Buried in the Sky

by Ryan Mullaney

Simone blinked. "What?"

  "I'm sorry, Simone, but you are not going on this mission."

  Simone took both of her crutches and dropped them on the floor beside her. "What the hell do you mean I'm not going? That's the only reason I'm here, Clark! If anyone is going on this mission besides Lincoln, it's me. Is he going by himself, or are you going with him?"

  "You have not been medically cleared," Clark said. "I can't let an agent go into the field with limited mobility and at – "

  "Clark – "

  "And at a high risk for further injury or death. Simone, I'm sorry, but you are staying behind this time."

  Fists balled up in rage, Simone wanted to scream. "You're really going to let a stupid X-ray tell you what to do? I know what I'm capable of. I know what I can – "

  "I'm making the decision, Simone!"

  Simone froze, startled by the momentary loss of emotional control – out of character for Clark Bannicheck.

  Lincoln hung back further down the hall, not wanting any part of the argument between the two.

  Clark caught his breath. Calmly, he said, "Your safety is my responsibility. If I let you go on this mission, and you do not come back..." He raised his eyes to meet hers. "I will have the death of the entire Cassidy family on my conscience. That is not a burden I can bear, Simone. It's not guaranteed that anyone makes it back from any excursion even when all parties are healthy and prepared to the fullest extent possible. But this ... Simone, this is not something I can advise."

  The sting of denial ran through Simone like electricity. She wanted to cry, but she was too mad. She bent over and picked up her crutches, tucking one under each arm to support herself. "You think these are a burden, that I'll be compromised. That I won't be good enough." She shook her head. "It's not a burden, it's a challenge, and if there's one thing I'm good at in this world, it's facing a challenge. I've been doing it my whole life, since the day my parents were killed, right up to today. You simply not wanting me to go isn't good enough. You're scared? I'm scared, too. If I'm being honest, I'm terrified. I don't know what's going to happen, but I know that I'll deal with it when it does. You aren't the one living my life, Clark. I am. I'm the one and only person who makes decisions for how my life is lived. If you want to keep me from going after the third fragment, you're going to have to do better than that."

  Clark stared into Simone's green eyes, as if facing an insurmountable challenge. There was no way she was changing her mind about going – regardless of the destination.

  He checked his watch. "We will discuss this after briefing."

  Clark opened the door and held it open for Lincoln – and Simone – to enter.

  _____

  Clark booted up the ancient desktop computer situated in the center of the tiny concrete room. Simone and Lincoln were the only other people in the room.

  Before long, they were all looking at the same map on the monitor screen, a map of the southern region of China.

  "This is it, apparently," Clark said.

  Simone watched him move the mouse cursor over a pinpoint labeled Mount Emei, due west of a town called Leshan. It was not an area she was familiar with.

  "On the mountain?" Lincoln asked.

  "Eye-witness reports have confirmed a meteor was seen streaking toward the mountain, but not past it," Clark said. "This is all the information we have at the moment."

  "When do we leave?" Simone asked, as if her going along was no longer up for debate.

  Clark swiveled in the chair to face Simone. "It's not quite that simple."

  "In what way?" she asked.

  "We aren't exactly on the best of terms with China at the moment," Clark said. "Typically, we can get you into a country without much of a problem. In this instance, however, security will be much stricter. We will need to fabricate false identities, get the credentials made and delivered. All this takes time."

  "We can't wait for that," Lincoln argued. "If this information is out there, we need to be in China in twenty-four hours or less."

  "I don't disagree with you, Lincoln. But our options are limited."

  "Limited to what?" Simone asked.

  Clark shrugged. "Whatever we can get away with."

  Simone adjusted the crutches under her arms. Something in the back of her mind soured her thoughts about the mission. Perhaps it was the militaristic nature of the operation, cloak-and-dagger style. As much as she tried to rationalize the importance of going to China in secret, the upset feeling in her stomach persisted.

