The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 22 – Telephones
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"
Why would Manfredi need his help? How could he even help? Skipper found himself confused.
The robot penguin continued looking at the ground, his back turned to Skipper. He held the twisted dagger loosely in his flipper. He took a few deep breaths, then sniffled. It became apparent to Skipper that he was holding back tears.
"I need your help to track down and eliminate my target." he said simply but clearly.
Skipper didn't respond for a little while. He wondered whether he should help his old teammate or not.
"Manfredi," Skipper started. "I left the zoo, and my team, looking for you. After you attacked me in my headquarters and I realized you were still alive, I had a lot of questions. So many that it was giving me headaches and keeping me up at night. I wasn't expecting to find you so quickly, though. You've answered a lot of my questions, but I still have more to ask. Now what I didn't do is I didn't come out here to track down some penguin from my past that I hardly remember, and have no clue about its location. I'm sorry, but I can't help you."
Manfredi turned around quickly, almost as if he was taken aback. Skipper noticed a trickle of a tear trailing down the feathered side of his face. It made him suddenly feel very uncomfortable.
"My target..." he seemed to stutter. Earlier Manfredi had been an unreadable facade. Now Skipper could read sadness and despair on his face.. "My target took everything from me. First he took my freedom—my right to oppose, to disagree, to retaliate. Then he took my home. Then he took my friends and my family. He took my fiancée and my unborn child. Then, with nearly nothing left, he took Johnson from me. Stabbed him in the back."
"I—I..." Skipper was speechless.
"I have tracked him for over a year now. I have followed any clue I could find. I ventured across Asia, Europe, even places as far out as Australia. One day, when I thought the trail had gone cold, I came across a photo of the Central Park Zoo. You were in that photo, and I thought you were my target. That is what brought me here to New York. But now it seems that the trail has gone cold once again." Manfredi took a few steps closer to Skipper. The robot-penguin was considerably taller than Skipper, and Skipper suddenly felt very small. "That is why I need your help, Skipper. You are the last thing on this planet that means anything to me. After all, this planet is huge. We would not have been brought together unless it was for a reason."
Skipper, who had felt confident until this moment, sighed and said, "I have some information that might help you."
Marlene led the small group of zoo animals towards the Central Park Zoo offices. It was a small building of three or four offices and a lobby where the legal aspects of running a zoo were handled. It was where Alice spent most of her time, along with a few employees who mainly filed paperwork. It was also where the zookeepers clocked in at the beginning of their shifts, and clocked out at the end. For this reason, they had to hurry because it would be bustling with activity in only a few hours.
The sun had just started to break the horizon and although no light could be seen, the sky was a drab gray and it was bright enough for the streetlights to go out. The air was cool and crisp, and it felt good on Marlene's face. She wished she could take some more time to enjoy the morning like she normally did, but her mind was currently racing.
The three penguins walked closely behind her, Private looking worked, Kowalski determined and Rico distracted. The lemurs walked off to the side, Mort bounding along after Julien.
"Okay, so Alice's office is in here?" asked Marlene when they approached the building.
"Yes. About a month ago we infiltrated this facility with the chimps in order to access Alice's computer."
Maurice walked over and pushed on the door, but it didn't budge. "How'd you get in?" he asked.
Kowalski held up a flipper to point at something and began to say, "There is a..."
"Isn't it obvious?" Julien interjected. "We need someone big and strong to break down the door."
"Uh-huh," huffed Marlene, "and that 'someone' is you, right?"
Julien looked wide-eyed at Marlene, "Of course not. That's what I have my chunky monkey for. Maurice, break de door for me."
"Your majesty, I can't break down this door," responded Maurice, knocking on the door.
"Well then how are we supposed to get inside?" shot Julien. Maurice shrugged.
Kowalski slapped his head, "I was trying to say there is an access point on the other side of the building. It's a stack of crates and an unlocked window."
"See Maurice, you should listen to de smart fishy penguin more." mocked Julien, crossing his arms. Maurice merely shrugged his shoulders again.
The group proceeded to the back of the building, where Rico and Maurice worked together to lift up the heavy window. The animals proceeded inside.
Alice's office was tiny, merely a desk with a computer and a few stacks of papers, a filing cabinet and a bookshelf on one wall full of zoology books. Good, thought Marlene, not many places to look. There was a small, black and white television next to the computer, and a man in a suit was sitting at a desk talking about the news on it.
"...information about the fish crisis on the east cost of the United States isn't ready available," he said, "but scientists are looking into every possible cause. Pollution and global climate change have already been eliminated, though, because studies show that the waters around New York and other major cities is cleaner than it has been in a hundred years, and scientists say the water is an ideal temperature for the fish to live. Meanwhile, all major fishing industry on the East Cost has been driven out of business by the lack of fish, causing thousands of industrial workers to loose their jobs..."
"What are we looking for K'walski?" asked Private.
"A small, square or rectangular device, presumably with a few buttons and some sort of screen," answered Kowalski. "Something that could be used to display a map or even a radar.
