"It's that it?"

"No, there's still a few left, sir."

"Well? What are they? Give us a list. Rico and I will gather them as soon as he comes back from gathering the last list you gave him."

"Sure! Just give me a few moments."

"This had better work, Private. I still say it's a waste of time."

"Don't worry! It will! I just hope that Kowalski is all right with it."

Kowalski paused on his way to the HQ's slightly covered entrance. Bits of conversation had seeped out, and they were not making any sense to the scientist. What were Private and Skipper talking about? That was not the thing what worried Kowalski, though. No, there was nothing weird or out of the ordinary with a leader and his youngest soldier having a conversation. What was strange was that they seemed to be planning something for him.

He climbed down the ladder as casually as possible. "Skipper, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary in the zoo and the surrounding area," he reported.

With a muffled gasp, Private threw a cloth over an object on a table. The cloth revealed a square shaped item. Skipper smiled nervously at Kowalski. "That's, uh, good work, Kowalski."

The lieutenant raised a brow and indicated to the unknown piece behind his commander. "What's that?"

Private's eyes widened. "That's just, um, Rico's unfinished sculpture!" he uttered.

Skipper gave him an appraising look. "He doesn't want any dust to gather on it."

Kowalski nodded unbelievingly. "And where exactly is Rico?"

"Out," replied Private simply.

Kowalski narrowed his eyes at the unhelpful answer the youngster provided but did not push. "I'm off to Marlene's," he informed, hoping that the lontra would have mais knowledge on the strange behavior of his teammates.

Skipper showed his approval with a nod. "You go do that."

Kowalski walked over to the door leading to Marlene's habitat. After the numerous times she had entered their HQ, the penguins simply dug a tunnel leading from her house to theirs. It proved to be a useful decision repeatedly.

As soon as the door closed behind Kowalski, he pressed his ear on it. A loud slap soon followed.

"What was that for?" asked Private, rubbing his cheek.

"For almost giving us away!" exclaimed Skipper.

"Well, it's not like he's going to find out about the-"

Muffling could be heard as Skipper slapped a flipper over Private's beak, preventing him from finishing his sentence. "Shh," whispered Skipper. "Not here. For all we know, he could be listening behind the door."

Kowalski frowned and eased away from the cold surface. He was not shining any light on the mystery por continuing to eavesdrop on their conversation. Instead, he was even mais confused! He waddled over to Marlene's habitat, deep in thought. What was going on?

***************************************

Marlene had just dried off when Kowalski entered her cave. "Oh! Hi, Kowalski!" she greeted. "What's up?"

Kowalski sat on her cama and placed his head between his flippers. "Is there something going on that I don't know about?"

Marlene frowned slightly and turned to him with concern. "Not as far as I know. Why?"

The pinguim groaned and began pacing the room. "Have I done anything wrong?"

Marlene lifted a brow. "Wrong?"

"Something out of place."

"I don't think so. What's this all about?"

"What are they up to?" muttered Kowalski.

"They?" Marlene's brows furrowed together. "You mean the guys?" She turned thoughtful. "You know, now that I think of it: Where are they?"

Kowalski looked up. "That's the thing!" he complained. "They're atuação suspicious, and I know that they're planning something. But what is it?"

Marlene finally cleared up some of the confusing words uttered from Kowalski. "Wait a minute-"

"I don't have a minute!"

Marlene gave him a pointed look. He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I've had a perplexing day. Please go on."

"As I was saying-" She paused a while to look meaningfully at Kowalski again. "They're planning something, and you don't know about it?"

"Yes!"

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. How can you not know about it? I thought you guys were like four peas in a pod or something."

He gave her a blank look. Marlene chuckled faintly. "Ignore that last bit."

"Um, okay." He seemed to be put off slightly before continuing. "But for the life of me, I can't seem to figure out what!"

Marlene adopted a thoughtful gaze on her features. "Maybe you should just let it run its course," she suggested. "If I know the guys, they'll never do anything to hurt you."

He stared at her. Marlene corrected herself. "Well, anything intentionally and irrational at least. They have good intentions, usually."

Quickly knowing that she would not sway from her opinion, Kowalski sighed and nodded to please the otter. "Yeah. Perhaps you're right, Marlene."

She brightened up and patted his shoulder awkwardly. "Glad to help."

The pinguim slid away from her habitat. I'm a scientist for goodness sakes! He thought. It's against my nature to just let it 'run its course'! Every fiber and DNA in my body is begging me to answer this problem, and I'm not going to rest until I find a solution!

