Lena, the air hostess, was wearing dark glasses and a lot of make-up. She told us she'd fallen outside in the dark while putting up her tent... I can't believe they camped outside, it must have been minus 10 out there...
Not long after the flight began, the general lurched up the short aisle and hunkered down next to our seats. "Good morning gentlemen. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Vassily Bezdomny, a general in the Soviet Air Force. I heard you discussing this aircraft. You are pilots, yes?" When I gave him a cautious affirmative he seemed overjoyed to meet a "fellow pilot". and we heard all about his WW2 exploits, during which he was personally decorated by Stalin himself, who later promoted him to general. He spoke very warmly of Stalin, of fishing trips to Stalin's dacha in Josef's personal Yak-12, of long evenings of both ideological and personal discussion by the fire with the wolfhounds and endless vodka. "Krushchev's going to bring this country to it's knees." he said. "That gutless liberal swine will be getting cosy with the Yanks next, no idea of how to run Mother Russia." He was on his way to Magadan..."A coincidence" said Dmitri..."So are we." He flashed a grin and pulled out two tickets he hadn't yet shown me. "By jet!" He looked happier than I'd seen him since our meeting. By jet? They make them for passengers?....I could hardly wait.
We broke through the cloud cover after about 40 minutes of snail-like climbing, and the rising sun burst in through the windows. The general shielded his eyes and I fought back the urge to salute. "Gentlemen, comrades, I've bored you long enough and my knees aren't what they were when I downed 17 nazis at Kursk. Don't touch any alcohol on this flight... I've got a feeling something's up and we need to stay alert."
He had only just sat down when I heard a sharp crack like a pistol shot from the cockpit. Everyone sat bolt upright. Moments later, two men emerged from the cockpit wearing goggles and rucksacks on their backs. They weren't our pilots, so who were they? They swiftly marched down the aisle, and one of them drew a hand-gun... "NOoo!" cried Lena, but they aimed at her and she fell back against the wall, silent. One hit the emergency door release and it sprang open, instantly filling the cabin with howling wind, papers, coffee cups, bags and other stuff. They looked at us, at Lena (with some regret) and then at the general. Saluting, one of them said "I'm sorry"... and then they were gone.
....continued in part 3 B
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