Chapter 28 – In the Shadows
"He's ready for you."
Alex has been sitting patiently in the waiting room for about 10 minutes, with only these piles of paper stacked on a trolley for company. The walls all exposed and varnished wood, like being on the inside of a wooden box. The floor is a tough and boring beige colour which makes it hard for Alex to drag the wheeled trolley across to the front door of the bosses office; not Le Paradox, but someone of an infinitely higher standing. He opens the cheap plastic door handle and moves into the pitch black empty room on the other side. From the ambient light alone he can tell that the current decors runs out abruptly at the door line; where the carpet stops and turns into a hard, polished white marble floor. At least it makes it easier for Alex to move the trolley on.
He proceeds down the room with the roar of the hard wheels echoing out, giving him the perception that the boundaries of this room are much, much larger than what he expected. He reaches the point where the ambient light from the other room stops, making him stand in total darkness. The door shuts suddenly, causing Alex to naturally turn back in surprise whilst keeping both hands on the hand rail so as to not loss all of his work in the darkness. A few seconds after the door shuts, he distinctly feels different; and a few seconds after that, he sees why.
The lights brighten up only to a dim white glow around the edges of the vast room from the bottom from floor lights spaced one metre apart. He sees himself in the new light; not only is his business shirt and pants been replaced with his usual thieving attire, all somehow without him noticing, but his cane is lying on the stack of papers. He looks up, and sees a lot of edges, spikes, hooks and ropes suspended in the air above him like a massive chandelier. It covers the entire area like a preliminary roof. He looks back down and sees someone behind an ominously thick and large table top that floats in mid air.
"What do you want to see me about?" Sly asks, dressed in his own thieving outfit, balancing on the top of his cane using the ninja spire move. This display only magnifies Alex's incomparability with his father.
"This." Alex says, pushing the trolley ahead of him and letting it roll towards the desk.
"Well let's take a look at it."
Sly jumps off the top of his cane with one leg, flicking the cane upwards with his foot. He flies over the desk, front-flipping, and lands on the other side to stop the trolley with his right hands whilst extending his left arm out to grab his cane without looking as it follows him from behind. Alex can only walk forward with scared footsteps; there's no way he could replicate that or anything like it. He just knows that his work will be worthless when his father examines it; it just won't be up to his standard. Sly picks up one folder and opens it with his right hand to inspect the contents.
"You see here." Sly begins to explain kindly, like he's giving fatherly advice. "If you managed to jump across to this ledge over here, you would have saved at least a minute of time to reach the access hatch."
It all sounds like the only words coming out of his father's mouth are 'wrong wrong wrong wrong…' for Alex.
"Here you could have used an alarm clock to distract them so they move away from the window."
"I can't carry lots of alarm clocks on me, that technique is obsolete." Alex contends
"I agree"
What did he say?
"But it works; if it's in the Thievius raccoonus, it works." Sly adds.
"Admit it." Alex taunts.
"What?" Sly asks in confusion.
"You would have done it all differently."
"I wouldn't go that far…"
"Hell, you would probably could just waltz into anywhere and steal whatever you want because you're Sly Cooper; the worlds best thief. All I am and all that I'll be known for is being the son of Sly Cooper."
Sly is taken aback by this accusation; he's hurt by such an attitude. Sly puts down the folder, picks up Alex's cane and walks slowly towards the younger raccoon who's facial expression is becoming less and less self confident the closer the smaller the gap there is between each other. Sly holds out the cane for Alex, just to give it back him.
"You are my son, no one can doubt that. But is that all you are?" Sly asks softly and compassionately.
"I can't be better; you already saved the world from Clockwerk, twice! From Le Paradox once. It's not possible to be better."
"Who said you had to be better?" Sly asks.
"Well… I did." Alex replies. He's backed himself into a corner with this question. There's always been this pressure on him to succeed, to be better than his father. Maybe all of that pressure has been artificial.
"Then… don't be. I know you've got high expectations of yourself and that's good; it means you have ambition. But those expectations are not manageable, they're not sustainable. Saving the world is not something anyone expects to do or even wants to do." Sly explains. "If it does come to that then go, go save the world. But that's not what you have to do."
"Then what do I need to do?" Alex asks to his father, like the meaning of life is only a few sentences away.
"Whatever you want to do, do good; as long as you do your best. If you want to become an office clerk, go be the best office clerk you can be. If you want to be a master thief, then do the best that you can do. If that's all you can give, then no one can judge you otherwise." Sly explains.
"But what if my best is not enough?" Alex asks. "It's always not enough."
"That over there," Sly says, looking back at the papers on the trolley. "It's only 10% of what you can do, I know it, you know it…"
"If you're talking about beating Le Paradox, it can't be done. He's got people everywhere, I'm under surveillance basically every second of my life. There is nowhere that I can hide and no speed that I can out run him. He's got all the money and muscle. I just have a few friends."
"I only had a few friends to help me defeat his father." Sly counters.
"Yeah but you got lucky with the jet passing by." Alex remarks. "I'm not going to be that lucky, he's too well prepared."
Sly pauses, he wants to reverse the negative trend.
"You're saying why he can't be beaten, instead, think about how he can be beaten. Have some confidence in yourself; get some self belief into your system. That's what you need to do more than anything else right now." Sly explains.
"Okay." Alex replies. "Um… he's not that good in a fight. He's doing everything personally, he's exposing himself constantly…"
He spends the next several minutes listing every conceivable weakness, no matter how minor it is. He never realised he could think of so many. Like the figment of his imagination called Sly Cooper said, it did improve his self confidence. Even better than that, he feels like he is on top of the skunk for once. He has got some control over him, simply by having the knowledge of how to go and defeat Jeremy.
"Thanks, for everything." Alex replies.
"Now, go… Erin's waiting for you."
London, England. 11:14am, 8th November 2032
Alex reawakens, the first thing he sees is his sister, lying beside him on the bed facing him and watching his face for when he wakes up.
"You're up." Erin says before rolling quickly off the bed and standing up. "Ready to begin work?"
"What work?" Alex asks tiredly.
"You know… because you gave up on being a master thief, you're working for Tim now." Erin explains, still feeling bitter over Alex's actions.
"I didn't say…" Alex begins to complain, sitting up on the bed.
"Shhh." Erin replies. "I've got everything covered."
"What are you saying?" Alex asks confusedly.
"Put these on." Erin commands, handing him a white long sleeve shirt, a pair of jeans and a plain black jacket. "So people don't recognise you."
"Where'd you get this stuff?"
"Once you get those on." Erin insists. "I'll show you what normal people our age do for a living."