DropZone by Andy McNab Read Free Book Online Page A

glance at Sam. ‘Wouldn’t mind doing it myself.’
    Sam looked at Ethan as canopies burst into colour above. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘That’s just the right attitude. Shows me that you’re not just thinking about the tandem. You’re thinking beyond it, to the next level. Just what I’m after.’
    Ethan was just wondering what on earth Sam meant by that final sentence when he spotted something strange. He quickly raised the binoculars again.
    While everyone else was now gliding in, doing turns, one skydiver was plummeting towards the ground, canopy pulled but flapping uselessly above, like a bedraggled windsock. And the ground wasn’t exactly getting further away.
    Ethan lowered the binoculars and pointed. ‘Sam?’
    Sam was already looking, his eyes narrow, his face hard.
    ‘That can’t be right,’ murmured Ethan.
    ‘It’s not,’ Sam replied.
    Ethan held his breath. He couldn’t drag his eyes away from the falling skydiver. Morbid curiosity had him by the throat and was forcing him to watch: this was someone with seconds to live.
    ‘He’s going to be under a thousand any second,’ said Sam. ‘Why hasn’t he cut away? If his AAD pings his reserve, it’ll get tangled with his main canopy! What’s he thinking?’
    Ethan had no idea what Sam was talking about. But then, as if on cue, a crack sounded through the air, and he saw the skydiver’s twisted canopy snap free and drift off like a deflated balloon: the skydiver had at last cut his main canopy away. Momentarily he was in freefall again, but then he was pulled back hard by a smaller canopy, which burst open above him, pulling him into a slow descent just a few seconds short of death.
    Sam put out his hand. ‘Binos, Ethan. Now.’
    Ethan handed them over, then looked at the figure as it drifted safely to the ground.
    Sam put the binoculars to his eyes, then growled, ‘Jake . . .’

7
    Ethan didn’t even bother trying to keep up with Sam, who had turned and raced off towards his office. The man could seriously shift.
    A hundred metres away from the DZ, the skydiver Ethan now knew to be Jake drifted down onto the long grass. Moments later, the other skydivers came in to land, but Ethan didn’t have time to wait for them; he was due in the café and Nancy would be waiting. He wanted to see what had happened to Jake, to talk to Johnny and the rest about it, but seeing the mood Sam was now in, he didn’t fancy making it worse by not being where he was paid to be. It wasn’t long before Johnny and the rest of the team found him in the café.
    ‘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,