*** The pins ***
* Pins, safety pins... how easy it's for them to end in the box bottom and how difficult it is to rescue them from there! And be careful, because they are so small that there's no way to grab them or you're poked when trying. *
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Friday evening was quite boring for the three penguins. Skipper had informed Madeleine about the meeting and he was listening once and again to the recordings that Johnson had made, unaware of the whispering by the other penguins. He even didn't notice that both disappeared for some minutes. When he got tired of hearing about treaties and continental shelves and about comparisons between the North Pole and the South Pole, he went to the recordings from the Ministry of Interior and Health. He found them more interesting.
Skipper commented his plans for that night during dinner.
"We're going to wait for a while so the other animals have fallen asleep and we're going to get intel from the computers in this Ministry. We must be carefully stealthy because we're not alone here."
"Yeah, and?" Manfredi asked with a fish in his beak.
"They've only come to the Summit. We've come for something else: for getting intel." Skipper placed his flipper under Manfredi's beak to close it. "Besides, it is rude to talk with your beak full and to eat with your beak open. And you do both things."
"Well, then don't start to tell us your plans precisely at dinnertime!" Johnson protested. "It's always the same, you've had all the evening and you tell us now."
"How long will we be at the computers?" Manfredi asked.
"At least for one hour," Johnson calculated.
"We won't have time," Manfredi replied.
"Time for what?" Skipper intervened. "What plans could you two have at night?"
"Eh... nothing, Skipper. Just a double -" Manfredi was interrupted by a slap by Johnson.
"So you consider more important a date with those Chinstrap penguins than the mission we've come here for," Skipper said severely. "They are Canadian: when this is over, go and visit them."
"But they're from Ontario!" Johnson said.
"And you're from Michigan," Skipper reminded him. "They're next to you."
"Yeah, okay... and we cross the lake swimming, fuck me!" Johnson replied.
Skipper slapped him. "I'm your superior. Watch your language in front of me."
Manfredi and Johnson looked at each other. They had to try another strategy.
"Skipper, I'm sure you understand us," Manfredi started. "In our zoo there are no females and these like us. Come on... you also were young once!"
"Are you inmplying that I'm old?" Skipper asked raising an eyebrow.
"That gesture makes you look older. But hey, I'm sure you're a supercool guy." Manfredi noticed that Johnson was covering his beak with his flipper to conceal his laughter. "Well... I'm the alternative plans guy and this plan is good: we leave now and we talk to them, we record the data, you take everything and we leave. And tomorrow we'll be on the dot here, at the break of dawn."
Skipper didn't agree with the plan, but he couldn't stand the puppy dog eyes that Manfredi was showing him. When he wanted, he could inspire pity.
"Let's go," he said.
Manfredi and Johnson high-oned.
.
Johnson was in charge of telling the two females the change of plans: Manfredi would have fucked it up. Next they looked for an air duct and sneaked inside. They arrived at an office, switched the computer on and Johnson had to make a bit of magic which, in the team, only he could make. Locating the intranet, next the folders about Greenland (with the icon in the same shape as the island) and downloading all the data was very easy, but quite slow as it was a lot of intel. They went back to the ducts and the basement, not knowing that someone had seen them.
.
Skipper woke up on Saturday morning with an odd sensation, feeling that something wasn't okay. He looked around him and saw that neither Manfredi nor Johnson had come back. There wasn't a meeting, but Skipper didn't care: they had disobeyed him. He went to the corridor furiously, stood in front of the Chinstraps' door and knocked.
"Manfredi, Johnson! Get out from there once and for all!"
The shouts made Hans lean his head out the opposite door. Right there, Skipper opened the door surprised that they hadn't used the latch and went in. There was no-one.
"You knuckleheads! When I catch you, I'm going to make a rope with your guts and I'm going to hang you from a streetlight!"
The other animals went out from the rooms where they were.
"And now, how can I find these two good-for-nothing?" Skipper complained.
"We can use my smell," Nikolay answered. "I hope I won't lose their track... they left a while ago, as far as I'm smelling."
"Could you take us?" Hans asked. "Skipper will need someone who knows the city."
Nikolay let Skipper and Hans get on his back and started to follow their track.
.
