The Darwin Elevator

Chapter Fourteen

Darwin, Australia

26.JAN.2283

“Nice and easy, Angus.” Skyler peered out the dirty cockpit window and watched the twenty-meter-tall barricade of Nightcliff’s northern edge passed beneath them. A few guards patrolled the top of the structure, between missile batteries placed at regular intervals.

Angus placed a hand over his headset microphone. “Between you and the control tower, I get the idea.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Skyler said. “I’m a bit nervous about this mission.”

Angus barked a laugh. “You don’t say.”

“Cleared for staging pad four heading zero niner zero,” a voice said over the cockpit radio.

“Copy, tower,” Angus said, “landing pad four at zero niner zero.”

He slowed the craft even more and turned slightly toward a grid of landing pads just beyond the wall. Vertical thrusters howled under the strain.

“Angus,” Skyler said.

“I’m a bit busy.”

“Head for landing pad four.”

Angus shook his head and chuckled. “Such a wanker.”

“This insubordination is intolerable.”

“Discipline is in order, I think,” said Samantha, listening from the main cabin’s intercom.

“Agreed,” said Skyler. “Angus, I’m adding five demerits to your record.”

“Bullshit,” Angus said. “You keep records?”

“Of course. Highly detailed.”

Angus began to descend toward the landing pad. “How many demerits am I up to?”

“Let’s see,” Skyler said. “Five.”

“What about me?” asked Samantha.

Skyler checked over each shoulder to make sure nothing was in Angus’s blind spots. “Two thousand, four hundred twenty.”

The craft gently settled onto the asphalt pad. Hydraulic landing skids creaked as they took on the weight.

“Tower, this is the Melville. We’re secure on pad four,” said Angus.

“Copy, Melville,” came the voice. “Off engines and prepare for crane attach.”

Angus repeated the order and cut power to all four of the ducted-fan engines.

Behind their ship, an old construction crane mounted on huge treads began to approach them. Skyler could just see the mechanical beast over his shoulder.

He removed his helmet as the engines wound down. “Sam?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Be serious now. Prep the hook, and tell Jake to be ready at the rear door.”

“Expecting a search before the mission?”

“No. We’re taking on a passenger.”

Angus glanced back, surprised. “What?”

“The hell you say?” Sam asked.

“Not the time, guys,” Skyler said. Platz, by way of Prumble, had been very clear that the mission details should be kept secret as long as possible. “Sam, the hook, please?”

“This is a really stupid f*cking move, Skyler,” she said. “No taxi jobs, that’s always been the rule. The risk—”

“Is worth the reward,” Skyler barked. “This is not up for discussion.”

He took her lack of response as tacit acknowledgment and turned his focus to the water hauler on the adjacent landing pad. Through a misting rain Skyler saw a work crew wearing blue overalls approaching the massive craft. One of them, in the center of the group, moved differently than the rest. No swagger, Skyler realized. That must be her.

“Jake,” Skyler said into his headset.

There was some rustling on the other end. “Go ahead.”

“Be ready on the hatch. Open it on my mark.”

“Understood,” Jake said.

The crew approached pad three, where the massive water hauler rested. The ungainly blue aircraft somewhat resembled a fish skeleton—a huge empty cavity behind the cockpit, surrounded by beams with special couplings that allowed it to pick up and carry a water container the size of a city bus. Two of the workers wrangled a thick hose toward a receptacle on the edge of the pad. They both got on hands and knees to inspect the connection, poring over every last inch of it.

Skyler had seen better acting in school plays.

A third member of the crew pretended to supervise the work, his attention focused not on the crew but the nearby buildings. The fourth Skyler kept a close watch on.

“Here’s the crane,” Angus said.

Skyler spun in his seat, looking to the other side of his ship. A large construction crane pushed through the mist, red warning lights flashing. It loomed over them, obstructing whatever view the control tower had of their ship.

“Hook is prepped,” Samantha said in his ear.

Skyler said, “Good. Help Jake please.”

“With what?”

