SLINGING THROUGH THE TREES

Job 2: Locked Up Loose

Sly leaves the safehouse and jumps into the trees. No matter which vine he chooses, he still slides backwards; all the ones that lead to the treetops are too slippery for him to climb. And he doesn't care to deal with that right now, anyway. To save energy, Sly goes for the roofs. He takes a moment to pocket a wallet here, a small bronze pendant there, as he crosses the area, leaps, and lands on the Mission Start position across the street from the fancy building.

He pulls out his binoc-u-com. "I'd love to get you in there, pal, but let's face it: you're the one who can hack."

"An efficient observation, but that's not what you'll be doing right now," Bentley says. He adjusts his glasses. "Besides, that computer isn't even on."

"Uh," Sly says, and fiddles with his cane. "I would've noticed that eventually."

"Uh-huh. In any case, while that is clearly the most secure location in this area, there are numerous locations that are somewhat less secure." Waypoints appear around the area; Sly turns his binoc-u-com a little to the right, and zooms in on one building with a combination lock for a door handle. "I'd like you to investigate those."

"I'm on it."

With that, Sly puts his binoc-u-com away and leaps down to the street. He has to wait for a patrol to pass before he grabs the combination lock. "It's been a while since I've done one of these," he murmurs. "By slowly rotating the analog stick, I can turn the lock. When it vibrates, I need to switch directions." He lets his eyes half-close, almost lazily, as he does it; doing this by feel is easier than by sight.

In no time at all, the door cracks open, and Sly is inside.

To be perfectly honest, the room is rather underwhelming.

Okay, fine. So there's laser security around the walls and on the floor, and there's a spotlight in one corner focused on a priceless piece of artwork Sly would love to have on his wall, and a guard snoring in the center of the room, pocket all aglow.

So, of course, Sly has to empty the contents of the guard's pockets. There's a fair number of coins in there... and a key. How positively useful. And there's a spot in the wall to slip the key into, so Sly does, and turns it...

Absolutely nothing. Terrific. Good use of that key, Sly.

But there's nothing else in here—well, besides the painting in the spotlight, which may as well be taunting him at this point—so Sly slips out again.

There are three other buildings with waypoints over them; Sly makes his way to the next, near the river. The combination lock on this one takes a few extra moments to bypass: he half-closes his eyes and navigates it by feel alone, then eases the door open and makes his way in.

This room is... also underwhelming. Spotlights move around the edges, each in a different pattern: circle, triangle, square, sometimes overlapping, sometimes not. A guard traverses the center of the room in a zig-zag, the spotlights ignoring his existence. Another spotlight hangs from the ceiling, but, strangely, it's off. If it were on, it would be pointed at a painting on the far side of the room.

In the wall by the door is another keyhole.

So, Sly must need to pickpocket this guard. Clearly.

Avoiding the spotlights, and the guard's flashlight, means that this pickpocketing job takes about twice as long as it really should. Sly is almost sick of it when he finally retrieves, not only the guy's keys, but also his wallet and a fancy leather bookmark styled as a whip. With that done, he retreats to the keyhole and puts the key in. Turns it.

Nothing happens. Not a thing.

"Check out that painting before you leave, Sly," Bentley mutters in his ear. "I don't know why the spotlight is off, but it's worth investigating."

Investigating indeed.

Sly creeps his way over to it and, upon pressing the circle button to examine it, removes it from the wall to discover double-dial lock behind it: two combination locks that he has to deal with at the same time, one hand on each like one thumb to each control stick, and he turns them both smooth as can be until, with a click, they slide into the wall.

A faint buzzing noise can be heard as Sly exits the building, leaps on top of it, and pulls out his binoc-u-com. Bentley points his attention to the computer in front of the fancy building: "It's got power now, Sly. Not enough to turn on, but a bit. I bet turning the key in one building turns off the spotlight in another."

"So, which building controls which other spotlight?" Sly asks.

"Of that, I am uncertain. You'll have to experiment to discover the answer."

