DropZone

26

Luke called everyone over, and Ethan followed Kat, who leaned closer and said, ‘We may take the piss, but Luke’s generally our reason for staying alive. If he doesn’t check it, don’t use it. OK?’

Ethan stood with everyone else as Luke did his rounds. And after what Kat had just said, he looked at Luke in a new light. He knew from experience that he was into the detail, but to know he was so vital to everything the team did made him listen all the harder. After all, Ethan was pretty keen on staying alive. He was amazed at just how thorough Luke was. Nothing got missed. He pulled Johnny up for a pocket left undone. The pocket was empty, Johnny had protested, but that didn’t matter, not to Luke. He even checked Kat and Natalya’s hair.

‘When are you two going to cut this off?’ he asked. ‘It’s always a tangle risk, you know that.’

‘So’s Johnny’s,’ said Kat.

‘Seriously though – long hair and this kind of activity don’t mix too well.’

‘We tie it up well,’ Natalya pointed out. ‘And you are forgetting that our cover relies on the fact that we do not look like the kind of people who would do what we are about to do.’

‘Hmm…’ Luke sounded unconvinced. He glanced at Ethan. ‘OK?’

‘Fine,’ said Ethan as Luke checked him over carefully.

‘Remember about the oxygen. Don’t gulp it. Breathe normally. It may feel weird, sound weird, and it doesn’t taste great either, but it’s fine.’

‘Got it,’ said Ethan.

‘Good,’ said Luke, and clapped him on the shoulders with both hands. ‘You’re part of the team now, Ethan.’

Ethan nodded and smiled. He knew he couldn’t back out now – he didn’t want to.

Gabe appeared through a door at the rear of the hold. ‘We depressurize in a few minutes,’ he said, ‘so I’m going to be brief…’

Ethan listened closely. He didn’t want to miss anything. Whatever it was they were about to do, whatever it was he’d agreed to be involved in, he wanted to be clear on every last detail. He knew it was dangerous – that much was obvious. All the more reason to make sure he didn’t let everyone else down – or make a tit of himself.

‘Right, you all know what you’re taking with you, but I’m going to run through it again – partly for Ethan’s sake, and also to make sure you don’t get your faces shot off because I didn’t tell you everything.’ Gabe crouched down beside the two large black holdalls they were jumping with. Luke would carry one, Johnny the other. Each holdall contained two black bergens. Gabe explained that, on landing, Luke, Johnny, Natalya and Ethan would take a bergen each. Kat got off lightly – for this mission only four bergens were needed, so she wouldn’t be carrying.

Gabe turned to Johnny and Luke. ‘Your bergens contain the BASE rigs. Everything checked?’

Johnny and Luke nodded.

‘Good,’ said Gabe. ‘Lose those, and your emergency exit is screwed… Natalya,’ he continued, ‘your bergen contains everything you’ll need for the diversion – P4 explosive, detonators and Claymores. Has it all been checked?’

Natalya nodded. ‘The equipment is all OK,’ she said, ‘but I am not happy about our lack of protection. What are we to do if they shoot?’

‘Make sure they don’t see you,’ said Gabe. Then he turned to Ethan. ‘Your bergen will contain the two inflatable canoes.’

‘OK,’ Ethan replied. ‘But what about Sam? Don’t we need to know where he is?’

‘All you need to do is focus on the mission,’ said Gabe. ‘Sam’s more than capable of looking after himself. He’s made a career out of it. Just provide the diversion he needs and get the hell out. Right?’

The pilot buzzed through with the final call.

‘OK, we’re about to depressurize,’ said Gabe. ‘Everyone to oxygen. Now.’

‘Ethan, put this on,’ said Kat, handing him a face mask.

‘But it’s not connected,’ Ethan pointed out.

‘And it won’t be until we know the oxygen in the bottle is flowing. And we need to check the seal on your mask, OK? Can’t have the thing leaking when we’re outside the plane.’

She reached over, blocked the hole where the tube attached with her hand. ‘Can you breathe?’

Ethan shook his head. He didn’t like the sensation.

‘Good,’ said Kat. She did the same with her own mask before grabbing the bottle, turning it on and staring at the dial. Then she took the tube attached to the bottle and put it up to her eye.

Ethan was about to ask what she was doing, but Kat got in first. ‘This way we can feel if the oxygen is flowing,’ she told him. ‘Just because the dial gives a reading doesn’t mean it isn’t defective.’

‘Oh, right…’ Ethan was stunned by the attention to detail. It almost made him feel safe. Almost.

‘If we put these on and the oxygen flow is screwed, then when the cabin depressurizes we’ll be in a state of hypoxia within a minute, dead in two.’

Ethan didn’t say a thing. Dead in two minutes?

‘And don’t worry about the farting,’ added Kat.

