The Power of Silence
Chapter 9 – An Invidious Reunion

OFFICER X GROANED.

Alice held the door open to the storage shed, beckoning him to go inside. She had spent the last hour leading him around the zoo, showing him where everything was. He had been introduced to nearly every animal and Alice had shown him the entry points to each habitat. He didn't need any entrances, though. He'd blow the walls down if he needed to.

He tried to look interested as he walked into the shed, though. He was doing this for the CIES from Andrew Green, and nothing more. Not for any dumb animals or idiotic red-haired zookeeper. Besides, who would actually want to invade a zoo for the sake of killing its penguins?

"Over here you have all the non-perishable food," Alice told him, gesturing to a tall stack of crates. "I don't think you'll ever need to feed the animals, but be sure to keep a close eye on it. We get a shipment every morning and I don't trust that truck driver."

"Alright," offered the large man, crossing his arms.

"We've also got some zoo golf carts for getting around in here and all of the cleaning supplies if you ever find use for them. The golf carts of course, not the cleaning supplies," smiled Alice.

X smiled back. At least the broad had a sense of humor.

"Any questions so far?" Alice asked.

The man shook his head, his arms still crossed then asked, "When do I set up my equipment?"

"Whenever the heck you want to, really. The guests won't mind you putting up a few cameras or microphones or something if you want to set up during zoo hours," Alice explained. "I've already fired those two idiots who used to guard this place at night, so you'll be alone after hours if that's when you prefer. All they did was sleep, anyway."

X nodded. He liked the idea of setting up his gear when nobody was around. Then nobody could see exactly what he was setting up. He didn't like the idea of those guards getting fired for sleeping, though. That was actually exactly what he had been planning to do. Alice's perception of cameras and microphones was a mere figment of what he was planning to do with the zoo so that he could get away with that.

"Excellent. So you can start tomorrow night?" Alice questioned.

X nodded again, preferring not to waste his voice on the small woman.

"Oh, one more thing," Alice announced. "I suppose you should meet the actual birds that you are going to be watching over. That would probably be useful."

With that the redhead gestured him to leave the storage shed, which she promptly locked. She handed him a spare key to it before they set off to the center of the zoo where the penguin habitat was.

X was only dreading laying his eyes on the apparently poor, defenseless birds that he was being paid to protect. Hell, he had been paid less in past endeavors to protect key government officials from being assassinated. Now, he was going to be protecting penguins. Flightless birds. The idea made him cringe, but then he remembered the surveillance technology he'd have access to do. It was worth it. At least he tried to convince himself so.

"Now I should warn you, my penguins aren't your typical, run of the mill penguins that you'd see anywhere. They're pretty special, hence is why you are protecting them," Alice explained as they walked.

The man raised a brow at the woman, but she didn't notice.

"Sometimes they like to leave their habitat at night, but don't worry about that," the zookeeper continued. She glanced back at Officer X, and then said, "don't worry, it's completely normal."

"Normal for them to leave?" X responded.

"Yeah. They like to get out and explore. Talk to the other animals, help out where they can, that kind of thing," Alice explained. X at this point had thought the woman was entirely insane. She continued, "so don't worry about them exploring the zoo too much. Sometimes the other animals explore a bit, but its typically only the small ones, and usually they stay in their habitats anyway. The penguins don't like to stay cooped up all night, though."

"Sounds like you should be talking to animal control. Not me," X complained.

Alice glanced up at him, putting her hands on her hips. "I could keep them cooped up if I wanted to. I let them run around at night."

Officer X muffled a sudden urge to laugh. This was the battiest woman he had ever had the misfortune of working with.

"So just let them do their thing and they'll let you do yours. Oh, but make sure they don't leave the zoo. The sometimes like to do that, but with all the poachers around I don't want to risk it. The Penguins might have some problems with that, and they might try to escape. Just keep them in here as best as you can. Don't worry if they get out, either, because they always come back by morning."

Officer X chuckled, "Don't worry. Your birds ain't goin' nowhere while I'm here."

X actually had a lot more planned than just keeping them inside the zoo. Honestly the idea of birds running around the zoo crazily greatly bothered him. If he was going to get some naps while he was working nights here, it would be a lot easier if the beasts stayed in their cages. He already had a lot planned for the other animals' habitats, and knew he could devise something for the penguins.

"So here we are," said Alice as they approached a small enclosure. "These guys are usually my biggest attraction. That's why they're in the center of the zoo. Lately they've been a little boring, but usually they will dance and perform for the guests. Kinda cute, really."

X leaned forward on the flimsy railing. The place didn't look too special, just a fake concrete block set in an oval pool. On top were three penguins, waddling about and doing dumb penguin things. He glanced over the tops of all of them. The flat-headed glared at him, the short round one with a scar looked up at him curiously, the buff one with a mohawk lolled its tongue out of the side of its mouth.

