by Andy McNab
Ethan was about to ask what she was doing, but Kat got in first. ‘This way we can feel if the oxygen is flowing,’ she told him. ‘Just because the dial gives a reading doesn’t mean it isn’t defective.’
‘Oh, right…’ Ethan was stunned by the attention to detail. It almost made him feel safe. Almost.
‘If we put these on and the oxygen flow is screwed, then when the cabin depressurizes we’ll be in a state of hypoxia within a minute, dead in two.’
Ethan didn’t say a thing. Dead in two minutes?
‘And don’t worry about the farting,’ added Kat.
He looked at her, not sure if he’d heard her right. Farting? What the hell did that have to do with anything?
‘Once this thing’s unpressurized, all gases expand,’ Kat explained with a grin; ‘even oxygen under a tooth filling – causes it to explode. You’re lucky; we checked you out – no fillings. Must be all that flossing.’
Kat attached the tubes to the face masks and nodded.
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.
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 life was in her 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 reassuring 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 bloody 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 balls pinched to hell 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 hell 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.’
‘More like an hour,’ Kat told him. ‘You’re enjoying it then?’
Ethan pulled off his oxygen mask. His face was wet, and the air hitting it froze the moisture instantly. ‘Too right,’ he said, despite the sudden cold. ‘It’s brilliant! I mean, what’s not to love about this?’
‘Couldn’t agree more,’ said Kat, and Ethan felt a sudden kick of g-force as the stack started to pull a turn to the left.
Kat spoke again. ‘I could stay up here for ever. Nothing matters when you’re riding the wind; everything’s so peaceful, everything makes sense.’
‘Most people wouldn’t agree though,’ said Ethan. ‘Doing this would seem completely nuts to them.’
‘The main problem with skydiving is that you have to be sexy to do it,’ Johnny chimed in. ‘That’s why I’m so good. And why so few people skydive.’
‘You must tell me how you manage to be so modest,’ said Ethan.
‘It can’t be taught,’ said Johnny. ‘You either have it or you don’t. It’s a natural talent.’
‘Skydiving’s an exclusive club,’ said Luke, coming in on the chat-net. ‘And no one can argue that being part of something exclusive isn’t appealing.’
‘And that is why it is so great,’ agreed Natalya.
‘Exactly,’ said Kat. ‘It’s one of those things you just know hardly anyone else is ever going to do. Like this – I mean, who gets to do a stack formation at nearly thirty thousand feet?’
‘So, Kat, how did you get into all this?’ asked Ethan. ‘Why skydiving? What do your parents think about it?’
‘They encouraged me,’ said Kat. ‘They were tired of me getting into trouble, doing stupid things. This way they knew I was getting a thrill and that it was legal. And besides, it got me out of their hair. All they had to lose was a few quid.’
‘She sounds so daring, so dangerous,’ said Johnny. ‘So like me.’
‘No one’s like you, Johnny. You’re definitely a one-off.’
‘Sounds like your parents are pretty cool,’ said Ethan: his own parents could never afford to pay for him to skydive – his dad would just think it was beer money wasted.
‘Honestly, I hardly see them,’ said Kat. ‘I spent most of my time with the housekeeper.’
Ethan laughed. ‘Housekeeper? We don’t even have a house!’
At this, the chat-net crackled with laughter from everyone in the stack.
‘We’re at five thousand now,’ said Kat. ‘Ethan, that’s the island over there to the left.’
Ethan looked down to where she was pointing. He could just make out some faint lights far below them in the gloom. He knew they were now gliding over the sea. If he was honest, he didn’t want it to end, but then his thoughts turned to their mission and he felt a jolt of adrenaline hit his system. He could taste the metallic flavour of it on the edge of his tongue – part fear, part exhilaration.
He loved it.
Kat’s voice brought him back to the present. ‘We land in five. Remember: legs up and land on your arse!’
27
Out of the darkness, Ethan saw the ground rushing up to meet them. The stack had broken up a few minutes before to allow everyone to glide in safely. Now they were seconds away from landing.
As they came in, the grass looked like a smoky blur.
‘Legs up, Eth!’ said Kat.
The ground came up fast, but Ethan felt Kat pull the canopy into a perfect touchdown. He landed on his backside, but it felt more like he’d simply sat down on the grass than completed a two-hour drop from a jet thousands of feet above. Around him he saw Johnny, Luke and Natalya touching down, each of them swooping in neatly like an owl on a kill.
Within seconds, Kat had him unclipped and, like the rest of the team, was quickly bundling up the canopy.
‘Ethan, catch!’ said Luke, throwing something to him. ‘And again.’
Ethan caught both items. The first was a small black pouch with a zip around three sides. The second was a tin, much like a shoe polish tin.
‘That’s a silk stuff sack,’ said Kat. ‘Unzip it and stuff in the canopy, rigs and thermal suits – which we can take off now, by the way.’
Ethan did as he was told. The bag unfolded easily to something ten times its original size and, after stuffing the canopy and everything else into it, he used the compression straps to squeeze it into a small, tight ball. ‘And this?’ he asked, holding up the tin.