He looked at her, not sure if he’d heard her right. Farting? What the hell did that have to do with anything?

‘Once this thing’s unpressurized, all gases expand,’ Kat explained with a grin; ‘even oxygen under a tooth filling – causes it to explode. You’re lucky; we checked you out – no fillings. Must be all that flossing.’

Kat attached the tubes to the face masks and nodded.

Ethan nodded back. He could taste the oxygen coming through.

Kat turned to the rest of the team, gave the thumbs-up. Ethan did the same, even though it made him feel like a complete idiot.

He saw Gabe grab a cabin mask, put it on.

Then the hold was depressurized.

The temperature dropped even further, and Ethan looked at Kat, who nodded to confirm the plane had indeed depressurized. All he could now hear was the sound of his breathing as he sucked in oxygen, and the noise of the plane. When pressurized, the cabin was sealed in a sound-tight vacuum. Now that it was depressurized, the vacuum had gone and the noise of the plane was loud to the point where Ethan wondered if it would actually hold together.

He could tell that the plane was getting in line for the jump. The inside of his mask felt wet. Then his goggles started to steam up.

Kat came over and got his attention, signalled for him to do as she did. Then she lifted the bottom of her own goggles for a few seconds to allow them to clear. He copied as she strapped him into the tandem harness. That done, the team lined up in their jumping order. Ethan looked at them as they organized themselves. All kitted up, they were a frightening sight. He was used to seeing them in normal clothes or their fancy skydiving suits. But now they were head to toe in black, rigs strapped on, any kit they were jumping with strapped around their legs. Soon they were holding onto each other for stability, their heavy kit pulling them from side to side.

This is it, thought Ethan. When Kat jumps, I go with her. I’m just cargo.

His attention was suddenly caught by a sucking, howling sound, and he looked over to see Gabe pulling open a door in the side of the plane. Outside, there was nothing but blackness. It took him back to the night skydive, the sensation of jumping into nothing.

A tap on his shoulder, and Ethan felt himself being pushed forward as Kat and the rest of the team lined up. He and Kat were at the front. They would be first out of the plane.

For a moment Ethan felt shock and fear take hold as he peered out through the door. Wind was blasting into his face and he knew that outside was a fall of 32,000 feet.

All he had to remember was to breathe easy, cross his arms, put his head back. Simple.

Then Kat pushed forward.

And they toppled out of the plane.

Ethan had no idea where he was. He was blinded by the blackness and deafened by the sound of the wind outside the plane. Everything was darkness and noise, and he could do nothing about it. Whatever happened, it was all down to Kat. He’d saved her life once. Now his life was in her hands.

Ethan spotted the flash of the plane’s lights directly above him, but then they were gone, and he realized that Kat had arched her back, flipped them over belly-down. He knew she would now be checking around to make sure that they had clean air above; that she wasn’t going to deploy the canopy and end up piling into another member of the team.

A moment later, he heard the reassuring crack of the canopy blasting out above them, grabbing air, and he was pulled into quick deceleration. It always felt like he was travelling upwards in the sky, but he knew that wasn’t happening; they were just slowing down. And 120 to 10 mph in under ten seconds was some serious braking.

As they slowed to a glide, Ethan could feel Kat moving. He visualized what she was doing: using a torch to check the canopy, making sure the lines weren’t snagged, caught or twisted, looking at the altimeter.

Her voice sounded in his ear. ‘Ethan, you OK?’

He reached up and pinched the comms device round his neck. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Fine. That was quite something, being first out.’

‘We had to be,’ said Kat. ‘We’re heaviest, so we’ll be at the bottom of the stack.’

‘You mean we’re doing a stack formation?’ asked Ethan. He’d seen skydivers doing this at FreeFall. They’d position themselves to basically stand on top of each other’s canopies. It looked bloody difficult at the best of times. Doing it in the dark at 30,000 feet must be almost impossible.

‘Yeah,’ said Kat. ‘Didn’t have time to explain on the plane. It’s how we make sure we don’t lose each other. We glide in, in stack formation. We’re all on GPS, so we can use that to guide us to the island and the DZ. You’ll hear the rest of the team coming in now. Johnny’s first.’

Ethan just caught the faint flapping sound of a canopy, then heard Johnny’s voice over the chat-net.

‘Kat, I’m coming in.’

‘OK,’ she said. ‘Eth, you might feel a faint tug from above; it’s just Johnny locking his legs into our lines. No need to panic.’

Ethan felt the tug as soon as she finished speaking.

‘I’m on,’ came Johnny’s voice again. ‘Natalya? Luke?’

‘Coming in.’ That was Luke.

Finally Natalya drifted in and they were all locked in formation.

‘Ethan, you need to check the dial on your oxygen bottle,’ said Kat. ‘Make sure it isn’t in the red.’

