September 14th 1975

Skipper and Rico were stood opposite each other on the mat, while the weapons expert of the same name watched from the corner, cleaning an M16 disinterestedly.

"You joining us, Rico?" Skipper asked.

"Nah, ah'm just watchin'," Rico replied, looking up briefly, just long enough to shoot his namesake a suspicious glare.

"Suit yourself." Skipper answered noting nothing amiss. His attention reverted to Rico's older counterpart and the other weapons expert slipped back further into the shadows.

"This migh' add a little t' your time but I' might give y' the upper hand," Rico began, " science 'id gave me th' idea."

Suddenly his hand shot from his side and skipper barely blocked the punch.

"You sure we aren't enemies?" Skipper asked dryly.

"Sorry 'id. Jus' wan'ed t' see what you'd do." Rico chuckled, "now attack."

"Any preferences?"

"Wha'ever y'... " skipper didn't give his opponent time to finish his sentence as he attacked with a powerful kick to the head. However Rico, much to skipper's amazement blocked effortlessly. Skipper's confused expression was apparently hilarious to both Ricos, and they didn't disguise the fact. "Sorry 'id. Brainy told me y' always start a fight like tha'. Brings me back t' the point: 'f Ko'alsk's got his master plan set up an' he expects a kick an' ya give 'im a punch, or he's waitin' for y' to run after 'im and you don', that'll seriously mess things up for 'im."

"So you're going to teach me to react backwards?"

"No, 'cause 'e'd start to predict tha'. Science 'id's given me ya file an' other stuff Ko'alsk' could get 'is hands on, an' I'm gonna try ta use that 'gainst y'. Your job is ta make sure I can'..." Skipper once again attacked with another kick to the head before Rico could finish his sentence and he promptly found himself flat on his back. Rico sighed, "tha' would be 'xactly wha' I'm talkin' about."

September 16th 1975

Jones was seated in a room full of his best analysts, listening to them argue over the contradicting data. Maybe he should have interviewed them separately in hindsight.

"Sir!" Agent Roger Park charged into the room, "I'm not sure how to put this..."

"Contrary to everyone in the room's predictions there's been more killing, each body with a post it note saying K'walski did it." Jones snapped. Roger looked slightly taken aback. The ex-Penguin never used sarcasm, and certainly rarely took such a tone.

"Barry Malone was found shot dead in his office this morning. We'll, sir..." Roger hated to step on toes, never mind suggest a traitor might be among them, "a lot of the stuff at the crime scene... um… should have been in our evidence locker." Roger handed jones the murder weapon, "lab boys have gone over it, it's defiantly the murder weapon and the prints are Kowalski's..."

"This is from the Blowhole case," Jones interrupted, "our K'walski found it at the scene of the homicides. The Penguins later claimed responsibility. It doesn't make sense though. He swore he'd never use it again," Private stood up, motioning for them to move to a corner of the room farther from the other occupants, "It was the last time we ever talked."

"The point is it got up and walked out of our evidence locker."

"So we have another mole in the department," Jones concluded tensely, glancing over his shoulder at the rest of the room. Roger opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself. It was just a rumour. Nothing more, "What's on your mind Roger?"

"There's a potentially damaging rumour going around..." Roger winced, "they aren't so sure it was Kowalski who killed Malone."

"I'm not so sure either now, though I know he has something on at least a dozen of our agents. Still, there has to be only four people in the world who have a copy of his prints."

"Well, a lot of people are thinking it might have your Kowalski, who is one of those four as of the start of the mission."

"Rubbish."

"Well their logic works like this, not that I agree with it, he's a nice kinda fellow, but Skipper had him under investigation for being a double agent..."

"Skippah investigates a new person each week. I was the suspect sometime last month. It's just routine, he's been taught never to completely trust anyone."

"I know, but what they're saying is what if he got it right this time. Barry probably would have found out if our Kowalski was a double agent and so he would have had to be killed. If he pinned the murder on Skipper's obsession, well, Skipper would take it at face value."

"And why would one of my most trusted team become a double agent?"

"He and Francis Blowhole had a… close… um… relationship while he was on Operation: Filing Cabinet," Roger whispered, "if he could prove he didn't kill Doris Blowhole, which he can now... We just need to counter this rumour, sir. Joey's all in favour of knocking him off not on the off chance he's the double agent."

"I'll think of something. Thanks Roger."

"So far I've got confirmation in Nigel's final reports, from around '54 to '55 that Kowalski was already pretty much running the Penguins, but would often get annoyed at the fact that requests could still be denied by Skipper," Kowalski thought aloud, "According to the notes of a Lulu Phillips, Skipper often remarked that if he ordered one more set of budget cuts Kowalski would probably kill him. The references were often made jokingly, however notes from the same source suggest there may be more to the remarks…"

"But there's a lot of references from Miss Robert's diary and reports by Hans the Puffin that he was completely loyal to his Skippah," Private countered, "I believe the diary describes Skippah as being the replacement for his older brother who we know he was completely devoted to." Private and Kowalski had been assigned the task of sorting through the mountains of data for any kind of clue as to motivation or common strategies. Well, it was the best excuse he could think of to get out of the extra combat training.

"Why is everything so contradictory!" Kowalski exclaimed almost spontaneously, "None of the reports agree. I don't know if we're talking about someone worse than Rico, or, your favourite source, Miss Roberts, says he was a kind of a friendly, awkward high school nerd. So, apparently, does Mrs Knight."