‘Black face cream,’ said Kat. ‘No point being in all this black kit if our hands and faces glow in the dark. Don’t cover yourself in it. Just use enough to break up your skin-tone, OK?’
Ethan opened the tin, stuck his finger in and then started to smear the stuff on his face as best he could. ‘OK?’ he asked, looking at Kat.
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Just remember to do your ears and neck too, and also above the wrist.’
Ethan looked at the rest of the team busying themselves with their kit: Natalya, Luke and Johnny stowing their own canopies into the stuff sacks, then pulling the four bergens from the holdalls. It was organized, slick, done with purpose. Ethan had never felt so switched on in his life. With the rush from the flight to the island still buzzing through him, he felt more than ready to get on with the mission.
‘Now we hide that lot in the trees,’ said Luke, indicating the stuff sack Ethan was holding. ‘By the time anyone finds the gear, we’ll be long gone.’ He handed Ethan a large bergen. ‘Yours,’ he said. ‘It looks heavier than it is.’
Natalya and Johnny came over, holding a stuff sack and a bergen each. Luke pulled out a map and spread it on the ground. Then he took something out of his pocket, flicked it open, and a deep green glow spilled over the map.
‘What’s that?’ asked Ethan. ‘Doesn’t look like your average torch.’
‘It’s not,’ said Luke. ‘It’s a Betalight. Military issue. It’s a harmless radioactive chemical that glows for about thirty years. Doesn’t have an on/off switch, just this rubber cap to cover it up.’
‘Right,’ said Ethan, ‘of course,’ and decided he should stop asking questions.
‘It’s perfect for this type of work,’ Luke continued. ‘Gives us just enough light to read a map without the risk of getting spotted.’ He placed a finger on the map. ‘We’re here,’ he said. ‘The drop was perfect. Which means we all owe Gabe a drink.’
Everyone looked down at the map. Ethan glanced around at his teammates and felt relieved to be on their side, rather than on the receiving end of whatever it was they were about to unleash. They no longer looked like adrenaline freaks, desperate for another rush. They seemed focused, organized, and more than a little dangerous. He already knew they were great skydivers – he’d seen that for himself – but this mission wasn’t just about jumping out of a plane. It was about explosives, and rescuing Sam, and possible contact with people who would shoot first and probably not even ask any questions later. Given Sam’s background, and Gabe’s involvement, the team would obviously have been given training and skills that Ethan had yet to see. He wondered when he’d be getting some of that training himself.
‘We’re to tab – that’s run,’ Luke explained, glancing at Ethan, ‘from here, through the woods and then up to the castle.’
‘How far is it?’ asked Natalya.
‘Only about half a click,’ Luke replied. ‘If we get a move on, we should be there in ten.’
One thing was bothering Ethan: what if they ran into anyone? They had no weapons, no way of protecting themselves. It was the only thing that made him really nervous. He felt reasonably confident that he and his teammates could handle themselves in a fight, but what if they got shot at? ‘What if we’re spotted?’ he asked.
‘It’s like Gabe said,’ Johnny explained. ‘We’re to be as close to invisible as we can be. We go in, do our thing, get out. It’s a grown-up version of hide-and-seek.’
‘But there’s still a chan
ce, isn’t there?’ said Ethan. ‘And they’re armed. It doesn’t seem exactly fair. I’m not massively keen on getting my face shot off.’
‘The priority is the diversion,’ Luke said. ‘We’re not here for a scrap. If you’re pinged – sorry, Eth, spotted – just get out as fast as possible.’
‘But if you do run into someone,’ added Johnny, ‘you just hit them bloody hard and run away. Got it?’
‘Yeah,’ said Ethan.
Luke folded up the map and got to his feet. ‘Johnny, you take point.’
Johnny grabbed his bergen and jogged off into the dark. Ethan swung his own bergen onto his back and joined the rest of the team as they followed in quick pursuit.
Having made their way through the trees, hiding their rigs on the way, Ethan and the team now stood staring across the open ground to the castle on the clifftop. To Ethan, the ruins looked like a set of huge broken teeth scattered across the horizon. Kat pulled out some binos and handed them to him. They were the same as the ones The Dude had given him at the antenna.
‘Check out the castle, Eth. Tell us what’s up there.’
Ethan trained the binos on the ruins. ‘There’s one tower still standing,’ he said after a moment, keen to make his description as clear as possible. ‘The wall is nothing more than a pile of stones, but there’s a large section completely missing, creating a huge hole. Through the hole, inside the ruins, I can see a large tent and some lights.’
‘I’m guessing the tent is where the meeting is taking place and probably where the disk is being looked at,’ said Kat.
‘Security?’ asked Luke.
‘Nothing obvious,’ Ethan replied.
‘This is probably a makeshift rendezvous,’ said Luke. ‘They won’t have done much prep of the site because they won’t be expecting anyone to know they’re here.’
‘Gate-crashing,’ said Johnny. ‘One of my favourite pastimes.’
Ethan was about to lower the binos when he saw movement. ‘Hold on,’ he said. ‘I can see two guards. They’re standing at the large hole in the wall.’
‘Let me have a look,’ said Kat, and he handed over the binos.
