Skydive (4 page)

“I think so.”

Jesse gave her hand a squeeze. “You’ll be fine.
Ready?” He looked back at the pilot. “See you on the ground, Pete.”

They stepped into air.

Robin gripped Jesse’s hand and closed her eyes. They were dropping fast. What was it Buck had said in class about terminal velocity? Something about how your body reached a maximum speed and then leveled out the rest of the way to the ground.

Jesse squeezed her hand again and then gently pushed her away. Robin immediately reached for the ripcord and pulled.

Nothing happened.

She felt a scream welling up in her throat. Her eyes snapped open. Jesse was a few feet away, frantically motioning for her to pull the cord.

Again and again she yanked at the cord, but the chute refused to open. She careened wildly through space.

Jesse maneuvered close to her. He grabbed for her foot but couldn’t hold on to it. Her body continued to tumble helplessly end over end toward the ground.

He reached for her again, this time managing to catch his fingers on one side of her harness. She
felt a slight jerk upward as his chute filled with air and lifted them both back up a few feet.

Jesse worked to help Robin to an upright position. She flung both arms around his neck and held on for dear life.

Everything on the ground started to look bigger by the second. Jesse tried to gauge when they would hit.

He suddenly realized that something was terribly wrong. Beneath them, instead of seeing the flat plains near the airfield, he saw mountains. The shapes of trees loomed below him, first small and then immense. Jesse braced for the collision.

They hit hard, crashing through dozens of layers of branches in a tall pine tree, the chute finally snagging on a thick limb.

Jesse’s face was scratched and bloody. He could hardly catch his breath. His sides felt as if he’d been kicked. He looked up. The parachute was hopelessly tangled in the branches above them.

Robin’s face was buried in his chest. She still had a death grip around his neck. Her hair was a mass of sticks and pine needles.

They hung there like that for a full minute. Finally Jesse found his voice. “Robin?”

“Huh?”

“Are you okay?”

Robin groaned and moved her head slightly to the left so that she could see his face. “Is the thrill over yet?”

Jesse attempted a smile, but it made his face hurt too badly. Even talking was a strain. “Almost. Now all we have to do is figure out a way to get out of this tree.”

Robin glanced down. They were suspended at least twenty feet in the air. “What do jumpers usually do when this happens?”

“Believe it or not, this isn’t supposed to happen. Pete must have been way off course for us to wind up here.”

The limb they were hanging from suddenly made a loud cracking noise.

Jesse looked up at the growing split in the branch. “Looks like we may not have to figure a way down after—”

His words were lost in the fierce snapping of the branch. Without any further warning, the limb broke loose and they plummeted through the rest of the branches to the ground.

“Jesse?” Robin touched the side of his face gingerly. His eyes were still closed. “Can you hear me?”

His lashes fluttered and then his eyes slowly opened. “I hear you.” He tried to sit up but made it only to his elbows. “Man, I feel like a ton of bricks landed on me.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Don’t tell me it was you.”

“Sorry. You did a nice job of breaking my fall, though.”

“Anytime.” His hand went to his forehead. A large purplish lump had already formed. It throbbed with pain when he touched it. “Ouch.”

Robin gave him a sympathetic look and helped
him out of the parachute harness. “Unfortunately, you broke the tree limb’s fall too—with your head.”

“Great.” He winced and forced himself to sit all the way up. “How long have I been out?”

“Not long. It’s still early.”

“Could you tell where Pete landed?”

“No.” Robin picked up a small stick. “And I didn’t see any sign of a plane crash either.”

“He probably stayed with the plane until the last second, trying to call for help.”

“Maybe.” Robin drew designs in the dirt.

“Maybe? What do you mean?”

“While you were out, I had some time to think. What if Pete didn’t jump at all? What if he made the whole thing up just to get us out of the plane?”

Jesse looked at her sideways. “Are you sure that limb didn’t land on
your
head?”

“Think about it. What better way to get rid of two problems than to dump them out over the Cascades? If the faulty parachute didn’t kill us, the trees were bound to.”

“You’re talking crazy. Why would Pete want to kill anybody?”

“Because he’s mixed up in something too big for him and we have the proof. When I left you this
morning, I went out to my dad’s car. Rodney was gone. Some goon had taken his place, and he tried to grab me. That’s why I ran onto the field. He was chasing me. His job was to get me, and the bad chute was meant for you.”

Jesse closed his eyes. “What an idiot. I played right into Pete’s hands. He probably faked the whole thing with the engine and I fell for it like a stupid sucker.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I fell for it too. Besides, it just might work to our advantage.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you can get us down out of these mountains, we’ll be in a better position to spy on them than before. They might even be careless, now that they think we’re out of the way.”

