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