"006 The Mutant Corps" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Adams felt MarshallТs hand on his shoulder and sat down quietly in his seat. It would be better now if John Marshall carried on the discussion."Very soon we will be forced to proceed to action, ladies and gentleman," Marshall said. "Therefore, will you please avoid any unnecessary questions now. The danger is the same for all of us here, as uninteresting as most of you are to these bandits. They have their eye on Mr. Adams, and in order to render him harmless, they will undoubtedly fly this plane to some other destination. That might be some deserted coast along the ocean, the middle of the Indian jungle, or even, perhaps, the highlands of Tibet. But taking all this into consideration, you will understand now that we must undertake something for our defence. As long as we are still airborne, there is no immediate danger but this can change very rapidly."

So far none of the gangsters had tried to break down the door between the passenger section and the lounge section.

In the "unoccupied" section of the plane there was still another small group of the crew-two cooks, a waiter and three stewardesses.

Marshall walked over to them. "You probably have a phone that connects you with the command center. May I use this phone, please?"

The small group of the crew seemed obviously impressed by his polite approach and led Marshall to the telephone. The waiter pushed the button for him.

Someone answered the phone at the other end, but that was as far as politeness went.

"What do you want-to make peace offers, or what?"

"You guessed right, sir. What other reason would I have to talk to you?"

"I have money. And one of the passengers here has a lot of it."

"Thanks a lot for that hint. WeТll get the rest of the money sometime during this day. You wonЛt have to worry about that until we are about to land."

"But the money is not here on board, sir. It would make no sense to talk so long here on the phone with you. There are too many people listening in. Will you please give me safe passage to the pilotТs section and back again?"

"If you leave your gun behind, you can come here." Marshall had some difficulties to overcome with the other passengers. Some considered his willingness to negotiate utter nonsense, since he was powerless to do anything in any case. Others expressed open suspicion that he was one of the gangsters, but finally they let him go.

The gangsters received Marshall in the passenger section and brought him to the front. While be walked through the passenger room, he sized up their numerical strength. There were at least ten people who belonged to the gang, which impressed him very much.

The man in the pilotТs seat was a well-dressed civilian. With the help of two assistants, he had taken over navigation. He seemed to be quite expert at his job."Johnny, take my place as long as IТm talking with this guy here. Well, are you the man that phoned me a little while ago?" he asked Marshall.Without waiting for an invitation Marshall sat down next to him. "I want to state briefly the way I judge the situation. Then you can make up your mind if I am right or not."

"All right, shoot, little prophet."

"You, are after Mr. Adams. You already possess his money. Now you need his life in order to be safe for the future. Since you canТt kill, him and still land in Tokyo, according to the flight schedule, you plan to land somewhere in south Asia. Then you intend to disappear without being recognized. In this connection, I am very much concerned about the fate of the rest of the passengers, while this hardly seems to worry you. Have I made myself clear so far?"

"Just go on. That wasnТt all you had to tell me."

"Yes, thatТs all to begin with, for my offer makes sense only if my analysis of the situation is correct so far."

"You wanted to get some money for us. Do you know where Adams is still hiding some more? That money is coming from him-isnТt that what you mean?"

"Of course. itТs a matter of more than 40,000 pounds that he has deposited in a bank in Montreal. IТll sacrifice Adams, with the rest of his money-apart, of course, from some expense that youТll have to pay to me-but you will guarantee the safety of the rest of the passengers. Is that a deal?"

"How much will your expenses amount to?" asked the boss. Since Marshall had quoted the sum of 40,000 pounds, he suddenly became polite.

"Two thousand pounds. I donТt want to take advantage of you."

"ThatТs fair enough. Now, how do we get at that money. in Montreal?"

"YouТll have to pretend to negotiate with Adams. WeТll have to think up some way to allay his suspicions, for in the final solution he is paying his own ransom. I am convinced that he has some code for cabled remittances of money. Using that code, you can swing the deal without any great loss of time. IТll take care of that sir. HeТs known me only since this noon, when we met in Croydon, but I have managed to gain his confidence. But now, how about the second part of our bargain? Where are you going to land?"Marshall was completely concentrating on what the other person was thinking.

"We have a very suitable place somewhere near Rangoon," said the boss, while his thoughts were secretly occupied with an entirely different geographical location. "We can enter negotiations from Rangoon with London and the rest of your people will have good connections to get another flight from Rangoon to, Tokyo."