Chapter 2 – Rounding up the Gang

Monaco, Monaco. 2:42pm 22th July 2013

The first place on Bentley's trip is Monaco, the venue for the world wrestling championships. It is the semi finals and Bentley was entering into watching what is one of the most uneven fights of all time. Murray is getting slaughtered on all sides, being slammed and punched all across the ring. The huge baulk of 'The Bonkers Baboon' is too much for Murray. Bentley wheels his wheelchair over to the ring as Murray is getting pinned after another round of brutality. The referee slaps the ground; Murray turns his head to the outside of the ring in desperation only to see Bentley watching on. This spurs Murray on; his best friend has come to support him at just the right time. The second slap snaps him out of his trance and he summons a herculean effort. He gets off the ground and performs a push up that shakes the baboons red posterior off his head. The crowd is quiet after seeing it happen, everyone had all but written off 'The Murray' for this fight. Murray jumps up and performs a smack down on his opponent, knocking what air was in his lungs. Murray gets down on the face of the baboon and the referee slaps thrice. He has won. The crowd is silent at what they have witnessed. But this turns into loud and screaming cheers. Murray salutes the crowd by posing with his signature bicep flex. Bentley is overjoyed for Murray, feeling that by him being there has changed the outcome. Murray gets out of the ring and is mobbed by reporters and cameramen. Bentley follows close behind. Murray enters his dressing room and Bentley knocks on the door. Murray opens it knowing who it is.

"Buddy, I'm so glad to see you." Murray says overjoyed that Bentley was there.

"Me too Murray." Bentley politely replies.

"Do you have news on Sly?" Murray asks, he knows that Bentley hasn't seen him since those events on that fateful night. It is his first chance to ask this question.

"I'm getting close, I need your help though." Bentley offers a small glimmer of hope.

"Say no more, The Murray Is ready." Murray states as he gets up ready to leave.

"Okay, we have to get the others first; I want everyone to be ready in case we find out Sly's location." Bentley explains as they walk towards the back exit.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go." Murray says, too eager to keep going. But as they open the door, reporters mob the exit shouting questions at him about his amazing win. Murray slowly shields a path towards his van that is parked nearby. The reporters keep trying to push Bentley out of the way in order to get closer to the finalist. Murray stops and makes sure that the journalists do not bully Bentley. They get to the van where they get inside, the reporters are forced to make way as Murray toots the horn and revs the engine. They exit the Riviera and head out to the next destination. The van itself has had most of the gadgets removed from it, the time machine and the hovering pack have been removed and are collecting dust in Bentley's lab. Murray doesn't mind it being back to normal, it allows him to get a sense a raw sense of driving. His van is now his signature pink colour which is part of his rebranding strategy. Murray doesn't mind the van being back to normal, it allows him to get a raw driving experience. After 4 hours of fast lane driving, they arrive at their next destination Lyon.

Lyon, France, 6:34pm 23 July 2013

Lyon, the home of Interpol headquarters is the next destination and one Carmelita Montoya Fox is working at her desk, not all of an agents work is done in the field. It's her most hated part of this job, filing reports for the multitude of bosses that sit above her. No matter how many criminals she arrests, the bosses above still control her moves. She is ready to make the long commute back to Paris in time for another round of late night searching. She had taken Sly's departure very hard even if she didn't show it. She dare not show anything to her bosses, they might suspect that she is colluding with him. It would explain why she hasn't been able to catch him yet. Carmelita turns around to get out of her office but already at the door is Geoffrey, one of the handlers for the agents. He works almost exclusively with Carmelita, whereas most handlers can juggle 3 agents, Carmelita goes through so much crime she has one to herself. She is about to walk past him when her phone vibrates in her pocket; she stops to take it out. Blocked number, usually it would be another bureaucrat explaining that you can't just go shooting criminals without a warrant or permit, but this time it's different.

"Hello."

"Carmelita." Bentley's voice sends a shiver down her spine, not much scares this vixen but this time is one of them, she has been waiting for this call for 3 weeks now. She goes back into her office and shuts the door on Geoffrey.

"Go on, say it." She says, expecting the worst.

"No, no, no. It's not that" Bentley says in a reassuring tone.

"Then what is it?" Carmelita asks with haste.

"It's about Sly." Bentley replies.

"Do you know where he is?" Carmelita asks with a renewed sense of hope.

"I'm getting close but I need your help." Bentley explains to her.

"I'm on my way." She replies. Putting the phone back in her pocket and retrieving her items as quickly as possible; her jacket, her badge and most importantly her shock pistol. The door opens again and to Geoffrey's surprise she is ready to leave.

"Where are you going?" He asks as she walks past him, Geoffrey tags along.

"I've got a new lead on a very important case." She replies, concealing it's true nature.

"Is it about the prison breakout?" he asks in hope more than anything else.

"No, there was no evidence or video at all, no clues, we wait until more turns up. But for now I must go" She replies. Carmelita ditches Geoffrey as she picks up her speed to get out of the building to the van that is parked outside. As she turns the corner to use the lifts, the director turns up; he is the last person she wants to see.

"Carmelita, do you have a moment?" he asks in a polite but slightly condescending way. He likes to throw his weight around so to speak.

"No I must go." She says as she walks straight past him.

"It's about your late night stakeouts, we're getting worried." He says. She is shocked that he even knows about it, every time she can be there, she is on that same stretch of river in Paris, searching for anything.

"About what?" She asks, confused why they are worried about her.

