He was terrified.
They were twenty floors above the ground. If he'd taken time to look he could have identified a handful of buildings and landmarks, but he felt sick to the pit of his stomach. They didn't have a clue what they were doing, whether this thing was air-worthy, whether three of them would be too heavy and it would plunge to the ground. Maybe Breezer was waiting at a window a few floors below even now, someone else with him ready to fold wings or snap struts with their mind.
If he can't have me, maybe he'd rather see me dead, Jack thought.
But then Sparky was dragging them the last few feet to the edge of the roof with his feet, and Jack and Jenna jumped onto fibreglass struts on either side of the bucket seat, wrapped their arms around framing, and grasped the loose straps.
“Bloody hell,” Sparky muttered as the front wheel dropped over the edge of the building.
“Yeah,” Jack said.
They fell.
Jack had never been so scared. The aircraft's frame shook and rattled, the canvas wing snapped and slapped, the wind blasted against his face and took his breath away and blurred his vision, and they were plummeting towards the ground, nose dipped down and the vehicle-strewn street rapidly approaching.
“Pull it up!” Jack shouted, but his words were stolen away.
Jenna was hugging the strut, eyes squeezed shut, strap twisted around her arm and biting into her skin so hard that blood dribbled, whipped away by the wind.
Jack leaned in towards Sparky, not daring to let go, and shouted again. “Sparky!”
Sparky turned to look at Jack, eyes wide and his spiked blond hair pressed flat across his head.
“Pull…up!”
Sparky nodded and grabbed the control handles. They were linked via wires and metal connectors to the wing above them, and though Jack had no idea how it worked, there must have been some element of control. Sparky pulled the handles, and immediately their nose rose, almost flipping them up onto their back.
If that happens we'll stall and then just fall, Jack thought, and he risked letting go of the strut. He fell forward across Sparky's arm and grabbed one controller, easing back and feeling Sparky's immediate understanding. The hang glider levelled…and then they were drifting, and flying.
“Yeaaaahhhh!” Sparky screamed.
Jenna's eyes opened a crack, then squeezed shut again.
As if finding its own level, the aircraft suddenly stopped shaking, and the breeze pressing against Jack's face lessened. He still gripped tight, but for a moment he felt safer. Safe enough at least to glance around, see where they were heading, and spot a hundred dangers in their path.
They'd dropped at least half the building's height before levelling out, and now other buildings loomed, and aerials on lower structures reached for them.
Jack looked back, but they were already too far away from Breezer's skyscraper to make out any details.
“Got to make some distance!” Jack shouted. Sparky nodded once, all his concentration on the control handles. Jack could see his friend tweaking the handles here and there, muscles in his arms flexing and his brow furrowed as he slowly got the feel of the aircraft. The glider dipped and rose, and then as they drifted to the left and approached a bland grey concrete and glass monolith, they rose and barely passed above it.
Sparky beamed in delight. Jenna opened her eyes once more, then closed them again.
“We're okay!” Jack shouted to her, but she merely pressed her lips tighter together.