'Help yourself,' said Ethan.
'Thanks, I will,' said Johnny, taking another swig before handing it back.
They were both sitting outside the hangar, rigged up and ready for another jump, their second of the day. FreeFall was busy, business was good. It was a couple of weeks since the run-in with Jake, and despite the damage to the rigs, Sam had managed to call in a few favours and everything was running smoothly. Nothing about Jake's unwelcome visit had been mentioned since. They had cobbled together a believable cover story to explain their bruises a run-in between a tree and Johnny's motorbike.
Ethan's final two consolidation jumps had gone by so quickly and smoothly he'd hardly noticed them. He was now diving solo and getting in at least one jump a day, depending on the weather and how busy things were at FreeFall. He'd even had the chance to fly a Raider, which had been scary as hell but a total blast. Luke had laid it on thick with the instructions for flying such a responsive canopy. Ethan had listened carefully, and it had paid off because the thing had handled amazingly like it was hardwired to the wind; you directed it, it didn't hesitate. And it was tiny no bigger than a fashionable daysack when it was packed up, little larger than a power kite when deployed. And, as Johnny had said back when Ethan had met him on his first day at FreeFall, small, fast and scary.
A shadow fell across Ethan and Johnny and they looked up to find Sam standing over them, binoculars in his hand.
'Another good jump, Ethan,' he said. 'Well done.'
'Thanks,' said Ethan to Sam's back as he headed off to his office.
'A man of few words,' said Johnny, and Ethan nodded. 'Incidentally, are you trying to make a habit of impressing him?'
Ethan turned at Johnny's question. 'What do you mean?'
'Well, just look at you. It's like you belong here or something. From tandem rookie to skydiver in just a few weeks. It's pretty impressive.'
'No it's not,' said Ethan, shrugging. 'It's like most things: do what you're told to do and do it properly and you'll probably be OK at it.'
'Don't sell yourself short,' said Johnny. 'Sam really is impressed. So am I. You remind me of someone brilliant.'
'Who?'
'Me.'
Ethan laughed. 'How do you cope with being you?'
'It's hard,' said Johnny. 'You wouldn't be able to hack it. The girls, the glamour; it's tough.'
'You bear it well, all things considered.'
Another shadow cast itself over the conversation. This time Ethan and Johnny looked up to see Kat. She too was rigged up.
'Hey,' she said, and sat down opposite them.
'Kat,' said Johnny. 'How's Jake?'
Kat looked at him. 'Is there ever a moment in your life when you think before you speak?'
'Never,' said Johnny. 'So what was the attraction anyway?'
'He drove it,' said Kat, and stalked off.
Ethan went after her, catching up with her in a few strides, racking his brain for a topic of conversation.
'So you bought one yet, then?' he came up with, falling into step beside her. 'You know, one of those fancy skydiving helmets you were talking about?'
'Yeah. Ordered it yesterday. Arrives at the weekend.'
'What's it like?'
Kat stopped and looked round at Ethan. 'It's like a helmet, Ethan. You put it on your head.'
The conversation had dropped dead, so he asked, 'You OK?'
'What, apart from being boyfriend-less?'
Johnny came up and butted in. 'You're better off without a tosser like that, especially after what he did.'
Kat turned on him. 'He made a mistake,' she said. 'That's all. What, like you're the perfect skydiver? You've never messed up? Not even once?'
'I'm not talking about the skydive,' said Johnny.
Ethan looked at him. 'Sam said he'd deal with it.'
'She has to know,' said Johnny, and he turned back to Kat. 'We found him ruining the rigs. Him and a couple of other blokes built like trolls.'
'Shut up,' said Kat.
'It's true,' Ethan told her. 'They ruined stacks of stuff. Sam was able to sort it out, but the damage was pretty bad. It got a bit rough. Jake must've had a fair few bruises on him.'
Kat shook her head. 'Jake wouldn't do that,' she said. 'And the bruises... he said they were from a bar fight he got into. Anyway, he's all mouth. Doesn't have the balls.'
'You believe what you want,' said Johnny. 'And then ask Sam.'
For a moment no one said anything. The silence stretched on as Kat scowled at them both.
Again Ethan desperately thought of something to say to break the awkwardness. 'So how did you get into skydiving exactly?' he asked Kat.
