by Andy McNab
Johnny grinned. ‘Luke?’
Luke looked up.
‘How are your chips?’
‘They’re fine,’ said Luke, biting into one. ‘Why?’
‘Oh, I just wondered, you know, if they were sufficiently straight for you, that’s all. I can go and get a ruler from Sam’s office for you if you want, just to make sure.’
Luke ignored Johnny – Ethan could see it was something he was well used to – and simply carried on eating.
‘I’m surprised you know what a ruler is, Johnny,’ said Kat, over the top of her mug. ‘Kind of implies you’ve had time for things in your life other than perfecting the skill of being a flash git.’
Ethan stood and watched as the group joked around.
‘I’m not flash,’ said Johnny, faking emotional hurt. ‘I’m just very, very good, that’s all. And if I hide my talent, how are you lot ever going to learn? You need something to aspire to. A target. And that’s me.’
‘With a mouth the size of yours,’ said Luke, ‘there’s already a large enough target.’
Johnny burst out laughing; the others, including Ethan, joined in.
As the laughter subsided, Kat asked, ‘Where’s Jake?’
Natalya looked over. ‘He landed way out from the DZ. Maybe he had to cut away.’
‘Cut away?’ asked Ethan, remembering Sam mentioning it as they’d watched.
‘If your main canopy fails,’ explained Kat, ‘then you have to let it go so you can deploy your reserve.’
‘Well, that’s definitely what he did then,’ said Ethan.
Everyone looked up.
‘What happened?’ asked Kat.
Ethan saw her face flicker with concern. Everyone else was looking at him. ‘I was with Sam,’ he said. ‘I was watching you all come in: you pulled your canopies and everything was fine. Then I noticed someone just falling.’
‘How do you mean?’ asked Luke. ‘Was something wrong with the canopy?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Ethan, and he wasn’t lying. All he could tell them is what he’d seen and what Sam had told him. ‘Sam did wonder why the canopy hadn’t been cut away sooner.’
Kat looked really worried now, he realized, and so did the rest of the team.
‘I think he was just touching a thousand feet when he finally cut the main canopy away,’ he went on, trying to remember exactly what he’d seen. ‘Then a smaller canopy snapped out and caught air. Sam could tell it was Jake through the binos.’
‘Below a thousand?’ said Kat. ‘But that’s insane. No one would leave it that late.’
‘He must’ve got too wrapped up in sorting out his main canopy,’ said Johnny. ‘Probably lost altitude awareness.’
‘He’s bloody lucky the AAD worked,’ said Luke. ‘If it hadn’t…’ He went quiet.
‘Sam mentioned the AAD,’ said Ethan. ‘And something about it maybe getting tangled in the main canopy. Is the AAD an automatic device or something?’
‘That’s exactly what it is,’ Luke told him. ‘AAD stands for Automatic Activation Device. You don’t have to wear one, but Sam insists we all do.’
‘I don’t blame him,’ said Ethan. ‘I don’t think I’d want to jump without one, having just seen what happened to Jake.’
‘Safety, safety, safety,’ said Luke. ‘Means if the jumper’s had to cut away from his main canopy but can’t pull his reserve for whatever reason, then he’s still not completely in the shit. It deploys at seven hundred and fifty feet – just enough time to save your life. But it can go tits up if your main chute is still attached. Jake’s lucky as hell.’
Johnny leaned back in his chair, then glanced at Luke. ‘It’s all true,’ he confirmed. ‘As I said, Luke’s all about the detail. What he doesn’t know isn’t worth knowing.’ Then he winked at Ethan. ‘But there’s something you don’t know about Luke: he doesn’t need a reserve – do you, mate?’
Ethan saw the look on Luke’s face and just knew that whatever Johnny was about to say next, he’d heard it far too many times before.
‘He just uses the force, don’t you, Luke?’
Luke sighed. Heavily. ‘Here we go again…’
Johnny picked up his now empty mug, placed it against his mouth, and spoke into it, his voice deep and resonating.
‘I find your lack of faith disturbing…’
It was a perfect Darth Vader impression.
Kat giggled. Nat almost smiled. Ethan muffled a laugh.
Johnny continued, holding his knife in his hand like a light sabre. ‘You underestimate the power of the dark side.’
