Going back, Skipper slowed down the tape, watching the rookie sneak out of bed and head to the lab. Switching to the lab view, he noticed him slipping around, studying the secret experiments.
Skipper had really tried to put a lid on his paranoia, but this was too much. He was getting a bit heated, but that feeling grew ten-fold when he saw Private enter the room.
Turning up the volume, he did his best to discern their words, searching through the long areas of silence. When he heard his name, his blood boiled. Whatever they were discussing, he didn't want any part in it.
Further, the leader felt betrayed by Private, as he realized the young soldier had been roped into the conspiracy. Now, it was down to Kowalski and Rico to help him get to the bottom of this.
"Kowalski!" Skipper made a copy of the sound file, ready to play it back for the scientist. With a creak, the lab door opened and the tall bird slipped his goggles off.
"Sir? I really should be getting back to my calculations."
"You can find that intel in the zoo system." Skipper sighed, before starting the sound clip. "Here, have a listen."
[["That's Skipper!"…"Skipper!?"
"Wait a minute…" "This is huge news! I'll help you [too accented to understand at a distance]… you won't be cut off again!"
"No!" "They can't find out now!"… "Why not? [unintelligible]"….."If I do keep this secret though, I'd have to lie!"…"It's not lying if you just don't say anything!"….. "Alright, Joe, I'll keep your secret."]]
Skipper teared up but avoided crying in front of Kowalski. He turned his head before speaking again.
"I knew there was something off about the new guy, but now he has gone too far!" Skipper stood tall, trying to puff up and recompose himself. Kowalski was alarmed, but wished the recording quality wasn't stuck in the 1900s.
"This does indeed seem like a kettle of fishy business." Kowalski reached a flipper out to comfort Skipper, but the leader slapped it away.
"They're planning something, and I need to figure out what." Skipper paced, going over to the mission plan on the table and using the whiteboard. "We need to separate them when they return. Split them up, I'll take Rico and the Rookie and do the driving test, which will also be a secret psychological test."
"I'll keep Private distracted, take him to the office as I gather the intel for the necessary zoo maintenance and upgrades, and see what other information I can force out of him." Kowalski offered before Skipper gave him a worried look. "Force out of him through non-physical means, such as bribery with sweets."
"I'll get Rico up to speed before they get back." Skipper looked at the 0730 on the clock, and Kowalski carted out their conspiracy corkboard.
Tacking up a photocopy of Private's portrait, he linked it to the other information with a red string.
"I wonder what they are plotting that has to do with Marlene…" Skipper appeared worried as he gazed at the picture. As the scene faded from the close up of Private's portrait to the real Private in Marlene's den, the otter spoke.
"Wow. Okay, I knew you birds could be - for lack of a better term- birdbrains about certain things sometimes… this really takes the cake."
"Gosh, you really could tell just by the way she waddles?" Private felt bad for Jo.
"Uh. Yeah, that's obvious." Marlene looked at Jo. "You know, I've been wanting a roommate who is feminine and not too obnoxious if you get sick of those macho minded attack men."
Jo looked at Marlene, then to Private who gave her a sad gaze.
"Thank you for the generous offer, but I want to stay with the Penguins." Jo smiled at Private. "They have done so much for me, it's worth it." She nodded at her friend, before addressing her new aquatic acquaintance.
"I'm also thankful to have met someone I can come to when I do wish to talk about more feminine things. Besides King Julien-" Jo said, while Private raised his brows as she titled the lemur. She knew if Skipper was there that would have been it. "-I mean, besides Julien, you are the only one who realized I was a woman right away."
"See? Even Julien could tell." Marlene scolded Private, and the little bird poked the tips of his flippers together.
"None of us ignored Joan on purpose!" He put his flippers up with a small whimper. "I mean-Jo. We are keeping it a secret from the rest of the team."
"Huh? Yeah, yeah, no. I don't blame you." Marlene thought the name Joan sounded familiar for some odd reason. "I would keep it a secret too if I were in your feathers."
Private gasped, noticing the time on the floral wall clock. They had to get a move on to avoid being tardy to the mission.
"Sorry Marlene, we have to go!" Private started leading Jo out.
"It was nice meeting you!" Marlene shouted at the Penguins.
Jo was able to give an appreciative nod, before sliding off and over the otter habitat fence. Making their way to the penguin exhibit, their feet landed on the concrete in HQ right in the nick of time. Before them, the three higher-ups scowled before putting on their happy faces to welcome the suspicious duo home.
"Ah gentlemen, welcome back." Skipper put his flippers on his hips, overacting the kindness. Private could sense something wrong, but considered it his reaction to knowing that Jo wasn't enjoying being referred to as a gentleman.
"Private! Just the little helper I wanted to see." Kowalski came over to the Corporal, his new nickname setting off red flags in Private's mind as the scientist treated him a bit too kindly. "I need your help to collect some information on the measurements of certain fences in the zoo."
"What? Me? You've never considered me much help in science before. Why not Jo, she-" Private thought quickly "shielding him from scientific work doesn't make much sense!"
"Nonsense!" Kowalski asserted as Jo gave a sigh of relief that Private had not spilled the secret so fast. "There will be time for Joe to help me in the lab later. Right now, you're the man for this job."
"The rookie is coming with us." Skipper put his flippers behind his back in an authoritative way. "I want to give him a test, of his driving, and only his driving to make sure we can all operate a vehicle in case of an emergency."
Rico gave a grunt of agreement, and Jo waddled over, taking one glance back at Private who gave her a nervous look as Kowalski waved at the trio headed for the garage. The pair headed out the latch, and soon found themselves busting into the office, ready to hijack a computer.
