.  It was
supposed to remind prisoners that they were prisoners here forever, that they could never
leave.

        However, Dante had never thought of her when he wrote that line, Carmen also
thought. She had her plan all laid out.

        But it was no use spooking the guards at this prison.  She could afford to
wait.  So she had decided to wait a month, maybe two, before making her move.

        And once she made her move, she would prove Zack wrong.  No prison could hold
her forever.

        Not even Gehenna.

                                    To be continued...