FIENDS FROM THE PAST

Job 12: Ghost Code

Bentley hoists himself out of the safe-house's new exit and makes his way across the... island. With the amount of water around, it's rapidly becoming more of a swamp than anything. He stays to the clear dry places, even though it means using every jump and jet pack upgrade he could possibly invent or buy off thiefnet; even so, by the time he reaches the rocky beach, he has to stop and clear away the mud gumming up his wheels.

Not that the beach is any less wet. Just less muddy. And the water slides through the rocks in some places, not on top of them, leaving clear places to walk. The unicorn guards patrol down here, their flashlights clearly visible, the alligators sticking to the muddy areas, forming a sort of co-existence more than them cooperating.

"Hey Bentley, how ya doing?" asks Sly in his ear.

"Fine," says Bentley, pausing to take out his binoc-u-com. He zooms in on one of the zombie unicorns. "Is that Horny?"

"I think so. You know, he's really not a bad guy."

"I wonder if zombies retain the personalities they had when alive." Bentley adjusts his glasses. "That would make a fascinating field of study."

"Please tell me you're not going to study it." Sly's picture in the corner is as horrified as Sly gets.

"Of course not, Sly. That would mean making zombies myself, and you know I don't hold with corrupting the laws of nature like that. Aren't you keeping an eye on Carmelita and Slaigh?"

Sly coughs. "She about tore my head off about that. Besides, they're in the caves now. I can't get a signal; they must be in too deep."

"Fine." Bentley puts his binoc-u-com away and wheels his way towards the nearest bridge. Without the ghosts about, getting across it shouldn't be a problem... except for the shadow beneath the bridge as an alligator patrols beneath it, its eyes just poking from the water. Bentley times himself so it never knows he's there, then repeats the process on the next few bridges. The larger islands have guards on them as well, zombie unicorns that look bored to tears. Or to sleep, as some of them are sleeping.

Bentley reaches the entrance to the ghost generator without a hitch. "Okay Sly, I'm heading in. Any sign from the others yet?"

"No. Should I be worried?"

"They can take care of themselves," says Bentley, and wheels his way inside.

After a brief LOADING screen, Bentley's in. The interior doesn't seem to have changed since Murray's visit, though it is... quieter. And emptier. The conveyor belts still trail the edges of the room, but they appear to have stopped working. No more evil mechanical birds are being made.

Good.

"The candles are controlling the force field, but I should wait to put them out until I'm on my way back," Bentley decides out loud. "They're the only source of light in here; I'd hate to have to navigate this in pitch blackness."

You and me both, Bentley.

Navigating the room with Bentley is a bit more difficult than it was with Murray, however. Wheeling Bentley's chair around things is fine, but when he leaps to the conveyor belts, he finds himself wheeling over and getting caught on the containery things that would eventually become robo-birds. The way through the wall the conveyor takes is blocked with one of them, in fact; Bentley has to bomb his way through. Once inside, he looks around at the candles in the room and sighs... only for his attention to be caught by the computer near the back.

Bentley cracks his knuckles and wheels his way over. "Sly, I'm about to do some hacking. If I don't contact you in ten minutes, send Murray."

"It would be my pleasure."

With that, Bentley starts his way into the system.

"Hello, Bentley."

Penelope's work again. Bentley bites his lip as he picks up a key and puts it in the lock, opening his way forward through the databases. She's not here, again. Where is she? WHEN is she? And what, exactly, is going on?

"Don't let Sly in the tower," Penelope murmurs as Bentley switches code types and shoots around the corner into a very heavily guarded computer room. Anti-virus, firewall, scanners... hoo boy, that place has everything.

"Anyone else can go," Penelope says, or the computer says for her, "but not him."

As Bentley works his way down one path and up another, finding his way blocked and backtracking to swap codes yet again, he wonders more. When last they talked, Penelope blamed Sly for corrupting Bentley, for preventing Bentley from being a weapons dealer, focused only on money. If Penelope is in one of those towers, her refusal to see Sly could be a result of that. But if she's being brainwashed...

Does she not want to see Sly because she truly hates him, even as she's helping them? Or is it a further result of brainwashing?

"The doctor is watching," the computer whispers as Bentley clears the code at last. He scrolls through the information there and sucks in a hard breath.

Sly contacts him. "It's been ten minutes, Bentley."

"I'm here. Mizz Ruby will be meeting with someone soon; it looks important."

"Really?"

"Indeed. I'm copying the files for later analysis." Soon as Bentley's done, he wheels away from the computer and takes out his binoc-u-com. Shots from his darts blow out candle after candle.

He makes his way back to the ghost generator's entrance that way, stopping frequently to blow out more candles, the rooms around him dimming further and further until, at last, he's standing by the entrance in darkness.

JOB COMPLETE

Bentley wheels his way back out of the generator room and sneezes in the sunlight.

Available Jobs

Crackling Caverns