“Get our guest on board,” Skyler said, “and the hatch closed, quick as you can.” He tried to keep his voice even. Inside his heart hammered.

He could hear Samantha’s exhale through the headset. “And if we get inspected again, glorious leader?”

He hadn’t considered that. “We’ll say … we found an immune. Get ready.”

“We’re ready,” said Jake. All business, as usual.

Skyler turned back to the crew working on pad three. The woman moved to the back of the crew’s small maintenance cart and removed an oversized briefcase. She turned then and walked swiftly to the Melville. Too quickly, Skyler thought, but it would have to do.

“Mark,” Skyler said.

He could feel the reverberation as Jake and Samantha opened the hatch. Over the intercom, he heard muffled voices.

Another vibration rolled through the ship as the cargo door closed and sealed.

Their guest had arrived.



It took almost ten minutes for the crane to lift the Melville off the ground and carry it to the climber loading facility at the center of Nightcliff.

“Angus, can you finish this?” Skyler asked.

“No problem.”

Skyler unlatched his harness and climbed from his seat. Crouching, he moved to the back of the cramped cockpit and headed into the cargo area.

Jake and Samantha stood in awkward silence next to the most beautiful woman Skyler had ever seen.

She had jet-black hair, tied back, and smooth dark skin. Indian, or Sri Lankan, he guessed. Her eyes were laced with amber and gleamed with intelligence.

Jake held his flight helmet in his hands, passing it rapidly from one to the other. Samantha had her hands clasped behind her back, her feet crossed. They both stared at the woman openly.

She clutched a silver briefcase like a firstborn child and brightened to see another person enter the cargo bay.

“Are you the captain?” Her voice had a depth to it, not like a man’s, but deep enough to imply maturity.

He tipped his cap to her. “I often wonder that myself.”

She extended a hand. “Tania Sharma. Research director, Anchor Station.”

“Where’s that?” Samantha asked.

“About forty klicks above our heads,” Jake said.

“Forty thousand klicks, actually,” Tania said.

Jake just nodded, transfixed.

“Skyler Luiken, at your service. Welcome to the Melville.” He took Tania’s hand and shook it. “This is my sniper, Jake, and my ops specialist, Samantha.”

Sam stood a head taller than the woman. Despite herself, she smiled slightly. It took her only a fraction of a second to hide it again.

“You’re an Orbital,” Jake said.

Tania turned to him. “Yes,” she said with patience. “Anchor Station is in orbit.”

The three of them stared at her. She looked from one to the other, becoming more self-conscious by the second.

“Is something wrong?” Tania asked.

Skyler snapped out of his trance. “It’s not often we have a guest, is all.”

The lovely woman frowned, but nodded all the same.

“What’s in the case?” asked Sam.

Before she could reply, Angus spoke over the intercom. “Everyone prep for lift configuration. One minute.”

At the prompt, Samantha and Jake took seats on the starboard side of the cargo bay. Skyler took a seat as well and began to strap himself in, but then realized their guest was still standing in the middle of the compartment. He stood and guided her to the seat he’d been preparing to use, and then folded out another seat facing hers.

Tania stared at the harness, confused.

“Watch me,” Skyler said. He used slow motions to attach the first two belts across his waist.

“Twenty seconds,” Angus said on the speaker.

Tania started to rush things. The buckles clanged together.

“Relax, plenty of time,” Skyler said.

She paused long enough for a deep breath, then latched the first belts together.

“Shoulders,” Skyler said, reaching over each shoulder and pulling two additional belts across his chest. He connected them at a special latch above the waist belts.

The woman mimicked his movements. As the belts crossed her, Skyler tried not to stare.

“Five seconds,” Angus said.

“Last but not least,” Skyler said, and reached above himself to pull a thick metal bar down.

Tania stretched for the bar above her own seat. Her fingertips were short by a few centimeters. She extended further and the metal briefcase in her lap started to slide away.

The Melville began to tilt. Outside, the tow crane had started to lift the nose of the ship. Soon the craft would be pointing nose-up.

