"I guess they figured he'd be the hardest to catch." Maurice remarked gloomily, watching as Skipper was marched across the compound to the commandant's office. "Left bringing him in till last."

"I never asked you to go after me." Kowalski pointed out. Maurice grumbled something along the line of that if Kowalski really had the intelligence he claimed he possessed he'd have known that Nigel wouldn't be fooled forever and would send his third best team (since his first and second had gone missing) to find out what became of them. "This is still better than the five of us getting shot as spies." Maurice had to agree with that. "Is it true what you heard about Private…?"

"Shot down, he should be arriving any minute." Maurice replied, "Bad luck." Kowalski nodded. Skipper had barely entered when a second truck drove up and Private and Parker were dragged out. Parker was taken straight for the cooler while Private followed Skipper into Blowhole's office.

"…It never ceases to irritate me how you pen-gu-ins get out of things." Kowalski heard Blowhole speak as after a few minutes the two penguins and arch villain left the building, starting in Kowalski and Maurice's direction. "And McSlade actually managed to get away with your excuse: Hans turned the two of you lose claiming you're Nigel's disobedient nephew and the infamous Skipper…"

"But he is the infamous Skipper?" Private questioned. Blowhole ignored him and Skipper corrected him that he was once again Private Jack Knife.

"… all to divert attention from the fact he was a double agent." Blowhole finished, "It's ridiculous, but it got me my job back." Skipper commented something about unfortunate side effects, "Don't think because you did that things will be any different. By the way, what is it exactly you have on McSlade…?"

"Y'really think I'm gonna tell you?" Skipper replied. Blowhole made one half-hearted attempt to threaten the information out of him, but quickly gave up on it.

"Now Rico and Kowalski are already here, of course he lets Marlene go because he thinks she's pretty and can't think what else to do with her. Then your story, 'Pierre'," Blowhole continued, "I think I did a nice job of arranging for you to be 'shot down'."

"But I was shot down?" Private corrected.

"Not in that plane," Blowhole sighed. He turned to Skipper, "Haven't you told him his story yet?" He glanced at his watch and realized he had an urgent call in about thirty seconds. "Tell him it." He hurriedly left, leaving Private and Skipper with Kowalski, Rico and Maurice.

"I suppose it's nice to see some familiar faces." Private commented. That certainly was a glass half full view of the situation.

"As I was gonna say," Skipper continued, "'Pierre' had hijacked a plane to try to get back to England, got shot down with the plane carrying Hans' British agent, agent died in the crash but they drag you and Parker back here." He finally acknowledged Kowalski, "Good to see you again, 'Corporal Smith'."

"Nice to see you too, Private Knife." Kowalski had clearly been looking forward to technically outranking Skipper again.

"Well, I suppose I'm not entirely lying." Private reasoned, "I mean, me and Parker really were shot down. I can't believe Hans had me kidnapped, ironically, to send me home."

"'ell, £25,000 fro' ya 'ncle Nigel 'll do tha'." Rico pointed out before the kid got any ideas about Hans having down it out of the goodness of his heart.

Kowalski noticed there was once again movement at the gates as a stretcher was unloaded from a third truck.

"What's going to happen to him?" Private asked as two lobsters began to carry Hans across the compound to the cooler.

"Oh, he'll be shot the moment he's strong enough to stand." Kowalski replied. This was one of those few cases when his principles had no qualms about gloating. "After all, he was caught red handed smuggling one of Nigel's agents out of the country."

"You four seem to have gotten out of this alright." Hans commented as he neared them, "'ve got a question," he winced, "Doris? Sh… She made it out okay?"

" Yes, she's fine." Private replied. Hans smiled faintly through what Skipper hoped was excruciating pain.

"Thanks." He was carried out of earshot.

"Well, I guess we learn something valuable every day." Skipper commented.

"Yes, I suppose it is a promising realization about this world that even someone as evil as Hans, deep down, has some good inside him." Private mused philosophically. Kowalski scoffed.

"No, it means he's up to something." Skipper corrected.

"Oh." Private whispered, "Well, maybe just a little bit of good somewhere, though…?" It was pretty clear nobody was going to agree with him on that one.

"Excuse me, Corporal Smith." The familiar voice of a familiar lobster spoke behind him. Kowalski, knowing exactly what came next, grinned. Perhaps in one way it wasn't so bad to be back, "Ms Blowhole would be honored by your presence at dinner."

"You may tell Ms Blowhole I gladly accept." Kowalski replied.

"You'd better get ready then. Dr Blowhole has kept your dress uniform and…" As Kowalski walked away he distinctly noticed Skipper watching him leave with that look that could only mean one thing.

"Alright, listen up," Kowalski heard him whisper excitedly to the team, "I've got a plan to get us out of here. It's fool proof…"

The End