Chapter Text
VILE CASTLE, SCOTLAND
Lightning flashed far out over the sea. Even miles away, safe behind stone and glass, Carmen thought she could almost smell the ozone. But maybe it was just the anger pounding inside her head.
Shadowsan. So he was the reason she never knew her parents? The reason the only family she’d ever known was VILE? It was one thing to run away like a coward, but to so openly turn against her and her friends— against VILE itself —
A fresh wave of rage flooded her. It didn’t make any sense . But that didn’t matter. Whatever his reasons, Carmen knew that next time she came face-to-face with him, it would be the last time.
She took a breath to calm herself. This isn’t productive. I should plot a caper, or take a walk at least . She looked away from the window. I barely know my way around this place yet.
So, she set about exploring the hallways. Learning the ins and outs of VILE castle felt productive, and it calmed her. As she walked, she counted her steps, the doorways, and the windows. Perhaps she wouldn’t discover every secret of the castle that night, but she decided she would know them all before the next class of operatives came in— the first to be taught in VILE’s new home. She paced her way along the hallways through the stormy afternoon and into the evening, building up her mental map of the castle.
She turned a corner and found herself at a dead end. She walked the length of the hallway, then back. No, she was definitely counting correctly; this spur was far too short to make any sense in the floor plan. She smirked. Already she’d found her first secret, and she’d only just begun.
She walked slowly towards the dead end again, eyeing the walls for irregularities. But, the stonework looked just as even as anywhere else. She felt around the corners and examined the ceiling, but found nothing. Only when she took a closer look at the carpeting did she notice something out of place.
“A- ha, ” she muttered, and crouched down in the right-hand corner of the dead end. She looked closely at the end of the green-and-black patterned carpet; it wasn’t quite flush with the wall, just a little out of alignment. If she wasn’t mistaken, she’d located a secret door.
She stood back up, and more closely examined the stones in the wall that were at around the height of her waist. She spotted one where the mortar around it was heavily cracked; it looked like it should have slid loose long ago. She pushed it inward, experimentally. She felt a mechanism click into place; then the wall split open and swung toward her, with a grinding noise that was much quieter than it ought to have been.
That’s VILE engineering, alright, she thought to herself with a fresh smirk. Behind where the false wall had been, she could now see partway down a dark staircase, just until it twisted off to the right. Though there were no lights in the stairway, she could see a dim glow creeping up from somewhere below.
Carmen stepped onto the top stair. There was no way she wasn’t going down there. She felt a little giddy, a little childish; it was hard not to flash back fondly to her pranks on the Cleaners and the older students when she was younger. She spotted a button on the wall and pressed it; the doorway ground softly closed behind her. Nobody would know she had found this place.
Without the light from the hallway, the stairwell was almost pitch dark. Carmen pulled out her pen light, and silently descended. She soon reached a wide, dimly lit hallway, stretching away from the main castle. The walls were stone here too, but the bricks looked more even, and more modern— perfectly even, machine-cut. But it wasn’t just a hallway; several iron-barred cells were built into the right-hand wall.
“Oh,” Carmen breathed. She had found a sort of dungeon. Her heart was pounding with excitement, and her mind was whirling. This place was much newer than the main castle, and more importantly, it was lit up. So, somebody in VILE was using this place in secret. They might even have built it specially. Why? What was down here?
“Who’s that?” came an unexpected voice. Carmen froze; she now realized that one of the cells was lit from within. She watched a shadowed figure inside move up against the bars; she could see the glow from her pen-light reflected twice in a pair of round glasses.
Carmen tucked her light away and walked toward the cell. “I should be asking that of you. ” Her voice was even and cool, disguising her confusion and uncertainty. What in the world was going on, right under VILE’s home base?
The strange man let out a sudden hiss when she passed under a dim lamp. “You. Come to gloat? Bringing in the gendarme?” he demanded. He spoke with a crisp RP British accent, and he had an ugly snarl on his face. Carmen lifted an eyebrow as she took in more of the man’s appearance.
He was pale-skinned, and wore a western-style suit, which might once have looked very dapper, but was now wrinkled and stained. His black hair, touched with gray, was still combed neatly, and his face was still shaved, but there were lines under his eyes and hairs straying over his forehead. It was obvious he came from money, but had been imprisoned for a while.
“Who even are you?” Carmen asked, crossing her arms and staring at him.
The man snorted. “Oh, very amusing. I may have lost my status, but don’t pretend you don’t know who I am. I had you dead to rights, and you ruined me. Well done. No need to rub salt in the wound.”
Carmen tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. As she listened to this man, trying to understand what he was talking about, a strange chill started to come over her. Something about him was so… annoying. His voice was like a needle in her ears.
He stood straight, his chin raised. “So. What do you want?”
Without warning, Carmen lunged. She grabbed the stranger by the lapels and yanked him into the bars of the door. “I want you to stop talking ,” she said, very quietly, her face just an inch from his. “Listen closely. I don’t know who you are, or what you’re talking about. But I do know how to pick locks, and I know where the pressure points on your body are. So you can either tell me what I want to know, or I can make you. Understand?”
The prisoner’s eyes were wide, his breathing quick and panicked. He nodded quickly. “Mhmm, yes, of course, whatever you want,” he said in a quavering voice. Carmen let him go. He staggered backward, away from the door, and stared at her.
“So. Who are you,” Carmen repeated, re-crossing her arms and scowling at the strange man.
