Chapter 1

Meeting the Tech

It was a common Monday afternoon at the central offices for Interpol, France division. The almost constant flow of detectives, constables, and captured criminals could be seen as the hordes of people passed in and out of the front door. On the main floor of the Interpol office was a very large atrium, with benches, a medium fountain in the middle, and the circular reception desk with 8 people helping to direct the flow of visitors to the building. To the left and right of the reception desk were the elevators that lead to the upper stories, but off in the corner of the atrium was another elevator. It was the only elevator that went down into the basement of Interpol, which until 5 years ago was used for only storage.

That had all changed the day the higher ups at the Interpol central offices told the chief of this branch of Interpol that he had to have an on grounds tech support. Since the chief wasn't about to go against his bosses, he began preparations for getting an on staff computer technician. Unfortunately the only space he could spare for this new employee was the basement. After a few weeks of renovation the basement was up to Interpol standards, and the tech they had hired had moved in. That was about 5 years ago, right around the time Sly Cooper had snuck into that very building and made off with his case file. Since then Interpol had only bothered employing one computer tech to work down in the basement, believing that their money could be better spent on their constables, detectives, inspectors, and other staff.

That is now why Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox was now going down in the main elevators with her computer tower slung under her arm. This would actually be the first time she had seen who the computer tech was since he started. She wondered, as the elevator descended to the bottom floor, "I wonder who he is. I bet I have seen him around the office, when he was sitting in the cafeteria or something, but didn't know he was the computer tech."

The elevator doors flew open to reveal that Carmelita had reached the main floor, and she exited the elevator. She walked over to where the basement elevator was and pushed the call button. As she waited for the elevator to rise up she thought, "I wonder what he looks like." Before she continues farther on that train of thought the elevator doors opened and she stepped in. She pushed the call button labeled B for basement and waited patiently as the elevator descended the one floor it needed to reach the basement. When the doors opened she noticed that the elevator seemed to open directly into the computer tech's office, and that there was no hallway, or small entry area. She stepped out of the elevator and began to look around. She noticed that the tech's office was smaller then she had anticipated, it being only slightly bigger then her own. The walls were lined on three sides with shelves. The shelves were covered with many different computer components, mice, keyboards, and one or two computer towers. On the wall opposite the elevator Carmelita saw a desk on the left side of the wall that took up the entire wall except for the space taken up by a door, situated on the far right side. She was surprised to find that no one was in the office, and she began to examine some of the computer supplies on one of the nearby shelves.

While examining what Carmelita had guessed was a computer hard drive the door beside the desk opened and some one came walking out of the back room, covered in dust, carrying a CD in a thin case. When Carmelita turned her head to look at the computer tech. she was caught quite off guard. He was a fox, like herself, and he stood about 6'. He was dressed in some loose black dress pants, a white button down shirt, and black shoes. He wore glass, but they were nothing like the ones she had seen the Bentley wearing in his case photos. His glasses were small, rectangular ones that rested on the edge of his nose. Carmelita deduced that he only needed them for reading, or seeing thing far away, and that other wise his sight was fine. He had a black hair, and hazel eyes, but the trait that had caught Carmelita so off guard was the fact that unlike most fox's that had orange or red fur; his was a strong blue color, with a bit of light blue under his chin.

The blue fox didn't seem to notice Carmelita as he took the CD over and inserted it into the computer sitting on the large desk/ work bench. As the computer tech brushed some dust off of his shirt Carmelita remembered why she had come down to the tech office. She walked up behind the blue fox and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. He slowly turned around in his chair and said, "Sorry, didn't notice you. My name is Todd Element. Is there something I can help you with miss…"

"I am Inspector Fox, and you can help with the thing I have her." Carmelita answered as she set the computer tower down on the desk. Todd turned to it a minute and said, "So, what is it doing Inspector."

Carmelita answered, "It was working perfectly when I turned it off and left to go for lunch, but when I came back I pressed the power button and nothing happened. I swear I checked everything, the surge protector, the power cord, and everything else I could think of, but it still won't turn on." Todd just nodded and when Carmelita finished he sat there a few moments thinking, before turned back to his desk. He slid Carmelita's computer over to in front of himself, and used a screw driver to open up the casing. He looked around inside before he rolled his chair over to one of the many shelves in the room and picked up a small device with a light on it. He rolled back over to Carmelita's computer and began to use the small device to check out some of the circuits in the computer. After a few minutes of this he said, "Well, Inspector fox. I must say you are the first person to be down here in two months that actually has a problem they couldn't fix themselves."

