PROGRAMS OF BETRAYAL

Job 6: A Wee Bit O' Sabotage

"You sure took your time down in that sewer," Sly says.

Carmelita snorts and jumps to the rooftop beside him, leaving Murray and Otto to deal with the boat. "And I wish I hadn't. Did anything interesting happen while we were stuck down there?"

"A bit," Sly says, "but we can discuss it later. There's another job to pull off first."

The two of them pull out their binoc-u-coms in the same motion. "Bentley, if you ever make me get into a sewer again I'm going to feed you to it."

"Charming," Bentley says dryly. "Does that mean you're not up for another mission?"

Oh, she's up for it. Glaring Bentley into submission, yes, but she's up for it. "What. Do you need. Me to do?"

Bentley removes his glasses to rub his eyes, then puts them back on. "The hotel—and the tower, through it—are drawing a lot of power. The local windmills seem to be generating it. Sly, you should go and pickpocket a few guards; we're going to need the keys. Once you've got the keys, Carmelita can go in and take out the systems."

"Sounds easy enough," Sly says, but he glances at Carmelita. "Are you okay with this, Carm?"

She growls under her breath. "Fine," she says. "But I want it on the record that there's no other way."

"Believe me, there's not." Bentley looks away to type out a few notes. "You'll need to do it five times; don't destroy anything you don't have to. The windmill by the airfield is being used for power and communications. I still have to figure out how to handle that."

"Makes sense," Sly says.

"Now, much as I'd love to have you two work together on this, it just isn't possible right now. We need to keep someone on that roof as much as possible, monitoring the situation. Since Otto and Murray are... busy... that means that whichever one of you two isn't working on the job, should be up there."

Sly twirls his hat on the end of his cane. "You're not coming out again?"

Bentley groans and lifts a thick stack of blueprints into view. "I'm trying to make sense of this mess. There's something going on, I'm sure of it, something other than time travel for personal gain, but I can't figure out what."

"You know, I think that's half the reason I became a thief," Sly says, flipping his hat back on his head. "I didn't want to do paperwork."

"You do it now that you're a cop, Ringtail."

"And we can't get away from it here, either," Bentley says, dropping the papers; they make a loud thud when they hit the table, even through the binoc-u-com. "Though at least it's all necessary in trying to figure out what's going on, instead of trying to justify our every move for the irritated public."

Carmelita disconnects her binoc-u-com and shoves it in her pocket. Sly does the same, albeit less violently. "You okay, Carm?" Sly asks.

"I'm fine," she grumbles.

"You don't sound—"

"Go get those keys, Ringtail," she says, crossing her arms and looking away from him, ears flat to her head. "Just... remember that this is only okay because there's no other way, understand? We are cops."

Sly stares at her, then shakes his head. "Right. I'll just, uh, be going, then."

Play switches to Sly. Key guards have taken up locations around the level, but the nearest one is doing nice little circles around the well. Though, naturally, the tanks are going by often enough to make things irritating. And it's in full view of Carmelita.

Sly tries not to let it bug him, but even without her stopping him, there's an itch between his shoulder blades as he feels her watch him. Only a few months ago, they had to lie and hide any pick-pocketing they did on missions; had she known about it, they may never have dealt with The Contessa. Now she's watching him and not even doing anything.

Truth be told, Sly isn't sure he likes it. But he gets the key and climbs back up to the rooftop, handing it over to Carmelita. "You're up."

Carmelita scowls, taking the key from him, and play switches to her. She navigates to the nearest windmill and finds the door in the base, pops in the key, turns it, and enters in a flash.

The inside of the windmill is... impressive. Stretching up the tower of the windmill is a vertical conveyor belt of sorts, stretching from a spinning shaft that goes out of the windmill—no doubt to the windmill blades—through the floor in a long oval. Wobbly platforms are connected to the conveyor belt, places to step on, though when Carmelita jumps on one experimentally it tips and dumps her off almost at once. The only breakable part is right near the top, the spinning shaft itself; there are no wires to be seen, although they must be there somewhere.

