Wolf strode into the main tent, where the rest of his team, minus one, was lazing around a truly staggering mess. They all looked up at him as he approached.
"All right," Wolf said softly. His voice was low and deadly as he surveyed the mess. "Where's Eagle, and who gave him sugar?"
"It was my birthday party!" Fox defended himself. "We couldn't not give him cake!"
"You gave him cake?" Wolf exploded. "Now we'll never find him!"
"That's until we get a call from the Russian Embassy," Fox whispered to Alex. "Or maybe he'll end up in Atlantis."
"Where should we look?" Snake inquired of Wolf. Wolf heaved a gusty sigh.
"You start with the immediate area. Take Cub with you. Fox, check the training unit. I'll search the camp."
"How far could he have gotten already?" Fox raised an eyebrow. Wolf gave him a look.
"With Eagle, there's no telling. With Eagle hyped on cake, he could be on the moon now for all I know."
Everyone scattered.
"Eagle's on a sugar rush," Snake explained to Alex as they searched. "But you know how it is with sugar rushes- eventually, they become crashes."
"So Eagle's going to crash?" Alex asked, peering over a bush.
"Hopefully not literally," Snake grimaced. Alex winced.
None of the K-unit trainees had seen Eagle. Fox looked up trees, hollered "Eaaaa-gle!" until his throat was raw, and swore in five different languages under his breath. Eagle was definitively AWOL.
Some birthday this was turning out to be.
Wolf kicked open the tent flap, making mental notes on how to punish Eagle when they finally found him. Eagle's bedroll was empty. Wolf's bedroll, thankfully, was Eagle-free. So were Cub's, Snake's, Fox's, and-
Wolf's breath caught in his throat.
Eagle was lying curled up in a far corner of the tent. He hadn't even bothered to get under his blanket, choosing instead to lie upon half of it and drape the other half around his neck like a boa for reasons best known to him.
Wolf stared.
Eagle didn't stir.
Wolf briefly considered waking Eagle with a bucket of icy water, but decided to nix that idea. After all, as long as Eagle was asleep, he wasn't being so insuppressibly Eagle. Also, better to let him sleep off his sugar rush than wake him up and deal with a partly-awake, still-drowsy, half-sugar-crazed Eagle who was usually not at his best when abruptly roused.
"You're lucky I'm in a good mood," Wolf muttered as he left his sleeping teammate and exited the tent.
"Couldn't find him anywhere," Fox reported as he jogged back into the main tent. "He's definitely AWOL."
"Ditto," Alex added. "Though we did find a chipmunk."
"I found him," Wolf muttered. The others turned quickly on him.
"Where?" Snake asked interestedly.
Wolf chewed his tongue. "Ahh... he's... erhmrhm... he's fine."
"In Atlantis?" Fox chimed in. Wolf gave him a look.
"That's where I'll send you if you don't shut up, Fox. Now get back, all of you, and clean the place up."