“Shit,” Skyler said. He pushed his own restraint bar up and unbuckled himself as quickly as possible.

By reflex, he shot a hand out to stop himself from falling. He grabbed Tania’s seat just above her shoulder. They were just a few centimeters apart now. She closed her eyes. “What is going on?” she whispered.

Skyler spoke in a low voice as he strained against gravity. “We’re being attached to a climber,” he said, finally snatching the restraint bar above her seat. He pulled it down and locked it in place.

Tania opened her eyes enough to see the bar and grab hold of it.

“We have to attach vertically or we won’t clear the top of the guard tower,” Skyler continued. He grunted as he pushed himself back into his own seat. Getting back into his own harness required all his strength, as the ship was at a ninety-degree angle now. In his seat, he looked straight down at her, and she stared straight up at him.

A sickening moment followed, when the crane stopped and the entire ship swayed freely.

Skyler kept a close eye on Tania. “Are you going to be okay?”

She closed her eyes and nodded rapidly. Her knuckles were white on the restraint bar. “Why a cargo climber?” she managed.

“It gets us to a hundred kilometers. The Van Allen Belt. Edge of space.”

She let out a nervous laugh. “I’m an astronomer.”

“Oh. Of course.” Skyler grinned. “Well, it’s the only way we can make a round trip to distant targets. Drop from one hundred klicks, glide above the atmosphere most of the way, save the caps for the way back.”

She looked confused. “Why not go higher? Drop from Gateway—”

From across the cabin, Samantha cut in. She played up a thick Australian accent. “Mudders like us aren’t allowed up there.”

Tania looked at her, then back at Skyler. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking …”

Skyler shook his head slightly, hoping she would let it go.

A loud clang from outside rumbled through the cramped cabin, followed by a low ratcheting sound, as the ship was finally attached to the climber. Angus’s cheerful voice came over the intercom. “Cleared the tower. Get cozy everyone; ten hours until drop.”

Skyler winced, realizing he sat facing backward. Which now meant downward. The belts of the harness, and the metal restraint, were all that kept him from falling. He already felt the uncomfortable bite of the nylon belts through his jacket.

Ten hours, he thought, and nowhere to look but right at her. He closed his eyes to keep from staring.



The captain’s arms extended almost to Tania’s neck, his hands outstretched as if reaching to strangle her.

He drifted off during the long tow to the edge of space. The others had, too.

There had been some small talk, at the beginning. The crew seemed anxious to talk about anything but the task at hand. This frustrated Tania no end, but she recognized it as a calming technique. They were risking their lives for her mission, after all.

Well, that and money, she thought. The risk remained.

She’d kept quiet, content to listen, waiting for the right moment to turn their discussion to the task at hand. There would be plenty of time.

But then they’d all fallen asleep. For the last six hours, she’d had nothing to do but stare at their captain.

He almost looked dead, the way his arms floated free, his head lolled side to side. Like he’d drowned.

The situation was worse before, when gravity tugged at him with its full fury. At one point she’d pressed, with all possible strength, into the left side of her chair to avoid a stream of drool that spanned the entire gap between his mouth and her headrest.

She couldn’t quite pinpoint the moment when Earth’s eternal tug had begun to fade, but she’d watched with fascination as his motions became lighter. The speed at which his face changed from looking tortured, to serene as a baby, was remarkable.

He had a scar on his forehead. An old one, faded now. His brown hair showed early signs of gray, just behind his temples. Thin lips, cracked from exposure. Bags under his eyes implied a poor sleep schedule. Tania realized she had absolutely no idea what life was like for him.

“Or anyone in Darwin,” she whispered to herself.

Scraps of faded paper and old photographs filled the wall behind him, taped there in haphazard fashion. Souvenirs from past missions, she assumed. A restaurant menu, a string of bottle caps. Someone’s Australian passport. A wedding invitation. Tania found herself smiling at the display. These were the true relics of old Earth, the things no one else thought to collect, or ask for.

One photograph caught her eye. The subject looked familiar, and she squinted to be sure. It can’t be, she thought.

