Chapter 5

Words Written in a Book

At the old theater, or the Cooper Gang headquarters, there was good mood floating through the air. They had just retrieved the first part of Carmelita's soul, her book of knowledge. Even before Sly, Bentley, or Murray could put a foot into the theater, Blain went onto the theaters old stage. He had pulled out a piece of chalk, and was drawing something on the stage. Sly, Bentley, or Murray couldn't tell what it was, but it was elaborate none the less.

It had been an hour since the gang had returned to the old theater. Over the course of that time Murray had cooked some dinner, and while Sly and Bentley ate Murray took a plate down to Blain. It was now three hours since the gang had returned, and Blain was still in the theater. Finally, Sly's curiosity got the better of him and he went down to see what Blain was doing. When Sly arrived, Blain was just standing up from the stage, a smile on his face. Sly moved up beside Blain, and looked at the diagram on the floor as he said, "What's this for?"

Blain just smiled as he said, "This will let us find out where the next piece of Carmelita's soul is, and one other thing."

"What's the other thing?"

Blain just smiled as he said, "You will just have to wait and see. Now, step back a bit. This spell needs a little room to work." Sly nodded his head, and took a few steps back on the stage while Blain moved to the center of the stage. He reached the top of the diagram, and looked over his work one final time. Around the edge of the diagram, at every corner, there was a small bowl with oil in it. In the center of the diagram, Carmelita's Book of Knowledge sat propped open. Blain nodded his head, seeing that everything was correct before he bent down, and placed a single hand on the diagram."

Sly watched as Blain's eyes began to glow a bright white, and the symbol on the floor started to glow a bright blue. The small bowls of oil caught fire, and Carmelita's book of knowledge began to rise up, into the air. The book began to spin, and Sly saw four strings of red light form between the book and the edges of the diagram. Suddenly, things began to appear at the ends of the strings. They were like ghosts, holograms of objects. The four items were a clock, a diamond, a statue, and a medallion.

The four items drew closer to Carmelita's book of knowledge, and then seemed to fuse into it. The book began to glow, and the pages began to flip back and forth, from front to back and back to front. As this happen, Sly heard Blain shout at the top of his lungs, "Let the ties between the pieces be strengthened, let us know where the next piece is hidden. Let the book of knowledge be the storage, be the hub. Let my power flow into the book, and give it the power to use the connections between the pieces, let the connections be strengthened, and let her mind be awakened."

As Blain said the last part of the incantation, the book of knowledge flashed. The light was blinding, and Sly had to cover his eyes. When the light was gone, Sly lowered his hand from his eyes and saw everything had disappeared except for Blain and Carmelita's book of knowledge. Blain stood up, and moved over to the book. He gently picked the large tome up, and flipped through the pages a few times. Finally, he smiled as he turned toward Sly, and began to walk towards him. Sly looked at the book, and saw that all the writing had disappeared. All that was left, in the entire book for that matter, was a single black rectangle on the right hand side of each page.

Blain handed the book over to Sly, and he turned it over and stared at the rectangle. Sly watched the rectangle, and swore he saw something move inside the black image. Suddenly, something began to take shape in the blackness. It was somebody, and Sly thought the shape seemed familiar. The shape continued to get clearer, and more of the image came into view. The image remained in black and white, but Sly almost dropped the book when he saw what had appeared in the rectangle. It was Carmelita. She was looking the other way, her back to them, but Sly could still tell it was Carmelita.

Blain took the book from Sly, and pulled a pen out of his pocket. He clicked the pen, and wrote something in the book. Sly watched as the ink disappeared as Blain wrote it, and then almost jumped when he saw words appear on the page. They read, "What was that?" Sly then saw Carmelita turn around in the image, and seem to look at Blain. Her eyes then moved over to Sly, and Sly just stared in disbelief. Common to Carmelita's style, she pulled out her Shock Pistol and began to loose shots at Sly.

As the many shock pistol shoots hit the window that seemed to lock Carmelita in the book, Blain looked up at Sly and said, "Using my magic, I have reestablished the communication between the five pieces of Carmelita's soul. As we gather more, I can strengthen the bonds. Right now, Carmelita's mind and soul are in the world created by the book. Since we only have the book of knowledge, the only way anyone outside the book can communicate with Carmelita is through written words. Also, the rectangle, the window into the world of the book, is like an old recording. Her world is in color, but we can only see it in black and white. It is also the same when she sees you. There is no color, only an old style black and white picture."

Sly continued to stare at the book, his mind frozen up. Finally, he was able to say, "So, I can at least talk to her."

"You can write to her, but basically yes. Now, try to tell her what's happened. I need to go rest, and then I will have to work with Bentley to pinpoint the location of Carmelita's Statue of Will Power. Once we know its location, we can retrieve it." Blain then closed the book, and handed it to Sly before he walked past Sly and toward the stairs that lead to the theaters dorm rooms. Blain was about to go up the stairs when he looked over at Sly and said, "Sly, you can talk to Carmelita by writing underneath the picture frame. If you write on the left side of the page next to the picture, you can actually create things in her world. Try making a home for her. Even when the cover is closed Carmelita still lives inside that book, and right now all her world is made of is black abyss with a window to this world hovering in mid air. It isn't the kind of place I would like to spend several weeks in."

