‘I never say that unless I mean it,’ said Sam, still gripping Ethan’s hand. ‘You’ve a natural talent for this. Don’t waste it.’
‘I won’t,’ said Ethan, but the words didn’t exactly express how he felt right then. Getting such praise from someone like Sam – with his experience, his perfectionism – was amazing. Ethan had never been so damned proud in his life. For the first time ever he felt like he’d actually achieved something worthwhile. And he knew then that he didn’t just like skydiving, he was addicted to it – just as Johnny had guessed.
By the time Ethan had thought of anything intelligent to say, Sam had gone. He turned to Johnny, shaking out his hand to get the blood flowing again. ‘I wasn’t expecting that.’
Johnny smiled, set off walking again. ‘Remember what I said? You’re in the shit now, mate; Sam’s really got his teeth into you.’
A shout brought them both up sharp. They looked round to see someone trotting over from the side of the DZ.
‘Jake,’ said Johnny. ‘What’s he doing here?’
Ethan saw where Jake had come from. ‘Kat’s over there.’ He pointed. ‘He must’ve been talking to her, watching us jump.’
‘Having fun, are we? You and Sam enjoying yourselves with the rookie?’ Jake yelled.
‘Nice to see you too, Jake,’ said Johnny. ‘What are you doing here? Aren’t you still grounded?’
‘Don’t give a shit. Like I’m going to listen to Sam. His judgement’s totally out. He’s losing it in his old age.’
‘Come on, Eth,’ said Johnny, and carried on past Jake.
Jake stepped in front, blocking their way; nodded at Ethan. ‘He my replacement?’
‘What’s going on with you, Jake?’ asked Johnny. ‘Why are you really here?’
‘I’m asking if this rookie is my replacement; if Sam’s eyeing him for jumping with the team.’
‘No idea what Sam’s thinking,’ said Johnny. ‘He’s just helping Ethan skydive. That’s his job, remember?’
‘I remember all right,’ said Jake, getting up close. ‘I remember how you were always his favourite. Is that what this is? Another little Johnny clone for Sam to look after, eh?’
‘Hey,’ said Ethan. ‘Leave it.’
Johnny laughed. ‘Jake, shut up and piss off. You’re talking out of your arse.’
Jake pushed him, and Ethan stepped in. ‘I said leave it.’
‘Look, head back to the hangar,’ said Johnny, looking at Ethan. ‘I’ll sort this out.’
‘Yeah, that’s it, Rookie,’ said Jake as Ethan hesitated. ‘Do what Johnny tells you. Head back to teacher. Go on, like a good little boy.’
Ethan looked at Jake’s sneering face, and didn’t see the boot put out to trip him up. He caught it with his left foot, tried to keep his balance, fell forward and slammed into the ground.
‘What the hell did you do that for?’ he shouted, and pushed himself up, but he was caught in his canopy and fell back, drowning in his rig.
Jake laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Then turned and jogged back over to Kat.
Johnny reached down and helped Ethan to his feet, untangling him. ‘You all right?’
Ethan nodded. ‘What is his problem?’
Johnny and Ethan watched as Jake said something to Kat, then jumped into his Porsche and sped out of the car park.
‘He’s got an unfortunate flaw,’ said Johnny, helping Ethan pick up his rig.
‘What’s that then?’
‘He’s a tosser.’
Ethan saw Johnny smile.
‘Forget Jake,’ said Johnny. ‘He’s just jealous, that’s all. You ready for another jump?’
Ethan nodded. It was the one question to which he knew the answer would always be ‘Yes!’
14
By the end of the day Ethan was exhausted; he was already in bed when his phone rang. He’d been relieved to find his dad absent when he got home – expecting to find him in front of the TV again, ready for another argument. But tonight he was spared.
Mum was out working. Jo had called him into her room for a chat. She was in the middle of another of her weird paintings. Ethan had stared at it in fascination. He could see that it was way cool, but he just didn’t get what it was supposed to represent. That didn’t matter though; he knew he didn’t have to understand it to support her.
