In The Archipelago's Secret Service

11: Targets

Eleven: Targets

The window shattered...followed by the flatscreen. Three more high powered rifle shots hit the wall above their heads and everyone hit the floor...

...except Fishlegs, who sat motionless in his chair, staring dumbly at the shattered screen, his jaw hanging slack. Hiccup glanced up at the husky man...then reached up, grabbed the back of the chair and pulled it backwards so Fishlegs slammed back onto the floor.

"Ow!" He reached for his head, wincing and rubbing the point where it had cracked against the floor. "Why did you do that?" he added in a hurt voice.

"He could see you through the window...and if he could see you, he could put a bullet through your skull!" Astrid snapped. Hiccup belly-crawled to the table, snatched Fishlegs's computer and keyboard off the table and shoved them into his arms, then grabbed the pistol from its holster. As an afterthought, he grabbed his own computer and cable and stuffed them into his bag, sagging where it had been dumped.

"Get to the shower room," he said in a low voice. "The window opens over a fire escape. You go down there to the back alley and escape."

"That'll be the first place they look!" Astrid argued.

"No, the first place they'll look is the front door which is the only other way out of the building and opens onto the main street where they're shooting from!" Hiccup replied tightly. He crawled to the main window, keeping below the level of the windowsill. "I'll cover you!"

"How?" Astrid asked as another two rounds zinged into the room. Hiccup's emerald gaze focussed on the remains of the flatscreen, focussing on the faint reflections of what was happening below. He gave a small smile, lifting his left hand abruptly and firing over the windowsill, his eyes locked on the screen. He adjusted his aim and fired again, seeing the shape with the rifle duck back into the strip joint as the wood an inch from his head exploded from Hiccup's shots. He glanced at the others.

"What are you waiting for? Go!" he urged them, seeing Astrid stare at him in concern for a long moment. The twins were already crawling for the shower room...then crawling back, grabbing the frozen Fishlegs and crawling along, hauling the big man behind him. "Go," he mouthed gently then turned his gaze back to the reflection and saw the assassin duck out again. He swiftly lifted his hand up and snapped off a couple more shots as Astrid crawled swiftly through to the still slightly clammy shower room and found the twins wrestling the window open. Then they stared.

"That fire escape is a good eight feet below us!" Ruff protested. "We'll break our necks..."

"Oh, get out of my way!" Astrid sighed and clambered up, feeling the blast of cold air hit her legs, reminding her that she was in Hiccup's training shorts...and though they reached her knees, they were hardly designed for a brisk Berkian day. She squeezed through, looked down and sighed. "Wimps," she muttered as she launched, her lithe form extending and trainers hitting the metal of the fire escape a second later, knees bending to absorb the impact. She looked up...to meet Tuff's admiring face.

"Sweet moves, Astrid!" he said.

"Get down here!" she snapped, feeling goosebumps prickle on her legs and arms.

"But it's a long way..."

"NOW!"

In the main living area, Hiccup was ducked down and watching the opponent in the reflection. The outline was buff, poised and very professional...and the man was adjusting his aim. In a flash, Hiccup realised the single brick skin underlying the soft sandstone cladding of his building really wouldn't keep out the kind of high powered ordnance the man was using. He urgently rolled sideways-as three heavy hits reverberated through the wall and the fourth punched a hole in the wall under the window just where he had been lying.