After taking a moment to drop off Carmelita's parents in the future, and spent a few moments with the kids so they could relax a little before they tackled the next time period, the gang climbed back into the van and headed off to Ancient Arabia, where they would begin the search for Salim. It didn't take them long to reach the time period in question, along with finding a location for their safe house that ended up taking the form of a low cave that was away from the path that the guards patrolled, one that also appeared to be set up for a fair number of people. What they discovered was that this was one of the hideouts for the Forty Thieves, the group of thieves that Salim was said to be the charter member of, but from the looks of the area it appeared that the majority of them had retired and gone their separate ways, meaning that they were living out the rest of their lives in peace, which also meant that they wouldn't be expecting reinforcements this time, not that they had needed any in the past. The only thing that was odd was that it appeared that a few of the thieves had remained and that they had gone off with Salim on one final mission before they retired, but from the looks of it Salim and his fellow thieves were missing and hadn't been seen for some time, informing them of what they needed to do first.
As such both Sly and Carmelita headed out into the nearby city and started surveying the area, taking a few pictures every now and then so Bentley could have an idea as to what was around the area for their future missions, before arriving at the point that would allow them to see what Bentley had to say about finding Salim.
"Okay, word on the street is that Salim al-Kuper was driven into hiding, but it also indicated that he's in hiding." Bentley told them, which made sense when they thought about it, since there was another time traveling minion of Le Paradox in this time period, which meant that the two of them needed to be careful as they explored the city, "As you have no doubt guessed, we need to figure out where he's hiding and then figure out what forced him to go into hiding in the first place. To do that, Penelope and I have created a new gadget for you to use."
"Really? In the short amount of time that we've been here?" Carmelita asked, though at the same time she was sure that Penelope had been making plans for the point where she threw caution to the wind and tackled the other people that were attacking Sly's ancestors, to stop them herself, and with Bentley's help she must have completed one of them for whoever was in this area, "What is it?"
"We've made a new visual guidance system that will detect anything that Salim has recently come into contact with, though we had to study your ancestors to make it in the first place." Bentley replied, referring to Sly for a moment, since these were his ancestors that were being targeted, but even then the fact that he and Penelope were able to do such a thing so quickly was impressive, "Maybe you can find some clues as to where Salim has hidden himself or what he might have parted with recently."
Sly and Carmelita put their binocucoms away and crossed over the river that was running through the middle of the city, as from what they could tell one of the places that Salim had been in was the lamp shop that happened to be right across from where the two of them had been standing. Once they entered the building they found that there were quite a number of impressive lamps on the shelves, but what really interested them, besides the ice looking lamp that had Salim's fingerprints on it, was the green metallic door that looked out of place, something that Carmelita snapped a picture of while Sly grabbed one of the lamp. As Sly got a picture of the lamp, however, Bentley asked them to do the same for the door, only to be surprised when a picture of it appeared on his end, showing him that both of the pair knew what he wanted and that they were going to give it to him, before they headed out of the shop and continued their search for Salim and anything else he might have come into contact with recently. From that point the duo continued to explore the city as they searched for more clues, taking pictures of anything that was odd or out of place so Bentley and Penelope could piece together what was happening in this time period, while at the same time proving that they were thieves by stealing the various treasures that were in the pockets of the guards they passed.
What they were able to find, in the entirety of the city, was some bits of Salim's hair that were carefully hidden in an old comb of sorts, some bits of cloth from whatever he was wearing or whatever he had been wearing, and even a heat signature on a rug that Salim must have slept on at some point... which pointed Bentley and Penelope to believe that Salim was on a boat, where the duo found one near where the rug was located and climbed on board. When they moved the cover of the chamber that was near them they found an elderly raccoon sitting on some cushions, eating from a bowl that seemed to be filled with grapes or some other fruit, though he looked more like he was enjoying himself and not that he was hiding from whoever was attacking his time period.
"Greetings. You're Salim al-Kupar, aren't you?" Sly asked, though at the same time the one thing that both he and Carmelita noticed was that his cane was either missing or it had been carefully hidden, like Rioichi's had been when they assisted him earlier.
"And who are you two?" Salim replied in kind, to which he picked up some grapes from the bowl and ate some, clearly showing that he didn't much care for their arrival and was still trying to enjoy himself, making them wonder if this was one ancestor that didn't care to stop whoever was messing with his time period.
"That parts complicated." Carmelita said, because based on how the other ancestors had reacted when they told them that they were Cooper thieves, and the variety of their reactions, she knew that the direct approach might not be the best thing for them to do, "We're thieves, just like you, but we're kind of new in town. How about you come back to our gang's safe house and we'll explain ourselves to you?"