"So... keep going until I've gotten all the keys and dealt with all the paintings."

"That is an accute summation."

All right. On to the next one! The place he previously investigated has a waypoint on it again, but Sly ignores that for now. Instead, he makes his way back towards the safehouse, where the fourth building is locked closed. It takes him only moments to spin this lock open and duck inside.

"Be careful in here, Sly," mutters Bentley in his ear. "See that colored orb? That's a motion detector- if you move, or make any sound, while in range they'll... well, they'll do something. They unleash a nearly-undetectable haze in the area they work; purple will fry you to a crisp, while mud-green will only summon every guard in a ten mile radius."

Sly focuses his binoc-u-com on the motion detector in the center of the room. It emits a hazy field, like static on television, that he can only see because of his thief training. Purple. Naturally. "So, I just have to stay away from it?"

"That's the idea."

Not hard, really. The thing is in the center of the room, sure, but the guard Sly has to pickpocket is strolling around the edges, bored out of his skull. No spotlights, no lasers, no challenge.

And there's another painting on the wall that should have a spotlight on it, but doesn't. Sly moves it to the side, spins the combination locks, pauses for a brief cutscene of the computer getting more power, and picks the guard's pocket. Put it in the next keyhole, and he's out.

Sly takes advantage of all the roofs and hanging vines to darn near swing, tarzan-style, to the next house he needs: a small hovel near the edge of town. He stops scarcely a step in.

Get too close to a purple motion detector and get fried to a crisp, Bentley said. Well, there are darn near a dozen in this room. The guard he needs is passed out, snoring, right by the painting, but getting there... oof.

Several sections of the floor are strictly off-limits. There are tables he can stand on-and it seems the spheres can't detect motion through tables-and support pillars he can climb, spire-jump lights hanging from them, but he has to keep an eye out for the ceiling fan. It has a sphere dangling from it, making its slow, lazy way around the room.

Sly hates it when security comes up with new things. Wait, no, that's a lie, because he loves smirking at the looks (real or imagined) when he gets past it. It's Bentley who hates-wait, no, that's not right either, because much as Bentley grumbles he takes a truly amazing amount of pride in figuring out how their gang can subvert it.

What Bentley hates is how Sly will, inevitably, do something profoundly stupid at least once with every piece of technology.

So he's just sitting at the other end of the coms, watching the monitors and checking his computer and chewing on his lower lip, as Sly, for once, doesn't do anything stupid. He makes his way around the room, and pickpockets the guard. Then he removes the painting from the wall, and uses both hands to unlock both combination locks by feel.

Unfortunately when he completes opening the locks and returns to put the key in the keyhole, a new motion detector device pops out. This is a green one, and an ear piercing alarm goes off.

"Get out of there, Sly!" Sly doesn't need Bentley in his ear to know that much. He hightails it out of the building, and onto the roof.

Sly pulls out his binoc-u-com and finds Bentley waiting for him, frantic. "Now you've done it, buddy." Bentley waves his arms. "It looks like every guard in the village heard that. They're all on their way to check the houses you've been investigating!"

"But don't I have to go back to that one?" Sly asks. He pans the view around to see guards everywhere, flashlight guards especially, running at top speed.

"Yep. You'd better hurry; if you wait around, there's no telling how many guards will show up."

"Thanks for the advice." Sly tucks his binoc-u-com away and goes running.

You know, there are times when it's good to be a thief: to use rooftops, to run along vines and ropes, to land on tiny points and jump straight off. There are also times when it doesn't matter, because there's something like six flashlight guards and a dozen rooftop guards swarming every building. Sly only gets back in the first building by winning a small brawl.

Luckily, there's not much change inside. Still the laser security on the floor. Still only one guard, though he's now wide awake and alert. Still a painting on the wall... but no more spotlight pointed at it.

Sly slips past the guard, moves the painting, and deals with the lock.

The alarm stops.

"That does it, Sly. The computer's powered up and ready to go."

JOB COMPLETE

Sly slips out the door and runs off the Job Complete screen before the guards can catch up.