Clue by Clue

by Catherine Hapka

  “Talk about a scary ship full of modern-day pirates,” she murmured.

  “Do they see you?” Player asked.

  “Not yet. I can probably still get away before . . .” Carmen’s voice trailed off, and she blinked seawater out of her eyes, wondering if she was seeing things. Because El Topo and Le Chèvre had just leaned a long, flat piece of wood over the side of the yacht, letting it hang out over the sea like a diving board.

  Mime Bomb pranced to the edge of it, joining his hands together and wiggling like a fish, then raising both hands over his head and miming a dive. Carmen wrinkled her nose in confusion. Were the VILE operatives planning to go swimming?

  Then she gasped as Zack and Ivy stepped into view. Tigress was smirking at them.

  “In case you need another translation,” Tigress said, her voice ringing out clearly over the open water, “Mime Bomb was just explaining that this area is known by the locals as Sharkbite Reef. And if you don’t tell me where Carmen Sandiego is in the next five seconds, it’s where I’ve decided you two are going to walk the plank!”

  Chapter 12

  Zack reached for Ivy’s hand. It wasn’t easy, since the villains had bound the siblings’ wrists with thick, scratchy rope. But he managed to brush her fingertips with his own.

  “This might be it, sis,” he said.

  “No way,” Ivy replied as El Topo and Le Chèvre shoved them onto the board. “Carm will rescue us. You’ll see.”

  Tigress smirked. “She’d better hurry,” she said, strolling to the edge of the yacht and glancing down. “Because those sharks look hungry.”

  “Sh-sh-sharks?” Zack cried, staring down at the water far below. “No way! You can’t throw me in the drink—I don’t even like fish!” He gulped. Was that a ghostly shape he’d just seen gliding under the yacht? It looked a little small to be a shark, but what if he was wrong?

  The weird-looking clown guy that Tigress kept calling Mime Bomb danced over, waving his hands around his face. “Huh?” Ivy said. “Speak up, dude.”

  “He’s asking if you have any last words,” Tigress said. “Perhaps a message for your friend Black Sheep—I mean, Carmen Sandiego?”

  “Oh.” Suddenly Zack had an idea. In movies, people were always stalling the bad guys by talking a lot. Maybe he could try that—he was good at talking! “Uh, actually, I do have something to say before I depart this life. But what is life, really? Just a lot of breathing and eating . . .” He paused as his stomach grumbled. “Oh, the eating! Listen, don’t prisoners usually get a last meal request? Because I could really go for some good old Boston baked beans right now . . .”

  Le Chèvre spoke up. “Let’s get this over with, oui? We should already be on our way to—”

  “Quiet,” Tigress interrupted, glaring at him fiercely. “This won’t take long. And it should keep you-know-who off our tail for a while.” She flexed her claws. “Not that I’d mind taking her on again myself . . .”

  “Oh, good,” a voice said from atop the fly bridge. “Because I’m just itching for a catfight.”

  “Carm!” Zack cried.

  At the same moment, Ivy kicked out at Le Chèvre, sending him tumbling over the edge of the board and into the water. “Take that, Goat Boy!” she cried.

  “No!” El Topo exclaimed. “Hang on, amigo—I’ll rescue you!”

  He dove in. When Mime Bomb leaned over the edge to watch, Zack booted him in the rear end, sending him splashing down after the others.

  Tigress didn’t seem to notice what was going on with the rest of the operatives. She was totally focused on Carmen, who had just leaped down onto the deck. “Get ready to become shark bait just like your friends!” Tigress growled.

  Then she leaped forward, landing a roundhouse kick on Carmen’s shoulder. But Carmen came back just as hard with an elbow to the side.

  “Yo, sis, untie me,” Zack whispered, turning around so he and Ivy were back to back. “We can’t help Carm if we’re trussed up like Thanksgiving turkeys.”

  By the time Zack’s hands were free, Tigress had backed Carmen up onto the plank. Tigress lunged forward, slashing with her claws at Carmen’s face. Zack winced, then blew out a sigh of relief when Carmen dodged.

  “Here, I’ll do yours next,” he told Ivy.

  “Never mind that, bro,” she said. “Think you can drive this thing?”

