Page 51 of Operation: Free Fall

My situational awareness is always on point, and right now, more than ever. I know what my airplane is doing relative to its envelope, where my adversary is, where the ground is, the status of enemy threats below and a hundred other variables.

Sweat beads on my forehead as I work the controls with an inherent finesse, ignoring the warning beeps and flashing lights.Yeah, yeah, I know.Planes are required to maintain 1,000 feet vertical separation. But not today.

Boom!

“Vertical separation 100 feet,” I report. “Fox 2.”Fight’s on.

“Roger that,” Jack acknowledges.

Maintaining our current position, I glance over my shoulder as he, Maddox, Fallon, Aidan and Max rappel out the open door. Dom stays in here and keeps eyes on their ropes, ready to assist.

Returning my attention to the controls, I keep her steady, but I know the plane below us must be vibrating and shaking like crazy. They’re going to be feeling us on top of them and it’s not going to be pleasant. But with our radar off, they’ll assume it’s turbulence.

I just need the team to grab Ivy and get back up here ASAP.

“They reached the plane,” Dom tells me. “And now making their way to the door.”

Touching a hand to my headset, I swallow hard, unable to imagine what Ivy is going through right now. She’s probably so scared.Hang in there, sweetness. This’ll all be over soon.

I just hope to Christ it doesn’t end with a forced landing in the water below. That would suck ass.

“They’re onboard,” Dom reports, keeping me aware of the situation below.

My heart is thundering in my chest. “Roger that.”

Hopefully, they eliminate all threats fast and without any complications. Even though I’m used to being at the aircraft’s controls during the fight, right now I’m yearning to be down there with them. I need eyes on Ivy. Need to see for myself that she’s alive and breathing.

I need to know that this whole daring rescue isn’t in vain. If they already hurt her, or worse, I’m not going to be able to handle it. We just got on the same page and I am not ready to close this book. Not now. Not ever.

I can’t lose you, my Ivy in the Sky.

Just the thought makes bile rise up the back of my throat. I swallow it down and wonder why Dom hasn’t reported they’re on their way up yet. This should be a quick op—easy in and easy out.

“Sitrep?” I bark. My patience is a razor thin edge right now and I swipe the back of my hand across my perspiring forehead.

“Oz said Ivy is good. They’re hooking her up right now and Maddox is going to escort her up. Hang in there, Finn,” Dom says.

“Thank fuck,” I hiss. A wave of relief floods through me, but it’s not over yet. This is that final moment when something inevitably goes wrong. In this case, hopefully that doesn’t happen.

“Fallon is heading up,” Dom tells me, working the ropes. They devised a pulley system and in moments, Fallon appears and Dom pulls her inside the cabin.

“What’s going on down there?” I ask, still keeping my attention on the controls and everything else but speaking to Fallon.

“Ivy is fine,” Fallon assures me, unbuckling her harness and sliding free from the ropes.

I’m happy to hear it again, but I won’t be fully satisfied until Ivy is in my arms and we’re flying back home.

As soon as the thought passes through my head, the plane below us takes a sharp nosedive.

“What the fuck just happened?” I roar.

Dom and Fallon run over, peering out the windshield, and we all watch as the plane with Ivy, Maddox, Aidan, Max and Oz takes a heart-wrenching dive, heading straight for the ocean.

“Oz!” Dom yells into his earpiece. “Oz, what the fuck is going on?”

Right now, Oz and the others are probably holding on for dear fucking life. That’s what’s going on. I’m breathing too hard, my chest so tight it feels like I’m going to have a heart attack, and my hands are white-knuckling the yoke.

Pull up, pull up, pull up.

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