Nikolay, Skipper and Hans soon arrived at a zone having a rough contrast with what they had known about Copenhagen. Rather old gray brick buildings, full of graffiti, stone paved streets and three big stones that blocked cars from entering. Some feet beyond, a wooden gate. Skipper and Hans got off Nikolay and the three went under the gate, getting into that weird place.
Nikolay sniffed the air and pointed with his paw. "They are there, but I can't follow their track. This place smells like... another thing. If you don't mind, I'll go back to the Ministry."
Without Nikolay, Skipper started to follow Hans.
"Where are we?"
"In Freetown Christiania."
Skipper faceflippered. They had finally gone to that place. And accompanied, what was worse.
.
Skipper just needed the idea of being in a hippie city for feeling ill. And that persistent smell, unmistakable for whom had ever smelt it. He didn't know what it was.
"Breath as little as possible or you'll get high," Hans advised him.
"So it's that... yes, I was starting to get sick." Skipper looked around. "Well... what do we do now? To go and look house by house?"
"It's up to you: nine hundred people live here. Apart from that, there are also buildings that aren't houses. I'd look for an alternative," Hans suggested.
"Do you have any?"
"Of course: there aren't only humans here," Hans answered going towards a group of cats that were keeping guard at the door of a house decorated with psychodelic graffiti.
Skipper went towards him. "Where there are cats, birds cannot be alone," he thought.
"Excuse me," Hans said. "We're looking for four penguins. Do you know where they are?"
"In that house, the one with the three yellow dots," one of the cats answered.
"I see four houses with three yellow dots," Hans said.
"The one which has them on top of the door. Do you see that cat door? They went through it."
"Thank you, that's very kind of you," Hans said, seeing them off and waddling towards that house.
Skipper was gobsmacked. "Have you been talking to a lot of cats? They are predators, and you're a bird. They pluck you with their stares."
"Not these. Remember that we are in Christiania, where violence is forbidden. Animals have the same rules as humans: no violence, no weapons, no running, -"
"Running?"
"If you see someone running, it's a sign that there's a raid. It's for not spreading panic unnecesarily. Well, we've arrived. Go in."
If he had seen all that outside... what could he find inside! His military training hadn't prepared him for a situation like that.
.
Right after getting into the house, which was full of graffiti inside too and full of restored furniture, Hans and Skipper heard laughters and voices. They leaned carefully at a door which was ajar.
"I don't want to go back to the zoo! I'll stay here with you, princess!"
Skipper had recognized Johnson's voice. He pushed the door... and a blinding cloud of smoke escaped from the small room. Skipper started coughing, but that didn't stop him.
"We go back to the Ministry!" he shouted.
Opposite him, the four penguins in search and capture were laughing out loud. Manfredi was letting Rosalinde caress his head and his neck, while Johnson was touching Noelle in a quite indecorous way. Yes, they had seen that their captain was in front of them and no, they didn't care at all.
"We don't want to leave," Manfredi said. "I want to die and be buried here."
"Then I'll kill you right here," Skipper said angrily.
"Well... I don't want to die, that's just a saying," Manfredi replied, smiling nervously.
"And you, Johnson? Do you want to be buried here too?"
"Let me first taste all what life has to offer me, jealous party-pooper."
Johnson was nasty and rude even high. Skipper didn't have patience to bear that foolishness, so he grabbed him by his flipper and dragged him to the door. Johnson was in such a state that he didn't even react.
"You'll be the first in the procession," Skipper said. "So let's waddle. And they come too. We all leave!"
"This is hippie territory," Noelle said. "Here they don't do things like that."
"Where Skipper is, things are done Skipper-style." Skipper saw that Johnson opened his beak. "One more complaint and we three will go back to the United States. And let's go before I go crazy with all this stink."
Skipper grabbed Manfredi and Johnson's flippers and Hans did the same with Rosalinde and Noelle, as the four penguins were so damaged that they couldn't even waddle. Following Hans' indications, they all arrived at Christianshavn and sneaked through a manhole. At their arrival at the Ministry, Skipper made Manfredi and Johnson go into their room.
"Getting away to that hippie rookery is disobedience to a superior, and when we'll go back to Seattle I'll make a report where I'll explain in detail all what has happened today," Skipper said not taking their stare away from them.
