Chapter 5
One positive to Carmelita's new outfit was temperature. While it was still fairly early in October, it became colder with the wind and rain combination she was facing. She was also sure that Bentley made some modifications to the suit so it would keep the water out. How he managed to make something functional, and comfortable when Interpol didn't really bother much was a topic she planned to discuss with him after the heist. For now, she had a mission to accomplish.
Carmelita felt a buzz from her satchel, and checked to see what it was. She was quick to notice that it was her binocucom, and she could already guess who was calling. As soon as she raised the device to her eyes, Bentley began chatting with her, "Hey Carmelita. Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear Specs," Carmelita replied, earning a sigh from the turtle over the nickname.
"Okay. I'll be your guide throughout the vault," Bentley explained, "I'll need you to listen to me as you go."
"Got it," Carmelita began approaching the vault carefully, "What's first?"
(Later)
To say that the Cooper vault was highly secure was an understatement. Were it not for Bentley's advice on maneuvering through the traps, it would've made Fort Knox look like a broken safe in her eyes. Not that it was much easier to make it in the inner chamber as the process was still a nightmare. Something she should've expected from the vault belonging to a lineage of master thieves. Although there were a couple times where she challenged herself a little unnecessarily just because it felt fun.
Eventually the vixen made her way to the main storage room where the item she was looking for was said to be located. Thankfully the whole process was familiar to her as she did a few tests of her building's security when she was still an officer. She was told to obtain a specific item from the main room, and only said item. However, she wasn't told what the item was, only that it was hidden to those who haven't read the Thieveous Raccoonus. Which in her mind meant that it would probably be hidden in a fake.
As she began looking around, she noticed a whole bunch of small statues which formed a circle. Each statue was the likeness of Sly's different ancestors, and was large enough to be carried in a backpack. This included Rioichi, Tennessee, Henrietta, and many others. All of the statues had a large base that they all stood on. However, one of which stood out since she didn't recognize the face of the statue before. Carmelita walked up to the mystery man statue, and said, "Is this it?"
Bentley gave an almost immediate reply over the binocucom, "Depends. Do you see something that looks like it could be a container?"
Before the heist started, Bentley did inform her on what she was meant to be looking for.
At first Carmelita began to doubt her choice, but then a realization hit her, "Wait. I got this."
Suddenly, Carmelita remembered her studies of the Thieveous Raccoonus. It was page 46 of the book which delved into Emilie de Coup's guide to finding hidden compartments. Step 1: Check the base to see if it's a simple block stand. Step 2: Check the size of the base to see if it's big enough to store anything. Step 3: Check the surface of the base for any hidden switch. Thankfully she was able to She checked off each step as she went along until finally, she found what she was looking for. The base of the statue had storage hidden inside it.
"Got it," she said as she opened up the base after finding the hidden switch.
As she looked inside the base's hidden storage compartment, she found two small items. These appeared to be in the same shape as Sly's cane only the handles were smaller. The hooks also appeared to have a switch on the handles which Carmelita assumed to be for a grappling function. Through her comm, she asked Bentley while examining the items, "Is this it?"
All Carmelita got in response was silence, which she knew from her training on both sides of the law was a bad sign. Even though this was a practice heist, she still felt the rush of fear when a plan goes wrong. However her concerns shifted when she heard a hidden voice say, "Looks like you found your prize after all."
As she looked around for the source of the voice, Carmelita found Sly standing behind her with his cane over his shoulder. There was clear confusion on the vixen's face as to why Sly was there. She figured that he wasn't around to let her know that she succeeded since he was here at the end of the heist. Once again, Sly settled her confusion as he spoke again.
"Now it's time to test how your combat skills have been. Use those cane hooks to see if you can take me down in one last fight. If you do that, you pass. But just so you know, I won't go easy on you."
When he finished talking, he got into a defensive stance, and readied for a fight. That was when Carmelita realized what this part of the training was. She was getting a lesson in escaping when caught. Odd since the whole goal was to be subtle but it made sense to test how one can handle themselves in a situation like this. Either way, it was a lesson she wasn't getting out of.
Eager to succeed, Carmelita readied her new weapons, and said, "Bring It ringtail."
(Later)
Thankfully, Carmelita's training in hand to hand combat paid off for her. It was a fairly tough fight but eventually Carmelita came out on top. Quite literally since the bout ended with her pinning the raccoon to the ground. Both were panting heavily, and there was a long drawn out silence. This was only broken once Sky began to smile and said, "Congrats Carmelita. You passed. Consider yourself officially on the team."
Needless to say, Carmelita was in disbelief for a second. She worked so hard to prove herself worthy to her new job. In fact, she had actually worked harder in her training to become a thief even more than training to catch one. And now it sounds like the training has ended, and she feels more accomplished than when she got her job as an Interpol inspector. But the only way she was able to express the feeling of accomplishment was with her asking as if still stunned, "I passed?"
Still pinned to the ground, Sly replied once again, "That's right miss Fox. And you can keep the hooks. You deserve them."
Carmelita finally jumped off of Sly, and began cheering excitedly. This allowed Sly to get back on his feet for a few seconds. However after those few seconds, he was almost tackled again when his girlfriend started hugging him. He figured that she'd be excited but he'd never seen her be this happy before. After a few seconds passed by, Carmelita looked him in the eye, and said, "Thank you so much."