Working as quietly as she could, Tania released her harness. The others remained asleep as she pushed out of her chair and floated to the wall, to the photograph.

In the picture, four men stood in front of a telescope.

“Papa,” she whispered.

Her father stood there, smiling from beneath that horrible mustache he wore, something Tania at eight years old had teased him about. He looked sad, she thought. A ghost trapped in a time long gone.

The odds that this crew would have a picture of her father were astronomical. Of all the people—

And then she saw it. Neil Platz, standing next to him, his arm thrown around her father’s shoulder. Shorter hair, blond, not gray. A younger Neil.

Tania’s heart pounded. She held her breath and removed the picture from the wall. With delicate care she turned it over.

A printed note graced the back. Toyama, Japan, 2264. The telescope’s grand opening, thanks to a grant from Platz Space Industries. Two years before the Elevator arrived.

“Neil founded the place …,” she whispered. He’d said nothing of it when Tania told him where the data she needed was stored. Yet here he was, cutting the ribbon, funding the facility. With my father.

She clutched the picture to her chest. Confusion swarmed in her mind. Perhaps Neil had forgotten about it. His company funded many projects, in a time long forgotten by most.

No, a voice inside her said. It felt too convenient. She thought back to how she’d identified the telescope as a source for the information. Neil had listened to her theory with rapt attention, a theory she’d come to after several offhand comments he had made over the years. They’d stayed up late into the night, brainstorming, searching the archives. Had he guided all of it? Could he have led her to her conclusions?

She shut her eyes. It seemed impossible that he would do that. It made no sense, and besides, he wanted the data as much as she did. More, perhaps. She saw no point in speculating about it now. After the mission, she would ask him.

The intercom next to Skyler’s head crackled to life. “Captain, you awake?”

Skyler did not stir at the voice, nor did the others.

Tania forced herself back to the moment. She floated back to her seat and buckled in.

“Captain,” the pilot said through the intercom, louder.

The captain woke violently. He thrashed once against his restraint, and shouted, “Falling!” before recognizing his surroundings.

Tania realized she still had the photograph in her hands. She slipped it into a pocket.

Skyler’s eyes settled on her, his expression shifting to embarrassed. “Did I snore?”

“No,” she said, and attempted a smile.

“Good.”

“There was some drool.”

Skyler cringed and forced his eyes closed. “I’m so sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

He opened one eye. “You must get that a lot.”

“Apologies?”

“Drool.”

She laughed, despite herself. Then she looked at the others, who were still sleeping. “I have to say, everyone stared when they first saw me.”

“They’re not used to someone like you,” Skyler said.

“An ‘Orbital’?”

He shook his head. “More to the point, a beauty.”

She blushed.

“Captain?” Angus said, through the speaker.

Skyler tapped the button. “We getting close?”

“Thirty minutes,” Angus said.

“Understood.” Skyler clicked the microphone off and lowered his voice. “It’s a compliment, if you like, but I’m just speaking the truth. Someone with your … qualities, is simply not seen in Darwin.”

“Why not?”

He broke away from her gaze and began to remove his harness. “It’s not a kind place. Enough about that. You’re a scientist, so tell me, have you people figured out what’s going on with the Aura?”

“We’ve got a team working on it,” she said. “I’m afraid I don’t know much else.”

“I hope they work fast. Nightcliff thought we caused it. Did you know that?”

“Why?” she asked.

Skyler shrugged. “The first power blip happened at the same moment we were hitting the Aura, coming back in. Bad timing.”

Tania studied his face. If what he said was true, she doubted it could have been a coincidence. Perhaps they were just the straw that broke the camel’s back, and the Aura really had reached the end of its operational tolerances.

The captain offered her a comforting grin. “Let’s get you suited up.”

She took the prompt and unbuckled herself from the seat. He showed her how to use a strap on the wall next to her to secure the briefcase temporarily.

Satisfied it wouldn’t float away, Tania followed Skyler to the back of the craft. He stopped next to a large metal locker and tugged it open. Inside a bright yellow environment suit waited.

