Brad Thor - The Athena Project

They would also be providing atmospheric data for the jumpers. Via a Brunton handheld atmospheric data center, they radioed the humidity, heat index, air density, barometric pressure, temperature, wind speed, and wind direction to Casey and Ericsson. Once that was complete they wished them good luck. Ten minutes later, the Let L-410 Turbojet aircraft was in the air.

Belgrade’s elevation was ninety meters, so it had been decided the jump would happen at ten thousand feet AGL, or above ground level. This would give the women plenty of time to fly to Kojic’s building in freefall.

When the pilot gave the warning, they put their helmets on, stood up, and approached the door. After checking each other’s jumpsuits and equipment, Casey opened the door. She checked the wind deflector and then conducted an outside air safety check.

The pilot announced, “One minute.”

Thirty seconds later came the warning, “Thirty seconds.”

Casey looked outside once more to make sure everything was clear for their jump. She then leaned back inside the aircraft and flashed Ericsson the thumbs-up. When Ericsson returned the signal, Casey counted to ten and they exited the aircraft together.

The temperature was cold as they raced through the night sky at over 120 miles per hour. Flying in formation, they stayed together until they reached their “open” altitude of two thousand feet.

At that point, Casey waved Ericsson off and they separated. Once a safe distance apart, they deployed their chutes. Gretchen led the way down toward the building with Julie tracking a safe distance behind.

As they descended, Megan continued to feed atmospheric data over the radio.

Using a windsock on a nearby building to help compute her glide angle, Casey placed herself about three hundred feet upwind from the building and corkscrewed down.

Watching as her teammate neared the seventeen-story rooftop, Ericsson did a half-brake of her chute, slowed her descent, and allowed Casey a clear approach.

Despite what the sock said, the wind was tricky and Gretchen hit the roof hard. Even with knees bent, it was a rough landing, but she didn’t have time to think about it. She had to collapse her chute before the wind caught it and dragged her over the edge of the building. She also needed to get out of the way because Julie would be coming in right behind her.

Casey gathered up her chute and looked up just in time to see Ericsson coming in to land. There was just one problem. The wind had moved her off-target. She was going to overshoot the roof.

She watched as Julie tried hard to correct, but that only made it worse. “Abort! Abort!” she said over the radio. Ericsson either didn’t hear, or didn’t want to hear.

When she landed, she landed hard, harder than Casey. She also missed the center of the roof completely and came down at the very edge of the roof. With momentum driving her forward, there was no place for her to go but right over the edge. And as her chute collapsed in a skydiver’s nightmare, that’s exactly what happened.

Gretchen Casey’s breath caught in her throat as she watched it all unfold.

Before she realized what she was doing, she ran for the edge of the roof. As Julie Ericsson’s parachute was about to disappear, she leaped for it and missed.

Gretchen scrambled to the edge, half-expecting to hear the sound of Julie hitting the ground, but instead she heard something else: the sound of parachute silk being torn. Ericsson’s chute had gotten hung up on a window-washing anchor. Casey could now not only hear, but see the material rapidly giving way. Reaching down, she grabbed two fistfuls of silk and pulled with all her might.

Every muscle fiber in her body felt as if it was being torn, just like the parachute itself. Gretchen ignored the searing pain and pulled even harder as the adrenaline surged through her body.

Leaning backward, she ground her teeth and fought to pull Julie back. “Come on, damn it!” she called out. “Come on!”

Casey summoned everything she had. She went to that dark place inside where she hid the very last burst of speed she had ever used in a race. This was her sister hanging there. A woman she not only loved but was responsible for. She wasn’t going to allow her to die.

With one last surge of effort she felt the chute move toward her. She pulled again and it moved again. Hand over hand, inch by painfully slow inch she pulled until she saw the top of Julie’s helmet.

Clawing her way down the rigging, Casey reached out for Julie’s harness, and planting her feet, pulled her the rest of the way up onto the roof.

She collapsed and lay next to her, panting. Her lungs were on fire, as was the rest of her. It took several minutes for the feeling to return to her fingers.

It was Julie who spoke first. “I think I misjudged that one, just a little bit.”

Casey couldn’t help herself. It hurt to laugh, but she did anyway, until it turned into a hacking cough, her body still desperate for air.

They continued to lie on the roof for several minutes more until Casey had fully caught her breath.

“Is everyone okay?” Rhodes asked over the radio. “What happened?”

“We’re okay,” coughed Casey. “Just give us a minute.”

“That’s all you’ve got,” chimed in Cooper. “They’re about to do the first handoff. You need to be at the access door behind you in ninety seconds.”

“I’m on it,” said Ericsson as she pushed herself up to her feet. Gathering up her chute and clutching it to her chest, she crossed the roof to the access door, where she removed a lockpick gun from her bag.

“Forty-five seconds,” said Cooper.

“What about the closed-circuit cameras?” she asked.

“Already taken care of,” replied Rhodes.

“Twenty seconds,” said Cooper.

Ericsson slipped the tension wrench into the door and then positioned the lockpick gun.

“Ten seconds.”

Ericsson applied tension to the wrench and began clicking the trigger. She felt the lock give.

“Now,” said Cooper.

Julie pulled back the door and held it open for Casey, who was crossing the roof toward her.

“You’ve got three minutes until the elevator gets there,” said Rhodes. “I suggest you ladies get it in gear.”

“Roger that,” replied Casey as she stepped into the stairwell and Ericsson gently closed the door behind them.

They stripped out of their harnesses, removed their helmets, and stored everything in a small electrical closet.

Drawing the suppressed Glock 19s they’d been issued, they took a deep breath and headed down the stairs.

One level below the roof, they paused and radioed Rhodes.

“The elevator will be there in fifteen seconds,” she said.

Casey kept her ear pressed up against the stairwell door until she heard the chime in the hallway announcing the elevator’s arrival. “I’m opening the door,” she stated.

Rhodes, who was monitoring the true security camera feeds, as opposed to the falsified loop that the building’s guard staff were watching, said, “The hallway is all clear.”

Gretchen opened the door slowly and peeked out. Seeing that it was in fact all clear, she signaled Ericsson and the two of them stepped across the hall and into the elevator.

There were no buttons inside. “We’re in,” said Casey.

“Roger that,” replied Rhodes, who activated the elevator.

As it began to descend, Ericsson looked at her teammate and simply said, “Thanks, Gretch.”

Casey gave her a smile and nodded. “That could have been a lot of paperwork for me.”