Disclaimers: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar
Author's Notes: Okay everyone two more chapters to go! Just a few more loose ends to tie up and we'll be done. Thank you guys for reading and helping me out with small corrections in your reviews. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Fun Fact: I used Classified's voice actor's name; Benedict Cumberbatch, for his real name. I thought it would be a really cool easter egg. Sure, his name is top secret to outsiders like Skipper and his team. But Fellow Northwind Agents with a 'need to know' like Internal Affairs would know these things.
(Back with Classified…)
He had been sitting in this integration room for hours now and it was getting them nowhere fast.
Classified looked to the Internal Affairs agent across from him at the long table. The Ape dressed in a white suit was known as Agent Wild. Wild had been yelling at him for hours trying to get everything he knew about Eva out of him.
The trouble was Classified didn't really know all that much, no one did. Despite how well their team worked together they didn't know anything about their teammates' personal lives. Eva was just about as much of a stranger to Classified as Santa Clause. Something agent Wild just couldn't get through his thick skull.
"I'm only going to ask you one more time Benedict." Agent Wild snapped. "Where is she?!"
Classified, or Benedict as it were; fletched at the sound of his real name, it wasn't something he was used to hearing in the workplace. "I told you." He said, pushing the obvious jab aside. "We have no idea where she is! We didn't even know she was a mole until recently."
"And just how did you stumble across this discovery?" Agent Wild asked.
"Agent Marshal was obviously too loyal to fully trust." Classified explained, trying to do his best to stay calm. "His efforts to clue us in on his thievery was evident of that. So, I theorized that whoever hired him to steal the files must have an inside man to keep tabs on him. Realizing this I started a private investigation."
"And your investigation lead you to your own intelligence operative." Agent Wild concluded.
"Yes." Classified admitted, though but pained him to do so.
"So why didn't you report her to us?" Agent Wild argued. "If you had proof she was the mole why did you insist on taking matters into your own hands."
"I feared the true enemy could have set her up, I wanted to be sure." Classified answered.
"And when you sent her away, was that part of the plan? Did you want her to escape?" Agent Wild countered.
"No, she was not instructed to leave the base." Classified revealed. "I sent her down to Records on a fools errand about Marshal's comings and goings." Records was an office down in the basement where Northwind kept their paper files. "The point was to keep her busy until we could sort this out. I had no idea she'd take that opportunity to run."
Agent Wild nodded at all this, the truth was he was relived that Classified was corporation with him. The other members of the team had refused to answer any of his questions, which was getting them no closer to the truth. He didn't like locking up his fellow agents and shouting at them for hours on end, but it had to be done. Good intentions or not, Classified and his team broke protocol by keeping their findings on Eva to themselves.
Eva could very well be in custody at this very moment had they of reported her in the first place but dwelling on that now would get them nowhere.
"Did you at least figure out who she was working for?" Agent Wild asked hopefully.
"I was working on that." Classified snapped. "The enemy had hacked into our data server to retrieve a file on Skipper and his brothers. Short Fuse started stealing data from the IP address that was being used at the time."
Agent Wild went to a box in the corner of the room. It stored all the computers they ceased from the room when they busted Classified and his team. He picked up the laptop Short Fuse had been working on and opened it. Surprisingly, the task the seal had started produced something and a new file was opened on the screen.
"Looks like you got something, though I'm not sure what you can make of it." Agent Wild showed him the screen.
Classified saw it and instantly deflated. It was a flyer for some marine park located on Coney Island. The Flyer showed a Dolphin as he jumped out of the water and towards a hoop that was on fire. The Flyer read: Join us Saturday to see Flippy the Dolphin as he takes on the Ring of Fire!
The flyer was old, the date on the bottom was set for over two years ago. It was obviously some junk mail the owner of the IP address had in his junks file.
"If you hadn't unplugged everything half hazardly and listened to me for a second we could have gotten more!" Classified yelled. "Now we have no leads."
Agent Wild knew he had a point, but he had a better one. "If you had turned Eva in the moment you suspected her we might have more than a lead. We might have a name, and an address."