Luke did his best to ignore Johnny and continued to eat his chips.
But Johnny wasn’t giving up. He was on his feet now and breathing heavily into his mug. He waved his knife around. ‘When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master!’
Everyone laughed, including Luke. Even Natalya joined in.
‘Not bad,’ said Ethan. ‘Pretty convincing impression. You should act.’
‘His whole life’s an act,’ said Kat.
Her expression hardened suddenly, and Ethan turned to see that Jake had come in.
‘Thanks for waiting for me, guys. Not.’ He slammed the café door behind him and came over.
Kat was first to speak. ‘What the hell happened, Jake? What went wrong?’
‘Nothing happened, babe,’ said Jake, sliding his arm around her waist. ‘I had it all under control.’
He leaned in for a kiss, but Ethan saw Kat pull away.
‘Bullshit, Jake, and you know it,’ she said.
‘Would I lie to you? Would I? Everything was fine. Don’t you trust me?’
Kat pushed him away, looking annoyed and confused.
Natalya stepped in. ‘Your canopy was dead, Jake,’ she said, her voice sharp. ‘You should have cut away, but you did not. Instead, you kept fighting it. Kat was right – this is bullshit. You are always full of it.’
‘Shut it, Nat,’ snapped Jake. ‘I lost altitude awareness, that’s all, thought I could sort out my main canopy. The AAD saved me, didn’t it? That’s what it’s for, right? What’s the problem?’
Ethan saw the look on Natalya’s face; it could’ve burned through lead. He was beginning to think she wasn’t the kind of person you wanted to piss off.
‘You are dangerous, Jake,’ she said, tight-lipped. ‘I’m not sure I want to jump with you again. Kill yourself – I do not care. Kill one of us? That is different.’
‘She’s got a point,’ said Johnny. ‘You should’ve cut away at two thousand, pulled the reserve yourself. An AAD’s only in case of emergency. It’s too bloody risky to depend on it like that. You could have been killed. AADs aren’t foolproof.’
Jake gave an awkward laugh and tried to look relaxed. ‘I had it all under control. It was just an error of judgement, that’s all.’
‘It is errors of judgement that get us killed,’ hissed Natalya. ‘And you make too many of them, Jake.’
‘Look,’ said Jake, ‘like I said, I got too focused on sorting out my canopy, forgot to check my altimeter, that’s all. I’m here, aren’t I?’
‘You were about five seconds from impact,’ said Luke, his voice calm. ‘If your AAD had failed, or if your reserve had got tangled with your main canopy, we’d be scraping you off the ground now instead of sitting here arguing. What were you thinking?’
‘How do you know what happened anyway?’ asked Jake, scowling now. ‘You were all still in the air.’ Then he saw Ethan. He pushed away from Kat and came over, got in Ethan’s face. ‘You tell them all this, Rookie?’
‘I saw you falling,’ said Ethan. ‘I was with Sam.’
‘So you finked on me? You ran and told the big scary boss man?’
‘Hang it,’ said Johnny, getting up and coming across. ‘Sam was with Ethan. Ethan didn’t have to tell him anything. Sam saw it all. Ethan just told us your canopy grabbed air at under a thousand; we guessed the rest.’
‘But nothing happened, did it?’ said Ja
ke, now turning to Johnny. ‘And all this dick’s done is stir things up – hey, Rookie?’
Ethan was about to respond when a voice shot across the café.
‘Jake!’
Everyone fell silent.
Sam was standing in the archway leading from the café to the bar area.
‘Hey, Sam!’ Jake grinned. ‘Everything’s cool, man. Had it all under control. And the rush – you haven’t skydived till you’ve flown that close to wiping out! It was just awesome!’
Sam came over. He towered over the gang, his shadow falling across Jake.
‘My office. Now.’
Jake opened his mouth to reply.
‘Now, Jake,’ said Sam. ‘ Now.’
And seeing the look on Sam’s face – even though he wasn’t the one being called into his office – Ethan felt sick.
When Jake had left with Sam, Johnny flicked a glance at the rest of the gang. ‘Dead man walking,’ he said flatly.
No one argued.
8
Ethan heard Jake before he saw him. The crack of Sam’s office door slamming split the air.
Ethan turned, saw Jake storming towards him.