Julien hopped up onto a desk and picked up one piece of paper. He tossed it onto the floor and said, "Well, de king can't find it." Then he bounced down into the desk chair and crossed his legs.
Marlene shook her head. "It can't be too hard to find, this room isn't that big," she said.
"Buttons!" shouted Rico. He was holding up a small device above his head with a small screen and many different buttons with numbers on them on its front side.
"That's a cellphone," recognized Marlene. "It's like a regular telephone, just smaller and more portable."
Kowalski took the device from Rico and studied it carefully, and then gave it back to the heavyset penguin. "Marlene is right, this isn't what we're looking for, although it was a good attempt, Rico."
Rico responded by smiling widely, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.
"C'mon guys, we don't have a lot of time. We need that device." instructed Marlene, observing the sun starting to come in through the window.
They continued searching, being careful not to move too many things out of place in case Alice would notice. A good amount of time passed and they couldn't find anything.
"I don't think what we're looking for is here, Kowalski." said Maurice.
"It must be," answered Kowalski. "Alice is the head zoo keeper, so she must be the one to control the device that has our locations on it."
"Well if that is true," said Marlene, "and it isn't here in her office, that means that..." Her words trailed off as they heard the front door of the office building slam open and heavy footsteps began heading their way.
"Crazy penguins and their crazy attacking me and what not," said a voice that could only be Alice's. "Dammit this hurts."
The footsteps stopped for a moment. Judging by Marlene's best guess, she was right outside the door to her office. The animals looked awkwardly at each other, not sure of what to do. They couldn't all make it out of the window before she entered, and there was hardly any places to hide in the room. Marlene gasped as the door opened a crack.
"Now this thing is broken too, I must have fallen on it. It says all the penguins are right on top of me! What a piece of crap. I'm going to call Andrew and have him send me a new one." said Alice to herself, obviously frustrated.
"Alice must have the device!" whispered Kowalski to Marlene.
"I know, but right now we need a place to hide, we can't get caught in here." answered Marlene.
"I have a plan," said Kowalski. He signaled Marlene and the other animals to move to a wall beside the door. When it seemed like they were all there, Marlene noticed Julien still sitting in Alice's chair. He had dozed off!
"Julien!" she shouted under her breath, but it was no use. Right at that moment, the door flung open, almost squashing Marlene and the other animals between it and the wall, but it stopped in time because of a door stopper. Kowalski's plan worked: the door shielded them from Alice's view, but also trapped them between it and the wall. Under the crack in the door they could see Alice's shuffle over to her desk.
"This stupid thing isn't working. I know those penguins ran away somewhere but they aren't in this room, dammit." said Alice, who obviously had not noticed Julien yet. Marlene prayed he would wake up and run under the desk or something. "Where's my cellphone, I always leave it right here!" continued Alice. Marlene looked over to see Rico still holding the cellular device in his flippers. He smiled awkwardly. She looked around and saw a crack just big enough for the cellphone between the door and its frame. She signaled Rico to toss it through the opening and into the hallway. Fortunately, at that exact moment, the phone began ringing.
Alice swiveled around and said, "Oh, there it is." She tossed the GPS device onto the floor and walked out to the hallway to pick up the cellphone. Now was their only chance of getting away undetected.
"Rico, Maurice, help me close this door," instructed Marlene. The lemur and penguin nodded. "Private, get up on Kowalski's shoulders and get ready to lock the door when we close it. It's our only chance."
"Alright, Marlene," responded Private.
In a flash, Maurice, Rico and Marlene slammed the door on Alice, who had just answered her phone. Private and Kowalski swiftly locked the door, and within a second Alice was already pounding on the door.
"Alright, this isn't funny! Open this door now or I'll call the police and have you arrested for breaking and entering!" Alice shouted, furious.
"Rico, grab the device," instructed Kowalski. The heavyset penguin lifted the GPS, which was about as big as one of his flippers, onto his back. Then, the four of them made their way to the window.
"Let's go, let's go!" urged Maurice, who was already hoisting the window open. Mort beckoned them from the windowsill.
"You've got until the count of three until I break this door down." came Alice's voice. "One..."
"Where's Julien?" asked Marlene, pointing to the now empty desk chair.
"I don't know, maybe he already escaped," explained Maurice, "but we've got to get out of here now!"
Without any more of a question the penguins and Marlene hopped out of the window, which Maurice let close behind him. In a blink, they were safely concealed within the bushes. Moments later, Alice came tumbling into the room. She rubbed her shoulder where she had bashed the door in. glancing around, she saw that nothing was out of place.
She put the phone back to her ear, "Andrew, we've got a serious problem here. Either I'm going crazy, or these penguins are still after me."
/AN: This will probally be the last chapter for some time. I am putting a lot of my free time to making gaming videos on youtube, but I did enjoy writing and I'll have some more chapters up eventually. Tell me what you think about my story so far, though! After all, these last three chapters took me around eight hours or so to write. :AN\