All right :) I'll have some more up soon, but this is the last one of this story for now. MORE TO COME! ^.~

Kowalski's blood turns to ice as he turns around to face the source of the voice.

His eyes are squeezed shut, and he slowly opens them to see the face of none other than the spy from the photo, aiming a gun at his face. Sure, he has gotten older. His hair is now a salt-and-pepper shade of silver, and his face is now adorned by a thick scar over his right eye, but it is still, unmistakably, Special Agent Nigel Tux.

The scientist tries to say something intelligent, but his brain refuses to function in the presence of a weapon aimed toward him. Instead, he slowly raises his shaking hands and puts them behind his head.
"I… I… I just… I mean, you…"

"Stand down, soldier. State your name and intention." Nigel secures the pistol and hides it in his belt.
"I'm willing to listen to your motives before I shoot you."

Kowalski notices his eyes flicker to his right arm for no apparent reason. It is covered by the long sleeve of his shirt.
Kowalski quickly wonders whether or not to introduce himself as a Penguin. His mind quickly runs calculations probability and chance.
If he really were still a Penguin (and he isn't, is he?) he would probably not introduce himself in this way normally.
But he had just read Nigel's file.
But Nigel doesn't know that. Does he?

"First Lieutenant Jan Kowalski , 8-6-0-niner-bravo-alpha-mega-niner, reporting, sir!" He straightens up and salutes smartly, hoping that this might win him enough time to think of a good alibi.

"Very nice, thank you, lieutenant." The man nods politely. "And your intentions?"

"Agent Tux, sir, I was just…" Kowalski thinks frantically.

"I would advise that you tell me the truth, Lieutenant Kowalski, or I will first shoot you and then turn you in. I'm sure that your skipper would be more than glad to know that someone was digging through his files."
His voice never loses its even tone. He might as well have been asking Kowalski to pass the tea and biscuits.

"I…" Kowalski swallows hard. How can he say this? Nothing. No words come. Not a single sound.

He notices Nigel reach up with his left hand to press two fingers to his right arm. A seemingly innocuous gesture, yet Kowalski knows it very well. It was the signal of the animal divisions before they were officially disbanded. Before he has time to think it through, Kowalski mirrors him.
Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!

Nigel nods, and Kowalski notices something soften in the hard lines of his face.
"Not here." He gathers up the papers that Kowalski has dropped with a single, swift move, and puts them back into the file cabinet, locking it to make all as was before.

"Follow me." Nigel motions with his head, walking out of the room, Kowalski in tow. They descend into rooms inaccessible even to Kowalski on a daily basis.
The scientist begins to count the floors. That's five-minus, six-minus, seven-minus. He himself only has access down to eight, so it is with some surprise that he sees Nigel continue downwards.
Ten-minus. Eleven-minus. Twelve- minus.

Kowalski's heart is beating like a hammer at this point. He had only been on level twelve-minus once before. It's filled with the failed experiments, those gone wrong. Not people, no. If something goes wrong enough to qualify a human subject for level twelve… there could be no chance that the subject would survive long enough for Kowalski to even think 'level twelve-minus.'

Nigel, on the other hand, doesn't look like stopping. He turns around toward a seemingly blank wall and presses his palm against it. Immediately, a green light runs down his palm and a hidden hatch springs open, revealing another staircase leading into the bowels of the city.
Level thirteen-minus. Kowalski had always thought it to be a legend- and yet, there they are.

Nigel leads him through the narrow, dark corridors (so very different from the clinically-lit upper floors) and into a small office.
Everything is rather generic, but there is a bulletin board with what Kowalski discerns to be photos of past disguises on one wall, and the British flag stands on the desk proudly.

"Sit." Nigel offers him a chair, himself taking a seat behind the desk.
"Now, Lieutenant Kowalski. Please explain to me what you were doing in your commanding officer's office, pardon the pun, at a ridiculous hour of the morning, during his absence?"

"…I…" Kowalski sighs, resigned to telling the truth. "Have you heard of experiments Memory One and Memory Two?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact- I have. Which doesn't explain why you were looking at my file. How could you have known I was being sent here? I only found out ten minutes before the flight from the LIME in London."

"I… I didn't, sir."

"Is it a coincidence, then, that you were looking through a file with my surname clearly printed on it?"

"Sir… I was looking for experiments Memory One and Two. They share your surname, as you well know."

For the first time that day, Nigel doesn't look unruffled. Quite the opposite. The pencil that he had picked up and began to spin snapped in half with a resounding CRACK.
"Say that again."

"W-well, sir, Experiments Memory One and Two…"

"Say that AGAIN! If you are lying, I will kill you without hesitation." Nigel leans forward with a dangerous glint in his eye.
"What are their names."

"C-Caroline and Jackson Tux, sir."
Kowalski stares at Nigel uncomprehendingly. He had assumed that Nigel himself had commissioned…

Nigel shouts a word that Kowalski will later edit out of his memory of this happening.
"Skipper, the blasted idiot! When I told him to choose two test subjects…" he murmurs something incomprehensible.
"What about their mother. Is she alive."

"I- I don't…"

"IS SHE ALIVE?!"

"I don't know, sir, Skipper…"

"I don't care what Skipper did or didn't do! I want this experiment terminated immediately."

"Agent Nigel, sir…"

"IMMEDIATELY!"

"…'S a little late for that." A drawl comes from the door. Kowalski freezes, not daring to turn around. It can only be Skipper.
"Nigel, old man, I always knew that you'd betray us again."

"You broke up my family." Nigel spits.

"Now we're even, aren't we? And Kowalski, you idiot. You really think I don't have someone I trust on top of technology?"

"I…" Kowalski swallows hard. He didn't mean to get caught like this.

"I knew you were conspiring with that goody-goody Marlene all along. Now let me tell you what's gonna happen. I sent Retrieval after One and Two. They will comb the entire city. No discreet searches like you were pretending to conduct."

"I was conducting searches…" Kowalski defends himself weakly.

He hears the click of a gun being cocked. "Not another word out of you, traitor!" Skipper barks at the scientist. "You were my right-hand man!"

"And you were mine." Nigel says calmly. Kowalski notices him reaching toward his belt with the pistol. Unfortunately, so does Skipper.

"Nice try, Special Agent Tux. I know all your tricks. Try something, and I'll shoot him." Nigel freezes, and his arms drop to his side.

"Skipper, I trusted you."

"I know. Now, both of you. Question number one: what do you think happened to Manfredi and Johnson? And question two: who do you think disappears next?"

"Us, I would assume." Nigel is still hidden behind his impassive mask. With a sudden move, he snaps his fingers, and the desk shoots forward to pin Skipper to the wall. His gun clatters to the floor.

"Not all my tricks, Skipper. Now, here is what I can tell you. This desk is reinforced titanium and pinned to the wall by an electromagnet so strong, it would crush you like a sheet of paper had I not so profiled the desk as to give you room to breathe. You will let my sister's children go, or I will shoot you with your own gun. And you will then disappear. Or die, whichever you prefer. Is that clear?"

Nigel is met with condescending, insane laughter from Skipper.
"You can kill me, but in under an hour, my men will have searched all of New York and brought both children back. Then, they will kill you both, and Marlene and Rico to boot. Good luck, Special Agent Tux. And thank you, Kowalski, for making this possible."

What do you think...?