"Next time you jump on one of those platforms, try balancing your weight," says Bentley over the binoc-u-com. Carmelita scowls, but this time, as one comes out of the floor, she steps on it. Play turns motion-sensitive (though for players with motion sensitivity turned off, it becomes minute adjustions of the joystick) as Carmelita shifts her weight this way and that to avoid being dumped off.

The important thing is that it works. Carmelita reaches the top and steps onto the small platform there, the spinning crankshaft at her mercy, thick metal that's too powerful to be hit but nothing before her shock pistol. All too soon, the spinning stops, the conveyor belt dies, and she can jump to the floor and get out of there.

She locks up behind herself automatically, and flips the key in her hand as she walks back to the spot where Sly waits. "Here," she says, handing him the key when she returns. "Give this back."

Sly laughs, but as play returns to him, you learn she's serious. Sly... has to give the key back. Reverse pick-pocketing. Will wonders never cease.

Then Sly's off to find the next guard, this one wandering the wooded area and—it seems—deliberately trying to get in trouble with the wolves. Or so it seems. How one guard can wander into the path of a single wolf pack eight times in two minutes without it being deliberate is... difficult to consider. But Sly eventually manages to get the key.

Yeesh.

Sly returns to Carmelita and delivers the key with a bow. "There you are, inspector," he says, a teasing grin on his face.

Carmelita snorts. "An inspector using stolen keys," she mutters. "I'm disgracing Interpol."

"You treat criminals with more fairness than anyone else on the force," Sly retorts at once. "Innocent until proven guilty is your life's motto, not just your work. Any doubt these guys are guilty?"

"Not the point, Sly," she says, jumping off the roof. She stalks away from town, heading for the next windmill. And she may take her feelings out on the guards in the area rather than avoiding them, as she did last time.

The inside of this windmill is a bit different from the last. Two conveyor belts make their way up, though the design is otherwise similar. The only platforms that can be stood on are moving down, however, and collapse after being stood on for a second. To reach the top, and the piece she has to destroy, Carmelita has to jump back and forth between the two belts, never hesitating for a second.

The exercise may even improve her mood a little. Not that it seems to help any; she's still scowling when she returns to the roof and thrusts the key back at Sly. "Return it," she orders.

Sly raises his eyebrows. "You're not okay, are you?" he asks.

Carmelita kicks at the roof. "I'm not having this discussion, Sly," she says.

"But we need to," Sly says. "If we never talk, then—"

"Go return the key and steal something, why don't you." Carmelita deliberately turns her back on him.

Sly frowns, but returns the key to the guard he stole it from and goes after the next guy, who's wandering around at the base of the castle. Nothing Sly hasn't done before; Sly's barely climbed the hill before the key's in his hands. He heads back to Carmelita.

Carmelita snatches the key from his hands and jumps off the roof before Sly can say a word. She doesn't encounter any guards on her way to the next lighthouse; perhaps they can sense her bad mood and are avoiding her on instinct, even better than they do the wolf pack. Unfortunately, it means she doesn't have anything to take her mood out on.

This windmill is set up like the last, but with added laser security. Just wonderful. She misses a jump and falls back to the bottom four times, due to laser-dodging shenanigans. None of it puts her in a better mood.

Sly is waiting at the door when she leaves. "Why are you—"

"Murray's watching," he says. "Look, Carm... since you wouldn't say anything, I asked Bentley if he had a clue why you were in a bad mood. Does this really bother you that much?"

Carmelita actually growls at him, then turns her back and crosses her arms. "What's it to you? You're a thief; this is your life. It shouldn't matter to you."

"It matters to me because it matters to you." Sly puts a hand on her shoulder. "I thought my stealing didn't bother you anymore, well, not as much, since I only steal from criminals. But—"

Carmelita shakes him off. "It's not you stealing that bothers me, Sly," she says. "It's me. I'm an honest cop. Or... I was." She looks at the ground as she says the last bit.

Sly frowns. "You still are. The best sort of cop."

She rolls her eyes and thrusts the key at him. "Return this," she orders. "At least I can pretend I'm not really stealing this way."