  It no longer felt as if their team was protecting an artifact of great significance. No, this was a resource-gathering operation. One world superpower attempting to one-up another. And with Briony Black and the British team involved, three superpowers.

  Visions of the whole scheme going disastrously awry flashed through her mind's eye. The number of ways the acquisition of the meteor fragments could, again, go catastrophically wrong seemed almost incomprehensibly high.

  If there was one mission in which a larger team would be worthwhile, this, Simone decided, was it.

  "So," Simone said, "what can we do? Without credentials, how do we get there?"

  "We can fly," Lincoln said. "We just can't land."

  Simone turned to him, unsure if he was serious or not. "We jump out of a plane?"

  Lincoln tilted his head side to side. "In so many words, yes."

  "What are the other words?" she asked.

  Clark stood up from the tattered old computer chair. "High-altitude, low opening. A HALO jump. Fly high enough to be undetected, and deploy parachutes close enough to the ground to remain undetected."

  Simone's eyes narrowed, the idea sinking in now – these guys were serious. "That's a thing? That's real?"

  "It's very real," Lincoln said.

  "Also, very dangerous," Clark added.

  "But it'll work?" Simone's tone was somewhere between a question and a statement.

  "It'll get us there," Lincoln said, "but we'd be on our own from that point, at least until a recovery team could be sent in." He looked to Clark as if looking for approval.

  Clark scratched his cheek, thinking. He stood there for a long time, considering his answer with the greatest care. Then he said, "I believe I can get a hostage rescue authorized for April, but only for April. She needs to be alive and stay alive. Both of you and the meteor fragment must remain confidential and independent of the rescue attempt. When the hostage rescue team arrives, you get on board with the meteor fragment, they bring April on board, and everyone leaves. If April is killed, the rescue is off. If April is secured and you are not on board, the flight leaves without you."

  "How many are coming with us?" Simone asked.

  "No one," Clark said.

  Simone exchanged an uncertain look with Lincoln. “Given the circumstances,” she said to Clark, “I think we could use an extra set of hands and feet.”

  Clark set his jaw. “You're thinking about Vincent.”

  “We could use his help,” Lincoln said, adding, “He has little love for SWANN. At the very least, he can provide a useful distraction while Simone and I locate and secure the fragment.”

  Clark stared into Simone's eyes. She could almost hear him asking a question in his mind, if she was confident about being able to do as Lincoln suggested.

  Something in those green eyes of hers must have answered the unspoken question, because Clark nodded in confirmation and said, “Very well. On one condition.”

  “Name it,” Lincoln said.

  “Vincent comes nowhere near the fragment. He will maintain an auxiliary role while you two retrieve the fragment.”

  Simone locked eyes with Lincoln. They both turned to Clark and nodded.

  She stood up straight, ready to go. “So, when do we leave?”

  20.

  Somewhere above China

  The massive C17 military transport aircraft idled on the ground for well over twenty minutes.

  Simone was typically more eager than anxious about mo
ving on to the next leg of a mission, but all the waiting served only to get her adrenaline pumping.

  She sat with Lincoln and Vincent, all three of them wearing oxygen masks as they breathed pure oxygen. A fourth man acted as their instructor, someone Simone had never seen before she'd boarded the plane, but he looked as if he'd given the instruction a thousand times and could recite it in his sleep.

  He'd explained that the trio dropping into China had to flush nitrogen from their bloodstream to avoid decompression sickness and hypoxia, which could lead to losing consciousness and thus being unable to open their parachutes, which would make for quite a short mission.

  Before long, the plane was climbing up to twenty-five thousand feet. The trio of jumpers switched from the oxygen masks to the helmets they would wear on the descent. They each wore a special jump suit with an oxygen bottle strapped to the front and their parachute strapped to the back.

  "Testing, one-two," Lincoln's voice came through the helmet's communication channel.

  "Loud and clear," Vincent said.

  "I got you," Simone said, still getting the feel of the equipment.

  As if sensing her inexperience, Vincent asked, "Ever use a parachute before?"

