Chapter Two
Steve was watching Jaime very closely. She'd flown many times since the accident, but this was her first time up in a smaller plane. She grew slightly pale as they took off, but seemed ok. Her trouble began about half an hour from the drop site, when Steve helped her strap on her parachute. Her body began to tremble and her face turned ghost-white. Steve hadn't told her about Oscar's suggestion that he pull her with him when he jumped, but he'd made sure her pack had an emergency-open auto-chute, just in case she froze and couldn't pull the cord herself. There was no one Steve would've rather worked this mission with - she was that good - but did he have it in himself to force her from the plane?
"Ten minutes to drop zone," the pilot called to them. Jaime was sitting with her head back against the seat, her eyes closed and a white-knuckle grip on the armrest. He took her hand; she was shaking violently now.
"Jaime, we can tell the pilot you're sick, and -"
"I'm gonna do this," she said, without opening her eyes. "I need to do this."
They sat in silence until the pilot called "Three minutes." Steve helped Jaime to her feet and once she had a firm grip on a hand-hold, he opened the hatch.
"One minute!"
Steve squeezed Jaime's hand and smiled at her. He could see she was petrified. "I'll be right behind you, Sweetheart." Jaime nodded wordlessly, staring out the open hatch. Please, God - keep her safe, Steve thought silently.
"Ten seconds...GO!"
Jaime took a huge breath, closed her eyes and stepped through the hatch. Steve stepped out as soon as she'd cleared the plane. His bionic eye zeroed in on Jaime, who appeared to have gone limp in her harness. He held his breath until her auto-chute opened, then let himself free-fall a little longer than usual before pulling his cord. He wanted to hit the ground first, and he did. He stood in the spot Jaime would hit, held out his arms, and caught her as she floated toward him.
Steve still had her in his arms when she startled back to consciousness, instantly fully alert. Her eyes looked directly into Steve's and locked there as he set her gently on terra firma.
"I - did it!" she said triumphantly.
"Sweetheart, you are one of the bravest people I know."
Jaime smiled, enjoying the long gaze into Steve's eyes. "Let's go find our target."
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They were able to find the target building quickly and then retired back to a pre-arranged safe house. Jaime felt she could crack the safe in 15 to 20 seconds, so they agreed that if it wasn't open at the 20 second mark, she and Steve would force it open together, grab the papers and hopefully evacuate before the 60 second fail-safe exploded. They each retired to one of the bedrooms to rest a bit, planning to hit the target sometime around midnight.
9 Hours Later
Jaime and Steve stood outside the building they believed held the safe. Instead of taking the time to infiltrate and build a cover, they'd decided to do the job commando-style: bust in, disable any guards, grab the codes and run. Much quicker, but also much more dangerous.
They jumped the fence and Steve peered through a window. "Two guards," he told Jaime. "I'll take care of them, and you head for the safe. It's on the south wall." Jaime nodded, and Steve kicked the back door in, causing all hell to break loose. The piercing scream of an alarm siren filled the air. "Dammit," he said under his breath. At bionic speed, he knocked out both guards and dragged them from the building, then joined Jaime at the safe.
"Will you be able to hear the tumblers through all the racket?"
"I think so." She could, and listened as the first and second tumblers clicked. As she turned the dial for the third number, her blood ran ice cold.
"Steve, get out of the building!"
"Why? What's -"
"Get out now! I'm right behind you."
Believing her, Steve took off running. He turned around at the exact moment the roof blew off the building, followed very quickly by a second, even louder BOOM. Jaime was not right behind him. As the dust settled, Steve felt like his heart had been ripped out and stomped into the dirt. There was no sign of Jaime anywhere.