30 Fanfic Challenge

Day 7-9 - Cleaning - Carmen Sandiego

"Hey, Vlad?"

"What?"

"I've been wondering..."

"Oh, have you now?"

"How did you get into this V.I.L.E. thing? What made you decide to work for the criminal elite?"

Vlad glared at his colleague. "I don't talk about my past. The man I was then is dead now."

"Oh, come on! Who's going to hear, the crates of freshly minted, counterfeit bills we've got in the back? It's a long flight back to V.I.L.E. island, just give me something to listen to."

Vlad remained stone-faced as he pretended to check the dials so he wouldn't have to answer.

"I'll never ask again, I promise. Just this once, please?"

"Fine," he gave in with a sigh, "but if you ever breath a word of what I'm about to say to anyone, I will personally throw you from this helicopter faster than you can say Dasvidaniya!"

"Got it!" Boris had never heard Vlad be so serious about anything before, this must be important to him.

"And you'd better put that signal jammer on so the faculty can't listen in, too!"

"Done," he hit a button on the dashboard. It was just as quiet in the helicopter as it had been, but somehow the silence felt three times as loud now.

Vlad slumped in his seat as he finally let down his walls. "I was happy, once. I had a little house in Moscow, and a job washing floors at a restaurant. I'd come home late each night to my beautiful wife, Anastasia, and I'd listen to her talk for hours about the dresses she was sewing or the ballet that was on at the opera house that week. We didn't have much, but it felt like we had all we'd ever need if we just had each other.

"One day, Ana came to me with great news, she was over the moon to tell me. She thought I'd be just as happy as her to hear it. But with those simple words, I watched as my whole world came crashing down around me. In that moment I knew it was too late, it was far, far too late, to tell her I was born sterile.

"I was young, and in love, and foolish. Far too foolish to see what was going on around me until it was too late. When I look back now, I think maybe I should have said something. But I just couldn't bring myself to break my poor Ana like she'd broken me, couldn't tell her I knew what she'd done, so I left. I waited until she was asleep, then I slipped out of the house and left her life forever. She could have our house, our car, our money, even my wedding ring, I didn't want anything that would remind me of that treacherous creature.

"I followed the river to the coast, stealing food to survive, before taking a boat and heading out into the open water. It ran out of fuel, and my pilfered supplies were running low as well as I drifted on the currents. I thought I was going to die, until I washed ashore on V.I.L.E. island, where they gave me a second chance at life. That was almost forty years ago now, but it was the best thing to ever happen to me."

The cockpit echoed with the sound of spinning blades in the wake of the story.

"I think your Ana would've got on with Katia if they'd ever met," Boris broke the silence.

"Who's Katia?" Vlad glared at his co-pilot again.

"She was my childhood sweetheart," Boris explained. "We married at sixteen, just before I left my family home to train as an army pilot. She sent me a letter every week when I was away, and she took care of my mother like she was her own. I lived every day in those horrid military camps for the few weeks I was permitted to return to her.

"In five years, I only visited her twice. Neither of us grumbled at how little time we had together, we just patiently awaited the day we would meet again. We would write our letters each week, she'd send me food when she could, we found a way to make our own happiness. And then her letters stopped coming.

"The first couple of days didn't worry me; mail goes missing sometimes, or the postal workers are useless and it gets delayed. Then the second letter didn't show up, or the third. After a month I was starting to get suspicious. I tried to call but nobody picked up. Finally, almost three months after Katia's last letter, my mother writes to me. Katia had suddenly been taken ill, some rare, genetic condition no one even knew she had. She was too weak to lift her hand to feed herself, she seemed to forget how to speak, she'd practically become an invalid in a matter of hours. The finest doctors in the area couldn't come up with a cure, and she hadn't had the strength to hold on for even four days.

"I don't remember now what went through my head when I read those words, only that I stole a plane and flew in no particular direction until I crashed on the island where, much like you did, I found the strength to build myself anew."

Vlad considered. "We're not as different as I believed us to be."

"Aren't you glad you shared?" Boris cracked a small smile.

"No, I don't like thinking about it." Boris' face fell. "But I'm glad you understand, and that I can understand you a little better now, too." They placed a reassuring hand on the other's shoulder for a moment. "We're done talking about this. Let's turn off the signal jammer before we get yelled at."

Almost the instant they hit the button, an image of the faculty table appeared on the screen.

"Cleaners, are you nearly back yet?" Maelstrom demanded.

"Yes, sir," Vlad replied swiftly.

"We were forced to take a small detour by unexpected drone activity," Boris seamlessly improvised, "but your money will be with you shortly."

"Good," Maelstrom snapped before hanging up.

Vlad threw a questioning look at his co-worker. "No one has to know anything about what happened here today," was all the response he got. And for the first time in a good many years, both men briefly entertained the idea they might've just made a friend.

A/N: Not exactly about cleaning, but when the show features characters called The Cleaners it sort of seems a waste to not use them here. Though I seem to have given them tragic backstories, thus turning them into sympathetic characters. That was not my intention, it just sort of happened.

For people who are familiar with the source material, did you like the reference to the money printing scheme Zack and Ivy helped foil when they first met Carmen? And for everyone who has no idea what I'm on about but is curious to find out, especially if you're interested in learning about world history and different cultures around the globe, go watch Carmen Sandiego on Netflix. It features the foxy lady in red from the cover of this book, she's awesome.