"How about you go lick a camel's hump?" Salim fired back, showing that he really didn't care for them, not like the other ancestors that Carmelita had encountered so far, but right now she had to admit that she liked the others much more than she liked Salim.
"Okay... look, we know you're in trouble, and we're here to help you." Sly stated, though he knew that time was of the essence, because the longer it took them to convince Salim of their intent the longer whoever was attacking their time period completed whatever task they were trying to complete, and he noticed something when Salim discovered that his bowl had run out of food, "We can explain everything to you, but we really need to go somewhere that's more private than this... besides, we've got some food back at the safe house and it looks like you might need some."
"Food?" Salim inquired, though the look that appeared on his face indicated that he was happy to have such an idea come up, before that was replaced by a disappointing look for a few seconds, "It was foolish of you two not to mention that in the first place! Let's go!"
Sly and Carmelita decided that now wasn't the time to correct Salim, since food wasn't as important as the fact that someone was attacking this time period, but at the same time they lead him back to the safe house, where introductions went quickly as Salim stuffed his face on what was offered to him. It was after that moment the gang discovered that a new 'player', a term that Salim used when talking about marks, who called herself Miss Decibel had rolled into town out of nowhere and had started throwing lots of money around. Penelope confirmed that the time traveling lieutenant they had to worry about was Miss Decibel, which made sense considering that she must have met the others before they were sent to their time periods, but she remained quiet as Salim described what happened, as he and the three remaining thieves had decided to pull one last heist before disappearing into retirement, with Miss Decibel being their target. Of course with her advanced technology, either supplied by Le Paradox or bought herself before coming here, Miss Decibel had easily captured his thief brothers, forcing Salim into the position they had found him in, where he had been trying to come up with a plan to free them ever since their capture.
Miss Decibel's background proved to be rather interesting, as she came from a wealthy British family and that her true love was classical music, but thanks to the dangerous combination of the fact that she had no musical talent and her own extreme temper resulted in a freak accident that left her unable to play music the normal way. That accident caused her trumpet to become lodged in the end of her trunk, though she developed the ability to play hypnotic tones, allowing a new criminal to be born as she started to use her power to force others to commit crimes for her, along with whatever else she decided to use her powers for. When the gang informed Salim of Le Paradox, and the whole time traveling part, it seemed to connect in his mind, but at the same time it was also clear that he wasn't about to trust them completely, not yet anyway, meaning that the gang needed to prove themselves before he openly trusted them like the other ancestors did when they assisted them.
Once they knew who their target was Derpy, Gilda, and Diz left the safe house together, heading towards what could be the local pawn shop, while Bentley informed them, by binocucom, and the rest of the gang that Salim has lost a small fortune betting on the local camel races, where he had to pawn his thief outfit as a consequence. The owner of the pawn shop never left his place and had made sure that the building was like a fortress, meaning that they would need to do things the normal way and talk through a slot in the door, as Bentley was sure that retrieving the outfit would give them Salim's trust for the remainder of the time they were in Ancient Arabia. Unfortunately the shopkeeper only accepted payment in the form of flawless gemstones, three to be exact, informing the gang that Bentley or Penelope must have tried this while they were talking with Salim earlier, but the good news was that there just so happened to be three stones of that quality in the walls around the city, as decoration. Since there just so happened to be three targets and three of them, an odd coincidence when they thought about it, the siblings separated from each other and took once of the three statues that stood around the city, using their wings to get around the guards and reach their targets... where all they had to do was pull the nose ring of the statues and loose the gemstones from where they had been resting, even though the three statues had tongues made of movable stone, something they stared at for a few seconds before returning to the task at hand and left with the gemstone they had come for.
The moment the three of them had collected the three gemstones they returned to the door that the shopkeeper would speak to them through, where Gilda and Derpy handed their treasure over to Diz, since a lady at the door might be frowned upon, and moved out of the way as Diz knocked on the door, which was followed by the slot opening and a pair of eyes appearing on the other side.
"What do you want?!" the shopkeeper asked, though while his tone suggested that he didn't care to be interrupted by anyone, meaning that he might be busy in some regard, his eyes glanced down at the gemstones that Diz was carrying at the moment, the glint in his eyes telling Diz that Bentley and Penelope had struck gold once more.
"I heard that you recently acquired a thief outfit," Diz replied, to which he noticed something flicker in the man's eyes, meaning that there were always rumors on the street and that someone would have seen the previous transaction that he was talking about, before he lifted the stones a little more, "and I also heard that the price for the outfit was three flawless gemstones, so I collected these and figured that we could make a trade... but, if you don't want to trade, I can always bet these on the next camel race."
"Hey, if you want to purchase these rags, than who am I to judge?" the shopkeeper stated, though this time his tone told Diz that the man thought that whoever wanted to buy the outfit that Salim had been using before he lost his fortune had to be an utter fool, but instead of causing chaos on him Diz simply moved forward with the transaction.
