Chapter 20: Recon and a Surprise
"I hate this. I hate this. I hate this." Cami muttered to herself in a chant-like fashion. The van was flying, thanks to Bentley and Penelope, and Cami had her eyes squeezed shut and she was holding onto Sam.
"Chill, Cam." Sam reassured her. "We're almost there."
"Is that supposed to reassure me, Brother Dear? Because it doesn't, the place we are heading towards is a giant blimp, which the last time I checked meant a flying machine." Cami said. She was concentrating on breathing.
"Was it smart to leave Dimitri behind?" Sam asked Bentley.
"Dimitri skills involve swimming and I think it would be best if a celebrity like him returns to his adoring fans." Bentley was looking better than he did when he first found Sly and Carmelita. He had attended to his personal hygiene and slept for a good long time on the flight up.
There was another reason that Bentley had left Dimitri behind. Dimitri was the fail-safe place to send Cami and Sam should things not go well. The entire gang knew this, but Cami and Sam. Despite what Sam and Cami might think, the gang was not going to let two teenaged kids risk their lives, even if they were Coopers.
"There it is!" Murray announced. "I'm putting the van down there, bud."
"Good spot Murray. We'll be out of view and close enough to have easy access to the main part of the blimp." Penelope looked over Murray's shoulder.
The Guru spoke up in his strange language as the van landed gently on the blimp. Then what shall we do? We do not know whom or what we are up against.
"Yes, the koala speaks true. We are ignorant of our opponents and that is dangerous." Panda King said gravely. "We must know more and then we shall strike."
"I agree, Panda King. We need a little recon." Bentley said. "Sam, Cami," He turned around to see an empty space where Sam and Cami should have been sitting and the back doors of the van open. "Oh, no. Sam! Cami!" Bentley called. He stuck his head out of the van and looked around.
"They're gone?" Penelope looked out the van too.
"Just like Cooper." Panda King said in his low voice. "They are fast. Although, I am surprised the small one could leave the van. She was frozen with fear."
Perhaps Bentley can find them via binocucom? Guru asked.
"Yes, probably." Bentley pulled up his computer. "Just give me a sec."
Sam
"Hello? Can you hear me, Sam?" Bentley voice sounded in Sam's ear. Sam had been climbing on the side of the blimp trying to find a way in while avoiding guards and cameras.
"Yup." Sam said quietly. "What's up?"
"What's up? WHAT'S UP? You guys left before we could make a plan! Get back to the van!" Bentley ordered.
Sam smiled slightly. "Sorry, Bentley. Cam and I aren't up for waiting around. We need action. I'm not heading back to the van, besides Cam didn't take one of these little earpieces. I'll come back when I've got something done or when Cami gets back, which ever comes first. So, are you going to help me or not?"
"If I say your sister's back will you believe me?" Bentley asked weakly.
"She would not have come back to the van that quickly, Bentley." Sam remarked as he looked over the edge onto the clouds.
"Fine, Sam. There is an access panel right above you that will get you inside the blimp. Do me a favor and take some recon photos." Bentley said grudgingly.
"Thanks Bentley. I owe you one." Sam pried the vent cover off and slid inside the gap.
Sam spire jumped onto a post inside and looked around the room. It was a control room with three cyborg guards. The room was surprising small.
"Stay out of sight and get to that little crawl space over there. I think I can guide you to the detention level." Sam jumped off the post and landed silently behind the guards. He crept to the crawl space with ease and slid inside. It was a tight fit, but Sam just grit his teeth and pushed forward.
"Take a right up here. How'd you get your sister out of the van? She looked like she was going to faint." Bentley asked.
"Cam got out the moment the van hit the ground. I just followed her. She dropped inside one of the vents and I couldn't follow her." Sam said as he made his way through the vents.
"Why couldn't you follow her?" Bentley asked, slightly perplexed.
"She went down a vent I couldn't fit into. She's small enough to fit inside, but I'm not." Sam said. "Where to now?" He asked when he came to a fork in the vent.
"Left." Bentley said curtly. "I thought she was acrophobic, how did she get the courage to get out of the van?"