  "Um, kind of." Simone thought back to when she jumped on top of Prince Kamal's chute in Greece, riding it down to the ground. That seemed a lot less dangerous at the moment. In retrospect, she wondered how she made it down in one piece, let alone alive.

  The lights in the cargo hold switched from white to red, and the instructor's voice came through the comms. "Twenty-two thousand feet. Remember, you free-fall at terminal velocity until chutes open at three thousand. Sooner, you risk being spotted and shot down. Later, you risk being cleaned up with a mop."

  Simone stood and followed Lincoln and Vincent toward the rear cargo bay door, her crutches tucked between her back and her parachute. Her foot felt remarkably okay, either from the compression tape she'd applied before slipping her boots on or from her mind being singularly focused on the door as she waited for it to open.

  Simone had never gone skydiving before. She'd jumped from some considerable heights, had fallen from others, but always in the moment, when her instincts and reflexes were operating quicker than her mind. She never had time to think about what could go wrong, which was why she was never scared.

  As she stared through the glass of her face mask, watching the red light gleam on the shiny metal of the cargo door, she felt her adrenaline kick up a notch. She waited not with fear in her stomach, but with the eagerness to just go through with it already.

  "Twenty-five thousand feet," the instructor said. "Get ready."

  With a hiss of air and a groan of heavy metal, the cargo door opened downward.

  Simone stepped forward to gaze down in awe at the topographic view of China at dusk. "Woah." No matter where she went in the world, no matter what she saw or experienced, a new view always made the world feel bigger, and her place in it smaller. There was so much to explore, so much to experience, and she was one person out of a few billion.

  She took a steady breath, thankful for the perspective. Her mind then shifted to the jump.

  "Remember," the instructor said, "You'll hit three thousand feet in ninety seconds. Good luck."

  Lincoln, standing at the lip of the ramp, turned back with a thumbs-up, and then jumped.

  Simone stepped forward, next in line. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her mouth went dry. She drew another calming breath to steady herself...

  And jumped.

  Simone free-fell like a bullet, Lincoln down below her.

  Vincent came up beside Simone and grinned. "You're a natural."

  "Twenty thousand feet," Lincoln said as he checked the readout on his watch. "Fifteen coming up fast. Stay alert."

  Simone watched for their landing target below -- a clearing within surrounding trees. Wide enough for the three of them to land safely without much worry. But the diminishing sun made the target more and more difficult to see with each passing moment.

  "Fifteen thousand."

  Then,

  "Ten thousand."

  Time seemed to move quicker than normal. The sun faded and the ground came upon them fast.

  Simone's heart rate kicked up a notch. Her palms began to sweat.

  "Seven thousand," Lincoln said. "Almost there..."

  Simone had been ready for the past half-hour -- mentally ready. Her mind laser-focused, she took the ripcord in her hand and clutched it tightly between her fingers.

  "Five thousand."

  Simone exchanged a look with Vincent and nodded. He nodded in return. They were both ready.

  "Four thousand feet. Get ready..."

  Simone locked her gaze on the landing target.

  "Three thousand," Lincoln said. "Deploy!"

  He pulled his ripcord and the chute deployed.

  Simone and Vincent passed him in a flash. She gave her ripcord a sharp tug.

  Nothing happened.

  "What's wrong?" Vincent asked, still free-falling near Simone.

  "Simone," Lincoln said with urgency. "Now!"

  She tugged at the ripcord again. Nothing. The chute did not deploy. "Ah, crap."

  "Two thousand feet!" Lincoln shouted through the comms. "Deploy now! Now, Simone!"

  "Nothing's happening!" She pulled again and again at the ripcord to no avail.

  Vincent maneuvered his way over to Simone. The ground was coming up fast.

  Simone's heart rate kicked into overdrive, but she wasn't panicking yet.

  Vincent yanked at Simone's ripcord. He yanked again and again.

  "Hold on," he said.

  "Fifteen hundred!"

  Simone wrapped her arms and legs around him. Vincent grabbed onto her with one hand. Grabbed his own ripcord with the other.