A few minutes later he left the shop, who had a very happy shopkeeper that as currently studying the flawless gemstones that had been brought to him, and rejoined his sisters, showing them the outfit that Bentley had sent them to retrieve, one that seemed to be modeled for a raccoon's body and almost seemed to look like what Aladdin was supposed to wear, according to the stories and the legends. It also came with a scepter that had an interesting ability, as when Diz focused on it time seemed to slow down for him, since he was the one carrying the scepter, and his sisters were a little surprised to learn what power the scepter possessed, though that allowed them to return to the safe house with a smile on their faces. After they returned to the safe house Sly walked out with the attire on, spinning the scepter as he walked down the street and headed towards the metal gate that he and Carmelita had seen while they were looking for Salim's location, which was another item that confused Bentley and Penelope, though at the same time Diz followed him, just in case his services were necessary.
It didn't take Sly long to find the gate in question, along with the lever that he jumped onto and let it sink down towards the ground as the gate opened, though in that moment he activated the scepter and slowed down time, where he was able to slip under the obstacle before it could close.
"Good job getting in, Sly." Bentley said, though at the same time Sly looked around the area and found several of Le Paradox's crates resting around the tunnel he was in, meaning that he had to be on the right track, "But we've got another problem. Salim tells me that Miss Decibel is constantly changing the locations of the three thieves that he was working with, meaning that it's near impossible to track them and form a plan of attack to free them from whatever Miss Decibel is doing to them."
"Hold up Sly, something's happening ahead of your location." Penelope added, but as the seconds ticked by Sly peeked his head around the corner and found what she was referring to, as Miss Decibel walked forward and stopped in front of Le Paradox, surprising the gang with the fact that he was here as well, "What's Le Paradox doing here?"
"I have no idea, so I'm going to tail them and listen in on their conversation," Sly replied, because that seemed like the smart thing to do, especially since they had no idea what sort of plan Miss Decibel was trying to put in motion, which might actually aid them in their future missions and whatever Bentley and Penelope might have planned.
Sly remained where he was standing and listened as Miss Decibel greeted Le Paradox, who complimented her on her 'beauty', something that even Sly knew he was faking since he didn't care for her or the others, but he remained silent and followed after them as they talked. When the pair stopped on the bridge that was near their meeting place Le Paradox asked if the operation was going according to plan, to which Miss Decibel confirmed that things were going as they had planned and that the three thieves that they had caught were producing forgeries that were of the highest quality, causing Sly to raise an eyebrow for a moment. In that moment Le Paradox revealed that once his "royal lineage was discovered' his wealth and power would be unstoppable, meaning that part of his time traveling operations was all about creating a fake family line for him to use in the future, to put him beyond anyone else and make it impossible for Interpol to touch him, regardless of whatever they found on him. What followed next was also interesting, as Miss Decibel mentioned that 'The Panther' worked best when enjoying scorpion claws, where Le Paradox stated that he'd have more shipped to her so she could get him the documents that she was having the thieves create for him.
As Sly listened to their conversation, while following them through the city, he caught a moment where Le Paradox mentioned that if his failed minions hadn't been taken back to the future, which he and his family was responsible for, the skunk was planning on stranding those that failed him in the time periods they had been sent to, a fate that was crueler than one might think. Following that was Miss Decibel mentioning that 'The Tiger', the second thief she had captured, enjoyed camel cheese and that their supplies were running low, where Le Paradox mentioned that he'd also include that in the next shipment, and before long they had stopped again, only this time there was a mention of 'The Lion' who loved cobra tails, causing Le Paradox to promise that they would be added to the shipment as well. Since it appeared that both of their foes were expecting deliveries, and a delivery boy, both Bentley and Penelope suggested that Sly use the thief attire and present himself as the person in question, to which Diz landed nearby and weaved a little spell onto him, one that masked his voice and made him seem like a local, since Le Paradox might recognize his voice.
With that done Sly approached the tent that the pair had gone into and surprised them, though when Sly made the excuse that the other delivery boy was out on account of snake bites, something that could actually happen, Le Paradox asked him what foods the three thieves required, in a different order than what Miss Decibel had mentioned them, and Sly answered them perfectly. Once he had fooled the two of them into thinking that he was the replacement delivery boy, even though they had no idea who the usual delivery boy was, Miss Decibel handed Sly a map and told him to get going, to which he walked out and smiled as he let the two of them to their conversation, where he and Diz noticed the locations of the three thieves... and with the map in hand they headed back to the safe house, so Bentley and Penelope could create a plan of attack so the gang could rescue the three thieves and stop Le Paradox's plans, before it was too late.