  “Have you met me?” he exclaimed. “Like I’ve told you a million times, I can drive anything!”

  “Good. Then get to the cockpit,” she said. “And get ready to get us outta here!”

  By then, Carmen was teetering at the far end of the plank. Tigress snarled in triumph and leaped forward to give her a shove over the edge.

  But Carmen leaped off herself before Tigress could touch her—and caught the end of the plank with her fingertips on her way down. Tigress, surprised, went sailing forward right over Carmen’s head, landing with a splash in the sea far below.

  “Sorry,” Carmen called down to her cheerfully. “I know cats don’t like getting wet.”

  “Hurry!” Ivy cried, giving Zack a shove with her shoulder. “I’ll help Carm.”

  But Carmen didn’t need help. As Zack raced for the cockpit, he could already see her flipping herself back up onto the yacht. Then she leaned out over the edge.

  “Later, guys,” she called to the operatives flailing in the water below. “Nice day for a swim, huh?”

  * * *

  Fifteen minutes later, the yacht was idling in the open water of the Caribbean. Carmen, Ivy, and Zack were lounging on deck chairs. Carmen’s smartphone was on a table nearby, with Player on speakerphone. The compact scanner was in her hand.

  “Sending you the scans, Player,” she said.

  Ivy leaned over, lowering her sunglasses for a better look at Carmen’s phone. “That’s the next clue?”

  “Uh-huh.” Carmen studied the line of symbols:

  “Who has the decoder?” she asked.

  “Right here.” Ivy pulled it out. “First symbol?”

  It took a few minutes to decode the message. The carvings were worn from hundreds of years spent under the sea. Carmen had to check the individual scans of each symbol to get a clear enough look at them. As she wrote down the final letter, Zack read the whole thing out.

  “‘Cave of brethren shows the way,’” he said. “What the heck does that mean?”

  “I’m not sure,” Carmen replied. “Player, any ideas?”

  “Working on it,” he said. “There are caves all over Jamaica. Could Cal Cutlass’s treasure be buried in one of them?”

  “Maybe.” Carmen gazed at the clue uncertainly. “But the map doesn’t show a cave.”

  Zack groaned. “Oh no! Another puzzle?”

  “Looks that way,” Player said. “But hey, here’s something—I just ran a search cross-referencing brethren, caves, and pirates, and it turned up an interesting result.”

  Carmen sat up straight. “What?”

  “Tortuga!” Player said.

  “Where?” Ivy said. “Wait—that sounds familiar . . .”

  “That’s because it came up last time,” Carmen reminded her. “It’s another old pirate haven, off the coast of Haiti.”

  “Right,” Player said. “But this time it really might be the place we want. For one thing, there are a bunch of old caves on the island. But that’s not all. See, back in the Golden Age of Piracy, there was this group called Brethren of the Coast. It was kind of like a union for pirates or something. And guess where the Brethren had their headquarters?”

  Zack scratched his head. “Uh, New York City?” he guessed. “No, wait—Boston!”

  “No, I’ve got it!” Ivy exclaimed. “It’s gotta be this Tortuga place, right?”

  “Exactly.”

  Carmen smiled. “Good work, Player. Zack, let’s head to the airport. We’re going to Haiti!”

  Chapter 13

  VILE Academy

  “It’s not my fault,” Tigress said, glaring out of the comm screen with he
r wet hair dripping in her face. “This so-called crew you stuck me with is totally incompetent! Trust me, I can handle Carmen Sandiego on my own!”

  “The evidence suggests otherwise, Tigress,” Professor Maelstrom said sternly.

  He was in the lounge with the rest of the faculty. Tigress had just contacted them—finally—with an update on the mission. And the news wasn’t good.

  “So the student formerly known as Black Sheep—she has the clue.” Shadowsan’s voice was as cold as ice.

  Tigress shrugged, picking a strand of slimy seaweed out of her hair. “I don’t know. We didn’t exactly have time to catch up on all the gossip. But what matters is that I have it—and that we already decoded it and figured out what it’s saying.” She sounded proud of herself. “Anyway, as soon as we get back to Kingston, we’ll be on our way to Tortuga.”

  “What’s taking you so long?” Coach Brunt asked. “You’re burning daylight, missy!”

