‘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.
Chapter 14
The light in the plane went out again. There were only eleven of them left now: Carl Sandberg and Harald, four crew, and five Americans. They sat together in the middle of the plane. The girl and the young man in the black shirt watched them.
Through the window, Carl saw the fuel tanker drive towards the plane. It stopped, and five men in white clothes got out. The pilot went to the front of the plane to work the controls, and the men started to refuel the plane.
Then he saw another man in a yellow raincoat come out of the airport building.
The bearded hijacker started to talk very excitedly. ‘Is it him? Yes, it is! Our leader! My brother and sister, we have done it! Now, I must welcome him at the door. You, brother, watch the pilot in the cabin, and sister, watch the passengers.’
Carl Sandberg watched the man in the yellow coat walk nearer. He could only see one man at the back of the plane, refuelling it. He thought the others were under the plane somewhere, but he didn’t know where.
Harald put his hand on Carl’s arm. Carl looked at him. Harald did not speak, but he was looking at the girl very carefully.
As the door opened, and the man with the yellow coat came in, the girl turned to look. Through the window, Carl saw a man in a white ran out from under the plane with something that looked like a grenade in his hand. Two other men in white ran out behind him.
The man’s arm went up and he threw the grenade through the open door.
There was a very loud BANG! at the front of the plane, and a flash of white light that burned Carl’s eyes. Almost immediately there was an even louder BANG! BANG! and two more flashes of white light.
Carl could not move. The noise was so loud and the light so bright that he sat still as a stone. He saw the girl hijacker and the bearded man standing quite still too, with their guns in their hands and their mouths open. Then a man in white ran through the door with a gun in his hand. He shot the girl and the bearded man before they could move. The hijacker
in the black shirt came out of the Captain’s cabin behind the man in white, but two other men in white came through the door and shot him too. The two prisoners, in their yellow raincoats, tried to get to the door, but the man in white knocked them to the floor and handcuffed their hands behind their backs.
Carl looked down. The girl was lying on the floor of the aisle behind him. He thought
he saw her hand move towards her machine gun, but then one of the soldiers in white ran down the aisle and shot her again through the head. Another soldier pulled her away by her legs and her long hair left blood along the floor.
Chapter 15
Helen Sandberg heard the bangs too, and when she saw the white light, she thought the plane was burning. For about half a minute there was nothing but loud bangs and white flashes, and then there was nothing. There were no lights at all in the plane and no sounds either.