EXTREME DANGER
by
PiperMerlyn
Chapter 1
The Chapters
Joe
Standing in the open hatch of the airplane was always unsettling. It’s like standing in the back of a van with both doors open and the driver speeding at about a hundred miles an hour...and him telling you to jump.
I rolled my shoulders as I gripped the rope strung in the open doorway. I’m not a squeamish person and I’m definitely not scared of heights. That is, until I took my first look down and saw nothing but a nice fluffy blanket of clouds.
I watched the skydiving instructor give me a thumbs-up and jump. At the last minute he twisted around, grabbed my ankle and yanked. I let go of the rope and fell, startled. In that instant I knew Wings Maletta had made us.
We’d gone undercover at the Freedombird Skydiving School, investigating a possible smuggling operation. Wings Maletta wasn’t a real instructor, he was a DVD pirate. It had been our job to stop him and break up the smuggling ring.
Maletta smirked at me as he fell away, looking like the cat who swallowed the canary. That’s when something that had been bothering me finally hit me right between the eyes. This wasn’t my chute.
Maletta had to keep up the front so he’d taught the basics of skydiving. Never jump without checking your chute, unpacking and repacking the nylon yourself, checking for defects or damages. I’d done it just before we’d gotten on the airplane. I know it sounds crazy. He couldn’t have switched chutes but I had a very bad feeling.
I was falling fast, so I spread my arms and legs to slow my descent. I was too busy for the moment contemplating how fast the ground would come up to meet me to worry about Maletta. I tried to twist around to see what Frank was doing, then remembered our two-way mike in the helmet. “Frank!”
All I heard was static. That wasn’t good. I eyed the ground and reached for the pull cord. I was far enough away from the plane but not low enough to pull it, according to rules but I wasn’t in the mood to follow rules. The safety was in the chute deploying. I yanked but didn’t feel that jerk I was praying would wrench my shoulders. Instead the pull cord came away in my hand.
“Frank!”
Still nothing but static. My brother had to have seen Maletta’s stunt. Surely he hadn’t jumped too. Something came into my field of vision just then. It almost didn’t register what it was. It was a spare parachute pack. I glanced to my left and saw that Frank was beside me holding an extra chute. I grabbed the spare chute with one hand, not an easy task with the winds buffeting me and managed to show him the cut pull cord.
He tapped his helmet and I shook my head. If Maletta had messed with the mikes, it would explain the disconnect. I angled my head to look down at him, still free-falling. He grinned up at me and made a wave. A moment later, his grin faded slightly. He’d seen the extra chutes.
He was below us and couldn’t get the extra chutes away. I decided to focus on getting down safely. Once on the ground, then I’d pound him. I turned to my brother, who looped the straps of the extra chute on one arm. He reached for the pull cord only to shake his head. He motioned for me to switch off packs.
I looked at him like he was crazy. The ground was coming up too fast, not to mention, if you’ve ever skydived, it’s not easy moving your arms and legs. Switching out parachute packs in mid-dive? Crazy.
Seeing me shake my head, I could almost imagine him rolling his eyes. He then motioned for me to pull the cord on the extra chute. He angled his arms close to his body, lowered his head and power-dived straight for Maletta.
Oh no he wasn’t! My logical, never take a risk brother was taking a major risk. This wasn’t some fancy HALO jump. I made sure my grip on the extra chute was secure and followed him. I suspected he was going to grab for Maletta. A moment later, I was by his side and we were arrowing straight for the dive instructor.
He must have guessed our intent because he tried the same maneuver. I latched onto his arm a second before Frank. He stared at us through his goggles and shook his head violently. With our mikes still full of static, I had no idea what he was saying but I could sure imagine it was hardly friendly.
We’d plunged through the cloud-cover and the ground was rushing up to meet us too fast for me. I glanced at Frank but he was intent on staring Maletta down.
In my mind I tried to figure the speed we were traveling. We’d jumped at twelve thousand feet and we were probably falling at about [a] 120 miles an hour. If we wanted to walk away from this dive, we had to pull our cords now and hope that these extra chutes hadn’t been sabotaged too.
