Emery’s muscles stiffen as Erik passes, and her eyes drop to her knees.
“I was going to save this for after the mission, but soldiers, if you complete the mission today successfully, Fury Squad will be the first team to earn their cards out of the Dark Forces.” Erik walks back the direction he came in slow, steady strides. Thomas and Gage light up. Hope radiates in their eyes, and it makes my stomach twist that they believe him so readily.
We line up and prepare to drop. I pull my oxygen mask on and secure the goggles around my eyes. Not one piece of skin is visible on any of us. Our uniforms are matte black and have zero glare ratings, which will make it near impossible to see us in the dark even with a flashlight.
Em tightens her forearm braces and locks her rifle around her chest. I sure as shit hope it doesn’t come down to a gunfight before we land, but at least we’ll be ready if we do. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume they’ll have manned roofs, and we’re prepared for it.
I flex my hands, readying to enter frigid weather and having to be at peak awareness. Emery downed her pills before we boarded, and I took a few extra just in case shit really hits the fan.
The air lashes viciously at us as we step closer to the exit door. Emery’s voice comes in through my headset. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t, Mori.” Her tone is light and humorous as she recites Dominic’s words from the Under Trials. I smother a laugh.
“Right back at you, Morphine,” I reply, noting the way she shifts on her feet and looks over her shoulder at me. I wish I could see her soft eyes flashing me whatever emotion she’s feeling from behind her oxygen mask and gear, but I settle for her tipping my chin up and shooting me a handgun before turning back forward.
Here we go.
I take a few quick breaths to get my blood flowing to my head.
Erik lifts his hand into the air, and every millisecond turns endless in this moment, the silence in the headset violent, the single breath I take invigorating.
His voice is sharp like a bullet through my ears. “Kill Greg Mavestelli, Fury Squad! Drop, drop, drop!” he shouts over the mic, and the line charges straight out into the dark. Twenty thousand feet above the ground. In the middle of nowhere. In a place where time stands still to the blood that will be shed tonight.
Emery doesn’t hesitate as she dives out. I follow her, the visual much like what I would imagine leaping into hell would feel like. The drop line clips behind me, releasing me from the plane. Then, we’re swallowed up into nothing. The sky greedily consumes us as we free fall into gusts of howling wind.
My heart thunders through my ears. I can feel the craze starting up in my veins. Adrenaline moves through my body and electrifies my limbs.Stay focused.I grind my teeth and stare at Emery as her dark form falls gracefully like a downed dove. Her hands are extended out to her sides, touching the condensation trapped within the clouds.
As much as I love watching her be a fucking badass, there’s an ache in my heart for a warmer, kinder life. One that I dread will evade us until the end of time, but I’ll do everything in my power to make sure it happens for at least a little while.
I swear it.
Thomas moves into formation, the others following perfectly. Practicing relentlessly over the past few weeks has made us pretty fucking impressive. The only one struggling is, of course, Damian. He can’t quite get into the right position no matter how hard he tries.
“Red Turtle, straighten up!” Thomas yells through the mic, and I have to stifle a laugh. “Forty-two hundred feet. Spread out, be mindful of the buildings and remember your objectives.”
We all tilt in the directions we were trained into and spread out enough to safely deploy. I really hope Erik had the right specs on the building heights because we’re dancing with the devil right now.
“Twenty-one hundred feet. Deploy, I’ll see you assholes down there!” Thomas sounds more like himself now that we’re getting back into the groove of things.
“Fuck yeah!” Gage roars as he pulls his rip cord.
The rush of entering a battlefield this way is absolutely exhilarating, and I have to clench my jaw to keep the endorphins from jittering my entire skull.
The rest of us pull our cords and then there’s dead silence as we listen for any movement or sirens below. The fact that tonight of all nights had to have thick, low cloud cover is going to bite us in the ass. Night vision and infrared goggles are useless against the atmospheric elements like clouds.
“Brace for landing, we could—” Thomas’s voice cuts out as he slams into the roof of a tall building. Blood rushes to my ears as I watch his body roll a few times on the surface.
“Power!” Gage cries. Fuck, that didn’t look good.
“Shit!” I curse and bend my knees in preparation. I know I should be focusing on what’s beneath me, but my eyes shift to Emery instinctively. She’s still in formation and staring at the ground, waiting for anything.Good girl.I take a relieved breath.
Wraith moves just in time to evade a tree. Damian lands on a lower roof.
Sweat beads down my temples. At least there’s no sounds from guards or alarms, maybe the cloud cover isn’t so bad.
The old cobblestone road finally comes into view. I don’t see any guards in the vicinity.A small mercy, I note as I land on both feet and quickly unlatch the parachute pack. I unsheathe my combat knife and quickly move toward Emery.
She lands with no trouble and slips out of her backpack withease. Her voice comes in clearly to my helmet and I rejoice at her sweet tone. “We landed a few buildings off target.”
I peruse the area swiftly, the clouds have turned into a heavy fog down here, and the night vision has become essentially useless so I lift my goggles. “Let’s move quickly back to our target location. I don’t like how quiet it is out here.”
