Okay. Chapter 8 is here. Wow, this came pretty early compared to my last updates.

Enjoy!

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Chapter 8: Infiltration

Carmelita leaned against the water tower and waited. She checked her watch. They should be here soon. It had almost been a half an hour. She looked at Sly's cane. She remembered the Cooper Vault. No one could get in without the cane. She sighed. All of this, because of money. She didn't think that criminals could be this crazy, or sick. She shuddered as she remembered Sly's screams. She started to tear up again.

A few minutes had passed, and no one came. She began to grow agitated. She walked up to the cafe and sat down on one of the chairs outside of the building. She checked her watch again. They were late. She looked around and saw no one. She leaned back into her chair and looked up at the water tower. Her eyes widened as she saw a figure standing on top of it, with a rifle. She quickly ducked down just as it fired.

"Shit!" she yelled. Bentley was right. It was a trap. She pulled out her shock pistol and fired up at the water tower. The figure leaped onto the roof next to it and ran. Carmelita got to her feet and sprinted towards the assassin. She jumped onto the awning of the building where the figure was running and onto the roof. The figure jumped from one roof to another, trying to escape Carmelita. She began to catch up. The figure took his rifle and fired off another shot, but he missed. He took off again. He jumped off of the building he was on and ran through the streets.

Carmelita kept to the roofs however, as she had a better vantage point. She jumped from roof to roof, following the assassin wherever he went. Where was he going though? Carmelita thought that he might be running back to his hideout. Suddenly, she had an idea. She knew that he wouldn't be stupid enough to go back to his hideout with a cop on his tail. Carmelita stopped firing her gun, and focused on following the criminal, while staying out of sight. After a few minutes of chasing, the figure stopped running. He looked around. Carmelita ducked down as his gaze passed over her position. He saw no one. He then began running down an alley. Carmelita ran to the edge of the roof and pulled out her binocucom. She zoomed in to see the figure walk up to a door on the side of one of the buildings. He walked in.

"Bingo," Carmelita muttered to herself. That had to be where they were keeping Sly. She pressed a button on the binocucom. Bentley's face appeared on the bottom left side of the screen.

"Bentley, I think I might have found where they're keeping Sly."

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Not entirely, but it's definitely a good place to start. Can you send a waypoint of my position to my binocucom?"

"Sure, just give me a second." After a few seconds, a blue arrow suddenly appeared where Carmelita was looking.

"Thanks. Should I head back?" The turtle thought for a second.

"Not yet. We're not even sure that Sly is really in there, so we can't really draw up a plan to save him. Besides, I don't know anything about the layout of that place. How are you at reconnaissance?" Carmelita sighed.

"Well, Sly was always much better at that than I was at Interpol, but I can manage. I'm guessing you need me to infiltrate the building?"

"Well, yes." Carmelita shook her head.

"Damn it." She never was one for breaking and entering, even if it was the home of a known criminal. Still, this was probably the only way she would be able to help Sly. "Fine, I'll agree to it. How am I going to get in though?"

"Come on Carmelita!" Bentley said. "You chased Sly for years! Surely you learned something about breaking and entering a building without being seen!"

"I never really paid attention to that," Carmelita said. "I was too wrapped up in arresting him."

"Well, think! Okay, how did Sly break into Interpol HQ way back when he stole his criminal file?" Carmelita thought for a second.

"He went through the air vent on the roof."

"Exactly! With a building this big, there's sure to be a way in from the top! Most likely an air vent." Carmelita sighed again.

"Okay, I'm on my way."

"One more thing Carmelita. If you find Sly, don't do anything stupid. We can't safely get him out of there without a plan. All we need are some recon photos. Take pictures of anything interesting you find. Machines, cameras, safes, computer terminals, anything you can find that you think might be useful. All of the pictures you take will automatically be sent to my laptop." Carmelita nodded.

"I understand. Do you want me to take a picture of the building itself?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I'm on it." She pressed the button on the binocucom and the transmission was cut off. She took a few pictures of the front of the building and dropped down onto the street. She went through the alley and found a ladder that led up to the roof of the building. She climbed it and looked for a way in. Sure enough, there was an air vent, just large enough for Carmelita to crawl through. She pried off the cover with Sly's cane and laid down in front of the opening. She pulled her self into the vent and started to crawl through it.

