Troubleshooters 16.8 - Free Fall

by Suzanne Brockmann

  Tony did a quick inventory and saw immediately that his main chute was gone—he’d cut away from his HAHO canopy. Or maybe Zanella had cut away for him. Either way, their in-one-piece arrival on the ground was now up to his reserve chute, which was set to pop automatically when he reached twenty-five-hundred feet.

  Izzy’s own AAD or automatic activation device was no doubt set to pop his reserve, too, and the last thing either of them needed was for their two chutes to tangle and leave them with none. Two is one and one is none was an old SEAL adage, but this case was an exception.

  The options were a) to keep one of the reserves from its auto-open, or b) to separate from Izzy and let nature take its course.

  But if Izzy wasn’t breathing, doing that could have deadly results.

  The chief was on the same page. “You’ll be low enough soon, Vlachic. Pull Zanella’s mask, and set reserves to manual.”

  “Already done, Chief.”

  “You’ll hit the ground before me,” Lopez told him. “I’ll try to open lower so I’m right behind you, but remember, the added weight will bring you in hard and fast.”

  Tony knew that, glancing again at his altimeter. “I’m ready,” he said.

  “Go!” Lopez ordered, and Tony popped his reserve chute and clung like a bastard to Izzy.

  He would not let go. He would not let go.

  “Reserve chute is open,” Lopez’s voice reassured him through his headset, “and looking good.”

  In Tony’s arms, Izzy coughed and then retched and then, yes, threw up down the fronts of both of their uniforms.

  Another reason Chief Lopez had wanted that mask off—hypoxia usually made Zanella hurl. Part of the SEALs’ training was to take a class in which they experienced the intense effects of hypoxia—in order to learn to identify it quickly when it happened. And since symptoms changed with age or with weight gain or loss, it was a class they all took a little too regularly.

  “Ah, fuck,” Izzy mumbled as they drifted to the earth. “Sorry, man . . .”

  “I knew it was coming,” Tony told the teammate who’d saved his life. “In fact, I hoped it was coming.”

  “Then, by all means, You’re welcome,” Izzy said in between his attempts to suck in air.

  “Heads up, Vlachic,” the chief’s voice sharpened. “Pay attention—”

  “I am,” Tony cut him off. “I got it.” SEALs practiced for this, too, and he braced for the larger than normal jolt—kind of like jumping down a flight of stairs with a two hundred pound pack on his back. His knees were gonna feel this, no doubt about it.

  But he threw himself forward into a kind of an awkward run as they landed, letting the motion push him forward instead of resisting and trying to stick the dismount. It was fugly, but it worked, and he and Izzy ended up in a tangle on the rocky desert ground with a relatively small amount of scrapes and bruises.

  “Fuck!” Tony heard Chief Lopez utter a rare-for-him obscenity, followed by several strongly worded statements in Spanish.

  “No,” Tony assured the chief as he released the reserve chute, ensuring that a gust of wind wouldn’t drag them any farther. “We’re okay. Repeat, we’re okay.” He and Izzy just lay there for a moment, catching their breath, vomit covered, but fantastically, gloriously alive.

  “Fuck,” Lopez breathed again, more quietly this time as he crawled toward Tony and Izzy.

  In fact, if Tony hadn’t still been connected to Izzy via a collection of bungee cords, he would’ve gone to assist the chief, who was clearly dragging his right leg behind him.

  “Portable hyperbaric tanks are on their way,” Lopez said as he helped them unhook from one another.

  “And the pizza?” Izzy asked, still lying on his back. He turned his head to look at Tony. “I ordered us a coupla pizzas, too. Extra cheese. We might want to shower first, though.” But then he noticed Lopez wince. “You okay, bro? Chief?” He laughed. “Gotta get used to that.”

  The chief smiled tightly at them both. “I was a little too focused on your landing instead of mine.”

  Izzy pushed himself up slightly, narrowing his eyes. “Ankle or knee?” he asked.

  “Knee,” Lopez admitted. “But I’ll be all right. As far as potential injuries go, this is minor.”

  Izzy nodded, but it was clear he didn’t believe Lopez. Tony didn’t either—the man was obviously hurt. But everyone handled pain in their own way, and he knew that what Jay Lopez needed right now was for them to cosign his bullshit.