'Same as you,' she said, shrugging. 'Tandem, then AFF. It's not that difficult really, you know. Anyone can do it.'
'Oh, I wouldn't be so sure,' said Johnny. 'Ethan's a natural. Not as good as me, obviously, but still pretty brilliant. Aren't you, Eth?' He slapped Ethan hard on the back and Ethan shrugged, looked at Kat, attempted an apologetic smile.
The look Kat returned was cold, her eyes narrow. 'It takes more than a few jumps and an ego to make a skydiver, Ethan,' she said flatly. Then she headed for the minibus as it pulled up to ferry the next group of jumpers to the plane. It was pretty clear to Ethan that she wanted him to shut up.
'Come on, Eth,' said Johnny. 'We're jumping too.' Then he shouted ahead to Kat, 'If you want, I'll go first show you how it should be done.'
'You're so full of shit,' said Kat without looking back.
Ethan and Johnny watched her walk away.
'Prickly today, isn't she?' said Johnny. 'Ready?'
'Sure am,' said Ethan, and the two of them followed Kat into the minibus.
Ethan found himself alone with her in the back of the plane. They were over the DZ and everyone else had jumped. Johnny had done so in a particularly elaborate fashion, faking being shot and then stumbling backwards out of the open door with a deathly scream that neither Ethan nor Kat could hear because of the wind. Ethan was still laughing about it when Kat stood to go.
Ethan waved, smiled.
Kat looked back, but didn't return the wave or the smile. She was obviously still angry about Jake. But there was nothing Ethan could do about it. At least she now knew the truth about what Jake had done to the rigs not that she believed it. So he just smiled again, and watched as she stood at the door, ready to jump.
Suddenly the plane lurched. Ethan felt it buck beneath him and drop. He landed back in his seat with a heavy thump. And at the same time, he saw Kat stumble, try to catch herself...
Fall.
She cracked her head against the edge of the plane door as she did so. Ethan didn't hear it, but seeing it happen was enough to make his stomach flip. Then her body just sort of slumped and slid round the edge of the door and out into open air. But as she fell, her rig caught on the door it was the nightmare scenario. Ethan watched helplessly as Kat's main canopy pulled open, then tangled, and became nothing more than a useless bag of silk, the lines twisted.
He was instantly reminded of what had happened to Jake. He remembered what Luke had said about the AAD: it would deploy at 750 feet and catch Kat before she hit dirt. But if her canopy was still flapping around, it could just as easily get tangled with it and fail.
Ethan ran over to the door. He could just make out Kat plummeting downwards, spinning out of control towards the Earth. Her canopy was towing behind her like a huge scarf it would have to be cut away. Ethan knew only one person had any hope of reaching the handle on the harness to release the canopy and then deploy the reserve.
So he leaped out after her.
He arched, flipped, stabilized. He could see Kat far off and below to his left. She was still spinning, totally out of control. All he could think about, his entire focus, was Kat and how he was going to stop her smashing into the ground. He pushed his arms back and shot forward, accelerating fast, tracking across the sky like an Exocet missile.
It seemed to Ethan that the next few seconds stretched out for ever. Kat was so far away, and had such a head start on him. He checked his altimeter: 9,000 feet pinged past. Then 8,000.
Suddenly he was level with Kat. She appeared so abruptly in front of him that he had to really struggle to keep himself stable. Now, though, they were falling at the same rate, 120 mph terminal velocity. She was spinning wildly and Ethan had to get close enough to deploy her canopy which meant really, really close. So with little movements of his body here and there, he gradually, ever so gradually, edged forward.
Ethan checked his altimeter. Checked it again. They'd pinged past 7,000 feet now. They were running out of time. He had to hurry, get in before they both hit the dirt.
He could almost hear the seconds ticking by.
His best bet, he figured, was to aim for the handle that would cut away the main canopy. That way, even if he wasn't able to pull the reserve, Kat's AAD would sort it out, and he'd have enough time to push away and deploy his own canopy.
6,000 feet...
So, with a final move, Ethan brought himself in towards Kat, reaching out to grab her with both hands.
But he came in too fast, too hard, and didn't have a chance to stop himself and slow down. The thump as he connected with her sent a shockwave through him, and he felt something in his left shoulder pop. Then his arm went numb. Dead to the world.
5,000 feet...