Todd then stood up and walked over to a different set of shelves and picked up a small metallic box that had wires coming out of one side. He walked back over to his, and began to use the screw driver to take out a similar unit out of the computer tower. Carmelita watched him work as she said, "Yeah, I could probably guess some of the people you see down here on a regular bases. I know for a fact the Constable Ace Cougar is on of the most logical officers in this place, but he can't even operate his telephone half the time."

Todd chuckled slightly as he continued to work on Carmelita's computer. He said, "Yeah, I do see Ace down here about once a week. It is nice to see some fresh faces though. If I am not mistaken you are the inspector currently working on the Cooper case, correct."

Carmelita smiled as she said, "Yeah, that's me."

"Any new breaks in the case, last I heard about the Cooper gang was a few month ago on the news. It was that report on that huge blimp had crashed into river."

"Actually since then Cooper and his cronies have been lying low. There has been no sighting of his gangs van, or anyone reporting something stolen and finding one of Cooper's calling cards in its place."

Todd just shrugged his shoulder as he finished working on Carmelita's computer and put the cover back on. He then picked it up and handed it back to Carmelita as he said, "Well, it was nice talking to someone who isn't breathing down my neck to get their computer fixed."

Carmelita took the computer back under her arm and said, "So, what was the problem any way?"

Todd just shrugged as he put stuff back on shelves. He said, "Your power supple just had wore out, it happens every five to ten years, depending on who made the power supply. You should be good for at least nine years, if you keep that computer that long. Oh, I also took this opportunity to upgrade a few things on your computer. I guarantee it will be much faster now, and you should have at least 50 more storage now."

Carmelita just smiled and said, "Thank you. Now I got to get back up to my office. Have to finish this report I was working on before lunch."

Todd just nodded and said, "I understand. Feel free to drop by anytime, its not like I have a lot of traffic down here." Carmelita nodded and went to push the call button on the elevator when the doors opened and Constable Ace Cougar stepped out of the elevator. Carmelita turned to see Todd sigh as he put his hand up to rub his head. After a few moments of rubbing his forehead he said, "Alright Ace, what is it this time."

Carmelita decided to take this opportunity to leave and slipped into the elevator as Ace began to explain something about not being able to log on to his user account on the network because he had forgotten his password again. As the elevator doors closed Carmelita was able to see Todd give Ace an angry look as he said, "Your password is your mother's madden name, like it has been for the past three years since you first became an Interpol officer. Why is that so hard for you to remember?" The doors closed just as Todd began to give Ace a long winded speech about how everyone else in the building can remember their password after two weeks and how he still hadn't memorized it.

Carmelita was soon back in her office and plugging all the wires back into her computer when a knock came on her door. She yelled from under her desk that it was open and she would be with them in a second. When she got out from under her desk she found the chief standing on the opposite side of her desk. She wasn't startled that he was there. She had been actually expecting this all morning. It was here weekly chewing out because she had yet to catch the Cooper gang. The sad thing was no matter how many different ways the chief worded it; it always boiled down to one simple message. If you don't catch Cooper soon I will demote you or fire you. After enduring the usual thirty minutes of the chief's bellowing, she was able to get back to work.

It was now six in the afternoon, and Carmelita was walking out to her car, ready to head home. She had stayed later then usual, looking up some information for a possible lead on the Cooper gang, but it ended up to be a dead end. She had just gotten into her car, and went to start it, but to her dismay when she turned the key the car sputtered a little, and the stopped working. That was when she remembered that she had been running on empty that morning and was going to get gas. It had completely slipped her mind to go to the gas station over her lunch break, and fill up her gas tank. Carmelita cursed quietly to herself in Spanish, and got out of the car to see if there was anyone still inside that could give her a ride home, since she didn't want to bother trying to get the gas that evening.

Unfortunately, when she looked around the Interpol staff parking lot the only vehicle there other then her own was a light brown pick-up truck. She walked over to it, and looked inside to see that it was pretty clean inside, except for the passenger side, which was occupied with what she guess was a computer monitor. Suddenly a voice from behind her said, "Is there something I can help you with Inspector Fox."

Carmelita spun around to see Todd, standing behind her with his keys in one hand and a brief case in the other. Carmelita blushed slightly, due to the embarrassment of asking this one time acquaintance for a ride, and she said, "Yeah, you see my car is out of gas, and was wondering if you could..."

Todd cut her off by using the cars remote to unlock the car. He then set his brief case in the truck bed and said, "Hand me that monitor, will put it in back her so you can have some room to sit." Carmelita did as she was asked and picked the monitor up, surprised by its weight.

She handed him the monitor as she said, "Didn't know computers were that heavy anymore."