It was dark, and she could barely see her hand in front of her face. She continued to crawl through the vent, not knowing what she would find. She turned to the left and continued crawling. She saw a faint light on the side of the vent a few meters from her position. She crawled up to it and looked through the vent cover. She found a room that held a type of cell. She pulled out a binocucom and took a picture of the cell.

"Hmm," Bentley said after she took the photo. "If Sly's really here, then that's most likely where they're keeping him when they're not interrogating him." He studied the photo more. "It looks like it's locked electronically. That explains why Sly couldn't pick the lock. Look around and see if you can find a computer terminal somewhere in the room." Carmelita looked around the room and found the terminal. She snapped another photo.

"Thought so. We'll have to hack into that terminal to open the cell door." Carmelita was about to continue on until she spotted a camera, pointed at the cell door.

"Bentley, there's a surveillance camera pointed at the cell." She took a picture of it.

"Well, that's going to complicate things. I'll think of something." Carmelita tucked her binocucom into her pocket and continued crawling through the air vent. Suddenly, she hit a dead end. There was only one way to go; straight down. She knew that if she made too much noise while going down, she could be discovered. She positioned herself so that she could go down feet first. She spread her legs and pushed her feet against either side of the vent, hard. She slowly pushed herself down. When she got far enough, she pushed her hands on either side of the vent. She slowly edged herself down until she reached the bottom. Quietly, she placed her feet on the bottom of the vent and ducked down into a crawl. Suddenly, she heard a strange noise coming from far away. She couldn't tell, but she thought it might have been a scream. Her face fell. She must have been close to the torture room.

As she continued on, the scream became louder and louder. Between the screams, she could hear a man talking, but she couldn't make out the words. She stopped at a vent cover and looked through it. Sure enough, there was Sly, strapped to a metal table. She pulled out her binocucom and took a few pictures of the room. She then pressed a button on the device, and Bentley's face appeared. She zoomed in. A badger was standing near the table, talking.

"You're a tough one Sly. I can't believe that you're able to bear this much pain. You really are determined. Tell me, why do you refuse to tell us where the cane is?" Sly coughed.

"I'm not going to give in to you bastards." His voice was hoarse, as if he had a sore throat from the screaming.

"Poor Sly. You don't seem to understand. We have other ways of finding your cane." Suddenly, the door across from the room opened. A white tiger walked in. Carmelita gasped. It was Phillip Marakov.

"The idiot failed to get the cane from Carmelita," he said. Sly's ears perked up. Marakov looked at the raccoon and smiled. "Yes Sly, we had to resort to your little girlfriend to try and get the cane. She is quite the gullible one. So determined to save you, she's willing to put herself in danger to do so." Sly said nothing.

"Damn it. He failed to kill her?" the badge said.

"Yes. Our little trap failed. Seems she knew he was there before he took the shot." Sly, despite the situation, smiled.

"You idiots... it takes a lot more than a trap to stop her." The badger quickly punched a few commands, and Sly screamed out in pain. Carmelita's jaw dropped. Sly's body was twitching violently. She looked away.

"Oh my god..." was all that Bentley could manage to say. The screaming suddenly ceased. Carmelita was crying quietly. It was bad enough having to listen to Sly's screams of pain over the phone, but it was quite another to watch him endure that much pain in person.

"Watch your tongue Sly," the badger said. He turned to Marakov. "What now? He's not going to tell us where it is." Marakov thought for a moment.

"Continue the interrogation. If he still refuses to talk after an hour, take him back to the cell and we'll try again tomorrow. If he still doesn't tell us by tomorrow night, we'll kill him." Sly's eyes widened. Marakov looked into Sly's eyes and smiled. "Maybe that will convince Carmelita to hand over the cane." He left the room. Carmelita brought the binocucom back to her face.

"Did you hear that Bentely?"

"Yes. Oh god... Sly. Those... those..."

"I know," Carmelita said. "We need to get him out of there pronto. They're bringing him back to the cell in one hour. I'm coming back to the safe house. Think you can cook up a plan in an hour? We gotta get him out tonight!"

"I think so."

"Okay. I'll see you in a bit." She put her binocucom away and headed back the way she came.

