He croaked into the microphone:
- I'm a passenger, our plane is seizes, the pilots are dead.
He looked around. On the right seat there was sleeping the captain of the Boeing in a perpetual sleep. He turned on the autopilot.
- And where is the co-pilot - thought Dux. - C-ts-ts, there is no any flugelhorn in that ensemble.
He had a bad feeling. Colonel passed sideways, feeling as a gun shot had burnt his chest. The third villain shot at him. And again his life as much as possible shrunk to 0.17 seconds of an average person into who flies a bullet from a gun. And nobody knows why there are people called "charmed." There are legends, stories of witnesses and documents, according to which a man was sent a lot of bullets, and he stayed alive. In this sense, a man can not be killed. Because, before he dies, he must fulfill his destiny.
Having powerfully kicked the terrorist with the left foot Mari aimed between his legs and he screamed loudly, and shot the whole charger at the ceiling. Then Dux, came with red wild eyes, and brutally killed another werewolf.
Mari was surprised to see as Colonel turned from the monster into an ordinary, kind, softly smiling boy. He managed to focus the look, forced a martyr's smile and said humbly:
- Thank you. – and, for some reason, he added - ... My lady!
*
The Boeing-737, lit up from the east, was flying across the Atlantic. On the right side there were vast indented bays, streams and lakes of northern Canada. Having covered the left blind of the cabin from the unbearably bright light, Colonel and Mari hardly carried a heavy captain’s body to the first row of the business class, turned a back and fastened seatbelts on him.
- Sleep well, captain! - whispered Colonel. They stood together in silence, saluting for the last time.
- Mari – purred Dux, - look for someone from the crew, maybe a flight attendant, or we will be shot down by mistake. And, look then after the co-pilot. I can’t find him.
Like a queen, Mari passed the economy class, giving a beautiful smile, peace and dignity, and with this look she encouraged the crushed and confused passengers. In the tail of the plane, from behind the berth curtain, she dragged out a scratched stewardess who had hid like a cat, squealing and howling behind the wall.
- Calm down. - whispered Mari. The girl cuddled up to her. Mari felt that the girl was trembling, like a transformer for three thousand volts. Suddenly she cried piercingly:
- And who are you !?
Mari said in English something that could be translated:
- A horse in the coat!
Mari led the girl along the aisles feeling like an SS woman who caught a partisan who had to be hung for the act.
- The captain is dead, the co-pilot seems to be dead too. Most of flight attendants were killed. There are victims among the passengers, - Colonel reported to the controller's office- three terrorists are killed.
He could hear from headphones something mad. Somewhere far off flew the F-16 fighter. Colonel realized that at that time there was deciding the fate of the flight and he dripped with cold sweat.
He gave the microphone to the stewardess.
- Mari, we can be shot down. Did you see a famous guy on to the left?
They passed the ranks of the economy class, and really found an elderly senator, probably from New Hampshire. He, in advance, left the business class where the horror began, and disappeared among people. He first pretended not to understand the question, but to speed up the process Dux seized with death grip senator's elbow, and Mari could raise a stiffened senator’s smile. Everybody quickly returned to the cockpit.
- You see, the senator Greg.
Colonel asked to turn on the speakerphone.
- We have the wounded and the dead.
- Ask Russians if they can lend the Jumbo?
Dux felt relieved. Recently, the senator was often shown on TV. If it wasn’t for that, the CIA agents would immediately shoot down the plane. Especially it has smack of the Russians.
- They say that they can.
Suddenly, a flight attendant, who was in a near-unconscious condition, grabbed the sleeve of Mari and yelled:
- I need go to the toilet!
She pushed Mari and convulsively grabbed the handle of the toilet cabin. The co-pilot fell out of there. Having hugged him, she lost unconscious. Mari saw as the Senator’s jaw dropped in astonishment. To his respect, he continued negotiations with the controller's office in unwavering voice.
- We will lend you in the reserve aerodrome.
- How much time do we have left? – Colonel asked by the senator.
- Forty minutes left. Check the sensors. We will instruct you.
*
Suddenly Colonel’s hair stood on end. The second dead pilot stood up. He became unnaturally rolling his eyes on the ceiling, and stopped at Dux with intent mad look and stared straight at Mari’s eyes. She was struck dumb with horror.
- Lieutenant, - he said quietly, - are you okay?
It was scary. With the naked eye it was clear that all movements of the co-pilot were incompatible with life. Right out of the spine there was sticking out a long silver thread, which twisted like a snake, getting into the pilot’s back.
- Is it just that very case - breathed Dux. – probably, I dreamt. Colonel did not even have time to pull out a gun, lying in the pocket of his trousers. The stewardess was literally torn to pieces. The senator wanted to jump out of the window on the ground. Mari screamed as loud as ever, running to the business class at an incredible speed. Colonel realized that he was confronted with something really extraordinary. For a long terrible time, Dux had prepared a gun and had found that he had five cartridges left.
*
Then he also had five cartridges left, when a bear suddenly jumped out from the forest . The boy was nine years old. That year, it was September, there was some disturbance in nature, bears walked in the village, hid behind the village toilets and frightened people at night. The boy asked grandfather Potryasok, who usually mumbled and shook his head, for the old revolver with five bullets. A huge bear was running to him at forty kilometers per hour. Being shocked, the boy shot and killed the bear and when the locals skinned the animal, they were surprised that all the bullets were right in the eye.
In the village, many people hunted squirrels. In the store office they took only the skins of killed animals straight in the eye, for the goods not to be spoiled. After that, for his accuracy, the boy was taken to trade and his uncle Potryasok presented the boy a personal revolver he had got from his ancestor since the civil war.
*
With a superhuman force, like a wounded animal, the werewolf rushed to Colonel, hardly touched him. But it was too late. All the bullets were straight in the werewolf’s eye. By inertia the last broke a half of the panel, hurt the senator with his claws and calmed down. There was a painful silence in the plane. Screeching from pain, the senator was squeaking and the portable radio transmitter was broadcasting something in an unintelligible metallic voice.
- Talk to people. Don’t whining. We have twenty minutes left.
Dux, being slightly stunned, went looking for Mari. He found the Elshtains in the economy class. For some time the three were sitting in silence.
- Tell me – having turned to Thomas, croaked Colonel - what is it?
He pulled out of his pocket something like a syringe and gave him. Thomas began examining the device with a genuine interest:
- And was there something else?
- A silver thread.
Colonel remembered in horror as that snake was digging its fangs into the back of lieutenant. Thomas thought for a long time:
- They seemed to create a concentrated well-run “time fountain”.
Wordily and clearly Thomas explained how that strange long thread can return human’s life.