Bentley's Lab, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 12:04am, 27 July 2013

The late night darkness of the lab is re-illuminated by the overhanging LED lights in the roof. They are motion activated and they have turned on now due the gang's arrival. Bentley is already back to work, trying to find out the history of their new recruit. The turtle seems to work like a machine sometimes, while he may work with machines and needs one to move around. He still is flesh and bone, the only organic part of his operation. Bentley uncovers Joey's file, which is extensive. Coming from a troubled household, Joey grew up on the streets, never liking his parents as they beat him almost daily. Stealing wasn't his first job; he was employed as a runner for one of the crime gangs, where he made his way across the city delivering packages to various places, above the city of course. He was swapped over in a deal between two gangs in exchange for money where the deal didn't go so well. As a result, his new gang didn't treat him kindly, like his parents they beat him daily, even if he completed his jobs. This is where his stealing came in. It started as a little here and there from his employers as revenge for what they did, but once he got the taste, he was hooked.

His first big heist was a drug shipment worth millions. It crippled the gang so badly they had to disband. After that, his exploits got the attention of the cops. To combat this he studied law, and has successfully defended himself in court no less than 8 times. No one could ever put any evidence to him. He became a jack-of-all-trades in the thieving world, making his own equipment and being his own getaway driver. This made him almost impossible to catch. And when he wasn't thieving, he was clubbing. He has been to every club at least 3 times and knows every owner personally. He uses them to hide out in the city, moving house so quickly means that no one could have the time plant a bug. It seems like their new ally might come in handy for the time being, having been on Penelope's new plane. Once the effects of the syringe wore off, Joey began to tell his story.

Their new friend told us everything about what he saw when woke up again. He said that he was out going to steal one a bag of illegal diamonds that was being moved from banks in the city. Only to his surprise that instead of diamonds, there was only a calling card, Penelope's to be precise. He was dumbfounded, he didn't know of this new thief so he just kept going at it. But failed heist after failed heist, he realised that this new thief was doing it to annoy him. He tracked down this new thief and broke into their place, only to be met with a net and as many zip ties around him as someone could possibly fit on him.

He was taken to their base where he was forced to tell his secret techniques to his captors. They tortured him for days on end, using a combination of drugs that gave him extreme pain then removed it after 15 minutes so he could have a chance to talk. It was repeated so many times, he lost count. Finally he gave in. He wrote them down on a sheet of paper and gave it to what he said was the co-pilot. He said that he had a heavy German accent and was obsessed with flying. He only ever heard his voice and never saw him in person.

After this they showed him the plane. A cargo plane that was converted into a fortress in the air. It was painted stealth black on the outside. But he said that it could turn invisible to thermal by pumping liquid nitrogen with the exhaust, which made the exhaust the same temperature as the air. Bentley was so intrigued by this. He wanted to ask more questions. But Joey continued rambling on. He said that there were other thieves on board. Others from all parts of the globe. He assumed that they wanted the same thing from them, to learn their techniques. They were forced to work on the plane as to not reveal this plan to anyone.

The gang were exhausted enough as they were, but now it was certain that a few eyelids were edging closer to the bottom, closing the eyes and releasing the melatonin that makes them want to sleep. But there was one thing missing from this picture. Where was Dimtiri?

Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 1:17am 27 July 2013

It has passed over into the next day as Sly and his new thieving partner Joey go out in search of the iguana, he could be anywhere in this city. Sly is more interested to see how Joeys claims of being a master thief hold up. There is no doubt about his climbing skills, especially his jumping, leaping over huge gaps with ease while Sly must take the long route, walking on wires and spire jumping on points. They went to check the clubbing areas, no sign of him there. They went to check the 'coffee shops' no sign of him there. But it is around in the back alley beside one of the 'coffee shops' where Dimitri is finally found. They peer down into the alley from the roof to see the confrontation below. A couple of thugs have gone to Dimitri and they look like they've got a beef with him.

"Where's the money?!" One of them shouts at the obviously high Dimitri. Dimitri doesn't react, he is too baked to care.

"You didn't pay yesterday, so now it is double the price." The other shouts.

"I, I, I see." Dimitri stammers as he is forced into the wall by the thugs.

"You give us the money or we get you!" One of them shouts as he prepares his fist.

"Okay, here's the money, but don't touch my grass." Dimitri says as he gives in, forking out a wad of cash from his inside pocket. The thugs start to walk away as they count their profits, Joey tries to leap down to get the cash back but Sly restrains him. This is what separates the thieves for their master counter parts. While the thugs are criminals, it is not honourable to steal from something that they don't deserve to be stolen from. This drug habit of Dimitri's needs to be at least controlled. He could fast become a liability to the gang if they don't get him under control. They let the thugs walk off. Once they are out of sight they jump down to Dimitri, who is still slouched against the wall. Joey take a look at his cane, he hasn't really noticed its existence because it's different to what he thinks it looks like.

"I've always heard about your cane, but this one looks different." Joey says.

"It's new." Sly says, concentrating on the mission. Joey wants to touch it but it is a sacred object to him. He keeps his hands off it but sees what it is.

"A light carbon fibre construction, you must really trust your turtle friend." He says.

