Shiller could clearly feel his right hand going numb. He had to retract his judgment that the revolver was unaffected by the weak wrist effect. He had no doubt that if he fired another shot now, the consequence would be a fractured radius, and the bullet would directly pierce through the airplane's fuselage.
All he could say was, Diana still trusted his gun skills too much. If that shot just now hadn't hit the hijacker, the plane would be in a nosedive right now. Luckily, his shooting was accurate, and the bullet successfully hit the hijacker without damaging the fuselage. In a sense, they also saved the plane once.
Shiller shakily stood up, using his hand to support the back of a seat. With a "bang," a gun butt struck his neck. He stumbled forward a bit, pretending to faint by falling. Just as the other person straightened up to finish him, he kicked the person behind him in the calf, instinctively turning back to aim his gun, but forcibly stopped himself from pulling the trigger.
This gun was a trap! Shiller cursed silently in his heart, swiftly altering his actions, curling his body to roll to the other side, using the seat handle to stand up, and then kicked the opponent's groin again.
Luckily, the other party had also seen Shiller's shooting scene earlier, and was evidently intimidated by the black hole of a gun barrel pointed at him, hesitating for a second. It was in this second that he completely lost the initial advantage, first being kicked by Shiller causing a stagger, then having the rifle barrel in his hand seized.
"Bang!"
A bullet hit the slanted upper side, blocked by the luggage rack, without damaging the fuselage. Then another "bang" followed, scratching past the flight attendant's scalp, hitting the preparation room's door.
Shiller gripped the end of the rifle, while the other party held the grip. Due to the holding posture, snatching the gun was very difficult. In everyday life, disarming someone empty-handed is actually scientific, but the premise must be a handgun, and in a situation where the opponent is holding it with one hand. As long as you grab the opponent's wrist, controlling the direction of the shot is a breeze. Once you control that hand, even if you can't pry the gun out, you render the firearm powerless.
But rifles are different, because no one holds a rifle with one hand, and even with both hands, controlling the barrel's trajectory is not guaranteed. Shiller only did it because of his strength, forcibly skewing the trajectory, but this also subjected his hands to the firing impact, making his right arm even more numb.
The opponent was clearly feeling bad too. Holding the gun unscientifically is very deadly for the gun holder because he bears most of the recoil force. He was holding an M4 carbine, equipped with a retractable stock. He had previously adjusted it to shoulder shooting mode without retracting the stock. After Shiller's interference, the recoil caused the stock to hit his lower right rib like an elbow strike, making him instinctively shrink back in pain.
This action directly disabled his arms. Shiller pulled the gun forward, kicking him under the right arm. With numb arms, naturally, he couldn't hold the gun. Shiller pulled it again, forcibly wrenching the rifle from the opponent's hands.
Another hijacker rushing from the rear economy cabin was stunned by Shiller's barehanded gun-snatching feat. He also held a rifle, a modified AR15. Just as he was aiming, another loud "bang" echoed, and Shiller had no choice but to use the revolver again to knock him down.
It wasn't that he didn't want to use the just-acquired rifle, but after the struggle just now, the firearm's performance was unreliable, and trouble would arise if it misfired. Even if this revolver harms the enemy and himself, Shiller couldn't retract his confidence in the revolver's reliability. The revolver's reliability was why it hadn't been phased out in combat.
This shot dealt nearly everyone, including Shiller, significant ear damage. Shiller even wondered if Diana had fitted a loudspeaker to this gun, how could it be so loud?
The ear drum impact affected more than just hearing. It was well-known that the body's balance organs were also in this area. On a real battlefield, many soldiers couldn't run straight, often stumbling during escape because the huge noise from bombardment severely affected their balance systems. It's the same in bomb attack incidents, it's not that they don't want to sprint, but they just can't.
The demigod clearly didn't consider how fragile human hearing and balance systems were when designing this revolver. After three shots, Shiller's hearing and balance systems were almost destroyed, or near enough. He grabbed the seat back next to him, taking a deep breath to resist the impulse to hijack the plane and crash into the Metropolitan Museum.
He looked back at the economy cabin, where people stared at him in terror. But he knew there were still hijackers among them, just too bizarre to expose themselves. The other party surely had another gun, likely a submachine gun.
The three long-gun men encountered so far all bore rifles, lacking a fire suppression position. At this range, a submachine gun is also very lethal. If he dared to turn around, he would surely be riddled with bullets.
