will die.’
‘Don’t you want to see your brothers?’ she asked quickly. ‘I promise you, if you kill my
husband, you’ll never see them again.’
There was a pause while no one spoke. Then the radio answered. ‘Four minutes, Mrs
Sandberg.’
Helen spoke clearly, slowly, and loudly. She filled her voice with all the anger she had in
her body. ‘Listen, you murderer. I need just ten minutes to get your brothers to this airport. Then I will send them to the plane. But if you kill my husband, or anyone else, then I promise you that your brothers will die, on the tarmac in front of that plane. Is that what you want? Or will you wait ten minutes?’
There was another, longer pause. Helen stared out into the night. She didn’t see anything. ‘All right. Ten more minutes.’
‘Thank you. Now, there is one more thing. The passengers.’
‘What about them?’
‘You must set them free before I send your brothers to the plane.’
The voice on the radio laughed. ‘Because you are a woman, do you think all men are stupid, like your husband? Send me our brothers, then refuel the plane, and then I will send you the passengers.’
‘No,’ answered Helen. She looked at Colonel Carter.
‘This is how we will do it. I will send you one of your brothers and then you must send me the passengers. When we have all the passengers, then we will refuel the plane and send you your other brother.’
The voice laughed again. ‘Do you think you are buying cheap fish from a child in the market? Send us one brother, then, and we will send you one hundred passengers. Refuel the plane and send us the other brother, and we will send you the other passengers. But the pilot and your husband must come with us to another country. We will set them free later.’
Helen looked at Colonel Carter. There was the beginning of a smile on her face. She could see that he agreed with her. She waited for a moment longer, to worry the hijacker.
‘Is it agreed, woman? Or do I kill your husband now?’
‘I agree. I will send your first brother to you in ten minutes.’
Chapter 12
Carl felt his broken tooth with his tongue. The door of the Captain’s cabin was open and he could see the bearded hijacker sitting inside. He had a long nose and dark hair and his eyes looked green from the light of the instruments in the dark cabin. He held his gun near his mouth and touched it gently with his lips as he waited.
Carl had heard half of the conversation. Eight of the ten minutes had gone. Now that he could do nothing, he felt afraid. He could feel his hand in the handcuffs shaking.
Harald felt it too and held Carl’s hand with his own.
‘Don’t worry, Mr Sandberg,’ Harald whispered. ‘We’ll get out of here.’
‘Perhaps,’ Carl answered. ‘And perhaps not. But I don’t want these murderers to go
free.’
‘Ssh!’ Harald whispered. Carl looked up and saw the girl watching them. Then,
suddenly, the bearded man shouted, ‘They’re coming! Get ready!’
The girl went into the Captain’s cabin. Harald and Carl stood up and looked through a
window. They saw three men pushing some steps across the tarmac. The men put the steps outside the plane door and then went back again. Then two more men came out of the building. They were wearing bright yellow coats because of the rain. One man walked