"Can I... add a clarification?" Manfredi asked.
Skipper said nothing. He was with his flippers crossed.
"Christiania is not a rookery. It's like an independent country."
"Why do you only open your beak to say nonsense? Now we'll spend the rest of the day listening to what we got last night. Let's see if your foolishness is over."
"Relax, Skipper," Johnson said. "You know what they say: make lo-"
"Don't tell me that. Take the hub and let's go work. We'll see if I let you see those females again."
"They have stolen our hearts, hey, Johnson?" Manfredi said nudgning his cousin.
"And your lungs. I don't want to hear anymore," Skipper said approaching one of the earphones to his earhole.
.
The intel was a very big lot, but Skipper didn't manage to connect all the dots. He had been listening to everything for hours, they had spent all the day and part of the night with those recordings. Something was missing.
"Johnson..."
"Yes?"
"Did you take all the data?"
"The red and blue folders," he answered uninterested. "Why?"
Skipper crossed his flippers in front of Johnson. "How many folders were there?" he asked very seriously.
"Four, the green and yellow are left. Hey, buddy... what does it matter? If we'll go tonight again to take the rest. A bit of relax... according to Hans, there are some meetings left. There's plenty of time!"
Skipper grabbed Johnson by the neck.
"Listen to me, hippie. Two things: The first one is that I'm not your buddy, okay? I'm your superior. The second one is that missions are always executed as planned by the one in command. Is that you? No, right? Then it's clear as rain. If I said that we had to take all the intel from the computer it's that I meant all, not a half."
"But Skipper..." Manfredi intervened, "that was the only way to have enough time. There were more files than we thought, and we had a date."
Skipper stood in front of Manfredi. "They could have waited. We're here to accomplish a mission, and with your attitude of teenagers boiling with hormones you're going to ruin it."
"We're not teenagers," Manfredi corrected.
"No. I saw your files and you both are the same age as me. I don't still believe it."
"You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely," Manfredi said with a smile.
Skipper sighed resigned. "Believe it or not, this has compromised the mission. Someone might have seen us, I might have lost sight of you forever, -"
"And you'd miss us, wouldn't you?" Manfredi interrupted. "We're so nice that you get fond of us right away."
"Don't get things mixed up," Skipper blurted. "When we'll go back home, for me as if I don't see you again. But we are here for a reason: for doing our job and going home. And that's all. So let's get the rest of files, let's go to the remaining meetings... and then home. So move your bottoms."
.
Meanwhile, Hans' phone rang. He picked up apathetically.
"Are you Hans the puffin?"
"Yes, I am... why?"
"Are you leading... the Interanimal Arctic Summit?"
Hans tensed. Those meetings were secret.
"Excuse me... could you tell me who you are?"
"No. My identity and that of my people must remain secret. I'm just calling to warn you that some of the attendants at your summit are spies and we believe that they have gone for stealing classified intel from the Danish government to make leaks or extortions."
"What?"
"We don't exactly know who they are, but we have a communiqué about an impingement in a computer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Keep your eyes very open."
"But I live in the Ministry... and I can assure that nothing has happened here."
"You can see my number, can't you? Redial if you see something suspicious. At any time of day."
"Excuse me, with all due respect... I think that you're cooking up a world in your head."
"I hope so, but no. This issue is very serious. World security depends on your good sight. Besides, if you help us hunt them, we will reward you."
With no option to reply, the stranger hung up. Hans stared at the phone as if he had seen (or heard, better said) a ghost. At his own home! That could not be happening. Only the animal organizations that had sent attendants knew about those meetings, and because he had personally called to ask for them.
He decided to go out and get some fresh air. When he opened the door he saw that the three penguins from the United States were getting away through the corridor. He was seeing them again at night, swarming there, and he started to suspect them. He didn't want to think badly of them... especially Skipper had gone down well with him, but everything was so odd.
The penguins got in an air duct. Hans, very stealthily, followed them some feet behind. When they went out, he stayed crouching, paying a lot of attention.
The stranger was right.
Now that he knew that it was true, he had to act the sooner the better. He couldn't confront three penguins with military training on his own, he couldn't risk being seen and being laid a trap. He undid all the way through the ducts until arriving at the corridor and he got in his room, slamming the door. Without thinking, he redialed.