DropZone

32

Inside the sub it was warm and dry. Ethan couldn’t believe the size of the thing: it was like a small town. The captain had welcomed them on board as though they were about to set off on a cruise, all smiles and how-do-you-dos. They were taken to dry off, and given a change of clothes. Kat and Natalya had their own cabin to change in, but now all the team members were back together, drinking steaming hot mugs of sweet tea.

Ethan was still in a state of shock. The whole experience had been so extreme that he just didn’t know how to deal with it. It had been the most insane day of his life.

‘You did well,’ Sam told him. ‘All of you did.’

‘So the mission was a success then?’ asked Ethan.

Sam nodded. ‘Totally.’

‘What about a debrief?’ asked Luke.

‘We’ll do that after,’ said Sam, sipping his tea.

‘After what?’ asked Ethan.

Sam grinned. ‘The competition.’

‘You serious?’ said Kat.

‘Never more so,’ Sam replied. ‘We need you there, or people will start asking why you disappeared en route to France.’

‘But we’re in a sub,’ said Ethan. ‘At sea. How can we get to the competition now?’

‘It’s all arranged with the captain,’ said Sam. ‘We’re headed for a naval base just a few miles up the coast. You’ll be picked up there and then driven to the competition. You should arrive at about the same time as your luggage. You’ll be in good time.’

To Ethan it felt like days had passed since they had left the airport, but he realized that, in reality, it was just a matter of hours – the most intense hours of his entire life. He thought back over it all with excitement and regret. He had no idea if he’d ever get over what had happened to the man on the boat, or if he really wanted to. It was the kind of thing that stayed with you. In that short time he’d done a lot of stuff that he’d never forget – a lot of stuff he would never have thought he could do. But he’d survived it all, and that was saying something. And now he had to get his head round the skydiving competition. The mission was over.

‘One more thing,’ said Sam. ‘You need a team name. Can’t have you turning up at a skydiving competition without one, can we? Any ideas?’

Before anyone else had a chance to speak, Ethan said, ‘What about “The Raiders”?’

Everyone looked at him.

‘Fast and scary, like the canopy,’ he said. ‘Makes sense to me, anyway.’

‘Nice one, Eth,’ said Johnny, and everyone nodded.

Even Sam approved.

Ethan was gazing up into a blue sky, holding a pair of binos to his eyes. The mission felt like a distant memory – well, most of it did. Now he’d had a sleep and a meal, and it was mid afternoon. He’d just heard the faint drop in the engine revs of the plane high above the airfield where the skydiving competition was taking place. A second later, he caught sight of someone zipping through the air. He focused the binos, zoomed in, seeing the figure clearly now. He was flying through the air, feet attached to a small surfboard. The figure flipped upside down, started to spin like a corkscrew. Then he was into a somersault, then another. Just watching it gave Ethan an adrenaline rush, made him want to be up there himself.

He kept his binos focused on the skydiver as his canopy burst into life above him. He knew what that felt like, to be riding ahead of the wind, everything so quiet. At last the skydiver swooped into the DZ, zipping past spectators. People cheered and applauded as he completed a perfect landing.

Ethan put down the binos and watched as Johnny pulled off his skydiving helmet, bundled up his canopy and jogged over.

‘Nailed it,’ he said, grinning. ‘So, you going to stick with us then?’

Ethan frowned thoughtfully. In fact, he’d been thinking of nothing else for the past twenty-four hours. It was a big ‘jump’, he thought, going from being part of a skydiving team to being part of a very different kind of team – one that went on secret missions, did HAHO jumps, used explosives. And saw people being killed. He hadn’t expected the killing bit, and he still found it hard to get past. But what did he expect? The work the team did was dangerous. It came with risks. But they were trained for it. They had Sam and Gabe. And now, at the end of the most insane summer Ethan had ever experienced, he had been asked to join them. His options were simple: he either walked away now, back to his normal life and all that it could – or couldn’t – offer. Or he sealed the deal and joined the team.

He smiled. He had a feeling it was going to be the easiest decision he’d ever made. Still, it was a big one…

‘Don’t go all silent on me,’ said Johnny. ‘I fear the silence. And you must be smiling for a reason. If you don’t say something soon, some awful bollocks is going to come out of my mouth and we’ll both regret it, trust me.’

Ethan looked back up into the sky. More skydivers were coming in. He was itching for a jump himself.

‘You’re dangerous people to know,’ he said. ‘That was some serious shit we went through. I wasn’t exactly prepared for it.’

‘Isn’t that half the fun, though?’ said Johnny. ‘Not knowing what’s round the corner and dealing with it when it turns out to be a ten-foot gorilla, desperate to chew your face off?’

‘Your jokes really are crap,’ said Ethan. ‘We were almost killed.’

They were both silent for a moment, thinking about that.

‘I keep getting flashbacks,’ he went on. ‘To those x-rays who walked into the Claymores on the beach. That guy we were fighting when Sam appeared and shot him. That other guy I kicked off the boat…’

‘They knew what they were getting into,’ said Johnny. ‘Run around with a gun trying to kill people and bad things happen. Besides, if we hadn’t helped Sam, who knows where that disk would be now, or just how the information on it might have been used? For all we know, we’ve saved thousands of lives.’

‘Still,’ said Ethan, ‘it’s difficult to get it out of my head.’

‘I know, Eth,’ Johnny said. ‘But you can’t just focus on that. You also have to realize that you’re brilliant. You’ve got an instinct for this stuff, a knack of doing the right thing regardless of what’s going on. You don’t get flustered, you don’t panic and you’re a natural in the air. This is what you were born to do. Don’t you feel it? You’re what we need. But we are also what you need.’

Ethan looked at Johnny. Deep down, he knew that what his friend was saying was true. He was right for the team. And the team was right for him. He wasn’t just good; when it came to skydiving, dealing with danger, staying calm despite everything going to shit around him, he was a natural. He couldn’t explain why. He just was. And being on the team made him feel alive and useful and valuable in a way that nothing else in his life ever had.

Johnny said, ‘That swoop you did over the boat – it was unbelievable. And if you’d missed, I’d probably be dead. We wouldn’t be having this conversation. Look,’ he went on, ‘I’m not going to force you into this. No one is. As always, it’s down to you, your decision.’

‘I know,’ said Ethan.

‘But what I will say is that we all want you on the team, including Sam. And that’s a big deal.’

For a few moments neither of them said anything.

‘Well?’ said Johnny at last.

‘You said you wouldn’t force it.’

‘I lied.’ Johnny let his trademark grin spread across his face. ‘What do you say?’

In spite of everything, Ethan couldn’t stop grinning back. ‘I’m in,’ he said, as he’d known he would. Then his grin became a wide smile. ‘Life’s too short not to.’