Jesse lifted his right arm. A compass and altimeter were strapped around his sleeve. “These were my dad’s. He used them in the army.” Carefully he stood and took a deep breath. “I think Seattle is somewhere west of us. If we start now we should be there in a day or so.”

“What I wouldn’t give for a tall glass of Irma’s ice-cold lemonade.”

“Cut it out, Robin. I know you’re tired—we both are. But a car is bound to come along this road sometime.”

“That’s what you’ve been saying for the last hour and a half. We’ve been walking through trees and brush for most of the morning and so far we haven’t seen anything but these old tire tracks you call a road.”

“Hey, we were lucky to stumble onto these tracks. And according to my compass, they’re heading in the right direction.”

Robin stopped to take a pebble out of her shoe, then ran to catch up with him. “Have you thought about what we’re going to do when it gets dark? They say it gets really cold in the mountains at night. Maybe we should be looking for someplace to stay.”

“Where do you suggest? The Hilton?”

Robin looked at him.

“Okay, sorry. I guess we could leave the tire tracks and hike over to that hill and see what we can find.”

“Wait.” Robin grabbed his arm. “Did you hear that?”

Jesse listened. “Over there. It’s an airplane. Maybe it’s Buck.” He started waving and jumping, trying to attract the pilot’s attention.

“It’s not Buck.” Robin tried to pull him away from the road.

“How do you know?”

“Trust me, Jesse. We’ve got to hide.”

Jesse hesitated and then bounded after her into a thick stand of trees.

The plane flew on.

When the noise of the engine had faded, Jesse stepped out of the trees. “I sure hope you know
what you’re doing. That plane could have been our ticket out of here.”

“I know, Jesse. But what if it was Pete coming back to double-check on us? It’ll be a long time before Buck or our families even know we’re missing. Pete’s not going to tell them he made us jump. He probably told everybody he let us off at the airfield safe and sound.”

Jesse rubbed his aching forehead. “I didn’t think of that. Good thing one of us is using her head.” He started walking. “We better keep moving if we plan to make it back to town by tomorrow.”

“I don’t believe it! This really is a road. Look.” Robin pointed down the tracks. “A truck.”

A pair of wobbly headlights was coming over the rise just in front of them.

Jesse stepped behind a tree next to Robin. “I told you somebody would come along.”

They kept back to make sure it was safe. As the rickety old pickup drew closer, they could see that the driver was an elderly man who didn’t seem to be in any hurry.

“What do you think?” Jesse whispered.

Robin smiled. “I think we better hurry before we miss our ride.”

They raced to the edge of the road and the truck stopped. The driver rolled the window down and stared at them as if they were ghosts. “What in Sam Hill are you two doing way up here?”

“Thank you for the ride, Mr. Phillips. I know it was out of your way to bring us clear out here to the airfield.” Robin slid across the seat and stepped out of the truck.

“No problem, young lady.” The elderly man leaned across the seat. “But next time, you and your friend be more careful when you decide to go on a hiking trip. Those mountains can be deadly if you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re lucky I came along.”

“We’ll try to be more prepared next time, Mr. Phillips.” Jesse reached to shut the door. “Thanks again.”

The old truck made a U-turn and headed down the road.

“Now what?” It was late afternoon. Jesse looked at the building in front of them. The only signs of people were in the lobby and on the airstrip. “Doesn’t seem like there’s much going on here.”

“First we better call our folks so they won’t send out the National Guard.”

“We can use the phone in Buck’s office. I have a master key. We’ll use the side entrance in case Pete’s still around.”

When Robin had finished explaining to Irma that she would be late, she handed the receiver to Jesse. “It doesn’t sound good. Irma hasn’t seen Rodney or my father’s car all afternoon.”

Jesse quickly made his call and sat down on the edge of Buck’s desk. “All set. My mom thinks I’m at your house learning about photography. I tried to call Buck, but there was no answer.”

Robin stood up. “I’m worried, Jesse. What if they’ve done something to Rodney?”

“Maybe we should call the police?”

“Right. I’m sure they’ll believe us when we explain that members of a drug cartel have kidnapped Rodney and tried to kill us.”

“We have your pictures.”

“Not anymore. I left them on the plane when we jumped.”

“What about the negatives?”

“I still have those—sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“I won’t be able to get my hands on them for a couple of days. I was afraid someone might come looking for them so I mailed them to our beach house for safekeeping.”

Jesse ran his hand through his hair. “I guess the only thing we can do now is try to find something the police will believe. Come on, we’ll start with Pete’s office.”

“Here’s another one.” Robin held her finger under an entry in the logbook. “At least we can show that Pete makes regular flights to Guatemala and the surrounding area.”