He knew, without even going down there again, he would have more than a hard time trying to get in through the sewer, and he'd also need far more preparation if he was going to scale the walls. Raising himself up an inch or so to get a better look at the floor, he began plotting a path through to the gates. They didn't often look over to his left, but there was no cover there... to the right there was a lot of stuff to conceal himself behind, but that was where facing, and where they were paying the most attention to... what if he just rushed through and then hid? No, that wouldn't work... it had once, but attempting it twice in one day would be tempting fate. He'd have to sneak in.
But getting into the zoo without them noticing looked almost impossible. Although, he thought... if I was to creep behind those computer banks from the bushes on the other side, and somehow draw their attention away from the gates...
Private dropped lower again and thought about it.
There didn't seem to be an easier way in. He decided to give it a shot, and if they spotted him, they would most likely be so surprised it would be easy to just flee once more and come back the night after, or maybe the one after that, when he had found gear to get over the electrified walls with. Tonight's was a low-risk attempt, he noted.
A large, clear gap separated the bushes where he needed to be and the bushes he was hiding in. They'd spot him immediately if he tried to sneak across, and Skipper was constantly scanning the park, so he wouldn't be able to sneak past at a distance. His only choice seemed to be to go around the whole zoo – and while he was doing that, he could check again for any weak points in the wires again.
He set off to the left. Silently he moved out of the bushes when they weren't looking, and hurried away around the corner. He moved quickly but quietly around the outside walls of the zoo, examining the bare, electrified wires intently as he passed, and keeping an eye out for Rico. The hum of the electric pulses through the wires were quiet enough for him to be able to hear everything around him clearly, but still loud enough to be irritating and to set him on edge. Some primitive instinct, deep inside of him, didn't like the low-pitch noise. Growling and thunderous, bearing down on him as he walked past, it seemed to threaten his well-being. The feathers rose on the back of his neck.
It didn't take long for him to lap the zoo. And although the tangled, dangling and frankly lethal wires were well-maintained and fully functional, Private thought there were several key points where he could probably get through with some gear. At least without serious injury or death. Satisfied, he bent low and began to creep around the corner towards the main gates, making sure he wasn't exposed. He entered another bush and worked out a path from there. It looked fairly easy. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves.
A rock, no bigger than a sardine can, lay on the ground next to him. They weren't looking. He picked it up, raised himself high, and threw it as far as he could towards the left of the entrance, over where he had hidden earlier. He ducked down again. It struck a tree with a loud 'clunk'. The three animals spun around, and Skipper motioned instructions to Kowalski. Gesturing for Marlene to stay back, he rushed away towards the source of the sound, grabbing a military-grade weapon from the table as he passed it. Private shivered. His captain looked fully capable of murder then and there.
Taking his chance, Private stepped behind the nearest console, thankful he had thought to grab those scraps of cloth to quiet his footsteps earlier. As he had planned, his flipper dashed out and flicked off the lever he knew was controlling the power to the laser grids, and as he advanced he sidestepped each metal bear trap and hopped out of range of each body-heat detector with ease.
In just five or six seconds he had gone past them and squeezed through the gap left in the massive gate, and was inside the zoo, and they hadn't even noticed yet. Private made sure he was well out of sight and hearing range before resting.
His pulse gradually slowed to a sensible pace. The adrenaline in his blood faded away and his muscles began to relax. He controlled his breathing. That was over. Now he just had to stay unseen and get what he needed. Escaping would be far simpler and easier to do than getting in, so he needn't worry about that yet.
The light from the crescent moon was faint and the sparse lights dotted around the zoo grounds barely illuminated anything. A very slight fog had drifted in, shortening his field of view; from where he stood near the entrance, he could barely made out the brick walls of the penguin habitat through the gloom.
Trying as hard as he could not to be scared, he dashed and flipped and back-flipped from wall to lamppost to wall until he was just outside his old home. He leapt over the pool and kicked the food bowl to the side. He dropped down.
He was in. After the open air, the walls of HQ felt dangerous, oppressive, as the old comforts of home seemed long gone even though it had only been a few hours since he had left. There were no traps – none that he could see, anyway. Quickly he entered Kowalski's lab, and started opening all of the cupboards and boxes randomly until he located the bag of gear. He picked it up, ecstatic. A very faint but fresh smell seemed to be emanating from the bag.