Now, lying on his bed, listening to his phone ringing, he checked his watch. Eleven thirty. No one ever phoned him this late. He didn’t recognize the number.
He didn’t answer and the call went to answerphone.
A moment later, the phone rang again.
Ethan picked it up, stared at it. The flat was empty now; Mum wasn’t back from work and Jo had gone out with her mates. A thought struck him – what if it was Jo using someone else’s phone because her own was dead? What if it was an emergency?
He answered. ‘Yes?’
Silence.
‘Hello?’
Ethan could hear something in the background. Wind buffeting metal. Whoever it was, they were calling from FreeFall – he’d recognize the sound of the hangar doors anywhere. They were loose and always rattled in the wind.
A whisper: ‘I said I’d make you pay, Rookie.’
‘Jake?’
Laughter.
The phone went dead.
Ethan didn’t know how Jake had got his number, but it was the fact that he had called from FreeFall that bothered him most. What was the rich tosser up to now? Ethan had a feeling that it wasn’t anything good. And since it was him Jake had called, Ethan felt that it was up to him to go and stop him.
Instinct took over. He was up, out and cycling along the road to FreeFall before he knew what he was doing. It was a dark night and the lights on his bike were fading. As they flickered in the gloom, he willed them to stay alive just long enough.
Then they died.
But Ethan pushed on, pedalled hard, the wind in his eyes. All he could think about was Jake and the trouble he could cause at FreeFall without anyone there to stop him. The bloke was a total idiot. This was probably some kind of revenge or something. Whatever it was, Ethan was determined to sort it out.
He swung the bike round a sharp corner. Bright light flooded the road, blinding him. A car horn blared and the sound of screeching tyres shattered his concentration as a car swung past, only missing him because he swerved into the verge. He felt his front tyre smack into something hard and lurched to a stop.
Jeez… that was close…
For a few seconds he sat on his bike and tried to calm down. Then he looked at his front tyre. It was totally flat thanks to a jagged rip. FreeFall was still a fair distance away, and time was of the essence. He pulled out his phone, punched in a number.
‘Yeah?’
‘Johnny?’
‘Ethan, look, can I call you back? I’m a bit… busy…’
A girl giggled in the background. Typical Johnny.
‘It’s Jake,’ said Ethan. ‘I think he’s at FreeFall. He just called and-’
Johnny came back bullet-quick. ‘When?’
‘Just now. Said something about making me pay, then hung up.’
‘You sure he’s at FreeFall? Did he tell you?’
‘No,’ said Ethan, ‘but I could hear the hangar doors rattling in the background. He’s there, I know it. He could be messing with the rigs or something.’
‘Have you called Sam?’
‘Uh-uh. Didn’t want to be on the receiving end if it turns out Jake’s just pissing around.’ Ethan was all too aware of how Sam would react if he thought someone had wasted his time.
‘Too right,’ agreed Johnny. ‘I’m on my way. I’ll pick you up in five.’
‘Look, I’m halfway there already-’
Johnny cut in, ‘You were going on your own?’
‘Yeah,’ said Ethan. ‘But my bike’s got a puncture. I’ll just leave it behind a hedge or something.’
Ethan listened as Johnny explained to the giggle what was happening then came back on the phone with, ‘Where are you?’
‘Couple of miles out of town on the main road.’
‘Sorted,’ said Johnny.
Ethan hung up. Then he lifted his bike over a hedge into a nearby field, did his best to memorize exactly where he was so that he could fetch it in the morning, and waited.
Five minutes later, Johnny pulled up on his bike, engine buzzing the night. He handed Ethan a helmet. ‘Jump on.’
Ethan had never been on a motorbike before. The instant he sat down, he wanted one.
‘Hold on tight – put your arms round me if you want.’
Ethan hesitated.
‘It’s OK, Ethan, you’re not my type.’
Smiling, he held onto Johnny’s waist.
The bike revved and zipped away into the dark, spraying stones and dirt across the road.
It didn’t take long to reach the old army base. At the security gate, Johnny explained that he’d left some of his kit behind. The guard smiled and waved them in.
