Trouble in the Pipeline Read Online Free PDF Page A

the ground and rolling away as a burst of fire marched between them. The chopper overshot, and they sprang the last few yards to the cover of the fishing boat.
    Catching their breath, they peered around the craft to see what was happening. The choppers must have been talking to one another by radio. The machine gun was silent as the chopper hovered nearby. The other two were hovering out of firing range.
    Suddenly the copter on the attack flashed toward the sod hut. Frank and Joe saw Virgil running around to the back of the house with a fishing spear in his hand. The attack chopper was stalking him.
    Keeping the house between himself and the enemy above, Virgil was playing a cat-and-mouse game with the machine gunner. He ran, luring the chopper this way and that. Then he'd duck inside or leap through a window just as the gunner must have thought he had a clear shot. Once Virgil disappeared, the pilot had to guess where he'd jump out next and maneuver the helicopter into position.
    Virgil burst through a window and rolled across the ground with a spear.
    The chopper was caught out of position, and Virgil jumped up and ran to its blind side. In a split second he snapped the spear forward. The razor-sharp projectile left his hand with the force of a missile and pierced the fiberglass housing on the chopper's engine, burying itself in the gearbox.
    At first it seemed as if the blow had had no effect on the hovering craft. The gunner continued blasting the sides and roof of the hut as Virgil dived around it for cover. Then the chopper began spinning in an erratic bobbing and weaving pattern. It limped off a safe distance and landed.
    But as soon as it moved off another copter started toward them. "Let's run for the hut," Joe suggested.
    "Too chancy," Frank replied. "They know we aren't armed, so they won't be cautious."
    Suddenly Virgil burst out of his house, zigzagging toward his dogs. He ran by each one and unhooked it from its tether. The new chopper didn't pay much attention. It hovered in front of the fishing boat as Virgil sprinted back to the house.
    "We've got to think of something," Joe said. "They'll pick us off like fish in a barrel." He ducked back behind the boat, knocking his head on a large wooden box mounted in the bow of the boat. The lid fell open, and a jumble of marine equipment burst out — lines, nets, a can of engine oil, and a flare gun with flares.
    "Is this what I think it is?" Joe asked, showing it to Frank.
    "Uh-huh. Does it work?"
    "We'll soon find out."
    Joe peered over the edge of the boat. The chopper's pilot and passenger were on the ground now, moving toward the sod hut. Only the passenger had a gun, and he was obviously more concerned with Virgil and his possible stash of weapons than with the boys.
    Taking aim, Joe launched a flare into the open door of the sitting chopper. It exploded inside the enclosed space like a bomb. Blinding light and thick smoke came belching out. The two men whirled around at the sneak attack and began to back away, pointing their weapons first at the house, then at the boat.
    The last chopper played it safe. Since it was the only bird able to fly, its pilot put down at a safe distance. The one crew member jumped out and went running to help his friends. As he was crossing the open space Virgil shouted something from the door of the hut.
    His sled dogs suddenly sprang to life, charging the crewmen.
    And at the same time a huge explosion erupted from the helicopter with the flare burning in it. Flames had reached the fuel tank, and the whole chopper was being blown to pieces.
    "Let's go!" Joe shouted. He and Frank leapt out from behind the boat. Virgil had the same idea. With the enemy momentarily startled and pinned down by the dogs, they made a run for Virgil's chopper, Tanook leading the way.
    Gunshots cracked as they dodged across the clearing, but there was so much smoke in the air there was little danger of being hit. They clambered into the helicopter and took