Earlier that afternoon…
The van and the hypercar make the left hand turn after exiting the tunnel and crossing the small bridge over the river. They race down the road, heading for the Interpol building coming up on their right. The engines roar and over-run as they break hard and enter the driveway for Interpol with Murray smashing down the boomgate. They are coming in hot. Alarms ring out over the grounds. Murray skids the van to create cover for Bentley to get out of. Joey parks behind the van to protect his vehicle and they both get out and take cover behind the van. Gunfire rips out from the grass as teams in ghille suits don the grass and bushes like little tufts of weed. They shoot at the van but it is useless. Bentley loads up the computer and a new camera ball. An invention, which is just a ball with a high-resolution camera inside. Bentley throws it above the vans roof and it takes the pictures and finds all of the soldier's positions in the grass. Bentley sends this information to the wheelchair where it throws over the bombs to all those positions, getting the targets precisely right and causing an instant death.
"Phase one complete." Bentley announces. "You're up Joey."
Joey breaks from cover while there are no soldiers providing fire onto them; he sprints to the next point of cover next to the building and begins a climb up the side of the building. He braces himself against the two opposing decorative walls that are perpendicular to the cuboid shaped building. Using his hands and feet, he 'walks' up to the top.
"Ok, let's bust Sly out of here." Bentley announces as they break from cover to get into the lobby. The door is locked but Murray just breaks it down. Their speed as meant that the other Special Forces teams on the outside haven't made it in time to the correct position. The lobby is empty and looks like it has been hastily evacuated as well. They are still alert to the quietness and watch out for any ambushes that may strike them. They rush into stairwell, the elevators would be too easy to catch them. The care concrete shaft however is filled with lasers that impede their progress. They have no-one else who could manipulate their way past this obstacle. But they have to try something before they are boxed in. Bentley just throws a flurry of bombs into the stairwell destroying the lasers themselves, something that Murray approves of. Carmelita also shoots her shock pistol as she shorts out the lasers and fires their contents.
Meanwhile Joey has made his way up to the top floor where he can see the director sitting as his office, frantically on the phone with assistant and guards surrounding them. Joey only peaks his head above to keep himself hidden as he wall shuffles from 6 stories off the ground. His fingertips are only visible from the top but that is not what they are focused on right now.
"How could you let them get in like that?" The Director shouts at everyone in the office. "Where were the other teams stationed?!"
"On the other side." Someone quickly states.
"On the other side of the building, exactly where I said they would not enter from!" He shouts as he paces around the office. Joey just hears this shouting and continues shuffling along the side of the building until he is out of view, but he still hears the ranting from the Directors office. "Don't you ever try to think that you know more about thieves than I do. I know what thieves want, think, do and most importantly I know more military tactics than all of you combined in this room! So find everyone who is able and get them to box this 'gang' in, prevent their escape to the top. Go, go, go!" He shouts and claps to the people who accelerate from their stationary positions and race out of the door, stopping in the foyer to get onto phones and other electronic devices to communicate this message down the organisational flow chart. Oblivious to all of this frantic motion above, Joey continues along until he can find a safe place to enter through. There are no windows to open in this building and they are also made from bulletproof glass for obvious reasons. To combat this, Joey carries a laser cutter that slices through the silicon like a hot knife through butter. He reaches one of the tiny offices and sneaks in, making sure not to throw the glass chunk to the bottom. He radios into Bentley.
"I'm in, he's going crazy up here." Joey says.
"Any details?" Bentley asks, hoping for more Intel.
"Just that he wants everyone to go after you." Joey casually states. "I'm headed for the target destination."
"Okay then." Bentley replies as they rush down the stairwell, continually smashing the lasers until they reach the subterranean floors. The dark hallways are a stark contrast to the brightly lit stairwell. White light floods out from the doorway. They turn to the right and look down past the three armoured doors.
"They're the cells." Carmelita explains as she runs up to them in search of Sly. She goes to the first one, no one inside. She rushes over to the next slit and sees a raccoon dressed in a regulation orange jumpsuit. The heart plays it's trick, filling up this love languid vixen. She bangs on the door.
"Sly!" She shouts, jubilated to see her boyfriend for the first time since yesterday. In her opinion, that amount of time is too long.
"I'm not Sly Cooper, I already told you people that." Connor shouts back, not moving from the position he is now, sitting against the wall facing the door. Now that she sees him for a second look, she sees the blue fur coat as opposed to Sly's blue clothing. She feels embarrassed on the inside but she hides it expertly. Being an agent is a good way to learn how to hide and select the right emotions for any given situation.
"Then who are you?" She asks as Murray tries to get a peak inside through the tiny slit.
