Do You Want a Bullet in the Head?

Li Zhi had no idea that a foreign guest had seen what had just happened. He seemed to have run into a little trouble now.

He had just taken off when he saw what seemed to be several small black dots ahead. He was absolutely certain his eyes weren't playing tricks on him!

Almost instinctively, Li Zhi pulled back on the control stick, and the plane's angle of attack increased sharply.

"Extreme angle of attack!"

The flight control warning sounded at the same time. Compared with the Eighth Master, the Jiaolong 10's flight control voice seemed a little more human, but Li Zhi had no time to concern himself with that now.

Thanks to his use of afterburners during takeoff, the fighter did not stall, even though its angle of attack had reached almost ninety degrees.

Having narrowly escaped disaster, Li Zhi finally had time to check the radar screen and see whether there had been anything flying ahead.

But the radar screen showed nothing unusual!

Li Zhi was very confident. He was certain his eyes hadn't deceived him; there really had been something ahead.

"J20024, what happened? Why did you perform a dangerous maneuver?"

The tower controller's voice was rather stern. It was extremely dangerous for Li Zhi to suddenly perform an unusual maneuver just after takeoff.

The controller had even prepared to press the alarm button immediately if Li Zhi failed to respond or if anything was wrong with his reply.

"I just encountered a flock of birds!"

Since the radar hadn't detected anything and there really had been something ahead, it was most likely a flock of birds. Only birds could evade radar detection, after all, since most birds were very small.

"A flock of birds? Are you sure?"

As one of the largest military airports in the entire southwest, there was no way bird control could have been neglected there. The controller found Li Zhi's claim hard to believe.

"Fly heading 014, altitude 2,000, speed not to exceed 300!"

Heading 014 led toward the suburbs. The controller didn't quite believe Li Zhi, so he immediately placed some restrictions on him.

Until the truth was clear, it would be dangerous to let Li Zhi return to the airport and land. After all, there were a great many important people at the airport right now!

"Heading 014, altitude 200, speed 300, understood!"

Li Zhi knew why the controller had given that order and immediately flew according to his instructions.

Li Zhi couldn't just fly wherever he pleased now, or a rocket might come flying from somewhere and take him out.

Once Li Zhi was flying as instructed, the controller immediately reported the matter. Whether Li Zhi was telling the truth or not, this was no small matter.

If Li Zhi was telling the truth, then there had been a major lapse in the airport's bird-control work. With so many foreign guests visiting in particular, if anything happened, all hell would break loose.

If Li Zhi was lying, that would be just as serious. At a critical moment like this, Li Zhi could very well be saying goodbye to his flying career for doing something like that!

Li Zhi didn't know what arrangements the airport leadership had made. Two minutes later, however, two Jiaolong 10s arrived beside him and began "escorting" him to the 1st Aircrew Division's airport to land.

The 1st Aircrew Division was the division Li Zhi served in, and its headquarters was right next to the airport. Li Zhi's identity was no secret at 201 Airport, and most of his information was obtained immediately.

Considering that Li Zhi had just rendered meritorious service, the airport was inclined to believe there was nothing wrong with him, which was why they sent him to the 1st Division.

Otherwise, they might even have detained him on the spot!

Wu Qineier, who had been watching Li Zhi, naturally saw his maneuver as well, and he found it quite stunning.

He also assumed it was a performance Dragon Country had arranged especially for him, and his vanity was greatly satisfied!

The vice president of Yu Aircraft accompanying him also thought it had been specially arranged and even asked his secretary about it. But the secretary looked just as bewildered and had no idea what was going on.

While Li Zhi was being "escorted" to the 1st Division, 201 Airport also began an internal inspection and temporarily suspended all takeoffs and landings.

Various specialized detection devices began operating, while the large bird-deterrent devices around the airport also began running at full power.

The detection equipment found nothing unusual, but several pigeons began fleeing the airport runway because of the bird-deterrent devices. Ground personnel also spotted them.

Director Guo, who was in charge of the tower, saw it too, and his face turned as black as coal.

"Just what the hell are the airfield operations people doing? A screwup this big-do they want a bullet in the head?"

Although the airfield operations personnel did not answer to the tower, the situation was seriously affecting its normal operations.

Fortunately, no accident had occurred. Otherwise, everyone at the airport would have been in trouble.

The airfield operations personnel actually felt terribly aggrieved when they saw this. They could thump their chests and swear that they had never neglected their duties or cut corners in their daily work!

But the pigeons overhead were an indisputable fact, and it now seemed they couldn't escape responsibility.

The bird-deterrent devices around the airport couldn't possibly run at full power twenty-four hours a day, but this also proved there had to be a gap in airfield operations' work. Otherwise, those pigeons couldn't have appeared above the runway.

The bird-deterrent devices soon drove the pigeons away from the runway, but they didn't fly out of the airport.

Instead, they flew past the tower and headed for the airport's family housing area.

Those pigeons belonged to someone! And their owner was in the family housing area!

That was what everyone was thinking. All birds hated and even feared the noise made by bird-deterrent devices, and would scatter as soon as they heard it.

It was very rare for them all to flee in the same direction like this.

The airfield operations personnel had been holding their anger in. When they saw the pigeons flying toward the family housing area, they immediately chased after them.

They wanted to see just who had done this and made them take the blame for nothing!

At that moment, Li Zhi had just gotten out of his plane when Lei Hu, who had heard the news, immediately invited him to his office.

Lei Hu had been badly frightened when he received the news. What on earth was all this about?

As soon as Li Zhi got off the plane, Lei Hu invited him over to ask what had happened. He had only received a notice from the airport telling him to keep Li Zhi under watch for the time being.

The fact that they had used the word "watch" showed how serious the matter was.

He had only left here that morning, so how had things come to this by noon?

Lei Hu thought highly of Li Zhi's abilities, and he didn't believe Li Zhi would do anything to violate discipline. He needed to understand the situation clearly before he could help Li Zhi.