“Your evening gown, miss.”

The suit looked ragged, like it had been used for many years. “I hope it fits.” And works.

“A little baggy, perhaps. As long as the seal is good you’ll be all right.”

The severity of what she would soon do crystallized in her mind. She pinched the yellow material between her fingers, reassured by the thickness of it. “And if the seal breaks?”

“If it breaks,” Skyler said, “we race back to Darwin, hopefully before—”

Tania put a hand on his arm to silence him. She knew the consequences of exposure and doubted they could make it back to the Aura’s Edge fast enough to stall the infection. The Aura did not cure the disease, or even kill it. It only put the virus into stasis. Dormant cells would stay that way even after they left the Aura, until they came in contact with a live copy that switched the sleeping cells back on. Because of that, air packaged inside the Aura would be safe to breathe, provided it never mixed with the tainted air outside.

To be exposed for hours would leave most people dead, and the rest devolved into a primal form of human, often with one emotion amplified at the expense of all others. Fear, desire, hatred, rage—one would consume the mind. The thought gave rise to a knot in her stomach.

Skyler removed the outfit from the locker and handed it to her. She took it and, with one arm hooked through a handhold on the wall, pulled it up over her legs. All the while she watched Skyler inspect the seal along the helmet, gloves, and boots she would put on next.

“How did you find out you’re immune?” she asked him.

He answered while studying the gear. “I was twenty, a copilot in the Luchtmacht … um, Dutch Air Force. When SUBS began spreading up through Africa, we were flying doctors and medical supplies to Alexandria. Then Naples. Madrid. Kept retreating, every day. On the way back from one mission, about a week after it all started, my pilot … just lost it. Everything scared the hell out of him. Everything. His own damn shoes were the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen. I had to subdue him. I didn’t know what it meant, not then.”

Tania let out a long breath, waiting.

“By the time I landed back home, everything was in chaos. It seemed like everyone had been possessed, only no two acted quite the same way. ‘Everyone has their own demon,’ I remember thinking.” He lifted the bulky helmet and placed it over her head, twisting it into place on the ring mount. “I ran, stole a truck. Drove into Amsterdam to try to find my family. It didn’t take long to realize the effect had hit everyone but me, near as I could tell. I really thought I was unique. The last sane man.”

“Did you find them? Your family?” she asked, while trying to picture herself racing through the streets of Mumbai, only to find her mom dead, or worse. She almost didn’t want to hear his answer.

Skyler shook his head, and for a few minutes he said nothing as he finished connecting her suit to an air pack. Then he moved on to the gloves. While slipping the first over her left hand, he said, “Never got close. The whole city had gone insane. An absolute nightmare. I took a gun from a dead policeman and managed to sneak and fight my way back to the open road. That’s when I met another immune, a guy named Skadz. He told me the feeds were abuzz with a rumor that Darwin was somehow unaffected, so we stole a transport plane from the base and flew there, more or less.”

The man became quiet. Tania sensed he could have included enough detail to scare her away from the journey they were on. Yet something in the calm, methodical way he went about suiting her up instilled confidence in her safety.

After the gloves and boots, Skyler pressurized her suit. A hiss of air was the only evidence that something changed.

“Breathe normally,” he said.

“Sorry.” She hadn’t even noticed her rapid breathing, and willed herself to calm down.

The pilot’s voice came over the intercom. “Five minutes, guys.”

Jake and Samantha stirred in unison. Instinct kicked in as both of them immediately checked their harnesses.

“Suit checks out,” Skyler said. He took her arm and guided her across the cabin. “You’ve got about eighteen hours of Aura-scrubbed air compressed in that pack, more than enough for the time we’ll be in the Clear.”

With his help, she drifted back into her seat. The bulk of the hazard suit made movement awkward for her, but at least the gloves were formfitting. She managed to reattach the safety belts on her own.

“Might want to hold on to that bar,” Skyler said.

She took his advice, gripping it firmly with both hands. “Thank you.”

He winked at her and smiled.

