A/N: I started the first few pages back on September 10th of 2009. Boy, almost a year later I finally pick up where I left off. D:

Chapter -21-
"Adult World"

Lubyanskaya Square, Tverskoy, Moscow, Russia…

"Behold… this is Children's World toy store," said Saundra over the cellular phone. Sly and Carmelita huddled around the phone, having waited half an hour for the call to come through. They sat upon the rooftop of the Children's World toy store directly across from the Lubyanka building – home of the FSB, home of the one-time KGB. Saundra continued speaking to them. "Federalnaya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federaciyi. You can call them the FSB if you like – these guys take their jobs seriously and quite a few of them still go home and dream about their glory days when it was still the KGB. Some of them have fond thoughts on dark people, like Lavrenti Beria, the architect of Stalin's terror machine, who also patrolled Moscow's streets in a limo, looking for beautiful women to rape. Be prepared, some of these guys are still real slime balls; they look out for one another and have that 'good ole boy' mentality about their clique. So let's keep our focus here. See the grayish building on the left side? That's the Federal Security Service headquarters building. They're one in the same to a degree. You're looking at a lot of stuff – the border patrol offices, a prison… there's a lot of crap in those buildings. What we're going to need, just like earlier, is underground to a degree. If Russia got nuked tomorrow, they wouldn't want all the information from their computers to be wiped out… so it's fairly far underground but we may not need to hit it from that angle; I'm not sure, yet. It's in one of two places… the top or the bottom. I've decided to pick the most likely place to start… Where we're going is beneath the lot, between the two buildings. It's approximately ten stories below the street level unless they've recently moved their datacenter around. I doubt it, but I'm just leaving room for error on my part."

Carmelita waited until Saundra trailed off from speaking then said, "Okay, enough with the history. I can read up on it later if I want. Do we know for sure that this information is here?"

"If it's not, it's in their satellite office in the mountains of Chechnya. Let's hope not because it would be in the Glavnoje Razvedyvatel'noje Upravlenije office, protected by the Spetsnaz. And if you think the GRU mess around, you'd be sadly mistaken. They probably already suspect your placement and wonder why you're back in Russia, right now – however, I've taken care of that detail for you. Be glad for corruption; I personally purchased BOTH of your FSB files to slow down their progress. Be thankful that corruption runs deep, here. If they knew you were here to do what you're about to do… the Spetsnaz would already be sending agents to your location right now. Look, let's focus on the datacenter in your current location, okay? This location has fewer guns wielded by fewer men in wider hallways. I'm sure their network is connected and we'll get what we need all the same, okay? Now… let's get started."

"You're the expert," murmured Sly. "I'm ready – we're both ready."

Saundra's voice continued over the line. "Good deal. I don't know where their datacenter is located. Now, I assume it's beneath the detention center. It's a maze of green-painted metallic bars that are designed both horizontally and vertically. Trust me, if you're in one of those cells, you're not getting out easily. Just ask Gary Powers, shot down on May first, 1960. He stayed there until getting "spy swapped" on February tenth of 1962 and…"

"Stop," said Carmelita with a sigh. "Enough. I understand it's an important place. Stalin's son was there, too. Big deal. You get chatty when you're excited. Tone it down and take a diazepam. Now, how do we get down there? Do we take the subway, or do we go in through the main gates? You said to focus – we're ready to focus."

There was a pause, followed by, "You're right. I'm sorry – I am a little excited. I'm also nervous for you two – your beau had better be as good as expected or you're both going to take up residence there."

Sly grinned. "Carmelita wouldn't like being the only international cop sentenced to hard labor." He abruptly received a punch in his arm. He sucked in air to keep from yelping then replied with a silent smirk.

Saundra sighed. "Gary didn't take this stuff seriously, either. He was in equally good spirits the day his fuel gauge was 'fixed', causing a forty-seven year old father of two to crash a news helicopter and die. That was fifteen years after his release from Lubyanka. But he started to speak out and that wasn't tolerated. He should have taken the spy world more seriously. Do you two understand the deadly repercussions of spending as little as a single day in the spotlight of the espionage world? I know I droned on earlier… but you two need to take this seriously and get a grip right now, because your deaths would be no great loss to the spy world. Powers' death wasn't – he was honored posthumously as a hero, but that didn't help him back in '77, did it? Now, listen up – we're fortunate because I also bought the files of two construction workers on a team that's supposed to be running cable through the lowest three floors in the facility. I bought the files through my CIA channels, doctored them then allowed those files to be stolen back by the FSB. The files were of the entire construction crew detail. Those files wound up back in the archive. So… the FSB thinks you two are construction workers, who have already checked out with their security background. You'll need to abduct two workers from their hotel. You may kill them if you like, but hide the bodies if you do. Alternatively, you may render them both unconscious but they must remain that way for more than twenty-four hours to give you time to get very far away. It has to be more than just a blow to the head… be creative. Here's a bit of a hint… trash is taken out day after tomorrow at ten in the morning… locking them up in the garbage chute is feasible. They'll be rescued long after we're gone. Do you both follow me so far?"