Classified knew he had a point, but he shook his head. "My team wouldn't have recovered from this. Even if she had been found innocent our names would be dragged through the dirt. No one would ever trust us out on the field again." He reasoned.
"And now you'll be lucky to have desk jobs when this is all over." Agent Wild argued.
Again, he had a very good point.
"I messed up." Classified admitted. "This was on me, don't punish the rest of the team for this. They are not responsible."
"Oh, but they are." Agent Wild said. "Corporal and Short Fuse knew that you were breaking proper protocol procedures. By not reporting you and aiding in your quest they are just as guilty."
"So that's it then?" Classified let out a sigh of defeat. "It's over."
"Not necessarily, What about the freelancer you hired?" Agent Wild asked.
Classified hesitate before answering.
His pause only infuriates Wild further. "Benedict if you want even a ghost of a chance in saving your job you need to cooperate!"
"I am cooperating." Classified yelled. "And stop calling me that!" He insisted.
"Then tell me about the penguin!" Agent Wild shouted back.
"His name is Skipper." Classified answered. "And last I heard Hans had double crossed us. Marshal is dead, and the briefcase was at the Capital in Copenhagen."
"That is no longer true." Another Agent, This one a male snow leopard; walked in.
"Chief Sabor!" Agent Wild and Classified stood as their Chief of operations: Atlas Sabor entered the room with another laptop.
"Sit please." Chief Sabor ordered, which they did without delay. "Your Penguin associate reported into you a few hours ago. You didn't answer but he left the report anyway. Apparently someone had intercepted the briefcase and replaced it's contents with an open-faced sandwich."
"A sandwich?" Agent Wild looked doubtful. "He's lying, he must be working with that Hans. They're trying to pull a fast one on us."
"Unlikely." Classified argued. "Skipper may not be one of our own, but I know his integrity, and loyalty cannot be bought."
"He's right Agent Wild." Chief Sabor added. "The Danes included the same thing in there report, the only difference is Skipper supposedly defaced their sandwich with an American flag."
"Please tell me he didn't." Classified begged.
"Afraid so and since the whole fight with Hans and the Danes took place in the Prime Minister's Office; Prime Minster Anders is labeling the whole event as an attempt on his life. Skipper is wanted by the Danish Government Dead, or Alive!"
"You're not handing him over are you?" Classified asked.
"They asked me to, but I explained that Skipper is not one of our Agents, and with a rogue Agent currently on the run we have no resources to spare. Skipper is there problem, but I'd advise him to never step foot in Denmark again when you see him."
"Wait you're letting him go?" Agent Wild asked. "Why?"
Chief Sabor pulled out Classified's phone which had also been confiscated. "You phone received a text, apparently Skipper's team has tracked down Eva and has sent you her coordinates."
"You're letting me go after her?" Classified was stunned.
"I'm giving you a chance to redeem yourself agent." Chief Sabor said bluntly. "Someone put that sandwich in that briefcase, and they took the files with them. Some unknown enemy out there now has every Northwind agent's name and location. And I'm betting that someone is Eva's secret employer. We need to recover that information before said employer can share it with anyone else. The safety of all our Agents and their families are now in grave danger."
Classified nodded. "I'll fix this." He promised as he got up to leave.
"See that you do, Agent Wild you will accompany him and his team." Chief Sabor added.
Wild nodded and Classified had no choice but to agree, he had lost the Chief's trust and until he earned it back he imagined that agent Wild would be sticking close by.
"While you are doing that I will start relocating the families of all our Agents for the time being." Chief Sabor continued. He knew it wasn't much, but at least innocent family members wouldn't be caught in the cross fires.
Agents Classified and Wild had already raced out of the room they had to catch up Eva before she disappeared for good.
They could only hope they weren't too late.
(Back with Blowhole…)
The dolphin cackled as Fred gave him the stack of papers he had swiped from the briefcase moments before Skipper had arrived at the capitol building. He had left the briefcase behind with an open-faced sandwich he swiped out of a near by fridge as a diversion. He also thought it be kind of funny and wished he could have seen the look on the Agent's face who opened it.
