After seeing that no one answered the door after almost a minute, Carmelita pounded on it again. Were they not home? She began to desperately look around. Maybe there was a spare key somewhere. The fox looked under the doormat and on top of the door frame but found nothing. Carmelita knocked on the door for the third time, but, as there was still no answer, she decided to think of another way to get into the safe house. The first thing that came into her mind was to kick the door down, but maybe that would be better as a last resort. She circled the hideout and tried looking through one of its big windows, but everything was dark, and she barely could see anything.
The vixen growled and grew impatient as she stared at the front of the building, looking for a way to get in without having to appeal to brute force. It was then that she noticed a gutter leading down from the roof. Carmelita put the book in her coat and climbed the pipe, making use of her great physical prowess. There were two skylights on the rooftop. The fox peeked through one of them and guessed it would be above the living room, though she couldn't see much. To her surprise, it was already open. Most probably because Sly used it a lot as an alternative entrance back when he lived there. Carmelita carefully went down the skylight, but, unfortunately, she landed on the tea table, knocking it down, along with the vase and glasses on it.
"Who's there?" asked Murray, startled, from his room. The hippo quickly got out of bed and turned the light on.
"It's me, it's me." The fox raised her hand as she got up. Luckily, she wasn't hurt.
"Carmelita? What are you doing?" he asked while rubbing his eyes.
"Murray. Murray, I think I've found him. I think I've found Sly."
The hippo was still slightly asleep, but Carmelita's words made him open his eyes wide. "What?!" he gasped. "Bentley!" Murray rushed into his friend's room. "Bentley, wake up!" The hippo couldn't contain his emotion and decided to pick up the turtle and carry him to the living room.
"Wha-what's going on? Murray, put me down!" said Bentley with a grumpy voice.
"Bentley, we've found Sly!" He left him on the couch.
"What?! Where?!" Since the turtle couldn't see without his glasses, he squinted and stared at a blurry figure in front of him. "Carmelita?"
"I think he's trapped in Ancient Egypt with one of his ancestors. There's a hidden message in the Thievius Raccoonus." The vixen took the book out of her coat.
"But I've checked the book several times. I even ran a programme that would detect any alterations from past scans."
"I know, I know. But I had this dream, and Sly's father was there, and he told me to look beyond its pages. So when I woke up, I read it again and found this. You must have missed it." She opened the book and looked for the page where she found the illustration.
"You talked with Sly's dad?" asked Murray, amazed.
"Yeah." She was still looking for the page.
"With Conner Cooper? The man who died at the hands of the Fiendish Five when Sly was just a kid?"
"Yeah, that one. Apparently, the Coopers have this mystic power, and they can sneak into the dreams of the worthy heirs to the book." Before either Bentley or Murray could ask more questions, the fox found the page in Slytunkhamen's chapter she was looking for, "Here! Found it! Look at the picture."
The hippo quickly went to get Bentley's glasses before the two friends proceeded to carefully observe the illustration in the book. The silence and the tension became more and more unbearable as the seconds went by. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, Bentley spoke.
"I… I can't believe it." The turtle adjusted his glasses. "Sly… Stuck… Here…" he read. "Carmelita, you're a genius!" He couldn't contain his excited smile, and neither could the vixen.
"We have to go to Ancient Egypt! Now!" declared Murray as he cracked his knuckles.
"Wait. Hold your horses, everyone. We can't just rush into this. We need a plan." Bentley tried to calm the gang.
"But, what if he's in danger? We must get there as soon as possible." Carmelita ignored her head and listened to her heart, which died to see the raccoon again.
"Carmelita's right! We can't waste time now. Our friend needs us!" Murray was fired up.
Bentley sighed. "Alright, alright. To get the machine working, we must get something from the period and location Sly's trapped in. There must be something we could use in the Cooper Vault."
"So? What are we waiting for?" asked the hippo.
Since the Cooper Van was turned into a time machine, the gang got in Carmelita's car and set off for Bentley's laboratory on the outskirts of Paris. On the way there, the boys had some more questions about the fox's dream.
"So… What you were saying about Sly's father, what exactly did he mean by worthy heir to the Thievius Raccoonus?" asked the turtle, curious.
"Does that mean you and Sly are getting married?" added Murray.
