Chapter 17: Counting Cards

—

Here we are. Bright lights, lots of neon, and those impressively odd building shapes that you only see in the Far East. The seductive allure of wealth hiding the crushing reality of poverty… It's Macau, biggest gambling city in the entire freakin' world!

Sly Cooper belongs to Sucker Punch. Macau, however, belongs to Macau.

Let's take a spin on the slots, shall we? Begin!

—

As a pair of enormous armed thugs - pandas, both - walked past, a flash of white showed. Out from the alley stole the thief, his Cheshire grin never once wavering as he carefully relieved them of their wallets, before disappearing into the alley once again.

"List, I've found our first job here. Where are you?" Abby asked, only audible to the hybrid by virtue of sounding from the comm in his ear. He tapped it to reply.

"Being proactive. I've got a good amount of seed money now." he told the jackal, walking back towards the safe house in the comforting darkness of the back alleys. The city was too bright for his liking, but there were dark routes around the lights - routes he was already committing to memory.

"You've been robbing the guards, then. I told you… You know what, never mind. I've got your location now. I need you to go north. There's an old abandoned warehouse along the docks - you can't possibly miss it, it's the only thing for miles that isn't lit up like a Christmas tree."

"I assume it's something more than it seems?" List asked, already working his way in the direction indicated. It was a real maze in the back streets, but it wasn't nearly enough to stop him.

"Yup. It's actually a cleverly disguised data hub. I've modified your Binocucom recently, so what you need to do is get to the basement."

"What, am I giving you remote access?"

"Nope. What I want you to do is find their router. Just plug the end of the blue wire into the Binocucom, and it'll… Well, you wouldn't understand the full technical explanation."

"…"

"Just telling it like it is. It'll take a few moments but essentially, I'll reroute the connection so that it all ends up in my computer. That should give me complete access to their security data, which will allow me to get you inside the building to take some recon shots."

"Fair enough. Wow, this really is abandoned. Not a soul in sight. I'll call you back."

The call dropped as List entered the building, whistling at the state of it all. It was in utter disarray, crates scattered and smashed throughout and cobwebs covering practically everything. A little searching yielded the stairs to the lower level, and he chuckled as he descended - old and dusty very swiftly gave way to shiny and clean in the basement.

"They're not even making a decent effort, here." he murmured, peeking around the corner to find that the basement was abandoned as well. "Could at least post a guard or two."

Creeping further into the facility, he realized it was really and truly empty, and relaxed. Strolling through the rooms, he noticed his quarry sitting on a tree stump. Unplugging the blue wire from the router, he quickly hooked it up to a port on his Binocucom, and waited for a moment.

A buzz from his earpiece alerted him to an incoming call. He tapped it to answer, a grin on his face.

"I've got the data! Nice work, List. It usually takes you at least a couple of minutes to disable the guards."

"There weren't any. These guys are cocky, Abby - no guards, no techs, not even a camera. Makes me wonder just how much they rely on luck around here…"

"…That's just bad practice. Anyways, I'm looking at the security… Data… Now…?"

"Something wrong?"

"This can't be right. Who would…? I just…"

"Abby, speak clearly."

"Patrols throughout the city are fairly standard. Should be easy to avoid for any of us… But security inside is pitiful! They have an enormous number of guards just watching the game rooms, and very few scattered throughout the rest of the building… Relatively speaking, I mean. The building's well covered, but the guards are ridiculously concentrated, and outside of the game rooms, have very little backup."

"…Really?"

"These people… They rely way too heavily on their own luck. But what's bad for them is good for us. I've found a good route for you to take. There's two places I need shots from."

"I'm on it. Halfway to the building already."

List sprinted through the dark alleyways, still headed for the casino shining brightest of all the neon and glitter in the city. It didn't take him long to reach the building, skidding to a halt in the safety of the shadows as he watched a crowd of people - all of them dressed to impress - flow in and out of the establishment… Mostly into it, though.

"Feeding you the route now. I know you love climbing…"

List looked around, then grinned as he saw the holographic marker pop up. "A thief should never try the front door first." he remarked, surveying the building for a way to reach the vent Abby had marked… on the fifteenth floor.

