Staking Out – Medium Rare
Carmen payed the entrance and picked up some flyers laying around. It would not hurt having a physical plan as well as Player in her ear tonight.
She wandered through the museum slowly, taking note of all possible points of entry. As always, there were way too many to remember. Thank the internet gods that player mostly found quite accurate floor plans online.
Way too soon, Carmen arrived at the part of the museum that was closed for public due to construction. Annoying.
Still, maybe something important was hidden in plain sight. Carmen came to a stop right before the red tape and looked up.
Her breath hitched.
The ‘Markttor von Milet’ filled the whole room. It made Carmen feel so, so small. Like in a trance, she tried to step forward and barely felt the red tape straining against her weight.
Then she spotted a crumpled up piece of paper on the floor. Behind the tape. She stretched her foot towards it and pulled it into closer range. Just as she had the paper in her hand, somebody appeared behind her.
“Hey!” a safety personal pulled her back. “Dieser Teil ist nicht offen für Besucher!”
Carmen shook her head and quickly pushed the paper up her sleeve.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I don’t know what came over me!”
She stepped back a few times. “I was just so entranced by the ‘Markttor von Milet’, it’s a shame I can’t wonder at its beauty from closer range.”
“We are currently making sure you and osers can look at it for a long while to come, Ms.” the guard switched to a slightly accented English. “We are renovating se foundation of this… Flügel and using se time to have restaurateurs check se condition of ze artifacts. We hope to be ready to open for se public again by se new year, but you know how construction is…”
“Oh, I don’t know much about construction!” Carmen laughed. “But do you have a booklet or something on the artifacts? I would like to learn about them, even if I can’t see the original right now.”
“In the gift shop sere should be a book about all se sings in se museum. Will you be able to find se way or should I bring you there, so you don’t get lost a second time?”
“That would be lovely, thank you” Carmen accepted and started walking in the wrong direction on purpose. Better to play the clueless tourist than to get caught now.
“Do people often try to wander into the restricted section? Or am I the only stupid one?” she asked, smiling self-deprecatingly.
“You are actually se sird person today!” the guard said. “A couple got quite far in, and sey were not as nice as you! I had to chase sem out front and sey just vanished!”
They shook their head.
“That must have been awfully scary! Does that happen often? How did they look like? Do you know what they wanted to do?” Carmen asked in rapid succession, hoping the guard let something relevant slip. They might have been VILE operatives.
“Oh, no, it doesn’t happen often, sank god!” the guard tried to calm her down. “I couldn’t get a good look at sem, both guys were quite fast, one of sem seemed to leap more than he did run! But I think sey spoke a romanic language with each oser, maybe Spanish, or French?”
Then the guard remembered who they were speaking to.
“But don’t let sat scare you, please. Our team here is trained in guarding the museum, and sey were probably just scared of getting into trouble.”
Carmen just nodded mutely as they arrived at the gift shop. The guard waved her goodbye and went back to their scheduled position. As soon as they were out of sight, she opened the balled up paper. She didn’t know what she expected, but not just a random symbol of half interlocking Vs. Odd. Maybe a clue.
While perusing the books, Carmen thought about the description of the two men. It must have been Le Chevre and El Topo. That meant VILE was definitely meddling again. Carmen sighed. At least she knew who she was up against, at least. Still, there could be more operatives on sight, so she couldn’t let her guard down.
One of the shopping assistants approached her.
“Are you looking for something specific?” they asked.
Carmen quickly explained her predicament and acquired a thick glossy book.
“That will beo find an ATM machine. “Make it 60€” she added.
“Thank you so much!” the shopping assistant put the receipt in the book and put it into a canvas bag with a print of the ‘Markttor von Milet” in the front.
“Your hijab is very pretty!” Carmen complimented the shopping assistant and took the bag from them.
43€. Cash or card?”
“Card.” Right, she had “Thank you!” they smiled. “I like your jacket!”
“I’m just gonna go back into the museum, is that alright?” Carmen asked awkwardly. “I kinda got sidetracked and didn’t see all that I wanted to see yet.”
The shopping assistant just nodded while they processed the things of the next customer.
vVv
Carmen wandered through the museum, reading the cards and occasionally cross-referencing the flyers and the book when an artifact seemed particularly interesting to VILE.
It was annoying that she couldn’t just enjoy looking at the artifacts, but this was what she needed to do.
Nothing jumped out at her. She sighed.
By now, she had seen everything she could, but Carmen still didn’t know what exactly was the desired object of the week.
She pulled the new book out of the bag with complimentary pencil and started reading it. Maybe something would jump out at her there.
Carmen didn’t notice how the clock struck three and four. She was immersed in her book. Groups of students walked by, bored or giggling at the naked statues. Some tour guides voices faded in the background in different languages. One person had a sketchbook in their hand, and even put a page next to her of herself and the statues surrounding her.
She would have stayed that way, in book world, until the museum closed, if not a familiar voice had said her name.
“Carmen?”
vVv
Julia ignored the voice. It had to go away, she couldn't deal with that now. She had to concentrate on the exhibition, take notes, exchange theories with her classmates, not chase after old ghosts.
Not to mention she wasn't allowed to anymore.
"Jules!" Carmen called out again, and finally Julia Argent turned around.
She was actually there. Carmen Sandiego.
