DropZone

Ethan didn’t have time to think about what he’d done; the sea rose up and he was in it, the cold of the water pulling the air from his lungs. Then the lifesaver exploded, and his head popped up above the waves. As quickly as he could, he ripped off his rig.

‘Ethan!’

He looked up, salt stinging his eyes, and saw Joh

‘You OK?’

Ethan nodded.

‘That was unbelievable!’ said Joh

Ethan said nothing, still unable to speak after the shock of hitting the cold water.

More shots rang out. Ethan turned to see Sam coming in. The one remaining man on the boat looked up, but Sam already had him in his sights. He opened fire and sent the guy tumbling over his seat to hang over the side of the boat like a marionette with its strings cut.

Then Sam was in the water.

‘What about the bloke I hit?’ said Ethan. ‘Where is he?’

Joh

Ethan nodded, unable to find his voice, then saw Sam pull himself out of the water and into the boat. Sam tipped the body into the sea. ‘May as well make use of the boat and get out of the water till the sub arrives,’ he shouted.

Ethan and Joh

‘Well done, Ethan,’ said Sam, sitting down in the boat. ‘You probably just saved all our lives. That was quite something.’

Ethan didn’t say anything; couldn’t. All he could think about was the bloke he’d smashed into.

The bloke he’d killed.

He hadn’t intended to kill him. He’d just acted instinctively to save the lives of his friends. But the sobering fact of the man’s death chilled him more than the sea. Ethan didn’t know what to feel except cold and numb.

A hand fell on his shoulder. ‘Sam’s right. You saved everyone’s lives,’ said Joh

‘But I killed him,’ said Ethan, the thought making him feel sick. He put his head over the side of the boat and threw up.

Sam came up behind him. ‘You had no choice – you know that, don’t you?’

Ethan nodded.

‘There’s no such thing as a good death, but sometimes, when your hand is forced, tough decisions have to be made. And you made the right one.’

‘If I’d known I was going to end up killing someone…’ said Ethan, but his voice drifted away. He didn’t know what to say.

‘Our aim is always to leave as clean as we go in,’ said Sam. ‘We’re not about charging in, guns blazing. To be frank, this went tits up. But you, Ethan… well, you saved it from becoming a total screw-up. You should be proud. Not happy, but proud. It’s different.’

Ethan looked at him. The man talked sense and he didn’t piss around trying to make you feel better just for the sake of it. He liked that. ‘I just hope something like that never happens again,’ he said.

‘We all do,’ said Sam. ‘But we also need to be ready in case it does.’

Luke looked over at Ethan. ‘They’d have probably run us down first before shooting us. Either way, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. You did the right thing.’

‘You think so?’

‘Know so,’ said Sam. ‘Feeling better?’

Ethan nodded.

Sam turned and pushed the throttle forward, taking them further out to sea.

Ahead, Ethan could see something breaking through the surface of the waves: a large grey shape pushing through the water like a whale.

The sub.

32

Inside the sub it was warm and dry. Ethan couldn’t believe the size of the thing: it was like a small town. The captain had welcomed them on board as though they were about to set off on a cruise, all smiles and how-do-you-dos. They were taken to dry off, and given a change of clothes. Kat and Natalya had their own cabin to change in, but now all the team members were back together, drinking steaming hot mugs of sweet tea.

Ethan was still in a state of shock. The whole experience had been so extreme that he just didn’t know how to deal with it. It had been the most insane day of his life.

‘You did well,’ Sam told him. ‘All of you did.’

‘So the mission was a success then?’ asked Ethan.

Sam nodded. ‘Totally.’

‘What about a debrief?’ asked Luke.

‘We’ll do that after,’ said Sam, sipping his tea.

‘After what?’ asked Ethan.

Sam gri

‘You serious?’ said Kat.

‘Never more so,’ Sam replied. ‘We need you there, or people will start asking why you disappeared en route to France.’

‘But we’re in a sub,’ said Ethan. ‘At sea. How can we get to the competition now?’

‘It’s all arranged with the captain,’ said Sam. ‘We’re headed for a naval base just a few miles up the coast. You’ll be picked up there and then driven to the competition. You should arrive at about the same time as your luggage. You’ll be in good time.’

To Ethan it felt like days had passed since they had left the airport, but he realized that, in reality, it was just a matter of hours – the most intense hours of his entire life. He thought back over it all with excitement and regret. He had no idea if he’d ever get over what had happened to the man on the boat, or if he really wanted to. It was the kind of thing that stayed with you. In that short time he’d done a lot of stuff that he’d never forget – a lot of stuff he would never have thought he could do. But he’d survived it all, and that was saying something. And now he had to get his head round the skydiving competition. The mission was over.

‘One more thing,’ said Sam. ‘You need a team name. Can’t have you turning up at a skydiving competition without one, can we? Any ideas?’

Before anyone else had a chance to speak, Ethan said, ‘What about “The Raiders”?’

Everyone looked at him.

‘Fast and scary, like the canopy,’ he said. ‘Makes sense to me, anyway.’

‘Nice one, Eth,’ said Joh

Even Sam approved.

Ethan was gazing up into a blue sky, holding a pair of binos to his eyes. The mission felt like a distant memory – well, most of it did. Now he’d had a sleep and a meal, and it was mid afternoon. He’d just heard the faint drop in the engine revs of the plane high above the airfield where the skydiving competition was taking place. A second later, he caught sight of someone zipping through the air. He focused the binos, zoomed in, seeing the figure clearly now. He was flying through the air, feet attached to a small surfboard. The figure flipped upside down, started to spin like a corkscrew. Then he was into a somersault, then another. Just watching it gave Ethan an adrenaline rush, made him want to be up there himself.

He kept his binos focused on the skydiver as his canopy burst into life above him. He knew what that felt like, to be riding ahead of the wind, everything so quiet. At last the skydiver swooped into the DZ, zipping past spectators. People cheered and applauded as he completed a perfect landing.

Ethan put down the binos and watched as Joh

‘Nailed it,’ he said, gri

Ethan frowned thoughtfully. In fact, he’d been thinking of nothing else for the past twenty-four hours. It was a big ‘jump’, he thought, going from being part of a skydiving team to being part of a very different kind of team – one that went on secret missions, did HAHO jumps, used explosives. And saw people being killed. He hadn’t expected the killing bit, and he still found it hard to get past. But what did he expect? The work the team did was dangerous. It came with risks. But they were trained for it. They had Sam and Gabe. And now, at the end of the most insane summer Ethan had ever experienced, he had been asked to join them. His options were simple: he either walked away now, back to his normal life and all that it could – or couldn’t – offer. Or he sealed the deal and joined the team.