Jackie looked up in surprise when he saw who was opening his cell door. "Captain Black?" he gasped out in shock.
"Shh!" Captain Black responded quickly, silently motioning for him to follow. Confused, Jackie did as bid. To his continued surprise, the police did not interfere with Captain Black walking him out. In fact, as best as Jackie could tell, they were pretending not to see them. With this cooperation, it wasn't long before they were out of the precinct. "Here," Captain Black spoke up again as he handed over all of Jackie's things that had been confiscated when he was arrested, along with - surprise again - the Pink Puma and the Snake Talisman. "Now we can talk."
"What is going on?" Jackie demanded immediately. "Am I still a criminal? Are Jade and the others alright? How did you get the Snake Talisman back? And where did you get the Pink Puma? I don't understand anything!"
"Officially, you're one of my field agents and the local precinct has tendered a formal apology for interfering in a long running operation against the Dark Hand," Captain Black explained simply. "You aren't really, of course, but it worked as a cover story to get you out of jail once we had both artifacts in our possession again. And while we weren't able to catch any Dark Hand agents, the Op is classified as a success, since we were able to gain a prominent member of the criminal community as an informant and unofficial agent."
"What?" Jackie demanded, confused. "Who?"
"The Viper," Captain Black explained. "She's one of the most notorious jewel thieves in the world, and she works for us now."
"How did you manage-" Jackie quickly cut himself off, shaking his head. "You can't trust her!"
"Your nieces sure seem to think otherwise," Captain Black countered.
Jackie groaned, putting his hand to his head. "What did they do this time?"
"Managed to convince one of the most skilled members of the criminal community that it was better for Audrey III to consider her an ally than food," Captain Black explained quickly. As Jackie stared in amazement, Augustus changed the subject. "Now, you need to go back into the museum and give the Puma and Talisman back to the curator. He'll thank you for your efforts on their behalf, apologize for not listening to you earlier, and then you'll be able to head home without any trouble, and this incident will be officially wiped from your record."
"Really?" Jackie gasped out, stunned but relieved. "But...isn't it bad to just leave the Snake Talisman out like that?" He lifted the Talisman out to look at it.
"Don't squeeze it too hard," Captain Black interrupted quickly. "It's not the real one. It's a fake Viper made to try and trick the Puma out of your girls, but they expected it and caught her in a trap with Audrey III. Since she went to the trouble of making it, we're using it to try and lure out the Dark Hand, letting them think your release was of higher priority than securing the Talisman ourselves, especially when the museum's getting another security upgrade."
"Then you'll be watching the museum?" Jackie asked curiously.
"No," Captain Black countered. "The fake's been hollowed out and filled with Audrey's thorns. If the Dark Hand takes it, it will likely break and the thorns will embed in flesh, letting Audrey track them anywhere. With luck, this will lead us right to the Dark Hand's primary base of operations."
Jackie grinned widely as he carefully set the fake Talisman back down. "Wow. You think of everything, Captain Black."
Captain Black glanced away. "Actually...that was Jade's idea. And it was Sweetie Belle who figured out how to hollow out the fake Talisman without breaking it or letting that be noticeable. And Scootaloo and Apple Bloom who figured out how to craft the 'thorn bomb'." He shrugged his shoulders. "Your girls have good heads on their shoulders. When they grow up, they'll be good assets to whoever they end up working for. Consider them scouted."
Jackie groaned as he hung his head again. "Bad day..." he moaned. "How am I ever going to get them to behave now?"
"Oh, one more thing," Captain Black mentioned. "I won't be out here when you're done in the museum. The girls will be waiting for you at the airport. I suggest you head home immediately. The less time you spend here, the less likely someone will poke holes in this flimsy cover story of ours, and the safer you'll be."
"Thank you, Captain Black," Jackie offered fervently. "I owe you one."
"I'll keep that in mind while I'm dealing with the paperwork for this mess."
With a chuckle, the pair of friends parted ways.
Valmont frowned as he went over the information he'd been able to gather regarding the situation in New York. While he didn't doubt that Chan was working with an actual law enforcement agency in this matter to counter their efforts to gather the Talismans, he didn't buy the story of him being an official agent. No official agent would let a child along, for one thing. And beyond that, 'official' agents were disavowed if they failed as spectacularly as Jackie had in trying to acquire the Snake Talisman. This stank of a setup.
As such, he'd sent Ratso in with the Eyes of the Dragon to check. Sure enough, there was no response from the artifact to the Talisman now on display. It was a fake, likely set up specifically to trap them somehow. As per his orders, Ratso had casually vacated the museum the moment that had been discovered. Nobody suspected anything, thankfully. Ratso's innocent seeming face and genuine good nature when not beating someone to a pulp had been very useful in such ways before. It was difficult but fruitful to find an agent who could be either teddy or grizzly with ease.
And so one more Talisman had fallen into Chan's hands, beyond the Dark Hand's reach...for the moment. However, Valmont was not deterred. He would continue to watch, and wait. The perfect opportunity would present itself. It always did, one way or another. Perhaps Chan might even be...useful. That first encounter had shown that he could be leveraged. All that required was to find the right leverage, and the right moment to apply it.
And he did, after all, have four young female relations he obviously cared deeply about who had a penchant for getting into danger. And Shendu would be overjoyed to eliminate such creatures of powerful good magic as threats.
"All in good time..." he murmured to himself. "Yes. All in good time..."