Carmelita placed a finger on Sly's lips to keep him quiet. "We're with you, Miss Moore. We're not official members of any program that puts us above any law – there will be no murders. What time do these workers head to their post? What about their coworkers?"

"Fine with me." Saundra's voice clipped as the encryption software changed to a fresh encoding algorithm. She then continued. "These two were chosen because they work separately from the rest of the party – this week, only. They're both tasked with running cable on the lowest levels. The guards rotate often so there's no breaking of a pattern here… no one will notice. The hardest part will be in pretending you already know your way around. If you look lost, you'll arouse suspicion but, unfortunately, there's no map. Furthermore, good luck reading signs posted throughout the compound. They're in Russian. I suggest letting your husband lead – he can use his instincts to get you two to the bottom floor. …Hopefully. I'm going to hang up now and send you a text message. Give it a few seconds to decrypt then open it. It will have the exact address of the nearby hotel, as well as their room numbers. There's just one more thing…"

Carmelita eyed her mate and whispered, "Husband huh?"

Cooper grinned at his fiancée then cleared his throat. "Go on."

Saundra took a deep breath followed by a long sigh. "All the workers on this detail are male. Inspector, you'll need to wear overalls and use a man's cologne. Tuck your hair into a hat, chew on a cigar… or better yet, grab yourself a painter's mask. Since running these cables would require going near insulation material, no one will question you making it part of your uniform. Finally, find yourself a full-body bodice and make it tight. If they see that you have breasts, the jig is up and they'll question you. I'd do this job myself but you know that's not possible."

Fox tightened her jaw. "I'll handle it, Miss Moore. We won't arouse suspicions. How do we extract the information? Flash drive, like before?"

"Yes," replied the squirrel over the line. "It's been mailed to those workers with explicit instructions to the concierge that a "friend of raccoon persuasion" will be coming to pick it up after hours. Once Sly walks into the lobby, they'll probably approach him with the package. Sly, I want you to act natural, receive the package, smile and nod then head to the rooms; act like you belong there. After that, you deliver the package. There's more than a flash drive inside. There are also two pistols. One will fire a silenced forty caliber round. The other will fire darts tipped in potent curare. It's lethal – it immobilizes every part of the victim, including their respiratory system. They'll die from asphyxiation. If you want to use it as a tranquilizer, you'll have to procure your own sleep darts. I've not included that. Else, save it and use it in emergencies that require silent yet lethal action, understand?"

"I'll take it as a precautionary measure," Carmelita started. She sighed then said, "But I would prefer not to poison anyone to death. Okay. Hang up and we'll wait for your text message with all the information we'll need to do this job. Inspector Fox – over and out, crazy lady." She closed the lid of the cellular phone and, once more, sighed with a shake of her head. "Toxic darts? A forty-caliber gun? Asking us to hide bodies in the garbage disposal? She's taking all of this crap a little overboard. Who does she think she is? La Femme Nikita?" Carmelita rubbed either side of her face.

The cellular phone chirped and vibrated in unison. They looked at one another. Carmelita ran her thumb over the phone's plastic shell. "Okay, that's our text message. Should I just wait here and you go do this? What if I don't pull off a male effectively enough and it blows our cover?"

Cooper eyed her with a shake of his head. "Will you stop worrying about everything? There's supposed to be two of us involved in this – we'll make it work; whatever it takes, love. Relax."

Hours later…

From the rooftop of the Church of Sophia, Sly Cooper kept his feet together upon the top of the dome's spire. He glanced down upon the Sofijka Temple then gazed back into his binoculars. The raccoon cut his eyes over to the Detsky Mir, the 'Children's World' toy store from earlier. He gazed back across the square to the ominous rectangular-looking building. He spoke softly but clearly so the binoc-u-com would pick up his voice. "Carmelita, maybe we could break into the toy store after the job, sneak into those really big five-foot-tall teddy bears and have them mailed to the safe house. No one would suspect a thing and it'd be impossible to trail us."

