Parc de la Tete d'Or, Lyon, France. 10:48am 28th July 2013
"The plane shouldn't have been found yet and if they did, they'd have to get a warrant and everything like that which take days to get." Penelope explains as she accelerates off the ground towards the train station. The others follow her along not wanting to be separated, they only have a small amount of time before they find out about the guards lack of speaking or anything at all. Such a broad daylight getaway is difficult even for Sly. The darkness of the shadows and the night is his main advantage in sneaking around. But in this open park, there is no hiding place apart from the trees that only provide cover from above.
"Where are we going now?" Sly asks to Penelope running beside her.
"Back to the plane, to the train station." Penelope replies.
"Are you crazy? We won't last a second on there, everyone will know who we are." Sly explains back.
"It's the quickest way to the airport." She explains.
"We need a car." Connor says.
"It's too risky." Penelope says back, not realising the irony of that statement. The route that they are taking goes around the lake, which is nearby to a road. Down the path they run with the shade of the trees their only protection. They reach the exit of the park, still only a few hundred metres away from the building they escaped from. They think there is no doubt that they have noticed and that they are in for a chase but they see nothing from the top of the building except for the parked helicopter.
"Across the road." Sly points out the row of parked cars ripe for the picking. They run for the cars dodging the stationary traffic parked on the road. Passers by see who these thieves are and worry for their own safety, not wanting to attract their attention and not wanting to stop them for fear of retribution in the form of physical punishment. The gang doesn't focus on them though. They are the least of their concerns despite the media campaign and all of the bad publicity that has gone towards them. The gang knows nothing of what has been said of them and it is good that they don't. Such descriptions of violence and horror only reserved for R rated literary works has been shocking the groups of people who live in this simulated fear of one thief. The population have become paranoid of theft, security related items sold out within hours of the first announcement. Most small time thieves have laid low over the past 24 hours, most criminals have done the same as well. The brave few keep about their criminal ways in an attempt to sustain their lives over this difficult period.
They reach the other side of the road and go along to find a suitable ride. They settle for the fastest car they can find in this small street side carpark. A small matte black sedan that has been 'tastefully' pimped up with huge rims and similarly huge exhausts. Black tinted windows obscure the view inside. Just from the look of it, they know it should be fast. Cooper is ready to smash open the window to unlock the car but Sly has a more discrete approach. He takes out one of the skeleton keys he has and opens up the car with no destruction required.
"You let me handle the driving." Connor says as he forces Sly out of the path into the drivers seat.
"I've got it dad." Sly says as he works out the six point racing harness. This car has been stripped out of any sort of luxuries; only bucket seats and a fluoro orange roll cage adorn the interior. Two seats are there, meaning that Penelope is forced to find space in the back being the smallest one of the group. Sly turns the ignition of the car and a thunderous roar emanates from the engine. Sly is confidant that it will be fast enough. He turns to face the back window through the roll cage and sees only gridlock still behind them. They only have one exit now; Sly puts it into first and drives onto the footpath with the wheels spinning on the rough gravel of this traffic island. They drop down onto the other side of this road and race down the road, wanting to be anything but stationary. Penelope is quickly figuring out a route.
"You have to turn around Sly." She shouts over the engine. Sly does what she says and tries to pull a handbrake turn but overcorrects and spins around too much. He moves back into the correct lane to go in the other direction, he knows how to drive himself around but hasn't had much time behind the wheel with Murray around. Sly has dabbled with driving especially in his younger years when Murray taught him all his moves when he learnt how to drive. He is surprised at the ease his hands move around with the gears and pedals. He must have the best driving instructor in the world. The wheels spin furiously as Sly tries to bury the accelerator in hope of a hasty getaway. The torque from the engine is too much for the friction of these semi slick tires. Sly meets up with the gridlock again and heads for the footpath for an easy way around. He can't honk a horn because that is gone to save weight so he revs the engine to get people moving out of his way. These bystanders duck into gaps in the buildings such as the doorways or the foundations. Sly drives up to the intersection just as the lights finally turn green and he floors it to get ahead of the moving traffic. He re-joins the road and sees the big building to his right that they have just escaped from. Sly backs off the accelerator a bit so that the noise doesn't attract attention. The worst possible thing would be to be brought down because of a minor misdemeanour.
"Is everything okay back there?" Sly asks Penelope who is keeping track of her GPS unit.
"All good back here. She arbitrarily says as she holds on to the criss crossing bars of the roll cage. The mouse looks around this bare back cabin. Only the exposed metal sheeting for the car that is painted the same orange as the roll cage is seen from her vantage point. She scans over it just to make sure they have not been tricked into something. There is a technique where the police deliberately set up cars like this in the hope that someone tries to steal it. When the car is stolen, the police are notified by GPS and can shut the car down remotely when they arrive to arrest the criminal. She sees no such electronic device planted in the car. Sly continues his driving along the road at a fast pace but not flat out as to avoid causing suspicion. Connor only looks out of the window and at Sly, whom he now has mutual respect for. He thinks now that Sly is a more than capable heir to his fortune and name. But he won't make it easy on him to find its location. He will plant the seed in his mind early in his life in a museum somewhere. A place that he won't realise until the time comes for it. Technically, that has happened and will happen. There is no contradiction; it all depends on the perspective. Suddenly pops the question.
"What happens to me in the future?" Connor asks to Sly. This is the question he has feared all along. What he says here could change his lifetime irreversibly. This takes Sly's attention off the road for a brief moment, this causes him to move into the opposite lane and realises this before something tragic could have happened, the pathway would not only be different, there would be no pathway full stop. Sly doesn't answer him back, not that he wants to be rude but he doesn't want to divulge any details, especially on that night in 1992.
"Are you going to answer me?" Connor asks, fearing that he is deliberately hiding something from him.
"Just shut up!" Sly retaliates in a fit of anger that releases from all the pressure of not wanting to say anything. Connor recoils in his seat and backs off from Sly who is now looking remorseful at what he has just done. Connor just looks away and pretends as if the question had never been answered.
"I'm sorry dad." Sly apologies. "I didn't mean it, I was just…"
"Now that I think about it, I guess you don't want your path to change, so you don't want me to do anything out of the ordinary." Connor answers, hitting the nail on the head. "You must have had good life then, considering you don't want to change anything." Sly thinks over this statement at all of the pros and cons of his life. Bentley, Murray, Carmelita. All of these people having such a profound impact on him is the main reason why he doesn't want to change his path. Such company like that is bestowed on only a few where friendships are as unbreakable as can be. That friendship is being tested severely at this moment.