Blowhole however, had seen Skipper open the briefcase since he was still using the Lookie-loo Tech to spy on him. Unfortunately, the feed had died abruptly after the penguin's and the puffin's escape. This was due to the fact that the satellites the technology used were the furthest away from him in their orbit around the Earth. So sadly, Blowhole was not able to see where the penguin had escaped too. A matter he could not overlook, thanks to her little stunt; Eva was compromised. And with the contents of the briefcase now missing the enemy would have no doubt that a third party was involved in this scheme. Of course, now that he had the list of all the Northwind agents and their secret aliases; He would have no problem avoiding them. Even Eva had never met him face to face. With only video chats to go on and his dark shadow on the screen they wouldn't get far on figuring him out.
But this Skipper…All Blowhole had was a name, but hopefully Red One had succeeded in his quest to retrieve the deleted file that he spoke of earlier. He looks at Fred as the thought comes to mind. "Excellent Work Red One." He praised. "Did you manage to get the deleted file off the Northwind servers?"
Fred nodded "I got a notice on my phone; said it was faxed to you not too long ago." He explained as he walked over to the fax machine. "Here it is." He picks a few papers off from it and hands it to Blowhole.
Blowhole looks at the papers expectingly, several notes read of not one, but four rag tag Penguin Commandos. The Brothers, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private had taken on several self-appointed missions. There were also notes about their strengths, weaknesses and what each of them brought to the team. Apparently Skipper was the leader, no surprise there. Kowalski was the brains with an IQ that was surprisingly equal to Blowhole's. Rico was the weapons expert who could store said weapons in his gut for later use. Something that irked The dolphin on several levels. Finally, there was Private, who was described as the heart of the team; the glue that held them together. And while this was all very useful knowledge it gave him no base of operations. The file did mention a traveling Circus, but it didn't stay in one place. Additionally, Blowhole knew that the penguins would most likely no longer be apart of said circus by the time he caught up to it. He also knew that the remaining Circus performers would not know where their friends had gone.
In short it was a dead end, and he knew it.
Fred can tell from Blowhole's face that he's not happy with the results. "Boss that's all they had." He began.
"Clearly." He scoffed. As if he would expect Red One of incompetence. No, Red One was flawless, it was why he was his right-hand man. "No matter, we can not dwell on the enemy's short comings."
"But what if these Penguins decide to get in the way?" Fred asked.
"As little information as this is, it is something to go on." Blowhole assured him. "With these notes and the help of the Lookie-loo Tech I can, in time find them once more. And while I would rather go unopposed in my revenge quest against the humans I look forward to the challenge." He added, and it was true. His gut instinct about freelance agent Northwind had hired had been correct in the end. Skipper was a worthy foe, and he had no doubt his brothers would be just as formidable.
Sure, there was still a lot about this new enemy that he didn't know, but he knew more about them then they did about himself. And if he spied on them for a while once he found them with the Lookie-loo Tech; then he was sure he could dispatch them with little effort. So, naturally he welcomed the challenge and whatever it would bring; challenges were the spice of life after all. Yes, all in all his mission had been a success, he now knew where all of Northwind's agents were located. With said knowledge at his disposal he could hire various mercenaries to keep the agents busy on their home turf leaving himself freedom to do as he pleased. He supposed he could try to have Northwind's agents eliminated as well, but he decided against it for the time being. His goal first and foremost was to eliminate the human race, and he would not allow his revenge to be stalled any longer.
He would begin his plans while searching for these penguins who were no doubt itching to settle the score. Yes, he knew they would find him in the end, and once they did he would be ready them. Perhaps he could lure them out in hopes of learning their new base of operations; it was a thought. "Come Red One we must leave before this harbor is flooded with Northwind agents."
Red One nodded and followed Blowhole to the bridge of the submarine once there they set a course to their own base of operations: Coney Island.
None of them realizing that in a mater a days their new enemy would be a lot closer then they ever thought possible.
(Back with Eva…)
[Several Hours Later…]
She knew it had stupid to make a run for it, but she also knew that she had to do this. The only way she could possibly fix this mess was to bring in her mysterious employer now! Eva knew there was no hope in saving her job, but if they found him she could avoid jail time.
