AN ICE SURPRISE
Job 9: Putting On Airs
Sly crawls out of the drainpipe into the central compound, stands, and stretches. Through the drainpipe echoes the words, "This is so humiliating."
Sly turns back to the drainpipe and grins. "Hey, whatever gets the job done."
"This had better not get back to Interpol," Carmelita mutters, emerging from the drainpipe. She brushes down her clothes and shakes her head. "I'll never live it down."
"It won't get back to Interpol, I told you already," Sly says. "Come on. It should be Thaddeus and Murray back at the safe-house, where's our objective?"
Both of them take out their binoc-u-com's to see Bentley waiting for them. "Don't ask," he says, the picture of irritation. "I... just don't."
Carmelita makes a little humming noise. "No Tennessee?"
"I said drop it."
Sly laughs a little. "Okay, buddy, where are we going?"
"Your objective is that aircraft hanger," Bentley says, and the binoc-u-com focuses in on it. "As long as that statue processing plant is working, why, who knows what terrible things will happen? Plus, destroying it will help us lure out our target later."
Sly and Carmelita put their binoc-u-com's away. Play proceeds as Sly. Carmelita grumbles the entire time they move, avoiding the sparse patrols, about how illegal this is and how it better not get back to Interpol... not that it will. That would expose Sly as well, after all.
The door to the hangar is closed with a rotating lock. Carmelita keeps watch while Sly works on it, rotating it slowly this way and that. It opens with a click at last, and the two make their way inside.
Bentley's voice returns to their ears: "We need to destroy the statue processing plant. Steal a plane, then fly it, and use the attached weaponry to take out the building I have marked."
"Oh, this is gonna be fun," Sly chuckles.
"So who's gonna fly?" Carmelita asks, staring at the sleek two-seater plane, a cross between the biplanes of game 3 and a fighter jet. "And who's gonna shoot?"
"You've flown helicopters before," Sly says. "I've done a biplane. And we're both experienced gunners. What would you prefer?"
Carmelita hums for a moment, then gets in the gunner's seat. "I suppose I'm feeling violent."
Sly chuckles. "Wouldn't have it any other way."
As the two climb into their respective seats, the scene changes, showing the building from above. With a low-pitched rumble, part of the building collapses in on itself; the plane flies out, gun's a blazing. "Told you we wouldn't need Bentley's help," Carmelita says.
"Tennessee would be proud," Sly replies. "Let's do this."
"I've put waypoints on the buildings and parts of the compound you need to destroy," Bentley says. "But be careful, they're already launching more planes to shoot you down!"
That they are. The two of them have a number of targets: a few buildings outside of the compound that Bentley's identified as guard's barracks; the air base they stole the plane from; and the statue-developing facility. And yes, indeed, there are other planes.
Bentley guides them through a quick tutorial on how to fly: X button to turbo boost, but otherwise just use the joystick to move around. R1 shoots the guns. L1, if held down, charges up a laser that can be released to fire instantly. Each building will require a few laser shots to destroy.
The other planes, on the other hand, can be shot down willy-nilly, and that's just what Carmelita does. She's Interpol's crack shot for a reason, after all, even if it does take her a bit of trouble figuring out how to deal with the lasers at the same time. She grumbles at Sly often, telling him things we've all heard before: "Hold still!" "If you keep messing up my aim, we'll never get this done!" and, of course, "Would you stop saying 'Pew pew' when I fire my lasers?"
Okay, that last one is new. Sly laughs. "All right, fine," he says, as the first building goes up in smoke. "I'll stop."
"Good."
Only, as Sly executes a few good turns and Carmelita lasers the second building, Sly makes "Va-wooooooooom," noises.
"Sly!"
"It wasn't 'pew pew'."
Carmelita almost growls as they blow up another building. "Don't make me shoot you too, Sly."
"But then you wouldn't have anyone to fly the plane."
"You think I can't do two things at once?"
Bentley interrupts with, "Would you two stop flirting?"
"That wasn't flirting," they both chorus.
"Right. Look, they're launching more planes, and it looks like they've got some new weaponry. You'll have to either dodge the loops or have Carmelita shoot them and fly through the middle, Sly."
It's a good thing Sly's a good pilot, and Carmelita's a good shot... and those loops are really big. Big enough that shooting them and flying through the center is actually easier than trying to avoid them. Between that and the other planes (and their slow-moving bullets) Carmelita has to shoot down, the two of them are kept well on their toes.
It doesn't last long, however. Soon enough, the pair of them have taken out all the buildings. "Nice shooting, we're almost ready for the heist."
JOB COMPLETE
The plane does a loop-de-loop, then flies off, as Sly and Carmelita go to store it nearby. Just in case.