"Grow up, Sly," said Carmelita over the Bluetooth earpiece clipped to his ear. "That would be awful; hot, sweaty and it would be hard to breathe in that thing. Are you in position?"

"Yup. It's a little brisk up here but I can see the Kremlin all lit up. The Cathedral of Annunciation looks good from this height."

"They call it the Blagoveschensky sobor."

"I'm more interested in the Kremlin Armory," replied Sly.

"If you're talking about the Orlov Diamond, you can forget about it."

"The Orloff is only 190 carats, Carmelita. It's no Cullinan or Golden Jubilee. Would you be interested in having one of those Cullinan fragments, by the way?"

"Get over yourself, Sly. You're not stealing anything, mister."

Saundra's voice came in over the binoc-u-com's channel. It distorted at first as the encryption software kicked in but then her voice cleared up. "So are you guys going to use my plan?"

"Yeah," said Sly casually. "We don't have any other options, do we?"

"You could abduct one of the seksots."

Carmelita's voice came back over the line. "Sex what?"

"No, dear, it's an abbreviation for sekretnyi sotrudnik. A secret employee or any part-time informer for the KGB or FSB. Listen, kids, I don't care what anyone else says, whether that building is full of Komitet Gosudarstvennov Bezopasnosti or the more modern FSB counterparts, keep in mind that there are still people with guns there, these days… it's not going to be easy to penetrate. Have you guys thought about your escape route?"

"I'm thinking we can get back out from the metro line," said Sly, adding, "I had another idea but Carmelita shot it down."

The squirrel sighed rather audibly then said, "The toy bear thing? I heard when I joined the line… I agree with Inspector Fox… it was silly. Get your head in the game, Sly. You're about to make history as the first person to ever break into the Lubyanka, escape and go completely undetected… RIGHT?"

"Speaking of history," he replied, changing the subject, "How old is this building?"

"It's over a hundred years old. What's it matter?"

"Just curious," Sly murmured.

Another sigh then Saundra said, "It was an insurance company in 1898 until the Bolsheviks took over in 1918. Now it's a three-building deathtrap. I don't care what the media says about its current tenants. Do not get captured because I won't be coming to rescue you. Now, remember, the computers are probably several stories below ground, protected by reinforced concrete. They wouldn't want sensitive data to be destroyed if a nuke was dropped on Russia – it'll all be safe in a bunker. So start from the bottom and work your way up."

"Rodger dodger," Sly said with a grin of self-amusement. "I'm going to make my way in then get changed."

"Why not just change into your disguise then walk right in?"

"Lady, for a Central Intelligence Agent, you aren't being very smart here…" Sly paused for effect, grinned inwardly then said, "I don't speak Russian. Well, just a few words but that doesn't count. Look, I don't want to get roped into a conversation while signing in with the lobby guard. Like you said a few hours ago… raising suspicion would be bad."

"…Not how I said it…" she interjected.

"Close enough," Sly cut her off the same way she'd just spoke over him. He then added, "Close enough for Government work. Isn't that how your types operate? Okay, enough with the jokes – I know, I know… be professional; I'm on the clock. Yeah, so… Carmelita, you still there?"

"Yes, Sly."

He smiled. "I've got a plan. Every twenty minutes, I'm seeing workers pop out the side door for a smoke break. They prop the door with something small – some sort of wooden wedge – I'll be down to let you in through that door shortly. I want you to be close by. Ready?"

"I'm putting my overalls on overtop of my sneaking suit. I'll be there, Sly, waiting for you. Don't dilly-dally."

"See you then." Sly bound off the ornate domed building and made his way to a rather high street lamp. From there, he somersaulted to a traffic light then bound back upwards, landing on an electric wire above the street. He glanced both ways, seeing the streets verily empty then dashed across the square, high above the road. A white rectangular sign hung from the wire. The sign, simply saying, 'CTOn,' waved back and forth as he ran overtop of it.

