AN ICE SURPRISE
Job 2: Big Bentley's Watching
Bentley pulls gloves on over his gloves, adds an extra three layers of socks, puts another hat on under his helmet, and cleans his glasses before wheeling out the door. Bentley jumps his way onto the safe-house roof, pulls out his binoc-u-com, and looks around.
Not that there's much to see. Snow and ice and igloos, a giant wall and there, just visible in the binoc-u-com's zoom, the glint of a computer screen. "If it weren't so cold, this would be an enjoyable endeavour."
"Are you sure you're not going to enjoy it anyway?" Sly asks.
Bentley hmphs. "Aren't you going to cover the mission parameters for me?"
"I can't tell you anything you don't know," Sly says. "There are three computers controlling the cameras. Each one controls cameras in a different area. You'll hack the one closest to the safe-house first, then the one in the area turned off by the first cameras, and so forth."
"Yup."
"And you have me watching out because...?"
"As the cameras go out, they'll probably send out repairmen for the computers; they won't be able to do anything against my skills. But they'll increase guard patrols. I need you to keep an eye out."
"Gotcha."
Bentley puts away his binoc-u-com and glances around. Soaring above the igloos is a green waypoint, about four igloos down, marking the spot where the first computer lies. Bentley jumps and hovers his way over to it, avoiding the few guards in the area, and lands without a sound.
"You have been put to a vile purpose, young one," Bentley says, and cracks his knuckles. "Allow me to free you from your bonds."
With the clatter of keys and the flash of a LOADING screen, Bentley starts to hack. He finds himself relaxing as the lines of code surround him. There are lines upon lines of firewalls for him to get through; it's a literal maze of coding, with dead ends and walls everywhere. Bentley shoots out hacker code upon hacker code, finding dead ends and nothing useful on any of them, and has frankly almost exhausted his patience by the time he locates the switch to turn off the cameras and turns it.
"That was annoying," he mutters as he pushes away from the computer; a guard walks by without even caring. "Sly, the area where the cameras turned off should be highlighted on the screen."
"The section that just blinked from red to green, right? I see the computer there. You should have a waypoint... now." As Sly says the word, a waypoint blinks into existence a fair bit away. "Watch out for those extra guards."
"As if I'd forget," Bentley mutters, wheeling away from the computer. "Unlike some people, I pay attention to the slideshows and listen to what I'm told."
"You also make the slideshows."
"A minor technicality." Bentley hoists himself to the nearest rooftop with a grunt, ignoring Sly's chuckles. A quick survey of the area reveals that the second computer is between the compound wall and the ocean, a good distance away; Bentley starts towards it.
And immediately backtracks back to his nice, safe rooftop as a pack of flashlight guards tromp past. And then another one. All around him, smaller guards are jumping onto other rooftops; none of them appear to be alone. "This could be tricky," Bentley mumbles.
Boy, when Bentley said guard patrols would increase, he wasn't kidding. Not only are there many, many more patrols, but the smaller guards on the rooftops have all adopted the buddy system. Bentley takes to the streets, using sleepdarts to knock out guards and sneaking past, or taking his chances when a sleeping guard is discovered and the others trigger an alarm: they abandon their posts to investigate, leaving him a clear path.
The second computer is on the roof of one of the igloos, its power cord descending into the snow. Bentley leans back in his chair and cracks his knuckles, then hunches down over the keyboard. "Don't worry, my sweet. I'll put you to a better use."
With the flash of a LOADING screen, Bentley's in. The layout is... actually identical. Complete with firewalls. With two major differences.
The first: this time, he has to retrieve, and place, two keys. The keyholes and keys are naturally located at dead ends, of course. And at every other dead end... well, they're not quite dead ends now. Instead, they spawn slow-moving enemies.
They don't shoot. They don't lay bombs. There are just lots of them.
There are LOTS of them.
There are so. Many. Of. Them.
