Riders of B E R K

Part 48: Unacceptable Compromises

Forty-Eight: Unacceptable compromises

The screen blanked...and then a few lines of code began to crawl across the screen...and the BERK symbol appeared. Drago gave a deep chuckle of triumph and prowled across the floor, inspecting the display on his wall of screens.

"Take me to the list of dragons and personnel," he demanded and Hiccup silently began to type, his fingers dancing across the keyboards, quietly opening a second window and entering data into the file that he needed to get through, cutting and pasting all the intel he had accrued so far. He stared at the screen for a long time. He had found his back door and knew he could wreck the system, could betray the other Riders and the dragons...

Images and biographies began to flash up...

GENERAL STOICK HADDOCK...

Drago was laughing at his victory over his foe, using the man's own treacherous son to bring him down...and Hiccup cringed inwardly at the thought. Not because he was close to his father-because the General had made that very clear-but because it had been Stoick's own stupidities and blindness that had endangered BERK.

COLONEL CRAIG 'GOBBER' GORDON...

The only face he recalled with any affection from his childhood after his Mom died, the big face smiling kindly at the lonely and ignored boy...the helping hand when he had been beaten up...the risk he took in getting him away from Security when Spitelout was torturing him... He blinked and felt sick with shame.

SERGEANT SNOTLOUT JORGENSEN...DRAGON: MONSTROUS NIGHTMARE (M)-'HOOKFANG'...

Drago was spitting commands as Hiccup quietly extracted what he needed from his system while skirting the security triggers. He guessed that Astrid, Gobber and Grimsdaal would have bolstered the system and activated every protection they had-because they knew how dangerous he could be.

They had underestimated him. They all had.

CORPORAL ERET ERETSON...DRAGON: RUMBLEHORN (M)-'SKULLCRUSHER'...

He closed his file and password protected it, then sent it to the familiar address he automatically sent all his sensitive documents to...knowing and hoping the recipient would guess the password...he used it enough. He stared at the screen and his breath stopped.

LIEUTENANT (DR) ASTRID HELENA HOFFERSON RAMC....DRAGON: DEADLY NADDER (F)-'STORMFLY'...

"I'm sorry," he murmured again, staring for a long moment at the familiar and very serious face before he made his choice. He typed furiously, found the trigger...and slapped the ENTER button. There was an acknowledgement that the message had been sent...before the screen flickered and went black. There was a pause-then all Drago's screens blanked. Alarms started to sound and Drago looked round, his cruel face suddenly shocked. The hum of the air-conditioning faded as his computerised energy management systems failed. The sounds of locks slamming to their failsafe-locked-modes resounded through the complex and Drago turned to see the young Rider sit back in his chair, staring blankly at the black screen.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" he roared.

"They have installed a system I knew nothing about," Hiccup lied quietly, recognising the Ragnarok Protocol. It would wipe Drago's systems, masking the data he had stolen and erasing records of the message he had sent out. "It was triggered when my unauthorised access to the dragon data was recognised..."

He flinched as Drago roared at him. "I told you there would be a price!" he shouted, lurching to the coms and Hiccup leapt up, lunging at the huge man, grabbing the man's powerful hand in both of his.

"No!" the young Rider shouted, his ashen face twisted with the effort. His forest green eyes glittered with desperation, staring deep into Drago's dead, black gaze as the man still reached forward despite his best efforts. "You can't maim her! Night Furies are the most accomplished fliers of all dragons...it would be too cruel to deprive her of flight..."