George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 182

< Episode 181 >

Raymond landed a well-trained fist squarely on the face of the nearest terrorist.

To suppress this riot, a harpoon gun was fired, but they overlooked something. The carry-on was thicker than they thought. The shell of the carry-on was one thing, but what was inside was mostly clothes and toiletries.

Clothes are surprisingly tough; if you wear several layers, you can even stop an old-fashioned musket. This evolved into a rumor in Korea during the Korean War that a cotton blanket could stop bullets.

As a result, the carry-on, though temporary, was able to properly fulfill the role of a ‘shield.’

“Reload!”

Due to the nature of harpoon guns, which require reloading after each shot, they become vulnerable after firing. Judging from the fact that only a few people fired from the front, it seemed they had received thorough training for this situation. Preventing friendly fire through crossfire could only be done by trained individuals. Taking turns to shoot, they were like 18th-century line infantry.

“Grab that bastard!”

“Let’s beat those guys down!”

The problem was that other passengers, seeing this, started resisting with their carry-ons and handbags. Wasn’t the reason firearms were able to overwhelm melee weapons the rate of fire that melee weapons couldn’t even come close to? Harpoon guns, unlike typical firearms, couldn’t fire in rapid succession.

“Everyone, sit down! Can’t you sit down?”

You can’t fight numbers. A heavy carry-on swung around or a woman’s handbag filled with all sorts of junk wasn’t going to end with just a bruise if you got hit. Moreover, after tasting the spicy fist of a robust adult male on your face several times, you would inevitably faint on the spot and have your harpoon gun taken away.

Still, since there were as many as fourteen terrorists and they were burly men, some were harpooned in the legs or arms, or hit in the face by a swung harpoon gun, resulting in occasional serious injuries, but that was it. Fortunately, no one died.

More precisely, there were no deaths among the hostages, and some of the terrorists couldn’t withstand the violence of the hostages and died.

“This isn’t good.”

The leader, realizing that the situation was not going well, cleared his throat and shouted over the intercom.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t think you understand. There is a bomb on this plane. In other words, if you don’t calm down now, I might just press the detonator. Do you understand?”

The crowd, who were about to tear the terrorists to pieces, turned into docile sheep as soon as they heard those words. Everyone valued their lives. A subordinate who had been threatening the pilot in the cockpit came out to the cabin and cleaned up the mess.

However, most of the crew members had either been beaten to death or were too crippled to carry out the operation. They had been beaten so thoroughly that there wasn’t a single uninjured spot on their bodies.

With no other choice, they had some of the hostages drag them into the cockpit. Since the cockpit wasn’t a very large room to begin with, they had to leave a row empty and tie them up in the empty seats.

“Damn it! Is he dead?”

“Boss, the broadcast isn’t off yet-”

Soon, the intercom was turned off and silence returned. Even Raymond, who would shout ‘Elan! Elan!’ at the drop of a hat, was quiet this time, now that there was a bomb that may or may not exist. But the silence didn’t last long.

“A fighter jet?”

Someone who looked out the window at the strange noise muttered, and everyone turned to look out the window. It was a French Mirage 2000, the main fighter jet. The reason it wasn’t a Rafale was that the Rafale that had been deployed to the military was only the Navy’s Rafale M, and the Air Force hadn’t even made its initial deployment yet.

Still, the Mirage 2000 was a masterpiece, and since it was a fighter jet, it had no problem catching up with a slow passenger plane circling over the city.

The subordinate who had taken control of the cockpit was now approaching an elderly man who looked uncomfortable, holding a plastic knife, in order to take him hostage. The old man was asleep despite the commotion.

“Ah, shit! What bad luck!”

But suddenly, an Asian man jumped out and pushed him with his body. Perhaps it wasn’t the Asian man who was unlucky, but the terrorist. He fell and hit his head on the seat, meeting a miserable end with his head cracked open. Even though it didn’t crack open like a watermelon, the amount of blood flowing from his head was beyond recovery.

The reason he jumped out despite the bomb was because he judged that ‘the bomb is fake, or for some reason, it can’t be detonated at least right now. Plus, a fighter jet is following us, so now is the golden time and the last chance.’

“What a fucking mess! Why did I come all the way to France to do this kind of shit!”

He was a little embarrassed because he didn’t intend to kill him, but he quickly recovered. Even if it was accidental, the fact that he could kill someone and still curse meant that this man was definitely not an ordinary person.

‘Minhwan,’ an agent of the Korean National Intelligence Service [South Korean intelligence agency], kicked the plastic knife that had fallen to the floor far away, and only after checking that there was no pulse by placing his index and middle fingers on the artery did he move away from the terrorist.

‘Everything is so twisted that I’m already upset about being dispatched overseas, but I can’t die here.’

The leader, who was watching him, seemed to think that he couldn’t let this go this time, and tried to shoot Minhwan directly with a harpoon gun in each hand.

