'Escort'

"CM696, please respond!"

"CM696..."

In the ground control tower, the controller called out again and again.

By now, officials of every rank, government and police personnel, and even military personnel had packed the tower at Yuzhou Airport so tightly that there was no room left.

When the hijackers had entered the cockpit, the copilot had made emergency contact with the ground, at the cost of two holes in his chest.

But because of that, the ground had learned of the situation as soon as it happened.

As for how the hijackers had entered the cockpit, there was no point in digging into it now. Either the captain had violated procedure or the hijackers had threatened him with a hostage.

What everyone needed to consider now was how to deal with the plane!

The plane had strayed far from its scheduled route and was heading toward the heart of Yuzhou, its busiest district.

There was no need to guess the objective. After all, it had only been a few years since the incident involving those two buildings in Eagle Country.

Apart from the controller's repeated calls, the only sound in the tower was everyone's heavy breathing.

Everyone knew what to do about the plane. When it had veered off course, two military fighter jets had already scrambled to "escort" it.

Everyone glanced, subtly or otherwise, at the military representative.

The military representative's face betrayed no expression. He had no authority to order the airliner shot down, either, and was waiting for orders from above.

Even those who didn't have to make the decision knew how much pressure came with deciding to "shoot it down." After all, there were more than a hundred living, breathing people aboard!

But everyone also understood that, in the end, that decision would certainly be made.

Because, between two evils, one chose the lesser!

In a choice of humanity, whatever choice was made would be wrong. Only the few could be sacrificed. It was extremely unfair and yet very fair.

'Ring~~~~~~~'

A telephone rang. The sound came from where the military representative stood.

"Commander!"

"Commander, I can't give an order like that, I..."

"Yes!!! I guarantee the mission will be completed!!!"

No one could hear what was said on the other end of the line, but from the military representative's answer, they could guess that the decision everyone understood but couldn't accept had finally been made.

After receiving his orders, the military representative had no intention of consulting anyone. He headed straight for the controller, and everyone silently stepped aside to make a path for him.

The military representative snatched up the microphone in front of the controller. His hand had turned white from gripping it so tightly, and on close inspection, even traces of blood could be seen seeping out.

"CM696, this is your final warning. Otherwise, we will take coercive measures!"

Civil aviation communications used a wide-area channel. Every plane in the area could hear the conversations on it. Most of the planes at the airport had been affected by the incident involving CM696, so naturally they knew about it and were following the situation.

The order his superiors had given the military representative was to shoot down the uncontrolled airliner immediately.

The military shooting down a civilian airliner was highly controversial, whatever the reason. Both the process and the outcome were also kept strictly confidential; even after the incident was over, the outside world would receive no information.

But the military representative had used the civil aviation wide-area channel to give CM696 one final warning, and one final chance.

This was a serious violation of regulations. In a severe case, he could even be held responsible for leaking classified information!

The military representative himself was also a leader in an aircrew division. He had long since memorized every military regulation and confidentiality rule, so he naturally knew what his actions meant.

He wasn't the one making the decision, but he was the one carrying it out.

Shooting down their own airliner, with over a hundred innocent citizens of their own country aboard-if he did nothing, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

Soldiers were human too!

Doing this was only meant to give himself some comfort. In the entire history of world aviation, there had never been a case of a plane landing normally after a hijacking.

After giving the warning, the military representative hadn't expected a response. He was already contacting the military tower, preparing to order the "escorting" fighters to attack.

But...

"Hello, can you hear me?"

The military representative was right beside the controller and heard the words clearly.

"What are your demands?"

The military representative grabbed the microphone, somewhat agitated.

"Don't try to stall. You have only thirty seconds to state your demands!"

Their willingness to communicate meant there might still be a chance to turn things around, but it could also be a stalling tactic. The airliner wasn't far from the main urban area now. Before it entered the airspace above that area, it had only two choices,

Either be shot down, or change course and obey instructions!

"I'm a passenger on the plane. My name is Li Zhi. The hijackers have been subdued, and both pilots are dead."

Li Zhi didn't dwell on explaining that he wasn't one of the hijackers. He quickly gave a simple, clear account of the plane's current situation. When he spotted the two fighter jets "escorting" the plane on either side, he had understood that if they said thirty seconds, they meant thirty seconds. Not a second more was possible.

"Li Zhi?"

Lei Hu, the military representative, repeated Li Zhi's name, but looked at another soldier who had come with him, his orderly.

The orderly immediately understood what Lei Hu meant. He began asking the airport official in charge for passenger information and used military channels to obtain detailed information on Li Zhi.

"Li Zhi, I don't care how you do it, but you must change the plane's heading now. You have twenty seconds left!"

Lei Hu's tone brooked no refusal, and he didn't care whether Li Zhi knew how to operate the plane.

As things stood, Li Zhi's identity had yet to be confirmed, and the ground had no way of knowing the plane's condition. Even whether the person speaking to Lei Hu aboard the plane was really Li Zhi remained to be verified!

All of this required time, and time was precisely what they lacked most.

Li Zhi was dumbfounded. He had contacted the ground to seek help, only for them to tell him to find a way himself, with just twenty seconds to do it.

How do I turn it again?

Li Zhi quickly searched through the knowledge in his mind.