"Bentley, I've been with him since I was child, same with Murray. We grew up together." Sly replies back. Just hearing this information makes Joey rethink the meaning of trust.

"They're like family to you." He says.

"As close as I have now." Sly says as he jumps down into the alley to confront Dimitri and his little problem.

"Dimitri, what are you doing here?" Sly asks.

"Sly? I got my boogie down tonight." Dimitri says back, he gives a little laugh at what he's done tonight. He thinks he's had a good time but at the same time he knows what they are here to do.

"I'll handle this one." Joey says as he holds Sly back. He's been to enough clubs to know how crazed disco junkies react and speak.

"Who's this guy? I'm not seeing things again." Dimitri says as Joey walks up to him and stands still in front of him, cutting the atmosphere to a still silence, he then goes and puts an arm around him. He then whispers something inaudible into his ear and walks away from him with his hands around his back. Dimitri, to Sly's amazement, get's up and follows him. Joey just walks straight past him and keep walks back along the street. Sly tries to catch up and turns around only to see how he has done it. The green leaves in his hand, he's taken them out of Dimitri's jacket and is using them to move Dimitri around. Sly runs up and walks next to Joey.

"How do you know this will work?" Sly asks, Joey concentrating on keeping the right distance from Dimitri.

"Some people have things which act like a magnet to them, for druggies, its drugs. For you it would be that cane of yours." Joey explains.

"And for you?" Sly asks.

"I don't have anything like that." Joey casually says. Sly is puzzled by his apparent contradiction but he lets it slide. They walk the street back to the lab where Dimitri is still following them. Sly now notices that Joey has ditched the weed on the way back somewhere, he didn't notice it at all. He was busy looking at his surroundings, the starry sky, the street lamps, and the late night people walking the streets. These are small pleasures, which Sly has never really contemplated before. He has never really sat back and thought of all of these small things around him. But this tiny pleasure that it has brought him is shattered by the darkness of the shoe shop entrance, but he is in a mood to search for the little things. As joey takes down Dimitri to the lab below, Sly wonders about the shop, whether it is actually a shop. He starts by going through some shoeboxes and finds many different pairs of shoes from high heels to loafers. But as he reaches into another box, he sees something that shocks him. It is some of Penelope's goods, letters, various diagrams of machinery, but it is not this that takes him by surprise, it's a USB drive with the words 'the proof' on it. The shop has a small desktop computer at a desk with a cash register on it. Sly boots it up, the slowness almost kills him, as it's not like Bentley's other computers, which are lighting fast. Finally is boots up and Sly plugs in the drive.

Sly is not inept at computers, he is quite capable with them, being able to operate them competently. His dad had tried to rid the house of computers but in his room where he did his thieving reconnaissance he had a setup that would rival anyone. Before Connor was murdered, Sly used to sneak into this room and play around with it when his dad wasn't looking. Sly could have easily ended up like his father, being a science and computer genius thief. Kind of like Bentley except with the thieving abilities of Sly. It was like he didn't want Sly to follow in his path. It's one of the reasons why Sly grew up on a farm. Being isolated of technology made him focus more on the basics like pickpocketing and wall shifting along edges. It also gave Connor another reason to care for Sly, to help him focus as well on the job of raising a son to become the next in the Cooper line.

Sly locates the contents of the drive; it is a single video which Sly clicks on. It shows a security camera feed from the top corner of the lab with Penelope working on some piece of machinery, it seems innocuous to Sly but what happens next definitely rings bells. She stops her welding and goes and walks over to the Thievius Raccoonus, where she takes it off it's pedestal and takes a flick through it's pages. Sly is shocked that all of his families secrets being stolen in front of his very eyes. She replaces it and goes back to work, with Bentley going back inside just as she starts up again. It clicks in Sly's head. That's how she has managed to pull of all of the heists, that's how she took the cane from him in Egypt. But while this gives answers, it's only asks more questions. He was going to think them over but sitting silently watching him is Bentley. Sly only notices once the film is done. There is going to be some explaining to do.

"Sly." Bentley says with a hint of sorriness about himself.

"It's okay Bentley, you didn't know." Sly consoles him.

"No, I'm sorry you had to find out this way." Bentley replies, still feeling sorry for himself.

"It's okay Bentley." Sly says as he gets up from the chair and walks by Bentley to get into the elevator. Bentley goes after him while trying to explain his actions.

"I was going to tell you in Egypt but you were occupied with your invisibility and…" Bentley notices that Sly is not facing him; he is focused on something else even through he is looking directly ahead. Bentley keeps his silence as the elevator reaches its destination where Sly gets out and walks quickly to the computer that Bentley was working at. Bentley follows him, intent on finding out what he is doing. This is what he was worried about, being unable to control himself and doing something rash, possibly towards his friends. Sly just goes on the internet and pulls up a map, he gets out of the chair and walks into his room where Carmelita is asleep and shuts the door, leaving Bentley all alone in the lab, the others are all asleep as well. Bentley looks at the screen, an airfield is zoomed in, the destination is Kinderdijk. Bentley can't believe he didn't think of it before, with all his searching and genius, he was bested by a thief at his computer in 30 seconds. With that, Bentley goes into his own room, thinking over what has just happened. The tiredness just overwhelms him completely as he crashes in his bed, allowing him to sleep the night away.