The Power of Silence
Chapter 36 – An Unlikely Spy
PRIVATE PUSHED INTO THE LEMURS' CAVE, WATER DRIPPING FROM HIS FEATHERS.
It really wasn't so much of a cave as it was just a little overhang on the backside of Julien's rock. Inside was where the heat vent was hidden for the winter months. It was where the lemurs slept during rainstorms and thankfully, though it was nothing compared to Marlene's fortress, it provided ample shelter from the howling wind outside.
Private took no time to look at the three lemurs who were crowded around the heat vent, drying their soaked fur. Instead he waddled over to the wall that was furthest from the opening and set the bird he had scooped up just moments ago down on the ground. The bird was just a touch smaller than he was and he hadn't had too much trouble carrying it to safety.
"Who's dat?" Julien was the first to ask.
"It's one of the Hoboken zoo animals," responded Private.
The bird stirred slightly in its forced slumber, but didn't wake up. Being a puffin, it didn't look that much unlike a penguin save for its wings and beak. While Private's wings were narrow and slender for cutting through the water, this bird's wings were wide and stable for gliding high in the sky. His beak was ringed with deep purple and fiery read in addition to the normal, orange that was traditional of many birds.
"He looks mangled," observed Maurice.
Private nodded and waddled over to the bird. He lifted up the puffin's left wing and could see a visible break in at least two areas. It was the only serious injury, but even in the puffin's unconscious state Private could tell he was in a lot of pain.
"I saw him trying to fly away into the storm," explained Private. "Then he got knocked out of the air pretty good and slammed into the ground, so I ran out and carried him back here."
Maurice got up and walked over to the puffin, inspecting his colorful beak. "Why was he here?"
Private shrugged. "I know Skippah and Rico were chasing him, so that probably means he was spying or something."
The wide looked frightened. "He was working with Clemson!" he exclaimed. "Get him out of here before he wakes up!" He moved towards the puffin but he Private stopped him with a flipper.
"And take him where, exactly? Back out into the storm?"
The wide lemur blinked at Private. "Well, no..."
Julien jumped up and grabbed the puffin's unbroken wing in his paws, tugging and dragging it towards the opening. Private slapped Julien's arms away and rolled the puffin gently over from how Julien had flipped him over. "Are you bloody crazy?" he asked, water dripping from his beak.
"No," Julien replied, rubbing his arm, "but dat bird is being so!"
Private looked down at the puffin. He looked entirely harmless, especially unconscious and with its twisted wing. He was barely as tall as Maurice and didn't look strong enough to even throw a punch. There was nothing stereotypically insane about him. No nervous twitch in his sleep, no mumbling inaudible words. Private knew Julien was fearful in the same way Skipper must have been to chase the bird out into the storm. With the return of the Hoboken animals expected in the morning, they couldn't afford having a spy in their midst.
Private couldn't help but think back to the morning when he had been greeted by the entire group, though. This puffin had argued against preserving Skipper's life. He was disappointed that Buck wanted to draft Skipper instead of torture him. And that, thought Private, was something that he could use.
"He's not crazy," countered the small bird, knowing he had to convince the lemurs that the puffin wasn't completely untrustworthy.
"Then why was he out and about spying on us, before his team was even due to arrive? You know he couldn't have traveled here after the storm started, so he must have been here for hours before Skipper found him," questioned Maurice.
"It is being obvious! He is working with de crazy lemur Clemson," Julien exclaimed, and Private could see the fear in his jumpy actions. In order to get him to stop, Private slammed a wet flipper across the lemur's snout.
"Will you calm down?" he asked, nearly shouting it out.
Julien looked at him wide eyed. Maurice raised a brow, but didn't say anything.
"He's not working with Clemson," Private insisted. "He's out for Skipper. You heard everything they said, Julien. He didn't have any interest in helping Clemson, remember?"
The chubby bird knew he was lying through his beak, but it was all he could hope for. He was desperate for allies in his predicament, and though he had Julien, that wasn't going to be enough. If it involved recruiting the puffin, so be it. Though his wing was broken and he was unconscious he possessed what Julien did not, and that was animosity towards Skipper.
Anything to get me closer to Kowalski, thought Private.
"What do you think, Julien?" Maurice asked the kingly lemur, who had remained silent.
He rubbed his snout gently before answering, "Maybe de fishy-penguin is having a point."
Private nodded. "Thank you."
"I'm still not so sure about all of this," interjected Maurice. "Maybe we should tie him up, for good measure?"
"I brought the rope!" exclaimed Mort, who at some point had ventured back out into the rain to bring the remaining length of rope that Private had been bound with only a few hours ago.
Private didn't want the puffin to run as soon as he awoke, so he helped the lemurs bind him, being careful not to disturb his broken wing too much. As he tied the knot, he began to wonder if he was making the right decision.
An ally was great, but at that very moment the puffin was also a prisoner. That meant that, wherever the Hoboken animals were as a result of the storm, they would come looking for their spy.
Dmitri cracked his eyes open as he felt something nudging his face. It was pure black wherever he was, and he tried to gently swat whatever it was away with his flipper. It continued pressing harder and harder into his cheek and eventually he jumped back from it, frightened.
