Sly Cooper and the Gang In: A Long Lost Love

CHAPTER 14

"Uhhh, Bentley . . . ?"

"Working on it!" the turtle shouted down the audio link. Panic laced his voice.

Talons passed through the Gate.

"I'm gonna need you to work a little faster."

"Sly, what's going on?" Murray's engine revved in the background, but the noise was drowned out by the beating of massive wings.

The bottom dropped out of Sly's stomach. He knew that sound. The grating of metal on metal, the grind of gears, the immortal anger in the dark laughter that sounded from behind him. "I implanted a virus in the computer you attached that pathetic device to," the cruel voice rasped. "Your failsafe is rendered useless."

"What do you want with the Gate, Clockwerk?" Sly demanded, turning to face his enemy perched on a skyscraper opposite him and angling his cane for defense in case the ancient owl swooped. He'd known since the second he saw the insignia on the plans for this building that the fiendish fowl was involved, but seeing him again after all these years was like seeing a ghost. An enormous, mechanical, near-undefeatable ghost.

"What I've always wanted," Clockwerk grated. "More time."

"Bentley, I need you to get around that virus now." The point of a beak was protruding from the vortex above his head, and Sly had a sick feeling he knew exactly what–or who–was coming through.

"Always such a fool for love, Sly Cooper. I'm surprised, that after all these years, you didn't see through my scheming. Your father would have."

"Let's pretend I'm the least bit interested in your villainous monologue," Sly quipped, scanning the floor in front of him for a power line. The roof was a tangle of wires, any one of them could be connected to the portal above him, and any one of them could be connected to the personnel Gate in front of him. And if he pulled the plug . . .

"Still waiting for your long-lost love?" the owl crooned.

Fear shot through Sly. Clockwerk had held a grudge for lifetimes. If he had somehow hunted Carmelita down for what she'd done to him here in this city all those years ago . . . "If you've found some way to get to her–"

"What her? There was never any Carmelita left to find."

Sly stumbled back a step.

"Oh, you're holding still on to the letter . . ." Malice crawled through every syllable. "She never sent that little note. It was a ruse. I had one of my counterparts send it from an off-world satellite. I merely wanted you here so my first act of rulership would be to snuff out the Cooper line for eternity."

Two glowing yellow eyes peered at Sly from the portal above. More of him.

"I made a slight modification to the Gate." Clockwerk beat his massive wings twice and crossed the space between them to perch on the side of FarFlight Tower, a hawk toying with a mouse. Talons longer than Sly's torso dug into the steel barrier. "It not only travels galaxies, it travels dimensions and time. I'm assembling an army, Sly Cooper. An army your family name can never destroy."

Sly wasn't sure what was worse, the fact Carmelita had never sent him proof of life through that portal or that his mortal enemy was bringing both his past and future selves through the Gate from other timelines as he stood there, cane in hand, with no choice but to watch.

The original Clockwerk spread his wide, dark wings. "You've gone soft since I left you. Pulling on your heart was too easy, and pathetically less fun."

Sly searched for higher ground. "Murray, I need a little back up here," he whispered.

"Don't worry, Sly! The Murray is on the way!"