Endangered Operation
Page 7
“Get your filthy knees off my brother!” Ivy shouts, charging toward Le Chèvre. Suddenly, the earth opens beneath her feet and El Topo pops out, tackling her from behind by the ankles. She crashes to the ground.
You run for the pickup truck that Le Chèvre and El Topo were driving. Seeing that the key is still in the ignition, you slide into the driver’s seat and gun the engine, speeding toward the fight. When Le Chèvre sees the truck barreling toward him, he releases Zack and vaults up on top of the airplane wing. El Topo dives and burrows back into the ground.
You turn the steering wheel hard and slam the brakes a moment before you run into Zack and Ivy. “Get in!” you shout. The two of them grab ahold of the back of the truck, climbing into the cargo bed as you speed away. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Carmen slipping through the open hatch into the airplane’s cargo hold.
Le Chèvre and El Topo sprint behind you, but they have no chance of catching the truck. You careen down the path through the forest until you reach the main road. Zack and Ivy get back into their car, and the three of you race away.
After driving for a while, you all stop by the side of the road to check on the snake and make a plan. You lift the lid off the bucket to find a heavy cloth sack inside. Peeking inside the sack, you see a coil of yellow-and-black scales in a diamond pattern.
“Whoa,” says Ivy. “We should let her go.”
You look around at the forest. “We need to leave her where VILE can’t find her again. The range on the tracker is pretty short, so if we drop her somewhere a hundred miles away, they won’t even know where to start looking.”
You decide that Zack and Ivy should drive their car back to São Paulo, while you drive the boa into the forest to find a good place to release her. The sun has gone down now, and you drive on your own along dark roads deeper into the forest.
There’s a device with a video screen on the dashboard of the VILE truck, attached by a suction cup. You assumed it was a GPS—but suddenly it flashes on, showing a large woman with a fierce scowl on her face. “I don’t know who I’m talking to,” she says, “but you’re driving my property.”
At first, you’re too surprised to answer. Can she see you somehow through the screen?
“You’re Carmen’s little friend, right?” the woman seethes. “Well, sugar, you tangled with the wrong people today. How about you bring me my snake back and we’ll forget this ever happened?”
“Not a chance,” you say, looking for an OFF button on the device.
“Hold on!” the woman says. “Actually, this might be your lucky day. You see, I’m collecting a whole zoo full of animals, and that snake you’re hauling is one of the last I need. That makes it valuable to me. Very valuable. So, tell me, what kind of money do you like wherever you’re from?”
“Euros,” you say.
“Okay, sure. I’m about to ping you a destination. All you need to do is park that truck where I tell you and walk away, and I’ll pay you a hundred thousand euros for your trouble.”
“I would never—”
“I don’t have time to negotiate. Let’s make it two hundred thousand euros. Imagine how many endangered animals you could help with that kind of money. I promise we’ll give your scaly friend a good home, with a nice tree to climb and plenty of freeze-dried mice to eat.”
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
▷ “You have a deal!”—turn to page 138.
▷ “No way!”—turn to page 50.
Return to page 26.
YOU HAVE A FEELING that Tigress is someone you should avoid, so you stick to your hiding spot, crouching low in the bushes until she is gone.
A few minutes later, you hear a WHOOSH, and Carmen drops out of the air onto the path next to you. She looks frustrated. “I almost caught up with the van,” she says. “But they slipped away this time.”
“There was someone else here,” you tell her. “Someone named Tigress.”
“Of course.” Carmen frowns. “It figures they sent Tigress to steal a tiger.”
“You know her?”
“We were friends once—well, not friends, exactly. Anyway, we’ve tangled a few times, but it looks like this time she got away.”
“I’m sorry,” you say. “I should have tried to stop her.”
Carmen shakes her head. “Tigress is dangerous, and you were smart to stay away from her.” Seeing your disappointed face, she puts a hand on your shoulder. “Look,” she says, “in the real world, sometimes the bad guys win. It’s not your fault.”
But you can’t help feeling that it’s a little bit your fault.
THE END
Return to page 67.
DESPITE IVY’S CONFIDENCE, you decide that the safest thing is to get rid of the tracker, and so you pitch it over the side of the boat, where it sinks under the waves.
“Suit yourself,” says Ivy as Zack pushes the throttle and speeds toward shore.
Within a few hours, the three of you have docked at a marina on the mainland. You hear from Player that Carmen managed to land the helicopter and will meet you there soon. Zack and Ivy have gone into a diner to get some takeout, while you sit on a bench outside, watching boats come and go.
You are holding on to Carmen’s red fedora until you can return it to her. You try it on your head and find that it fits well. So this is what it feels like to be the world’s greatest thief, you think with a smile.
Suddenly, a green van screeches to a stop on the street in front of you, and the back door flies open. You glimpse a woman in a kimono aiming her parasol at you—and then you feel a sting in your neck. You touch the spot and pull out a tiny dart as the world goes fuzzy. The last thing you hear before you lose consciousness is someone saying, “That’s not Carmen Sandiego!”
