Jumping Ship

"You've done… how many jumps?" the interviewer asked.

Zach Wood smiled nervously. He knew this was the sticky point. "I figure about 250?" he repeated. He had already answered the question; the interviewer was asking again because he had trouble believing the number. "About once a week for the past five years," he added.

The interviewer chewed on his lip. "I started work here because I wanted to be able to jump a lot," he said. "As one of our parachute instructors, you would certainly get to continue with this kind of… er… frequency. You must be very dedicated to have managed it while you worked in…" he flicked back to the second page of Wood's resume. "…security."

"I can honestly tell you the urge to jump was often so strong it felt like my life depended on it," Zach replied. "I've become really good at it, too."

"Yes," the interviewer said slowly, still looking doubtful. "Did your last job pay well, Mister Wood?" he asked. "You don't have to tell me, but it's just that I can't help wondering whether you'll be happy with the pay here if your old job allowed you such an expensive hobby."

"We did get danger pay," Zach replied vaguely, "but don't worry… if I can do jumps regularly for free, I'm going to save a good bit of money, right? So what you were offering in the ad would do just fine."

"I see," the inter viewer said. "Very well, next question." He cleared his throat. "How do you react to stress?"

"My last job could get very stressful," Zach replied. "I can't get into details, but my employer had enemies. I'm fine with it. I like excitement, anyway. I bet a lot of people who want to be parachute instructors do, don't they? Anyway," he added, having rehearsed for this type of question and eager to get some good keywords in, "it helps to be prepared for everything. Have a plan, have a plan b, and have contingency plans for both of them. You gotta stay safe."

The interviewer nodded and looked down at his list of question again. "Have you ever been in a situation where someone else's safety depended on you? Those are standard questions," he added, looking up at Zach. "It's okay to repeat previous answers."

Wood nodded. "It was part of my old job to make sure my boss stayed safe," he lied. Security looked far better on a resume than combat pilot for terrorist organization. "I was part of a team, but I think we were all important. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, you know? Again, you got to be prepared, and you got to put safety first. You can't slack off when someone's counting on you."

To himself, he thought that this was particularly true with the Cobra Commander: he had seen fellow vipers be shot dead on the spot for being caught goofing off on the job.

The rest of the interview went smoothly, and by the time he left, Zach Wood was reasonably certain he'd get the job. It wouldn't pay as well as Cobra had, nowhere near it, but it was something at least. Besides, taking his time jumping out of a non burning and non exploding aircraft would be a pleasant change of routine, and with a normal employer, he didn't have to worry about being executed.

He walked by a boardroom on his way out and, glancing in through the door, which had been left opened, caught sight of a laser pointer's telltale red dot on a white board. He shuddered and if he'd been armed, he would have automatically fired at the person holding it. As it was, he gave the meeting room a wide berth and suppressed the urge to jump out the nearest window: he didn't have a parachute on him either.

Having been forced to flee for his life by jumping out of laser riffles damaged aircrafts about once a week for the past five years had left him with a very strong dislike for all lasers.

He figured once he got the job, he'd discreetly raid the offices of the parachuting school and make every last stupid laser pointer disappear.

Yes, that'd feel good. No more Cobra, no more lasers.

It was going to be grand.

Author's Notes

This is my entry for the Cobra Reassigned contest held by the Cobra FanClub on Deviant Art.

Zach Wood is, as you can probably tell, an original character. One of many, many Cobra vipers who regularly parachuted out of the aircrafts the Joes blew up on a weekly basis in the old Sunbow cartoon.

Thanks for reading!