"Of course mi corazon," Sly replied as he kissed her on the lips.
Carmelita eventually settled down, and suddenly a wave of exhaustion washed over her. While she was happy that she passed, she remembered how grueling her training was. And her body decided to remind her of the aches from how hard she'd worked. Which was why as soon as she finished celebrating, Sly ended up having to carry her to her bed. Not that she could really complain about that though.
As they sat on the bed, Carmelita began talking again, "I expected you to see if I could escape just as easily."
Sly shrugged, "Normally we would. But I wanted to know if you could handle yourself in a fight with new weapons."
Carmelita smiled and gave a light chuckle, "Well I spent a lot of time watching you throughout the years."
"Yeah," Sly nodded, "And most escapes aren't as smooth as they look."
"You do realize almost every escape I've seen you make hasn't been smooth right?" Carmelita reminded him.
Sly shrugged once more, "Well sometimes you need to be creative."
Carmelita amusedly scoffed at the remark as she remembered all of Sky's heists that she tracked. Whilst hunting him down when she was an Inspector, she started with tracking his past jobs to find a familiar pattern. Only to find that they all ended up having close connections with the criminal world, and that the major ones hardly ever end with a clean escape. Then there was the last few that she actually became a helpful resource and leaving those moments unscathed was even rarer. But of course, those were moments to think about another time.
For now, there was only one thought on Carmelita's mind, "So where's our first mission?"
"Easy my lovely vixen," Sly answered with a little amused chuckle, "You need to be patient before rushing off into a heist. It takes time."
Carmelita pouted slightly, but she decided to let it go for now. She still couldn't wait for the next mission when she gets to officially start her thieving career. While she was speculating what it could be, Sly was having a discussion with Bentley and Murray as to how well she performed. Unfortunately she couldn't catch everything that they were talking about since she was very tired. Eventually she fell asleep dreaming about what her first mission would be.
Meanwhile,
Barkley couldn't help but feel a sense of emptiness at the precinct. There wasn't really anything noticeably different around the building from any other day. People were working as usual, criminals were being brought through as usual, and officers were conversing with each other as usual. Not that it was really that big of a mystery. Especially when he had bandaging wrapped around his head because of his last encounter with one of his finest inspectors which also served as a reminder for why it felt more empty.
Carmelita was certainly a force to be reckoned with at Interpol. She didn't make too many friends, especially since half of the place called her 'Ironsides', but she had always believed in upholding the law. And she actually held the record for most arrests ever made by an officer their first year. She was a fantastic example of what an officer should have been, much like her father. But all it took for his superiors was one flaw, and her career was finished, along with all of the men flirting with her.
Truthfully, Barkley actually had a lot of respect for Carmelita, and he tried to convince his bosses that she didn't need to be let go. He thought that it felt a little unfair to fire her just because of one guy, but it wasn't like he could do much since the one guy just had to be Sly Cooper. A few minutes later, he heard a knock on his office door. "Come in," he said as he snapped out of his thoughts.
Two officers walked in after Barkley allowed them to. The first was Carmelita's older brother Raoul who was from the office in Lyon. He changed locations a month before his little sister was let go, and whilst he heard rumor that Carmelita was fired, he hadn't let it affect his work so far. The second was a female lynx that Barkley hadn't met before. He didn't even know who she was until Raoul said, "This is Inspector Boudreaux here to see you."
"Thank you Raoul," Barkley said as Raoul left the office and closed the door behind him, "I take it you must be the new officer I was informed of."
"Oui monsieur," Boudreaux replied, "Camille Boudreaux. Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise," Barkley nodded, "Please sit."
Boudreaux did as instructed, and allowed Barkley to continue, "Are you familiar with the name Sly Cooper?"
Boudreaux nodded, "I think I came across him a couple of months back. Some sort of constable here, right?"
"Not exactly," Barkley explained, "The full story is that Cooper was a master thief who we had assumed to have amnesia. So we made him believe that he was one of us until we found out that he lied, and now we need to arrest him for good."
Boudreaux gave a confused glare, "Wait. You made him think he was an Interpol officer? Whose idea was that?"
"One of our former inspectors," Barkley answered as he handed Boudreaux the file on the aforementioned inspector, "Carmelita Fox."
Boudreaux's eyes widened with concern, "I've heard of her. Her father was a police officer as well, right?"
"Right," Barkley took a drink from the coffee mug on his desk, "Unfortunately, she was let go because of Cooper."
"That explains the rumors that I heard about her plans," Boudreaux muttered as she read Carmelita's file.
Barkley eyed his new inspector curiously, "What plans?"
Boudreaux closed the file, and looked to Barkley with worry, "Sir, I heard that she intended to kill you for firing her. Something about 'making that hijo de puta pay for destroying her career.'"
Barkley was more than shocked. Sure he knew that she was pissed that he fired her but to actually want to make an attempt on his life? The last thing he would expect was for her to try something like that. But then again, Carmelita isn't one who takes things not going her way very lightly. The whole time Sly was missing, she almost went on a rage bender because of how much she missed him.
Either way, it had Barkley greatly concerned, "T-Thank you inspector. I will brief you further on your assignment later. You are dismissed."
Boudreaux left the office before bumping into Raoul, who asked, "How did it go?"
"I think it went very well," Boudreaux replied with a smile.
(Author's note: Apologies for the brief hiatus. Muse was difficult, and time unwilling.)
