Three votes to one, you were really curious about this one...

PROGRAMS OF BETRAYAL

Job 8: Playing Telephone

Bentley leaves Carmelita at the binoc-u-com station and heaves himself up and out the window. The night is still clear, the moon high overhead; Sly's only been inside the castle for a few minutes. If anything goes wrong in there, they'll know it soon enough, but it's not worth worrying about. Sly is a professional, after all; by Bentley's calculations, there's only a 0.28% chance of him getting caught.

Provided he doesn't try anything stupid, like playing in the dumbwaiter or something.

...make that 8.6%

Bentley dodges around the airfield and goes over the bridge to the wooded area below the castle. Otto and Murray are waiting there, on one of the hills below a tree; Bentley joins them. "All right, time to take care of those wolves."

"I don't understand what I'm doing on this job," Otto says. "You don't seem to enjoy my company, after all; it just doesn't work."

"You're going to play a vital role here, Otto," Bentley says.

Otto coughs into his fist. "That was a joke. Job, work. Get it?"

Bentley rolls his eyes. "Believe me, I get it. Now, in order to get those communication devices off the wolves, we need to separate them and put them to sleep. My sleep darts will be fine to put them out, but if they're in a group when I shoot one, the others will come running and attack, and we'll lose our chance."

"So you need us... why?"

"Otto, your unsteady gait is perfect to lure off the wolves."

Otto laughs out loud. "I get to be bait!"

"Murray, you stay out of the wolves' way, but close enough that you can help Otto if he needs it."

"You got it, Bentley! I won't let those wolves chow down on my chum!"

Otto laughs harder. "Bait. Chum. Excellent!"

Bentley groans. "Once you've got the wolf out of sight of the rest of the pack, I'll hit it with a sleep dart Then Otto can lift off the communicator and get out of there."

"That sounds—"

Bentley's wheeling away before Otto even gets to finish the sentence, probably because Bentley is afraid of more puns. Murray shrugs and bounds out of sight as well, leaving Otto alone on the tiny hill in the woods.

And a way-point on the wolf pack.

Now, for the first time, players play as Otto—not his boat or anything like that. A few things quickly become apparent.

One, Otto limps. This makes running impossible... and walking quietly. Sure, he's not as loud as Sly is running, but there's no way to get close enough to a guard to pickpocket them without them hearing you.

Two, Otto is actually very good at climbing. He can manage the trees around here, which Sly and the others can't climb (though they can jump from branch to branch), and many other maneuvers. He can even use his wrench to do a rock-climbing maneuver instead of fiddling around with wall hooks

Unfortunately, his cane-wrench is also point three... because he doesn't have much distance with it. In a fight, he's as useless as Bentley, maybe more. His specialty was technology and inventions, because of his disability; and, under normal circumstances, that would be more than enough. But 'working with Bentley' doesn't qualify as a normal circumstance. Hoo boy.

Now for the fun part. Otto locates the wolf pack and gets close enough that one or two see him... and runs. Er, limps. Two give chase, breaking off from the rest of the pack; Otto has to climb a tree to stay safe.

By the time they're done sniffing around, the rest of the pack is over the bridge and almost to the airfield. Otto waits until they're a distance away before climbing down, then walking in their—well, one's—line of sight. Only one chases him this time.

Soon as they're far enough away from the others, Bentley shoots the wolf with a sleep dart. Otto retrieves the collar around the wolf's neck and climbs back up the tree as it wakes up. "We should raid the hotel kitchens when we're done with this," Otto says. "Perhaps then we can give the wolves a bone."

No one even dignifies that with a groan. Instead, Otto watches as that wolf scampers back to the pack. "The wolves we've already done are a bit slower and unsteady; the sleep darts take a while to wear off all the way," Bentley says over the binoc-u-com. "The ones we've already done won't chase you again."

Well, at least that's helpful. On to round two.

There are six different wolves in the pack, all told. Otto's climbed every tree (and building) in the area by the time they retrieve the collar from the sixth. Murray's only had to come to Otto's rescue, literally picking up the raccoon and running for their lives, once.

Otto meets up with Bentley on a rooftop, panting, and presents the six collars. "Excellent," Bentley says, adjusting his glasses. He puts one hand to his ear. "Carmelita, you there?"

"Almost through those files, but yeah." Carmelita's sigh fogs Bentley's glasses, even through the maskpiece. "They're all good cops, too. No red marks on their files."

"I know, it stinks," Bentley says. "Listen, you can finish this up later. I need you to set up a transceiver array by planting these collars at specific points. When I get to the safe-house, can you be ready to go?"

"I can manage that," says Carmelita.

Bentley nods and breaks the contact. "All right, your part's all done for now, Otto. You can go... somewhere."

"To the safe-house?" Otto asks, grinning. "But if I'm there, is it really safe? You seem to be having some trouble holding your temper."

Bentley mutters something indistinct and pointedly wheels away.

Play picks up again as Carmelita outside the safe-house. There are six spots to place the collars. Some, like on top of the safe-house, Bentley could have done himself; others, like the top of a tree, could have been handled by Otto. It's almost as though Bentley wants Carmelita too busy to dwell on anything.

Funny idea, isn't it?

But as soon as Carmelita's placed the final collar, Bentley gives a happy sigh over the binoc-u-com. "This is perfect. And he's mid-conversation. This is great. This is... what?"

"Bentley?" asks Carmelita, but she's ignored. The player's left to do what they want for several minutes, so naturally, Carmelita starts back towards the safe-house. "Are you okay, Bentley? What's going on?"

"We've got a bit of a problem, Carmelita. Head on back to the safe-house, and I'll fill everyone in."

JOB COMPLETE

Carmelita completely ignores any and all ideas related to 'sneaking' and sprints out of the job complete screen, heading for the safe-house at a run, before anything else bad can happen.