Without another word Blain looked away from Sly and slowly walked up the stairs that lead to theater's dorms. Sly stood on the stage for a few minutes, staring down at the book. Finally, Sly gently tucked the book under he arm and he went up to the theater's dorms. When he walked into the room that served as the Cooper gang's kitchen, dinning room, and living room he saw Murray cleaning up from dinner while Bentley sat at his computer, Blain looking over his shoulder at the computer screen.

Sly passed through the living room without a word to the others and head for the back wall of the living room. He moved towards the door on the far left and slowly opened. Sly stepped through the door and into his room before gently shutting the door. The room was a mixture of a bed room and a study. In the back corner of the room a simple bed with a dark blue blanket and a pair of white pillows. In the opposite corner, backed against the wall, a simple work desk was pushed up against the wall. The desk was cluttered with a few papers, a lamp, and very short pedestal that held Sly's most precious treasure, the Thievius Raccoonus. Other items in the room included an end table with a lamp and an alarm clock, A small book case with roughly a hundred books filling its shelves, a dresser, a door that lead to small walk in closet, and pictures filling the wall over the desk, and Sly's cane that sat in the corner. .

Sly moved over to the desk. He brushed a few of the papers off the desk and into the nearby trash bin before he set Carmelita's book of knowledge down on the now clean desk. Sly took a seat in the rolling chair beside the desk and looked down at the book that now set before him. Sly couldn't believe it. In that little book was everything that was his all time favorite Interpol officer, Carmelita. Her entire life, her entire world was now contained within the pages of the book, and Blain had trusted him to tell her everything that had happened. It was going to be a long night.

Sly slid his chair away from the desk a moment and dug through the few drawers before he found a pencil. He searched for a few more minutes and found the small, hand held pencil sharpener. Sly sharpened the pencil gently and then put the sharpener back in the drawers before he slid the chair back up to the desk. Sly paused for a second, the pencil held tightly his right hand and his left hand resting on the book. Could he stand seeing Carmelita like this, a living picture in a book? Sly shook his head, he had to. Until they stole back all the pieces of Carmelita's soul, Carmelita would be stuck like this. Sly intended to make the whole experience as bearable as he could for Carmelita.

Finally, with a deep breath Sly opened the book. He let the cover flap down on the desk, and the pages in the book turned by themselves until it got to the page that Carmelita was on. Carmelita was walking around in the picture frame, looking around. Her tail was twitching violently, indicating she was getting annoyed. Sly bit his lip, debating if he should wait a while until Carmelita had calmed down. Sly then shook his head, Carmelita wouldn't calm down. She would just get more aggravated. Sly made his decision, and gently reached out with the pencil and wrote out the message, "Carmelita?"

Sly paused a second, holding his pencil on the paper before he gently pulled it away. The words hung on the page for a second, and then disappeared. Sly watched as Carmelita suddenly began to look around. She then turned and looked through the image in the book and at Sly. Sly looked away from the image and at the bottom of the page. Slowly, deep black pen marks spelled out, "All right Ringtail, you got five seconds to tell me what going on before I introduce you to my old friend and your old enemy, the Shock pistol."

Sly gently wrote out, "Do you want the long version or the short version?"

Carmelita raised her eyebrow, and then the words, "Short version Cooper. The last thing I remember is that Cajun crocodile, Mz. Ruby, stuffing something down my throat."

"That was something called the Soul Splitter potion. Carmelita, tell me what you can see right now."

Carmelita turned her head, and then looked back at Sly, "All I can see is black except for this floating window in front of me where I can see a giant, annoying raccoon."

Sly chuckled to himself, and then began to tell Carmelita everything that had happened. By the time he was done, Sly had writers cramp in his right hand, and Carmelita was staring at him from inside the book in disbelief. Sly leaned back in his chair, trying to massage the pain out of his right hand while Carmelita stood there motionless. It was all too much to take in, but Sly had to be telling the truth. It explained why she was alone in the black void except for window that floated in mid air and showed Sly sitting in his desk, in a room that Carmelita guessed was his bedroom. What surprised Carmelita the most was that Sly was trying to hard to get her back to normal. It would just be so easy for him to let her body lie in a coma. It would make stealing so much easier. Carmelita then thought about it, Sly lived for the challenge. Making things easier wasn't in his style. He made something just barley possible, and then got his trill out cracking a security system or safe.

Finally, after a few quite moments Sly noticed that words had appeared at the bottom of the page. Sly leaned forward, and read, "Sly, is everything you said true?"

Sly picked up his pencil that was now half its length, and gently wrote, "Yes, it is."

Carmelita shook her head, and the letter at the bottom of the page spelled out, "I need to lie down."

