*** The measuring tape ***
* The palindromic tape is the toy in the box: it is the party paper ribbon, a pyramid, a yo-yo... And, especially, it is useful for measuring furniture when the metallic one doesn't appear (so it can end up disappearing too). The important thing, after all, is that it's useful for taking measures. *
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Chaos, for Manfredi and Johnson, started on Monday evening with a simple call. Skipper had already been deep inside since the previous night, when Madeleine had called. The news she had given him were disconcerting and he couldn't get them out of his head. He couldn't tell anyone either. He only knew that he had to see Madeleine as soon as he left Copenhagen and that he would have to take responsibility for what he had done. That made thinking normally impossible. He hadn't even noticed that the number was different. He simply rushed to pick up.
"Madeleine! Are you -"
"First of all, Skipper, connect the loudspeaker. This is for you three."
Skipper got disappointed when he didn't recognize the voice. He obeyed.
"Madeleine is very busy, don't even think that your holidays in Denmark are the only thing she has to supervise. For this reason I, colonel Shearer, will be in charge of the operation. It is true that it won't last much longer, but they're a lot of documents and for her it was an overload of work."
Skipper wasn't very convinced, and of course he wasn't calm at all.
"And how is she?" he asked.
"Quite busy. I'll tell her to call you when she has time."
It was obvious that he couldn't ask about the egg.
"Let's focus on the mission," Shearer said. "According to the information I have here, you got access to a computer in the Ministry of Interior and Health."
"That's right," Johnson said, pleased to talk about his job. "I transfer the data to a flash drive and from them to a hub designed by myself that has two sets of earphones connected."
"That really interests me," Shearer said. "Go on."
"I also took information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I had to do two attempts because they were a lot of data and folders, but we have it all."
"I know. And the meetings?"
"We've had three for now and I've recorded them all."
"Excellent." Shearer made a pause, looking for something. "Well, here it is. According to Madeleine's reports, at the first meeting someone talked about a demilitarized scientific sanctuary."
"That was me, colonel," Johnson said proudly.
"Madeleine commented us the idea that day and it sounded okay. Have you talked about it again?"
"Yes, at the two other meetings. Everybody agrees that it's a great idea, and it's not because I said it... but you must recognize that -"
"Don't flatter yourself, Johnson."
"Got it."
Skipper was gobsmacked at Johnson. He was ill-mannered, rebellious, licentious... but, as soon as someone got him started with his tasks, he became a docile little lamb.
"The problem with that idea is that animals and humans... don't communicate between us. They don't understand our language and we don't understand their writing, and it's impossible that way. Johnson, I'd like you to do something that can convert what you have recorded to written text. Can you do it?"
"Of course. My hub does the inverse task, so it won't be very difficult. I'll see what I can do."
.
Shearer hung up. Next to him, another penguin had listened to the conversation.
"From colonel to colonel, you've done a bitching task. When the geezer dies and I'm a general, I'll make it up for you to be my successor. I won't be for a long time... I have a very concrete programme and I won't need much time to accomplish it."
"How many points does that programme have?" Shearer asked.
"One: to eliminate all the conflicting elements, the ones who think that we're here for changing the world."
Both laughed.
"Are you thinking of anybody in particular?" Shearer asked.
"Apart from Skipper?" the other asked with a malicious smile. "Anyone who may be with him. Especially that wacko that vomits weapons. But well, I don't like anyone in his team."
"And what do you think about the two new recruits?" Shearer asked with their files in his flipper.
"We must keep Johnson on a very short leash, and if he gets stubborn about something he can be worse than Skipper. Keep him entertained, while he has things to do he won't give you problems."
"And his cousin?"
"Bah, he's just a filler."
Both stayed silent for a moment.
"I forgot it, Shearer," the other colonel said. "How were things with Hans?"
"Ah, yeah... At the beginning he didn't believe me, but he caught them red-flippered and called me right away. As I have understood, he's very idealistic... but everybody has a price."
"I like how you think, Shearer. I knew I could trust you. By the way... give Hans time but, as soon as Skipper asks you for help, provide it too. Let him think at all times that we are on his side. Even if he asks you to go back home, bring them back."
Shearer stayed alone and called Hans again. He had an interesting offer for him.
.
To lodge in a warehouse had its advantages: there were a lot of boxes full of things that nobody would miss. The three started to search directed by Johnson: paper and a pencil for making the blueprint for the invention, wires and something able to write. They found a labeler: Johnson tested it for writing something randomly, just a series of letters, and he dismissed it due to its slowness. They also found typewriters; Johnson thought about putting a circuit inside, but he should find it (disassembling some electronic device for that) and he thought that he would have to make a lot of modifications in order to do it. If at least they had been electronic...
And then he saw them: in an open box there were a lot of rolls of thermal paper. And he had a great idea: to connect his hub to a payment terminal and print on the paper rolls. He commented Skipper the idea, who at that moment had prepared his coffee with a sardine, his style.
"A payment terminal?" Skipper asked incredulously. "You cannot use all that junk that you've taken from those boxes?"
"Are you calling a Remington junk? Unbelievable. You don't know how wonderful these machines are."
"If they're not weapons, I don't know and I don't care," Skipper replied taking a sip of his coffee.
"Everything is a weapon if you throw it strongly enough," Manfredi said.
"Even you," Skipper replied to him. "Let's see, Johnson... what do you exactly need?"
"What I've said: a payment terminal... and some wires too. A USB receiver, two jack wires and -"
"A computer store, right?" Skipper asked. "Let's go."
"Me too?" an unknown voice asked.
Skipper and Johnson turned around and saw Manfredi in a not very adequate condition for going on a mission. He had been searching in the boxes too and had found a make-up set that, of course, he had applied on himself. If that weren't enough, he had found a helium balloons air pump and, knowing exactly what it was, he had inhaled part of its contents.
