Andy McNab - DropZone

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!’

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.