Fuck.
With three long steps Julia was at Carmen's side.
"Not here!", she hissed and pulled her out of the gallery with her class. "They can't know. Museumscafé in 5 minutes."
Julia didn't wait for an answer and stalked back to the room with her classmates.
"You okay, Lisa?", asked Amira, the Muslim woman who she was closest to in the class. Julia shrugged. "I'll be fine. Can you come get me in 30 min from the museumscafé? I'm feeling a bit faint, I need to eat something."
"Want me to come with?", Amira asked, as she pulled out a protein bar. She nodded at it. "To tide you over."
"I'll be fine, see you later." Julia said dismissively, and walked away, fiddling with the protein bar.
Amira watched her leave with an uneasy feeling in her gut.
vVv
"You have twenty minutes, then you need to leave." was the first thing Julia said to Carmen. "And don't call me Julia, Jules or anything you know me as." Julia breathed again for the first time since coming in the room. "Please. I'm in too much trouble as is."
Carmen nodded, surprised at how differently Julia held herself than when she'd been at ACME. Or Interpol for that matter. Like she was trying to hide, to blend in with the crowd, unsure of herself. Haunted.
"How are you doing, Ju... Sorry." Carmen pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Is that really what you want to spend your time on?" Julia asked annoyed. "You need help. What is it."
Carmen looked at her so intently, she squirmed.
"You look different." she said.
Julia pushed her thick, plastic rimmed glasses up.
"I left half a year ago. A lot happened."
She looked so uncomfortable in her body. Gone were the smart suits and short pixie cut, Julia's hair was growing out in a mullet that kept falling in her eyes. Her clothes looked cheap and frumpy, as if she'd picked them to look as unassuming as possible. Wide legged jeans, maroon University jumper, a watch that showed the wrong time even with time zones taken into account and scuffed trainers.
Carmen sighed.
"If you were to steal an artifact in this museum, what would it be?"
Julia's leg started fidgeting. She took in a shaky breath.
"The most well-known artifact would be Nofretete, I guess."
Carmen nodded. She thought so too.
"But like every museum, everything is so valuable simply in terms of historic worth. I don't think your... former employers get that."
Julia pushed her fringe out of her face, only for it to fall back immediately.
"Any clues you found?"
Carmen pulled out a piece of paper.
"Just this." She showed Julia the weird 'V's.
"Hm."
Julia took out a pen and drew the symbol on her wrist.
"I'll think about it. How can I contact you if I find something? Securely." she asked.
"Oh, Player will contact you." Carmen said flippantly.
Julia jumped.
"Am I that easy to find?"
"What? No!" Carmen sputtered. "Player's just the best!"
Julia didn't look reassured.
"I need to go now."
She stood up and turned to go.
"Can you at least accept this?" Carmen held out a pretty bag, clearly from the gift shop.
With no energy to argue, Julia simply took it, turned and walked out. She made it to the washroom before having an anxiety attack.
vVv
Amira was worried about her friend. From what she overheard of the talk with the intimidating red-haired lady, Lisa wasn't called Lisa, or at least she had a different name at some point, and she was maybe entangled with the Mafia? Or something? No wonder she was always so on edge!
Amira barely managed to hide before Julia ran out. Following her to the bathroom wasn't hard, she waited for what she felt like was an appropriate time so that it wasn't obvious she had spied on Julia, and walked in.
She knocked on the door.
" Sorry, sorry, I'll be out in a second!" Julia muttered while smoothing her clothes, opened the door and faced... Amira.
"Did you follow me?" she asked, suspicious.
Amira just held up her phone, opened on 'find my friends'.
Julia sighed.
"Stupid overly worried Prof."
"Are you okay?" Amira asked.
"I'm done." Julia said as she washed her face with cold water. "I just need to get some more notes. Why don't you go sight seeing?"
"Eh, sight seeing is overrated. Besides, the Prof wants us to stick together."
"Literally all of us are adults. I don't know why they insist on that."
Julia shrugged, pulled out her notebook and started scribbling in it. Not really about her topic, just trying to get her thoughts in order.
The two women wandered through the museum, Julia taking notes and Amira taking photos while trying to make her friend laugh.
While they rested their legs for a bit, she noticed the new bag.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Don't care." Julia said, still scribbling in her notebook.
"Can I see?"
"Suit yourself."
Amira pulled out a beautiful copy of the museum catalogue. She whistles quietly.
"Your secret admirer must really like you! That's expensive!"
"Not my admirer."
"Sure" Amira winked at her, uselessly, as Julia kept her eyes directly on her notebook.
Amira leafed through the book. Glossy pictures of the artifacts they'd seen in real life stared at her.
"Oh, nice, now we can actually see some of the things that were not available today!" she grinned, as she turned the page to the Markttor von Milet.
"Look!" she nudged Julia, whose jumper sleeve rode up a bit.
"Hm, very interesting." she said dismissively, not even looking at the picture.
"Hey, why does the symbol on your wrist look like the Markttor?" Amira asked.
Julia looked at her.
"What did you just say?"
"Why does the symbol. On your wrist. Look like the Markttor. Von. Milet?"
Julia frantically compared the picture in the book with the symbol on her wrist.
Then she cursed so long and furiously Amira stared at her in awe.
"We need to go now. I need to get supplies."
vVv