He smiled. He had a feeling it was going to be the easiest decision he’d ever made. Still, it was a big one…

‘Don’t go all silent on me,’ said Johnny. ‘I fear the silence. And you must be smiling for a reason. If you don’t say something soon, some awful bollocks is going to come out of my mouth and we’ll both regret it, trust me.’

Ethan looked back up into the sky. More skydivers were coming in. He was itching for a jump himself.

‘You’re dangerous people to know,’ he said. ‘That was some serious shit we went through. I wasn’t exactly prepared for it.’

‘Isn’t that half the fun, though?’ said Johnny. ‘Not knowing what’s round the corner and dealing with it when it turns out to be a ten-foot gorilla, desperate to chew your face off?’

‘Your jokes really are crap,’ said Ethan. ‘We were almost killed.’

They were both silent for a moment, thinking about that.

‘I keep getting flashbacks,’ he went on. ‘To those x-rays who walked into the Claymores on the beach. That guy we were fighting when Sam appeared and shot him. That other guy I kicked off the boat…’

‘They knew what they were getting into,’ said Johnny. ‘Run around with a gun trying to kill people and bad things happen. Besides, if we hadn’t helped Sam, who knows where that disk would be now, or just how the information on it might have been used? For all we know, we’ve saved thousands of lives.’

‘Still,’ said Ethan, ‘it’s difficult to get it out of my head.’

‘I know, Eth,’ Johnny said. ‘But you can’t just focus on that. You also have to realize that you’re brilliant. You’ve got an instinct for this stuff, a knack of doing the right thing regardless of what’s going on. You don’t get flustered, you don’t panic and you’re a natural in the air. This is what you were born to do. Don’t you feel it? You’re what we need. But we are also what you need.’

Ethan looked at Johnny. Deep down, he knew that what his friend was saying was true. He was right for the team. And the team was right for him. He wasn’t just good; when it came to skydiving, dealing with danger, staying calm despite everything going to shit around him, he was a natural. He couldn’t explain why. He just was. And being on the team made him feel alive and useful and valuable in a way that nothing else in his life ever had.

Johnny said, ‘That swoop you did over the boat – it was unbelievable. And if you’d missed, I’d probably be dead. We wouldn’t be having this conversation. Look,’ he went on, ‘I’m not going to force you into this. No one is. As always, it’s down to you, your decision.’

‘I know,’ said Ethan.

‘But what I will say is that we all want you on the team, including Sam. And that’s a big deal.’

For a few moments neither of them said anything.

‘Well?’ said Johnny at last.

‘You said you wouldn’t force it.’

‘I lied.’ Johnny let his trademark grin spread across his face. ‘What do you say?’

In spite of everything, Ethan couldn’t stop grinning back. ‘I’m in,’ he said, as he’d known he would. Then his grin became a wide smile. ‘Life’s too short not to.’

– 

– 

AAD- Automatic Activation Device: senses rate of descent and altitude – mechanically activates reserve parachute if a skydiver passes below a set altitude at a high rate of descent.

A/C- Aircraft.

Accuracy- Also known as ‘precision landing’. Competition discipline in which the skydiver tries to land on a target three centimetres in diameter.

AFF- Accelerated Freefall training, comprising freefall jumps of forty seconds or longer, accompanied by a qualified jumpmaster.

AGL- Above Ground Level. Altitudes are in reference either to Ground Level or Sea Level (MSL). Skydivers always use AGL when referring to altitude.

Airspeed- Speed of a flying object through the air.

Altimeter- Device indicating altitude.

Base- Core around which a formation skydive is built. Can be a single person or a group.

Body position- Freefall body posture.

Boogie- Gathering of skydivers.

Bounce- To land at unsurvivable speed. Also to frap, or go in.

Box man- A neutral, face-to-earth body position in which the arms form right angles at shoulder and elbow, and the legs are spread at about forty-five degrees from the long axis and bent forty-five degrees at the knees. Generally considered the ideal position for formation skydiving.

Brakes- The brake lines of the canopy are also steering lines. Used together, they slow the parachute. Used independently, they result in a turn.

Break off- To cease formation skydiving by tracking away from the formation prior to deploying the canopy.

Burble- An area of low air pressure above a descending skydiver caused either by them in freefall or by their canopy in flight.

Call- Time remaining until you are to board the aircraft or jump out of it.

Canopy- Another name for parachute.

Crabbing- Canopy flown at an angle sideways to the ambient wind, resulting in a path across the ground that is sideways as well as forwards.

Creep- Practising formation skydiving sequences while lying on a creeper.

Creeper- A board with wheels on which a skydiver lies to simulate freefall manoeuvres.

Cut away- To release the main parachute. Standard emergency procedure prior to deploying the reserve.

Dirt dive- Skydive rehearsed on the ground.

Drogue- In a tandem jump, a drogue parachute is released shortly after exiting the aircraft to reduce the speed of descent. It is later used to deploy the main canopy.

Dropzone/ DZ- Skydiving landing zone.

Exit weight- Total weight of jumper, equipment and clothing.

Fall rate- Speed at which a skydiver falls. Matching fall rate is essential to successful formation skydiving. This is done with jumpsuits, weights and body position.

Flare- To pull down the brakes of the canopy, thus increasing the angle of attack and reducing the descent rate.

Floater- Skydivers who leave the plane before the base are called floaters since they must use a slow fall rate to get up to the base. Floating also refers to an exit position outside the plane.

Formation-1) A freefall skydiving formation of more than one jumper.

-2) A flight of more than one jump plane.

Freestyle- Acrobatic individual skydiving.

FS- Formation Skydiving. Skydivers attempt to go through a predetermined sequence of freefall formations.

GPS- Global Positioning System.

Grippers- Handholds built onto formation skydiving jumpsuits to make the suits easier to hold onto.

Hand deploy- To activate a canopy manually by deploying the pilot chute as opposed to pulling a ripcord.

Harness/ container- Webbing/fabric holding main and reserve canopies to the skydiver.

Heading- Direction in which the aircraft, skydiver or parachute is facing.

Hook knife- Small knife carried in jumpsuit or on rig to cut lines or webbing.

Jump run- Flight path taken by the jump plane.