Cooper made his way to the building then leapt from the nearest traffic light to the beige-painted corner, which was extremely easy to scale because of the way the building was designed. The windows to the left and right of the building's corners had an elaborate reddish-brick ornamentation that protruded from the siding. He was able to shimmy from them to the next ledge up, repeatedly until he was on the roof. After a tricky maneuver over a simplistic metallic fence, he checked for surveillance then figured out the best way to avoid each camera. The raccoon crossed the top then gazed down into the courtyard below, at the center of the square building. One of the inner-walls had an open window. Sly grinned – his luck paid off.

Minutes later, he was on the first floor, opening the door for Carmelita Fox. She approached him and quietly said, "They have backscatter X-ray machines, millimeter wave detectors and everything else… and you just let yourself in from the roof, huh?"

"Scary thought, right? No technology is foolproof, Carmelita. Besides, at this hour, only the lobby guards are screening people – all technologies rely on the ability of their operators and, let's face it babycakes, government-hired doormen aren't exactly rocket scientists."

"Fair enough, although… neither are you." She pulled the white respirator mask over her muzzle and followed him in.

"Touché."

"Was it difficult to get up there?"

Sly glanced up the outer wall of the building while letting her in then stepped back inside and pulled the door shut behind himself. "There was a fence on the roof. It was humming from electric current so… I had to get over that without touching it… not as easy as it sounds."

"And, yet, here you are."

"Here I am," he said, placing his paws into his pockets. "Let's find the maintenance elevator and make our way down to the bottom of this thing, huh?"

She nodded slowly, looking around the first floor hallway and waxed tile floors. Up ahead, a section of the floor was done in wood then it went back to gleaming tile. "I'm ready to be done with this place already. Just knowing how many people were tortured to death in this building is enough to give me the creeps."

"We can always talk about diamonds again," said Sly, trying to get her to stop thinking about political murder. "In August of 2007, the world's biggest diamond was found in the North-West Province of South Africa. It was sixty-two hundred carats, uncut. Twice the size of the Cullinan. And then… it just disappeared. You can't find anything about it on Google except the initial news reel archived on the internet."

"…Sly, I already don't like where this is going."

"I didn't say I stole it. But the 'buyer' has never been identified." He offered a brilliant smile as they walked through the first floor hallway of the infamous Lubyanka. "After that, this unnamed diamond disappeared off the face of the planet. Funny how things like that happen, huh?" He watched as her ears lowered, which, for some reason, amused him to no end.

The information gleaned from Saundra wasn't exactly accurate. The prison was located on the first floor and continued down, under ground. Despite a map of the building depicting a lack of depth to the structure, they managed to find their way to an elevator that took them down three floors. From that floor, they found another that took them down ten more.

Cabling gear and orange cones were stacked neatly to one side. Sly began blocking off hallways with the cones, so as to look like he was doing work. Border Troops offices were upstairs, but here, beneath the very building that housed a prison, a museum and even guided tour areas, was exactly what Sly and Carmelita were searching for.

A door marked, "Oleg Syromolotov," had a fancy emblem on it. It read, "Counterintelligence Service" but was spelled in Cyrillic lettering, which neither Carmelita nor Sly could read.

"Know why they call this the tallest building in Russia?" Sly asked her.

"No." She paused, somewhat curious if he was going to make a joke or tell her a fact. "Why?"

"Because it's the only building where you can see Siberia from its basement."

Carmelita rolled her eyes. "That would make the CIA the tallest building in the world, then."

"Yeah, yeah." Sly came across a door that appeared sealed. He put his paw on the knob and felt a strange vibration through it. "What…in the world?"

The vixen approached and placed her palm on the door. At first, she felt nothing but after a few seconds, she felt the vibration. It lasted a few seconds then stopped. Fifteen seconds later, it happened again then stopped. She quirked a brow then placed the side of her head to the door. After a moment of listening to the rhythmic cadence of vibration she chuckled to herself and announced, "The metro line is nearby. You're hearing trains as they pass on the rails."

Cooper grinned brightly. "Well, we now have our escape plan." He opened the binoc-u-com and tried sending a message to Saundra but received static in reply. "I think we're not going to get reception until we're topside again."

"Probably all the lead in the paint. Remember when Saundra answered your question? This building is pretty old, Sly."

He went back to the equipment in the main hallway and picked up a sheet of paper tucked into the cabling rig. It was detailed blueprints to the bottom four floors. He handed them to the vixen and said, "See if you can read these to figure out where the computers are hiding."

"You can't read schematics? These are made to be simple so that a blue-collar worker can …nevermind. You've never worked a day in your life."