‘Rookie!’
Kat stood up and tried to stop him, but he pushed her out of the way and walked straight up to Ethan.
Ethan didn’t flinch. He’d never been one for backing down from anyone. It had got him knocked around a few times at school, but he didn’t care. Running away wasn’t part of his character.
Jake shoved Ethan in the chest. ‘I’m going to make you pay for this, Rookie…’
Ethan said nothing, did nothing. He just stood there, waiting to see what Jake would do next.
‘You hear me?’ said Jake as Kat tried to pull him away. ‘You did this. All you had to do was keep your stupid mouth shut – that’s all! You prick!’
Johnny and Luke walked over and stood between Ethan and Jake.
‘That’s it,’ said Johnny, looking straight at Jake. ‘Outside. Calm down. Now.’
Jake turned on Johnny. ‘Don’t tell me what to do, you shit!’ he screamed, and Ethan could see he was losing control.
Luke stepped in. ‘Jake, just do what Johnny suggested. Go outside and calm it.’ Then he looked at Ethan. ‘You, walk away,’ he said.
Ethan nodded and turned back towards the counter. He figured it made more sense to let this one lie than help things get out of hand. He wanted the job and he wanted the tandem, and he knew Sam wouldn’t look kindly on a fight at FreeFall.
Johnny and Luke stood firmly in Jake’s way and Kat finally managed to get him to leave the café, taking him by the arm and dragging him out.
Johnny looked at Ethan. ‘Kat was right about you,’ he said, a smile breaking through the seriousness of the moment. ‘You really do know how to make friends and influence people, don’t you?’
‘But I didn’t do anything,’ protested Ethan. ‘And what was all that about? What happened? What’s Sam done?’
Johnny and Luke sat back down at the table. Natalya hadn’t moved, but now she leaned forward and looked up.
‘The only thing he can do,’ she said. ‘If someone makes a stupid mistake like that out on the DZ, then they are grounded until they’ve learned better. With Jake, it should have happened sooner. I have never trusted him. He is too wild. Too obsessed with himself. Even more so than Johnny.’
‘Oh, you hurt me with your words,’ Johnny groaned.
‘What do you mean, grounded?’ said Ethan. ‘Kept inside for a week and not allowed to see his friends? Sam’s not your dad!’
‘No, he’s not,’ said Luke, ‘but what he says goes. Jake won’t be allowed to jump for a few weeks.’
‘You serious?’
‘Sam is always serious about this kind of thing,’ said Natalya. ‘Being grounded will give Jake time to sort himself out, get his priorities straight. And it will keep him out of the air while he is still considered a liability.’
‘Yeah,’ Johnny confirmed. ‘Sam will want to make sure Jake doesn’t do anything so stupid again. He’ll probably interview him before letting him jump too. Check he’s clued up enough on safety to be in the air. Jake will have to gen up on that stuff or Sam’ll kick him out for good.’
‘There would be no complaints from me,’ said Natalya. ‘I still cannot work out what Kat sees in him. She could do much better.’
Johnny gave a wink. ‘With someone like me, you mean?’
Natalya shot him one of her steely looks, but he just winked again and added a very large smile, all teeth.
‘Here’s Kat,’ said Luke, looking over at the door.
Her face was pale. She walked over, sat down, said nothing.
Natalya leaned over, concern etched on her face. ‘Kat?’
Nothing.
‘Come on, Kat,’ said Johnny. ‘Is it bad, really bad, or a full-on shit storm?’
Kat leaned back in her chair, hands on her head. ‘Sam’s not only grounded Jake for three months,’ she said, ‘he’s kicked him off the team. He’s out. Permanently.’
At this, Ethan heard everyone swear. Everyone but Natalya. She simply sat back in her chair, folded her arms and shook her head. But her eyes never left Kat, and Ethan could see she was concerned for her friend.
‘Great,’ said Johnny, and Ethan was surprised to hear disappointment in his voice. ‘Jake finally ruined it for all of us.’
‘What if Sam changes his mind when he calms down?’ said Ethan, and realized as the words left his mouth how crazy they sounded. He’d not worked for Sam that long, but it was already obvious that he was not the kind of person to go back on a decision.
