Heischtergronn, Luxembourg, 10:32am 28 July 2013.
Joey is still driving flat out after 2 hours of constant pedal to the medal driving, but that was just the easy part. The roads leading into Luxembourg City are narrow and winding. Spikes strips, roadblocks and shouting on a megaphone have not stopped them at all. Carmelita can only keep watch from the passenger seat at any signs of trouble ahead whether it may be roadblocks or surprise ambushes. She has managed to get into the radio frequency of the communications for the police, it is a frequency well known to her for obvious reasons.
"We have to be quick with this." Joey explains while weaving through the traffic. "We stop in Luxembourg City, swap the car over and get out without them seeing us."
"That trick is too old." Carmelita rebuffs, her knowledge of crimes is impressive. "You won't have a chance once we stop the car."
"Luxembourg has the highest earnings per capita, we'll get something better than this, hopefully some supercar or something like that." Joey explains. He wants to continue but over the sound of the engine is the sound of another engine. A huge rumbling exhaust note that would frighten birds and small animals in the woods.
"How did they catch up?" Joey asks to himself. He thinks he has not done anything wrong so far, they haven't been stopped by the police or had to slow down for anything. But in these woods, he needs to pick up the pace even further to stop the driving ace that is Murray getting past and reaching Lyon first. He goes around the bend and sees the blue van catching up at a frenetic pace along the road into Luxembourg City. The undulating gradient of the road is a stern test for any driver. Let alone with all of the police pressure that they have been piling on them, helicopters follow them wherever they go. They get to the point where Murray is right behind the rear bumper of Joey.
"The Murray is coming though!" Murray shouts over a loudspeaker mounted on the front. He tries to overtake the two of them but is blocked by Joey. The road section here is only two lanes wide as they go through all of the turns in single file, bumper to bumper. Murray is following Bentley's instructions as he types away on his computer for the best opportunity to get past and pull away an advantage.
"Just keep going Murray, soon they will have to negotiate a double hairpin which their inferior vehicle will succumb to the laws of inertia and friction." Bentley says with a devious and evil tone. Murray doesn't have any concern for Bentley, he is too focused on the task at hand to even think about why and how they are here. To him that is just space in his head that is being wasted when instead it could be filled with new ways to break stuff. The two of them make the slight S-bend as they reach the double hairpin. The helicopter is waiting for them at the apex of the first hairpin, watching the roadblock they have set up on this blind turn. Spike strips cover the entire road in front of the cars, even the grassy area around the hairpin, the police do not wan tot take any chances with this pursuit any longer considering the amount of resources that have failed them so far. Joey doesn't expect such a turn after all of the quick driving before, he doesn't have time to brake for the corner and so goes for the sideways options, applying a high speed drift around this banking hairpin, Murray drives up to the smoking rear end of the car and nudges it just so that the car spins around and goes towards the slip road at the outer edge of this main road. The van continues around the bend at speed and Joey can only see the van go straight through the spike strips without any sign of tire explosions or sparks flying from the rims of the van.
"Keep going." Carmelita shouts at Joey who is in a daze after spinning around and almost hitting the trees. Joey shakes his head as he sees the advancing cops with guns drawn, Joey reverses the car down this side road and does a J-turn to get moving out of the police presence, some cars follow them down these tiny back roads but they are more concerned with the van that has just gone straight through their defences.
"Does this road go to Luxembourg?" Joey shouts quickly as he loses his patience after what has just happened. Carmelita calmly looks at her phone and gets the map up.
"Yes it does."
"We're not out of this yet." Joey says as he rounds the bend that clears the forest and gets them into the centre of a small village. These places are only going to slow down their progress.
The progress of the van however is not stopped at all. Murray still keeps his right foot planted down these stretches of road. He thinks they have won this race now, but still doesn't ease up.
"Good job Murray, thanks to your efforts we'll easily beat them to Interpol and capture Penelope for good this time." Bentley explains.
"I beat them so easily." Murray exclaims, high on adrenaline from winning the 'race'.
"You sure did pal." Bentley says, trying to keep him in this state is key to his success.
"I'm hungry Bentley." Murray announces. "I deserve something after that victory."
"We can't stop now, we are in front now. Think of it this way, you're in the lead in a race. If we go into the pits and they overtake us, we'll lose. If we don't stop, we'll win. Got it?" Bentley explains. Murray gets the explanation but he doesn't like to fail his stomach. He pushes on through the pain and hunger for what must be the first time in years.
The War Rooms, Interpol HQ, Lyon, France. 10:33am 28th July 2013
"How could you even say such a thing? You have no right to call me dad." He angrily dismisses to this shadowy intruder. Sly isn't deterred by this on the outside, but on the inside, that really is a shameful thing to have your own father state to you.
"I'm Sly Cooper, your son."
"So you're the Sly Cooper everyone is talking about here. Every time one of these so-called analysts comes in, they keep on talking about you if that's who you really are."
"Please just stop." Sly says, not wanting to hear any more hateful rhetoric being directed towards himself.
"I'm going to see if you truly are this Sly Cooper that they keep on talking about. If you can hit me once, than you are truly a Cooper." Connor explains.
"I can't hit you dad." Sly replies back, on the verge of sobbing. All the memories he has of his father before his untimely demise are happy ones. None of them even going to close to the hateful and vile raccoon that stands before him.
"What are you then? Some kind of weak runt that can't even participate in some good natured tussling?"
"I'm not going to hit you." Sly repeats forcefully.
"Well then, I guess you aren't fit to even be mentioned as my successor." He replies back to Sly. Sly wipes away the tears and gets ready to continue facing this barrage of painfully deep wounding words that tear his heart into pieces. He snaps out of it when there is a loud thud on the ground followed by shouting.
"What sorcery is this?" Connor shouts at the shadow of Sly from the ground where he struggles as if being held by an invisible force. "Stop it now!" He stops struggling against the ground as if like a salmon out of water and gets up to approach his raccoon that claims to be 'Sly Cooper'.
"What dark magic is this that you have brought unto the family name?" He shouts towards Sly.
"Just thank me later." A voice whispers quietly in Sly's ear. Sly is jumps slightly at the sound of her voice.
"I heard that! There's someone else in the room is there?" A paranoid Connor shouts back at Sly. "Come out of the shadows and face me." The words echo around the room. A light bursts out of the darkness that lights up the room and makes the lasers linear presence less intimidating and precise when in this bright light. Connor covers his eyes from this bright light.
"Ah! My eyes!" He shouts as the bright light pierces his eyes after being inside this dark room for the last several hours. He moves his hands away from the light to see a tall raccoon in some weird 1920's type blue clothing and that mouse that caught him before standing side by side. He has to pause to briefly think about this pairing in a vain attempt to fully understand the situation in the second before she has to break the air.
"You're nothing compared to Sly." She says back at him. Standing up for Sly is something she though she wouldn't do given his nature but everyone needs some help.
"What is this? Some kind of obscene trick that you have pulled on me in order to prove that you are better than me? What cheek you have to even attempt it but what makes it that little bit better for me is that you didn't have the guts to do it. You had to hire out some help to do it for you." He riles back at Sly. These insults are becoming so misguided and vulgar that it makes Sly think twice about the nature of his father. It wasn't the reunion that he would have hoped for. Maybe Dr. M was right after all.
Authors Note: If you would like to know where this hairpin that i have used in this story is; search 'Heischtergronn' in google maps and look below where the name of the town is.