Todd chuckled as he took the monitor from her and set it in the back. He then motioned for her to get in the truck as he said, "Yep, even though technology is getting lighter and smaller, you can still find some monitors and printers that are built like cinder blocks." Carmelita laughed at this, and got into the car as Todd opened his door to get in. In few moments they were off. Carmelita was surprised when Todd turned on his radio and turned it to a station she didn't even know exist. When she asked Todd about he said, "I have satellite radio Inspector. I manly use it to keep in touch with what's going one back in the western united states."

Carmelita asked, "You're from the US?"

Todd nodded and said, "Yep, I was actually born here, in Paris, but my family moved to a small town in central Wyoming when I was very young. So, I was raised on this stuff, in a town of around 5,000 people, if you can believe that. I came back here 5 years ago when I took the tech job with Interpol, and I still can't get enough of the stuff." Carmelita was satisfied with the answer Todd had given her, and used the remainder of the ride to see what kind of stuff the people of Wyoming listened to.

Todd dropped Carmelita by her house a few minutes later, and after saying a quick good by, he headed down the street. He stopped at the stop signed and watched as Carmelita went into her house. Once he was sure she was inside he made a right turn, and began to head home him self. It only took him a few minutes to reach his residence. It was a medium sized house on the edge of town. It stood alone, being out of the way for the common traveler. He pulled into the two car garage beside a large blue van that had flames painted on it, and a satellite dish on the top. He turned off his truck, and headed inside, where he was met by the smell of a wonderful dinner being cooked by the houses chef. He walked down the hallway that went past the four bedrooms and into the living room where he saw a certain raccoon watching the news, and a certain turtle lost behind the monitor of the computer set up in the corner of the living room. When the raccoon realized that Todd was standing there he said, "Hay, what kept you at Interpol so late."

Todd set his brief case beside the desk where the turtle was sitting and plopped down on the couch. He sighed as he said, "Oh the usual Sly, had to fix a problem with the server and do the few favors Bentley asked me to do there." That made the Bentley reach down and picked up Todd's brief case, getting the hint that the files he had requested were on the portable hard drive Todd kept in his brief case. Todd smiled when he heard Bentley typing on the computer furiously, knowing that meant he had gotten the correct files for the brains of the Cooper gang. He then turned his attention back to Sly, the raccoon master thief who was now channeling surfing like a pro. Todd said, "Well, how were things here. Anything happen."

Sly just shrugged and said, "Nope, Bentley spent the day trying to find use something to steal, and Murry and I passed a few hours playing a game on the Playstation 2, but other then that nothing much."

Todd nodded, and after watching the TV a few moments he got an evil smile on his face as he said, "Oh, one other thing happened at work today."

Sly, turned his head to Todd had a smile on his face, a smile Sly had learned meant he was about to spill something that would drive either himself, Bentley, or Murry wild. Sly finally gave in to his curiosity and asked, "Okay, what happened."

Todd just continued to smile as he said, "I got to talk to Carmelita today."

Sly was curious beyond reason, and asked, "Let me guess, you finally decided to go see what she looked like after all the stories you have heard about our heists."

"Actually no, she came to my office. Her computer was giving her trouble. I got her sorted out and she left as the biggest thorn in my side came down to ask what his password was again."

Sly chuckled, knowing how much Constable Ace aggravated Todd. He then said, "So, that was it."

Todd shook his head, that evil smile returning to his again as he said, "No, I also saw her again later. I had worked late, and it was 6:05 when I left my office to go to the truck. As I turned the corner of the building I saw Carmelita yet again, peering into the passenger side window of the truck. When I came up I found out her car was out of gas, and she was wondering if I could give her a ride home."

Sly was now laughing, imaging how embarrassed Carmelita would be when she had to ask a one time acquaintance for a ride home. After a while he calmed down a bit, and asked, "Now, you got her in your truck, and if I know you, you turned your radio to that same radio station that you are always listening to."

Todd shrugged his shoulders and smiled as he said, "Guilty as charged. Now, with that out of the way, when did Murry say dinner would be?"

Bentley stuck his head out from behind his computer and said, "He decided to make some barbeque ribs tonight, and said they would be done by 7:00. What time is it now?"

Sly turned his head to check the wall clock and said, "It is 6:55. They must be close to done."

Todd stretched, got up, and said, "I think I'll go help him get the table set. What do you want to drink?"

Sly replied, "Knowing Murry, the ribs will be a bit spicy so I'll just have some water.

"Same here," Bentley said, as he began to get up from his chair, cleaning his glasses.

Todd nodded and headed into the kitchen, followed by Sly and Bentley a few minutes later when Murray had called them from the kitchen that dinner was ready.