*** 31 ***
All was quiet when the penguins left the garage. There was some time before the zoo opened for visits. None of them was in the mood for visits and routines, they only wanted to get in their bunks and let time go by... forever. But they had things to do.
"We cannot allow anyone to know what has happened. We must make Alice believe that they have been transferred elsewhere... because they won't come back," Kowalski said.
That idea fell as a gravestone on them, but they had to do it. Skipper went to the chimp habitat and the others followed him. As they imagined, they were asleep.
"Wake up, apes! I need you for a mission!"
Mason was startled, but got up right then. It was a bit more difficult to awake Phil.
"Good morning..." Mason said, education first. "You're only four..."
"Yes..." Skipper said downheartedly. "We've just come back from a mission which has gone bad. Manfredi... and Johnson... and Blake... are... are... gone." He was shedding tears, the same as the others.
Mason and Phil opened their eyes all wide, very surprised. They didn't know what to do, how to react... They knew that the penguins got into much trouble and did dangerous things, but they always came back. Phil made some gestures and Mason spoke.
"We're really sorry, with all our hearts."
"Can you help us?" Skipper asked.
"Anything."
Mason and Phil followed the penguins to Alice's office. Rico stood watching the door and Private jumped up the window to see Alice when she arrived.
"We need you to find and delete their files," Skipper said. "When Alice wonders why we are only four, she must believe that the other three have been transferred elsewhere. Can you do it?"
Phil started to type. Of course they could do it! The first file they found was Johnson's.
"One moment..." Kowalski intervened. "We cannot just delete files. We must modify them by saying that they're elsewhere. To delete them would be too suspicious."
"And where can we send them?" Skipper asked.
"Some place outside McSlade's jurisdiction that nobody remembers," Kowalski suggested. "Where cross-referencing can't be done."
"To... Seaville, for example?"
"Skipper... that place is a jail. I wouldn't even like that their corpses were there."
"But they won't go there, we'll only tell Alice that they are there. And Alice, if the computer says it, won't investigate."
"Seaville, then," Kowalski sentenced.
Phil found the keyword in a drop-down menu. He accepted, went back and found Manfredi's file. He repeated the operation. It was Blake's turn. He opened her file and started to make gestures. Mason translated them.
"Phil says that he can't modify Blake's file because she has already been transferred."
"Are you sure, ape?" Skipper asked.
"Completely. Phil says that she's been taken in a light aircraft to a place called SANCCOB, in Cape Town... South Africa. With a stop in Fortaleza, Brazil," Mason said while Phil scribbled the initials on a post-it.
"When was that?"
"Here they say she went to the airport an hour ago."
"What time does the aircraft leave?"
"At nine."
"There's time," Skipper and Kowalski said in unison.
Phil located the aircraft identification and wrote it down on the post-it.
They left the office unseen and went back to the chimp habitat.
"Thank you very much, apes, we owe you one," Skipper said, and addressed the penguins. "Let's see... the voyage is long and the weekend's near... we all cannot go, people and Alice would notice. Two go and two stay." He started to think. "Rico and I will go, you'll stay."
They nodded. Skipper and Rico went back to the garage and left in the car at full speed.
.
Blake woke up confused. She was inside a wooden crate as the one where she was transferred to Central Park Zoo. She stood up and jumped trying to see what was happening outside or where she was, but she was too short. She also tried to understand how that could have happened.
She wondered why she hadn't noticed that someone had put a board behind her, and why she hadn't shouted or defended herself when she felt the contact with those hands. Why she only had tried to get loose timidly trying to loosen those fingers with her flippers. She should have screamed! She should have pecked that person! And who was that?
From there she had been taken to the vet's surgery. She remembered that place, it was where her flipper had been operated. How ungrateful she had been, thinking badly of the ones who had helped her... and now they would come, wouldn't they? But no-one of them appeared. Might have they thought that she had gone elsewhere and they would be looking for her? Or, put it simple, wouldn't they go for her for all the trouble she had caused? Why did she have doubts about them? They would go for her... but they didn't.
In a metallic cage, on the counter, the penguin had waited patiently. She had seen Alice, she was going here and there... she had taken her from her habitat! And the vet took her from the cage, weighed her, extracted some blood... She didn't defend herself because they would come... right? They would go in through the window... or through the door, they would knock the vet down and they would take her to the HQ .
But they didn't arrive, and Blake lost her patience and her tempers. She had to get herself out of there before it was too late. She pecked the vet's hand and he moved it aside shrieking. She tried to jump, but he was faster and held her. A stronger peck and she got loose from him. She jumped, slid to the door... but it was closed and she couldn't open it on her own. The vet approached her with a syringe, he cornered her... and Blake didn't remember anything else. And now she was in that crate.
It had happened. She didn't want to believe Nell, she didn't want to believe Blowhole... but it had happened. And she hadn't avoided it. Why? She didn't want to leave Central Park Zoo. She wanted to be with the team, she wanted to be with Rico. She hadn't said goodbye to him. She hadn't told him that she had eventually noticed what she felt for him, she'd never do it.
The vet had told her that she was going to South Africa. What or where was that? She had never heard of it. Was it where Nell had gone? Or was it where the court-martial was? Oh, if it was that... she was alone! Any of the two options frightened her. She was alone, with no options. She looked for the opening of the crate in vain. She punched the walls of the crate, but they didn't fall. She shouted, but no-one heard her. She cried, but Rico wasn't there to comfort her. She leaned back against the wall of the crate, defeated, and let the tears soak the wood. Her destiny was uncertain, but the worst thing was that she was alone. She was trembling. She let her mind become foggy again and fell asleep.
