They dropped Rico off at the open sandwich minister's house. It was 0300 when the other penguins arrived at the Christiansburg palace. They searched every inch of the place. They found some explosives attached to the roof. True to his claim, Hans disarmed them.
"That was just a contingency plan, men. Our target is too good to be this sloppy. Manfridi, I want you on the balcony surveying points alpha to hotel, your code name will be Nancy cat."
"Very funny, Skipper, very funny." Manfridi replied sarcastically.
"Johnson will cover points India to papa, and your code name will be tiger. I will take points Quebec to Zulu, and my code name will be lion. Hans will be on the roof standing by for any disarming you deem necessary. If you can do it yourself or it's not that important don't call Hans. He needs to be free in case of an emergency. His code name will be cheetah. Any questions? No? Good. Commence Operation: Save the politician."
Several hours had gone by without anything happening. Then the Prime Minister stood to speak. Manfridi broke the silence. "Lion, there's some suspicious movements in the shadows in the bravo area. Permission to investigate? Over." Manfridi whispered into his radio.
"Permission granted, over." Skipper replied. Manfridi edged, his back against the wall, towards the shadows until he came to a corner. There he stopped and carefully peered around the edge. The assassin, who was obviously a puffin, was dressed in black and wore a mask. He or she seemed to be setting up some kind of equipment.
"Lion, I have a visual on the assassin. He's setting up a tripod. Wait. He's taking something out of a case. Subject is assembling a sniper rifle! Permission to engage? Over."
"Do not engage, Nancy cat. I repeat, do not engage. Wait for reinforcements. Over" Skipper replied.
"Wait a minute. Now he's signalling to someone at point tango. Over."
"I'm sending Tiger as back up. I'm going to investigate point tango. Lion out." Skipper climbed down from his vantage point to point tango. There was no movement or anything to suggest the presence of a hostile. Skipper scouted the area cautiously. When he was certain the area and surrounding areas were empty he returned to his vantage point.
"Looks like it was a wild goose chase, Nancy cat. Over." Static.
"Lion, over here NOW! Hans is...need backup...over powered... rifle at Prime Minister..." Manfridi screamed over the radio. The message was barely audible and at times was lost to static, but he had heard enough to conclude that the assassin had over powered Manfridi and Johnson, and Hans was dead or, hopefully, only injured, and that the rifle was being pointed at the Prime Minister. Skipper grappled towards point bravo.
He swung into the balcony, rolling to dissipate the force of the landing. When he looked up he saw the last thing he ever imagined. Manfridi was aiming the rifle at the Prime Minister, Johnson assisting. The supposed assassin lay dead in the corner. Hans was nowhere to be seen.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Stand down immediately!" Skipper ordered. Manfridi continued to adjust the weapon, saying nothing. Finally Johnson stepped forward, "Dammit, Manfridi. Listen Skipper..."
"Don't say anything, Johnson." Manfridi cut in. Johnson looked down at his feet, dropping his guard for a split second. That was all Skipper needed. He grabbed Johnson, taking the knife from his belt at the same time. He held the knife to the penguin's throat. Skipper knew that even if Manfridi was an enemy agent, he wouldn't let anything happen to Johnson.
"Listen to me Manfridi," Skipper choked back tears, "I will kill Johnson if you do not stand down. I am going to give you to the count of three." Manfridi turned around looking directly at Skipper. He it was obvious how much this hurt both penguins. He turned back to the gun. "One..." Skipper counted, still Manfridi did nothing, "Two... Three" Skipper loosened his grip on the knife. He couldn't do it. Manfridi dropped his wrench with a clang. The sound made Skipper jump. The knife slipped…
A warm, sticky liquid covered Skipper's flipper. Johnson slumped. Skipper released his grip on the dead penguin. Johnson's lifeless body dropped to the floor. Skipper stared at the knife as his teammate's blood dripped down the blade. He couldn't believe what he had just done. Manfridi let out a cry of pain and anger. He grabbed a gun from the dead assassin. He shot at the railing causing it to come lose. Hans, who had been leaning against it, fell down and landed directly in front of Manfridi. Manfridi pointed the weapon at Hans.
"You just forced Skipper to kill my best friend. I'd kill the person you care about most, but I bet someone like you doesn't care about anyone." Manfridi pulled the trigger. Click. Click. It was empty. Hans launched himself at Manfridi, marking the beginning of the fight, Skipper still staring at the knife.
"Snap out of it Skipper." Manfridi yelled as he punched Hans in the face. Skipper looked up at Manfridi, tears in his eyes. "Listen to me. The rifle over there is set to fire in roughly 30 seconds. It needs to be pointed away from the Prime Minister" Hans elbowed him in the stomach. "Skipper, whatever you do don't..." Hans head-butted him. Skipper grabbed the rifle, "Don't touch it Skipper." Manfridi yelled, but it was too late.
"Flipper print recognized," the computerized weapon announced. It swung around to face the Prime Minister and fired. Skipper stumbled backwards. The Prime Minister was dead.
Hans kicked Manfridi hard in the face. He landed beside Skipper, unconscious. "Why Hans?" Skipper questioned, glaring at the turncoat.
"My, my, Skipper. It's pretty obvious. Did you not read the acronym backwards? SNAH backwards spells HANS. I am the leader of SNAH. I was never one of you." The puffin replied mockingly.
"So all of it was a lie. On top of everything you've done, I'm going to have to tell Manfridi the girl he fell for was a spy."
"Leave my sister out of this! She is not involved." Hans glared at Skipper. Skipper looked at him quizzically. So the insane puffin did care about someone. Hans regained his composure adopting a triumphant smile "Oh and Skipper, look behind you." Skipper turned around. The door crashed open revealing a team of commandos from the Danish bird defence corps.
"Drop the weapon. Get on your knees, flippers on your head, you are surrounded," one of the penguins shouted.
"Help me! The penguin Skipper and his friend are assassins. I couldn't stop him...He killed the prime minister" Hans lied. Skipper looked around, he was surrounded. Then he saw Manfridi. Skipper could easily escape, but not carrying the unconscious penguin. He wasn't going to leave a man behind. Skipper dropped the knife and knelt, placing his flippers on his head. "I surrender."