Sly paused a second, and then moved over to the left side of the page. Inside the book, Carmelita could hear the sound of a pencil scratching against a piece of paper. Suddenly, walls began to rise out of the blackness around her. Four walls rose up to make one large enclosed room. The blackness at Carmelita's feet suddenly changed into a soft, deep red carpet that covered the entire floor. The walls around the room suddenly became painted in a crimson red and solid wood ceiling appeared above Carmelita's head. On the roof, a beautiful nature scene became painted out on the many panels on the wooden roof. A chain suddenly began to flow out of the center of the ceiling, and it lowered down until its end was a few feet away from the ceiling. At the end of the chain, metal began to flow out until he had created a very ornate frame. Diamonds and glass began to fill in the frame until a medium sized chandelier hung above the room. Electric lights appeared in the chandelier and the room was flooded with a bright, yet kind light.

Carmelita was in amazement, but the room continued to change. Against the back wall, a large four post bed rose out of the floor. The blanket, covers, and drapes that hung from the top of the beds four posts were all in different tones of red. In the back, right hand corner a door appeared and gently opened to show a large, but empty walk in closet. Against the left wall a few very comfortable looking chairs moved out of the wall with a bookcase piled high with books. On the right wall, a large set of dresser drawers rose out of the floor, and beside it a set of tall, standing mirrors shifted out of the wall. On the left wall, near the door that lead to the walk in closet another door appeared, and this one opened to show a large, extravagant bathroom with toilet, sink, standing shower, and a large bath with massaging water jets. As a final touch, against the front wall, two small tables rose out of the floor. Out of the tables vases filled with roses slowly rose into existence. In-between the two tables and vases a picture frame appeared that bordered the window that let Carmelita see out into the real world and Sly to see into hers.

Carmelita looked around the room a few times, her breath taken away by its beauty. She then noticed something out of the corner of her eye. There was something blue lying on the bed's red blanket. Carmelita moved over to the bed, and gently picked the object up. It was one of Sly's calling cards. She gently opened the card, and read the message written on its interior. It read, "If you need anything, all you have to do is ask. You are trapped in there, but I intend to make you as comfortable as possible."

Carmelita looked up from the calling card and over at the picture frame that now bordered the window that let her see Sly. Carmelita blushed a bit, and smiled. In the real world, Sly was admiring his work through the image in the book. He had basically described every part of Carmelita's new bedroom on the left side of the page. Now, his hand was num, and he was rubbing it when he noticed two words appear at the bottom of the page. Sly read the words a few times, and then smiled. The letters had spelled out in a very light, pencil like set of marks, "Thanks Ringtail."

Sly nodded his head, and then watched as Carmelita lay down on the bed and fall asleep. Sly picked up his pencil one last time, and wrote a few more words on the left side of the page. In world of the book, a dimmer light switch appeared beside the door to the bathroom that controlled the chandelier. Sly used his words to turn the lights down in Carmelita's room to a very dim, calming glow before he moved back to the right side of the page and wrote, "Goodnight Carmelita."

With that Sly shut the Carmelita's book of knowledge, and set it in the center of his desk. He rubbed his hands a few times. He better get used to the pain, he would be doing a lot more writing now that the only way he could talk to Carmelita involved using a pencil or a pen. Sly stood up from his chair, stretching out before he shut his bedroom lights of a flopping down on his bed. Sly took his hat off and expertly tossed it onto his desk. He slipped his shoes off and took his shirt off before he got under the covers and laid his head on the pillow. Sly sighed, and stared up at the ceiling as he said, "I will get you out of there Carmelita, just you wait." With that Sly's eyes began to grow heavy, and he fell asleep.

Back in the living room, Blain and Bentley were still pouring over the computer. Bentley was typing furiously as Blain repeated all the information he knew about the location of the Carmelita's Statue of Will Power. Finally, Bentley smiled as he said, "Got it."

Blain looked at the computer screen as he said, "You found the statue."

Bentley nodded his head, "Yep and you won't believe this but Carmelita's Medallion of Conscience is with it."

Blain scratched his head in confusion, "That is strange, but then again Mz. Ruby doesn't always do the smart thing. She must really trust this guy to give him two pieces. Oh well, makes our job easier."

Bentley typed a few things on the computer as he said, "It does make our job easier, but the statue and medallion will still be hard to get a hold of."

Blain looked at the screen, "Where exactly are they."

Bentley struck the enter key, and then pointed at a map on the screen as he said, "It is a in a new boom town in Texas called Silver Ridge. It was founded just a few years ago when a local Texas Longhorn crime boss by the name of Two Ton Tom discovered a large vein of silver in the neighboring cliffs. The town is a real old west town. Two Ton Tom owns all the land for ten miles around, and he keeps any new companies from coming in. He won't even let telephone lines into Silver Ridge. He makes the residents use an ancient Telegraph station. This is a kind of town Tennessee Kid Cooper would steal from back in the day."

Blain looked at the image on the screen, and then smiled as he said, "Well then, maybe its time for Tennessee Kid Cooper to pull one final job."