Skipper watched as Marlene was carried off to safety.
"Where are you going" Skipper asked calmly, turning around at the sound of footsteps.
"The photo, Doris's photo!" Kowalski answered, starting to climb up towards the roof.
"For Pete's sake Kowalski…!"
"Try and stop me!" Kowalski disappeared up into the second level, intending to reach his room via the attic. Skipper could see there was no use trying to go after him; he'd only endanger the team who would insist on following.
"Rico, find us a way out of here," Skipper ordered. Rico took a grappling hook from his backpack and secured it to the edge of the window. He was about to step back to allow Private to go down first when the roof suddenly collapsed.
"Rico!" Skipper screamed as the rubble crashed down on to the weapons specialist, who fell backwards as if he'd been tackled. Private rushed towards the man, digging furiously at the non-burning bits of debris, plaster, and moss covered rocks.
"Skipper…" Private's voice faded, the youngest member of the team was trying hard to keep it together. Private's back was in the way of the camera, but when he looked around, it was clear by his expression, and the unnatural angle of Rico's neck, that there was no trying to save him.
"Let's keep going." Skipper looked up at hole in the ceiling, as if trying to find north, only to find it covered by debris. They were cut off from Kowalski, "Damn the sentimental idiot." Skipper cursed. He knelt down by Rico's body and removed the backpack, "Stay close behind me, Private. I don't want you to get lost."
The image changed to another camera, the transition suggesting that the first had been destroyed. This showed what looked like a hallway. Skipper and Private ran as fast as they could, though Private blocked most of the camera's view of Skipper. Private was coughing, and didn't look good. Suddenly there was a crackling sound Skipper looked up at the camera, frowning, and the suddenly camera switched.
"Private, look out!" skipper shouted pushing the boy forward. The camera shook as debris fell in front of it, so Skipper's expression was unclear, though the sound of his voice, cracking like a voice only cracks when either close to tears or laughing, said it all. Several of the support beams above Skipper collapsed, and Private watched as a wall of burning timber separated the two. Private stared at the wall, horrified. Still, he had to keep going. Private rushed off in the only direction he could go: forward.
Skipper was almost to the door. Almost. That, ironically was his downfall. He rushed towards his objective, ignoring his surroundings. Suddenly, he stepped on a weak patch of floor, and fell through almost immediately. He grabbed the edge of the floor with one hand. The horrified expression grew as he saw the wooden handhold slowly crack. Down below was weapons storage room, the floor around the safe covered in steel spikes. Skipper made a grab with the other hand for the ledge, but missed. Without warning, his handhold, already at a dangerous angle, dropped off entirely. The camera switched to one of the infra-red ones in the weapons storage room. Even in heat camera, the sight of the man impaled on the spikes and bleeding out was not pretty.
The camera changed. This time, it was a hallway so filled with smoke it was hard to see. A dark smudged started to move down the hallway, coughing. As it approached the camera, the image became clearer. Private stumbled forwards, coughing violently.
"Private?" Kowalski appeared through one of the doors, a torn kitchen towel soaked in water covering his mouth and nose. He rushed towards the boy, just as he started to collapsed. Kowalski grabbed him just before he hit the floor, "Come on Private, don't give up now."
The two were outside the house now, on the opposite side to the crowds and fire fighters. Kowalski had dragged Private a safe distance from the house. The boy's body was drenched with sweat, soot and vomit. Kowalski knew the symptoms caused by smoke inhalation. His right arm was also badly burned, the bone showing through the blackened tissue. Private coughed and gasped for air through damaged lungs…
"I've seen enough." Doris stopped the video. Kowalski 'who couldn't bear to relive the experience' and had kept his back turned looked around at Doris. Having listened to the film a few hours later, Kowalski had to say, it was a little melodramatic, but skipper had been quite over the top the time they'd gotten lost last time they went camping, but those were the only non-classified videos Kowalski had of skipper in which he wasn't in swimming shorts. Doris might have liked that a bit too much.
"Why are you turning it off?" Blowhole asked, looking genuinely disappointed. Kowalski hadn't seen him enter the room, and certainly hoped Blowhole hadn't seen him yet. Kowalski tried to keep to the far corner of the room, behind the lamp. Doris glared at her brother.
"That was all that was left of Kowalski's family." Doris replied hoarsely. How cold could her brother be?
"Well, we got past the good part. I wish it was Skipper who'd died of smoke inhalation, much more painful," Blowhole commented, "Oh well, he died slower than Rico," Then he turned to Kowalski, who would have made a dive for the door, if it hadn't been that Blowhole was standing between him and it. He didn't like his chances in hand to hand combat with the man either, so simply stood there, "Can I keep that copy?"
"If you want it." Kowalski replied. He wasn't sure how he should act. It wasn't exactly something he'd prepared for.
"Thanks. Is this the original copy?"
"It's the one Rockgut gave me. He said he got it out of the wreckage."
"Without your password?"
"He had an override."
"It's Doris, isn't it?
"How did you…? Doris, did you tell him?" Kowalski was desperately trying to keep Doris' brother's attention off the topic of oh look, my mortal enemy is in the room. Let's kill him.
"You're just insanely predictable, not to mention easy to fool," Blowhole answered boredly, "your team isn't dead, you know. Not even Private. My sources say he pulled through after you left him at the hospital."
"They aren't?!" Kowalski exclaimed, trying to seem surprised. Had he made a mistake with the editing? Was the footage too clear? Had a random mountain bike managed to find its way into one of the dramatic death scenes?
"No, they aren't. Not even Private. My sources say he pulled through after you left him at the hospital," Now Kowalski was genuinely surprised. How did Blowhole know and, seemingly, be able to prove a story fabricated only twenty four hours ago? "That footage was put together from previous videos, namely your holiday films and the recordings of Private's poor attempts to create a Penguin Division Shakespeare company," Blowhole replied in the same monotone, as if he honestly didn't care. Kowalski stiffened. How had he guessed? "I hate to give out spoilers, but Rockgut's been lying to you," Blowhole smirked, pacing the room in his usual bragging about his evil scheme manor, "No, no, not willingly, you see he's…"
"Little B, that's not your scheme, you don't get to brag about it." Doris reminded.
"Technically I have a 6% share…"
"You've said far more than your six per cent," Doris saw this as a good opportunity to get away, "Come on Kowalski."
"Wait, where are you going?" Blowhole asked, though Kowalski could see his mind was half on whatever was in that lab.
"Oh… interrogation." Doris lied.
"No need to lie, Doris. You can take him out to dinner," Blowhole opened the safe at the other end of the room, and removed his credit card, tossing it to her. Kowalski memorised the combination, "The longer you're out the more peace and quiet I'll have in the lab." He was up to something; still, Kowalski was more focused on getting out than exploiting his unusual talkative yet distracted mood "Oh and Kowalski?"
"Uh… yes?" Kowalski stuttered, hoping his evil counterpart hadn't decided the prospect of killing him was just too tempting.
"Don't you dare let her anywhere a shop." Kowalski barely masked his sigh of relief. However, he'd only been mentally complementing himself on his narrow escape for but a few precious seconds, when his joy was overshadowed by more foreboding thoughts. Kowalski knew, no matter how annoying Doris could be when one wanted to accomplish something, Blowhole would never let him leave alive. He and his mysterious partners for some reason had other plans for him and his team, probably more painful than what Blowhole had in store. He had to get into that lab, and find out just what was going on.