FISHING FOR FEATHERS

Job 5: Gold, Not Glitters

Bentley wheels himself from the safe-house and into the woods. Unlike the others, he can't use the treetops to dodge guards, or easily take out anyone who spots him: his progress is a lot slower because of that. While he does stick to the winding path through the woods, the guards' spotlights let him know when they're coming a long ways off, and that's when he gets off the path and hides in the bushes. He only leaves it when the giant fence comes in sight, making his way along it to the mission start point: the giant cracked part of the wall.

He pulls out his binoc-u-com. Back at the safe-house, Sly sits at his computer, ready to talk to him. "All right Bentley, this should be a simple in-and-out job," says Sly.

"I'm not even going in, not really," says Bentley. He's almost babbling: being in the field brings out his nerves. "Like the tower Rajan was using, this one has plenty of ways to climb the outside, as well as a landing halfway up. I don't even have to go inside to bug it."

"Right. You don't even have to face General Tsao," says Sly. "But before anything else, you've got to get past this wall."

"My trigger bombs should do the trick," says Bentley. "They're a bit stronger than my normal bombs. And that'll give me time to get clear."

"Not sure you should take it," says Sly. "Soon as that goes off, they'll all come running to see what's up. If you're not through the gap by then, you may not be able to make it."

"I'll keep that in mind," says Bentley, and puts his binoc-u-com away. Setting the bomb is as easy as pressing a button. Bentley gets to a safe distance to set it off... and, before the smoke of the explosion has even disappeared, moves back towards it and uses his hover-pack to jump over the last rubble and through to the other side. Behind him, a half-dozen flashlight guards converge on the hole, but that isn't important right now. He'll worry about them when it's time to go back, if they're still there.

There's no path through the woods on this side—or at least, not one Bentley feels safe using—so he has to pick his way through the roots and trees. When he gets to the cliff opposite the tower, he pauses. Even with his hover-pack, it's too far to jump from one to the other; even Carmelita couldn't make it. And the only path down is guarded. A guard hut at the top, a guard hut at the bottom, and a last guard who makes his way from top to bottom and back again over and over.

The best part about guards is they're not very good at guarding things. The ones in the guard huts, at the top and bottom, seem to be nearly asleep. Bentley waits for the right moment, then slips past the one at the top and tails the moving guard down the path. When the path's level with the roof of the bottom guard house, Bentley jumps to it, then to the ground. Getting back up there will be a bit more of a scramble—even with his best hover-boosters, he'll have to cling to the ledge and haul his wheelchair up after himself—but there's no doubt he can do it.

With that taken care of, Bentley eases his way closer to the tower. There's one guard circling it, and another two patrolling the nearby beach, as well as one on each pirate ship docked nearby. In addition, General Tsao himself is on the beach, inspecting the massive pile of gold there. "Interesting," says Bentley, pausing in his travels for a chat over his binoc-u-com.

"What's interesting?" asks Sly.

"Could you get Henriette on here?" Bentley asks.

"Sure. Hang tight," says Sly.

After a moment of static, Henriette's face appears in the right corner. "I have got to get me some of these for me crew," she says.

"Sorry, they won't be available for about four hundred years," says Bentley.

"So?"

"So you get one to use for now, and we're taking it back when we go," snaps Bentley.

"Come on, what's it gonna hurt?"

"Everything." Bentley changes the subject. "Do you see those ships?"

"Hmmm," says Henriette; a hand comes into view on the screen with her, one of Sly's, clearly showing her how to adjust the picture. "Those are my ships! The ones where they took my captains for ransom and left my crews in rowboats! Bit cocky, inn't he?"

"I thought that was obvious on sight," says Bentley. "But what are you talking about?"

"A single guard on board? That sort of security isn't enough to stop a sugared weasel. Look," she says, and Bentley's binoc-u-com zooms in on the ships, "they ain't even tied to the dock. Any cabin boy with a rope could tow them out to sea."

"That may come in handy," says Bentley. "We'll get them back later; I've got to get climbing."

With that, Bentley puts his binoc-u-com away again and approaches the tower. With only one guard circling it, sneaking up close and putting the listening device by the door was easy. With that, he jumps onto the nearest decorative ramp and starts on his way up.