  “We . . . uh . . . ran into a little problem with the yacht.” Tigress grimaced, her eyes flashing fire. “We had to borrow a different boat, and it’s not quite as . . . um . . . high-powered.”

  Just then Mime Bomb stuck his head into the shot in front of Tigress. He grinned and waved, then started moving his arms back and forth.

  “What’s he doing?” Dr. Bellum asked, looking up from her screen.

  Countess Cleo leaned forward. “I think he’s . . . rowing?” she said.

  Maelstrom gritted his teeth. The lost pirate’s treasure should be valuable enough to pay for all the heists that the Red Rogue had ruined over the past few months . . . if only they could beat her to it!

  “This is ridiculous—Tigress, I expect you to make this work!” he snapped. “We can’t let Carmen Sandiego steal anything else out from under us!”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get there first,” Tigress said. “You can count on it.”

  Chapter 14

  A Chartered Plane over the Caribbean Sea

  “Okay, listen up,” Player said as soon as the small plane took off from Kingston. “This flight from Jamaica to Haiti won’t take long, since they’re only around three hundred miles apart.”

  “Tell us what we need to know, Player.” Carmen settled into her seat. “We won’t have much time to get to know the place once we arrive. I have a hunch we’re getting close to Cal’s treasure. And we don’t want Tigress to beat us to it.”

  “Tigress?” Ivy laughed. “Are you kidding? She’ll be lucky if the sharks don’t chew those claws of hers right off!”

  “Never count out a VILE operative,” Carmen warned. Sure, the last time they’d seen Tigress she was floating in the open water with the rest of her crew. But Carmen knew that wouldn’t stop the VILE gang for long. “Go ahead, Player,” she added.

  “So Haiti makes up the western part of a Caribbean island called Hispaniola,” Player said. “The eastern part is the nation of the Dominican Republic.”

  “The Dominican Republic? Hey, that’s where Big Papi is from!” Zack exclaimed.

  “Who?” Carmen glanced at him.

  “David Ortiz—he played for the Sox,” Zack said. At Carmen’s blank look, he shook his head. “The Boston Red Sox? As in, the world’s greatest baseball team ever?”

  “What, did you grow up on a deserted island or something, Carm?” Ivy exclaimed. Then she blinked. “Oh, wait . . .”

  “Okay, back to Haiti,” Carmen said, rolling her eyes. “More specifically, Tortuga.”

  “Right,” Player said. “Tortuga’s official name these days is the Île de la Tortue. It lies just off the northwest mainland of Haiti across the Canal de la Tortue. It was named by Christopher Columbus, who thought the island’s shape looked like a turtle’s shell—tortuga is Spanish for ‘turtle.’”

  “Forget Christopher Columbus,” Zack said. “When do the pirates come in?”

  “Around the 1630s,” Player replied. “By 1640, the pirates of Tortuga were calling themselves the Brethren of the Coast. Tortuga was considered a stronghold of the buccaneers just like Port Royal—pirates set out on all kinds of raids from there. It was also known as a good place to hide pirate booty, or to sell it.”

  “Then it would make sense if Captain Goldtooth had hidden his treasure there,” Carmen said. “And I bet Cal Cutlass knew that and stole it from wherever he’d hidden it! If so, it could still be on Tortuga. She wouldn’t have wanted to try to transport it all over the place—that would only have given Goldtooth more time to try to find her and take it back.”

  “That would also explain why the booty hasn’t been found yet,” Player said. “There aren’t a whole lot of people living on Tortuga even now—best estimate is around thirty thousand on the whole island. And there’s hardly any tourism, either, even though the beaches are supposed to be beautiful.”

  “Weird,” Zack said. “Who doesn’t love a good beach?”

  Ivy nodded. “Yeah. I mean, Carson Beach in Boston isn’t even that nice, and it’s crowded all the time!”

  “And there are caves on the island?” Carmen asked Player. “Like the one in the clue, maybe?”

  “Maybe. Like I said, the Brethren of the Coast were known to hang out on Tortuga. And there are lots of caves in the mountains.”

  “‘Cave of Brethren shows the way,’” Carmen murmured. “It doesn’t sound like the treasure is actually in the cave, does it? Probably just another clue.”