"Dumb birds," he mumbled.

"What?" Alice asked.

"Nothing," X dismissed, "So you mentioned they get out at night. No way they could get over this fence. How do they go about it?"

"Actually they can, and have, flipped over this fence before. Besides that I think they tunneled through to our maintenance tunnels underground, but I haven't found the passage yet. The inside of their ice floe is hollow and that's where they sleep. If the passage is anywhere, it should start there." Alice pointed out one more penguin who was making its way up a ladder that had appeared from beneath the fishbowl. "There's the last one, coming up from inside."

X glanced towards the penguin, blowing it off. The other three birds were still looking up at him, their dumb little faces screwed up like they were actually concerned with who he was. They were probably just thinking he had brought some fish, he thought. That's all bird were good for, anyway. Eating. Eating and pooping.

He ran his eyes over the penguins once again from behind his sunglasses, noting each one mentally so he could refer to them later. It wasn't until he locked eyes with the fourth, newest one that he felt a sudden feeling of nostalgia hit him.

The bird had just emerged from the top, and had slid the fishbowl trapdoor back over the top of the ladder. It stood up tall, easily the tallest of the quartet. It clutched a clipboard in its flipper, which it quickly tried to hide behind his back upon seeing the massive man. X didn't even regard the action and didn't even care that it was holding a clipboard. What interested him was how the penguin's face became washed as soon as soon as their eyes met. It froze in place, like it was locked in fear.

For that moment, X found himself also locked. It wasn't from fear though, and the man couldn't quite understand the feeling behind his actions. He knew one thing, and that was that he had seen that bird before. Where, when and how he had no idea. Before he had any more time to analyze the penguin's looks, though, it bolted back into the ice floe, slamming the trapdoor shut behind it.

It was just a penguin—maybe one he had seen it from one of the brochures of the zoo Alice had shown him at their earlier meeting, but for some reason he felt there was greater significance behind the bird. Like it had been around at a much more important point in his life than just standing in front of a camera for a brochure.

"...so he's kind of funny like that," Alice finished, even though X hadn't been listening."

"What?"

"That tall one. He's the funniest one of the group, and kind of a loner sometimes. He doesn't spend much time with the others anymore, especially the round one. He tends to avoid that one all together."

"Heh," chuckled X, shaking his head. "So there's a little penguin drama? Ain't got time for penguin drama."

Alice narrowed her eyes at the man, looking up at him even though he was almost two feet taller than her. "For your information, bub, these penguins have had a lot of drama in the past year. Drama that I don't even want to get involved in," she said.

"Sure, sure," dismissed X, trying to get the grouchy zookeeper off of his back.

Alice shrugged and then said, "kind of a funny thing, isn't it? Penguin drama. Its like the worries of the world aren't exclusive to us people."

X glanced at the woman like she was crazy.

"What, just thinking out loud here. Anyway, when do you think you can start installing your equipment?" she asked.

Officer X looked back over the birds, who were now filling down into the ice floe after their counterpart. It was a silly sight, penguins waddling down a trapdoor ladder. He already didn't like them; the acted too suspiciously. And that tall one he especially didn't like. It reminded him of something. He didn't like to be reminded of the past; it only distracted him from the present.

"I'll be back tomorrow morning," he offered, and Alice smiled.

"So will you work your first night tomorrow night?" she asked.

"Sure," he returned.

He already had many plans to alter the habitats so the animals couldn't leave while he was around, so that wouldn't be a problem. He was concerned about the penguin's secret passage, but he was sure he'd be able to find it after they used it a few times. After all, Andrew had gifted him with one of the penguin monitors, so he'd be able to know where at least one of them was at all times. Suddenly he became aware that this contract was more about containing the animals than protecting them.

The man cracked his knuckles as he walked out of the zoo. He'd have a lot of digging to do tonight. He was going to need some stuff that he hadn't used in a long time.

Private hopped off the lowest rung of the ladder, being the last to follow Kowalski after he stormed back into the HQ. The bird's clipboard was laying on the ground, and Private picked it up. Drawn on the top page was mostly what looked like squiggles, but Private could make out some small doodles of a dolphin.

"Kowalski," Skipper's voice cut in. "Kowalski, what's wrong, man?"
Kowalski was sitting in one of the chairs, his head down in his flippers. He was visibly quivering as Rico patted him on the back, but Private couldn't tell if he was crying or was just angry.

"Kowalski," Skipper called again, more forceful this time, "What's the matter?"
The scientist didn't respond again, and Skipper's short fuse had burned out. The leader penguin wrenched the tall bird's head up and stared him dead in the face.

Kowalski looked like he was choking back tears as he said, "That man. He killed Doris."