The Recruit

22. Beach

A military helicopter picked them up from the hotel roof before dawn. The trainees sat on their packs in the dusty cargo area behind the pilots. Their tropical uniform had lightweight trousers, long-sleeved blue tops without numbers or CHERUB logos, and caps with CHERUB logos as well.

Surge crawled around fitting each trainee with an electronic wristband. The plastic strap locked on so it could only be cut off with a knife.

"Don't remove the bracelet under any circumstances," Surge shouted over the noise of the rotor. "In an emergency, unscrew the button on the side and press it down firmly. The helicopter is on standby and will reach you within fifteen minutes. If you get bitten by a snake press it right away."

"We'll be at the first drop point soon. Everything you could possibly need is in the backpacks. It's now 1000 hours. Each team has four checkpoints to reach within the next seventy-two hours. If you don't reach all the checkpoints before the target time, you have failed training and you'll have to start again at day one. Remember, this is not a training area. Mistakes down there will not get you punished, but they might get you killed. There are about a thousand things in the jungle that will kill you or make you so sick you'll wish you were dead."

The helicopter stopped moving about ten metres off the ground. The side door slid open, filling the cargo area with sunlight.

"One and two, get out there," Surge shouted. Dustin and Clemont dangled their feet over the side of the helicopter. Surge threw out their backpacks. Ash saw the boys disappear, but couldn't see if they'd landed OK because of the dust blown up by the rotor. Surge gave the pilot a thumbs-up and the helicopter moved on to the next drop. Serena looked unhappy. Jumps put a strain on her weak knee. Shauna and Brendan dropped, then they moved to the final position.

Ash looked down. There was wet sand covered with a few centimetres of seawater beneath him. He watched his pack splash down, summoned his courage and slid off the platform. They'd been trained how to jump safely. The trick was to collapse on to your side so the impact was absorbed by the whole body. If you landed too straight you risked smashing your hips or ankles. Too flat and your whole body smacked down hard, often breaking an arm or shoulder. Ash got the landing spot on. He scrambled up, splattered in wet sand but unhurt. Serena screamed as she hit the ground. Ash rushed over.

"You OK?" he asked.

Serena got up slowly and took a few nervous steps on her weak right knee.

"No worse than usual," she said. The helicopter flew off. Ash shielded his eyes from the swirls of sand. They dragged their backpacks out of the wash and up the beach. The sun made the white sand dazzle.

"Let's get into the shade," Ash said.

They settled under a palm. Ash rubbed wet sand off his hands on to his trousers. Serena found the mission briefing in her pack.

"Oh crap," Serena said.

"What?" Serena showed Ash a page of her briefing. It was in German. Ash quickly found his own copy. His heart sank.

"Great, all in French," Ash said. "If I'd known my life would depend on it I probably would have paid more attention in class."

They realised the two briefings were identical. Ash could understand half the French, Serena was a bit better with the German. By comparing the two versions and making a few assumptions they worked out almost everything.

There were a couple of sketchy maps, marked with the position of the first checkpoint, but no indication of where they had been dropped, or where they had to go after that. They had to reach the first checkpoint by 1800 and sleep there overnight.