  Again, they all just lay there for a moment, looking up at the sky. Tony could just barely make out the stack of HAHO canopies—the other SEALs—floating into view.

  “So what the hell happened?” he asked, and as the words came out of his mouth, he knew the answer. There was only one good reason he’d be hooked into Izzy’s O2.

  “Your oxygen failed,” Izzy said, adding, “No biggie.”

  More bullshit to tie up with a neat bow. But okay. The no biggie route was exactly how he himself would’ve reported this incident to Adam, early on in their relationship.

  But Adam had made it clear, also early on, that no biggie would not fly.

  “I hope,” Izzy mused, as Tony sat up and started peeling off his soiled uniform shirt, “they bring beer with that pizza, because the inside of my mouth tastes like ass.”

  “Pizza after hyperbaric decompression,” Lopez reminded him, and then sat up, too, as the chatter from a distant but approaching helo got gradually louder. He dug for a bottle of water and handed it to Izzy, who used the first spray to rinse and spit before passing it on to Tony.

  “A man can dream,” Izzy said, then broke into song. “Sometimes, all I need is a pizza to eat!” He laughed. “Sorry. Song’s stuck in my head. Pizza is, too, but pizza generally takes up a lotta real estate when I’m this hungry, post breakfast-giveback.”

  Tony laughed as he handed the water bottle back to Izzy. But when the big SEAL reached for it, Tony hung on, forcing eye contact.

  “Seriously,” Tony said. “How bad was it?”

  Izzy just shook his head—it was clear he was sticking with his no biggie reality. It was the Chief who quietly said, “You and Adam might want to consider naming your firstborn Irving.”

  “God, no,” Izzy said, recoiling. “Not only is that child abuse—and trust me, I know. But we’re even. I helped you, you helped me. And here we are. On the ground and unharmed. That’s how this works.”

  But Tony persisted. “If my oxygen really did fail at thirty thousand feet—”

  “Not if, bro,” Izzy pointed out. “It failed. Really. But the system didn’t. The system worked.” He smiled, then, but he stayed dead serious for a change. “That’s what we tell Eden and Adam,” he continued. “Right? Not Whoops, we almost died so everyone freak the fuck out, but Good news, sweetheart, the system works.” He went on as if he were Tony talking to Adam, even going so far as to mimic Tony’s slightly lower voice, “Hey, babe, yeah, so my equipment malfunctioned, but my teammates’ quick thinking along with their expert-level skill from years of training turned a dangerous situation into a technical problem that was safely solved. Boom. This could have been catastrophic. But it wasn’t because . . .” He held out his hands in a gesture that was half tah-dah and half gracious acceptance of imaginary applause. “SEALs. It’s actually a good thing, today’s malfunction, because it’s proof that despite the danger, we can handle anything that’s thrown at us.”

  Tony nodded, but then shook his head. “That last bit? A good thing?”

  “Yeah, I heard that coming out of my mouth,” Izzy said, raising his voice to be heard over the approaching helo, “and I also thought, nope. I say good thing about anything like this and Eden’s gonna start narrowing her eyes. The message is We’re good at what we do and we’re not alone. SEAL team. That means something. And she knows it. Adam does, too.”

  Tony nodded again. “He worries. A lot.”

  “Best we can do,” Izzy said, “is just keep coming home.” He then held up
his hand in a Vulcan salute, from Star Trek. “I have been, and ever shall be, your friend . . .”

  Tony must’ve looked surprised or maybe confused, because Izzy immediately explained, “The portable hyperbaric chamber looks like that white pod from Star Trek II, you know, Spock’s coffin, only it went down to the Genesis planet so he was reborn and—”

  “I know my Trek,” Tony cut him off. “But that’s what Adam needs to hear. Yeah, we’re good at what we do, and SEAL team, you’re right, but . . .” He looked from Izzy to Jay Lopez and back, “Bottom line is that I’m lucky as hell to have friends like you.”

  ****

  Chapter Nine

  Ben didn’t have a concussion, thank the Lord.

  And the SEAL team—including Izzy, Danny, and Adam’s Tony—had returned to Coronado, but not without mishap.

  Jay Lopez had apparently landed wrong, and really messed up his knee.

  Plus, there had been some glitch that had put both Tony and Izzy into hyperbaric chambers. Allegedly “as a precaution.”

