Rear Garage, House of Ryu, 1:46 am June 16th, 2016
Carmelita leaned against a pillar, staring at the oasis themed landscaping of Ivan's house. She crossed her arms, trying not to beat herself up over attempting to steal something or that she had royally messed up the heist.
"It gets easier viss time, Inspector," Ivan said as he walked up behind her with a cup of hot tea in his hand for her, silently sipping his own.
"Thank you, but you don't have to call me that any more Ivan," Carmelita answered, putting her hands around the cup to absorb the warmth.
"It's an old habit zat vwill be hard to break." He said, taking another sip of his tea.
"What was it like for you when you first stole something?" Carmelita asked. Ivan looked up into the sky, the twinkle in his eye becoming nostalgic as he sighed hard.
"It's been so many years that I can hardly remember such a time. I sink zeh very first sing I ever stole was my grandfazzer's pocket vwatch from a pawn shop my father sold it to. My family lived in Ukraine, and zough vwe didn't have much, vwe lacked for nossing. However, my mozer became ill vwhen a bad vwinter had come. VWe didn't have enough money for a doctor to treat her, and so my fasser sold my grandfazzer's gold vwatch." Ivan reached to the pocket on his vest and pulled out a beautiful gold pocket watch, pressing the button and flipping open the lid where a picture of a lovely looking wolf rested.
"Is that your wife when she was younger?" Carmelita asked, moving closer to look at the picture.
"No no, zis is actually my grandmosser just before my grandfasser married her. My grandfasser actually had zis on zeh day he proposed to her, and it has been passed down ever since. Except, vehn I stole it." he chuckled, closing the lid and putting the watch back in his pocket.
"My mother survived, and after I zat, I began to teach myself zeh trade of seevery. My family, of course, didn't approve and disowned me soon after. At first, it felt wrong to take somesing zat vwasn't mine, but as time passed, it became easier." Taking another sip of his tea, Ivan tipped the cup all the way up and drank down the last of it.
"However, my career didn't take off until I found a reason to steal: zose who vwere less fortunate back in my home country. I would take zeh high-end merchandise I stole, sell it on zeh black market, and zen send sah money to families in need. Most considered zese gifts to be from angels, ozzers said zat it was just zere turn to have somessing good happen. Zat is vie I became a seef." He smiled, turning the cup in his hand this way and that before putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I know zat you must be going srough a harder time zan most people since you vwere once an officer of zeh law. But don't sink about it too much: find yourself a reason to be a seef, and zen stick wiss it." Ivan smiled, patting her shoulder.
"Let's go see vat Bentley's uncovered." Ivan coaxed as he walked inside. Carmelita nodded, looking to the sky one last time and finding a star that twinkled just as she happened to look at it, almost like the light that would sparkle in the diamond ring on her hand. Once inside, however, Bentley could be heard sighing as he sat back in his wheelchair and dropped his hands to the armrests.
"Any luck with the rock I managed to grab?" Carmelita asked, sitting beside Bentley as Murray came walking in, wiping off his face and arms with a towel after using Ivan's home gym.
"I haven't been able to get a lot, but from what writing remained on the stone, I was able to find that this tablet was made in the time of Akhenaten, one pharaoh before Tutankhamen. Going through the Thevious Racoonous, I found that Sly's ancestor Slytunkhamen Cooper the first, says that he remembers his youngest descendent being 'a bit overly confident, but a good addition to the cooper name.' However, there is something rather strange later on about someone." Bentley said, composing himself once again and cradling his chin pointing to a part of the book that depicted a slender canine with glowing eyes and what appeared to be sharp claws on his hands and feet.
"The book goes on to say that this person 'had wings like that of Ra and odium that ran deeper than the Nile.' There's only one being out there that can even vaguely fit within that description, and that was Clockwerk. But he's been dead for years." Bentley said making Carmelita's blood run cold: she remembered the iron clad owl and his strange obsession with Sly. But even then, Clockwerk had already been reassembled once and taken over by Neyla. Despite her deep involvement with that case, Carmelita never did find out what happened to Clockwerk's corpse.
"Not necessarily." Interjected Ivan.
"From vwhat I understand of zis Clockverk, he has been alive for centuries using his own hate and jealousy to sustain his life. Perhaps zen Clockwerk vas alive then too."
"Clockwerk himself was a giant owl. If that is the case, then why does this particular description show a canine and not a fowl." Carmelita answered, pointing to the hand-drawn picture within the book. Ivan looked over the image, careful not to read anything else that had to do with technique.
"That… is a good point, Inspector," Ivan answered, crossing his arm and resting his elbow on it while contemplating the implications.
"All that aside, I was able to find strange metallic dust on the stone. I'm not sure what it is though. All my chemical analysis shows that it's some form of a dense alloy." Bentley said, bringing up the molecular make-up of the metal.
"There is only one place that I know of that would even be capable of producing this kind of alloy, and that's on the far northern coast of Germany, at least according to thief net," Bentley said when Ivan interjected.
"A friend I vworked vwiss many years ago is up zere; she might be able to give you better insight as to vwhat is happening on zeh black side of Germany's development programs."
"We'll need all the help we can get. I wonder what this has to do with Cooper though." Carmelita answered, putting a fist on her hip.
"I don't know, but zere are only a few people zat would touch artifacts like zis. Zeh only osser person to touch it vwas zis Agent Hunter you were telling me about." Ivan replied, looking through a Rolodex and finding a card with a stylized dragon's head on it as well as a stack of neatly printed 'calling cards' for Carmelita.
"Every great seef leaves sare mark. And you shouldn't be any different." He smiled. Carmelita thanked him for the gifts and was about to get into Murray's rumbling van when she stopped and turned back to Ivan.
"I almost forgot, how do we find this friend of yours?" Ivan smirked and slowly blinked.
"You von't, she'll find you. Show her zat card when she does. But zeh rest vwill be up to you." The smile that Carmelita received was unsettling at best, but she had her mission to rescue Sly, and that was the only thing she needed to help control whatever fear she had.
"This thieving life is much more dangerous than I imagined." Carmelita thought, as she sat down and the three of them raced off down the road towards Germany.