Now they were both in trouble: Kat was out of control and unconscious, and Ethan had one arm totally out of action. Amazingly, he'd managed to keep hold of Kat with his right hand, and it was on the handle that would cut away Kat's canopy. Keeping himself calm, Ethan managed to get them both stable; then, with a huge yank, he tugged the handle.
4,000 feet...
Kat's main canopy disappeared above. She and Ethan continued to plummet downwards at 120 mph.
Ethan saw the handle to pull Kat's reserve. With a deep breath, he lunged for it, felt his fingers close round it, and yanked.
Kat, still unconscious, disappeared, swept up above him by the explosion of her reserve. But all Ethan could think about, as he tracked away to find some safe air, was that he was seriously in the shit; with his arm out of action, he was unable to reach his ripcord to release his own canopy. He twisted round, but his arm hurt like hell, wouldn't move. He tried again, but the movement sent him into a spin and he floundered in the air, unstable. Ignoring the pain, the panic, he righted himself, got back on track for the DZ, then had another go, tried to reach across, couldn't...
Ethan checked his altimeter. He'd just pinged past 3,000 feet.
SHIT!
CHAPTER 17
He didn't have time to think about how bad everything was. What he had to do was get the hell out of the deep shit he found himself in. The thought that in saving Kat's life he could soon be ending his own really pissed him off.
Get a grip, he told himself. Focus. Focus.
Unable to reach the ripcord for his main canopy, he was now reliant on his reserve. There were two ways to activate that: use his good arm, the one still keeping him stable, to pull the toggle and release the reserve; or do nothing and trust the AAD to do its stuff. If he reached over to pull the toggle, he'd spin and lose control. The spin could cause the lines to twist and that would be it bounce time. But if he did nothing and the AAD failed, he was dead anyway.
The altimeter pinged again he'd just passed 2,000.
He didn't like leaving things up to fate and his equipment. He gritted his teeth and went for the toggle. But, as expected, the movement of his good arm spun him violently to the right, straining his neck. He tried again and again, but each time he came within inches of the toggle, then spun again.
Ethan heard his altimeter ping. He'd zipped past 1,000 feet. Everything was now down to the AAD.
Ethan closed his eyes...
... and felt himself yanked from 120 to 10 mph in seconds. His knackered arm flapped around, then smacked him hard in the face. The sensation stung. He didn't mind though. It meant he was alive.
As Ethan glided gently to the ground, in the silence underneath his reserve canopy, he screamed. It was all he could do. He'd saved someone's life, nearly killed himself in the process, but survived none the less. It was definitely something to scream about.
When he landed, he was still screaming. The reserve, not being very manoeuvrable, had placed him a few hundred metres away from the DZ, so he just lay there for a few moments, trying to take it all in. He'd never been so close to death. It wasn't something he ever wanted to experience again. But now that he had, now that he'd been seconds away from oblivion, he felt that something monumental had changed for him. OK, so the skydiving had given him a chance to see what he was capable of, to realize that there was more to life than worrying about exams and his dad. But what he'd just done saving Kat, saving himself had made him feel more alive than ever before. In fact, it was as though he'd been asleep his whole life and had only now fully woken up. He took a deep breath, held it, breathed out. He felt absolutely and completely aware of every part of his body, like every single bit of who he was buzzed with life. Everything around him looked clearer, the colours brighter, the air fresher. He knew then that skydiving wasn't just a part of his life, it was was his life. his life.
Ethan heard a motorbike pulling up close, then someone jogging over.
'I hope you're not dead, because if you are I'll have to ride back and get the minibus to shift your sorry carcass.'
Ethan looked up to see Johnny grinning down at him. 'Nope,' he said. 'Not dead. Not even slightly.'
'Anything broken?'
Ethan waved his one good arm. 'This one works fine, the other one doesn't. I felt it pop when I bumped into Kat.'
Johnny sat down, helped him to sit up. 'You saved Kat's life, Eth.'
'And the AAD saved mine,' said Ethan. 'Kat OK?'
Johnny nodded. 'Yeah, but she's gone to the hospital for a check-up. Sam spotted her first. He was watching the plane when she jumped. He knew something was wrong right away.'
'So he saw me jump out after her?'
'It was unbelievable, Eth, just insane...' Johnny paused. 'You know you could've been killed?'