Ethan didn’t ask what they’d do if it was, just did exactly as she said. It wasn’t in the red. Then he tried to imagine what they all looked like: four canopies drifting down through the clouds, high above France, and on target for a tiny island somewhere in the vast darkness.

He couldn’t help but smile, then laughter bubbled up inside him.

‘What’s so funny?’ asked Kat.

‘Not funny, just fantastic,’ said Ethan. ‘I can’t get the grin off my face. This is awesome!’

Kat laughed too. ‘Glad you’re enjoying it. Now, I’m afraid this journey might get a little uncomfortable; two hours hanging from a rig isn’t something you want to do every day.’

Ethan could already feel his legs aching.

‘Pull your leg straps down,’ said Kat. ‘Get them halfway down your thighs.’

Ethan did as she said and immediately felt better.

‘She’s getting frisky,’ came Johnny’s voice over the chat-net.

‘Just don’t want his balls pinched to hell on the descent,’ said Kat.

‘Thanks for the concern,’ said Ethan, and everyone else laughed. But he didn’t care. He’d never felt so alive in his life, and hearing everyone laugh over the chat-net just made him feel even more like a part of the team.

As they continued on their journey down through the night sky, he thought back over the past few weeks. His life hadn’t just changed, it had altered course completely. Like most people he knew of his own age, he’d headed into summer feeling bored, directionless, wondering what the hell he was going to do once all the exam stuff was out of the way. And now, just a few weeks later, he was a member of a covert ops team, on a mission to rescue Sam. It felt impossible and brilliant. Ethan imagined what his dad would say if he knew, thought about the look on his face, and found himself laughing again.

Kat’s voice pulled Ethan from his thoughts: ‘Eth?’

‘Yeah?’

‘We’re OK to come off the oxygen now, OK? We’ve just dipped below twelve thousand.’

‘That went quickly,’ said Ethan. ‘It feels like we’ve only been gliding for a few minutes.’

‘More like an hour,’ Kat told him. ‘You’re enjoying it then?’

Ethan pulled off his oxygen mask. His face was wet, and the air hitting it froze the moisture instantly. ‘Too right,’ he said, despite the sudden cold. ‘It’s brilliant! I mean, what’s not to love about this?’

‘Couldn’t agree more,’ said Kat, and Ethan felt a sudden kick of g-force as the stack started to pull a turn to the left.

Kat spoke again. ‘I could stay up here for ever. Nothing matters when you’re riding the wind; everything’s so peaceful, everything makes sense.’

‘Most people wouldn’t agree though,’ said Ethan. ‘Doing this would seem completely nuts to them.’

‘The main problem with skydiving is that you have to be sexy to do it,’ Johnny chimed in. ‘That’s why I’m so good. And why so few people skydive.’

‘You must tell me how you manage to be so modest,’ said Ethan.

‘It can’t be taught,’ said Johnny. ‘You either have it or you don’t. It’s a natural talent.’

‘Skydiving’s an exclusive club,’ said Luke, coming in on the chat-net. ‘And no one can argue that being part of something exclusive isn’t appealing.’

‘And that is why it is so great,’ agreed Natalya.

‘Exactly,’ said Kat. ‘It’s one of those things you just know hardly anyone else is ever going to do. Like this – I mean, who gets to do a stack formation at nearly thirty thousand feet?’

‘So, Kat, how did you get into all this?’ asked Ethan. ‘Why skydiving? What do your parents think about it?’

‘They encouraged me,’ said Kat. ‘They were tired of me getting into trouble, doing stupid things. This way they knew I was getting a thrill and that it was legal. And besides, it got me out of their hair. All they had to lose was a few quid.’

‘She sounds so daring, so dangerous,’ said Johnny. ‘So like me.’

‘No one’s like you, Johnny. You’re definitely a one-off.’

‘Sounds like your parents are pretty cool,’ said Ethan: his own parents could never afford to pay for him to skydive – his dad would just think it was beer money wasted.

‘Honestly, I hardly see them,’ said Kat. ‘I spent most of my time with the housekeeper.’

Ethan laughed. ‘Housekeeper? We don’t even have a house!’

At this, the chat-net crackled with laughter from everyone in the stack.

‘We’re at five thousand now,’ said Kat. ‘Ethan, that’s the island over there to the left.’

Ethan looked down to where she was pointing. He could just make out some faint lights far below them in the gloom. He knew they were now gliding over the sea. If he was honest, he didn’t want it to end, but then his thoughts turned to their mission and he felt a jolt of adrenaline hit his system. He could taste the metallic flavour of it on the edge of his tongue – part fear, part exhilaration.

He loved it.

Kat’s voice brought him back to the present. ‘We land in five. Remember: legs up and land on your arse!’