'So, Ethan, you ready for your first BASE jump?'
Ethan was about to answer when shots rang out, cutting him off. He turned, spotted a group of men charging towards them from the castle.
'Move it!' yelled Sam.
Johnny looked at Ethan. 'Life's too short not to!' he said, turned and charged towards the cliff edge. He disappeared without a sound, then a loud whoop and the crack of the canopy opening told Ethan he was fine.
Kat went next, quickly followed by Luke and Natalya. Ethan heard each canopy grab air as they threw out their drogue chutes.
'It's a piece of piss,' said Sam, looking at him. 'Just run like hell, jump as far as you can, and throw out your drogue chute. Now go!'
Ethan remembered what Johnny had told him when he'd watched him and Kat do their BASE jump. He visualized it, did his best to recall what he'd seen through the binos as Kat had leaped into nothing. Suddenly shots peppered the ground near his feet. He didn't think any more; he ran.
Then he was at the cliff edge and jumping into the darkness, chucking his drogue chute out as hard as he could. He expected to feel it grab air instantly, pull out his main canopy.
It didn't.
It threw him head over arse. And now he was piling towards whatever rocks lay below him, head-first. This was nothing like a skydive.
He tumbled, tried to stabilize, but it didn't feel right. He was falling too slowly. It felt like he'd fallen off a diving board. When the hell was he going to pick up enough speed to allow his drogue to grab air and pull out his main canopy?
Panic burst in Ethan's skull. He forced himself to ignore it. He could hear the windrush getting faster he was picking up speed.
But the increased speed still wasn't enough: he still wasn't stable.
Shit...
He ran through everything he'd done, from clipping the rig on, to jumping far enough from the cliff, to throwing out the chute. He'd done it to the letter. No detail missed. Not a goddamned thing.
I'm dead...
Then the canopy blasted open above him. He looked up, checked everything, steered himself away from the cliff. For a split second he forgot what he was doing and pulled a steering toggle too hard. He nearly turned himself back into the cliff. But his reactions were so sharp now that he pulled away in time. Moments later, he had the canopy under control and was zipping through the dark, the cold sea air clammy on his skin, leaving salt on his lips.
Above him, Ethan heard Sam's canopy grab air. It was soon followed by the sound of gunfire from the clifftop. But there was nothing he could do about that now; he just had to get into the ocean and hope the sub found them all.
Ahead he spotted the rest of the team. The night was dying now and light was spilling over the horizon, making the sea visible below.
Another sound chugged into the air, and Ethan spotted the tiny dot of a boat heading out from the island. It was still a fair distance away, but the men were shooting anyway. They had obviously seen the team jump from the clifftop and were now heading directly for them.
More gunfire cracked through the air. Ethan could see that the boat was zigzagging across the water, and he guessed it was searching for them. He realized they couldn't be seen not yet anyway. But that didn't stop him feeling helpless. Like the rest of the team, he had no choice but to keep on gliding until he touched down in the sea. Then he had to hope that the x-rays in the boat wouldn't be able to find them before the sub arrived and that the ones on the cliff couldn't see them well enough to pick them off like fat geese.
Ethan heard a splash, quickly followed by three more. That meant that the only ones left in the air were him and Sam.
The boat was clearer now, no longer a dot, and he could make out two men in it. They had stopped zigzagging and were heading straight for the point where Ethan had heard the team drop into the water; they must have heard them too. They were on a collision course.
Without hesitation, Ethan pulled hard on his steering lines, altered course. He knew there was no point just piling into the water with the rest of the team. The men in the boat would be on them in a moment, and then they'd all be dead. He had to intercept the boat before it reached them. If he could get to it first and put it out of action, they'd have a chance of surviving till the sub arrived. It would be a gamble; he'd have to time it just right, come in fast enough to slam into the two x-rays and take them out of the equation. Perhaps it wouldn't work. Perhaps they'd see him coming in and shoot him, but he figured it was better to die trying than to wait in the sea like a sitting duck. His friends were depending on him. That was all that mattered.
He gritted his teeth, focused on the boat, increased his speed, and felt the acceleration push him down into his rig. He could see that one man was armed and firing ahead, but the bouncing of the boat on the waves was sending his aim all over the place, and in spite of the crazy thing Ethan was about to do or perhaps because of it this brought a smile to his face.
Besides, flying at night across open water made him feel like he was a part of the wind itself. The slightest change and he could react to it immediately, feeling everything through the canopy and steering lines. He was flying instinctively now, everything was second nature, the canopy as much a part of him as his own body. That was enough to make anyone smile.
