January 12th 1950
"I say, K'walski, where are you going?" Private asked. Kowalski turned around. He was out of character, wearing a freshly pressed uniform, a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
"To see, um… Nigel." Kowalski replied, looking incredibly guilty.
"Uncle Nigel said we are never to be seen out of character, certainly not in uniform," Private replied, "Are you going to meet Doris?"
"What makes you think that?" Kowalski replied nervously.
"Since when do you bring Uncle Nigel flowers?" Private countered.
"Alright, you have a point. It's just, Doris said I look… smart in my uniform. I'll try not to be seen," Kowalski replied, "Anyway, Doris is a respectable woman. If we get as well-known as Nigel hopes… you know what I mean."
"You really thought I was going to stop you?" Private asked, slightly surprised.
"Actually, yes."
"I'd never tell Skippah. I've a bit of a soft spot for romance."
"You said you needed to talk to me urgently. If it's about the mission…" Kowalski asked a concerned expression on his face.
"No, it's not about that. I'm still mad about that but, this is worse," Doris replied, "He's coming Kowalski. My father is coming."
"Miss Blowhole, I didn't want to show you those photographs, but I need you to understand what your father does," Skipper put the photographs back in his brief case.
"You want me to spy on my own father?" Doris asked. When she looked up, Skipper could see she had tears in her eyes.
"You're the only one who can."
"You can't mean…"
"He escaped before the trial. He's coming after you. And the team."
"He was being tried for war crimes," there had to be some kind of mistake. Kowalski simply did not want to believe Blowhole was back, "They had their best men guarding him, I knew those men personally, he couldn't have escaped."
"He did, Kowalski. Manfridi and Johnson are dead." Kowalski would have taken being hit by a truck better than he took the news. Then a second thought occurred to him, possibly more terrible.
"Does he know… about us? About… Munich?" Kowalski asked, his voice brittle.
"I hope you consider the lives you'll be saving before you refuse, Miss Blowhole," Skipper concluded, "Lieutenant Kowalski will escort you home. He'll tell you how to contact us once you've reached a decision."
"Ma'am." Kowalski opened the door for the young woman, her face still damp with tears. It was clear by the look he shot his commanding officer, he did not approve of the course of action.
Once they were out on the street, Doris turned to the man, who had previously been completely silent:
"Look, about your mission," Doris began to explain, "I just can't believe…"
"Skipper shouldn't have asked you to do that," Kowalski stated, somewhat protectively, "I'm sorry for what happened. I didn't know what he was going to propose when he asked to be introduced to you."
"No, Kowalski. What I was trying to say was," Doris repeated, "I'm going to do it."
"Doris, you can't be serious. We can get a seasoned intelligence officer down here in two days…"
"And watch my father capture them. No Kowalski, I don't want you charging in there blind. I don't want my father to say that he'll have to skip dinner for work, and know that the reason is because he has you guys somewhere in the schloss, doing god knows what."
"I can't let you do that." Kowalski stated, trying to keep his gaze straight ahead and professional.
"Why not?"
"I…" Kowalski stopped walking, as he tried to think of some other way to say this, "I love you Doris." Kowalski expected some kind of slap, or rebuttal. It was unprofessional to feel that way, and Doris was right his feelings could cause the team to go charging in blind. However, when he gathered the courage to look, Doris was smiling.
"Well, I'm glad you finally had the guts to out and say it." Doris stated matter of fact, before, much to Kowalski's surprise, grabbing him by his tie and pulling him into a kiss.
"No, he still thinks I'm one of them. He sent me a telegram, telling me he was coming after you." Doris replied. Kowalski could hear the fear in her voice.
"Doris, he knows Skipper's team were the ones who rescued Professor Swansea. It's too dangerous to stay!" Kowalski pleaded.
"Kowalski, I have to get the rest of the files." Doris stood her ground.
"It's too dangerous, I'm taking you with me. I know he's your father but I doubt he would spare your life if he knew what you were doing."
"I know you're only trying to protect me, but I'm a big girl now," Doris looked over her shoulder, checking that they were alone, "Go Kowalski, as soon as I have the files, Nigel will put me on the first boat to New York when I'm done."
"We've beaten him before. We can do it again."
"He has guns Kowalski, lots of guns, and money to hire men."
"I'm sure Nigel would give us a tank if we asked for it." Doris leant across the table of the café.
"Just stay safe." She whispered.
"Since when am I ever safe?"
"Shut up and kiss me nerd boy."