She couldn't believe how out of hand this had gotten; she never meant for it to, but it had and now she was drowning in the consequences of her actions. She thought back to the events that had led her to this moment. She recalled the day she had first been contacted by her mysterious Employer.
He had called her with an offer, a chance as he said, to be a part of something greater. At first she had been tempted to hang up and report the incident, but by then it was too late. Her mysterious caller already knew everything about her and exactly what to say to force her to cooperate. She couldn't allow herself to be discovered, it would cost her everything including her freedom. Something she had worked so hard for.
So, she had decided to corporate for the time being, her hope was that her mysterious employer would slip up and reveal a clue to his identity. But months later no such luck had graced her with it's presence. Now she was in over her head and finding him now was the only way to fix what little bit of her life she had left.
Fortunately, she had stumbled upon Short Fuse's activity on her work computer. She had cloned the computer onto her personal laptop which she used to monitor her work computer from time to time. This allowed her to catch any hackers in the act. She had hoped said hacker would be her mysterious employer trying to steal more dirt on her to keep her under his control. Still, Short Fuse had helped just as much. While the seal was trying to steal stuff from the IP address that was retrieving the Penguin file. She used said address to pinpoint the location of the computer the IP belong to.
The address led her where she was now, the Baltic sea heading towards Denmark. The enemy was here in the same country they had sent Skipper to retrieve the file. This alone would prove her employer was the third party responsible for orchestrating the theft of their files. But that wasn't enough for Eva. She had to see this through she had to bring the enemy in if she ever wanted to fully clear her name.
Her boat makes a beeping sound signaling that her tank is almost empty, forcing her to dock on the shore just off the City of Strandby, Denmark. It was 303 miles from her target's current location; she had over 4 hours left to go. She could only hope he was still there, since the laptop of said IP address had been turned off she could no longer track it in real time.
"Eva…stop." A soft voice said, barely a whisper.
She had just finish tying her boat to the dock and was about to acquire some gas. Truth be told she had hoped she would be followed, which is why she kept her phone on her. However, she had expected her team to be the ones to find her not him.
Kowalski stepped out from behind some crates, he knew there was a chance Eva would have to fuel up here and his hunch had been correct.
"Kowalski." She spoke his name just as quietly as he had her's. She wasn't sure why they were whispering at all, but it seemed only natural. "This…this isn't what I wanted." She admitted. "I never planned for this to happen." She tried to explain.
Kowalski shook his head, his brothers standing quietly beside him. "I don't want excuses Eva!" He suddenly snapped. "I want the truth!"
Eva was taken aback by the sudden change in demeanor. She had never known Kowalski to be rash or angry.
"Why Eva?" He begged. "Why did you do this?" Yes, it was obvious she was guilty, it was written all over her face.
With a sigh she nodded, He had right to know. So, he told him everything, about the call she received from an unknown employer. How she was blackmailed, how she hopped to turn the tables on the enemy. She explained how she took notes on Marshal and told her employer where to kidnap him. And watch him after Marshal had returned to work the next day. She told him everything, everything except the why.
"What did he have on you?" Kowalski demanded. "What could you have done that was so bad that it would warrant this!?"
It was a fair question one that was not easy to answer.
Still, he had a right to know and if she ever truly loved him she would be honest, for once.
"My name isn't Eva." She finally managed to stammer out the words.
"What?" Kowalski was floored. "So even you're name is a lie?"
My name is Evalyn Stone." She told him revealing a tattoo hidden just under the feathers on shoulder of her left wing. "I was forced to work for a secret society called the Court Of Owls; at a young age." She explained, showing him the tattoo. It was an image of a black owl swooping down on an unseen prey. "This Society hides in the shadows and manipulates the world as they see fit, killing all who oppose them. They caused Empires to fall, helped dictators overthrow their government, and so much more"
"You were a mercenary." Kowalski realized.
"Not by choice." Eva assured him. "I obeyed many years out of fear, but one day I dared an escape. I succeeded and with the help of Northwind I was able to forage a new identity. Together we were even able to apprehend a some of their members."