  Eden had stepped away from the latest round of wine tasting to take Adam’s call out on the winery’s porch. He’d been diligently texting with reports about both Ben and the HAHO jump, but now he said the words she’d been waiting to hear: “Tony and Izzy are fine. I’m looking at them both right now. They’re in my living room. Danny, too.” And then he said the words that convinced her that her husband truly was okay: “Izzy’s gonna call you in a second—because he knows I’m on with you he’s ordering a pizza first.”

  “Oh, thank God,” Eden said on an exhale. She looked up to see that Jenn had followed her outside. “They’re okay. Danny, too.” She asked Adam, “How’s Jay?”

  “Chief Lopez is getting X-rays and, I don’t know, maybe an MRI?” Adam reported. “He’s pretending his knee’s okay, but . . . I dunno. Mark Jenkins is with him. Danny and Izzy came here to pick up Ben and—”

  His voice cut off as Izzy, no doubt, took his phone. Because there was Izzy’s familiar, warm voice suddenly in Eden’s ear. “Hey, sweetheart.”

  “Izzy,” she said. “Hi,” and Jenn faded back inside to give her privacy.

  “How’s Napa?” he asked.

  “Beautiful and delicious,” she told him. “Jenni and I are only tasting vinegar and olive oil, and, you know, grape juice—” She cut herself off. “You’re really okay?”

  “I am,” he said. “But.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “There was a mishap. Tony’s oxygen malfunctioned, but we figured it out and got him to the ground safely.”

  Eden wasn’t fooled by his use of the plural we and she sat down on a bench because her knees were suddenly weak. “But just you and Tony went into the tank thing. Although Jay Lopez was the one whose knee got hurt . . . ”

  “He landed wrong,” Izzy explained. “He was following us—faster than the other guys, who were still in the HAHO stack—in case we needed medical attention.”

  “We being you and Tony,” she clarified.

  “Yeah,” Izzy said. “I was in the best position to help Tony when his O2 failed, so I did.” He then went into detail, telling her exactly what had happened, what he’d done, and what Tony had ultimately done.

  Dear God. Eden was glad she was sitting down. “On the danger scale of one to ten—” she started.

  Izzy didn’t hesitate. “Two,” he said. “The situation was not a walk in the park, but . . . Well, think of it like this, Eed. Tony needed help, and I went to help him first—and it got done. If it hadn’t, then Danny would’ve gone to help Tony and me. And if Danny had failed, then Jenk or the CO or even Ferd the FNG would’ve done it. But we didn’t get that far. We didn’t need to. Right?”

  Eden felt herself nodding. “Right,” she said. “Good. Thank you for being honest with me.”

  “Always,” he promised.

  “Is Adam freaking out?” she asked.

  “Adam is...” Izzy paused. “Ah, they went out in the back yard to talk and... No freaking, at least not visible from the window. And big Hollywood kiss. Someone’s having I came closer than usual to dying today sex tonight, and sadly it’s not me.”

  Eden laughed and said the words she knew Adam was saying, right now, to Tony, out in their flower-filled back yard. “I love you.” She added, “I’ll be home tomorrow night.”

  “And I,” Izzy said, “will be right here, waiting for you.”

  Provided he didn’t deploy . . .

  But that was like the Navy SEAL version of adding “in bed” to every Chinese cookie fortune. You will meet a tall, handsome stranger . . . in bed. Your luck is about to change . . . in bed. I’ll be right here, waiting for you . . . provided I don’t deploy. We’ll be having a wonderful anniversary party with all of our friends . . . provided he doesn’t deploy.

  It was part of being married to a Navy SEAL. Of course, as Izzy had pointed out, another part of being married to a Navy SEAL meant there were dozens of highly skilled and relentlessly trained teammates always ready to dive out of the sky to protect her husband.

  “Don’t let Danny be too rough on Ben tonight,” she warned Izzy. “Adam told me the fight was started by some ass-hat who was bullying some younger boys. Ben stepped in. And I know, he should’ve gone for help, but . . .”

  “He’s a Gillman,” Izzy finished for her. “The Force is strong in that one. I don’t think we need to worry about Dan getting on Ben’s case about this. Not tonight anyway. We’re just gonna make some dinner, chill, maybe glom a little more Glee.”