"I can't see you so I can't tell how beautiful you are." Connor says, instantly starting this unrequited blind date. Bentley steps in to alleviate the concerns of Connor by wheeling his way through the crowd around the door and places a bomb of the lock mechanism. Once this is done, they step back and wait for the explosion. It blows the door's lock off but keeps the door on its hinges, which prevents the door from flying towards Connor and unknowingly killing Sly in the process. No dust settles and Connor is turned on big time. The flowing blue hair coupled with those eyes and every other part of her makes him seem like she is perfect. He is not the only Cooper who likes to delve into the opposite number.
"Hello there beautiful, come to rescue me?" Connor cheekily asks. This does no favours to Carmelita.
"Who are you?!" She shouts with pistol drawn.
"Connor Cooper." Bentley states from behind her.
"What, another Cooper?" She asks, bored with the idea of more time travelling nonsense. Just when she thought that it was over, more seems to come.
"Not just any Cooper." Bentley explains. "Sly's father."
"I see where he gets it from." Carmelita comments.
"You saving me or what? I have a time to go back to." He explains.
"Just after we save Sly." Bentley says.
"And Penelope. Right?" Murray corrects him. But Bentley is already wheeling his way further into the corridor to look into the next prison cell. All he sees is the medical equipment and a solitary figure abandoned in the dim light with bandages and a neck brace secured to him.
"This one's just a hospital room, some guy broke his jaw. It seems the staff haven't set up some sort of radiation container from all of the scanners inside, causing progressive damage to those who walk past." Bentley says as he explains the concept of radiation. Carmelita walks up and takes a look into the cell. She feels guilt override her. She doesn't say anything, she is a controlled as ever on the outside but she feels responsible for Geoffrey's injuries. The gang plus Connor continue along the corridor until they turn the corner and see the crowd of soldiers and detectives around the huge metal doors. Carmelita almost steps out into the open but pulls herself back behind cover without them seeing her.
"They've crowded everyone around that big safe door." Carmelita whispers to Bentley. Bentley pulls out his ball cam and places it on the floor with it's robotic arm. It starts to move on it's own because the centre of the ball is a wheel built into the sphere to allow itself to not only roll but move on It's own. The tiny electric motor inside move the ball along the dark corridor silently, no one sees it as the camera reveals the inside of the safe, the ball rolls inside without anyone spotting it. Sticking to the edges and shadows is the trick Bentley has learnt from Sly. The screen reveals the two beds with straps cut and a lot of broken glass.
"This must be where they held Sly." Bentley proposes.
"Looks like he went out with a fight." Connor answers, slightly proud of Sly, not just being a pussy and lying down.
"Who was the other bed for?" Carmelita asks, noticing the similarly structured bed with leather straps cut although with more precision than the rough cuts of the bed furthest away from the door.
"Penelope's here!" Murray exclaims, not backing up it with evidence, it's just a hunch of his that coincidentally is right.
"Just keep your voices down while I try to figure out where they are and how to get past those guards." Bentley says as he looks into the security cameras. Quickly, he spots them running through the dark corridors in the lower levels. Connor quickly interjects.
"Someone's coming." He says, pulling Bentley back and everyone else behind him. They can't hear anything, but they trust this experienced thief whose ears are more finely tuned to the sound of footsteps than anyone else. The sound comes into the normal audible range and they wait for them to be seen. Two guards stroll past them but before they can take a look, Connor is onto them, knocking them out and dispatching the large bodies by sliding them along the ground with his feet. All while not being seen. Connor relives them of anything valuable like protective gear, weapons and smoke canisters. Murray takes hold of weapons and fits himself into the protective hear with helmet an all. Connor takes up the weapons and gives the canisters to Bentley. Connor gives the other rifle to Carmelita.
"To you with love." Connor says. Every single attempt at love is only making it worse for Carmelita; instead of lashing out at him she just ignores it. Soon he will be back in his own time. They have to track back to the stairwell to get down to the lower levels. No lasers block them here, there was no use blocking them from going to a place they didn't initially need to go to. The climb down is many flights of stairs.
"When we go back up, can we use the elevator?" Murray asks, knowing that the climb is going to be arduous and tiring.
"Elevator is too risky big guy." Connor explains.
"What he said." Carmelita explains.
"When we finish the climb back up, I'll have lost like 50 pounds or something." Murray figures. "I'll need a few pizzas to get back up to correct weight."
"How are you doing up there Joey." Bentley checks on his radio. The reception is patchy in this concrete column.
"I'm just about to…" He tries to say before the distortion makes his speech inaudible.
"Joey?" Bentley asks worriedly. He can't get a reception as they plunge deeper into the depths of the earth. They can't stop moving, being stationary is a no-no.