When you come to, you are lying on a tangle of vines next to a hollow tree trunk. Where in the world are you? Looking around, you realize that you are inside an animal enclosure like the kind you have in a zoo, with a mesh wire fence on all sides.
Outside the enclosure, you see the woman in the kimono, the one who shot you with the poison dart, talking to a much larger woman. “Good job getting the kakapo, Lady D,” the large woman says. “But why did you bring back that zookeeper?”
“I apologize, Coach Brunt. We thought we were capturing Carmen Sandiego.”
Coach Brunt peers in at you. “A minor mistake in an otherwise outstanding mission,” she says. “We’ll get this cleaned up in no time.”
When the two women leave, you try to get out of the enclosure, but you can’t break the fence, and the gate is locked from the outside. You have no choice but to wait to be “cleaned up”—whatever that means.
THE END
Return to page 31.
YOU DECIDE TO STAY with Nadezhda, even if it means putting yourself in danger.
Tigress does a running handspring, vaulting up into the air and incredibly landing on top of the fence around the zoo. All the guards’ flashlights focus on her as she holds her hands up in the air. “Catch me if you can,” she taunts, and then does an acrobatic flip off the fence and back inside the zoo.
The guards shout and chase her as she sprints away down the dark path. “Hmm,” says Otter Man. “It appears that Tigress has distracted the guards, ja? Now we make our escape.”
You ride in the back of the van with Nadezhda while Otter Man drives and Moose Boy rides in the front passenger seat. There’s a bottle of formula in a pocket on the outside of the carrying case, and you offer it to the baby tiger, making shushing sounds to calm her down. It seems to be working as she settles onto her blanket and starts chomping on the nipple, sending squirts of the nutritious liquid into her mouth.
In the front of the van, a video screen on the dashboard blinks on to show a large Texan woman with a huge smile on her face. “Howdy, animal wranglers. Tigress tells me you got another one.”
“Ja, Coach Brunt,” says Otter Man. “Another successful mission under my leadership.”
From the video screen, Coach Bru
nt peers past the two operatives and into the back of the van. “Looks like you picked up a human passenger too,” she says.
“That is correct,” Otter Man explains nervously. “Tigress thought this zookeeper might help with the animals.”
Brunt considers you. “Hmm . . . You like animals, sugar?”
That’s an easy question. “I do like them,” you say, “but for me, it’s more about respect, giving every animal the chance to live a full and dignified life.”
Brunt smiles warmly. “Aw, you’re tugging this mama bear’s heartstrings. I hereby declare you the official zookeeper of VILE.”
“Um, wh-what’s VILE?”
“Now, don’t you worry about that, sugar. Brunt out.” The video screen flashes to black.
As the van bumps along through the night, you find yourself getting sleepy, despite everything. You lean your head against the wall, thinking you’ll just rest your eyes . . . and you wake up hours later to the sound of seagulls and the smell of the ocean. “Where are we?” you ask sleepily.
“Trieste,” Otter Man replies coldly.
You know that Trieste is a major port city on the Adriatic Sea, at the northern tip of Italy, which means you’ve driven all the way through Slovenia. It also means that you are probably getting on a ship.
Sure enough, the van drives onto a long dock where a cargo ship is tied up to one side. A gangplank leads down from the ship to the dock. “Our ride is here,” says Otter Man dryly. “Moose, unload the kitty. Zookeeper, get on board and stay out of trouble.”
You walk up the gangplank. The crew ignores you as they go about their business. As you look around, you realize that this ship has been converted into a sort of floating zoo! There are four large crates on deck to hold the animals, each with one wall made of clear plexiglass with holes for breathing.
You investigate the largest crate and find a black rhino, chomping mouthfuls of hay. The next two hold a giant panda and a bonobo, a rare primate that lives near the Congo River in Africa and resembles a chimpanzee.
You feel a pang of frustration that these animals don’t have as much room as they should to move around, but you figure it’s only temporary until they get wherever they’re going. Moose Boy unloads Nadezhda into the final crate. You’re relieved to see that the inside has things for her to climb and places for her to hide.
When the ship starts moving, most of the crew disappears below deck. “It’s all going to be okay,” you tell Nadezhda, and then notice that she has curled up and fallen asleep. Maybe you should do the same.
You hear a faint buzzing behind you and turn around to see— What in the world is that?
Right behind you, a round metal ball floats in the air, with a big camera eye that seems to be looking at you. The thing bobs up and down, left and right, as if considering you from different angles. You realize that it must be a drone, but who’s controlling it?
A small hatch opens on the bottom of the drone, and something drops out onto the deck of the ship with a light clang. You pick the thing up and see that it’s an electronic device with a handwritten note attached to it.
Put me in your ear.
Here, on the strangest night of your life, may be the strangest thing yet. You’re not really going to put a mysterious device inside your ear. Are you?
WHAT DO YOU DO?
▷ If you put the device in your ear, turn to page 28.
