Maximum-security prison, Exact Location Classified, Europe. 9:45am 26 July 2013.
20 hours, and several fuel stops later, the gang arrives at the toughest maximum-security prison in all of Europe. It's so infamous it's just known as 'the chasm' because once you got in you were never going to get out. By this time they had gotten rid of the jet engine and were driving up to the prison itself. The plan was simple. Carmelita would use her police credentials to get Sly inside so they can interrogate a prisoner who might know something else about the pink Dutch mouse. Bentley hasn't told anyone about the true nature of the prisoner yet, but he has managed to arrange this meet by using Carmelita's Interpol account. They pull up to the prison itself in the van where Carmelita and Sly get out and the others go wait in the parking lot. Sly doesn't have a clue what they are doing here but knows he has to conceal his identity, he is wearing is black shirt with a turtleneck and karki pants.
"I'll get you in then you need to interrogate the prisoner." Carmelita tells Sly.
"I thought you were going to put me in jail." Sly jokes. He then gets on the sarcasm. "Hopefully he or she doesn't hold any grudges against me."
"You can bet on that." She answers. "Before I forget, Bentley told me for you to put on this." She gives Sly what looks like a sticker with heaps of circuitry on it. "You tape it to your neck." She instructs. Sly does what he is told and hides it behind the high neck.
"What does this do?" He says in Carmelita's voice. "Bentley, what did you do? He radios to Bentley.
"Sorry Carmelita, I was looking for Sly." Bentley jokes. The others are laughing their faces off in the van.
"Bentley, you know who I am." He says now with Bentley's voice. They are just cracking up in the van.
"Of course I know who I am." Bentley says before laughing so hard he almost breaks his shell.
"Bentley, you can load up the actual voice now." Carmelita radios to Bentley in order to get serious.
"Very funny Bentley." Sly says none too impressed at his antics.
"Okay, he's what you'll be sounding like." Bentley says as he loads up the right voice.
"Testing." Sly says cautiously, he sounds like Dimitri, which is definitely not what he wanted. "Do you want me to sound ridiculous?"
"Do you want to be caught?" Bentley says, trying to make a point. The couple walk into the prison entrance where they are greeted by a guard at the checkpoint. She flashes her badge at them.
"He's with me." She tells the guard on duty.
"We need to check that badge ma'am." The guard tells Carmelita.
"At least you're doing your job correctly." She complements the guard.
"It's what I've been doing for 8 years now." The guard replies back as he scans he badge, the result comes up red. No entry.
"Is there something you're trying to pull on me?" The guard says half suspicious of their true reason here. He knows they have booked to be there but there have been attempts like this before.
"I'm from Interpol, surely you can check again." She asks him.
"Bentley can you hack into the security systems?" Sly quietly whispers into the earpiece.
"Sure thing Dimitri." He replies back. The joke is getting old now but he gets down to business. Meanwhile the badge doesn't clear the security scanner again.
"I'm sorry, it's not valid." The guard tells Carmelita.
"Just one more time, I insist." Carmelita pleas to the guard. Reluctantly he gives it just one last time. It comes up green.
"Oh, sorry Ms. Fox, about the malfunction, these systems need replacing anyway." The guard quickly explains to the Interpol agent, fearing his job may have just ended.
"Don't shoot yourself over it." She replies back. Sly and Carmelita walk down the hallway to the interrogation room. The room is made up of two areas. A raised area, fitted with one-way glass so you can see the prisoner but they can't see you, and an area that is completely bare except for a chair and table. The two of them go into the upper area. Ready to receive the prisoner.
"So who is it I'm meeting?" Sly asks Carmelita, he has been dying for the answer.
"He should be coming in right now." Carmelita tells Sly. She has her own doubts about this meeting as well. But in plain sight there is nothing to hide from the raw truth that confronts them now. In walks Le Paradox with 2 guards in biohazard gear to protect them from the foul smell. The fact that this is even happening causes Sly to boil with rage at the presence of le Paradox. However he consoles himself with the fact that he has already gotten the better of him before. He gets down to the business of interrogation. The voice changer is turned on. The microphone is turned on. The reunion begins.
"Mister Le Paradox, I'm from Interpol and I'm investigating the disappearance of Penelope from prison." Sly asks Le Paradox using Dimitri's voice.
"She what? I know nothing about this." The skunk replies back, surprised that she has the ability to escape a prison.
"You worked with her previously I understand." Sly adds.
"She was the smart one, but escaping from prison? She's couldn't do that?" Le Paradox questions himself and his interrogator.
"Was there anything, weird about her?" Sly asks Le Paradox.
"She kept on stealing my artworks, my priceless artworks. Can you recover them for me? If you do I'll give full cooperation, and I know how much you cops treasure that." He says already scheming his opportunities.
"That's not going to work out for the both of us." Sly replies back.
"Just a few paintings, that's all." Le Paradox makes the task seem quite easy. But Sly isn't going to fall for it.
"I'm not going to be tricked again." Sly returns fire.
"Again? What do you mean? I've never met you before." Le Paradox asks his unknown interrogator.
"It's just I fell for that trick working on my last case. It didn't turn out well for me." Sly answers, expertly recovering the situation.
"That's too bad, you have my greatest sympathies." Le Paradox apologises sarcastically. Carmelita senses it might get out of hand, despite her own hate for Le Paradox, she urges Sly to concentrate on the mission.
"Back to Penelope." She whispers in his ear.
"Penelope, Do you know what she's doing now?" Sly says returning to the subject of Penelope.
"It might be on those paintings that I want back." Le Paradox answers.
"Your paintings are probably hanging up in a public gallery somewhere for the entire world to see your poor taste in art." Sly retorts back.