"Good you're awake," said Irena. "I was afraid you hit your head a little too hard. C'mon, get up. I don't hear the rain anymore."
Dmitri rubbed the spot on his head where a knot existed. Then he recalled everything from the storm to the boat capsizing to huddling in the tiny little crawl space accessible only through the trapdoor on the bottom of the raft. The last thing he remembered was holding Irena and banging his head on something hard and cold.
"Where are we?" the female asked, and Dmitri explained as he felt around himself for the trapdoor. His flippers went over smooth walls and eventually found the latch beneath him. It was pitch black and he could barely tell which way to turn it but eventually he heard a click. He then put all of his weight into trying to force the door open, but nothing came of it.
"It's jammed, or something," he said.
"Hold on," responded Irena. "I think I've found something above us."
Surely enough, there was a similar sounding click and before Dmitri could even comprehend the possibility of two doors, there was a blinding light. Irena had found a second hatch and pushed it open, bringing a wave of much needed fresh air into their little cubbyhole.
Irena pulled herself out of the raft and said, "So this is where you took us."
"Where, exactly?" Dmitri asked as he accepted the female's flipper and hoisted himself up onto what he now saw was the underside of the upturned boat.
"Looks like a big human city," commented Irena.
Dmitri didn't respond. He had always thought that the Penguin City was something of breathtaking beauty, but what now laid before him nullified that preconception completely. From the beach they had washed up on he could see that the humans had built themselves a city far more grand than any of the emperors or even penguins from Manfredi's tribe had hoped to construct. Skyscrapers hundreds of stories high as far as the eye could see.
Irena glanced down to the small space that had been their sanctuary through the rest of the storm. "The last thing I remember before I blacked out is the captain's cabin being flooded. How in the world did you get us both in there?"
Dmitri hoisted his backpack out of the tiny space, feeling the soreness in his joints from being cramped up and knocked around for so long. "I don't know," he responded. "Maybe it was survival instinct."
"Survival instinct only applies to yourself," countered Irena.
Dmitri smiled. "Hey, maybe I just really wanted to make things even."
Surprisingly, the female emperor chuckled. Dmitri found himself following her lead. It was nothing like he pictured emerging from a near-death situation. He always thought he'd be questioning what went wrong. Maybe there would be time for that later, he thought.
"Peng-goo-ins?" came a nasally voice from behind them.
Dmitri spun around and saw a peculiar sight. He was what looked like a fish, but far bigger than one he had ever seen before. He was standing via its tail-fin on what looked like a little tractor complete with treads and a handle for him to hold onto. Attached to the front of the tractor was a little basket with some scraps of metal in it.
"Fish?" asked Irena.
The creature narrowed his eyes a bit and responded, "Dolphin."
"How're you out of water?" asked Dmitri.
"Why were you in a washed up human craft?" the dolphin returned, gesturing to the ruined boat.
"We capsized during the storm," answered Irena. "We were hiding out inside to survive the storm."
"Ah yes," said the dolphin, although dully. "The Poseidon class research vessels always have a small holding tank on the bottom for containing specimens. I'm sure it was watertight enough even for you to survive in that hurricane."
"How do you know about human boats?" Dmitri asked.
"Let's just say I spent a lot of time growing up with them," the dolphin answered.
"Flippy!" a deep voice cut through the air, causing the dolphin in front of them to visibly cringe.
"It's Emilio Blowhole," he muttered.
Dmitri turned to see a penguin walking down the sand towards them, followed by a strange, auburn-furred mammal. "When I ordered you to search for Ham-Sandwich I didn't mean scavenge for parts!" the penguin barked.
Blowhole seemed to compose himself a bit and then explained, "This ship has some rare radar equipment that would be invaluable to our operation." At the penguin's unsettling look he added, "Sir."
"Yeah, yeah, alright. You can trick out your scooter later, cupcake. For now we have a missing soldier and I want him found. Is that clear?"
The dolphin saluted, "Yes sir." and then began wheeling off.
"Now, who are you?" the large penguin turned to Dmitri and Irena, who were still standing on top of the boat. Dmitri shuddered a bit as the penguin's steely blue eyes fell on him. His piercing gaze mixed with the fact that he looked like he could crush rocks with his bare flippers was horribly intimidating.
After they had introduced themselves the penguin took a turn and introduced himself as Buck Rockgut. He also introduced the lemur next to him as "Clementine", but the mammal, who called himself a lemur, clarified himself to actually be named Clemson.
After the introductions were out of the way, Rockgut began his offer. "Alright, fresh meat, i'm going to offer you this once and only once. You're lost, cold, tired and hungry. The world's empty and you're going to need some protection and fish in your bellies. I've got a small band of soldiers and, lucky for you cupcakes, I'm recruiting. Are you in?"
Dmitri glanced towards Irena and saw a disheveled look on her face. He reassured her with a gentle flipper squeeze; the same one that she had given him outside the Temple of the Sun. She nodded slowly, showing her approval in teaming up. After all, they were in a brand new land and they had no idea where to begin threshing out a living. Meeting a penguin right off the bat, especially one that could help them find their place in the foreign land, was a welcome turn of events.
