*** 14 ***
It wasn't long for starting the time for visits and the penguins were still in the HQ. Kowalski inspected Blake's flipper for the last time with his X-Ray goggles.
"So you climbed down the ladder by yourself."
Blake nodded.
"The tendon is totally soldered. Now you only need to strengthen your flipper." Kowalski turned around. "Eh, Skipper! Blake can start the normal training."
"Good for her," Skipper replied.
Johnson approached.
"The surgery, then... was a success... right?" he asked.
"I want to see how she moves in water, but we can assure it was," Kowalski replied smiling. "It was great team work."
"Team work?" Blake asked.
"Don't you remember?" Kowalski asked. "Johnson helped me. It would have been impossible to do it by myself. We needed four flippers. And... do you know what?"
"What?"
"I think you should thank Johnson. I know you haven't done it." Kowalski was smiling in a way that Blake considered totally stupid.
"Oh, okay..." Blake's tone was of complaint. "Thanks, Johnson," she said not wanting to look at his eyes.
"Eh, you don't talk seriously!" Johnson complained.
"Because I don't like you!"
"I don't like you either!"
"Well, we are at peace!"
Kowalski face-flippered. Wasn't that resentment ever going to end? It was hard to make her start to trust him, but now... would that be impossible with Johnson? But, if he intervened, he'd worsen things... as always. But that was impossible.
"How can you both be so stubborn?!" he yelled at them. "All this for a punch?"
"No!" Blake answered. "Because he was trying to grope me all the time!"
"Now I wouldn't touch you with a ten-foot pole!" Johnson replied to her. "You tomboy!"
Blake, totally infuriated, rushed at Johnson with all her strength and started to beat him with her flippers, not thinking. She hadn't even noticed that Rico had grabbed her waist and had separated her from Johnson: she was beating the air with her flippers. Johnson was staring at her with his face distorted.
"She's crazy!" he shouted.
"Because you've insulted her!" was Kowalski's reply.
Oh... it was possible to worsen things. Private, who hoped until them that they could solve their problems without help, decided to intervene.
"Enough, everyone!" he shouted. "Aren't you fed up with bringing out the worst in yourselves? Do you feel better after showing your hatred? Because I think you don't! You don't solve anything... and you're even angrier! And you drag the rest of the team with you! Learn to get along, bloody hell!"
Skipper, who hadn't wanted to intervene until then either, was surprised by Private's explosion. But he knew only Private could resolve a situation like that and didn't intervene.
Private stood opposite Blake. "You wanted him not to touch you... well, you got it. Ignore him, don't throw it in his face now that you have made him leave you alone." And he turned to Johnson. "And you, don't be so vain. So much resentment for a punch? She didn't think it! And now you two will make peace!"
They all were expectant. Blake, finally, raised her flipper reluctantly. Johnson did the same. Both flippers shook in the air signing a non-aggression pact. Better than nothing.
.
Above, the seven penguins started their training. Blake had total freedom of movement, so she could focus on imitating instead of trying not to bend her flipper. With one less worry she focused more... and the effect was immediate. She was a bit slower than the rest, who had made all the movements automatic... but she wasn't lost anymore.
A part of the daily training consisted of giving and dodging blows with flippers and legs. Blake hadn't tried that until that day, but she had seen how the others did it... and she didn't know how she'd do it, as she had never attacked anyone (apart from the slap and the punch). She imagined that her blows would be weak and that her aim would be bad, and the thing was that she thought that those two occasions had been exceptional. As for dodging and defending herself, it was enough to remember that two had brought her on the brink of death.
"At my sign you six will come to attack me," Skipper said.
He made the sign and the six penguins went towards him. Experience was evident, as they all (except Blake) rushed coordinated wielding their flippers as swords. Skipper dodged all the blows and gave some, and they dodged at the same time. Blake didn't know when or where to attack. When she thought she saw it clear, she rushed... and crashed against Private, both falling to the concrete. Private soon continued his attack and defense routine, while Blake looked for another gap for sneaking and attacking Skipper. As she imagined, Skipper dodged her flipperbeat with no problem... and tackled her with no problem.
Next, Skipper paired them attending to their height: Kowalski against Johnson, Manfredi against Rico... and Blake against Private. It was again to attack and dodge, now one on one. Blake remained motionless and was given a flipperbeat by Private. She replied it... but Private intercepted her flipper and hit her with the other one. Private had more speed, more strength and more coordination than Blake... and he was the smallest one. Clearly, Blake didn't have anything to do against any of the others and she could only use the surprise factor. Even she had surprised herself when she attacked Kowalski and Johnson. When she looked at them, she saw that both were concentrated and even, usually cutting off the opponent's blow. Manfredi and Rico weren't as good for dodging, but their blows were strong and accurate... and they were even too. Only she had been defeated easily. She sat down disheartened, staring at her flippers with sadness. That was not her thing.
Skipper approached her. He knew what he had to do... and what he had to say.
"As you are a rookie, you have to fight me the first day... we always do so. But there's a problem: I cannot hit a girl. It wouldn't be fair, you would be on a losing streak."
Before he could notice, Blake had tackled him and she was on top of him. She wanted to skin him, but he had been faster and, with his flippers, he had immobilized hers. Blake was trying to get loose unsuccessfully.
