Page 3 of Fireline

“It’s gonna be a hanger!” Nova hollered something else he couldn’t hear.

Another headwind blew him backward and into the woods. This was turning out to be more dangerous than catching bad guys. Forget making the spot. He just needed to land somewhere without hanging up.

At a hundred feet, things got worse. The wind died and he moved forward, but it was too late to clear the trees. He entered the opening at treetop level just in time to see Nova crash into a thick stand of birch and disappear.

Barely missing some of the taller trees, he reefed down on his left toggle and flew between two towering trunks. His canopy brushed trees, tearing and snagging on smaller branches as he passed. Instead of slowing down, he began to speed up in a free fall.

The ground was steep, and he teetered on the edge of slamming into it. All this time doing the right thing, biding his time, holding himself apart from the world, for it to end like this.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

Nova’s parachute billowed above her, snagging branches on the way down. The world became a blur of green and brown, branches whipping past. Her boot clipped a tree branch. The choked scream died in her throat.

This was it. Her legacy. Another smiling portrait on the memorial wall back at jump base.

The thick fabric caught and sent a jolt running through her body as she jerked to a stop. She swung back and forth, suspended six feet above the unforgiving earth.

Six feet. Six feet from being another memory for someone. Six feet from another empty space at the dinner table.

Nova closed her eyes and blew out a tight breath. That was ridiculous. “You’re a smokejumper, Nova. This is what you do. You survive.”

But what if they didn’t?

Nerves had her hands shaking as she put the drogue release in her pocket. “Booth, am I safe to let down?” She looked around but didn’t see him.

“Booth?”

Overhead, tree limbs rustled. Booth plummeted down between two big birch trees, grunting and growling all the way down. Branches ripped at his jump gear and tore his chute.

“Booth!”

Calling his name was dumb. All she could do was hang there and watch him fall end over end through the trees and pray his gear did its job.

His arms and legs snagged branches, broke loose, and he got hung up again. The chute caught a limb and jerked him over. He landed head down between two branches, suspended inches off the ground.

He swung there for a second, then laughed. “At least I didn’t hit the?—”

A branch cracked. The chute pulled loose. Booth came crashing down into the underbrush and hit the ground. A second later he rolled to his back and groaned.

Nova winced. “Ouch. Are you okay?”

Booth’s thumb shot up.

“Hang on, I’m coming down.” Nova found her letdown tape in a leg pocket and threaded it between the V formed by her riser. “Inside, outside. Outside, inside.”

The chant helped her remember to route the tape over the top of the main letdown line and secure herself to the riser. She tied off using three half hitches and ran the rest of the tape. She did the five-point check and released the risers.

She eased down, letting the tape slide through her gloved hands in a smooth descent. Her boots hit the forest floor, and she pulled her helmet off.

Nova ran to Booth and leaned over him. “Seriously, are you hurt? That looked painful.”

“Wow. I didn’t know you cared.” Booth got to his feet and pulled his helmet off to reveal a toothy smile. He tossed his disheveled hair. “Good jump, huh?”

“Good jump? We could’ve broken our necks.”

“Hey, anything I walk away from is a good jump in my book.” The shadow of something unspoken passed over his eyes. “I’m just glad we’re both safe.”

“Yeah, me too.”

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