Sly takes the key and does as she asks; she follows him at a distance, now that she doesn't have to return to the rooftop. The two cross the river together but she waits by the next windmill while he pickpockets the guard in the airfield.

Sly unlocks the door for her and bows her inside. "Have you ever done a sting operation?" Sly asks, shutting the door behind them. "Sent a cop in to infiltrate a suspected criminal gang, so you can get enough evidence to actually do something?"

"I was never even considered," Carmelita replies. "I have too much of a temper to be good at it."

"Welcome to your very own sting operation," Sly says. "Try thinking of it like—woah."

Woah is right. This lighthouse is set up a... little differently from the others. Between the pennants hanging from the walls (orange with white tips again, this guy is so not creative) and the sealed door keeping Carmelita from the part she has to destroy, this one is a bit tougher.

Until Sly spots something. "Those things look like the dial for a safe," he says, pointing to a pair of small knobs sticking out near the top.

"If you turn them, maybe the door will open up."

With that, the two of them have a plan. Carmelita climbs up first, of course, bouncing and jumping and darting between the conveyor belts that are determined to drop her to the floor. Once she reaches the thin wedge of a platform available on this side of the door, play switches to Sly, who climbs to the top as easy as ninja-spire landings. Literally.

Unfortunately, once he reaches the top, Bentley has to jump in. "This is a tricky mechanism, Sly; you're going to have to open them both at the same time. Spin both analog sticks in opposite directions until you feel them vibrate; then, switch directions. If you have vibration turned off, you can also use the light cues."

Yep. Both sticks at once. This makes things just a tad trickier; Sly has to take his time and focus.

"Hurry it up, Ringtail!"

Or, you know, get yelled at by Carmelita. That too.

The second both knobs click into place, though, the door slides up, and Carmelita shock-pistols the living daylights... wait. Bad choice of words, there. The light is NOT alive. It's just shocked until it's even more not-alive. Forgot for a second the sort of craziness that can happen in a Sly game, folks.

With that accomplished, the two return to the ground. "You know, Sly," Carmelita says as they emerge into the moonlight, "if this were a sting operation, then I'd be trying to infiltrate their group and not let them know I'm here."

"Which is why I'm returning the keys," Sly says. "If you want, I could get you a disguise, too. Or you could be my handler, so we're in contact."

Carmelita actually smiles, just a little. Sly grins back and goes to return that key.

The last guard Sly has to pick-pocket is patrolling the fields around the safe-house. This one is possibly the easiest pick so far. He returns to Carmelita with a grin, brandishing the key. "If this were a sting operation, we'd be making a copy of it before putting it back."

Carmelita snorts as he unlocks the door. "Do we need to?"

"Nah."

The two head inside, and have to evaluate this newest room. There's no nice conveyor belt to let Carmelita get to the top this time. Instead, the communication array sits near the top of the building, and to get up to it... well.

Logically, the guards who enter this building, and the people who take care of the communication satellite, must use long poles with hooks on them to get up. Set into the walls all around are wall-hooks; Sly grabs one, and a small section of the wall peels out, making a platform and leaving him parallel to the floor. It retracts into the wall when he releases it, but when Carmelita jumps on top, her body weight holds it into position.

An odd jumping challenge follows, as Sly climbs around the edges of the room with crazy acrobatics and tricks, finding things to grab hold of that'll make Carmelita platforms, and having her jump to them before dropping to the floor and finding his way to the next jumpable location. It's a full-body workout, no doubt about that. And he has to do the double-handed safe-cracking technique again at the top.

With a last few blasts of the shock pistol, this windmill, too, is destroyed. "That does it," Bentley says. "They may still have power, but they'll have to deal with a lot less of it now. Head on back to the safe-house. Oh, and bring the key; I may need it later."

Sly drops to the floor and glances at Carmelita. "Maybe I should make a copy of it."

Carmelita smiles, then shakes her head. "Nah. Come on, Ringtail. Let's go before we give Bentley a heart attack."

JOB COMPLETE

The two of them stroll out of the lighthouse together and, on a whim, Sly throws his arm over Carmelita's shoulders. She doesn't shrug it away.