"Maybe not your definition of work." Sly grinned at her and waved a paw forward. "To the computers, oh great leader." He fell into step behind her and together the two made their way down the hall and around the corner. He glanced over her shoulder at the paper then looked up at the drop ceiling tiles. Only a few were missing, allowing him to see cables running above them. "So… in here? Allow me." He stepped around her and opened the door.

To Sly Cooper's surprise, a guard just inside the computer room withdrew a Makarov pistol and pointed it the raccoon's face. Across the room, another guard drew up an AK-108 assault rifle, pointing it towards the door. They chattered quickly but the couple didn't understand their words.

"Wrong room, fellas," Sly murmured with his paws up, backing out.

"French?" exclaimed the guard with the pistol. He shouted to his 'tovarich' and the two men began to follow Sly as he backed his way out of the room with Carmelita behind him in a painter's facemask.

"Sly, this is bad," she murmured.

"C'mon, they're sissy guns," Sly said in an attempt to relax her. "We're not looking down the barrel of a Dragunov, sweetheart. This is a huge misunderstanding and they'll figure that out in a second."

The man with the pistol said, "You idiots, I can understand you words," in a thick dialect. His French was well pronounced and intelligible, despite his Russian accent. "My 'sissy' gun needs not be a Snayperskaya Vintovka to kill you, spies!"

"Whoa, hold up," said Sly. "We are not spies. I don't care about espionage."

The man with the rifle approached from a flanking position, now to the left side of the doorway. "He is famous thief, Georgi…" he said, pronouncing the name like, 'Yourgi.' He kept the assault rifle at shoulder level, gazing down the iron sights. "Look at his face – it is Sly Cooper! He was arrested at the Kremlin only recently; held over night!" The rifleman directed his next statement to Sly. "I read a lot; a thief is just as bad as a spy! Tell us why are you here, or must we take you to a room upstairs and interrogate you? Those rooms have not been used for some time, comrade Cooper so let's make it easy and have you tell us what you are doing here, while you are at gunpoint?"

Sly glanced behind himself at Carmelita then back at 'Georgi' and the man with the rifle. "Well, wow. They both speak French… who would have thought?"

"And furthermore," said the man with the pistol, "The FSB does not use the Dragunov. We use the VKS and VSS silenced automatic sniper rifles. Vykhlop. Perhaps we'll show them to you via a firing squad."

"Now, now," said Sly, keeping his paws up. "No need to get hostile. I don't even use guns. I'm here to stop the United States CIA from gaining control of a satellite weapon. You wouldn't want them to use that thing on you, would'ja? I think we should put those guns down and talk things out. Look, I have a walking cane on me, let me show you so that no one gets excited." And, slowly, he withdrew his cane from the back of his belt. He held it by the fulcrum and showed them the golden 'C' shaped hook at the top. "Everything is cool, right?"

The rifleman switched off his weapon's safety and pointed the barrel at Sly's face. "I have much better idea, Georgi. We kill these two now and let the think tank figure out their reasoning later on. He is a filthy thief – infamous or not, he's no good."

The man with the pistol lifted his sidearm and fished a noise suppresser barrel from his other pocket. He screwed it on then turned and fired the weapon. The man with the rifle dropped to the ground with a glistening red bullet hole directly above his left eyebrow. Georgi turned back to Sly and Carmelita and calmly spoke in English. "I know you two understand me. Just as I know your friend, there, isn't a man under that mask. Listen, you two, I just blew my cover as a once-in-a-lifetime-favor to Saundra Moore. Mister Cooper, I don't appreciate you saying the CIA would steal the Zeus Cannon and use it against Russia. They're our allies, now. Things are different."

Carmelita pulled the mask off and snapped at him. "If they're so different than why does the CIA still need moles in place with the FSB? We appreciate you killing that guy before he took things too far… but we're not ready to trust the CIA, either."

"The CIA doesn't even have the ability to take control of that satellite. Anyway, get out of here. Tell Saundra Georgi says hello."

Sly turned back to the vixen and frowned. "He's really out of the loop, hun. He probably doesn't get stateside updates very often." He glanced back at the man with the pistol and said, "The CIA has half of the Zeus codes, the FSB has the other half. Saundra was suspended because the agency has its own agenda and they're in league with the bad guys now, out in the Atlantic Ocean. We're not sure this dude is a 'bad guy' so to speak… but he's definitely not a good person."