Tania decided she liked him.

It seemed like an eternity passed before Angus’s voice came back on the intercom. “Ten seconds. Grab on to something.”

Tania could see Skyler mouth the countdown. He pushed hard against his restraint bar, preparing to fight against the force of acceleration she realized was imminent. At “one,” his entire face seemed to clench tight.

There was a loud, muffled thump, as the ship was released, followed by a backward somersault of the entire vessel. Tania felt at ease in zero-G conditions, but not sudden acceleration upside down. She closed her eyes.

A rumbling sound started soft, then grew louder. Somewhere behind her, Tania heard something break loose and tumble across the floor. She didn’t dare look.

She barely heard the pilot over all the commotion. “Engine’s at full.”

The sound became deafening.



“You never told us what’s in the case,” Samantha said, after ten minutes of intense acceleration ended. The ship now glided just above the atmosphere, in serene silence.

“Right, sorry,” Tania said, her own voice sounding strange to her inside the helmet of her suit. “Perhaps we should go over the plan?”

“Two hours to kill,” said Skyler, “good a time as any.” He tapped the intercom. “Angus, come back here, please.”

“How much do you know?” she asked.

“Our fence had few details,” Skyler said. “Take an Orbital out to some telescope in Hawaii and back, that’s about all we know.”

“Beats Darwin,” Jake said.

Samantha grunted. “Amen.”

Tania struggled briefly against her safety harness, to get enough room to remove an envelope from her bag. She handed it to Skyler. “Hawaii is correct, but it’s not a telescope. Our goal is inside the University of Hawaii at Hilo.”

“A college?” Skyler asked. A pang of worry flittered through his mind. Telescopes were isolated, and at high altitudes. A hostile environment for subhumans. A university could be considerably more dangerous.

“There’s a data vault there,” Tania said. “Part of a joint venture with NASA, decades ago.”

“More data cubes?” Jake asked.

Tania patted the top of the sleek case, made of some kind of brushed metal that Skyler did not recognize. “The facility is much older, before they had such technology. We’ll be capturing the data on site, with this.”

“What is that?” Samantha asked.

“A Ferrine multi-interface cube array …” She noted all their blank stares. “You plug it into old computers and it pulls out the data.”

“Is it fragile?” Skyler asked. “From the way you’ve been cradling it, I’m guessing so.”

“Just because we have so few left now.”

Samantha said, “How long does this, whatever the f*ck, take?”

Tania shrugged. “Depends on how many records are there, and how well organized it is.”

“You got photos of the site?” Jake asked.

Skyler pulled two satellite picture from the envelope and handed them across the aisle.

“I’ll check those out when you’re done, Jake,” said Angus.

Jake flashed a thumbs-up.

Skyler unfolded a larger piece of paper. “Blueprints, even. Excellent.”

“Gimme,” said Samantha.

He ignored her and studied it.

Tania pointed out the data vault for him. “The data vault is in a basement, here, below these four structures. This building on the right has a landing pad on the roof,” she showed him. “I suggest we land there.”

The captain sucked in his lower lip as he surveyed the layout. “We could dust off from that, I think. Tania, will this gadget of yours work if there’s no power?”

“There’s a backup generator,” she said, pointing at it on the blueprint. “Thorium, never turns off. We’ll switch to it manually if need be.”

Samantha cleared her throat. “May I please see the blueprint, oh glorious captain?”

“Study the layout, everyone,” Skyler said, and handed it to her. “Ninety minutes until jump. Angus?”

“Yo!”

“Slight course correction, I think.”

“On it.”

The others pored over the images and blueprints, working out their strategy.

Tania stared at Skyler. “Did you say jump?”



From a storage locker bolted to the floor of the craft, Skyler produced a large backpack with a complicated set of straps.

“This,” he said, “is a tandem parachute.”

Tania, standing a meter away, made no move to come closer.

“It won’t bite.”

She looked at Skyler and cocked an eyebrow. A few seconds passed. Skyler imagined her wrestling with an inner voice, telling her to forget this foolishness. But she crossed the cargo bay to stand in front of him. “How does it work?”