The assumption that this person was in the economy cabin was due to him being in business class. If there were someone with a gun in business class, they surely would have fired during his struggle with the hijacker, a golden chance to kill him. Not doing so indicated they were likely behind the hijacker, posing a risk of friendly fire if they shot, hence not making a move.
And as the only person without employing the Psychoanalysis Method's personality traits, the agent had to admit that sometimes the Mind Reading Technique was indeed necessary. Just like now, the cunning hijacker hid well without a trace of guilt, leaving no substantial evidence.
So a different approach was necessary. Shiller told the flight attendant beside him, who was startled beyond belief, "Notify the cockpit to fly on the planned route, not to make an emergency landing on the water."
The flight attendant, though scared, still trembled as they ran away. The attendant who had served him earlier came over and whispered, "Sir, we are now..."
"It's not safe yet, there are still hijackers hiding among the passengers, most likely in the economy class, I'll keep an eye out here. If you're scared, you should go hide in the preparation room."
He did not lower his voice, and most of the passengers heard him. After recovering from the initial panic, they started whispering among themselves. An old man sitting at the edge of the business class asked, "Who are you? Why do you have a gun?"
"I'm an agent, it's inconvenient to disclose which department. Being on this plane is also a personal act of mine. The gun is naturally for my own protection. Don't ask any more than that."
This explanation was very clever. Shiller's every word hinted that he was once a law enforcement officer, just forced to seek asylum abroad due to some trouble, which fits well with the general expectations of an agent's life experience.
"Then, if I may be so bold, are they here to..."
"I believe I'm not worth them going to such extents," Shiller shook his head and said, "otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to board the plane so smoothly."
Most people accepted Shiller's explanation. Being an agent is not a good profession in any country, but because of this, they usually don't have access to very important secrets, nor are they valuable, it's easy to replace one with another, not worth making a fuss.
The Boeing 787, known for its wide body and comfortable business class, can carry a large number of passengers. People who can afford full-price business class or first-class seats are usually influential. The cost of crashing such an aircraft is too high. If it was for an important figure in politics or science, that might be possible, but for an agent, it's not worth it.
"Or lock down the economy class..." someone said. This is quite a selfish suggestion, but still a solution. There aren't many people in economy class, so if a hijacker is hidden among them, locking it down would mean fewer sacrifices.
Due to the frequent hijackings, many airplanes are equipped with cabin isolation devices. However, such measures are controversial, because isolating hijackers in any cabin is equivalent to abandoning many lives, and using isolation means the crew's career would be over.
The flight attendants showed extremely troubled expressions, looking for help from Shiller. After all, before other hijackers surfaced, Shiller was the only one with a gun, and now the entire crew had to listen to him.
"We can't lock down the economy class," Shiller said, "not because of any humanitarian considerations, but if they have high-power firearms, they could directly damage the plane's structure, and we'd have to make a water landing. If the economy class is locked down, I won't be able to stop them from shooting in time."
The cabin was suddenly filled with astonishment. Indeed, they hadn't thought of this point. Although they doubted whether the so-called high-power firearms could penetrate such a wide-bodied aircraft, looking at the revolver in Shiller's hand, they had no choice but to temporarily put their doubts aside.
At this moment, the purser's slightly trembling voice sounded: "Sir! The Egyptian airspace is no longer open to us..."
"Damn it." Shiller cursed. This was clearly the worst-case scenario. Whether someone had tampered with something, or Egypt didn't want to get involved in this mess, closing the airspace meant they couldn't land in Egypt. Complaints filled the cabin.
"What about the nearby countries?" Shiller asked.
"We're reaching out," the purser also gasped, clearly forcing themselves to stay calm, and said, "but there's not much hope, especially since we can't prove the terrorists on the plane have been completely neutralized."
Shiller was also somewhat helpless. He could understand the choices of these countries. No one could say that the plane was out of the terrorists' control and safe again. And as it hadn't been brought under control, the plane could at any moment crash into buildings in the city. If such a large aircraft were to crash in an urban area, it would be a terrible disaster, and denying entry was the best choice.
Speaking of being refused entry, whether they could force their way in was actually possible. But, missiles are no joke. Especially when the other side of the Tiran Strait is Saudi Arabia and Israel, it's an area with a high incidence of incidents. Tiran Island is a key strategic point, where any action would trigger sensitivity among several countries. If entry is denied and they still force their way in, they could be shot down.