But then, suddenly, a sound that could never be heard on an airplane rang out.

It was the sound of a gunshot.

“The CIA can sometimes carry pistols on airplanes.”

The gun in ‘Kruger’s’ hand was a Beretta M9 used by the military.

“But isn’t it illegal to bring guns on board unless you’re Interpol?”

“Shut up. It’s better than dying, isn’t it?”

“That’s true.”

As the banter ended, the junior agent pulled a pistol out of her designer handbag. Unlike her senior, who used a military weapon, it was a civilian P226, but even though it was civilian, the bullets were the same caliber as the military ones, and it hurt just as much if you got hit.

“Hey, you, the leader or whatever, if you don’t put down that harpoon gun and detonator right now, this guy is dead!”

Before he knew it, Kruger was aiming precisely at the head of the terrorist who had fainted from being beaten earlier. Seeing that the leader seemed to be hesitating, he shot him in the thigh as an example. He writhed in pain but couldn’t even get himself up properly.

“Damn it.”

The terrorists’ leader cursed. At the same time, Raymond had this thought flash through his mind.

‘So, who’s the terrorist now?’

The leader, who had been watching the spectacle, took a deep breath and then let out a big sigh.

“Alright. It’s over. I surrender.”

As if the tension had been released, his shoulders slumped. He even dropped the harpoon gun he was holding.

“Very good, put your hands up and slowly come here…”

The leader suddenly kicked the pilot, who was thrown to the floor like a scarecrow. It was impossible to know if he had fainted or died, but the problem was that the plane started shaking like crazy because of it. Everyone lost their balance and began to be tossed around by gravity.

“I commend my life to Allah.”

Islam means one who submits to God, doesn’t it? If so, then he was truly a ‘Muslim.’ Whether the God they served would think of him was another matter, but for Islamic fundamentalists, there could be no greater martyr.

“Ugh, what is all this?”

The junior agent’s dropped pistol floated into the air, drew a black trajectory, and landed perfectly in someone’s hand. The word coincidence couldn’t be more fitting.

The person who received the pistol was the ‘legless’ old man who had just woken up and barely grasped the situation.

They had promised to fix his body, but they couldn’t fix it in western Iraq, so they were transferring him to France. Originally, he needed a guardian to protect the old man, but the old man refused them all. Because they were cumbersome. However, they compromised as much as possible and decided that a guardian would be assigned in France, but they didn’t ride in the plane together for now.

‘I haven’t handled a pistol much.’

This was true. Having lived as a sniper for more than half his life, he had killed everyone with a rifle before they got close enough to use a pistol, so he didn’t use pistols much. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t shoot a pistol.

‘Is this how you handle it?’

He almost hit him, but unfortunately, he missed. He couldn’t even use his hands properly because he was so sick, and the plane was shaking wildly from side to side, so it was a chaotic situation, so it wasn’t strange that he missed, but the old man regretted in his heart that he would have hit him if it had been a rifle.

But there were still many bullets left in the gun. All he had to do was shoot the next round. The old man used all his abilities to aim again with his trembling hands.

It was then. The plane began to shake even more than it was now.

In a later interview, he said that the only thing he was thinking about at the time was protecting the civilians, but the most ‘intense thought’ he actually had at the time was as follows.

‘Oh, no! My puzzle!’

The puzzle that ‘Raymond’ had been working on for 9 hours floated into the air, poured down on ‘Minhwan’s’ face, and CIA ‘Kruger’ was hit by the carry-on he dropped and fell over. Kruger, who fell like that, collided with the ‘junior agent,’ and the designer handbag that the junior agent dropped hit the ‘old man’s’ hand. The gun that the old man dropped went into the ‘leader’s’ hand due to gravity.

Oh, what a coincidence? Or should we call it fate?

“Allahu Akbar! O Allah. I always believe in you.”

If it seems like one person is missing, it’s definitely not your imagination. The small game console that ‘Abdullah’ dropped went all the way to the back of the cabin, and then flew back late due to gravity and hit the leader in the face.

“O Allah!”

Since it was a portable game console anyway, he quickly regained his vision, but in the chaotic situation, that small gap was truly fatal.

The junior agent’s P226 spat fire, and that was the end of everything.

“Hoo-uh.”

The leader heard the sound coming from his chest. In fact, it was unclear whether he even heard it with his ears. It was definitely a sound he had never heard before, but he could instinctively realize what it was.

It was the sound of life leaving him.

“Allah…”

He sobbed the name of the god he served with his last breath.

“First of all, for the sake of Islam, let me say that Allah is not that cruel. He is a very merciful person.”

Abdullah, the only sane Muslim, spoke for Islam, but no one was listening.

“Someone grab that damn control stick!”

Because the plane was still crashing.

It was a little later that this plane landed safely at Charles de Gaulle Airport.