Sam snorted. "Cam is very stubborn and, well, I guess she just associated flying with the van and needed to get out for her sanity's sake and when she saw the height on the blimp, she ducked into the nearest cover. My sister is weird." He finished simply.
Sam came to the end of the ventilation shaft. He gently pushed the cover off and perched on a chandelier. He pulled out the binocucom and looked around the room.
"Get a couple pictures of the security systems and the computer terminals." Bentley advised.
"And of the guards weapons stash." Penelope interjected.
Sam took the pictures and leapt around the room soundlessly. He landed lightly on top of another platform high above the ground and took multiple photos for Bentley and Penelope.
Sam lowered the binocucom. "Anything else, Bentley?"
"There is a hallway right below you. Do you think you can get through it without alerting anyone?" Bentley asked teasing.
"That is a little more Cam's forte, but I'll manage." Sam remarked as he jumped onto the ground.
Sam slid down the hallway soundlessly. He had a few close shaves with the guards, but he managed to get through it by jumping onto the second level. There were countless cells but every single one Sam passed was empty. Sam found two guards sitting in the back of the cellblock together. He thought nothing of it until he got a glimpse of whom they were guarding.
Sam had to hold back a gasp when he saw his mother pacing inside the cell opposite the wall he was on. Sam immediately picked up his binocucom and took a picture of her and the cell. Sam looked around for his father. He had to be nearby.
"Sam? You found Carmelita? I just got the picture. Is Sly somewhere there?" Bentley asked urgently.
"Where's Sly?" Murray asked loudly over the communicator. There were similar remarks from all of the Cooper Gang.
"I can't see him." Sam whispered. "But I can see Mom."
"You hear something?" One of the cyborg guards asked suddenly.
"Just the sound of your ludicrous conversations." Carmelita did not miss a chance to insult them.
"And your stupid remarks." The other guard said without missing a beat.
"And your inane comebacks." Sam recognized his father's voice.
It was coming from beneath him. Sam jumped the gap onto the platform above his mother's cell to get a better vantage point. Sly was in the cell opposite Carmelita and was mouthing off to the guards. Sam pulled out the binocucom and took multiple pictures of Sly and his cell.
"Good job, Sam. Come back to the van. We need to come up with a plan." Bentley said.
"I can't just leave them here." Sam whispered. He knew the guards would not hear him because they were arguing with Carmelita and Sam.
"You have to." Bentley said matter-of-factly. "We'll get them out, but rash moves are not going to help us."
"Fine." Sam whispered. "Is Cam back?"
"Yes." Bentley said. "Now get out of there."
Sam lingered, reluctant to leave, but he knew Bentley was right. Besides, Cami had gotten back to the van. There was no reason for him to be here. Suddenly Sam noticed that Sly was staring right at him. Sly quickly looked away to not draw attention and rejoined the conversation.
"I personally think that you are both useless hunks of metal with a weak point at the left ankle." Sly winked at Sam.
"We do not have a weak point on our left ankle, it is on our upper right shoulder." One of the cyborg guards said proudly. Sam finally identified that the guards were part polar bear and part robot.
"You idiot." The other guard said and smacked the first guard.
"Don't hit me!" The first guard hit the second guard back. While the guards were brawling, Sly risked another look at Sam. Sly was clearly telling him to get away will the guards were busy. Sam nodded and silently made his way out of the blimp and back to the van.
When Sam entered the van, the first thing he noticed was that Cami was not there.
"Where's Cami?" Sam asked immediately. "You said she was here." Sam looked at Bentley.
Guru and Penelope stepped in front of the back doors that Sam had entered through.
"She's not back yet." Bentley said matter-of-factly.
"You told me she was!" Sam exclaimed. "Why did you tell me she was?"
"We needed you back here. You said that you would come back once you got something done or when Cami got back. You can't deny you have made progress, and saying Cami was back would provide extra incentive for you to return to the van." Bentley said. "Sorry about lying, but we needed you back here, and don't try to go after Cami. She'll return, eventually."
"Oh, great." Sam sighed. "So, we're stuck here until Cami returns?"
"Yes, but we will get a plan together." Penelope said confidently. "Don't worry."
Just then, Bentley's computer beeped. Bentley raised an eyebrow and wheeled himself over to the computer.
