AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Keep climbing,” Moose said. “We’re not at altitude yet.”
Ned’s ears began to pop, and he yawned, freeing the pressure. Ranger was doing the same, his gaze on the altimeter.
“They’re warning us to turn around,” Dodge said. Apparently, he spoke enough Russian to understand. Or maybe the warning came in English. Ned had heard that all Russian traffic controllers had to learn English, but what about the Russian military?
Yes, keep climbing, Moose. But hurry, because the faster they got off, the faster Moose bugged out, the less of a chance they’d deploy—
“They’re threatening to shoot us out of the sky with anti-aircraft missiles.”
Oh. “What’s the range?” Fraser said.
“The S-400 Triumf has a range of four hundred kilometers.” Dodge, from the cockpit.
“We’re well within range,” Ned said.
“Even if they have the next model down, it’s a hundred fifty-five miles.” This from Ranger.
“What’s our altitude?”
“Just passing ten thousand,” said Moose.
“Let’s pull the trigger,” said Fraser. “We’ll just deploy immediately and let the wind take us.” He clamped a hand on Ned’s shoulder. “We’ll make it.”
Ned swallowed past the burr in his chest and nodded.
The plane leveled out, and Ranger opened the door. Not made for dumping out passengers over the ocean, the plane fought the sudden rush of air and bucked. Ned held on while Dodge and Moose evened her back out.
The stairway retracted into the body of the plane, and now Ned stepped out. Looked down. Darkness, the night black with clouds. That would help.
He pulled down his NVGs, gave a thumbs-up, covered up the glasses, and ran from the plane.
He cleared the wings, falling hard, and in a second, pulled the rip cord. The chute yanked him up, hard, and the fall arrested, the world turning instantly quiet.
“You good?” Fraser’s voice in his helmet.
“Yes.”
Above them, the Gulfstream had banked hard, was fleeing Russian airspace.
Run, boys, run.
He grabbed the toggles of his chute and steered the canopy west, barely making out Fraser in the darkness via the eerie green of his glasses.
“You there, bro?”
“Yep. I see you. Adjust a little to the northwest. Don’t want you to miss the island.”
Ned grinned. “Aw, I’d just end up in Japan, maybe grab some sushi.”
Fraser laughed.
And weirdly, it sort of choked Ned up, the fact he was hanging here, in the sky, with his brother. “Fraser, I should probably say thanks, you know—”
“Not necessary, bro. It’s what we do.”
“Yeah, but you’re not on the teams anymore, and—”
“No, Ned. It’s what Marshalls do. One jumps, we all jump. I thought you’d figured out we had your back when Kostia jumped you.”