Private awkwardly waited around, not used to being on a solo mission with Kowalski. The intelligent penguin tried various passcode combinations, before the correct sequence of 12354 granted access.
"I'm in." Kowalski spoke the classic hacker catchphrase, and Private sleepily glanced at the screen. In an instant, his blood pressure shot up and he panicked to cover the numbers in the charts.
Kowalski jumped back, wondering what had gotten into Private, as he hadn't even started bribing or questioning him otherwise. Honestly, if the Corporal hadn't even reacted in such a way he might not have been suspicious.
"Private, what are you hiding?"
"Hiding? Me?" Private considered what Jo said about lying. "I'm not hiding anything, just standing here."
"In… front of the screen I need to use to see information." Kowalski used basic logic to blow through the other's fallacy.
"Is that so?" Private cheekily started standing in a funny pose, but the tallest penguin wasn't in the mood for his antics.
"Private, let me see the screen." Kowalski asked, before commanding, "That's an order."
Private whimpered, realizing it was either break his promise or be court-martialed for insubordination. With a sigh and a sorrowful thought of 'I'm sorry, Jo' he stepped aside, and Kowalski scrutinized the information on Penguins that Alice had left open.
"I don't see why you-" He was looking in the wrong area, and as soon as his eyes landed on the 2 under the female symbol the bird gasped. "Good googleie moogleie!"
"You cannot say a word to the others!" Private grabbed Kowalski and shook him a bit. The other shoved Private off of him.
"Are you mad?" Kowalski was in shock. "We can't keep this from Skipper!"
"Yes we can!" Private tried to reason with the logical minded bird. "She is doing her best to fit in, and if you make it more difficult there might not be time for her to assist you with scientific illustrations in the lab!"
Kowalski took out his clipboard to think, before shaking his head and taking a moment to assess this new information. While Private continued bribing him to keep this under wraps for her sake, Jo made another lap around the zoo.
"Left! Right! Double back and another right!" Skipper yelled. Rico was pulling various strings, attached to cardboard cutouts of penguins, other zoo civilians, and officer X. "Quick, when faced with a decision to save a member of the team or a random squirrel, who do you choose?"
"Uh… a member of the team to help me rescue the squirrel!" She thought, considering it would be better to have two trained people in an emergency than to hope that the squirrel could help rescue a teammate.
"Real turtle!" Skipper yelled, causing Jo to screech the tires to a halt to avoid the real animal, burning the traction as the barbie car swirled around, ejecting Skipper over the zoo wall, and sending Jo crashing into several penguin and civilian cutouts. Finally, the car stopped by hitting a foundation. Rico had to make a decision between Skipper and Joe, and decided he could see Joe and rescue him faster. Besides, Skipper had more impact training.
"Joe! Joe!" Rico slid over as fast as he could, checking the car. In the backseat, his Ms. Perky doll was laying on her back, the new bows and kerchief accessories he had gotten a few weeks ago nowhere to be found.
While he did a quick scan for the items, he shook his head. Checking on Joe in the front seat should take priority. It was his luck that his doll's add-ons wound up on Joe, which became more apparent as the new member of the team sat up.
Something in the way she moved caught his brain up to speed. In a few instances, Rico realized what Julien had seen, and traced back every peculiar gesture Joe had made. It was as if a lightbulb had gone off.
"Uh… Joe." He spoke with his raspy voice. "Are you a uh…"
The tall spiked penguin pointed at his doll, before picking her up and tapping her before pointing at the penguin in the front seat.
Jo paused for a moment, before nodding yes.
"Oh." Rico felt uncomfortable, and he shifted his gaze, looking around the zoo before returning his eyes to Jo.
She felt awkward, but the moment of silence was broken as Rico turned swiftly, starting to yell.
"Skipper! Skiiiiip-" He was cut off as Jo grabbed around him from behind, trying to slow his waddle.
"No! Wait, please don't tell Skipper!" Rico stopped, lifting up his flippers as she tried to pull him back by his center of gravity.
"Woah Jo." He shook his head. "Skipper needs help."
"You aren't going to tell him?" She looked up at Rico, and the bird smiled down at her and shook his head, putting her mind at ease.
"What's going on here?" Skipper looked at the newbie holding onto Rico, and then to his third in command.
"Nothing." Rico gruffed as the pair quickly stood at attention, before a tire rolled by, catching Skipper's eye long enough for the scarred bird to swipe the Ms. Perky accessories from the penguin next to him.
Skipper darted close to look the birds over, almost as if he was about to ask to see their war faces.
"What was that?" He asked Jo, pointing both of his flippers at the decimated car.
"I-" Jo could feel herself start to tear up, but she knew this was no moment to let any tears show.
Skipper sensed the apprehension, then motioned his flippers the other way to point out the turtle that had been saved. "You did alright."
She was astonished that the car managed to miss the slow traveler, and she smiled at it continuing to move forward. A slap brought her back to Skipper, and Rico tensed up.
"Don't think you won't be given a punishment for destroying our car!" Skipper glared at Joe, before turning to Rico. "You remember."
Rico thought back to the horrible days of being chased by a possessed version of the car. He had only just managed to get back to normal, but his heart still raced at the sputter of an engine starting without him.
"Saddle this private up. He'll be repairing the damage he caused." Skipper ordered Rico, and the Sergeant saluted.
Skipper slid off towards HQ, having a whole mind to go upgrade his cam system while the others were out of the base, leaving Rico and Jo to clean up the mess. They put all of the parts in the caddy of the car, starting to push it back to the secret garage port.