Subject:  DS:Smart Shadows 9
From:  Aesgaard
Date:  Thu May 23, 2002  10:52 am

Kathryn Parker gazed her blue azure eyes upon the silver flask of recaptured microfilm as Siegfried and Schtarker tied up Agent 86, Agent 99 and the old caretaker. Her cheekbones became evident as she grinned and dropped the microfilm down the front of her blouse for safe keeping.

"You can't be here." The old caretaker was puzzled, worried and alarmed as he was tied to the two strangers and the big guy in leather wired the vault with ten sticks of dynamite. "The dead mustn't be disturbed. They know what is happening and they...."

"Shut up, old timer." Siegfried hit the old man to the head with the butt of his pistol. "If I wanted a lecture, I'd go home to mein father."

"Siegfried." 99 called out. "He's an old man !"

"Couldn't you have just shushed him ?" Smart asked.

"This is KAOS." Siegfried repeated himself verbatim. "We do not shush here !" He placed his gun on the table as Parker eyed it, grinned her witchy little smile and picked it up.

"Dynamite set ?" She turned to Schtarker.

"Ja," The simple-minded sidekick replied. "This place will go....." He eyed Siegfried giving him the stink eye. "We do not..pbtpbtpbtpbtpbt..here."

"Good." Parker turned the gun on them. "Now tied yourselves up as well."

"What ?!" Siegfried was shocked and apalled as she waved the gun. "Why you lousy, stinking, double-crossing little witch !! How can you do this to me ? Schtarker, pass me the rope."

"So sorry my old mentor," Kathryn grinned as she passed her hand over the micofilm in her bra. "But I do not intend to share the glory."

"No honor among fiends." Smart sat on the floor. Siegfried shoot him a look and looked to Schtarker.

"Leave it a little loose." He whispered.

"Leave it a little what ?!!!!" Schtarker cried outloud as Parker forced him to sit. Placing the gun aside, she finished tying Schtarker herself then pulling it a very tight. She picked up the gun and pointed it at her victims.

"And now," She struck a match off the name of Laura Murdoch-Collins. "To bid you all a fond adieu." She added with a Martinique accent, lit the dynamite and raced up the stairs.

"Max, we have to get out of here !" 99 cried out.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking."

"Oh great," Siegfried griped. "When it's one of my traps, you can't get out of it fast enough. But when it's someone else's......."

Smart shot him a look and looked at the dynamite, and then the cremation urns all around. He started kicking the wall with his feet tied together. The urns started shaking and turning on the wall. He kicked it harder and one on the wall fell and shattered over Schtarker's head. Max frowned displeasingly and kicked harder. Another one fell over and crashed to the floor on the long fuse of dynamite. The sparkling flame went out under the age old ashes and dust.

"Max, that's brillant." 99 applauded his ingenuity as she felt the blade pop out of his watch and cut the ropes on their wrists.

"Nothing really." He cockily shook his head and took his gun from Siegfried's jacket. "You better get the old man to a doctor while I go after the microfilm......"

"What about me, buddy ?" Siegfried looked up.

"And the police for those two."

"Like I needed to hear that !" Siegfried complained as Smart ran up the stairs. Once outside, he looked around and ran toward the closer entrance. A shot ran out ! Parker had been waiting for the explosion from the safety of the Collins mausoleum. She fired a few more times as Smart dived behind the tombstone of Gerard Stiles. Parker's shots were knocking chips out of it.

"Sorry about that Stiles." Max mumbled as fired off a few shots.

Parker dived out from the marker of Josette Dupres and ran over to the tombstone of Rachel Drummond. She fired off a few more shots and then ducked and raced toward the Collins Road entrance of the cemetary. She glanced at a marker for someone named Valerie Angelique Collins as if it were familiar then shrugged it off and hid behind the tomb of Peter Bradford. She fired another shot as her gun began clicking.

"That's it, seven shots." Max stood up. "Your gun is empty." Another shot ran out as he jumped behind the marker of Josette Dupres.

"I can't believe I fell for the old spare-gun-in-the-bra trick !"

Parker put her foot on the tomb of the Drew Family and hopped over the wall. She saw the wharfs at the end of the street and ran as hard as she could to steal a boat. Smart was twenty feet behind as she ran through the crowds of people, ducked behind the corner of Braithewaite Jewels and Silvers and peeked out safely. Smart was getting closer. She bolted into the shadows of the alley for the long way to the docks. She heard someone coming closer as a shadow came upon her.

"Josette ?" A man's voice asked.

Maxwell Smart heard Parker's voice scream out. He spun, ran around Braithewaite's and ran to the scream. The small tin of microfilm rolled out to meet him as he looked up. Parker was lying a few feet from him. Lifeless, she had an odd look in her eyes as Max felt for a pulse. Clenching the microfilm, he realized her throat had been ripped out as as police officer and several bystanders came running.

"Government agent !" Max dropped the microfilm in his pocket and flashed his card in one move. "Do not let anyone out of this alley !" He stood a moment and reared his gun as he checked the shadows.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.