Part 23 (2/2)

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 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 his life was in life was in her her hands. 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 rea.s.suring 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 b.a.l.l.s pinched to h.e.l.l 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 h.e.l.l 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.'

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