In The Archipelago's Secret Service

9: Suddenly Popular

Chapter Nine: Suddenly popular

The ambulance pulled away, the blue light flashing and siren whining as it accelerated. Hiccup watched his father vanish and hoped he would be safe: whoever had destroyed AI6 had wanted to kill everyone in there...and the Commander had to be the number one target. Then he glanced around: technically, they were all targets now...though Gods knew why anyone would target him. He was anonymous and technically useless.

The twins were grumbling and Astrid stood at his side as he stared until the ambulance vanished amid the traffic. "What the Commander said was very harsh," she tried, hoping to reassure him...but he shook his head.

"No, he's right...I'm just useless," he sighed, his shoulders sagging and for a long moment, Astrid looked at him. In the shattered restaurant while they were trapped and in mortal peril, there had been a different Hiccup there-a calm, quick-thinking, decisive man who had gotten them out of that little hole and saved their lives. And, looking around, they were about the only people who had escaped the building, save the Command staff that Hiccup had isolated and the guards stationed on the front door..

"STAND BACK!" the lead Fire and Rescue officer shouted and there was a rumble. The others spun and glanced back in shock as the remains of the building began to crumble...and then collapsed into a huge pile of rubble, a wall of dust rolling across them. Hiccup ducked, looked away and covered his face but the twins whooped and jumped...and then started coughing and hacking as they inhaled huge lungfuls of dust.

"Well, there goes AI6," Astrid commented, glancing up. "And my job."

"All our jobs," Hiccup sighed, brushing the thick grey dust off his tousled hair.

"WHAT THE THOR IS HAPPENING HERE?" a voice shouted and Hiccup groaned.

"And that happened," he muttered as a tall, buff man walked up, his dark hair slicked off his handsome face, dark eyes flashing with anger. Heather walked beside him, clutching a small brown paper bag from the premier bakery in Berk- 'Bread-Making Vikings'. She stared at the rubble and her grey-green eyes widened.

"What's been going on?" she mouthed.

"Well, it looks like AI6 has just collapsed," Hiccup commented dryly, turning to face them. The tall, buff man-VA49, Theo 'Thuggory' Mattson-glared at him.

"Was it you?" he demanded.

"Ouch," Tuff commented. "That burns!"

"No!" Hiccup snapped.

"Well, you blew up Q Department yesterday..." Heather accused him and he turned to her, his fists bunched.

"Oh great," he snarked. "I destroy my desk because THE TWINS mess with an experimental augmented purse I was developing for field use...astonishing that, what with Q department being the Quartermaster's Department...and suddenly you're accusing me of blowing up the whole frickin' HQ? Unbelievable!"

"Well, your reputation precedes you," Heather retorted, her face cold.

"Ever get in contact with Eret?" Hiccup shot back.

"Incommunicado," she replied superiorly.

"So...no..." he translated. "What were you doing out anyway? You were supposed to be in the Heads of Department Meeting!" She gaped and glared at him.

"And how the Helheim do you know about that VA 1019?" she sneered.

"Oh, drop the dragon dung, Heather," Hiccup sighed in a suddenly-defeated voice. "Everyone knows it's Heads of Department Meeting 1pm on Wednesdays!"

"Um...I didn't," Tuff put in.

"Nor me," Astrid commented.

"Wait-it's Wednesday?" Ruff asked in shock.