Georgi eyed Cooper for a moment then shook his head. "I can't verify what you're telling me. Just get the hell out of here."

"We need a code off the computers in the room you're guarding," said Sly. "Then we're going to blast our way out the door around the corner and leave through the metro line. And you're going to let us because you've just shot the other guard."

"Your diplomacy skills suck. Stick to sneaking around in the shadows." He leaned his head out into the hallway then pulled Sly in by the wrist. Carmelita followed them into the room. Georgi stood guard at the doorway with his pistol at the ready. "You better hurry."

Sly and Carmelita rushed to the nearest computer terminal and inserted the flash drive, just as they had done before, back at Langley, earlier in the day. Carmelita moved to the keyboard but the layout wasn't what she was used to. She began clicking on things until she stumbled upon the preferences menu. Upon changing the language setting to 'Spanish', the keys on the keyboard changed as well. It was then that she realized that each key was a tiny LCD screen. She began typing furiously.

Sly, glad that Georgi had no idea they'd just broken into the CIA building earlier, moved adjacent to the Inspector, watching her work. "Hey, you're pretty good at this."

"Shut up. I'm just doing what was done earlier. I want to get out of here. Figure out how to get that door open."

Sly nodded and turned back to Georgi. "That door to the metro is sealed. Is there any way to blow it open?"

"It's not welded shut or anything like that; it simply hasn't been used in ages. Just blast it open with a little force and it'll open right up. Listen, this room isn't surveillance-free. What we've just done on film won't be reviewed until tonight. So I have to go with you and get out of here, too." He picked up the assault rifle and holstered the pistol. "Someone saw what we've done… what you're doing and what I've done to my co-worker… let's hurry so I can get out of this dump."

"Got it," Carmelita announced. A gunshot caused her ears to flicker. She turned just in time to see Georgi began crumbling to his knees. Her eyes widened. She ripped the flash drive out of the front of the terminal and pocketed it. "Sly…! Was he just…?"

Cooper nudged him over with a toe and nodded, seeing the bullet hole in the man's face. He looked round pensively. "Yeah… there's blood… he was definitely just shot by someone."

"Dios mio," she groused, backing towards Sly. "Stay low," she said, guiding him towards the wall adjacent to the doorway. Her ears perked up and she heard footfalls out in the hallway. Then silence. She gestured with her paws to tell him they were surrounded outside.

"This isn't good," he whispered softly.

"I want a family."

He blinked incredulously. "Pardon?"

"You ran out of my life to stop Clockwerk. It won't be that easy. It might not happen as quickly as you'd like. It might take an army of Coopers to defeat this one… Whatever. But I want a family. I want both of us to live through this so… don't you dare go dying today."

"I hadn't planned on dying, Carmelita. For us to have a family, we would have to…"

"…I know," she interjected but in a softer voice. "We're not getting any younger. I don't want to be a sixty-year-old woman raising teenagers, so we need to think about something now. Promise me you won't die."

"I promise. This isn't going to be easy… are you ready?"

She withdrew the two guns given to her by Saundra earlier in the day. "I don't want to take life away – I want to create life… but at this point… it's them or it's me and I am not going down without a fight."

"That's my girl." Sly eased his foot forward, pulling the AK-108 assault rifle away from Georgi's motionless paw. "Damn it's sad he went and got himself killed."

"Sly…" She nodded towards the doorway. "Are you ready?"

"You wanna go out tonight and take a break from all of this?"

She offered him a slight smile but it was one that appeared full of promise. "Sly… we're staring death in the face. They're not rushing in here because they know we're armed… we're not rushing out there because we know they're armed. It's a standoff… And even though I know we could both die at any minute… all I can think of is that I'm ready to take a break and have a family. It's been on my mind on-and-off since before you up and left. I'm at that age where it feels natural to wanna' focus on that. You get us out of here alive… and I'll make it worth your while tonight."

Sly stood there, listening to her words and taking it all in. He licked his lips slowly, nodded in an almost pensive way then quietly said, "I want you to cover me. I promise, this will be the last stupid thing I ever do. But it's going to take team work to pull this off."

She nodded, took a deep breath and said. "I'm ready when you are." After a rather short pause, she added, "I love you."

The left corner of Cooper's muzzle tugged into a grin. "I love you too… say it again; I liked hearing that."

A smirk touched her features. "Get us out of here alive and you'll have earned it."

