A.N. First I would like to apologise for not updating in a while and now here are a list of my poor and unnecessary excuses:

I have been completely uninspired and unmotivated for this chapter I've tried to write it but struggle to come up with ideas. However I believe the next chapter will be better.

But to make up for this I will be updating two chapter so make sure you look out for it as I will be updating it the day after this one just to make sure people don't skip over this chapter.

But if you have followed this story then you can just ignore this as you will be notified, obviously.

But on a lighter note this story has nearly 900 views and my first story Thief's Beginning has over 1800. Thank you to everyone who has read my stories, and continues to read them, also anyone who has followed, favorited and reviewed.

Lola's POV

Well after that I can't say things are going well, turns out I made too good of an impression on Rajan and now I'm practically his assistant. Despite him actually having a trained assistant I haven't been allowed out of his site, and as one of his employees I have no choice.

Plus with his old methods of torture I don't really want to go against him.

Although this does slightly compromise the plan, I'm doing my part, stay close to Rajan, keep an eye on his operation, and all that. But I can't share my findings since I'm not allowed out of his sight; all employees must stay near the palace at all times. I have to stay even closer.

So at this point I'm pretty much useless, then again this may not be such a bad thing, I'm sitting in the big castle while everyone else endures the action and tries to complete the operation. I get to rub elbows with the world's finest and they are out there trying not to get killed.

If you didn't pick up on my earlier sarcasm, I'm extremely jealous and don't want to be here.

At least the others are doing something productive and hopefully I'll be away from this creep soon. I've been using the party to "get lost" but it doesn't last long.

But I must give him 100 determined points.

Sly's POV

Well with the drawbridge down, so the others can get through but, Lola's out of the game. I knew no good could come from her working for Rajan. Now she's tied to him and pretty much useless to us now.

Although maybe if we find the contract and destroy it she won't have to.

Murray's POV

Since the drawbridge is down it was my turn out on the field. Rajan's palace sure was big, but the Vegas style parts made it seem tacky.

Bentley pointed me towards one of the buildings' rooftop; once I was on it he'd give me more instructions.

There were a lot of guards around and those guys were big, easy to knock out, but big.

I was on the roof and waited for Bentley's orders.

"That chopper is a menace to all future operations while on this job." Bentley said.

"Yeah, it's all covered in missiles and guns and stuff."

"Now be a team player and take it out with that rusty pre-war turret." Bentley ordered.

"OK, I had a potato gun once; I bet it works just the same."

Well looks like I'd be shooting down that chopper, can't complain.

That chopper sure had a lot of ammo; luckily it still was no match for 'The Murray' I had that chopper down in no time.

With that done all I had to do was get back to the safe house.

Lucky we, Bentley had another presentation.

Bentley's POV

"Since Lola can't be here someone will have to brief her about this later." I said.

"Anyway, here's what we have to do. To get the Clockwerk wings we need to use the electric winch above the ballroom, to get control of the device I'll have to hack the computers in Rajan's control room. Plus we'll need an extra strong sawblade to cut the wings off the statue, to make a saw that strong Sly will have to steal the gems off the headdresses of Rajan's prized elephants. Finally I'll take to the field with my remote control helicopter and nullify the palaces air defences."

Sly's POV

I was back out on the field; I think it would help if I told Lola about the plan. Plus maybe she'd know where her contract is.

Getting back into the palace is easier the second time round, locating Lola is the difficult part.

Eventually I found her right by Neyla, surprisingly. They seemed to be deep in conversation before I came over. But Neyla left when I addressed Lola.

"What are you doing here? Are you purposely trying to get caught?" Lola said.

Clearly someone's happy to see me.

"No but I felt I should tell you Bentley's plan, and I also came to find out if you knew where Rajan hid your contract."

"Why would I know where the contract is? Rajan may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but he's not dumb enough to tell me where he hid the deed to my soul." She replied.

"Okay, anyway Bentley's plan doesn't require you for the moment, but we will be crawling round the palace and you may have to keep Rajan from becoming suspicious." I said.

"Fine, jeez like I don't already have to spend enough time with him."

"Well I'm sure you love birds will hit it off in no time."

"Seriously Sly knock it off, I didn't choose this position, and I can't help it if he likes me. At least he knows how to show a girl he appreciates her." She strutted off.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" I called.

But I knew exactly what that meant. Although it wasn't entirely my fault, I was young and I was finally free from the orphanage no curfews no chores I was a man. So I wanted to travel and see things go out and have experiences.

