Andy McNab - DropZone

Johnny went back towards Luke, who Ethan could see was now talking to Natalya and looking through some large black holdalls.

‘Right, Ethan,’ said Kat. ‘The rig.’

‘It’s a tandem rig,’ said Ethan. ‘Bigger canopy because of the additional weight.’

‘Exactly. We need to get it adjusted just right so we don’t cut off our circulation when we’re gliding. It’d be pretty embarrassing to land with you dead.’

For the next few minutes Kat pushed and pulled at Ethan, clipping him in and making sure everything felt right, comfortable.

‘How’s that?’

‘Fine,’ said Ethan.

‘Now the oxygen.’

Ethan looked at the large, black, canvas-covered box in Kat’s hand. She handed him a face mask.

‘We’ll both get our oxygen from this,’ she said. ‘All you need to remember is that there’s more than enough in here for us both. Don’t panic and start breathing like you’re about to die; you’ll use it up quicker, or hyperventilate and pass out.’

‘Not good,’ said Ethan.

‘Right,’ agreed Kat. ‘Flying in with you unconscious wouldn’t be as easy to control. I might even have to cut you loose, drop you before we get there.’

Ethan looked at Kat. Was she serious? ‘I’ll make sure I stay awake and alert,’ he promised.

‘All you need to remember,’ said Kat, ‘is that when we jump, you have your head back and your arms crossed, just like you did with Sam. That’ll allow me to flip us over, get our descent under control and deploy, without having you destabilize us.’

Ethan felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Luke.

‘Sorted?’

Ethan nodded. ‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘Totally.’

‘Good,’ said Luke. ‘Remember we’ve all been watching you, not just Sam and Gabe. If we didn’t think you were up to it, you wouldn’t be here.’

‘No,’ said Johnny, coming over with Natalya. ‘You’d be sedated at the front of the plane, utterly unaware of just how cool we really are.’

‘Are you serious?’ asked Ethan.

‘Deadly,’ said Johnny.

For a few moments Ethan was silent, thinking about that. Then he looked up and said, ‘Right, so tell me about the jump. I’ve done plenty at twelve thousand. How different is it at thirty-two thousand?’

Everyone smiled at him. It felt really good.

‘The big difference,’ began Kat, ‘is the amount of time you’ll spend in the air.’

‘You’ve been skydiving up until now,’ Luke continued. ‘Forty-five-second freefall, followed by about five to ten minutes in glide. This isn’t a skydive. We leave the plane and deploy canopies immediately.’

‘So how long are we in the air?’ asked Ethan.

‘We’ll be gliding across approximately thirty miles,’ said Luke, ‘so we’ll be in the air for about two hours.’

Ethan did a double-take. ‘Two hours? No way!’

‘Way,’ said Johnny. ‘You’ll love it. Everyone knows what they’re doing, including you. It’s just another jump, but from a little bit higher, is all.’

‘Gets pretty surreal though; particularly when you’re drifting through cloud,’ said Kat.

‘Here…’ said Luke, handing Ethan a watch. It looked bomb-proof, Ethan thought as he put it on his wrist. ‘And this is a tactical throat mic.’

Ethan looked at the next piece of kit in his hands. It looked like a length of black elastic attached to a wire, a battery pack, an earpiece and two small cylinders that pointed inwards.

‘It’s designed for operators in the military,’ said Luke, ‘and you wear it round your neck like this.’

Ethan watched as Luke put one on himself, securing it round his neck. He felt like he was watching a demonstration of some new gadget on a weird military TV shopping channel.

‘These two things here’ – Luke pointed at the cylinders – ‘are the dual transponders or throat mics. If you want to talk, just press both of them against your throat and you’re on.’

Ethan copied Luke, and put on the throat mic.

‘It’ll block out most ambient noise,’ continued Luke as Ethan slipped the earpiece in, ‘and will even pick up a whisper.’

‘Yes,’ Johnny said, his expression serious and businesslike. ‘The throat mic is the product of choice both on and off the battlefield. Thank you, Luke.’

Ethan laughed.

‘Anyway’ – Luke ignored Johnny as best he could – ‘you’ve probably seen plenty of these things being used in bad action movies by macho actors.’

‘You know – the ones that look like me,’ said Johnny, checking Ethan had put the thing on properly.

‘We’ll be on a chat-net,’ said Luke. ‘It means everyone can speak at the same time.’

‘So don’t go telling Kat you think Luke’s a dick,’ said Johnny, ‘because he’ll hear you.’

‘We’ll be tumbling out of the plane in close formation, one after the other,’ Luke continued. ‘Aim is to get out, find space and pull the canopy quickly. Once we all know where we are, we’ll head off.’

‘So how do we know where we’re going?’ asked Ethan. ‘And how do we keep close when we’re jumping in the dark?’

Johnny began to answer, but the call came through from the pilot.

‘No time for any more explanations,’ said Luke. ‘We’re good to go.’

Luke called everyone over, and Ethan followed Kat, who leaned closer and said, ‘We may take the piss, but Luke’s generally our reason for staying alive. If he doesn’t check it, don’t use it. OK?’

Ethan stood with everyone else as Luke did his rounds. And after what Kat had just said, he looked at Luke in a new light. He knew from experience that he was into the detail, but to know he was so vital to everything the team did made him listen all the harder. After all, Ethan was pretty keen on staying alive. He was amazed at just how thorough Luke was. Nothing got missed. He pulled Johnny up for a pocket left undone. The pocket was empty, Johnny had protested, but that didn’t matter, not to Luke. He even checked Kat and Natalya’s hair.

‘When are you two going to cut this off?’ he asked. ‘It’s always a tangle risk, you know that.’

‘So’s Johnny’s,’ said Kat.

‘Seriously though – long hair and this kind of activity don’t mix too well.’

‘We tie it up well,’ Natalya pointed out. ‘And you are forgetting that our cover relies on the fact that we do not look like the kind of people who would do what we are about to do.’

‘Hmm…’ Luke sounded unconvinced. He glanced at Ethan. ‘OK?’

‘Fine,’ said Ethan as Luke checked him over carefully.

‘Remember about the oxygen. Don’t gulp it. Breathe normally. It may feel weird, sound weird, and it doesn’t taste great either, but it’s fine.’

‘Got it,’ said Ethan.

‘Good,’ said Luke, and clapped him on the shoulders with both hands. ‘You’re part of the team now, Ethan.’

Ethan nodded and smiled. He knew he couldn’t back out now – he didn’t want to.

Gabe appeared through a door at the rear of the hold. ‘We depressurize in a few minutes,’ he said, ‘so I’m going to be brief…’

Ethan listened closely. He didn’t want to miss anything. Whatever it was they were about to do, whatever it was he’d agreed to be involved in, he wanted to be clear on every last detail. He knew it was dangerous – that much was obvious. All the more reason to make sure he didn’t let everyone else down – or make a tit of himself.

‘Right, you all know what you’re taking with you, but I’m going to run through it again – partly for Ethan’s sake, and also to make sure you don’t get your faces shot off because I didn’t tell you everything.’ Gabe crouched down beside the two large black holdalls they were jumping with. Luke would carry one, Johnny the other. Each holdall contained two black bergens. Gabe explained that, on landing, Luke, Johnny, Natalya and Ethan would take a bergen each. Kat got off lightly – for this mission only four bergens were needed, so she wouldn’t be carrying.