“Y-you really don’t know,” the man said. He still had his hands held protectively in front of him. Carmen’s glare deepened, and she took half a step back toward the door. He flinched. “Nonono wait— I’ll tell you.” He straightened up a little and smoothed down the lapels of his blazer with shaky hands. He took a deep breath, and began to explain.
“I am... Nigel Braithwaite. But my codename is ‘Roundabout’. I was a double agent, posing as deputy director of MI6, until…” suddenly Roundabout paused, still eyeing Carmen. She could almost see the gears turning in his head. “Until I was captured.”
Carmen smirked. “I’m surprised Bellum didn’t erase your memories,” she commented. “How’d you wriggle out of that one?”
Roundabout seemed to hesitate. “I suppose because I would be recognized, regardless of whether I knew anything about my old life or not,” he said slowly. “London is the most surveilled city in the world, they say.”
Carmen nodded. “I’ve heard that,” she mused, though she couldn’t exactly recall when. “So. How come you’re in a secret dungeon, that not even all the VILE faculty know about? Who knows about this place? And why are they keeping you alive?”
Roundabout was silent for a long moment; he squinted intently at Carmen’s face. “ You’re … VILE faculty now, aren’t you?” he asked shrewdly.
Carmen’s expression dropped to a scowl again. “Yes, I am, now that that traitor Shadowsan is gone.”
Roundabout smiled weakly. “You’re VILE faculty, and you don’t know who I am. Oh yes. Naturally.” He started to chuckle helplessly. “Of course! Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.”
Carmen stepped closer to the bars. “Oh, is something funny to you?” she said in a low, dangerous voice. “Care to let me in on the joke?” Roundabout quickly stopped laughing, though there was still an almost mocking smile at the corner of his mouth.
“Well— I only wonder how much I should tell you,” he said. He paused to think, and seemed to change his mind. “But, I suppose, I don’t have any reason not to tell you everything, anymore.”
Carmen waited, arms crossed. “Well?”
He cleared his throat. “I’ll wager they didn’t tell you that I was VILE faculty until a few months ago, did they. No. No, they certainly did not.” He laughed dryly at the puzzled and angry look on Carmen’s face.
“What,” was all she could think to say.
“Yes. I held the fifth seat for a time after Shadowsan left, until you brought me down.” He sounded almost superior about it.
Carmen placed her hands on the iron bars, and leaned in towards him. Icy rage gripped her chest. “ You’re lying to me, ” she said in a deadly whisper.
“I-I assure you, I am not,” Roundabout stammered, backing up to the far wall of the cell. “You can check my story in the news— or VILE’s records, perhaps—“
But Carmen was already stalking away in disgust. She rubbed at her temples. There’s no way any of that could be true. It’s total nonsense. It’s completely absurd . Just thinking about it felt deeply wrong, somehow. Like one violin in an orchestra was playing a step out of tune.
“Do you have other questions? Anything you want to know—” Roundabout called after her, but she thoroughly ignored him. She needed a new distraction, this had been a total bust. Something that had nothing to do with Shadowsan, or this secret dungeon, or this annoying Roundabout person. Roundabout. That codename screamed deception and trickery. Especially if he was telling the truth about having worked for MI6.
Carmen slipped out of the secret passageway unnoticed, and returned to her living quarters. She hadn’t finished setting them up exactly to her liking yet, but at least there was a dark green punching bag waiting for her. She took out her anger on that for a while. In a way, it was meditative; she could think her angry thoughts, and use the workout to vent her feelings. By the time she’d tired herself out, she had come to three conclusions.
First: someone in VILE was keeping that dungeon a secret. None of the other faculty had even made reference to a dungeon, or a prisoner, that she could recall. Odds were good the dungeon had been put in very recently, too.
Second: whoever was keeping the dungeon secret was also keeping Roundabout secret. And Roundabout, whoever he really was, clearly had no motivation to stay loyal to VILE. But Carmen couldn’t trust that he was being truthful with her, either; his story was completely nonsensical.
Third: she needed to take a painkiller for the headache she had coming on.
She didn’t know if Roundabout was meant to be a general secret, or if he was only supposed to be secret from her. That was what he had implied, wasn’t it? That she had at some point fought against VILE, or at least him, but didn’t remember? But surely, if she’d lost memories, she would notice blank stretches in her mind, and there were none.
Carmen sat down, rubbing at her temples again. If this all was supposed to be a secret from her, then it wouldn’t be a good idea to go snooping just yet, she decided. If the secret-keeper had an eye on her, investigating right away could be hazardous. The best thing she could do was try to sleep on it, and plan in the morning, when the headache had passed.
It was three in the morning, and Carmen was still wide awake, staring up at the ceiling.
She felt sick. Someone in her family was keeping secrets. Again . It wasn’t even out of the realm of possibility that someone was turning traitor against VILE. Were they all in on it, the whole faculty? How much of what any of them said was even true?
Her tired mind wandered in circles. Roundabout. Shadowsan. A new traitor? VILE. Family. Her mother… had Coach Brunt told her the truth? How could VILE have no way to find out who her mother was?
She sat up in bed. Of course, that would be the first test. If Brunt was keeping secrets from her, she would be totally against looking for her mother. But if Brunt helped her, they could find Carmen’s mother, learn about Dexter Wolfe, and maybe find clues about who was keeping secrets from VILE, and why.
It was a long shot, but it was somewhere to start.