Rico had been watching the culture minister for several hours. The others weren't coming. He was on his own. He started to activate the various traps and other weapons systems. Then he heard a familiar voice shout, "Rico, its me, Hans." Rico switched off the trap so Hans could enter.
"What happened to Skipper?" asked Rico. Hans knelt down, as if to pick something up from the floor. "Are you OK." Rico questioned. Hans picked up a pipe Rico had left on the floor next to the trap. "What the hell!..."
When Rico woke up he was strapped to steel table, like the ones stereotypical mad doctors use. "You are sure the pen-gu-in has suffered no damage. I need his memory in tact."
"Blowhole," thought the trapped penguin. "Yes, quite certain. Though why you insisted on this one I do not know." Hans replied. That was all it took for Rico to conclude that Hans was a traitor. "Me and Rico... we have a history." Rico grimaced. He knew all too well what Blowhole was talking about. Blowhole turned around. "Hello, Rico," Blowhole smiled at him, in the same way a crocodile smiles before it devours its prey, "Its time to finish those experiments I started."
The guard came in to take them to interrogation, again. Skipper had repeated their story every time, but nobody believed him. The guard, cuffed their flippers behind their backs, then opened the doors of the cell. Skipper and Manfridi staggered as if they could barely stand. They had been put threw various classified torture methods and were thought to be on the verge of breaking. The interrogator had been surprised that one of the penguin's most promising teams were already in such bad shape. They had gone a few meters down the hallway when Manfridi collapsed in a faint. The guard bent down to drag the unconcious penguin, when Skipper kicked him in the back of the head. Then Skipper took the guards keys and unlocked he and Manfridi's handcuffs. Manfridi stood up.
"I cant believe they fell for that," noted Manfridi.
"they've got CCTV. We have fifteen seconds before they're on to us. Stage two." Skipper interupted
Fifty guards charged into the hallway, in full riot gear. This was the section of the secure facility where the most dangerous spies were kept. They looked around. The penguins were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly the door behind them shut, locking them in. Manfridi and Johnson high fived eachother. Then they climbed into the nearby ventilation shaft.
The two penguins looked down. It was about a thirty foot drop to the ground. Skipper removed a rope with a sharped plastic fork tied to the end. Skipper and Manfridi had cut the cloth off their mattresses with the plastic fork. They then covered the mattreses with their blankets so nobody noticed. They had tied the strips of fabric together to make a rope long enough that they would be able to jump to the ground from the end. Skipper removed two of the screws that held the various panels that made up the air vent together. He wedged the fork into this gap and let the rope trail down the side of the building. It was risky, but what did they have to lose? Skipper climbed down first. The rope managed to hold to together. Manfridi followed after Skipper had reached the bottom. Sirens wailed and search lights swept the ground. Skipper saw a patrol car drive by. He and Manfridi jumped under it and held on to the bottom. When the vehicle left the gates the two penguins dove into the bushes. Skipper decided to head for the SNAH base. Unknown to Hans, the penguins had known of its whereabouts for years, but hadn't attacked as they wanted to discover the identity of the leader and build a case against him. SNAH was based in the Copenhagen zoo.
The two penguins stood at the gates of the zoo. "Do you know exactly where in the zoo SNAH is based?" Manfridi asked.
"No." Replied Skipper, "I was planning on finding a map and starting a grid search."
"We don't have time for that. We didn't exactly cover our tracks. We didn't have time for that either. I suggest we split up."
"Don't you remember the penguin credo? Never swim alone."
"These are special circumstances." Manfridi replied as he walked away from Skipper, "You take left, I'll take right."
Half an hour had passed. Finally Skipper found a group of bricks that weren't the same color as the rest. He felt about the edges until he heard a click. The panel opened onto a dark stairway. There was a single guard a few steps down. Luckily, the guard was listening to some music and not paying attention. Skipper snuck up behind him. Put a flipper over his beak and karate chopped him on the neck, killing him instantly. He didn't need to kill the guard, but felt that someone evil enough to support Hans deserved to die. It never occurred to him the bird might have simply been too naive to know what he was getting into.
Skipper continued down the stairs. They ended on a balcony. He stepped back into the shadows and listened. "So, you found the Pen-gu-in snooping around outside the missile silo?" Blowhole asked
"Yes, just outside the giraffe exhibit. I don't know where Skipper is though."
"We will soon get that information out of him." Skipper heard a crackling sound, then a cry of pain. It belonged to Manfridi. He was about to jump down when he heard a a computerized voice announce "Missile activated. Target: New York. T minus 2 minutes to launch."
"Finally those humans will pay for what they made me do. With the adjustments I made to those nuclear missiles it should flatten the whole tri state area." Blowhole announced triumphantly, followed by maniacal laughter. By now Skipper, out of horror and curiosity, was leaning over the edge of the balcony. Suddenly a spotlight was shone in his eyes. "Damn." Skipper had let his own curiosity get the better of him. "Get him red ones," the evil dolphin called to his men. Skipper jumped over the edge of the railing, just in time to escape the sharp pincers of Dr Blowhole's lobster army. He rolled, landing directly in front of Blowhole. Behind him, Manfridi was trying to break his restraints. He had managed to get one flipper free. Several of the lobsters surrounding Blowhole, charged towards Skipper. The other half went to restrain Manfridi.
"T minus 1 minute and 30 seconds." The giraffe habitat was on the other side of the zoo. It was now or never. He looked over at Manfridi. It was obvious he wouldn't survive against that many lobsters, with all but one flipper secured to the railing. It was Manfridi or the tri state area. If he saved Manfridi, millions of innocent people would die. If he stopped the missile, his best friend would die. He and Manfridi never expected to make it to retirement. They had signed up for this sort of thing. Skipper ran towards the exit. He desperately wanted to save his friend, but Manfridi would want him to stop the missile.
Skipper ran like he had never ran before. If he was fast enough, he hoped he would make it back in time to rescue Manfridi. He got to the giraffe enclosure. He searched for another area of discolored bricks. When he found it, he felt for the hidden buttonand pressed it. The door opened into a room with a large computer, that took up half the room. The countdown flashed across the screen. Fifteen seconds left. Luckily the abort button was easy to find. However, when he pressed it, it asked for a password. "Think, Skipper, think." Skipper tried to imagine what Blowhole would use as a password. Ten seconds remained. Skipper typed in ring of fire. "Password...Denied." Skipper banged his fist on the keyboard. Blowhole always set his password as ring of fire. "What if Hans set the password?" thought Skipper. This was, after all, it was Hans' base. What would Hans set as his password? Three seconds remained. Skipper typed in Oktavia. "Password...," the pause seemed to last forever, "Accepted. Launch: Aborted. Self destruct sequence initiated in 3...2..." Kaboom. Thankfully, Skipper had made it out. Unfortunatly, all that was left of the main hideout was a cloud of smoke. Even if Manfridi had survived the lobsters, there was no way he could make it out of that.
"Hands on your head. We have you surrounded." Skipper turned around. It was was Major Mason. "Didn't you think your escape was a bit too easy?" asked the senior officer.