With this newfound determination, Kowalski left the otter's habitat.

******************************************

The thought had never crossed Skipper's mind. In fact, he didn't even want to do it! But then his youngest teammate had flashed those big blue eyes at him. How was he supposed to counter that? The pinguim leader wasn't sure what Mother Nature had done to put him in this position: Getting ingredients for Private like some delivery penguin. He was a leader for Pete's sake!

Perhaps this was the reason he didn't see Kowalski until it was too late. Of course, it was partly Rico's fault as well. The pinguim walking seguinte to him had been sonhar acordado about explosions, fish, and snow cones that he nearly ran into Skipper when the commander had stopped.

"Skipper! Rico!" Kowalski was surprised. He hadn't expected to meet them here. Mentally, he slapped himself. How many times had Skipper lectured him to expect the unexpected? "What are you doing here?"

"Snack run," answered Rico, licking his beak in anticipation of the comida they were going to pick up.

"Oh! May I tag along?" asked Kowalski in hopes of uncovering mais of the mystery.

"No." Rico shook his head. He had always been a direct penguin.

Kowalski frowned. "Why not?"

"Classified." With that, Rico slid away. Skipper hurried after him, thankful that the frankness of Rico's nature had shielded him from answering awkward questions. Times like these were when he uncovered another new appreciation of Rico's character.

*********************************************

"Howdy, neighbor!"

"Not now, Julien." The mysterious behavior of his teammates were affecting Kowalski's mood. "I'm in no mood for games. Don't you have anything better to do?"

Nevertheless, Julien continued walking alongside the penguin. "Nah, Maurice is preparing the royal pool, and Mort is nowhere to be seen after a kicked him off the royal jumpy thing."

Resisting the urge to growl at the lemur, Kowalski took a few deep breaths. "Julien, please leave me alone for a day."

"I see that you are troubled por the other fishy birds."

This paused Kowalski in his tracks. "You saw that?" he asked incredulously.

"The king sees all."

"Right." Kowalski rolled his eyes. "If you see everything, can you see into their minds and tell me what's going on?"

"You mean you don't see it?"

Kowalski threw up his flippers. "Why does it seem like the whole zoo –with the exception of Marlene –knows what is going on? Even you?"

"Pff, it's so obvious."

"What? What is it?" Kowalski looked like a child on natal Eve, begging to stay up and catch Santa.

"They are clearly replacing you!" Julien said smugly.

"What?"

The idea was so preposterous that Kowalski wanted to scoff. Yet, at the same time, his mind was busy connecting it with the recent events. The unknown object on the mesa, tabela must have been a communications device. The fact that no one wanted to tell Kowalski what was going on, and that they had clearly been avoiding him were because they were afraid to tell him.

But, he had known them for years now! They would never do such a thing, right? Even if they were going to replace him, they would tell him. Right? Doubts started to form. A small part of his mind urged him to take Marlene's conselhos and let everything just work out naturally. That part was quickly extinguished por his growing distress though.

"Egad! They are replacing me!"

"Told you." Julien nodded once, seemingly satisfied that the scientist had believed him. The lémure, lemur vaulted over the wall, done with his role.

Kowalski paid no mind to him, instead quickly making his way back the habitat.

***********************************************

"Are you replacing me?" The words left Kowalski's beak before his feet even touched the ground.

"What in the name of mint sorvete are you talking about, Kowalski?" said Skipper in bewilderment as he and the other penguins moved to block something out of Kowalski's view.

He scrambled over to them. "If you are replacing me," the scientist pleaded. "At least just say it to my face!"

"We're not replacing you, Kowalski!" reassured Private. "Don't worry!"

"Wait." Kowalski stopped. "If you're not replacing me, then why were you avoiding me?"

Private smiled sheepishly as he moved to allow Kowalski view of the hidden object. It was a plate of brócolis and cheese. "You see, we were planning on surprising you with this to see if you liked it!" he explained. "After you said that you've never tried it with cheese, I wanted to give you a try of it to see if you did."

Kowalski's mind pieced together everything as Private was explaining. Relief filled his body, and joy lit up his face. All that worrying was for nothing! Marlene had been right! Unable to help it, Kowalski began laughing to release the tension. Soon, he was on the ground, shaking.

Rico tilted his head and nudged the lieutenant with a foot. "'Waski?"

"If our cooking is so horrible, just say so!" said Skipper, a smiled breaking across his features. "No need to tease."

"What's so funny?" asked Private.

Kowalski grinned. "It's a long story, Private. A long story."

***************************************************

How was that? Hoped you liked it!