Getting the painting placed in Dimitri's office proved to be a cakewalk. With a good portion of the guards patrolling with Dimitri to watch his back while Dad tailed him, I barely even needed to sneak. The only problem I had was the painting was as heavy as me. However, I hit on an unexpected stroke of luck as I made my way to the office with it...specifically, not far outside it.
The heavy duty guard stared down at Coco as she practically hid behind the painting. "And just wut are ya doing with that paintin?" he demanded fiercely.
Coco shrank in on herself, doing her best to make herself as adorable and non-threatening as possible. "I-It's a Dimitri original..." she stammered out. "I...I was hoping he'd s-s-s-sign it..." She made her eyes water fearfully.
A huge grin split the guard's face. "Aww...I think he will." Bending over, he picked Coco and the painting up in separate hands. "But ya could use some help with that paintin. Wouldn't wanna damage it tryin' ta carry it when it's too big for ya."
Coco smiled softly. "T-thank you..."
"The boss is out o' the office raight now, but if'n ya wait there, he'll find ya!" With that said, the guard dropped Coco and the painting off in Dimitri's office. "Now don't touch nothin, ya hear?" With that, he turned and left.
With a smile, Coco swapped the paintings, and then slipped out the window with the original. Bentley'd told her that if she successfully retrieved it, he could sell it on Thief-Net for a good amount to finance further operations.
Dad's luck was as good as mine. He was able to follow Dimitri to a door that led to the club's aquifer, and saw him enter the secret code to open it. That information - and what we picked up later from the painting bug - gave Uncle Bentley what he needed to come up with a plan.
The first stage of the plan was executed simply. Uncle Murray went through the door to the aquifer and smashed the pump room to bits while Dad and I kept an eye out for interference and results. As expected, this resulted in water being piped into the club from the old water tower. This set the plan in motion.
Dad and I were to sneak into the theater to pick the guard's pockets for control keys for the spotlight control center to shut off security lights when the time was right. With the two of us in the shadows together, it would be a true cakewalk. While we were doing that, Uncle Murray would tackle the exterior alarm horns...literally. While that was going on, Uncle Bentley would be dropping the ball...the disco ball, specifically.
The only thing I found concerning at this point was that Mom still hadn't shown up. Of course, who we encountered instead...
As Sly and Coco crossed the rooftops, Constable Neyla dropped down in front of them, her whip clutched in her hand. "Hold it Coopers!" she snapped out, standing ready.
"Constable Neyla," Sly observed softly. "Another police woman hot on my tail."
Coco shot him a glare that promised 'I'm telling Mom!' if he didn't keep the flirting to an operation-minimum.
"Oh please, I led you here," Neyla countered playfully. "The only reason I was so open about the details of the documents when Carmelita asked was because I smelled your little pony in the rafters. Predator senses don't lie."
Coco winced, and made a mental note to develop a technique to keep her from giving off any scent or pheromones. "So why help us out?" she demanded quickly to cover the slip.
"You think I don't know why Carmelita asked in the first place?" Neyla countered. "She doesn't want those Clockwerk parts in the hands of the Klaww Gang anymore than I do, and for some reason she seems to think they'd be safe in yours. I personally think they'd be safer in police hands, but I'll follow her lead as far as it goes. After all, you can go places that - officially - Carmelita and I can't."
"So it's a race, then?" Sly asked slyly. "I'm all for a moonlit romp across the rooftops. Winner take all?"
Neyla chuckled softly. "Oh, I do love a man who catches on fast," she purred before leaping off into the night, Sly and Coco in hot pursuit.
Neyla proved to be nearly as maneuverable across the rooftops as Dad or I...which concerned me. While I'm all for the police having agents who can act like thieves, some of the techniques she utilized bore an unsettling resemblance to Cooper Clan techniques from out of the Thievius Raccoonus. While I would have liked to shrug it off as coincidence, the book was divided and scattered for a long time in the hands of criminals, especially Clockwerk. Between that and the Clockwerk parts being the focus of this investigation...
At the time, I thought I was looking too deep into it, so I didn't say anything about my suspicions. I'd come to regret that later.
After chasing her through Paris, she gave us a key to the nightclub's back door once we proved we could outrun her. This let Uncle Bentley take care of his part of the plan, while Dad, Uncle Murray, and I took care of ours. Once we'd pickpocketed the four keys, we were able to hop across the fans in the room to splice into the spotlight security guns, destroying the power boxes for the printing press room. ...I'm still amazed that nobody heard that.
After that, we all met back up at the hideout to plot out the last stage of the plan.