The hippo and the turtle stared at the vixen, who looked back at them before focusing on the road again. During the almost two years that Carmelita and Sly spent together, they had only briefly talked about tying the knot. Perhaps they should revisit that conversation. That is if they manage to bring him back, of course.
"Well, he told me it had to do with the whole killing Clokwerk thing… I'm not sure he can see the future."
The vixen kept answering their questions until they arrived at the laboratory. It looked like a regular office building, but after they walked into the elevator and Bentley entered a code in some sort of keypad, the gang was taken to the laboratory the turtle used to work with Penelope. It was full of state-of-the-art gadgets and devices, but they didn't have time to play with Bentley's latest inventions. So they went straight for the vault where the Cooper Clan's riches were stored after the Kaine Island incident. Inside, they found a pit full of all the treasure Slytunkhamen I had accumulated during his life. There were rings, collars, statues, medals, etc. Everything made out of gold. After some time, Carmelita decided to grab a bunch of coins. Now that they had something to make the time machine work, the gang returned to the safe house. But when Carmelita was about to step out of the car, Bentley stopped her.
"Listen, Carmelita. I know you want to find Sly as much as I do, but why don't you go home and get some rest?"
"I can't go home now, Bentley. Sly is out there, waiting for us."
"I know, I know. But the van's gonna take hours to fuel up. You might as well go back to your apartment, pack your bag, and try getting some sleep."
Carmelita looked away in silence for a few seconds. After all this time, she had never been this close to seeing Sly again, and her overthinking head began to flood with pessimistic omens. "What if we don't find him?"
"Don't say that."
"But, what if we don't? What if we get there and he's dead or…?"
"Come on, Carmelita. You're starting to sound like you don't know Sly. If he put up with the best of Interpol for, what? Five years? I'm sure he can manage a trip down to the pyramids."
"Maybe you're right..." said Carmelita, whose heart was beginning to shine with hope once again.
"That's the spirit! Now, go home, and I'll give you a call when the van's ready. Okay?"
"Okay." The fox let out a small smile.
And so, Carmelita drove back to her apartment while Bentley and Murray stayed at the hideout preparing the Cooper Van. Once home, the vixen lay down on the sofa. She thought the anticipation of their trip to Ancient Egypt wouldn't let her rest, but as soon as she yawned and got comfortable, she slumbered away. In her head, it seemed like just a couple of minutes, but in reality, almost three hours passed until her phone rang and woke her up.
She quickly got up and picked it up. "Bentley?"
"Hey, Carmelita. The van's almost ready. You can come whenever you want."
"Okay. I'll be there in 15 minutes." The fox hung up and quickly changed her clothes to something more suitable for the desert climate before preparing a bag with the essentials: water, some food, and her shock gun. Then, she got in her car and drove to the Cooper Gang's safe house, just like she did a few hours ago. This time, she knocked on the door, and Murray did answer it.
"Carmelita, over here!" Bentley called her from the living room.
The turtle was finishing calibrating a pair of binocucoms. He gave one to the fox, together with a white hooded cloak that belonged to Sly, so she could blend in adequately with the locals. They still had to wait a couple of minutes for the van to finish fueling up, so the three sat on the couch and impatiently waited. Carmelita stared at nothing as she tapped her fingers on her knee and tried to think what would be the first thing she would say to Sly if they found him. Then, her thoughts were cut off by the words she had been waiting to hear for the past year.
"Alright, I think it should be ready by now. Let's go find Sly!" said Bentley with enthusiasm.
"Yeah!" replied Murray, with the same level of passion.
The gang got into the van and got ready to travel in time for the first time since Sly went missing. Carmelita picked a coin from the many she had taken from the laboratory, and they used it to make the machine work. The van started and began to make a whooshing sound that became louder and louder until they jumped into a time tunnel. It wasn't her first time, but the vixen felt a scared stomach sensation, most likely caused by her nervousness.
During the ride, the three were totally silent. Everyone was focused on thinking about what to do and where to look once they arrived in Ancient Egypt. But, unluckily, the arrival there caught them a bit off guard. They exited the time tunnel and appeared in mid-air. The machine fell and crashed into the ground, making the gang bounce off their seats and smash into the walls of the van itself.