  And pulled.

  The chute deployed.

  Simone held on for dear life. The force of the chute slowing them down threatened to rip her away.

  Below, Lincoln landed in the clearing.

  Above, Simone and Vincent drifted toward the trees.

  "Too much weight," Vincent said. "Hang on!"

  Simone watched the tree line rushing toward her and Vincent.

  Lincoln got himself free from his chute and sprinted across the clearing.

  "We're going to crash," Vincent said. "Brace yourself!"

  Simone looked over her shoulder at the trees speeding toward her and Vincent.

  Lincoln stared up from the ground below, unable to help. All he could do was watch and hope. A gasp escaped his lungs, and a microsecond later, Vincent and Simone disappeared into the trees.

  With branches whipping at them, Simone held on tight as Vincent tried everything he could to steer them safely through. A tree limb caught Simone in the shoulder, but she didn't let go. Rushing through the chaos of limbs and leaves breaking and snapping as the airborne duo rocketed through, they came to a sudden stop when the chute snagged on a bony spike of wood jutting up from a larger branch.

  The jolt swung Vincent forward. His grip on Simone slipped. He came to a halt but she did not, flying clear out of his hands and down to the ground fifteen feet below.

  Simone hit the earth with a thud. A rush of escaping breath left her lungs begging for air. By the time Lincoln found her lying there on her back, she was able to suck a deep breath and exhale.

  Vincent dropped from above, landing on his feet and tumbling safely to his knees. In his hand, he held the knife he'd used to cut himself free. Slipping it back into his ankle sheath, he stood and made his way to Simone.

  She stared up at him and Lincoln, a little flustered but all right otherwise. She pushed herself up to a sitting position and gazed up through the thickness of branches.

  "Is that what you meant by 'kind of'?" Vincent asked with a grin.

  Simone unbuckled herself from the defective parachute. "No, I was actually wearing a parachute this time."

  Both Vincent and Lincoln helped Simone to her feet. She loo
ked down at the crutches that had been tucked between her and the parachute. One of them was snapped clean in half. The other, merely bent at a slight angle, still functional.

  She picked up the bent crutch, gave it a curious look, and tucked it under her arm. She didn't feel like she needed it, but it was a fighter, just like her.

  "What happened?" Lincoln stepped up to inspect Simone's parachute.

  "It failed," she said, not certain why it did not deploy.

  "Hmm," Lincoln said. "It doesn't appear to have been tampered with."

  "I tried it as well," Vincent said. "Cord worked fine, but no chute came out."

  Simone's thoughts went back to what the village medicine man in Peru had told her, about the dark shadow in pursuit. "The usual bit of bad luck," she said.

  "You still believe in that?" Lincoln asked.

  "You still don't?" Simone looked at him. "If you have a more rational explanation, I'd love to hear it."

  "Mechanical failure, perhaps..."

  With the help of one crutch, Simone walked over to the parachute and pulled the ripcord. The chute burst out of the harness and fell impotently to the ground.

  Simone raised her eyes to meet Lincoln's puzzled expression. She thought about what to say, but the deploying chute said it all.

  The trio slipped out of their dive suits to appear less conspicuous should they be spotted by any inquisitive eyes -- particularly Chinese authorities. Lincoln pulled his chute out from the clearing and into the cover of the trees. Vincent got as much of his chute down from the trees as he could.

  Under the darkening sky, they made their way south toward the town of Chengdu, where they could catch a train to Leshan.

  As they hiked through the cover of trees and wild growth, Vincent matched his pace with Simone’s. "What's this about bad luck, eh? Should I be standing way over there?"

  Simone almost laughed. "I couldn't even begin to explain."

  "Is that why..." Vincent pointed to the crutch and then to Simone's broken foot.

  With a shrug, Simone said, "Maybe. Maybe not."

  They hiked on in silence, trying to keep a low profile and attract as little attention as possible.

  It wasn't long into the night before they came to the Chengdu Railway Station.