Free DropZone by Andy McNab Page B

missed.
    His dad laughed, then held the DVD out. ‘Go on, then,’ he said. ‘Take it.’
    Ethan reached for the DVD and his dad threw it down the hall. It clattered into the front door.
    Ethan turned in fury. ‘You bastard . . .’
    But his mum immediately stepped between them, pushing Ethan away. ‘Don’t,’ she said. ‘Please, Ethan, don’t let him spoil it.’
    ‘Yeah, listen to Mummy,’ said his dad, and laughed.
    Ethan moved towards his father, but his mum resisted and he thought better of it. Instead, he went to pick up the DVD. It seemed fine. He turned round to see his dad still sneering at him, but his mum was smiling. And so was Jo. And that was enough.
    The day after the tandem jump Ethan was helping out in the shop at FreeFall. The buzz was still ripping through him.
    Johnny had come in to buy a magazine; he was staring across the counter at Ethan.
    ‘What?’ said Ethan.
    ‘Think you’ve got it bad, mate,’ said Johnny.
    ‘Got what?’
    ‘The addiction. Some people jump once and that’s enough for them – been there, done that, got the T-shirt. But others – you , for example . . .’
    ‘What about me?’
    ‘You want up again, don’t you?’
    Ethan nodded.
    ‘Can’t think of anything else, can you?’
    Ethan shook his head.
    ‘Like I said,’ Johnny sighed. ‘You’re addicted, Eth.’ And with that, he turned to leave.
    Ethan called him back as some of the other regular skydivers came to look around the shop.
    ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said. ‘What do I do next – you know – if I want to get into this? At least if I know what it’ll cost, I’ll have something to aim for.’
    ‘The AFF,’ said Johnny. ‘Accelerated Freefall. It’s the course we all did: Kat, Natalya, Luke. Even Jake.’
    ‘Sounds cool,’ said Ethan.
    ‘Oh, it’s cool all right,’ said Johnny. ‘Zero to hero in a week.’
    ‘A week? No way.’
    ‘That’s why it’s called accelerated,’ said Johnny. ‘If the weather’s good, in one week you’re jumping solo. There’s lots of one-on-one tuition. It’s pretty intense. Loads to learn. No time to think. Hell of a rush.’
    Ethan remembered hearing a few people talking about the AFF, but he’d never taken a booking for it. ‘Why don’t more people do it?’
    ‘Because it costs about fifteen hundred quid,’ said Johnny. ‘And that’s a lot of cash.’
    Ethan ran the figure around in his mind. It didn’t get any smaller. ‘Bollocks,’ he said.
    ‘Steep, isn’t it?’ said Johnny. ‘Got anything tucked away?’
    Ethan shook his head. ‘You’ve seen where we live. We all chip in together. We’re not exactly poor, but no way have we got that amount of cash just sitting in the bank . . .’
    ‘What about the job?’ asked Johnny. ‘Could you save up?’
    Ethan shook his head. ‘It’s a great job, but I’m hardly raking it in.’ He attempted a smile. ‘Hey, at least I managed to bag a free tandem. I mean, how many people can say that, eh? And a couple of weeks ago I’d never have thought I’d be able to do something like that.’
    ‘There’s nothing stopping you doing another tandem,’ said Johnny. ‘Or you could do a static line jump.’
    ‘I guess,’ said Ethan. He knew about static line jumps, but he wasn’t really interested. Jumping from a plane and having the canopy open automatically just didn’t seem to have the same buzz about it as skydiving. And you didn’t get the freefall rush either. It was just a jump from the plane and then a glide down. That was it.
    Ethan tried not to think about how much he wanted to do the AFF – and how much he couldn’t afford it. He smiled at Johnny. ‘Anyway, thanks for the DVD. Couldn’t stop watching it last night. The soundtrack sucked though.’
    ‘We use the same one for all the DVDs,’ said Johnny. ‘Even the training one. Can’t beat a nice bit of eighties metal!’
    Ethan turned and saw Sam’s head round the door; he was looking at Johnny. ‘Got a