A Thief's Honor [Book 2]

Ch.21 Showdown Gone Wrong

"Alright, everyone, I'm back! Time to--" Bentley entered the Safe House, but the moment he did, he could feel the tension in the air, the mood nothing but depressing and sorrowful. "Hey, what's going on, and where's Rae?"

Suddenly, the turtle noticed Sly flinch noticeably, his face buried in his hands. "S...Sly?" He questioned cautiously, slowly wheeling himself over to the raccoon.

"I-it's my fault..." He muttered.

"What are you talking about?"

Sly lowered his hands from his face, only to reveal tears staining his charcoal fur and his eyes bloodshot from crying. Bentley gasped a bit at the awful sight of the raccoon, but wasn't really sure how to cope with the situation. "What...what happened?"

"Sh-she left..." He replied in a shaky voice, giving a small hiccup. "R-Rae left m-me..."

"But...I was only gone for about 20 minutes... What happened while I was gone?"

"You were actually gone for about 28 minutes." Penelope spoke up. "But...don't mind me..."

Bang!

Everyone suddenly jumped when the door to the Safe House was practically slammed open, glancing back only to see the fox herself entering. Sly quickly got ready to stand, until she sent him a dark glare, growling a bit. With that, he sat himself back down and hung his head. "Rae, are you--"

"I'm fine." She cut Bentley off almost immediately. "Let's just go over the plan before I change my mind."

"Uh, right..." Bentley wheeled himself over to the table, Rae taking a seat opposite of Sly, who shrunk a bit in the corner he sat in.

"Ra--"

"Don't talk." Rae ordered toward the raccoon. "Just sit there and don't say a word, got it?"

He just lowered his head again, using the back of his hand to wipe his face.

"Well, so far the operation is running smoothly. With access to General Tsao's database as well as Sly and Rae successfully hired on as the wedding photographer and the seamstress, we're ready to make an attempt for Jing King. Given the complexity of Tsao's downloaded data, I have my ThiefNet computer to automatically analy--"

Everyone glanced over when Bentley abruptly stopped talking. "What's wrong, little buddy?" Murray then asked.

"No... No, no, no...! No, this can't be happening, not now!"

"Bentley, what's wrong?" Penelope questioned worriedly.

"No, it's not here! It's gone!"

"What's gone? Bentley, you need to talk to us." Rae said.

"My computer! It's gone! It's not--" He suddenly cut himself off again. "Wait... What's this?" Bentley noticed a piece of paper that had been tucked away under his blueprints. He grabbed the paper and read what was written on it, his eyes then widening. "No... No, this can't be happening right now!"

"Bentley, what the hell is going on?!" Rae suddenly snapped.

"It's General Tsao! He's...he's got my computer! Our whole plan is on that computer! How did he find us!? W-we're doomed!!"

"Bentley!!" The fox barked. "Look, it seems like we underestimated Tsao. He's clearly smarter than we gave him credit for, so our top priority right now is getting Bentley's computer back. The time for subtly is over. So then, Bentley, you'll need to break into his palace and go through his computer; you might find some sort of clue there for us to follow, and if so, that's where we'll start then go from there. Now then, let's get a move on, we don't have a second to waste."