.
Skipper let Rico drive that car for the first time. Rico squeezed the engine to the limit, burned the wheels and transmitted all his nerve to every part in the vehicle. When they arrived, he showed that he could also treat a vehicle with delicacy and parked with precision in a hangar, hidden from the sight of curious people. Both slid to the runway.
Skipper looked at the post-it. He couldn't read, so he couldn't understand what was written... but he could identify the light aircraft thanks to those scribbles which were unknown to him. They had arrived in time... everything was going okay. And... yes, that was the aircraft. He gave Rico the post-it, and he put it in his beak. Some jumps, some acrobatics... and they would be inside. It was easy, they had done it other times.
Rico was looking up, and...
"Blake! Blake!" he shouted nervously, pointing at the aircraft next to that one.
Skipper made a sign for Rico to give him something and Rico regurgitated the binoculars.
"I see... I'd say that one's not her, and zoo animals travel in -"
Before Skipper could notice, Rico had grabbed him by the waist and was climbing up the light aircraft wing. Skipper was uttering curses, but Rico ignored them. When they arrived at the door, Rico pushed Skipper inside and jumped with him. They were in the wrong aircraft and heard a deafening noise: they were taking off.
"Are you crazy? How do you dare? This is not our aircraft!"
Rico shrugged his shoulders. He was sure he had seen Blake leaning at the window. Skipper tried to count to 10, to 100, to 1,000... or he swore he'd kill him right there.
"Blake, Blake!" Rico shouted again pointing and jumping. The penguin they had seen was opposite them, staring at them with curiosity.
"Come on, Romeo... go to see if she's your Juliet," Skipper said with sarcasm.
Rico slid, stopped at her feet and stood up. He looked at her eyes... they were green. And she didn't recognize him.
"She's not."
"Of course she's not! I told you!" Skipper replied. Was there any hope? "Do you happen to know where we are going?"
"To Guatemala," she answered.
"Guatemala?!" both asked in unison.
"Excuse me, but we have to leave," Skipper said, grabbing Rico by his flipper.
Skipper leaned at the window... and the airport and the light aircraft to South Africa were getting away. There was nothing to do. Or was it? Skipper, still gripping Rico, went out through the ajar door and both jumped to the wing, grabbing it strongly so as not to fall off. Rico regurgitated a parachute and did a free fall gripping Skipper strongly. The parachute opened and both landed perfectly on an empty runway. The opportunity had vanished.
Skipper was incandescent with rage. Now he would kill him! He went against Rico, giving him flipper beats and kicks. Damned fool, he had ruined the mission! He was so angry with him that, decided not to talk to him, he didn't even shout. Rico accepted the blows impassible and resigned: he knew he had screwed it up totally. Really totally.
When Skipper was exhausted, he went to the hangar defeated. He sat on the pilot seat before Rico did it. They only needed that Rico believed to have seen another penguin on their way and they ended at the other end of the country!
When they arrived at the HQ and moved the fishbowl to go inside, Skipper had the impression that there was a black cloud installed permanently on top of his head. Private stared at them as if he had seen a ghost.
"Kowalski... they have arrived," he said leaning at the lab door.
Kowalski went out. Why were they there so soon? They would need days to go back... and they had arrived even before the time for visits started.
"Anything went wrong?" he asked.
"This good-for-nothing has taken me to the wrong aircraft!" Skipper protested.
Kowalski looked at Rico seriously, but he saw him so disheartened that he was unable to tell him anything. He just caressed his mohawk and turned around. He would find a solution.
"We'll need to find out which is the first plane to Cape Town. We'll go to the office with Mason and Phil when Alice's not there," he said. "And... Skipper, someone has phoned saying that it was urgent and asking about you. Some Norbert."
Skipper went like a bullet in the lab.
.
Skipper redialed. He almost heard his heartbeats more than the hold tone.
"Where the hell were you?!" the voice on the other side said.
"We've come back from a mission," Skipper answered with his voice slightly tremulous.
"And does your lieutenant come back before you?"
Skipper didn't answer.
"I'm going to be brief because I hate wasting my time with you: we have a recording from last Saturday in Bronx Zoo. Do you know what it can be?"
"No," Skipper lied.
"You know it because you were there, I've heard your voice! Don't lie to me or you will go to court-martial too!"
"What?" Skipper tried to play dumb.
"That female you've had in your team for a while went there to attack three civilian penguins. Do you know why?"
"No... I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't lie to me, Skipper, I remind you that we have a recording. And you were there too, so you know what happened. And Manfredi and Johnson, we've heard you giving them orders. Was there anybody else?"
"On... Only we four."
"More than half the team. You are in big trouble. But not she or you, all the team. I have the authority to dismantle it... You know it, don't you?"
"Y... yes."
"I want to talk with her."
"She's not here."
"Aren't you lying to me again?"
"Sure... we... we have lost her in the mission."
"What a coincidence..." In his tone Skipper noticed sarcasm.
"I'm not lying. We have ruined Blowhole's plans... but we have lost Manfredi... and Johnson... and..." Skipper couldn't continue, he started to cry when he thought about Manfredi and Johnson.
The news didn't faze Norbert. "I want the report about the mission for yesterday. Urgent pigeon. And we'll talk again, don't even dare do any silly thing until I call you again."
"O... okay."
"We'll talk about it," Norbert said right before hanging up. He always had to have the last word.
Skipper left the phone on the table. How he hated Norbert! He wished he had been firm enough when he testified against him. And he wasn't able to speak about that and not lie... the fully grown penguin he had named Blake wasn't the accused, but the witness... himself.