A nod was offered to the vixen. He carefully hefted Georgi's form up and propped the man. "Sorry, buddy. The CIA appreciates your service, even if your fate is to become nothing more than some star on a wall without having your name mentioned in that little book in the lobby. Saundra said she didn't wanna wind up in that thing, so she probably appreciates you doing this for her." Cooper put his shoulder against the dead man's torso then heaved Georgi through the doorway.

As expected, audio-suppressed gunshots came to life. The body was hit with so many rounds before it could hit the wall across the hallway that it appeared to be juggled with bullets, hovering momentarily as if it were a puppet on invisible strings. Sly lost count and whispered to her, "It was over thirty shots but some of them are using auto fire."

Carmelita swallowed back disgust, keeping her back to the wall with the two pistols pointed forty-five degrees upward. She nodded to his statement but said nothing. Another gunshot caused her left ear to flicker listlessly then she heard metallic scraping on the floor tiles from one of the men kicking Georgi's Makarov away. She offered a moue of disgust, assuming that last gunshot was to the head.

Sly offered two quick nods. It was 'go time'. He hyper-focused himself using the ancient Cooper technique written about in the family book. Time appeared to slow down around him as he moved out of the door. He put a foot on Georgi's body then his next foot on the nearest guard who was kneeling over the dead CIA mole. Sly squeezed the trigger of the assault rifle…

…Several months later…

"…And that's the last time I ever held a Russian assault rifle. Like I always said, 'I'll take a cane over a gun any day.' Guns just… they're not my thing." Sly turned to Carmelita Fox and placed his left paw on her slightly extended tummy. "I have a wife and a future child to think about, now. We have a name picked out already; we think it's going to be a girl because of how she carries it and what the ultra-sound looks like."

Chief Barkley nodded his head slowly then glanced back at the Inspector. "Well, how has maternity leave gone for you? I remember back when you would race to the assignment board every Monday morning."

A grin illuminated her face. "Chief, that feels like it was years ago." She ran a paw back through her hair and said, "Ironic isn't it? You're my mentor, Chief… you gave me the Cooper case and sent me to India, where I met him. This whole thing should never have ended this way… with me pregnant and married," she said, lifting her left paw to display the ring set. She chuckled in spite of herself. "How in the heck did it happen like this, right?"

The older man's eyes shifted back to Sly. "You better not get your 'memories' back, kid. The day you go back to your old ways of stealing… let's just say it won't be good. So what name did you guys choose if it is, in fact, a girl?"

"Carmen," Carmelita said. "I told Sly he gets to name the second one if that ever happens. Although, right now, I'm content to stick with one for the rest of my days."

Sly chuckled. "She'll want more."

"Oh, you think so?" said Barkley.

"Gut feeling," replied Sly with a nod. "Anyway, back to the story, we were happy and out of contact with the CIA members until this morning. Trust me, we were both surprised to have them show up on our doorstep."

"I'm afraid I have limited access to police gear until the new office is finished. I can requisition some…"

Carmelita lifted a paw. "No, Chief. Thank you but… Anyway, when this last bit is finished… we want to move east to the mountains. I can take the bullet train into Lyon so I can work a few days a week but… after this hot mess is finished, I don't want to be an inspector anymore. I'd rather do something else for ICPO at this rate."

"Seriously?" The chief blinked at her. "I thought detecting crime was your life's passion."

"I enjoy the research and the action… but I'll be a mother and don't want to be in the field anymore. I have to stay alive; I want to raise my baby." She glanced at Sly and added, "Or …even babies."

"I understand," said the Chief with a slight frown. "Well, what about becoming a research analyst? You could do lab work, some field work but stay out of the line-of-fire."

Another smile illuminated the vixen's face. "That would be wonderful. But promise me you won't take away my firing range privileges. You know, even though I won't keep any in the house while the children are young… I still like my guns."

"I can appreciate that." The chief gave Carmelita a hug and said, "I'll have your office all set up by the time you're ready to return to work. Are you sure you want to work with these Americans one last time?"

"I'm ready to close this thing out. It's been months since we had to run through a dark underground metro tunnel, dodging trains and bullets beneath the streets of Moscow. Seriously though, Chief… I appreciate your understanding. I don't know where I'll be, y'know, over the next few days and I don't know when I'll get back to work. But yeah… finishing this whole thing is just… it's something I need to do, sir."

