Player scanned over the tracker codes just once more to be sure, and... yes!

There was a way to find Carmen after all.

He called Zack, his leg bouncing with anticipation as the phone rang quietly.

"Player, did you get it?" Zack seemed to know why he was calling

"Yeah, and my prediction from earlier was right, it's not a tracker. The chip that you sent me isn't the thing that you track, but the thing that does the actual tracking."

"What does that mean?"

"It's possible that Carmen put a tracker somewhere on her body that couldn't be removed easily, to leave us a way to find her in case something ever went wrong on any mission. You know, like that one in France did."

Zack sucked in a breath. "So we can find her?"

Player gave a Cheshire grin. "Uh-huh. I'm working on finding her general location as we speak, and then I'll pinpoint her. But it's gonna take a while, because the coding is slower and older than I thought."

"Why wouldn't Carm use more advanced stuff?" Zack asked, eyebrow furrowing.

"Well, it's pretty genius, actually. VILE wouldn't think that she'd use older technology, so their scanners must have not picked up on it. It just depends on how Carmen planned it all."

"So basically she found a way to hack VILE's system even after they've successfully captured her? That's just pure wicked."

Player leaned back in his chair, nodding. "She's a super thief. What else could we expect from her?"

"Not much, I think." Zack laughed. "Hold on. Let me tell Ivy."

Ivy stared at her brother, not quite willing to believe his news. "C-carm?" she whispered, her hands tight around the red fedora. She hadn't been willing to put it down for long amounts of time recently. "We... we're gonna get her back? Like, for reals?"

Zack just scooped her up and shouted, "For reals, Ivy!"

He continued like this, and Ivy began to sob into his shoulder. His laughter morphed into crying as well, and he sat them on the floor as to not fall. The siblings held each other, Zack rocking them back and forth.

"I miss her, I miss her I miss her ImissherImissherImissher..." Ivy hiccuped, her tears choking her voice. "I miss her so much. I miss Carmen."

"I know, I know." Zack hugged his sister to him, his blue eyes squeezed together tightly as he shook silently. "I miss her, too," he whispered.

Shadowsan frowned. "The Amazon Rain forest?"

Player nodded, angry with himself. "I thought VILE would have chosen a new island, but apparently that assumption was like, way off." He stood and went to kick his door, then returned to his chair. "The tracker is what we're going with, though."

"Are you sure we can trust it?"

The hacker paused, then dropped his head into his palms. "...No. But it's the only lead we have."

"Alright, then." Shadowsan sighed heavily. Then, giving a faint smile, said, "Thank you, Player. This has been extremely hard on all of us. You've done an amazing job." 

Player just shook his head. "Yeah, well, there's still the matter of getting her out of their base in one piece," he muttered. "But I guess we'll see. We leave in two days. I suggest you start scraping together a plan while I work out a few things."