-

"Okay, I've got somewhat of a plan. It's fairly simple actually." Bentley had a slideshow set up in the living room. Murray, Penelope, and Carmelita were sitting down watching him speak. He switched the slide to a picture of the surveillance camera. "Unfortunately, nothing can be done about the surveillance camera. If we try to somehow disrupt the signal, the guards will come running to see what's wrong. No matter what we do, it's going to be a bit of a fight trying to get Sly out of there. Luckily, the camera is only pointed towards the cell door." The picture changed to a small compact disk. "Here's the plan. This disk holds one of my own special hacking programs. With it, I'll be able to control whatever is on that computer terminal from my laptop. Carmelita, you need to get into that room through the vent cover. Avoid the camera's point of view and upload the program into the terminal. This should allow me to open the cell door. Unfortunately, the opening in the air vent is far too high for you and Sly to climb up, and I'm sure that Sly will be in no condition to do any climbing anyways. So, I'm sorry to say, you'll have to escape through the front door."

"Damn it. Well, it shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as I have my shock pistol."

"Exactly my thoughts. Once the door is open, the guards will come running. Murray, you'll need to be our getaway driver. Have the van parked somewhere close enough so you can pick Sly and Carmelita up on short notice."

"Got it!"

"What about Interpol?" Carmelita asked. "Is there a way they can help out?" Bentley shook his head.

"That would only make things more complicated. Well, that's the plan. Let's go save Sly!"

-

Sly lay face down in his cell. He was in far too much pain to do anything else. He had been tortured for nearly ten hours. He couldn't stand the pain. It just wouldn't go away. The room smelled of burnt fur. His muscles ached terribly. He could barely move his arms or legs. He tried to sleep, but the aching kept him wide awake.

They were going to kill him. He knew that. Still, he wasn't about to tell them where his cane was. He wasn't going to sacrifice his friends to save himself. All he could do was hope that somehow, Bentley had a plan to get him out of there. He had always come through in the past. He was certain that Carmelita was probably staying at his house, and he probably knew the whole story.

Just as he thought this, he heard a strange noise coming from somewhere inside the room. He looked around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until the cover to the air vent in the room came off. He saw Carmelita. His jaw dropped. He was about to say something, but she brought her finger up to her mouth, signaling for him to be quiet. She pointed over to the surveillance camera. Sly understood. He had to pretend nothing happened, or the guards would come running.

Carmelita dropped down into the room and looked at the surveillance camera. Luckily, it wasn't moving. That would make things easy. She walked over to the computer terminal, making sure to stay out of the camera's line of vision. She opened up the disk drive and uploaded Bentley's hacking program. She watched the screen as the program installed into the terminal.

"It's done," she whispered into her binocucom. After a few minutes, the cell door opened. Suddenly, an alarm in the building went off. "Damn it, that didn't take long." She pulled out her shock pistol as she ran into the cell. She dropped down by Sly. "Sly, can you stand?" He nodded.

"I think so." He slowly got up to his feet. It was painful, but he knew he had to endure it to get out of there. As soon as he was at his feet, Carmelita hugged him, crying.

"Oh god, I can't believe what they did to you. I saw them..." She sobbed into his shoulder.

"I'll be okay Carmelita. I promise. Now let's get out of here." She nodded. Carmelita led Sly over to the door leading into the room. She opened it slowly and found herself in a hallway. She looked around and saw that there were no guards.

"Come on." She went left in the hall way and peered around the corner. She found the stairs, but there were a few guards running up it. "Damn it. Sly, stay back." She aimed her shock pistol towards the running guards. Right as they spotted her, she began to fire. One guard went down before they were able to return fire. Carmelita ducked behind the wall and waited for the right moment. She listened closely. Then, she heard it. The firing stopped as one of the guards reloaded. She jumped out and fired at the guard. He went down quickly. Before the last guard could retaliate, Carmelita shot another shock bullet into him. He fell down, unconscious.

"That's all the guards they sent?" Carmelita wondered why there were only three. Surely they would have sent more. She ran down the stairs, with Sly following close behind. They found themselves in a large room, with a metal table in the middle of it. There was a door across from the room. Sly shuddered as he looked at the table. They headed towards the door. Before they could get there, it opened. Phillip Marakov walked in carrying a Desert Eagle. He aimed it at Carmelita.

"Sorry, but this is as far as you two get."

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Phew. Chapter 8 is done.

I'm not 100 percent proud of how this one turned out, but it's not bad, I think. Still, it could be better. I also expected it to be much longer. Oh well.

Well I have passed 20,000 words with this chapter. Umm, yayz?

We're nearing the end of this fic. And right after this is finished, I will begin the sequel.

Until next chapter folks!

-eaglefan101