The boat was just ahead of him. He was coming in from the side and he was low, real low. Swooping. He could see the waves below him. The x-rays hadn't spotted him, not yet. One was driving, one firing, his rounds spraying across the water.
Ethan drew closer, lower, the sea only metres away. Then the man with the gun turned to reload his weapon and spotted Ethan. Their eyes locked. They both knew one of them was going to come out of this badly. It was all a matter of timing.
Ethan pulled his feet up, played with the steering lines to pick up any extra speed he could from the wind. He had a split second to adjust his course and get himself on target. He realized he was too low; the sea was so close now he could practically tiptoe across the waves.
The man in the boat pulled out his magazine, snapped a new one into place.
Ethan sensed the wind through the steering lines, pulled the tiniest bit, and flicked himself up just enough to skim over the edge of the boat.
The man raised the gun, but Ethan's boots slammed into his head just as he pulled the trigger. Ethan heard the bullets zip past him and felt the man's head give way under his feet. There was a sickening crunch and the guy was thrown backwards off the boat and into the sea.
Ethan didn't have time to think about what he'd done; the sea rose up and he was in it, the cold of the water pulling the air from his lungs. Then the lifesaver exploded, and his head popped up above the waves. As quickly as he could, he ripped off his rig.
'Ethan!'
He looked up, salt stinging his eyes, and saw Johnny swimming over.
'You OK?'
Ethan nodded.
'That was unbelievable!' said Johnny. 'How the hell did you ride in so accurately? Swoop of the fucking century, mate! Unreal!'
Ethan said nothing, still unable to speak after the shock of hitting the cold water.
More shots rang out. Ethan turned to see Sam coming in. The one remaining man on the boat looked up, but Sam already had him in his sights. He opened fire and sent the guy tumbling over his seat to hang over the side of the boat like a marionette with its strings cut.
Then Sam was in the water.
'What about the bloke I hit?' said Ethan. 'Where is he?'
Johnny pointed out to sea. 'Fish food,' he said. 'With the speed you were doing, you probably broke his neck. Are you sure you're OK?'
Ethan nodded, unable to find his voice, then saw Sam pull himself out of the water and into the boat. Sam tipped the body into the sea. 'May as well make use of the boat and get out of the water till the sub arrives,' he shouted.
Ethan and Johnny swam over, and Sam helped them out of the water then picked up Luke, Kat and Natalya.
'Well done, Ethan,' said Sam, sitting down in the boat. 'You probably just saved all our lives. That was quite something.'
Ethan didn't say anything; couldn't. All he could think about was the bloke he'd smashed into.
The bloke he'd killed.
He hadn't intended to kill him. He'd just acted instinctively to save the lives of his friends. But the sobering fact of the man's death chilled him more than the sea. Ethan didn't know what to feel except cold and numb.
A hand fell on his shoulder. 'Sam's right. You saved everyone's lives,' said Johnny. 'If you hadn't done what you did, we'd all be dead. Even you. Remember that. It was him or everyone else.'
'But I killed him,' said Ethan, the thought making him feel sick. He put his head over the side of the boat and threw up.
Sam came up behind him. 'You had no choice you know that, don't you?'
Ethan nodded.
'There's no such thing as a good death, but sometimes, when your hand is forced, tough decisions have to be made. And you made the right one.'
'If I'd known I was going to end up killing someone...' said Ethan, but his voice drifted away. He didn't know what to say.
'Our aim is always to leave as clean as we go in,' said Sam. 'We're not about charging in, guns blazing. To be frank, this went tits up. But you, Ethan... well, you saved it from becoming a total screw-up. You should be proud. Not happy, but proud. It's different.'
Ethan looked at him. The man talked sense and he didn't piss around trying to make you feel better just for the sake of it. He liked that. 'I just hope something like that never happens again,' he said.
'We all do,' said Sam. 'But we also need to be ready in case it does.'
Luke looked over at Ethan. 'They'd have probably run us down first before shooting us. Either way, we wouldn't have stood a chance. You did the right thing.'
'You think so?'
'Know so,' said Sam. 'Feeling better?'
Ethan nodded.
Sam turned and pushed the throttle forward, taking them further out to sea.
Ahead, Ethan could see something breaking through the surface of the waves: a large grey shape pushing through the water like a whale.
The sub.
CHAPTER 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?'