"This is a birthday venue!" he shouted with a smurf voice, and then he tottered and fell backwards.
The two most sensible members of the team switched the light off and went shopping at night shift hoping that Manfredi didn't make a complete mess.
.
Hans was in the opposite room and heard the door when it closed. He counted until twenty and leaned out: the penguins were already turning the corner. Hoping they wouldn't regret about whatever they were doing, he headed towards their door with the master key for the basement. He didn't expect to find it open.
Maybe one of them had stayed. Too beautiful to be true.
He heard a snore. There was an opportunity! He went back to his room and took a flashlight: he would be careful not to wake up the sleeping guardian. He opened the door very carefully and sneaked in trying to make as little noise as possible.
Inside it looked like there had been a fight. Disorder was enormous and Hans would have to fully devote himself to that. With the flashlight in his beak he revised the inside of the open boxes, he lifted them to see if what he was looking for was below. In a corner he saw the baggage that the penguins were carrying with them when he took them from the airport; then he had recognized them as fanny packs that he had seen worn by many human tourists. He revised them.
There was the flash drive.
Hans was about to leave when he noticed that he was being observed by... someone who looked like a female puffin by her beak's colors, but a female penguin by her shape. Manfredi had so much paint on him that Hans didn't recognize him. He wasn't either in a position to understand why Hans was there: helium had gone to his head. Totally.
"Helloooooooooooo!" he shouted effusively, hugging Hans.
Hans was trying to get loose, but Manfredi had a lot of physical strength. While he was flapping, he was trying to identify such a high-pitched voice.
"Who are you?" he asked.
Manfredi blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "I'm the captain's sister." Said with a theatrical tone, but under the effects of helium, it sounded indescribably hilarious.
Hans was perplexed. When had Skipper taken relatives to Denmark? Thinking about that, he was surprised by a painted beak colliding with his. That female penguin... was kissing him? And why was he letting himself be?
Manfredi freed Hans and burst laughing. Hans was incredibly blushed under his feathers.
"Euhm... well... I'm leaving. We'll stay just friends, okay?" he said fleeing from the room like a bat out of hell.
At the exact moment when the door closed, Manfredi fell backwards. His bird brain couldn't take it anymore.
.
The next day there was another Summit meeting. It had already become a pointless discussion and some attendants had already gone home, but the penguins had to record all what happened there to convince humans that they had better plans for the Arctic than the most savage plundering. Brainstorming, acceptance, refutation, dismissal. Manfredi loved using his imagination and he didn't stop suggesting things (usually very bad ideas), Johnson was pleased to see his proposal moving forward... and Skipper wondered why he was joining group dynamics instead of dancing with danger.
Hans felt uncomfortable too. He, who wanted to work in politics and to change a world which lived turning its back to its fauna, was suddenly up to his neck in a spies game. He had accepted an assignment from an anonymous voice after having seen with his own eyes that the penguins were doing secretly certain things. Now he knew everything and he couldn't trust them. But they were his guests. He admired Skipper, he wanted Johnson's idea to become true and, about Manfredi... why did he feel so uncomfortable every time he looked at him?
That was a big contradiction: if those three spies wanted to steal classified intel from the Danish government, why were they collaborating at the Summit? What sense did it make? Was all that a smokescreen... or was that intel really necessary for the cause?
But maybe the worst thing was that he had accepted a cash reward. He could think that he had acted in the name of animals and against the interests of the greedy humans, but he had accepted what humans accepted at the slightest chance. He had accepted sinecure. That was called bribery, and morally it was really questionable. Even if he didn't keep the money.
But it was already done. The flash drive was at the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs next to the photos of Skipper, Manfredi and Johnson.
.
In the early evening, while Johnson was working at his invention and Manfredi was trying to cheat on Skipper at chess, the phone rang.
"Good evening, colo-"
"Connect the loudspeaker, Skipper. What I have to tell you is very urgent."
Skipper connected the loudspeaker. The three penguins were waiting with their flippers crossed.
"The mission has failed. You must leave Denmark."
The three penguins looked at each other understanding nothing.
"Wait..." Skipper said. "How has it failed? We aren't done here, there are still meetings and we have to take the intel."
"You are in the news. In Denmark, here, everywhere."
"But... why?" Manfredi asked.
"This is what has been said today at the news preview, I've recorded it from TV. Listen."
They heard a tape rewinding. Then, they heard a feminine voice.
"Shocking breaking news in Denmark! Today, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received an anonymous parcel with a flash drive and the three photographs that we are showing on screen. As you all can see, they are three penguins. The birds' identities are unknown, as well as what they have to do with the device, though some neighbors of Christiania claim they have recently seen penguins on the neighborhood streets."
Shearer had stopped the recording at that point.
"Can you explain what you were doing in the hippie zone?"
Manfredi and Johnson answered with filler words.
"We got lost," Skipper said.
Manfredi and Johnson breathed relieved. Skipper had decided not to report them because he didn't trust Shearer, who restarted the recording.
"The contents in the flash drive have been analyzed. Inside there were folders copied on three different days from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior and Health. These ministries haven't detailed this discovery, so it's still not known if the leak was done from inside or outside these ministries."
When the recording ended, they all stayed silent. Nobody knew what to say. Johnson had started to search the baggage looking for a flash drive that, obviously, wasn't there anymore. Skipper was trying to think what to do, they had to move fast. Manfredi didn't remember anything about what had happened and he didn't worry about the others' issues anyway.
"We'll have to take you out of there," Shearer said. "A helicopter, if we start to prepare it now, it'll take a bit more than 48 hours to arrive. Be ready then."