January 16th 1950
"Thank you, thank you… no, it's my pleasure to share my discoveries with the scientific community…" Kowalski muttered in his sleep.
"Get up!" Rico hit him across the face with a newspaper. Kowalski turned over and buried his head under his pillow.
"Yes Mr President… I'm honoured that you think my discoveries were important enough to…"
"Look a' this!" Rico grabbed the sleeping man by his t-shirt and hauled him out of bed and onto the floor.
"Rico!" Kowalski protested, now wide awake. Rico waved the newspaper in front of his face.
"Holy flying cars, Rico! Our cover's blown!" Kowalski exclaimed, snatching the newspaper out of Rico's hands and quickly scanning the article. Most of it was simply describing their progress, which was record breaking, but the headline gave a good indication of what was actually in that article: Identities of Mysterious New Gang Leaders Discovered! Below this were four photographs. Photographs of them in uniform.
"… A team of four men known to control the 'mystery gang' have been revealed to be a team of ex-commandos, code named The Penguins. The team was made up of a Captain Blake Grant, Lieutenant Peter Kowalski, Sergeant Alexander Rico, and Private Timothy Jones; known as Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private by peers…"
Kowalski finished reading the article, "Don't we bribe people in the press to stop stuff like this happening?" Kowalski asked. Rico nodded.
"'s Marlene Roberts." Rico pointed to the name at the bottom of the article.
"Marlene Roberts on our case?! I thought she was strictly Rockhopper bashing?" Kowalski asked. Marlene Roberts was an intrepid young reporter, determined to destroy the mobs with the press. They'd already saved her several times, though she didn't know it, "Rico, this is not good…"
Kowalski was interrupted by the phone ringing in the other room. Rico ran towards it immediately, Kowalski, however, had a feeling he knew what it was and followed with far less gusto.
Rico answered the phone, "Age' Nigel sir?!... Yes, sir… 'orry sir," Rico covered the receiver with his hand, a pitying look on his face, "It's for you." Kowalski face palmed. Well, best to get it over it. He picked up the phone.
"Lieutenant Kowalski!" Nigel shouted over the line, "What the hell did you think you were doing breaking cover?! In uniform no less! That annoying reporter might not have been able to find your file of she hadn't known your rank!" the line fell silent, "Well, what's your excuse?" Kowalski swallowed nervously.
"Um, I wore it on a date… sir."
"Why were you risking your cover on a date? To impress your girlfriend?"
"Well… I wouldn't put it that way… Sort of… Actually… Yes. Doris said I looked smart in my uniform," Kowalski answered as if the last statement were an adequate explanation.
"You blew your cover to impress your girlfriend?! When I was a Lieutenant, back in the Great War, that kind of thing would get you…"
"Well, we could use this to our advantage, sir."
"Kids these days, all fast cars and… Wait, we could use it to our advantage?"
"Well, um, we've had to make our previous operations look amateur to throw off suspicion, for one thing. Now we're able to perform to our full capabilities."
"You're going to have to come up with a better excuse than that!"
"Well, um… maybe, it might make us look more threatening to the Rockhoppers, if edited versions of our missions were leaked to the press. You know, like Skipper taking down RAT." The line went silent.
"You know, you just might be right… Della, get me headquarters. I want to know just how much we can leak…" Click. Nigel had hung up. Kowalski sighed with relief.
It was eight o'clock that evening when Skipper returned.
"Well, turns out Ringtail really is almost bankrupt, he just doesn't realise it. If he didn't have Maurice around, he probably wouldn't be able to keep his head on straight," Skipper reported over a cup of coffee. The effects of life at the 'Cabana were starting to wear on him. His eyes were heavy, with dark circles beneath him. He'd washed out the dye, combed his hair and changed into his usual suit, so he was pretty much back to looking like good old Skipper again.
"So who did you go as this time?" Private asked, "Please say a star!"
"That's classified," Skipper yawned, "I'm hittin' the hay."
January 18th 1950
"I'm tellin' you X, lay off the case." Rodger, warned his colleague.
"Why? Because you're on the take?" Officer X growled, "I don't care if I'm the only officer on the force who doesn't take orders from The Penguins, I'm going to hunt them down, and I'm going to bring them in." The team, had gotten the nickname, the Penguins, after one of the 50% fabricated files leaked to the press had accidentally contained the information that their team's code name was penguin.
"I'm just tellin' ya, I don't know why, but the lieutenant says we should keep away from them." X's face contorted into a scowl.
"So they've bought him too…"