"People do change over time, you know," Private added, "Perhaps Marlene and Skippah's mum saw some kind of supressed…"

"Well the subtleties of the psyche are all very fine for you and Freud to go debate over tea and lunicorns but I've got to turn out a strategy," Kowalski answered, but Private was not dissuaded.

"I know I say this about most people..."

"Kindergarten ended a few years ago, Private."

"... But I think he was a nice person, he just needs a hug."

"Now that, I'd just love to see," Kowalski scoffed, "Tell me when you try, I want to get it on tape."

"I don't mean literally, but obviously he's lost hope. He's just lashing out at the first thing he sees. Like Marlene said, he's not even sure what he wants."

"Well think of something he doesn't want so I can take credit for the idea and we can throw it at him."

Skipper hit the mat hard, trying to hide a wince as he landed on his left arm. Rico extended his hand and Skipper was on his feet again.

"'ow what ya did wrong?" He asked. Skipper nodded, "I think ya oughta take a break." Skipper shook his head.

"One more." He panted.

"Alrigh', kid." Rico answered, and was surprised to find that he had not been interrupted already. Rico was starting to wonder if the kid was alright, when suddenly Skipper made his move, positioning himself as if he was blindly going to repeat his past mistakes. However as Rico prematurely moved to block the kick, mechanically following the previous pattern, Skipper abandoned the attack, dropping to the floor and knocking his opponent's feet out from under him. For a few seconds he was completely stunned. Skipper stood up, extending his hand, grinning from ear to ear.

"I think I've got the idea."

"Wow." Kowalski uttered the monosyllable, wondering if he'd just seen the scientifically impossible. Two days and Skipper had taken down Rico, who had been considered the best living hand to hand combatant apart from Joey that they had documented the abilities of. That last part was what they had to worry about.

"Well done Skippah!" Private congratulated.

"Glad you boys could find your way out of the nerd corner," Skipper greeted, "Now what have you got?"

"Well..." Private began.

"Private's got nothin' that wouldn't make you puke your guts out," Kowalski interrupted, "I, on the other hand, have identified almost all common strategic..."

"You have fun with that. Just tell me the minimum I have to know, but later so you don't spoil my good mood," Skipper interrupted, "I don't know about you boys, but I think I'm ready."

"Same, unless you want…"

"No thanks."

"On the matter of a different code name, I hope you've given it some thought? It gets pretty confusing…?"

"Yes, I've given it some thought. You can have the informal code name of Prince Shares-a-lot, and Private can have Princess Self-respectra.

"Oh goody!" Private squeaked.

"You know what, you just keep up that strange pronunciation changing thing." Kowalski replied.

"Too late," Skipper smirked, "you already submitted a formal request."

"Technically it wasn't witnessed by a superior officer, so no, I didn't," Kowalski grinned, "Yes Skipper, 1,273 to 1,274 contingencies my favour."

September 17th 1975

Marlene had climbed up onto the roof (nobody would think of looking up, right?) and though she was constantly struggling not to slide down the slippery shingles it had a nice aerial view. There was a bizarre variety of buildings scattered around, everything from medieval castles to giant flowers, and the strange shadows they cast did nothing to help matters when it came to trying to spot the approaching team.

"You should be more careful," a familiar voice spoke, and a shadow rose from the tall grass on the other side of the gravel path, "You fell right into our trap." At least now she knew why her contact was watching that area so intently.

"It is more probable that I allowed you to think that in order to get you out in the open," was the answer. There were a few uncomfortable murmurs amongst the team.

"The most obvious course of action." Skipper thought aloud.

"'eah righ'," Rico, and much to his comfort the other Rico had been given strict orders not to accompany them, countered, "Y' just saying that."

"Think what you want." Was the calm reply. Marlene watched the scene intently, and though weapons had yet to be fired, she had a feeling it would happen at any minute.

"Sniper at 1200!" Private suddenly shouted, and the four team members looked directly up at Marlene, "Up on the roof!" Marlene flattened herself to the ground, barely saving herself from the volley of fire. Now she was glad those annoying shadows were there.

"Women." Kowalski sighed, glancing up at what was possibly the worst hiding place in history. His first instinct was to shout out the irony that Private was shooting at his own girlfriend, however it was unlikely he'd be believed. Her information was more valuable than he let on, but then rescuing her could be possibly damaging to the plans, as by moving elsewhere he wouldn't have his escape route. He was also low on ammunition, and firing precious rounds to get the team's attention off the 'sniper' was risky. Well, he didn't exactly have a choice. Hopefully she'd have the common sense to run as soon as he'd drawn them away, still, that was his whole strategy out the window.

"Skipper, target's on the move!" Kowalski hissed. He honestly couldn't fathom why their opponent was now moving over open ground back towards the main complex. Maybe it was an attempt to get them off their guard.

"Rico, cover us," Skipper ordered, his eyes following his lieutenant's gaze. He motioned to Private to move, and the youngest member of the team sprinted across the ground like a hare, diving behind a barrel.

"Skippah, I think you got 'im," Private hissed, noting that no shots were fired from the supposed sniper position.

"Stay focused, Private." Skipper criticized as he joined Private behind the same object, "You still got eyes on the target?"

"Uh..." Private immediately looked around to see the dark, but defiantly moving shadow, "Yes sir."

Skipper set off at a run across the field motioning for the rest of the team to follow. Private was right, the sniper was pretty quiet.

"Skipper, maybe we shouldn't pursue," Kowalski informed as he saw a flash of light as their target entered the airplane-hangar like building, "The building's full of civilians..." However, Skipper had already disappeared inside, "My whole strategy out the window..." Kowalski thought aloud, and he had no choice but to order Private, who had paused, even more concerned about the civilians, to continue.