Dangerous by Default

30. Take-off

As the engine of the Bluebird hummed on the runway, Mina was lost in thought. The cabin was compact, like a BMW SUV, except that it's carbon fiber wrapping and tapered walls rose just high enough to stand. She reached into the side pocket of her seat and felt for the small bottle of tequila, and beside it a tiny plastic pill case. She raddled the case to check. A crippling nervous flyer, her pre-flight ritual consisted of .5 mg of klonopin with a shot of tequila (though not doctor recommended). Ironically, after the events of tonight, being suspended in the air seemed like a walk in the park in comparison. She had already rattled the bottle cap off and was prepared to take a drink when something caught her eye. A black taslan one-piece laid out on the seat across from her.

"Hey, uhh, what's with the jumpsuit?" Mina asked. The pilot smirked. He looked down at the opened bottle of alcohol.

"Oh hah hah. I wouldn't do that."

"Do what?" She asked as the plane started to sprint down the runway.

"Caine's gonna need you alert." The plane leapt into the air, it's nose rising at a steep angle into the dark sky.

"Alert? What for?" Mina took a swig. "Wake me twenty minutes before we land?"

Mina got comfortable in her seat and tried not to think about the wreckage she left behind her. The loud rumble of the tiny carbon fiber aircraft barreling over the ocean comforted her.

"Wake you? We're going to be over the drop zone in a few minutes."

Mina was half-listening. Wait, what?

"What the hell are you talking about a drop zone for? I've jumped once, and don't plan on doing it again. I thought we were going to Honolulu, Dan." Mina remembered that fateful jump with Caine. Danger is what you feel when you are safe he had told her for the first time that day. The tiny white pill lay flat on her open palm. She could feel her nerves rising. The pilot looked back at her incredulously.

"You've got to be kidding me," he said. "Look outside."

Mina slammed the window blinds up and peered out the window. Half Moon Bay was quickly disappearing beneath them. She scanned the cascade of shadows. A light was blinking on the wing. What the hell? She cupped her hands on the cold surface of the window to get a better look. You gotta be fucking kidding me. A slender black form gripped to a strap secured onto the edge of the wing, his long baggy clothes flapping furiously in the wind. She shrieked.

"Land this plane right now!" She demanded. The pilot became visibly nervous.

"This isn't happening. You guys. Fuck!"

"What's Caine doing on the wing, Dan?"

"Caine told me that you guys were going to do a jump tonight."

"We most certainly are NOT. If he wants to jump by himself, that is his prerogative. I'm flying solo tonight."

"He's got no comms out there. As soon as the plane hits the 14,000 feet he's going off of the wing, whether you like it or not."

"Take the plane down, NOW! Nobody is going off the damn wing."

"I can't do that Mina, Not with him hanging off the side of the plane. The updraft would throw him off. I thought you planned this! You are supposed to do a jump and bring him down with your chute. Didn't he tell you?"

"So what, you just expect me to jump out willy nilly and nab him? He's an adult, he can use his own parachute."

"Mina, you don't get it. Caine doesn't have a parachute. Once he let's go, he's expecting you to catch him. I thought you knew, or I never would have taken you up here! God damnit, Mina. What's wrong with you?! I'm going to lose my license!"

Mina burned with anger. "What's wrong with ME? Are you serious?! I thought I was getting on a fucking flight to Honolulu. Because that's where I TOLD you to take me. How did Evel Knievel out there even know I was taking Bluebird out tonight?" She started grudgingly at the jumpsuit.

"Does it really matter? You gotta get moving, sister. Caine is jumping in a few minutes. Your parachute is under the seat. "

"No way. Not doing this. He should have asked me but he didn't. This is so manipulative! I can't just throw myself out of a plane because he says jump. This is on him."

"Ok, FINE. But if you don't do this, two things are going to happen Mina. Caine will die, and you will regret it for the rest of your life. Stop complaining, get your head together and get into your damn chute!"

Mina looked at the pill in her hand. She wanted beaches, sun, to be alone and forget she ever tried to accomplish anything.

Great. One more thing to regret, to hate myself for. Shit.

She let the pill fall to the floor of the plane.

"How much time do I have?"

"40 seconds."

Mina turned off all of the voices in her head telling her to stop, because the pilot was right. None of it mattered now. Caine would have hell to pay when they landed, but only after he was safe. She kicked her heels off and stuffed her legs into the jumpsuit, wrestling slightly with its baggy folds that were designed to increase drag and extend air time as much as possible. She pulled the chute out from under the seat and began strapping it on, her eyes tracking the strobing light just outside the window.

Good. He's still on the wing. Asshole.

"How much time do we have?"

The cabin was thumping noisily, competing with the pounding of her heart beating in her chest. She tried to block out the images cycling through her mind of Caine tumbling through the night sky to his death. What if she couldn't make it out of the doors of the plane? Would the pilot run back and force her out? What if she was unable to reach Caine in time? What if..

Stop it Mina. Put these irrational fears on mute. You can do this. This is hardly the hardest, or most dangerous thing you've had to do. You're the one with the parachute. Put one foot in front of the other.

"We're almost at altitude. Hurry up!" the pilot yelled, his voice straining and cracking with fear. She fastened the last strap of her parachute.

You've got this.

The pilot gave her a thumbs up and she yanked open the hatch. The wind whipped all around her ferociously. Peering out over the edge of the doorway, the sky was a vast black abyss. The silvery glow of moonlight reflecting off of the crashing waves below was the only distinguishable thing from the expanse of darkness that swirled around her. Mavericks Beach, where 60 foot swells slammed mercilessly into a sheer face of rock. It looked menacing.

"Where are we supposed to land?" She turned back to the open hatch just in time to catch the glint of two eyes turning back towards hers from the wing.

Caine smiled, then let go.

The strobing light attached to his belt whipped past the plane before disappearing into the shroud of fog.

Bracing herself at the edge of the open door, Mina gulped in the crisp air. The altimeter on her wrist read 14,000 feet. Her toes crept out over black empty space. Caine was out there, somewhere, his body lunging through the air at a hundred miles an hour. She bounced her body back and forth on the edge of the hatchway. Repeating their mantra over and over, breathing in and out like a hysterical yogi, it was all she could do to try and center her nerves.

This was just another one of their danger stunts.

You only feel danger when you're safe.