"Don't sir me, young lady. When we're off the clock, we're family." The two cops relinquished their hug. He turned to Sly and shook the raccoon's paw. "You treat her right, son. Or her father will fly up here from Panama and the two of us will flatten you, kid."

"I'll treat her right. And I will keep her safe while we're dealing with this Clockwerk situation. I'm actually surprised he surfaced again. I thought for sure he'd stay below ground and off everyone's radar once he found out that we got the codes to that satellite."

"Be glad it hasn't been shot down by America or the Russians. Yet."

Sly nodded in agreement. "They want it, that's why." He intertwined his forearm with Carmelita's, right at her elbow. "Thanks for everything, Mister B., I'll bring her back unscathed when this blows over. Take care of yourself and stay low just in case things get crazy again."

"I'll do that." He released Sly's paw and watched them get to their feet. They exchanged brief pleasantries then he watched as Sly and Carmelita left his office. They closed the door to his small room.

The aging chief sighed with a shake of his head. "God I hope those two realize just how much danger they're getting themselves back into by not walking away from all of this."

"You did really well, Barkley," said a woman. She stood up from beneath his desk, with a pistol trained on him. "You don't understand… things are quite complicated right now. I need those two involved and I know you would have forbid her because she's a few months pregnant. But I need those two. And if you tell them anything, I'll be back to pull the trigger at our next meeting." Cleopatra kept the weapon trained on him while backing up to his office window. "You did a fine acting job, by the way. I'm glad you let her take that extended maternity leave."

"Like I had a choice," growled the older man. "Just get out of my office. I should have you arrested for pointing a weapon at a law officer."

"I'd kill you in a heartbeat," said replied proudly. "You won't do anything unless I tell you to do it. Now, continue to be a good boy for me; do everything I tell you to do just like before. If you stay out of my way and stay out of Carmelita Cooper's way… just like last season… then you'll be fine and she'll walk away from all of this relatively unscathed. Comprendé?"

He sighed with a huff. "Fine. Just leave. I didn't hinder Carmelita last time you forced me into this situation and I won't again. You're not going to make me assign her to some remote island in the middle of nowhere again, are you?"

"No, this time you're just lying low and giving her an extended paid vacation. I'm keeping my eye on you so don't even pretend to tell anyone about our arrangements."

"Listen, I played your game last time… have some faith in me; I've done enough to earn your damn trust by now," said Barkley with a shake of his head. "Now… get out of my office."

She dove through the window behind him and was gone in a flash. After things got quiet for a moment, he turned around in his large swivel chair only to find the window was still ajar. He swallowed with a sigh and shook his head. "If that woman gets my protégé killed, I'll hunt her down the old fashion way. So help me, God."

A/N: I have several reasons for jumping forward in time so suddenly. For one, I don't want to reveal everything about what happened in Moscow yet. xD

That gets a flashback scene! TWO! Another flashback will lead up to the conception of Carmen and the wedding of Sly and Carmelita. Yes, I'll write it. I don't write many weddings, y'know?

Also, we see why Chief Barkley gave Carmelita the assignment back at the beginning of the story! Because Cleo forced his paw. More on that later. Just know that she's doing it again.

I'm sorry it's taken so long to get back to this story. Things have been busy, y'know? I'm touring with a Japanese Rock Band who play in the Visual Kei genere; they needed a drummer after their dude quit. I'm still playing with my other two bands and… it's been busy. After John Settino passed in April, I had decided to take a short break from StarFox. For those of you who didn't follow my Reflections of Regret story or don't follow me on FaceBook ( "Kit Karamak" ) and have no idea what I'm talking about, he was my best friend and the guitarist of my old band, A BREAK IN CHAOS. Anyway, he was also a fan of my Reflections stories involving Marcus McCloud. He passed from Cystic Fibrosis at the age of 24.

So anyway, being a single dad, a gamer, in three bands, recording and touring, maintaining a relationship and re-reading through the Sly Cooper trilogy has been a SUMMER-LONG EVENT. My bad! That's the longest hiatus I've ever taken from writing and it was AWFUL. Writing is my outlet! By taking a summer away from what I love to do the most… my metabolism got jacked up, my brain turned to mush, I'm unable to focus… I have too much stuff I need to get out of my head. LOL

Seriously, though, I hate not writing. I won't do THAT ever again. D:

Anyone who is still reading this story… THANK YOU! I appreciate it!

Sorry if I made you re-read stuff to catch up. I suck, I know! I'll make it up to you somehow!