Just when I was sure we’d all end up a nasty pancake on the ground, Frank let go of Maletta. He yanked the pull cord on his chute and was jerked out of my line of sight. I let go as well and pulled the cord on the extra chute. The yank of the parachute deploying threatened to dislocate my shoulder. I watched Maletta fall for a few seconds more before he struggled to deploy his own chute.
It billowed out behind him but I saw now why Frank had waited till the last second. Maletta was falling too fast now. The chute would slow him down but not before he’d hit the ground too hard.
A moment later, I realized I wasn’t exactly out of danger myself. My chute was waffling, mainly because of the angle. I wasn’t exactly in a position to adjust it either. My left shoulder was killing me and I didn’t know how long I could hold on with just one arm.
I felt a pair of legs wrap around my waist and I looked up to see Frank right above me. He mouthed the words, Let go. I shook my head only to see the two chutes were about to both collapse. I let go of the borrowed chute, then I held on with both hands and brought my knees up close. I’d hit the ground first and I wasn’t sure if we weren’t going too fast as well.
It felt like we were slowing down. Or was it just my imagination playing tricks? I forced myself to relax, not consider that the ground was closer than I wanted it to be. At the very last minute, I let go of Frank’s legs, he let go of me and I fell. My booted feet slapped the ground with a sharp sting and I rolled.
I lay on my back for a moment, considering I was lucky to be alive. Frank crouched down beside me, yanking off his helmet. He unstrapped mine a bit more carefully and pulled it off. “Joe?”
I sighed. “Never again,” I muttered. “Never.”
Frank managed a grin but I could see it had scared him. “Didn’t you say something along those lines when we did BASE jumping?”
“Yeah. So how did you manage to talk me into doing it all over again.” I managed to sit up but felt like one gigantic bruise. “Maletta.”
Frank gestured over to where Maletta lay like a limp rag doll. “I think he broke his legs.”
“Good.” I took my helmet back and checked the mike. It had been disconnected. “Son of a gun tried to kill us.”
Frank stared over at the man and slowly shook his head just as someone else came our way. I recognized the boots and looked up to see police lieutenant Mitchell Jones looking down at us, kind of surprised. “My God, that was some stunt. You two okay?” he asked, crouching down beside us.
“I’ll be fine after I punch Maletta’s lights out.” I moved to stand and felt like I’d been run over by a bulldozer.
Frank grabbed my shoulder. “Whoa, careful.”
Jones looked apologetic. “Sorry about that. By the time we realized your covers had been blown, you were already in the plane.”
I managed to stay upright and decided glaring at the man would have to do. I was exhausted. I spotted the truck that was to take us back to the skydiving school. “Our ride’s here.”
Frank nodded and shook Jones’ hand. “He’s all yours.”
Jones nodded as we headed to the truck. I wasn’t too happy to see who was driving that day. Brian Conrad met us halfway. “That was a dirty stunt to pull on Wings.”
Frank moved to walk past him but Conrad grabbed his arm. “I saw it all.”
Frank tugged his arm free. “You didn’t see it all,” he snapped.
I moved to step in. Brian Conrad’s the least favorite guy at Bayport High. He’s obnoxious and the guy the yearbook would vote loser with a capital L. Brian gave me a hard look. “What else was there to see? You kept Wings from deploying his chute in time. His injury’s on your hands.” He glanced past me only to notice the cops and the paramedics surrounding Maletta. “What the—?”
Frank headed for the truck. “If you’re driving, Conrad, move it or I’ll leave you here.”
Conrad muttered something nasty under his breath and followed us back to the truck. He got in the cab, we got in the back. The girl in the passenger seat slid the back window open. “You guys all right?”
I managed a nod at Belinda. It still blows my mind how nice Belinda could be and how horrible her brother was. I glanced over at Frank and hid a grin. My big brother had found out some time ago that Belinda liked him; according to one unnamed source she had a major crush, but Frank had been going with Callie Shaw for a long time now. It always embarrassed him when Belinda turned all nice and sweet for him.
“We’re fine,” he said shortly, glaring at me.
I shrugged. I still don’t know what Callie sees in him.
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The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.