"I'm getting photos, from … Cami?" Bentley said surprised.
Can you trace it? The Guru asked.
Penelope had come up next to Bentley and they were both typing on the same keyboard in an attempt to trace where the photos were coming from. Sam looked over their shoulders, but did not understand the stream of computer code on the screen.
"Something out here is jamming the signal, but we are getting the photos from her." Penelope said sounding rather perplexed.
"Then how did you talk to me?" Sam asked pulling the earpiece out of his ear to look at it.
"This signal just recently started. Great, now we've alerted whomever we're up against." Bentley said.
"Sorry." Sam said quietly.
"What are the photos of?" Panda King asked.
"Whoa. Are those?" Murray asked quietly in disbelief as he looked over on the screen.
"Yeah." Bentley swallowed. "This is not good."
Cami
Cami jumped out of the van the moment it landed and almost immediately regretted it. She was up too high. Cami ducked into a vent without thinking. She needed something solid beneath her and that was the closest thing she was going to get.
"Cami!" Sam called. He sounded concerned.
Cami tried to move back to the entrance of the vent but found she couldn't. Her tail was keeping her from going backwards, but she could keep going forwards.
Great. Cami thought. I guess I have to get to the end and then renter the vent. Oh, great, Cami. Life would have been so much better if you weren't acrophobic. What kind of thief is acrophobic?
Cami came to a fork in the vent. After a moment hesitation, she took the one on the left. She followed it until she came to the end of the ventilation shaft. Cami gently removed the vent cover and slid out of the vent into what looked like an office. Cami looked back at the vent and saw that it was out of her reach.
"Oh, great." Cami whispered. She looked around the office for anything that could help her get back in the vent. There was a large desk, a couple file cabinets, a couple chairs and locked door.
One of the cabinets was placed very close to the vent cover, hopefully close enough that if Cami moved it no one would notice. Cami pressed her ear against the door to check for anyone outside. Hearing nothing, Cami tried to push the cabinet as quietly as she could. She managed to move it about an inch, but she wasn't strong enough to get it any further. Cami hoped it was close enough. Cami pulled out the drawers just barely enough for her to use as steps. Cami took a deep breath and lightly stepped on her hastily made steps. She tried to move quickly but her foot slipped into the cabinet.
"Oh, dang it!" Cami pulled her foot out of the drawer and tried to straighten the files she crushed.
A name on the files made her stop and open it. The name was 'Sly Cooper'. It was even more detailed than the Interpol file. Near the bottom next to Status was 'captured' was written. Cami kneeled down and started leafing through the files. She pulled out several with familiar names: Carmelita Fox, Panda King, Murray, Bentley, Penelope, Guru, Dimitri, Samuel Fox, and Camille Cooper. She started reading the files as quickly as she could and tried to remember everything she read.
Cami then mentally slapped herself. She had a camera in the binocucom. She pulled it out and took pictures of every page of every file. She tried calling the Gang over the binocucom, but got nothing. Cami put the files back and tried to remedy it as best as she could.
Cami abandoned the vent approach and shut the cabinet up. She picked the lock to the door and snuck out into the hallway. The hallway was not empty, nor did Cami expect it to be. She easily slid in and out of invisibility as she bypassed the guards. Whenever Cami came to a door she had to wait for a guard to open it so she could pass through undetected. Multiple times she had to hide in a creative place or hope that her invisibility technique would hold. It didn't help her that every so often she would pass a window that showed her how high the blimp was.
Don't look, Cami. Don't look, Cami. She chanted in her head, but occasionally she still glanced at the windows.
Cami found the door to the outside and, instead of waiting for a guard, slid inside a vent. She saw the van half-hidden behind a giant wing-thing. Cami sucked in a breath and blindfolded herself with a scrap of her shirt.
Hopefully, if I can't see it, I won't be afraid. Cami thought that she slid out of the vent. Cami stood there for a moment. She wasn't afraid, but she had no idea which way the van was. Irony. Cami thought.
"Cam!" Cami heard Sam say. Cami felt Sam take her hand and pull her into the van.
Cami pulled the blindfold off. "Did you get the photos?"
"Yes. It seems we have more to worry about then I thought." Bentley said seriously.