"Are you?" pestered the militaristic penguin.
"We're in," responded Dmitri.
"We're in, who?"
"Err... We're in, sir?" the penguin with unruly feathers answered.
"That's better. Now come down off that thing. You're making me feel insignificant over here."
Dmitri gently slid down the side of the craft and landed gracefully on the sand, then worked to stop the much less agile Irena from falling face forward as she landed. Dmitri was running the grains of sand between his webbed toes as Buck told them, "You keep following orders like that and you'll do fine."
"Yes... err, sir," Dmitri said uneasily.
"Clementine, brief them while we head to the rendezvous point," instructed their new leader, running a feather over his the stubby feathers on the top of his head.
The lemur turned and walked backwards as he began. His eyes were a sky-like blue; even worse than Buck's in terms of intimidation. They looked like they could see everything at any point in time.
"We're going to be infiltrating a zoo in Central Park in a few hours. It's not likely that there will be much resistance, but we're after a penguin and a lemur, like me."
Dmitri moved to signal to Clemson that he was about to trip over the curb at the edge of the sandy beach, but without even looking the lemur flipped up onto the concrete and continued walking backwards like nothing ever happened.
"Wait," Dmitri said, "I thought you said you were only about protection and food gathering?"
"That's a part of it," responded the lemur, "but we've still got important things to do. Life isn't as easy as just eating and sleeping."
"We protect each other first and foremost," said Buck, "and sometimes that means helping each other get our flippers a little dirty."
"Or paws," added Clemson. "Say, have either of you had any proper combat training?"
They both shook their heads.
"Ever been in a combat situation?"
Another shake.
"What about any situation at all that resulted in you having to take drastic action? Like snapping someone's neck, or something?"
Dmitri shook his head, but Irena nodded. "We've come a long way from Antarctica," she said. "While we were there our village was terrified by humans that captured us and sold us. Because of that I—well, we—took drastic action and killed all of them."
Clemson and buck both stopped in their tracks, despite them looking in opposite directions. Buck turned around, his brow arched. "What are you talking about, cupcake?"
Irena took a moment and told Buck about the Temple of the Sun and how it had exterminated all of the people from the face of the Earth in that one massive burst of energy. All the while both Buck and Clemson held straight looks on their faces, not reacting in any way to what Irena was saying.
When Irena finished Buck finally said, "Well I'll be damned. I didn't think there was anyone except Skipper and myself that still knew about that thing."
"Skipper?" Dmitri perked up. "I heard of a penguin named Skipper."
"Oh yeah?"
"The penguin who lead us to the Temple of the Sun told us that he once was involved with an evil penguin who wanted to use the Sun to drive the world to madness," Irena offered.
"That penguin, what was his name?" asked Buck.
"Edgar," answered Irena.
The large rock-hopper smiled. "Smart-Ass survived? Damn he's tough."
"You were involved with the Penguin Army," Dmitri realized, speaking to Buck directly.
"Yeah, I was a Corporal."
"And you knew Skipper?"
"He wasn't in my squad, but he caused a lot of trouble," Buck answered.
"That's why we're trying to capture him now," explained Clemson.
Buck turned to the lemur, his flippers crossed. "Doesn't Ham-Sandwich have something against him, too?"
"Yeah."
As the lemur and the penguin went on for a little while about what their other teammate wanted from Skipper, Dmitri could only think about who Buck was. Was it really possible that the penguin standing across from him now was possibly the only other penguin on the face of the planet that was involved with his father? And that, if he followed the bird, he might be leading him to the penguin named Skipper within a few hours?
"Did you know a penguin named Manfredi?" Dmitri asked right after Buck and Clemson finished their discussion.
The rock-hopper arched his brow again, recrossing his arms like he was studying Dmitri. Dmitri couldn't help but see the same look that Edgar had given him in the entrance of the temple when he had pushed for answers. It was the kind of look that meant the observer was studying you, sizing you up, trying to place you in his or her memories. Dmitri hated it.
"Did you or didn't you?" he pushed.
"I don't think you're in a position to be asking your superior questions, recruit," Buck responded, causing Dmitri to clench his flippers a bit.
Irena tapped him on the shoulder and he relaxed a bit. They both knew that he couldn't afford to snap here like he did on Edgar in the temple. This penguin might be their only hope of surviving in this new land, not to mention linking him to his past.
"Sorry... sir," he said halfheartedly, though Buck seemed to accept it.
They walked in silence for a few moments after that, though Clemson was continuing to walk backwards and wouldn't stop looking at them. Even so, he didn't even stumble as he avoided an increasing number of obstacles as they progressed further into the abandoned city.
"Who's Manfredi?" he finally asked.
Dmitri almost blurted out the truthful answer. He was glad he stopped himself, though. If they were going to play stupid and pretend like they didn't know what he wanted to know, he could to.
"Someone that Edgar mentioned," he responded.
Clemson finally turned around.