DropZone Read online

  ‘Hey, Eth!’ said Johnny, strolling over to the counter. ‘Did you watch the jump? Did Sam say anything? What were the formations like? I’ve got it all on camera, but you saw it. Any good?’

  ‘It was great!’ Ethan told him. ‘I thought filming was just for people doing their first jumps and stuff, a souvenir of the moment.’

  ‘It’s how the formations are judged,’ said Johnny as the rest of the team came over. ‘Gives the judges something to look at. So my job is to make sure I get the best shots and the best angles to make these guys look better than they really are. It is, essentially, all down to me.’

  ‘Bigging yourself up again?’ asked Kat. ‘Hi, Ethan.’

  Ethan smiled. ‘Great jump. I caught most of it through Sam’s binos.’

  Johnny turned round to the team, introducing Ethan to the two members he hadn’t met.

  First was Luke, who reached out his hand with a smile. ‘Johnny says you’re doing a tandem with Sam,’ he said. ‘Make sure he checks the clips are nice and tight, right?’

  ‘You’re having a laugh, aren’t you?’ said Johnny.

  ‘No, just being cautious.’ Luke’s face was serious. ‘Even Sam could forget something. You never know.’

  ‘Luke’s into the detail,’ said Johnny, winking at Ethan. ‘Uses a spirit level to make sure he’s standing up straight in the morning, don’t you, Luke?’

  Luke shrugged. ‘Devil’s in the detail, Johnny.’

  ‘Ooooh, spiritual,’ said Johnny, then turned to the other girl in the group. ‘This is Natalya.’

  ‘Nice to meet you, Ethan,’ she said quietly, and held out her hand.

  Ethan noticed her accent immediately. His best guess was Russian, but that was only because he’d watched too many Bond movies. It was certainly eastern European. And she wasn’t wearing any make-up – unlike Kat, who was wearing just enough to say Notice me. Ethan guessed that Natalya wasn’t the kind of person who worked at being noticed by anyone.

  ‘And you,’ he replied, and took her hand. She gave a firm handshake – it was only when he let go that he was struck by how formal it seemed. The rest of the gang were relaxed with him from the off, but this was like meeting someone at a job interview or a wedding or something.

  ‘Natalya’s the serious one in the team,’ said Johnny. ‘So don’t worry too much about her inability to smile. I consider it my life’s mission to make her laugh.’

  Natalya turned to look at Johnny. ‘How very thoughtful of you, Johnny,’ she said. ‘And I do smile, just not all the time like you.’

  ‘I’m all heart,’ said Johnny. ‘Well, all heart and knock-knock gags.’

  ‘Without me, Johnny’s life has no purpose, you see?’ she told Ethan.

  Ethan wasn’t sure, but he thought he spotted the hint of a smile crease the corners of her eyes.

  ‘Whatever you do,’ said Johnny, stepping forward to whisper in Ethan’s ear, his eyes trained on Natalya, ‘don’t call her Nat. She gets angry. And you wouldn’t like to see her angry – would he, Nat?’

  Natalya’s face was stern, and Ethan decided to take Johnny’s advice. For all he knew, she could be a Russian spy, and he figured upsetting one of those wasn’t a good idea. He looked at the others and asked, ‘You guys hungry?’

  Everyone nodded, ordered, and a few minutes later Ethan returned with a loaded tray. Serving Luke first, he couldn’t help but watch as he opened a tomato sauce sachet, emptied it, then took the ripped corner and pushed it back inside.

  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 Jake, 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.’