As the airfield came into view up on their right, Johnny slowed the bike, pulled it to the side. Killing the engine, he turned to Ethan. ‘We’ll push it from here, arrive silent, OK?’
Ethan nodded, climbed off.
They edged forward, pushing the bike together along the road, then right into the car park. Johnny nodded over to an old shed and they rolled the bike into the shadows behind it, pulling off their helmets and leaving them on the pillion.
‘I bet Jake’s just trying to wind me up,’ Ethan said softly. ‘Has he always been such a dick?’
‘He’s always liked showing off,’ muttered Johnny. ‘He likes to have the upper hand. But he could have been a great skydiver if he hadn’t decided to focus on being a tosser instead.’ He pointed to the rear of the shed. ‘We’ll sneak through there, then make our way round to the front of the hangar. If Jake is here, we should be able to find him without being seen.’
As they crept off, a clatter from ahead rattled the dark.
‘Stay here,’ hissed Johnny, and before Ethan could say anything, he had slipped away into the darkness.
But Ethan didn’t like being left behind. And he’d never been good at waiting for something to happen. So he quickly followed-
And nearly collided with Johnny coming back.
‘I told you to stay.’
‘I’m not a dog.’
Johnny looked at Ethan. ‘I know Jake’s pissed you off, but going out looking for a fight isn’t like going out on the pull. When you want a fight, you’re almost guaranteed to get laid – out!’
‘I just don’t like being messed about, that’s all,’ said Ethan. ‘Is it Jake?’
Johnny nodded, his face grim. ‘Him and two others I don’t recognize. They’re in the hangar.’
‘What are they doing?’
‘No idea,’ said Johnny. ‘But we’re going to phone Sam.’
‘How about calling the police while you’re at it?’
Johnny shook his head. ‘If we call the police and this is just Jake being a prick, they’ll do us for time wasting.’
Ethan watched as Johnny pulled out his phone, scrolled through the numbers and hit CALL.
A ‘Yes?’ hissed into the air, and Johnny handed the phone to Ethan.
‘Your gig, mate; you’d best tell him.’
Ethan took the phone and explained everything to Sam. Two minutes later he killed the phone and handed it back to Johnny with a nod. ‘He’s on his way.’
‘No surprise there,’ said Johnny. ‘So what do you want to do now?’
‘Well, we either hang about and wait for Sam,’ said Ethan, ‘or we get on and do something. Let’s see if we can find out what Jake’s actually up to.’
Just then they both saw a shadow stroll out of the hangar and into the moonlight to smoke a cigarette. They watched, unmoving, until the figure flicked the cigarette butt away and turned back. The dying cigarette cast a faint red arc in the darkness.
Johnny nodded towards the hangar. ‘Let’s go.’
The hangar doors were large, sitting like sliding cat flaps in two even bigger doors for aircraft moving in and out of the hangar. Ethan and Johnny crept past the open doors and hid behind a large bin and a pile of discarded pallets. From there, they could see what was going on inside the hangar without being spotted themselves. They saw torches cutting the dark like light sabres and heard laughter echoing in the air.
Jake was with two other men. They were both large guys, taller than Ethan, and they were dressed in black, with long leather jackets that finished just above the knee. They looked to Ethan liked they’d popped along to Criminals ’R’ Us to get dressed up before heading out. From this distance, the only difference between the two was that one had blond hair, the other black. They were busy pulling the parachutes out of their packs and shredding them with Stanley knives.
‘They’re messing with the rigs,’ said Ethan.
‘Yeah,’ Johnny muttered. ‘They’re shredding everything. Harnesses, canopies – all ruined. The bastards.’
They heard Jake shout at the other two to hurry up.
Ethan could hardly bear to sit still and watch as more rigs were destroyed. At last he spoke. ‘We need to keep them here until Sam arrives,’ he said. ‘I reckon he’ll want to have a word or two with Jake.’
Johnny nodded. ‘And your plan for that?’
‘We lock them in,’ said Ethan.
‘Nice,’ agreed Johnny, nodding appreciatively.
‘And simple,’ added Ethan.