FIENDS FROM THE PAST

Job 2: Island Hopping

Carmelita leaves the safe-house and jumps straight onto its roof so she can look around. Nearby areas have terriers and ghosts on them; a lone unicorn circles the safe-house and three other dwellings, moving in an irregular figure-eight pattern. The waypoint she has to reach is a fair bit away, near the edge of the beach. Carmelita takes her time getting there: the 'rooftops' are more like hills, and the constantly rushing water makes it difficult to hear approaching guards.

Getting to the beach makes it easier; the relative flatness makes it easy to see the guard's flashlights from a fair distance away. She stops at one point, noticing Sly from the corner of her eye; she can't ignore the instinct to follow the thief, and watches as he, well, pickpockets the horn right off a unicorn.

But she doesn't stop it, or try to arrest anyone.

Interesting.

In any case, she reaches the spot on the beach without any trouble and pulls out her binoc-u-com. "I already know what I'm doing, Bentley," she says before he can open his mouth. "I'm jumping to those islands and investigating the machinery on it, because it's not supposed to be here."

"Right," says Bentley. "Look Carmelita, we don't know what those things are, or if they're dangerous. Get some pictures and keep your distance."

Carmelita rolls her eyes. "Bentley, I'm an inspector at Interpol. I think I can handle whatever this turns out to be."

"Uh-huh." Bentley adjusts his glasses. "You have been adapting well to working with our gang, but you have your limits. Just think of me as one of your IT guys or those specialists you need to call in."

"What," asks Carmelita, "Don't you trust me?"

"I don't trust anyone who's had so much training in law enforcement that they reference it or fall back on it whenever they're in a new situation." Bentley leans forward. "Especially when they're working with thieves. You, personally, I trust not to turn us in, provided we don't commit any modern-day crimes you know about, but that's about it."

There's a brief moment of silence where Carmelita opens her mouth to respond then closes it, silent.

"In any case, unless you explicitly recognize those machines—which I doubt will happen, but stranger things have occurred—you shouldn't deal with them until we've got more information. And that's why I'm the one in the safe-house. Can you accept that?"

Ears flat to her head, Carmelita mutters, "Yes, Bentley," then tucks the binoc-u-com away.

The closest small island doesn't have any machinery on it; she leaps to that one, landing with a bounce, and looks around. It's barely more than a rock poking out of the ocean, and she can only take a few steps in any direction. The next island out, with a single stubborn tree growing out of it, looks more promising. With a jump and a flip, she makes it.

And is promptly accosted by ghosts.

Her first instinct, with such close-range targets, is to beat them off her, but that does almost nothing. Shooting them makes them vanish at once, though. These things cannot handle electricity. Or any of her pistol's settings, really.

"Can you get a good picture yet?" asks Bentley in her ear.

Carmelita shakes her head. "Sorry, Bentley, but I'm still way too far away. I'll have to get closer."

The next island is far enough away that Carmelita needs a second high jump... or a bit of height. She leaps up the tree, branch by branch, until she reaches the top. She makes her jump from there.

More ghosts. And, hidden among the rocks, a large switch. There's no other machinery here, no clues as to what it does. She could leave it alone or put down her shock pistol to pull it with both hands.

Or she could roundhouse-kick it, a method she uses to full effect. With a groan of machinery, a narrow metal walkway ratchets out from somewhere under the rocks, seamlessly connecting this island to shore.

Carmelita tries not to think about how it got there. But that's the start of a pattern: as she continues island hopping getting further out to sea, she's continually accosted by ghosts. And every three or four stops, she finds a lever, which creates another path, resulting in a perfect path back to the mainland.

And a lot of ghosts.

But three switches later, she's arrived at the island with the machinery, and the ghosts don't stop. Carmelita has to take the picture of it in between shooting ghosts off of her. Up close, it looks like an old-fashioned mausoleum with gears on it. And a computer by what may be a (closed) entrance.

"Gadzooks!" says Bentley. "That's a ghost generator."

Carmelita actually laughs. It throws off her aim for a few seconds. "Never would have guessed that, Bentley."

"It's too tough to destroy from the outside," Bentley says. "Murray and I will have to come over here later. Head on back to the safe-house. And don't lead any ghosts here, sheesh!

JOB COMPLETE

Carmelita is too busy shooting off ghosts to do a victory pose, and she heads back along the path to shore at a run.

Available Jobs:

Solid Stop

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