  “Let’s hope it’s the last one,” Player said. “As in, the one pointing us to the location on the treasure map.”

  Carmen nodded. “There might be more clues in here,” she said, picking up the diary. “I think I’ll keep reading.”

  “Let us know if you find anything interesting,” Player said.

  Carmen opened the diary to the spot where she’d left off and started to read. It could be difficult to make out some of the entries, since Cal’s handwriting was sometimes messy and the ink often smudged or faded with age. At first Carmen wasn’t sure it was worth the effort. There was more bragging, more boring talk about mending sails, and even an entire paragraph about how Captain Goldtooth had told Cal how cool her eye patch looked.

  But then, a few pages later, the tone started to change. First Cal wrote about boarding a ship that had some families traveling to the New World.

  “Oh, man,” Carmen murmured as she read.

  Ivy looked up from the game she was playing on her phone. “What? Did you find a clue?”

  “Not exactly,” Carmen said. “But I think maybe Cal is starting to have doubts about being a pirate. She just wrote about how the crew attacked a ship with some little kids on it. The kids were scared of the pirates, and when they started to cry, Cal wanted to comfort them. But the other pirates chased them below deck and locked them in the hold.” She shuddered. “Horrible, right?”

  “Wow, pirates were mean,” Zack said. “They always seem so happy on TV! Just having fun singing, drinking ale, making people walk the plank . . .”

  Ivy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sounds like a barrel of laughs.”

  Carmen was reading again. After skimming past a few more entries about thunderstorms, rats getting into the food stores, and Captain Goldtooth’s broken sword, she spoke up again. “Okay, this is interesting—now Cal says they’re heading back to Tortuga to restock their provisions.”

  “Tortuga?” Zack sat up straight in his seat. “That’s where we’re going!”

  “Yeah.” Carmen flipped to the next page and scanned it. “Oh, wow. It turns out Captain Goldtooth had no intention of shopping for provisions at the local trading post. Instead of landing at the pirate port, they sailed to a small village at the other end of the island. Listen, here’s what Cal writes: ‘Oh, it was horrible! The village was quite poor and the elders begged us to leave them in peace as they meant no harm to anyone. But that did not stop the captain from laying waste to what little they had. He ordered us crewmates to take it all—the dusty bits of grain in the bins, the freshly baked loaves cooling on the windowsills, e
very last goat and chicken, even the rough leather sandals off the villagers’ feet! And when the captain deemed it so meager a bounty as to be an insult, he ordered us to burn the village to the ground!’”

  Zack gasped. “Whoa, what a jerk!”

  “Apparently Cal agreed,” Carmen said. “She was having doubts already after the thing with the little kids. And this was the last straw. She finally realized being a pirate was about more than singing sea chanteys and having fun with your shipmates. And that stealing really does hurt people.” She smiled wryly. “Sounds kind of familiar . . .”

  Carmen’s mind wandered back to the day she realized what VILE’s true intentions were. Growing up there, for as long as she could remember, she’d always thought of stealing as a game. But once she knew the truth, and had seen what lengths VILE would go to in order to get the goods, there was no going back . . .

  She shook off those memories and read on, wanting to know whether Cal Cutlass had made the same choice. Could that be the real reason she’d decided to steal Captain Goldtooth’s treasure? Not for her own financial gain—but to try to foil the pirates she’d once considered family after she found out just how evil they were? Just like Carmen had done with VILE?

  For the next few minutes, the only sounds in the plane were Zack’s crunching as he worked his way through the plane’s bags of pretzels and the beeping of Ivy’s phone game. But Carmen didn’t hear any of it. She was totally engrossed in Cal Cutlass’s story as the young pirate vowed to make up for her past misdeeds as best she could. First she planned to steal and hide the captain’s entire treasure. Then she would send the map and decoder to that poor Tortugan village so the people there would be the ones to find the treasure. As Carmen read through Cal’s plans, she suddenly let out a laugh.

  Ivy looked up from her game. “What’s so funny, Carm?”

  “It’s Cal.” Carmen smiled. “I like the way she thinks. She’s planning to steal Captain Goldtooth’s treasure, but she’s not going to stop there. She wants to snatch his favorite hat, too—just to let him know how it feels to lose something special!”