"You spend so much time in these stakeouts yet it takes you no time at all to arrest criminals." He replies. She knows he is hiding something, she sees through anyone in this building.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." She says.

"You need to be re-evaluated." He says.

"You want to re-evaluate your best agent?" She replies, confused at why he wants this to be done.

"For security reasons" he lets slip out of his mouth. She knows that 'Security reasons' is just a buzzword that means you must do this.

"If you will excuse me, I have a case to solve." Carmelita says as she presses the button to call the elevator. The director is shocked by her audacity, he has received reports about her behaviour but this is truly something. But he doesn't shout back, instead he waits for Carmelita to go into the elevator then gets onto his phone and makes a call. Meanwhile, Carmelita is busy thinking about Sly, the good times, the bad times; she can't stop thinking about him. She does stop thinking when guards meet her at the elevator doors.

"Inspector Fox" One of the guards announces, "I ask you to stop immediately and come with us." But to their dismay she just walks straight past them and out of the door, completely ignoring them. She walks up to the van and gets inside. The guards have no answer for this; they know that this particular agent has one temper you don't want to be on the wrong side of. Murray drives with great speed, eager to get out of the place that they want to avoid at all costs in the future.

"This better be worth it Bentley." Carmelita says, angry with what she had to go through with the director. In Bentley's lap are the three postcards that have troubled him so much. Carmelita sees Bentley looking at them, expecting almost that he doesn't believe what he is seeing.

"These postcards are why you are here now" Bentley tries to say in a confident way but the scariness of the situation breaks through his voice. "This one shows her breakout, this one is a lab where I get my parts from and this place, is the Paris museum of history." Bentley gives the to Carmelita to look at, her detective eye might be able to find something his technology may not find.

"That's from her breakout?" She asks, "It's what everyone at Interpol is trying to figure out. But these places, I've never heard of any thefts from these places."

"That's the really bad news." Bentley replies as if he has been chained to one bite of knowledge that holds him back.

"Then whats the bad news?" Murray chimes while doing 200km/h down the fast lane.

"The only conclusion I can bring from these photos is that she is building another time machine. Do you know of any other labs that supply parts for a gravity encabulator?" Bentley explains.

"If she stole your plans then the museum must hold the key to where she's going." Carmelita says as she figures it out.

"Precisely." Bentley concurs.

"Is that where we are going now?" asks Carmelita, knowing that they must be watching her in Paris.

"Yep, we find out what she took and then get the time machine from my lab." Bentley explains.

"You think Sly is stuck in a different time and that Penelope knows where she is?" Carmelita questions.

"She built Le Paradox the time machine, she must know where it's programmed to go first. That's the really, really, really bad news." Bentley worries, an anxious look riddles his face as if the van is not going fast enough.

"So was is this really, really, really bad news?" Carmelita asks. Bentley almost has trouble saying this but he builds in confidence.

"I fear she's going to try to blackmail me or worse by using Sly to get me working in some military base making weapons, earning her billions" Bentley explains.

"And the really, really bad news" Carmelita follows up.

"That." Bentley pauses, holding his tongue like he doesn't want to say it. There's some he wants to hide but it will be no good to anyone if he hides it form her any longer.

"That she might have read the…" Bentley hesitates again, unable to even say those next two words.

"Read what?" Carmelita asks. Bentley is silent as if pretending that the conversation never took place.

"You're gonna be like that, fine, I believe I'm owed a favour from you, so tell me what did she read?" Carmelita asks again. Bentley doesn't show it, but he is slightly annoyed that she remembers it. He really doesn't want to tell this to her, but she's now one of the gang.

"She read… The Thievius Raccoonus" Bentley ekes out from himself, he now wants to crawl back into his shell after revealing one of the biggest secrets that Sly has to the woman that wants to track him down. She doesn't even know what it is exactly, but the Raccoonus part alludes to her that it must have something to do with Sly.

"What makes it so… bad… for us?" Carmelita asks, confused at what Bentley is trying to convey. Bentley is more comfortable explaining what it is, but still is hesitant.

"It's a book that has been in the Cooper family for thousands of years, it details their heists, the techniques and lives that they lived." In Carmelita's head, her law enforcement brain gets working almost reflexively, all of Sly's heists in one book. She quickly quashes these thoughts, knowing that would be the worst thing to do right now, to betray everyone, to betray Sly. Bentley gets on his phone after saying this like he needs an escape. He's calling the last remaining member of the gang.

Walking down the streets of Amsterdam is one disco crazed iguana that is getting ready for a long night. He's got the clothes, or 'threads' as he'd say, to get through the night. He is literally a party animal. His phone rings out of his jacket pocket and in one motion he gets it our and receives the call, like he's rehearsed the move many times.

"Dimitri" Bentley answers.

"Yo Bentley, I did not expect you calling." Dimitri replies in his way, he learned English by watching music videos.

"Where are you?" Bentley asks.

"I came to the city of Amsterdam baby! I've been grooving and scubing amongst the dykes!" He exclaims, this is certainly a change from the tropical islands that he visited in his first episodes of his hit TV show "Disco Diver".

"Just stay there, I'll come get you next morning." Bentley instructs.

"That's down with the D" Dimitri shouts into the phone, he turns it off and slips it into his jacket, he then turns to the camera crew following him.

"Edit that out." He says in a break of character. He then resumes being the over exuberant, nighttime, disco lover that he naturally is. He enters the club with the camera crew in toe for a night of disco.