Subject:  DS:Smart Shadows 8
From:  Aesgaard
Date:  Wed May 22, 2002  11:52 am

Max and Susan scoured the walls for loose openings or anything that could free them. It had been fifteen minutes since Siegfried and Schtarker had entombed them and they were both positive he'd be back.

"Max," She pulled her dark hair back. "It's useless. There's no way out."

"There has to be, 99. There has to be." He focused through the inky darkness on the wall the door was on. "Step aside." He took a running start and threw himself into it. He smacked hard into it, crossed his eyes and fell back.

"Max !" His trusted partner dived for him. She showed a lot more concern for him than any other agent she had worked with. "Why would you do that ? That concrete's a foot thick."

"It looked fake !" He leaned his head back into her lap as she rubbed the melon-sized bump in his forehead. She tried to think of something she hadn't thought of.

"Hello !"

"What ?" She dropped Max's head as he called out in pain. It was a little girl bathed in light. She looked like no other girl she had ever seen before. She wore old fashioned clothes and an old bonnet on her head.

"Will he be okay ?" She asked.

"I think so." 99 looked back. "Where did you come from ?"

"Oh, around....." The girl was preoccupied.

"Did you get in through a space big enough for us ?"

"Sure, that one." She pointed to the sealed door.

"But it's closed." She continued talking as Max passed in and out of consciousness. "Have you been hiding all this time ?"

"No. Gosh, you're pretty." The girl replied.

"Thank you." She looked back at the girl. "But how can we all get out ? Won't you tell me ?"

"Count the steps," The girl chanted. "You'll see where the key is kept."

"Count the steps ?" 99 looked to them and back. The girl was gone ! She gasped as an cold shiver passed up her spine. She left Max on the floor as she inspected the steps closer. She counted the bottom one, then the top one which felt a little loose. Lifting it up, she saw a ring and pulled it as the door opened.

"Max, the door !" She called to him as he blinked his eyes in pain. "It's open !"

"99," He staggered a bit and dropped to his feet again. "Was I dreaming or were you talking to a little girl ?"

"We can't worry about that now." She lifted him up. "We have to call the chief." They didn't notice the name plate of Sara Collins as they walked out. It said she had lived from 1785 to 1795 as they hurried through the tombstones for the gate on Dock Street. Max was starting to get his bearings as they crossed another mausoleum. It was much larger and had another name emblazoned on it: Stockbridge !

"99," He stood on his own. "Bridge. This has to be it."

"But how can we be sure ?"

"Only one way." He pushed open the door which lead to a staircase leading underground. At the bottom was a large room filled with dozens of crypts in the walls and shelves of books and records. Moving behind them was an old caretaker in black with his eyes magnified in his bi-focals.

"Visitors ?" He looked up surprised. "What are you doing here ?"

"What ? What are we doing here ?" Max thought as 99 stood taller on the bottom step. "Uh, oh, yes, my name is Maxwell Stockbridge and this is my sister, Hillary Stockbridge..."

"Hello," 99 grinned with a flip of her hair.

"....we're looking for our ancestors."

"I didn't know there were any Stockbridges left." The caretaker shuffled with a book he returned to the shelf. "In fact, there hasn't been anyone in here in, oh, several months since that nice girl and her boyfriend visited."

"How about before ?" 99 asked as she looked at the vaults and shelves. Max glanced at the urns hanging off the nameplates.

"A few people," The caretaker paused before the marker of Laura Murdoch Stockbridge which was chipped and cracked as if violently ripped open some time before. "But we mustn't disturb the dead when they're resting. You will have to come back during the day."

"Tell me, sir." Max looked around. "Were these Stockbridges ever buried with their jewelry ?"

"Yes, I think so." The old man looked at him carefully.

"How about...." Max took the urn of Paul Stockbridge and emptied it into a pan on the table. He stuck his fingers through it and picked up a shiny silver capsule. "Microfilm ?"

"Max !" 99 smiled. "That's brilliant. How did you figure it out ?"

"Easy." Max gave it to her and dusted off his fingers in his handkerchief. "I just put myself in Stoddard's place and asked myself where would I have hid it where someone else could find it."

"Brilliant work, Smart." Kathryn Parker stood with a gun in her hand and with Siegfried and Schtarker behind her. They all blocked the stairway.

"Recovering that microfilm will rank us very high in KAOS."

"I can't believe I fell for the old-defector-turning-her-back-on-Control-to-get-in-good-with-her-bosses-again trick." Max put his hands up as Siegfried took the microfilm from him. "What is that ? Twice this year ?"

"Thanks for telling us about the wild goose chase." Siegfried turned to Parker.

"What are you going to do with us ?" 99 asked out loud as the confused caretaker watched.

"Easy, Schtarker !"

"Ja, Siegfried." The simple-minded partner jumped to attention.

"Tie them up, I'll set the dynamite."

"Dynamite ?" Agent 86 Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 Susan Hilton looked at each other.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.