"That's it, take me back to my cell where I can't hear your pathetic taste in art." Le Paradox replies, angry that his taste has been brought into question. Bentley tries to pull the reins back on Sly.
"Sly, you need to contain whatever grudges you have so we can get the info." He messages to Sly over the radio. But Sly has already taken off the voice changer and has given it to Carmelita. She assumes the role of interrogator while Sly tries to get out of the room. Bentley has already been quick to contain them, locking them inside so they don't do anything drastic. Sly is trying to pick the electronic lock while Carmelita is speaking.
"So Mister Le Paradox, you better tells us now or it will get very uncomfortable in your cell." She says in Dimitri's voice.
"There's nothing you could take away." Le Paradox tries to explain to the interrogator.
"What if I put something in?" She suggests.
"That's very dangerous; I can get out using anything." Le paradox boasts.
"Some distasteful art? Some perfume perhaps?" She suggests again.
"Pah, nothing really matters." Le Paradox says trying to deceive the interrogator by moping.
"This information matters." She says to Le Paradox.
"I'm in a cell for life plus 100 years, I have nothing to live for." He repeats in his moping ways.
"Maybe the guards can help you out?" Carmelita suggests, showing that she means business. One of the guards starts to approach Le paradox to roughen him up a little bit but Le paradox is wise to it, he dodges a swing with the butt of the gun and jumps onto the back of the unsuspecting guard to choke him to death using the handcuffs he has attached to his wrists. After the guards body is no longer moving, the skunk takes his gun and points it at the other guard, who in turn points it at him.
"Your friend is dead, you won't shoot me. Put down the gun before I do the same to you." Le Paradox threatens to the guard who seems to be quivering in his boots. They may look tough on the outside but that's not always how things are on the inside.
"Don't put it down." Carmelita instructs from the booth. However the guard puts the gun down, only to be met with a shot to the chest, killing him as well.
"Something I learned in my prison education, now you were going to release me." Le Paradox instructs his interrogator. Suddenly a loud bang is heard as the door to the interrogation room is kicked out. Carmelita looks up and to the side, Sly has gotten out of the booth. Le Paradox unties himself from the handcuffs, sensing it is his opportunity to escape. But as Le paradox tries to leave the room, that door is kicked down as well. Le Paradox tries to shield himself from the barrage of guards that he expects to flood into the room. But no, in through the open door comes the worst possible raccoon to emerge from the shadows, Sly Cooper, standing triumphantly over Le Paradox. Once the skunk grasps the fact of who he is, his jaw drops about as low as it can go and he secretes his stink, afraid of what might happen next.
"Ce n'est pas possible!" Le Paradox says in shock as he collapses to the ground.
"'I don't think we will meet again', I remember you said that to me on the blimp and now, here I am." Sly arrogantly states, making sure to emphasise every single syllable of those seven words.
"Get this raccoon away from me!" Le Paradox shouts towards the booth in despiration.
"Not a chance." Carmelita replies now in her normal voice.
"What is this? I must be dreaming, I'll shoot myself in the head and I'll wake up." Le Paradox says with disbelief and irrationality about the situation around him. He points the gun to his head.
"No!" Sly shouts at Le Paradox. He knows that Le Paradox might be the only key to finding Penelope's hideout despite every fibre of his body wanting to put that sorry skunks life away. But Sly resists, only causing Le Paradox to laugh heartedly on the ground at what happened and Sly is not that impressed, even a little confused. Sly lifts up the ex-thief by his neck with the cane so his feet don't touch the ground.
"Now look, you will tell me about Penelope or I won't make the same mistake as last time." Sly threatens.
"You may as well finish me off here, I'm of no use to you, here, you can use this gun to do it." Le Paradox explains to Sly as he passes the gun to his attacker. Sly still resists.
"Go on, do it." Le Paradox urges Sly, waiting for it to be over with. But Sly doesn't pull the trigger. He drops the gun but catches it with his foot so it doesn't make a sound as it falls down.
"Dying is too good for you; it will be more painful if you stayed in prison." Sly explains, knowing that he has just won this confrontation. The raccoon puts the skunk down and walks back up to the booth with Carmelita. Le Paradox is screaming at him as he walks away.
"No, come back here; put me out of my misery." His anger and fury turns to sobbing at how bad his life has become.
"I'm proud of you Sly." Carmelita complements Sly.
"For what?" Sly asks, he hasn't done anything that, in his eyes, seems, heroic or amazing. He just walked away from a suicidal maniac, what is so good about that?
"You didn't go and kill him, you didn't fall for his lame tricks, I've seen people like this, they think that death is easier than facing the truth, you didn't allow Le Paradox become a martyr to his own cause. And for that you earned this." Carmelita explains, coming to terms with what she saw. That took guts to do what Sly did. His reward is her lips moving closer and closer until they get an infinitesimally small distance away, the sound of guards footsteps rushing to the booth breaks the mood, so close from embrace. Some of them drag the screaming and sobbing Le Paradox back to his cell.
"Ms Fox, you are under arrest for desertion." The lead guard states. Carmelita, Interpol's best agent, deserting them? Well sure she is working with the man she tried to put away for several years but they don't know that. She made sure to tie up loose ends. No one knew the true extent of their relationship at Interpol while they were dating.
"We're here to escort you to a holding cell while your superiors get here." She explains to Carmelita. "Your witness will be escorted out." They grab Sly and Carmelita and they head their separate ways. But this is only the beginning; Sly will not let his girlfriend be trapped in this hole, and no one knows what they might do at Interpol. He waits for the right opportunity and when the guards move around a corner out of sight, he makes his break.