▷ If you throw it overboard, turn to page 141.
Return to page 14.
YOU SWAY DRAMATICALLY on your feet and then fall to the ground as if you had breathed in the poison smoke. You hope your performance is convincing.
Lady Dokuso stands at the entryway to the helijet, looking down at the five unconscious bodies scattered on the ground in the moonlight. “Why must I do everything?” she mutters to herself.
She walks down the stairway and crouches behind one of the unconscious guards, clasping her hands across the guard’s chest. With a grunt of effort, she drags the guard across the grass and up the stairs into the helijet.
Lady Dokuso comes next for the other two guards and then for Carmen. Finally, she comes for you, wrapping her arms around you and pulling you from behind. Your feet bump painfully up the helijet stairs, but you manage to stay perfectly limp the whole time.
The cabin inside the helijet is a single room, with benches bolted to either wall. Carmen lies flopped on one of the benches. Lady Dokuso has propped the guards up against the back wall, as if they were sitting three in a row. She heaves you onto the other bench, breathing heavily from the effort.
At the front of the cabin is the helijet’s cockpit, with a complicated-looking flight computer. The cabin door swings shut as Lady Dokuso starts pressing buttons, and then you feel a lurch in your stomach as thrusters come online and the helijet shoots straight up into the air.
Lady Dokuso leans back in her chair, taking a moment to relax. I have only one chance at this, you think. I need to choose the perfect moment to strike. You know that she’s a trained VILE operative and you are a regular person, so your only advantage is surprise.
When Lady Dokuso comes into the back of the cabin, you lie perfectly still on your bench, trying not to even breathe. She stands over Carmen, poking with the tip of her parasol to make sure that the young thief is still unconscious. “Such a shame,” Dokuso says to Carmen. “You could have been one of VILE’s best.”
Now. You leap from your bench and charge into Lady Dokuso’s back, knocking her against the opposite wall and sending her parasol skittering across the floor. You charge a second time, but she steps nimbly out of the way and uses your momentum to throw you down onto the pile of unconscious guards.
“Well, well,” she says. “Look who woke up early.” Lady Dokuso stalks toward you. Desperately, you pick up her parasol, thinking that you can use it to defend yourself. The parasol pops open in front of you, and you hear a WHOOSH, followed by a THUNK.
Peeking over the rim of the parasol, you see Lady Dokuso lying unconscious on the floor! You must have accidentally triggered the dart!
What now? You find some rope in a storage bin and tie up Lady Dokuso and each of the guards as best as you can—and then to be sure, you hit each one with an extra knockout dart from the parasol. You have no idea where the jet is going but decide not to touch the controls.
Thirty minutes later, you see that Carmen is stirring. She rubs her eyes and sits up woozily. “What happened?” she asks. You tell her everything. “Nice work,” she says with a smile.
Carmen staggers to her feet, still unsteady from the poison, and collapses into the cockpit chair. She takes a device out of her coat and plugs it into a port on the computer. “Player,” she says, “I just plugged into the helijet’s navigation system. Can you get in?”
Player’s face appears on a monitor above the computer. “Good to hear from you, Red. You went dark for a while there.”
“You have no idea,” Carmen says.
“And . . . I’m in,” says Player. “It looks like the VILE helijet has a sophisticated autopilot, no humans required. Right now, you’re headed for an island off the coast of Greece. That must be where they’re taking all the animals.”
“We’ll deal with that later,” Carmen says. “For now, let’s set a new course. First stop, Paris. I have some passengers I want to drop off with Interpol.”
“And where to after that?” Player asks.
“Not sure,” says Carmen, “but I’m pretty sure that having our own self-flying jet will come in handy, wouldn’t you say?”
“Copy that,” says Player, and the monitor blinks off.
“What about you?” Carmen asks. “I’m happy to drop you back in Vienna. But what you did today was amazing, and I’m thinking I could use someone like you as a permanent part of my crew.”
WHAT DO YOU DO?
▷ If you go back to zookeeping, turn to page 91.
▷ If you join Carmen’s crew, turn to page 145.
Return to page 101.
As you fight the waves, you worry that you will be swept past the island. You kick off your shoes to swim more easily and push as hard as you can, a sense of panic growing in your chest. Desperately, you reach out and grab a point of rock, pulling yourself onto land.
Dripping wet, you sit on a rock to catch your breath. You’re safe, at least for the moment. In the distance, you see two boats racing across the ocean, spraying water behind them, but they’re so far away now that you can’t tell which one is Carmen’s.
You suddenly feel very alone, on a tiny island in an unfamiliar ocean. You have nothing to eat or drink. Sure, Carmen and her crew know where you are in general, but will they be able to come back this way with Interpol watching? And even if they do, will they be able to find you?
After a couple of fretful hours, you see a ship coming toward you. It’s the Interpol cruiser, the one that started chasing you in the first place. Under the circumstances, you decide you’re better off letting them know you’re here. You stand at the edge of the tiny island, waving your arms. The cruiser turns toward you.