He held it between the two of them. “I’ll wear it,” he said, “and you, well, you’ll wear me.”

Across the cabin, Samantha snorted back a laugh.

“Or you can jump with Sam,” Skyler said, “if that’s more comfortable.”

“No way,” Samantha said. “Sorry, princess, but I jump alone.”

Tania kept her attention on the parachute. “It’s fine. Just tell me what to do.”

He nodded. “Best thing is just to stay relaxed, and when we land, lift your knees as high as you can so that I can get my footing.”

“Sounds simple enough.”

Skyler removed a second harness from the locker. “I need you to put this on. I’ll help, don’t worry. Then mine connects to yours, and I’ll control the chute.”

Tania hesitated. “What happens if you have a heart attack, or pass out, or something?”

“Emergency rip cord,” he said, pointing to a red and white pull rope. “I’ll show you once we’re suited up.”

Across the cargo bay, Jake and Sam prepared their weapons. Skyler strapped on his usual complement of submachine gun and high-powered pistol.

“You people don’t take any chances,” said Tania.

“Sweetie,” said Samantha, “this whole business is one big chance.”

Skyler tapped his sidearm, looking at Tania. “Ever used a pistol?”

“I’ve never held a weapon of any kind,” she replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Okay,” he said, “now is not the time to learn. Just keep close to one of us.”

“Don’t worry.”

He looked at the briefcase. “Want one of us to carry that thing down?”

“I’d rather do it myself,” she said.

He studied her harness. “Well, let’s get it tied to you somehow then.”

To Skyler’s surprise, the metallic briefcase weighed almost nothing. After a few awkward moments of closeness, and one less-than-gentlemanly brush of his forearm, he rigged it to her chest strap in a way that she could wrap her arms around.

Angus’s voice filled the cargo bay. “Two minutes.”

Skyler punched the intercom. “Fly over at three thousand meters, then give me slow circles until Jake is in position.”

“Copy,” Angus said.

They all stood in silence as Jake finished securing his rifle to his harness. End to end, it stood nearly as tall as he did.

“Thirty seconds,” said Angus.

Skyler opened the rear cargo door. The sound of rushing wind filled the cabin.

“Broad daylight,” Samantha said. “Keep your wits and hide your tits, Jake.”

He offered her a mock salute.

“Mark,” said Angus.

Jake walked backward off the loading ramp and performed a somersault as he fell away from them, into the white clouds below.

Skyler shook his head and grinned. He glanced at Tania and found her to be frozen in place.

“Don’t worry,” Skyler said, “I’m no showman.”

Her eyes were locked on the sight out the back of the craft, the blanket of white that stretched out in all directions. “Clouds,” she said.

“Okay, let’s get you hooked up,” Skyler said.

She broke her gaze away and moved to stand right in front of him. Skyler connected the tandem harness together and triple-checked the buckles.

“Target in sight,” Jake said in Skyler’s ear, shouting over the hiss of rushing wind. “There’s a building with a tower. Heading for that.”

“How’s it look?”

“Good news. There’s a light on,” Jake said.

Skyler tapped his earpiece. “What, inside? Someone home?”

“No,” said Jake, “a beacon of some sort. A radio tower.”

“They’ve got power,” Skyler said to Tania. “He’s heading for the tall building on the north side. We’ll drop on the west building, across from the landing pad.”

“Why not on the pad? You could inspect it.”

Skyler shoot his head. “Don’t want to draw any subs to it until we’re ready to go.”

A quiet, tense thirty seconds passed. Then Jake’s voice: “Touchdown.”

The transmission stopped, followed by static.

“Are we clear to jump?” Skyler asked. “Jake?”

The static continued, then Jake’s muffled voice came through. “Clear” and “collapsed” were the only words Skyler could comprehend.

“Roger,” he said in his microphone. “Sounds like he hit a bad spot on the roof, but we’re clear. Get ready.”

The world below began to tilt and turn as Angus brought the craft around again.