—

"Okay, I'm in the ducts."

As the half-coon thief crawled through the ventilation, he found himself vaguely admiring the room far below - the glitz and glamour of the game rooms were apparent even through the slots in the air ducts.

Pulling himself out of the vent and onto a balcony overlooking it all, he took a moment to admire the horrible operation properly. "A thousand suckers are born every second here." he murmured in reluctant respect. "But they don't deserve to lose their money. And I have a very clear policy when dealing with criminals…"

"Okay, enough with the noir lines. I need photos." Abby remarked, the roll of her eyes practically audible through the comlink. List grinned, and pulled out his Binocucom.

"There's not a lot of interest that I don't already know now that I have the security data. I just need photos of the exchange booth, the checkpoint inside the door, and maybe a few of the games."

The photos uploaded as she spoke, and the jackal grinned. However, she found herself staring at a fourth picture.

"That's unexpected. Does that balcony lead straight into Miss Fortune's residence?"

"Looks like. Guess she likes to laugh at all the people feeding money into her casino."

"Well, it's a perfect way to snap some recon photos of the big baddie herself. Go ahead and sneak on in, but be careful. Luck isn't something I put much stock in, but there's no denying that her career has been aided by a long, long string of fortunate coincidences."

"The Cooper Clan doesn't believe in luck. We believe in karma."

"Karma? You mean 'what goes around comes around'?"

"Something like that. It's why the Cooper Clan only ever steals from other thieves. It's a belief that's been handed down through the generations; we operate in the shadows to ensure the comeuppance of criminals much worse than us. I guess you could call us 'the necessary evil', but that's not quite right."

"You're getting talkative about this."

"It's a dear belief. Anyways. We're not quite the 'necessary evil', because we don't really fit the second word."

"Well, yeah. What we do is illegal, but it isn't immoral."

"I like to think of our actions as karmic enforcement. Also thievery."

"Okay then… Are you inside?"

"Yep. Uploading a few more pictures now."

Abby combed through the uploaded images, analyzing what information she could as thoroughly as possible. When one image in particular uploaded, she stopped for a moment.

The jackal whistled, impressed. "By her reputation, Miss Fortune is a cruel *$%# of a woman. But it isn't easy to make a business suit look good with such a small frame. Kudos to her for that."

"Eh, she's not my type."

"This coming from the guy who spends half his time admiring the way the light reflects off of his cane?"

"I'm not saying I don't like pretty things. I'm saying I think pretty things that don't look like they'll crack in half if you breathe too loudly aren't as nice as pretty things that can very clearly crack you in half."

"Well, she can do that. Word is she can break people like cereal-box toys with a good hard kick."

"Also I don't like evil people."

"…Okay, that's fair. Anyways. It looks like the whole place is pretty high-end, but I don't see anything that could reasonably function as a heavy-duty safe. Do you see something I don't in there?"

"…Hang on… She's talking to someone on the phone…"

Abby waited, wondering what had List so interested. She didn't have to wait long.

"Okay, two things. First, you know that really big double door in the main game room? The one that leads into the restricted area?"

"Yes. What about it?"

"Well, you go into it, and you're pretty much staring at the vault. Makes it easy to guard, since they have a twenty-second maximum for response time."

"…THAT'S WHY ALL THE GUARDS ARE IN THE GAME ROOMS!"

"Yup. Also, the Inspector is here."

"Wait, what?"

"Yep. Miss Fortune knew about her the second she stepped into the casino. Fortunately, she's in no danger - her assignment is apparently strictly recon, and despite being undercover, everything she's doing is completely legal. Attacking her will only give Interpol a reason to retaliate."

"Clever. Well, we know where the vault is. I have an idea for what we need to do next. Come back to the safe house, I'll explain."

"Already on my way. I'm gonna enjoy taking this place down…"

—

Well… That happened.

Anyways.

With the slots spinning all night, the Cooper Gang's aiming for the jackpot. Getting out undetected won't be an option, so the question remains; can they stack the deck, or will they get decked? Find out just how well these thieves bluff next time, in Chapter 18: Poker Face!

KeyFire, surprised at just how quickly this went out. See you next time.