  “Danny’s actually watching Glee with you and Ben,” Eden repeated in flat disbelief.

  “It was his idea,” Izzy told her. “He heard that the show has an awesome gay character who has a really cool dad, and well, I’m not sure Ben even likes it, his tastes run more to the Coen Brothers. But he really loves that Dan put that much thought into it, you know?”

  “Yeah,” Eden said. “I kinda love that, too.”

  There was silence then, for just a moment, then Izzy said, “Life is pretty good today, huh?”

  “Pizza arrive?” she asked.

  He laughed. “You know me well, my darling. Yeah. Delivery car just pulled up out front.”

  “Life is good,” Eden agreed. “We should see if Jay needs any help getting around over the next few weeks. Tell him when I get back, I’ll do a grocery run.”

  “I love you,” Izzy told her. “Madly.”

  “Hug Adam for me, too,” she said. “And tell him what you told me, you know, the whole If you hadn’t saved Tony, Danny would’ve. And if Danny couldn’t, Mark would’ve and so on. Thinking of it that way helps. A lot.”

  “I’m pretty sure Tony already told him that,” Izzy said. He pulled away from the phone a bit to say, “Yeah, thanks, bro. I’ll pay you back.”

  “Danny paid for the pizza?” Eden asked even though she already knew the answer. “You should go. Eat.”

  “Are you really okay?” he asked.

  “I am,” she said, because she really was.

  And in the same way that Eden trusted him to be honest about the many things that truly mattered, Izzy trusted her. “I’ll call you later,” he said.

  After Eden cut the connection, she sat for a little bit longer on that porch bench, just looking out at the rolling hills of the vineyard that surrounded her. It was almost insanely beautiful there, and life was good.

  Still, she sent a text to Adam before she went back inside: I’m here if you want to talk. Anytime. PS it’s okay to feel overwhelmed and terrified.

  She sent a text to her little brother, too, using his long-ago childhood nickname: I love you and I’m proud of you but holy crap, Boo-Boo.

  Since Ben and Adam were in the same room as Izzy and pizza, she didn’t expect immediate replies.

  But she knew she’d hear from them both, eventually.

  Because just as the men in Izzy’s SEAL team always had each other’s backs in the sea, on the land, and even in free fall at thirty thousa
nd feet, their spouses and families did, too.

  Dear Readers,

  Try as I might, I cannot stay away from Navy SEAL Izzy Zanella for too long. And when Izzy shows up, Danny Gillman, Mark Jenkins, Jay Lopez, and Tony Vlachic are usually not too far behind.

  The best part is that so many readers love these guys almost as much as I do. (Thank you for that!)

  This Troubleshooters short story was originally published in a limited edition print booklet, as a bonus extra for the hardcover virtual signing of my YA novel, Night Sky. As promised, here it is -- Free Fall -- in e-book format, for those of you who prefer your Izzy in digital download.

  A quick heads up: Another TS short will be coming at you soon. I’ve got a story called Home Fire Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn) being published in a military romantic suspense charity anthology titled Way of the Warrior. It’s available in May 2015, in paperback and e-book, and includes stories by Catherine Mann, Julie Ann Walker, and Anne Elizabeth, too -- and all proceeds from authors and publisher alike will go directly to The Wounded Warrior Project. (Hoo-yah!)

  Home Fire Inferno is set just a few weeks after Free Fall, and it’ll let you spend a bit more quality time with Izzy (and Danny and Jenk and Tony), who are out in the World, getting their big, bad Navy SEAL on. Meanwhile, back in California, Izzy’s wife Eden and Danny’s wife Jenn set the home fires a-burnin’ in a rather epic and awesome blaze. (Jay Lopez, who is “Left Behind,” helps.) And remember the mysterious SEAL nicknamed HoboMofo? You’ll finally have a chance to meet him. (I think it was well worth the wait! I love ’Fo rather madly and I hope you will, too.)

  So mark May 2015 with a great big “MORE IZZY.”

  One more thing: If you liked Free Fall, I’d appreciate it greatly if you’d post a review or toss it some shiny stars and/or digital buckets o’ love at your favorite on-line bookseller. (Thank you!) And pop over and visit me on my website at www.SuzanneBrockmann.com. You can also find me on my Facebook page at SuzanneBrockmannBooks, or give me a shout on Twitter @SuzBrockmann.