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.
‘What’s that?’ asked Ethan. ‘Doesn’t look like your average torch.’
‘It’s not,’ said Luke. ‘It’s a Betalight. Military issue. It’s a harmless radioactive chemical that glows for about thirty years. Doesn’t have an on/off switch, just this rubber cap to cover it up.’
‘Right,’ said Ethan, ‘of course,’ and decided he should stop asking questions.
‘It’s perfect for this type of work,’ Luke continued. ‘Gives us just enough light to read a map without the risk of getting spotted.’ He placed a finger on the map. ‘We’re here,’ he said. ‘The drop was perfect. Which means we all owe Gabe a drink.’
Everyone looked down at the map. Ethan glanced around at his teammates and felt relieved to be on their side, rather than on the receiving end of whatever it was they were about to unleash. They no longer looked like adrenaline freaks, desperate for another rush. They seemed focused, organized, and more than a little dangerous. He already knew they were great skydivers – he’d seen that for himself – but this mission wasn’t just about jumping out of a plane. It was about explosives, and rescuing Sam, and possible contact with people who would shoot first and probably not even ask any questions later. Given Sam’s background, and Gabe’s involvement, the team would obviously have been given training and skills that Ethan had yet to see. He wondered when he’d be getting some of that training himself.
‘We’re to tab – that’s run,’ Luke explained, glancing at Ethan, ‘from here, through the woods and then up to the castle.’
‘How far is it?’ asked Natalya.
‘Only about half a click,’ Luke replied. ‘If we get a move on, we should be