فصل ۱۳

Chapter 13

Helen Sandberg stood by the control room window, staring at the plane. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Why is that door shut? Where are the passengers?’ ‘The hijackers won’t set them free,’ said Inspector Holm. ‘I told you, Prime Minister, this is serious mistake.’ ‘Be quiet, man,’ said Colonel Carter. ‘I think we’ve got something on the radio.’

Beside him, a soldier was turning the controls of a small army radio. Suddenly, the voice of one of the hijackers and the prisoner came into the room.

‘So how many soldiers are there in the airport building, my brother?’

‘I didn’t see any soldiers, only police.’

‘That’s strange! No soldiers at all?’ ‘I did not see any, brother.’

‘Very strange. But these are not military people. They do not have many soldiers.

Perhaps the woman do what she says, then.’

‘What happening, Colonel?’ Helen asked. ‘Those are the hijackers voices. How can we hear them?’ The Colonel laughed. ‘Well, madam, you can see it’s raining, can’t you? We didn’t want our poor prisoner to get wet, so we gave him a nice yellow raincoat, you see. But it was an expensive raincoat, because one of its buttons is a small transmitter. So now we can hear everything they say and we know where are on the plane!’

Helen smiled. ‘Good idea, Colonel. I hope it helps.’

‘Prime Minister,’ Michael interrupted. ‘They’re coming!’

Helen looked through the window. The door of the plane was open and people were coming down the steps one after another. Some of them started to run towards the airport building, and few knelt down on the wet tarmac.

‘What are they doing?’ Helen asked.

‘Praying, perhaps?’ said Michael. ‘To thank God that they’re alive?’

Police and doctors came out of the building to help the passengers. Helen stood and watched through binoculars. She did not see Carl.

‘Ninety-nine, a hundred. That’s it, then,’ said Colonel Carter. The plane door closed. ‘Now we move on to the next step of our plan. Goodbye, Prime Minister.’ Helen turned and saw that the Colonel was putting on white clothes on top of his army uniform. He put several grenades in the coat pocket, and a machine gun into a long pocket inside the coat. He smiled at her. ‘I must help my men refuel the plane.’ ‘May God go with you, Colonel,’ she said.