PROGRAMS OF BETRAYAL

Job 10: Fanciful Flight

Carmelita ducks out of the hotel room, Otto at her side, and glances around. Being in a hotel without lights in the lobby, with only a very few candles lit, is creepy. I mean, she knows at this time period, electric light still isn't everywhere; she also knows that, if it weren't for her efforts destroying the windmills earlier, there likely would be electric lights set into the walls and dangling from the chandeliers.

She's still having a hard time seeing the dark as an advantage, though. The darkness means hiding places, and secrets, and criminals. Law enforcement that travels in the dark does so with flashlights and noise, either on the chase or as soon as their prey is in sight. Waiting in the dark is one thing, but traveling through it...

Carmelita shakes her head and reminds herself to think of it as a sting operation.

She travels through the dark, Otto mercifully quiet, through the laundry room—the rats still at work, still grumbling, still not looking over—and into the short hallway beyond. All the doors remain unlocked, courtesy of Sly; a glance into the security room shows that it's empty, the guard who was there not having been replaced yet... if anyone noticed they were missing at all. Carmelita smiles and walks to the room she's been aiming for.

Otto nods to her once they're at the door. "What's your experience with planes, Miss Fox?"

"I've flown in several," she says, "and flown several helicopters, which are similar, but I've never flown one myself. Or been in a biplane."

"I am an ace pilot," Otto says, "known for my years of flights and my perfect record. But a tail gunner would make my work significantly easier. Once we enter the room, I will work upon acquiring one of the planes while you take care of the guards. Use your new goggles to shoot the switches keeping the door closed, then join me in the plane."

"And then we take out everything in the sky before really destroying that airfield," Carmelita says with distraction. "Are you feeling okay? You haven't made a bad joke yet."

"Flying is a very serious manner, Miss Fox." Otto adjusts his scarf. "Almost as serious as breaking bad laws."

"Hold up." Carmelita crosses her arms. "Bad laws?"

"Laws that hinder more than they help, or are created solely for greed." Otto favors her with a small smile, the first satisfied smile any of them may have seen. "It may be legal to treat my neighbors as slaves, but it isn't right. Based on what I've overheard, in your time those of us who help our neighbors are considered heroes. You've forgotten that in the eyes of the law, I'm the lowest sort of criminal for it."

Otto opens the door and steps in the room without giving Carmelita a chance to respond. Not that she'd know what to say. She goes in, too, and just catches sight of Otto clambering into the biplane that's already in the launcher. Time for her to get to work.

Taking out the guards before they can set off any alarms takes less than a minute. With that done, she aims her shock pistol and holds triangle to use her new Precision Goggles to tighten the square of her aiming sights. With it focused that way, she can hit targets that are even further away than normal. Which is useful, because those targets are really flipping far away.

The second she hits the last target, the wall starts creaking open. She runs to join Otto in the biplane launcher; he's already got the propeller started and is waiting for her. She straps herself in and accepts the hat and goggles he hands her, then braces herself as the plane takes to the air.

"Allow me to fly," Otto murmurs as they circle the skies over Holland. "I'm a master at it, after all. Use the left analog stick to aim your guns and the square button to fire."

"Um, there may be a problem," Bentley says once they've done some practice shots. "Those planes Winthorp has patrolling out here are equipped with some sort of... tracking bullets. You'll need to shoot them down before they can hit you."

"Oh, don't worry about that, Bentley,"Carmelita says. "I think I can manage..."

"Flying has certainly put you in high spirits."

Carmelita groans. "I thought you weren't going to make any more puns?"

"I lied."

Well, give the guy points for honesty. Kind of. In any case, the mission that follows should be very familiar to anyone who played Sly 2. Otto handles the flying, so all Carmelita—and so the player—has to worry about is hitting the darn things. And this is Carmelita. Even if she isn't using a shock pistol, she's still a crack shot. The last plane's crashed to the ground very quickly.

"All right, now it's time to take on the airfield," says Bentley. "You should aim for that building. It's full of things from our time, including weapons. Getting rid of it will be enough to take out the entire airbase!" Bentley sounds breathless with excitement at the thought.

"I'll have to make short passes, to avoid being caught by the anti-aircraft guns," Otto says. "You'll have to shoot fast."

"Oh, don't worry about me," Carmelita says. "I can manage."

And indeed she does. Very well.

Take that, airfield!

"Nice work, guys. Otto, find someplace to park that plane. We're going to need it for the heist.

JOB COMPLETE

Otto and Carmelita do a few loop-de-loops with their plane, purely for the fun of it.