RIGHT AND LAW

Job 10: A Legacy of Thieves

The four of them are still on the roof when Dr. Foxworthy comes strolling up, using his cane more like a walking stick than like he actually needs it. Sly crouches on the edge of the roof, peering over the edge, his lips twisted in a snarl as the others speak.

"Okay, this is it," says Bentley. "Everyone knows what they need to do?"

"I'll arrest him," Carmelita says.

"If he tries to fight, I take him out." Murray punches one fist into the other palm.

"But first, we have to follow him," Bentley says. He wheels over to Sly, who's still looking over the edge. "If someone else still has the technology to go back in time, or worse, if those robots work the way he wants them to and get loose, well..."

"I know," Sly says, getting to his feet. "I'll follow him. No one catches me."

Bentley nods. "While you're doing that, I need to go back to the safe-house," Bentley says. "There are a few things there that could come in handy later, and I don't want Penelope leaving the coms station to bring them. No offense, Penelope."

Penelope sounds pleased when she says, "None taken."

"Carmelita, Murray, if you two will escort me? Sly needs to do this without being seen, and there are far fewer guards around right now, but I'd appreciate some back-up."

"I'm on it," Carmelita says.

Murray slaps Sly on the back, pushing him forward a step and almost off the roof. "You got this, buddy."

The three of them take off, leaving Sly alone on the roof, staring at Dr. Foxworthy below. "I hope so, Murray," he says into thin air.

And then Dr. Foxworthy starts to move, so Sly has to move, too. He starts by going towards the building Sly's on, and past it, through the narrow streets and allies of town. Sly follows.

Some say a thief should be a shadow in the night. A thief should be there, then gone, unnoticed, unseen. Sly knows a thief can be so much more than that, so much better.

A thief takes the environment around them, things that other people made and forged for their own protection and convenience, and uses it to their own advantage with creativity and skill. Khamen disarmed the traps of the pharaohs and reactivated them when it would suit him best, leaving none the wiser. When Dr. Foxworthy turns down a tunnel and goes underground, Sly follows. Dr. Foxworthy feels safe, comfortable, with the lasers around him; he stops looking around while he's down there, doesn't check behind him, letting Sly use the security to his own advantage until they emerge.

A thief uses the expectations of society against those they steal from. Otto made their hide-out in the heart of the enemy's stronghold. When Dr. Foxworthy stops to backtrack, check the roofs and behind him, Sly slips down to wait, standing directly where Dr. Foxworthy stood. Where he wouldn't even think to look, until he was satisfied no one was around.

A thief can be anyone and anything. Thaddeus did more than put on a disguise; he became the disguise, became the person he was pretending to be, up to and including password-checking others like the most loyal of his enemy's employees. When Dr. Foxworthy climbs the ladder to the catwalks above the volcano, an area crawling with guards, Sly puts on his cop outfit and demands a password from each guard he passes, receiving salutes and obedience and no one noticing the face behind the uniform.

A thief stands their ground and fights and never, never gives up. A thief doesn't let anyone take him out without taking out a piece of them. Slaigh was willing to face down Clockwerk, the owl that murdered hundreds of Coopers for generations, just for the hope that it may someday be enough. Sly tracks Dr. Foxworthy to a small cave in the side of the volcano's mouth, where he inspects the area one more time. Then, he inserts the base of his cane into a small hole in the wall and turns it.

The wall opens.

Dr. Foxworthy walks into a tunnel of lava, leaving his cane behind as fire licks at his boots but doesn't get through.

Sly stares after him, jaw agape. "Bentley, are you seeing this?" he asks. He peels off one glove and touches it to the lava experimentally; it catches on fire. Sly makes a face and pulls another out of his leg pouch.

"That's... that's impossible," Bentley says. "I don't know how you're going to get down there. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Sly asks.

There's a burst of static, a crackle of speakers. Then Bentley speaks again. "I'm sending Carmelita to your position," he says. "She's got the RC chopper and a signal booster. You should be able to spire jump on the hook on top, and Penelope will fly you through."

Sly stares at the tunnel. "Really?" he asks, laughter and disbelief in his voice.

"It's the only way, buddy," says Bentley. "And she's the best pilot we have."

Carmelita makes her way down the cave to him. She has a chopper and two other things in her hands. One, unmistakably, is a signal booster.

And the other item is the temporal stabilizer necklace Bentley put on Penelope back in Holland, that prevented time travel from working on her.

Carmelita stands there, clutching the items, her head down, her shoulders shaking. Then she lets out a breath and looks Sly in the eye. "You wear this, Ringtail, you hear me?" she says, holding up the necklace. "You wear this, and you don't take it off."

There's another thing thieves have, good ones, at least. A team to work with. Henriette had an entire fleet of pirate ships, first and second mates, crew she fought for and shared her riches with through thick and thin.

Sly has Murray, Bentley, and Carmelita.

"I will," Sly says, pulling it on over his head. Carmelita sets the helicopter on the ground, and Sly jumps on. "I'll be fine. And I'll come back. I promise."

"You'd better," says Carmelita. "But if you don't, I swear, I'll find you again."

The helicopter's rotors whir, mere inches from Sly's feet. It lifts off the ground. Sly blows Carmelita a kiss and waits to see her smile before he turns to face the lava tunnel before him.

There's one more thing that makes a true thief, a master thief. Master thieves steal for good.

Sly is a master thief. And now, he's going to make his ancestors proud.

JOB COMPLETE