"But if they knew who you used to be then why does it mater that this secret employer knows." Private finally spoke up.
"Because it wasn't Northwind that he threatened to tell." Eva answered, fear evident in her eyes. "He said he would report my whereabouts to the Court of Owls. My new life, one I worked so hard to create would be ruined. My team and everyone I cared about would be in danger, maybe even killed due to my actions against them. I thought I could cooperate until I could trick him into giving himself away. Northwind would have him in custody and my location would never be revealed to the Court of Owls."
She took a step towards Kowalski then. "The last thing I wanted was for you to get hurt."
"And Skipper?" Kowalski challenged. "You promised he'd be safe."
"A promise she managed to keep." Classified said finally revealing himself to Eva and the Penguins. He and Agent Wild had only just arrived moments after Kowalski had confronted Eva but decided to wait for her to spill the truth before apprehending her. "But only just barley." He added as Short Fuse and Corporal also stepped out beside them.
"He's safe?" Kowalski asked.
"Yes, He finished his mission and I wager he's heading for your safe location." Classified answered.
Kowalski visibly relaxes, but his anger towards Eva doesn't lessen. "I thought I knew you." He whispered. "I was wrong."
Eva nodded, she knew it wasn't fair to ask for his forgiveness, she had messed up; and all because she allowed her fear of the society to control her. Something she thought she was over, but sadly it would appear that was not the case.
"You should have told us." Short Fuse said. "We could have helped you. Did you ever think of that?"
"I couldn't take that risk." Eva said looking to Classified. "i was using the IP address that hacked into my computer to track my employer down. he was here in the North Sea."
Classified nodded. "I figured you were trying to work this solo." He told her. "I have a search team on standby, they'll tear this sea apart until they find him."
Eva nodded, but she already knows it's a lost cause. She has failed to find her mysterious employer before she was captured. Once word reached him that she was caught he'd tell the Court of Owls about her for sure. In short she was as good as dead.
Classified knows this as well but they had to try. "In the meantime, we will take you into protective custody where you will await trail. Corporal, book her."
Corporal looks at his boss with sad eyes.
"Oh, I'll do it." Agent Wild said taking out his cuffs, he places them on Eva's wings. "Evalyn Stone you are charged with conspiring with the enemy and aiding in the death of Agent Marshal. Anything you say are do can be head against you in the court of law." He said as he lead her away.
Kowalski looks on.
"She'll receive a fair trial I'll make sure of it." Classified assured him. "Well protect her I promise."
But Kawasaki wasn't worried for her. Eva had played with fire and was now paying for it. "What about her employer?" He asked trying to change the subject to anything but Eva.
"There's a good chance he's long gone." Classified wagered. "And unfortunately, the only other thing we have is this flyer." He takes out a printed copy of the flyer they managed to take from the enemy's computer.
Kowalski takes it and shakes his head at the sight of it. "Junk mail, really? That's all you managed to get?"
"Afraid so." Classified said as Kowalski handed the paper to Rico who swallowed it for safe keeping.
"What about the rest of your team?" Kowalski asked.
"Well, we'll be off of field work for a while, but hopefully we'll at least get to keep our badges." Classified told him. "I'm just sorry I got you guys mixed up in all of this."
"Don't be." Private said before Kowalski could think of an answer. "It's all part of the job."
"We're used to it." Kowalski agreed.
"Yeah, yeah." Rico grunted.
"Still, you have my number, if you need anything…just call." Classified told him.
"We never will." Kowalski told him with a smile despite his current mood.
Classified smiled as well. "I know." He admitted, before he turned and walked away, and out of their lives forever.
Just like that the mission was over, and the three brothers has put on destination on their mind.
"Let's go home." Kowalski told them. "Skipper will be waiting."
The three Penguins began to waddle back to their own boat where the chips Phil and Mason were waiting.
"I sure hope so." Private said. "I miss him dearly." He added.
Rico grunted his agreement.
"Me too." Kowalski said as the sun began to set. "Me too."
-To Be Continued