It wouldn't be anywhere near as hard if there weren't any around. As it is, Bentley's fingers start to get tired, shooting first in one direction, then another, trying to clear himself a way through all the firewalls and the nonstop stream of robot defenders.
At last, at last, Bentley slots the second key into place and turns off the defense systems. He wheels back from the computer and stretches. "Two down, one to go."
"You, uh, may have a couple difficulties getting to the last computer," Sly says in his ear, and Bentley turns.
That's a lot of guards. They're everywhere.
No, I'm serious, they're everywhere. Every few seconds, one bumps into another and they start a flurry of password-checking. Bentley wheels himself to the edge of the roof just in time to see one get trigger-happy and shoot another. Bentley pulls out his binoc-u-com. "I must admit, this is a bit more extreme than I was expecting," Bentley says.
"Can you even get to the last computer?" Sly asks, leaning into the camera.
Bentley focuses on the waypoint, all the way across the area. "It'll be tricky," he says. "I'd wait until they calm down, it should only be an hour or two until patrols go back to normal, but that'd give them time to reset the system."
"So, how are you going to get past them all?" Sly asks.
"I think distraction's my best chance here," Bentley says. "By using trigger bombs, I can lead the guards to various places, then sneak past them once they're distracted."
"Just be careful. If you get in a fight, it'll take the entire gang to get you back to the safe-house in one piece."
Bentley gulps. "Noted."
With that, Bentley puts his binoc-u-com away and takes out his trigger bombs. He waits several moments for a good time, leaps down, plants one, and jumps back to his perch. Then, at the best moment, he presses the button. BOOM.
Guards leap off rooftops; guards pound down the snowy streets, their flashlights bouncing. In seconds, twenty of them surround the small snowy crater where there once was a trigger bomb.
Bentley wheels for it. It'd be nice if he had a rocket booster or something else to help him go fast now, but that'd also be loud enough to attract guards' attention; instead, he moves as fast as his arms can propel him, across three rooftops and down a street. He sets up another trigger bomb before jumping to the roof there, just as the guards decide the first was a false alarm and return to carpeting the streets.
This one works just as well, but the second time he scrambles to a rooftop, there's still a guard there. Bentley has never used sleepdarts so fast. It works: the guard drops before sounding an alarm. Bentley breathes out a sigh of relief, heads to the streets below, and sets up another trigger bomb. Even with the best intentions, when this one goes off, it knocks out three guards.
"This is ridiculous," Bentley mutters as he keeps going. "I don't care what criminal mastermind is behind this, the guards are just getting in each others way."
"And yours," Sly adds.
"And mine," Bently grumbles. The computer is in sight, a mere twenty guards between him and it. "One more trigger bomb ought to clear the way, at least."
And it does. Bentley bounds off the roof and races to che computer. "It's just you and me," he croons to it. "Let's make this short and sweet."
With a clatter of keys and a LOADING screen, Bentley's in. It's the same maze as last time and the time before; looks like he's going to need two more keys. More firewalls. Same number of enemy-spawners.
Except now they're spawning enemies that shoot. Sure, they move slow, but there are at least as many of them as there were guards outside.
As Bentley navigates his way to the first key, shooting everything that moves, he mutters, "And I thought there was no such thing as overkill."
Guess you had to be proven wrong eventually, Bentley. Don't worry, it happens to everyone. Besides: he's weaving his little green car-thing through the twists of the maze, grabbing keys and shooting bad guys without being shot. Is it really overkill if it's still not enough to keep you out?
Well, it does take quite a while. Considering it's Bentley, I guess that's enough. At last, though, he slots the keys into place and moves his ship through the trigger that'll turn off the remaining cameras.
"That should do it," Bentley says, wiping his forehead. He turns away from the computer and looks around: guards still crowd every corner. "Though maybe it'd be easier to stay here until things calm down."
JOB COMPLETE
Bentley takes another look at all the guards, taps a few keys on his computer, and starts playing Solitaire.