It was 1800 hours exactly, an hour and seven minutes after Kowalski set off to check all of the surveillance footage. His job proved rather boring, just staring at the screen of Alice's small TV at the back of the Zoovenier shop. (The zoo was closed already, so he had the opportunity to sneak in and watch the tapes.)

He checked all of the tapes from that day in less than 30 minutes, pretty much from late last night up to the present. 'Hmm..' he thought, 'I have a hunch...'

He checked all of the ones from the day before, as well. Still nothing that could help.

He was just about to abandon the footage and the idea altogether when he realized something: Mort wasn't in any of the footage he had looked over! Not even from the previous day, which meant that...

Mort had been gone for days and his own friends hadn't even noticed! (Well, they were sort of his friends anyway. And what GREAT ones, at that.)

Poor little guy. He might have been exaggerating, but Kowalski felt that he and Mort were sort of kindred spirits. Maybe no one would care if he left...

But he only had to rewind the tape of the lemur exhibit about 2 hours to find what he was looking for. In the darkness, a black blob moved unnaturally towards the wall and climbed over. Clearly this was Mort!

Well maybe not clearly. After all the tapes were in black and white and were of poor quality, and it was the middle of the night when this happened. But still, Kowalski was proud to have discovered something that would be useful, hopefully. That'd show Skipper!

Just then Skipper came in throught the window.

"Hello, Kowalski. Just came to see if you've found anything." he said.

"Come have a look at this!" said Kowalski, pointing to the screen and rewinding it to the right time. When the blob once again made its way over the wall, he pointed it out. "You see that?"

"The..uh...blob thingy?"

Kowalski sighed. "Yes, the 'blob thingy.'" Skipper looked confused.

"And...and you think that's...oh.." He almost gave Kowalski credit for a job well done. ALMOST.

"Did you check the tapes for the entrance?"

"Yep, nothing." stated Kowalski. Skipper shook his head.

"Your...blob, could be anything! It could just be a squirrel that fell out of a tree and got into the zoo. It could be a plant or something...there's no way to tell if that's Mort!" he concluded. Kowalski felt foolish to have gotten all worked up about a, "blob," but, he thought, atleast it is a start.

Then he saw what they had found in the exhibit, and he must have shrunken a few feet. Even though penguins are only a couple feet high.

"Now why don't YOU have a look at THIS, Sherlock!" Skipper said back at the lemur exhibit.

And that Kowalski did.

There were footprints - MORT's footprints - leading over the fence. There were signs that Mort had been angry with Julien and that he went of his own will, and for example the picture Mort had drawn of Julien on his thrown had been crossed out. And of course there was the letter from him, which was basically a bunch of crude pictures that sent this message: "I'm leaving. I'm tired of you guys."

The last picture was one of Mort's paw raised, and they had no clue what that meant. All of this compared to Kowalski's little blob. He decided not to bring it up.

But they still didn't know where Mort went.

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Back at the base, Kowalski felt uneasy. He simply couldn't get his mind off of Mort. Where could he be? Is he okay? Will we find him? Right now Kowalski had a probable answer for 2 of those 3 questions. Those answers were both no.

When Rico and Private were already in their bunks, Kowalski thought that since he couldn't sleep, he would go over to work on his shrink ray. Not very useful, since it was supposed to take 712 years, but atleast it helped get his mind off of things...

Until Skipper came inn, anyway, sitting and watching Kowalski check and re-check calculations and fiddle with wires.

"So, having any progress with the shrink ray?" he asked.

"Not hardly, no. The numbers all add up, but it should still take approxametly 712 years. If we're lucky, 700." Kowalski replied.

"No wonder..." said Skipper under his breath. But Kowalski heard him.

"No wonder!?" said Kowalski.

"Since when have you started eavsdropping, Kowalksi!"

"Eavsdropping? But you're right here!"

Skipper had an excuse. It seemed he did for everything. He was going on about something in the military when Kowalski couldn't take it anymore.

"Well, maybe you should go get Bernice to build one for you! I'm sure she'd be glad to!"

"Bernice? What does she have to do with-"

"SHE HAS TO DO WITH EVERYTHING!"

"Whoa, whoa! Manage your temper! I thought I would only ever have to say that to Rico!" Skipper paused. "I don't compute."

"Skipper, ever since-"

"Hold it right there! Are you questioning my authority?"

Kowalski looked confused. "Wha-"

"What is it with you? You're losing it, Kowalski! What you did back there...I can't believe it!"

"Atleast I don't allow for my comrades to plummet to the ground from 50 feet in the air while I pay attention to a half-crazed 'lemur King!'" Kowalski shouted.

"Be strong, Kowalski! I thought we got past that! Besides, they wer-"

"Unauthorised personel, and only authorised personel are permitted at any time. Blah blah blah!" Kowalski recited. It wasn't the first time he had heard that speech.

"Are my ears working correctly? I can't believe what I'm hearing! Kowalski, what is wrong with you? Not to mention you said, blah, blah, blah, rather than some complicated term no one but you has heard of!"

Kowalski was steaming, but kept in mind that Private and Rico were trying to sleep. Well, kept it in mind for awhile, anyway. It ended up in a shouting match and sort of war-of-the-wills.

"It's time to be servious!" said Kowalski.

"You're right! It's time for YOU to stop pretending that you're smarter than the rest of us!"

Kowalski was shocked.

"I mean," continued Skipper, "Maybe I SHOULD get Bernice to fix this! She's clearly more fit for the job than YOU! Just one day, and you were outsmarted by the new otter in town. ONE DAY! Oh, the great Kowalski, who by the way is not so great after all, has been beaten! What a surprise!"

Kowalski got him back. "Oh, the great Military commander Skipper, wanted for fellony in Denmark, is famous all around the globe! He assembled a team of 3: a remarkable accomplishment for penguinkind! His flyers stating his high-rank and glory will be read by all of the eager inhabitants of the trashcan! Amazing! And today, Skipper learned to share! He gave a single fish to one of his team! What a hero he is!"

Okay, maybe exagerating a TINY bit, but still. Kowalski was angry at the conceited, stubborn, harsh leader that he was being! He wasn't thinking clearly, either.

"Name ONE time today that I was such a horrible leader!"

There wasn't time to write about all of them, but Kowalski named 4.

Defeated, Skipper screamed, "I HATE YOU!"

"WELL I HATE YOU!"

"STUCK-UP!"

"WHAT A LEADER YOU ARE!"

"Maybe I WILL get Bernice. Maybe she can join the TEAM, Kowalski! How does that sound! It's what you've always dreamt of, isn't it?"

Kowalski started to say that they only just met her this morning, but ran out of the room and climbed into his bunk instead. Private was sitting up on his, his eyes wide.

"H-H-Hate is a powerful word." he stammered. Oh no. Kowalski hadn't meant to upset him. Rico gave him a vicious glare. It seemed he had tried to cover Private's ears, but he heard, anyway.

Feeling terrible, Kowalski could hear Skipper from the other room.

"Skipper's Log. Today Kowalski completely lost it..."

He didn't mean in. He didn't mean it. Kowalski told himself. He didn't mean it...

He meant it. He lay there for awhile, thinking. Maybe he did lose it?

Mort, I'm just like poor Mort...

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Hope you liked this chapter! There will be more soon! PLEASE review!