‘He won’t,’ said Luke, confirming Ethan’s thoughts. ‘When Sam draws a line under something, he makes it clear exactly where it is. You cross it and you’re out. No appeal. Nothing. Sam’s word is law.’
Ethan looked at Kat. She was just sitting there shaking her head.
‘Jake didn’t want to talk about it,’ she said. ‘Not even to me.’ Then she turned to Ethan and he could see just how upset she was. ‘Why didn’t you just keep quiet? Why did you have to go and tell Sam about it?’
‘I told you – I didn’t,’ said Ethan. ‘Sam was there with me. He told me it was Jake. I didn’t know what was happening.’
But Kat wasn’t really listening. ‘You’ve ruined everything,’ she said, standing up and pushing her chair away. It skidded for a minute, caught a hole in the floor, flipped.
‘Don’t talk crap,’ said Johnny. ‘Jake did this to himself. You know he’s a liability.’
‘Whatever,’ said Kat.
‘It’s true, Kat. He’s more bothered about how he looks up there – whether I’ve got his good side on camera – than anything to do with safety. We’ve all thought it, so don’t kid yourself.’
‘Looking good?’ said Kat, turning on Johnny. ‘You of all people should know about that being a major priority!’
‘I look good because up there I do everything by the letter,’ said Johnny, sounding serious for once. ‘I certainly don’t put you guys at risk. Ever.’
Kat started to say something, but then just turned and walked out. The café door slammed behind her as she left.
‘I thought that all went rather well,’ said Johnny, grimacing. ‘Pity we’re now utterly screwed.’
‘How’s that then?’ asked Ethan.
Johnny sighed, and Ethan looked over at Luke, who just shrugged. Everyone seemed very downbeat.
‘Can’t believe the same thing’s happened again,’ said Johnny. ‘Do you think we’ll ever make a full team?’
‘It is not quite the same this time, though, is it?’ said Natalya. ‘Jake did not just disappear without trace.’
Ethan rested his tray on the table and stared at Natalya. ‘What do you mean? Who disappeared?’ He saw Johnny and Luke glance at her.
Johnny leaned forward, folded his hands, looked serious (serious didn’t really suit him, thought Ethan). ‘It’s nothing,’ he said. ‘We lost a membe
r of our crew a few months back. Jake was trying out as the replacement.’
‘So what happened to him?’ asked Ethan. ‘Why did he disappear?’
Natalya opened her mouth to speak, but Luke got in first.
‘Nothing that mysterious,’ he said. ‘It just didn’t work out. One day he was here, the next he wasn’t.’
‘And we’ve never heard anything from him since,’ finished Johnny. He grinned. ‘I think he was intimidated by my amazing talent.’
Something about Natalya’s expression told Ethan he wasn’t getting the whole story. She had a distant look, like she was staring through Johnny, rather than at him, but she didn’t argue. And Ethan didn’t see any point in prying further. Hell, if Jake was their second team member to go, they were allowed to be a bit pissed off and weird about it.
It was a few moments before anyone said anything more. The silence felt awkward, and Ethan didn’t fancy being the one to spark a conversation, so he cleared and cleaned a couple of empty tables.
At last Natalya spoke. ‘We will just have to deal with it,’ she said. ‘It is not the end of the world.’
‘Not for you maybe,’ said Johnny.
‘Not for any of us,’ replied Natalya. ‘Jake was not safe, he took risks – we all knew that. Now he is gone and that is a good thing.’
Johnny and Luke were silent.
‘Sam really does rule this place, doesn’t he?’ said Ethan.
‘Totally,’ said Luke. ‘He’ll never see Jake as reliable now. And on a team you have to be. It’s vital. Everyone’s depending on you up there. It’s not a place to get complacent. Mess up in a formation or a stack? That’s what kills skydivers. It’s never the equipment. It’s always human error.’
‘Or stupidity,’ said Johnny.
Silence.
But it was so loud, it was deafening.
‘It is down to Sam,’ said Natalya, finally breaking the silence. ‘It is his call. We have to trust his decision. We all know that.’
‘But that’s just it, isn’t it?’ said Johnny. ‘We do trust his decision. Which means we’re screwed because we now don’t have enough members to make up a skydiving team.’ He leaned over the table and raised a glass. ‘Here’s to Jake – who ruined everything by being a tit.’