I wasn't heartless sure I knew break ups were upsetting, and I was upset too, Lola's great I did love her. But I'm not an idiot, long distance relationships usually fail and if I was away for a while I could have met anyone and I didn't want to cheat. Okay so I might have been thinking of myself a little but I was also thinking of her, say she met someone I didn't want her in the same type of situation.

Besides I came back… and dumped her again to fight Clockwerk. But she could have been in danger. She was in danger, I found her at the volcano bloody and bruised, and she could have been in twice the danger with us. Even though that was true, I might have at least given her the decency of explaining this to her face rather than leaving a note not explaining most of this and pretty much just dumping her.

But still, I kinda have a thing for Carmelita now, who I encountered while travelling, see our relationship would have been doomed.

Anyway even though I upset her, I'm still hurt we had great times together. Like when we broke into the Louvre to have a late night picnic or when we'd annoy the neighbours. I know I sound heartless but I do care for Lola very much. The thing is people change, she's my first love and you don't forget that but I've moved on with my life now, she needs to stop holding grudges and move on to, we can still be friends, I mean we were friends while we were together, don't see why we can't be now.

If I find her contract maybe that will ease the bridge between us, I have time a quick search won't hurt, even if I just find out where it is.

I searched the upper levels of the palace but it was just a bunch of locked offices and a lot more guards. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that one double door room belongs to Rajan and that could contain the contract.

But I couldn't worry about that now I had to get on with the plan and come back later.

Now I was off to the other side of the palace currently supervise by Muggshot. I still haven't figured out what he gains from this from what I know Rajan is top dog. I mean sure he has a club but this party is mainly for Rajan's prestige and the guests are all corralled in the palace.

Well we'll see, now I have to rile up some elephants.

"Sly we need to find a way to get Rajan's prized elephants out of their pen." Bentley said as I approached a pen with an elephant symbol on the door.

"I don't know Bentley, that door looks pretty heavy. Maybe, I can crawl in that hole under the steps and find an alternate route. I replied.

Crawling under the steps was not exactly enjoyable and the amount of mice under there didn't help. Fortunately my presence spooked them. But the loud roaring above me didn't sound good. So crawling under the steps was no longer an option and as I heard a door break I crawled back out.

Well at least the elephants are out.

I could see an elephant shaking a few feet in front of me.

"Wow he sure looks spooked." I said looking at the elephant.

"A job well done Sly. Now comes the hard part. I need you to snatch the headdress jewels worn by both elephants. It may take some time as the jewels are firmly embedded but should come free after a few good whacks." Bentley explained.

"I'll need to make use of the rooftops to get on one of the elephant's backs… but it shouldn't be a problem."

I quickly jumped out the way as the elephant came charging towards me. Those elephants seemed almost possessed.

It was definitely a lot more of a problem than I thought. The first gem was easy but the others not so much. Those elephants sure put up a fight and combined with the guards and the fact the elephants keep kicking me off I was getting bored of this.

After battling rampaging elephants and guards I still wasn't done. Now I had to go through a sewer and get into Rajan's control room.

The room had two large flashlight guards and a few long tables, in the middle were a vault room and as I looked up I could see a large platform, working as an upper deck.

Taking down the guards was easily done, but I didn't appreciate having to crawl under tables to get the code. I could also hear Rajan's voice over a tannoy in the control room. He mentioned something about a spice operation.

The final table I crawled under contained the vault room code which once used to gain access to the vault room allowed me to open the door for Bentley and Murray to enter.

After letting the guys in I joined them on the upper platform.

"Nice work pal, The Murray approves." Murray said.

Bentley quickly got us back on track.

"I need to hack both the vault room computers to get control of the electronic winch in the ballroom." Bentley replied.

"So what are me and Sly here for?" Murray asked.

I think I already know where this is going.

"The second I enter their servers they'll be onto us. You guys need to work together to keep the thugs off my back." Bentley explained.

Called it.

"You and me pal side by side." I said to Murray.

"The Murray knows no fear." Murray said and Bentley got hacking.

Bentley was right almost the second he started hacking guards piled into the room. Murray and I had a tough fight ahead, we had to cover Bentley but there were so many at once.

But it was nothing we couldn't handle. After hacking both computers the guards stopped coming in and the ones in the room were beat and down.

I was rather impressed and proud of my team Bentley was fast at hacking and moving quickly from computer to computer and Murray was knocking guards left and right.

"I'm unstoppable! I've got control of the winch. Thanks for the backup guys." Bentley said.

"No problem."

"Murray lets hook up the direct feed and get out of here while the coast is clear." Bentley said and the two of them made their exit.

I shortly followed them but that door had me curious, even if I didn't find the contract I wanted to know more about Rajan and Muggshots plans.

Plus I think there may be more to Rajan's 'spice operation' than we first thought.