He recognised the scent – after only a few seconds he had remembered it. Rico's scent. There was a bomb in the bag.
He opened it. It sat in the middle of the jumble of emergency field equipment, like an egg in a nest. An egg made of C4. Private tapped a button on its side. The display lit up – unset. He released a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding. They hadn't expected him to come tonight after all. He knew that if he had waited until tomorrow to come, the smell would have faded and he would never have known about the bomb, which would be set to explode. Smart. But not smart enough to realise that Private was too.
Walking back to the main room in HQ felt strange, and not for the first time doubt about his actions flooded his mind. This was his home, or at least it had been for a long time. He belonged here. Surely he couldn't leave this place forever. And it felt so wrong to become a burglar in his old home.
He shook the thoughts away and located the control panel on the wall. A few flicks of tiny switches, a couple of buttons pressed, and just like that the defences were off.
They would have noticed. That was definite. So he fled to the sewers once more, not pausing and this time with a destination in mind.
Private slid along the sewer's pavement until he was underneath Burt the elephant's habitat. He scaled the ladder and rested for only a second, listening, then swiftly lifted the small grate and wriggled out.
Burt was snoring loudly in one corner of his habitat. Private leaped up and landed on the elephant's side, then followed the move up with a flip over onto the outer walls of the zoo. The dead wires dug into his feet through the rags he wore. There was no threatening hum.
A glance around. He was unseen. He entered the park and and within seconds had scaled a large tree.
His heartbeat slowed and the adrenaline faded. He relaxed in the crook of where two branches split with a smile of contentedness.
Private awoke the next morning to the sounds of an oblivious family of pigeons whispering on a nearby branch. He sat up slowly and quietly, listening to their gossip from his place within the leaves.
"I heard the badgers telling the elephant that they gonna kill the bird when they find him," one of them was saying. He sounded young. Private moved his head ever so slightly so that he could see them through the leaves.
"If they find him," one of his companions corrected him. She leaned closer. "I heard their King telling them that the Sky Spirits told him that the penguin is like a ghost..."
The third pigeon snorted. "Their King also says that if he sits on popcorn kernels then popcorn falls from the sky."
"It's true, though," said the first pigeon. "I saw it happen. There was an explosion and then popcorn was falling like rain. And he's right about the penguin too – I heard from the otter that nobody's seen hide nor hair, or feather, of him since he left the zoo. But he's been around here a lot... he was here just last night."
The third pigeon snorted again. "Baloney," he said, but he didn't sound so sure this time.
The female pigeon hummed thoughtfully. "I don't think so. Apparently he stole a bunch of stuff, and took a bomb. And they're not sure how he got in... before he came in they had him surrounded just outside the entrance..."
"And then he disappeared," the first one finished, sounding impressed. "He stole the stuff, turned off the electricity, and was gone. Like magic."
Private didn't know whether to feel ashamed or proud, or guilty. He went with proud and his chest feathers puffed up importantly and he seemed to grow slightly in size. He smiled as he surveyed them through the leaves.
Finally the third spoke again. "But he'll be out of here soon enough... he's got what he needs, right?" His voice was falsely confident. "He'll leave and then we'll never see him again."
"They never saw him in the first place after he left," the young one piped up. "He's too good... he looks weaker than the rest but..." His voice dropped to a dramatic whisper. "But... maybe that was all an act. Maybe he's been just using them all that time, and he got their trust and friendship so that he got training." Private blinked again.
"Makes sense," the third said slowly. He seemed to have lost his scepticism. "Where better to go for training than to the commando penguins? And once he was part of their team they'd teach him everything because they'd need him to be skilled. Y'know, for missions and all that stuff."
The female nodded. "Mm-hmm. I always knew there was something fishy about him – the foreign accent and cutesy act and all. He would have to leave the city now, anyway. They're looking for him."
They nodded at each other. Then they resumed normal chatter – the weather, a new squirrel in the park, an impending wedding... etcetera. Private curled up again as silently as he could.
He felt like weeping – it was nice to have people say he was fast and skilled, but it was rotten when they said he was faking the friendship, trust and loyalty he had given his unit for a long time. To have people say you were a traitor... it was horrible. And he had no idea how to fix it. Tears formed in his eyes but he blinked them away. Crying was no good. The feathers on his torso lay so very flat, and he had curled up so very tight, so that now he looked very small and weak indeed.