"Just as I imagined... you show the best of yourself fighting when your rational part disappears." He freed her flippers. "But you must change it: you must keep control in every moment. When fighting you cannot let fury guide you blindly."
"Between brute force and intellect, you always say that brute force wins," Kowalski reminded him.
"Yes, but one thing is brute force and a different thing is murderous wrath... there's a little difference," Skipper replied. "And, while she doesn't have a minimal control over her emotions, she'll be more vulnerable than what she thinks." He raised Blake in the air, left her aside and stared at her. "Besides, with brute force size is very important... you are on a losing streak."
Blake was sitting on the concrete, even more disheartened than before. While the others were ready for meeting visits (on Mondays the time for visits started later), she didn't move. Skipper got nearer her again.
"Did you need to be so cruel to me?" she complained.
"What you need is not to listen to your rival. Sometimes words hit harder than blows. This is the first thing you must learn... and no, I haven't been cruel," he answered helping her stand up.
.
Not much later the time for visits started. Nell arrived a bit later, displeased by the answer that she had been given in the Town Hall. For her to see the penguin again meant happiness and she forgot for a while her disappointing meeting with McSlade. She had still some days ahead to see her and, later... she would see. She would go on calling, although Alice were less and less polite with her.
Blake was at an end of the concrete island, apart from the others and jumping. Nell got nearer and witnessed a usual scene there, but new for her: two young girls were lavishing her with the fish that they had brought in their yellow bag. Blake had great ability to catch the flying fish, and so she had to do it while she had diving forbidden. That was over, so Blake amazed them jumping to the water and asking for the fish from there. Her flipper worked perfectly.
"How nice she is!" Katie said. "I'm never tired of seeing her!"
"Me neither!" Imelda replied. "I'd take her home!"
"You can't do that! You'd be caught!"
"How come? Of course not!" Imelda hated others taking for granted that she would do things wrong only because she usually did them wrong. "I have a plan, listen: we go to the shop, we buy a plushie penguin... a little one. And when nobody's looking we sneak inside, we leave the plushie and we take the true one."
"You wouldn't dare do that," Katie told her.
"Of course I'd do... the zookeeper is a bit silly. We could distract her with anything."
"Cameras would record you! And what would you do with a penguin at home? She'd need space, she'd be noisy... Your parents would see the fish in the fridge and an intruder at home. You'd be caught!"
"Well! This is like having a cat... and people have cats!" Imelda protested.
"Oh, yes, the same as a cat!"
Blake was surprised. Who in their right mind would take home a being like the one who was about to wolf her down in that alley?
"She's not the same as a cat." Nell's intervention surprised both girls. "Legally it can't be done, they are protected by the Antarctic Treaty. And you can't give her the space she needs or have her alone."
"Well, we take them seven!" Imelda let out.
"What ideas you have!" Katie protested. "And you..." she addressed to Nell, "how do you know so much?"
"Because I'm a zookeeper in another zoo and there I used to look after this little one until she was sent here." There was sadness in her voice.
"And why was she sent here?" Katie asked.
"Not all penguins are adorable. She has suffered a lot."
Blake, who was looking at them from the water, hid her head and left swimming. Both girls noticed the gesture.
"Do you think that penguins understand what we say?" Imelda asked.
"Who knows... but sometimes, when you talk to her, I hope not," Katie answered.
"I think they understand us," Nell said.
The three stared at Blake, who was reunited with the rest of penguins and didn't look at them. They were sure that what they had said had disturbed or saddened her. The three would love to be able to communicate effectively with penguins... or, at least, with her.
.
Katie and Imelda left before Nell. By that time, Blake had returned to the pool and was going around, happy to revive her flipper. She heard Nell calling her and approaching. She lifted herself to the fence and grabbed it with her flippers. She let her caress her head. Nell spoke to her almost whispering.
"Lilcotton... those girls love you... eh? They seem so nice... They cannot do what they have said. Well... I don't think they'll do it. It's illegal, it's a mess... and the plan would go badly. Well... and they know that they can come here... They have come a few times, haven't they? Me, only three since I left you here months ago... they have it easier. Well, you know... This morning I've gone to ask to be transferred here, and they won't do it. We could leave together, I don't know where. There are many places. I can ask. I don't know when, but someday we may leave together even to the other end of the world. Would you like it?"
Nell didn't expect an answer, of course. She waved goodbye and left. Blake was thoughtful, trying to assimilate all what she had said. She didn't know what to think. Imelda's idea was crazy, but feasible... she knew similar stories told by her teammates. On the other hand... what to think about what Nell had told her? To leave together... how?
Was that what she wanted? When she tried to get out, yes. Now she wasn't sure at all... even knowing that she wouldn't take her with the three Bronx penguins! The difference was that she wasn't as angry with the world and her teammates anymore. She had discovered that they worried about her and she still had a lot to learn.
Blake didn't know if that had been a promise or a warning, if she should take it seriously. She thought that the best option was not to tell the others at the moment, as they could turn that into one of their operations and consequences would be unpredictable. She hadn't really seen them in action, the missions she had joined since her arrival could hardly be classified as such... but she thought they'd dare do anything.
