A REAL Mission: Impossible, Part Five by Belle Book Two days later, inside Gehenna Prison Carmen Sandiego went down for dinner again. This time she had a fellow villian inside whom she knew only too well. Sara Bellum had been sent to Gehenna after attempting to steal the records of the NCIC from the FBI Building. She'd been sent there because she'd broken out of prison before (although all but one of the times, it had been with Carmen's help), and because she was so good with technology that they were afraid to put her in a lesser prison. This was an unexpected crimp in Carmen's plans. Carmen now had to ask herself whether to bust Sara out of prison when Carmen herself attempted to break out or to leave her there behind. On the one hand, Sara was a trusted associate who'd helped Carmen so many times before. And Carmen never turned her back on henchmen who followed her orders. On the other hand, Sara had once attempted to replace Carmen in a fit of mad jealousy, and Carmen had no doubt that Sara had planned the robbery in an attempt to replace her again. Sara would probably justify herself by saying that since Carmen was in Gehenna, she felt she should lead VILE, and that did have a ring of truth to it. After getting her dinner, Carmen went to her table. In a minute, Sara joined her. "Why, hello, Carmen. Are you surprised to see me?" asked Sara. "No, since I heard about the robbery that you attempted. And failed to do," said Carmen. "Well," said Sara, "since you were in Gehenna, I felt I should carry on all ze pro-jects you would have carried out." "And become the new Carmen Sandiego," said Carmen. Sara didn't need to protest. They both knew that was the truth. Sara then said, "Well, unfortunately, we're not going to have any chance to escape. I couldn't break out of here. And neither could you." Carmen thought, And in that instant, Carmen decided that while she'd break Sara out, she wouldn't do so when she got herself out. She'd leave Sara in for a little while. It would teach Sara a lesson about trying to replace Carmen Sandiego. Especially since Zack and Ivy were her heirs to VILE. Carmen then smiled and said to Sara, "You couldn't break out all by yourself. I'll agree with you about that. But as far as I'm concerned, the words 'I can't' don't exist in my vocabulary." Sara scowled, then turned to eat her meal. Carmen smiled to herself. Sara would learn the truth of Carmen's words soon enough. * * * Thirteen days later, inside Gehenna Prison Carmen was in her cell, preparing to go to dinner. Suddenly, an alarm sounded. This made Carmen curious. Something must have happened. And then she heard the voice of the director of the prison saying "Attention, all prisoners! Dr. Maelstrom is trying to escape. All prisoners report to the dining hall in the company of a guard! Four guards will be left to watch the dining hall, while the rest will help capture Dr. Maelstrom." This both alarmed Carmen and excited her. She knew Dr. Maelstrom was in Gehenna, but had never even seen him. That was because he was dangerous enough that the guards would not allow him to eat with any of the other prisoners. They also had not let him know that Carmen was in the prison, for a very good reason: Carmen had been responsible for imprisoning him -- twice. The most recent capture had only been five months ago. Now that Dr. Maelstrom had tried to escape, this naturally alarmed Carmen, as she had no intention of encountering him during her own escape. But it also excited her, for it gave her the perfect opportunity to escape. She knew that the guard who accompanied her to the dinner hall, a Ms. Powell, looked like her to some extent, and if Carmen could get hold of some clothes that belonged to Ms. Powell, and keep her from interfering, Carmen could impersonate Ms. Powell, and that would aid her escape. But first, she had one very important thing to do. She wrote a letter and placed it in a place where the guards who would come for her would see it. She addressed it to Zack and Ivy. It was a short letter, and would let them know why she had let herself get captured in the first place. They would be embarrassed when they found out, she knew. So when Ms. Powell came for her, Carmen had her plan all laid out in her mind. She allowed Ms. Powell to escort her until they approached the quarters where Ms. Powell and a few other guards stayed, and then Carmen turned to Ms. Powell. "I feel a bad headache coming on. I need to find a place to lie down." Ms. Powell said, "Why don't I take you to the infirmiry? You can lie down there." Carmen said, "Thanks, but I think your quarters will do nicely. I have a little medication I take if I have a headache, so if I just lie down for a few minutes, and you watch the door, I'll do fine. I won't try to escape." Not yet, at least, she told herself. Ms. Powell let Carmen in the room, and then watched the door. This suited Carmen perfectly, of course. Carmen swiftly located a duplicate guard uniform belonging to Ms. Powell, and tried it on. It fit her perfectly. Then, she took out a minicomputer that she had had hidden in a pocket inside her trenchcoat. She used it to activate a program she had worked out before going to the Shrine of the Books, a program that would prevent the security devices from activating while she made her escape. It only took a few minutes for Carmen to do all that. Then she swiftly stepped to a position beside the door and called out to Ms. Powell, "I'm feeling much better. You can come and get me." Ms. Powell unlocked the door, put the keys in her right pocket, and stepped inside. Carmen deftly picked her right pocket, and stepped outside. "Where are you, Carmen?" asked Ms. Powell. Then she heard the door close and heard the key go into the lock. Ms. Powell checked her pocket. Sure enough, the key was gone. And she realized Carmen was trying to escape as well. Worse yet, she couldn't do a thing about it. * * * The corridors of Gehenna Prison Carmen walked swiftly down the corridors of the prison. She knew where she wanted to go. The garage had several vans. A guard stood watch over them, prepared to shoot at Dr. Maelstrom if he tried to steal one of the vans to use in his escape. But Carmen was dressed in a guard's uniform and nobody would question her if she claimed to want to use it in an attempt to keep Maelstrom from escaping. Carmen entered the garage. Sure enough, the guard stood there. He frowned at first, thinking it looked like Carmen, then he saw the guard's uniform and relaxed, thinking Carmen wouldn't be using a guard's uniform. It looked like Ms. Powell's uniform, he thought. "What are you doing here, Ms. Powell?" he asked. "I brought Carmen down to the dining hall, and left her there. I came to get a van, thinking it might aid in trapping Dr. Maelstrom," Carmen replied. Of course, the guard didn't realize it was Carmen at that point. The guard said, "That's a good idea. Here." And with that, he led her to one of the vans. * * * Inside the van Carmen had told the guard she was going to patrol the outside to make certain that even if Dr. Maelstrom managed to get past the entryway to the prison, she'd get him. And now she was in the van that would aid in her escape. There was a key in the ignition. Carmen realized it was careless for the person who had drove the van to keep the key in the ignition, but it would serve her purpose quite well. Carmen turned on the ignition, and drove out of the garage, and toward the gates. The guard there, already appraised of her intention, opened the gates, and Carmen drove out of Gehenna Prison and toward freedom. So much for Zack's claim that not even Carmen Sandiego could escape Gehenna, Carmen thought. She had just proved Zack and Ivy wrong. Now all she had to do was contact her gang, have them pick her up, and wait for the fireworks that would surely come when it was discovered that Carmen had escaped. To be continued....