VILE Compound in Amazon Rain Forest, Brazil, South America

The 26th of August, Two-Thousand and Twenty-One

08/26/2021

Six days after Carmen escaped

46 days (a little over a month and a half) before chapter 40

Countess Cleo, Professor Maelstrom, Dr. Bellum, and Roundabout stood on the roof of the Brazil hideout, the four of them watching the slowly darkening jungle trees before them. They all stood apart from each other, their own thoughts circling in their heads in the same way, but all drastically different.

They were all grieving, of course, and angry -furious, really. And yet...

Roundabout was silent and still, his facial features pulled taught. He hadn't known Brunt as well as the others had.

Maelstrom paced, muttering curses and threats under his breath in Swedish. He had lost a member of his twisted "family".

Bellum had her tablet out, already planning their next move, determined not to let them all fall behind. Brunt's loss had forced her into a temporary state of madness, but she was past that and willing to fight.

Cleo stood next to Roundabout, angry tears gathering in her eyes as she promised to wreak havoc upon a certain red-clad thief.

And Coach Brunt lay buried somewhere far in the rain forest.

Maelstrom eventually spoke, coming up behind Bellum and motioning for her tablet. "I see that we have fallen behind in very pressing matters, Saira," he muttered, glancing sadly over the screen. "We must pay our final respects, then vacate immediately."

Countess Cleo whipped around to face him at this. "You can't be serious, Gunnar," she spat.

He lowered his head in a manner that they had never seen from him before, and Cleo took a step back, wincing slightly. Maelstrom was a very proud man, and to see him like his was a slap to the face for all of them.

"I'm... sorry," Cleo muttered, smoothing the folds of her green dress. "Please, Saira, tell us what we need to know."

Dr. Bellum nodded halfheartedly, taking her device back from Maelstrom and swiping her gloved ginger across the screen a few times before finding what she needed. "What Gunnar said is valid. This location has been compromised, as was our Academy building, so we must leave as soon as possible. The hard drive that Brunt had had on her person was taken by one of Carmen's crew, as she was reported to be unconscious almost immediately after striking."

Roundabout raised an eyebrow and finally spoke. "Reported?"

"Yes." Bellum sighed and rubbed her face. "Carmen got me out of her way quickly after I tried to bring her back inside, and I did not see any of the events that followed."

Tangible silence.

The scientist cleared her throat. "I am not exactly proud of this detail. And as I was saying, the enemy has her hands on all of our information once gain, and we must be prepared to deal with the consequences that will surely follow. Luckily, this time, we have a much better way to fight back. Perhaps our plan that lead to all of this was unreliable and veered off in a completely different direction than planned, but-"

"If you are about to suggest something similar to this plan you are currently speaking of," Roundabout interrupted, "than I'm not exactly thrilled to hear it."

Bellum scowled. "Well you're about to, anyway." She huffed something else under her breath, turning back to her device. "When we first had Carmen in our clutches, I did a full body scan and found a tracker that must have been injected into her leg just days before, as the tissue around it was still healing. The technology was fairly old, and I struggled to get a solid grip on its code, but I made sure I'd be able to trace it much later in the future. My thoughts are that she left a way for her crew to find her, which is how she got away in the first place.

The trick to this is that Bla- Carmen made the grave error of underestimating me and what I am capable of in the first place. I left the tracker in her leg and did not mention it to anyone, even my own team of operatives."

"And why, exactly, is this important?" Cleo inquired quietly.

"Because I can track Sandiego, as soon as she comes back into range and I lock a more solid hold on the chip still in her body. And want to know why this is such a huge step for us?" Bellum didn't wait for any of them to respond, instead finding the strength to give a wicked smile. "When I interrogated her with... well, when she was interrogated, I asked her to tell me where the location of her HQ was. Her reply was "why would I tell you?" instead of saying that she didn't have one."

Maelstrom barked a harsh laugh, his eyebrows shooting up before furrowing right back down. "I can't believe she didn't catch herself. We taught her better than that."

"We did, indeed," Bellum agreed, gesturing wildly around her with a gloved hand as if everyone would understand what she was implying. "But sadly she was in a state of hallucination during this time, so I don't really blame her. All that matters is that we know she has a home base, and," The scientist merely shrugged, the simple action not matching her huge revelation. "we have a way to find her."

The four of them all smiled, now understanding the enormity of what Bellum was saying.

With a bit of healing and planning, and once they cleaned up after all the scrambling they surely would be doing for a while yet, Carmen Sandiego was as good as theirs.

VILE wasn't done-not quite yet.