A New Ally

Chapter Eight | Change: Part One

Somewhere In The World, ACME Headquarters

A Few Weeks Later

"I told you, I'm not telling you anything!" Carmen spat as she was restrained by ACME's state of the art handcuffs.

Chief rolled her eyes, "And I've told you Miss Sandiego, we won't stop until you say something! I don't understand, if you say you're so keen on stopping VILE, why don't you tell us anything!?".

"I don't trust you! Not after what you did to me in Sweden!" Carmen snapped.

It had been like this for a while, Chief would ask something and Carmen wouldn't anything. Then, Chief would ask again and Carmen would say she wasn't going to say anything. This had gone on for at least three hours and it didn't seem like either Carmen or Chief were getting tired.

"Maybe we should give this a rest, Chief. It doesn't look like she'll be cooperating today," Zari interjected, getting ready to open the door to the interrogation room.

Chief simply scoffed at Zari's proposal, "She never cooperates," she gave Carmen a glare, "And I won't stand for it,.

Zari rolled her eyes and pulled Chief aside, who seemed very angry that her employee was dragging her to the side as if to scold her behaviour like she was a toddler. It wasn't an ideal look for her in front of the elusive Carmen Sandiego.

But, while Zari and Chief had a discussion, Devineaux decided to try and spark a conversation with the crimson ghost himself. He sat down at the table in front of her, eyeing as she played with a gold chain around her neck. Upon further inspection, he realized it to be Julia's necklace, the one she always wore in casual attire.

"It's a pretty necklace isn't it?" the words were out of Devineaux's mouth before he could even register what he said.

Carmen raised an eyebrow, "I beg your pardon?".

"W-what I meant to say is that it's Julia's necklace, right?" he said, remembering all those times when Julia would fidget with it during stressful cases back at Interpol.

Carmen's face softened at the word of Julia's name, "Yeah, she fidgets with it when she's nervous or scared, I find it endearing," her face fell, "She always takes it off before she sleeps and puts it under her pillow. I never got to give it back to her, well, at least now I can have this part of her with me,".

Devineaux looked at Carmen while she spoke, it was as if she was transported to a different realm, one where she and Julia could be together and she wasn't behind bars. Right now, Devineaux even felt a bit guilty at the way ACME was treating them, didn't Julia say that the crimson ghost wasn't as bad as they thought she was? Before Devineaux could even think through what Carmen had said, Zari and Chief returned, looking rather cross.

"Sandiego," Chief said, her tone was all suppressed anger and warning.

Carmen looked up at her, any softness and emotion her eyes once held was gone and replaced with muted fury, "Chief,".

"If you don't cooperate, we will have no choice but to go back on our deal," Chief said, holding her glance at Carmen, as if it was a competition, "Julia will come back into our custody and you will never be able to see her again,".

Carmen growled and she stood up, handcuffs restricting her from throwing hands with the chief of ACME, "You wouldn't dare!".

"We won't touch her if you cooperate," Chief said,

Carmen considered her options for a moment. She knew not saying anything was out of the question, the thing was, what could she say? She had no idea what ACME was keen on knowing, and she didn't exactly want to help them.