Four decorative ramps spiral up the tower, two going one way and two going another, each just barely wide enough for Bentley's chair. There's no room for error here: he has to remain pressed against the wall or he's going to fall off. The spots where two ramps intersect is impossible to roll up; pennants hang from those sections, waving gently in the breeze, orange with white tips. Bentley has to double jump high enough to get above the collision point, then hover his way back onto the tower. As it gets higher, the ramps get steeper. Bentley slides backwards whenever he stops moving forwards, and he can't make the jumps anymore. Instead, he has to bomb the places where the spirals meet.

It's no easy task, that's sure enough, but the spirals end at the balcony halfway up the tower; the only way to continue upwards is inside. Bentley sure isn't making the jumps that'd be needed to get higher- he doesn't know why General Tsao has stones dangling from wires off the top of the tower, but it's not something he needs to find out. Bentley jumps his way to the balcony and stays there a moment, panting for breath, before wheeling his way to the door and placing his second bug just outside it.

A computer terminal sits just outside that door, waiting. Taunting him.

Bentley stops there and brings out his binoc-u-com, where he focuses on the beach. General Tsao is still there, lecturing his guards about something. "Looks like I have time for some hacking," Bentley says, cracking his knuckles. "Whether it's a way in or not, this will be useful."

With that, the screen switches to a loading screen, and settles into Bentley's usual avatar. "Hello, Bentley," whispers the code: Penelope's work yet again. "You shouldn't be here."

Bentley snorts. Of course he should. But he and Penelope didn't see eye to eye on the most important things; medieval England taught him that. Some things need to stay the way they are, and the past is one of them: who knows what messing with it will do. And other things need to be changed, sure, but their old disagreements about making weapons... that's not the way to do it, whatever she thinks.

"He's after you, Bentley," whispers Penelope. "Run."

Bentley starts in his chair, taking his eyes off the computer for a moment to glance around—but no, even from here he can see General Tsao still on the beach. It's just Penelope messing with him. Once he didn't try to contact her for 'help' retrieving Sly in the past and strike a deal, she must've known he'd keep messing up her plans.

He finishes hacking with a quick tippy-tippy-tap of keys. The whole system hums for a moment as he takes his hands away; then, with an unnatural silence, the door slides into the ceiling, allowing him entry inside.

Bentley peeks through for guards before wheeling himself in. "Holy smokes, this is huge," he says, gazing around.

"What did you find?" asks Sly over the maskpiece.

Bentley checks for cameras before wheeling himself in closer. The room takes up the entire tower; a trapdoor in the ceiling indicates going higher may be possible, but not for Bentley. The floor is smooth; the walls are patterned in target designs. But what interests Bentley are around the edges of the room.

The pedestals are simple white designs, evenly spaced, one on either side of the door he came in as well as on either side of the staircase leading into this room. Domed covers, clear as glass but made of a much harder material, stand on each one, protecting the contents inside. On each pedestal stand gems, ranging in size from that of a circle made by your thumb and first finger to the size of Bentley's head. Most have only one gem, but the smaller gems—those the size of Bentley's palm and smaller—have two or more, with the smallest having a circle of ten, with one in the center. Each gem is set in gold, waiting to be put on necklace or bracelet, made into a button or sewn on a sash.

And each one is floating above the base of the pedestal, bobbing up and down under their own power.

Getting closer to examine them is going to be tricky. Each pedestal is tightly guarded with lasers, extending from floor to ceiling, a tight circle that's impossible to fit through. "Those look important," says Bentley, adjusting his glasses. "I bet I could fit my grapple-cam into that gap. Once it's in position, I can use one of the grappling lines to lift the cover. If I do it right, I should be able to get one of those small gems."

Maneuvering the grapple-cam through all the lasers and into position isn't easy, since tripping one both destroys it and sets off an alarm... but Bentley gets it into position and raises the cover over the circle of ten gems.

"Hey Bentley, you need to hurry it up in there," says Sly. "One of your spy devices has Tsao talking at the base of the tower."

"It shouldn't be much longer, I just need to use my sleep darts to shoot the center gem out of the circle," says Bentley. And he does just that, replaces the lid, and wheels himself out of there.

JOB: COMPLETE

Bentley does a victory pose on the outside of the tower, then starts climbing down.