Notes: A mountain-sized thanks to my reviewers! I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it. So, with no further ado, let's wrap this sucker up. Montani semper liberi!
"- a beautiful day from here on the New River Gorge Bridge, just outside of Fayetteville, West Virginia, and the site of the annual Bridge Day BASE jumping event. LiveSport is proud to be bringing you the exclusive broadcast of this decades-old extreme sports festival. Among the four hundred jumpers this year are several notable extreme athletes which regular viewers will recognize, including Team Raptor's Trip Thompson, and Team Steel's Josh McGrath and Kat Ryan."
"All of that and they still get top billing. Those punks," Josh said through slightly clenched teeth, glaring at the small but crystal-clear image of Orrin Carter on Berto's handheld TV. The real live Orrin was broadcasting from on top of the LiveSport bus, which was parked not too far away, in the exact center of the bridge's span. Additional footage was being provided by a cameraman suspended over the river by the quite unsightly crane parked next to the bus.
"Excusez-moi?" Carlie asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Present company excluded, of course," Kat said, saving Josh the trouble. Carlie had somehow become permanently attached to Berto's side. She'd been there when Max had found them on the bridge, and she'd been there when Berto had dragged his teammates along to the Taste of Bridge Day festival - all nine high-cholesterol hours of it - and she'd been there, cheerfully knocking at the van door, when Josh and Kat had gotten up that morning to pack their parachutes, and she was still there now, holding Berto's arm and leaning over his shoulder.
It was amusing, but even more amusing because Berto was so obviously pleased about it. Josh and Kat, over the course of parachute-packing, had already agreed on their strategy: As soon as they got on the road again, they were going to tease Berto to death, without pause, without mercy.
Maybe even before then. It was only fair - they'd had the vacation from hell, while he'd not only saved the day but also got the girl. There was a balance to these things that had to be worked out. By heckling, if necessary.
Making an obvious bid to keep the peace, Berto now switched channels to the twenty-four-hour headline news, where the top story continued to be the bizarre arrest of wanted fugitive Lance Breamer, along with six of his best militia buddies. The Fayetteville paper had made a big fuss over it that morning too - although it wasn't sufficiently interesting to displace the giant, full-color front-page Bridge Day extravaganza.
The part that had really grabbed everyone's attention was that Lance and his crew had been found on the steps of the Fayetteville police headquarters, in the middle of the night, handcuffed and, in Lance's case, ever-so-delicately scorched. It further turned out that in his spare time one of the militia boys was, incredibly, a New River Gorge park ranger, which explained how they were able to gain access to the bridge in the first place.
But the police had no clue how they'd gotten to the jail, and Josh, reading between the lines of the newspaper story, thought that they weren't especially anxious to find out. Lance was a bad guy, and now he was headed back to jail, and since justice was served, who cared?
No mention had been made of explosives or plots to blow the bridge sky-high, by the militia or by the authorities, and Team Steel (plus Carlie) had minded their business and not said a word. Max and Berto had taken care of the bombs before depositing Lance and friends; and Max in particular felt that there was no reason to postpone a perfectly good BASE-jumping extravaganza just for the teensy matter of public safety.
Currently the news was showing a clip of Lance being remanded into federal custody. The camera that shot the footage was the jumpiest that Josh had seen in quite a while. That didn't make it any less satisfying to watch.
"Montani semper liberi!" Lance shouted, fighting the cops and feds even as they shoved him into a prison transport van - armored, it looked like. The words were tinny and twice-distorted by broadcasting, but unmistakable.
"What's that mean?" Carlie asked.
Berto sighed and translated. " 'Mountaineers are always free.' "
"In other words, we haven't seen the last of him." Josh finished adjusting his helmet and gave Berto a thumbs-up. "Or us. We're up, bro. Wish us luck."
"We'll be back in, oh, about fifteen minutes," Kat added. Her helmet was firmly in place too, despite the still-tender ear, which had turned a lovely yellow-brown-green in the last day. The night of big excitement, after everything was over, Josh had plugged into the regenerator and Kat, applying generous amounts of ice to her wounded skull, had kept him company - if a steady stream of complaints and vindictives and phone calls to Trip could be called "company."
Trip was somewhere else on the bridge, placating Ethan, who was entering the fourth hour of his protest whine to the Bridge Day officials. Josh did not care; he was out of earshot.
"Have fun! And be careful!" Carlie called, waving to them as they moved off.
"Now we've got a mom for real," Kat said to Josh in an undertone, but she had a half-grin on her face.
Josh grinned back. They'd been calling Berto "Mom" for so long that he was actually starting to answer to it. "Like I need someone else to call 'Dad'."
They reached the stairs that led to the platform and were forced to pause as the officials went over their gear one last time. It had already been checked by officials when they arrived on the bridge, and of course Josh had taken care to pack it right in the first place, but this was definitely an occasion when it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, they were still sort of in trouble for not being at the orientation meeting, despite's Jefferson's string-pulling on that matter.
"You never know," Kat said as an official examined her backpack rig. "He could be the dad that lets you stay up late and eat dessert before dinner and stuff. Third time's the charm, right?"
"Actually, I think I've done okay the first two times." And he had. He didn't remember his biological father, not really; what vague shreds of memory he did have were full of love. His adoptive father was just as good as the real thing. Jefferson certainly acted like the real thing.
He'd called late the night before and given Josh the riot act from three thousand miles away, but after that he'd said that he was proud of Josh for sticking his neck out to help someone like Ethan. The call had ended with a pleasant chat about how the inside of a coal mine and the underside of a bridge looked, and a stern admonition to never, ever, ever do anything like that again. Ever.
The officials concluded their examination and waved them on. The cameraman suspended over the river swung around in this cherrypicker basket to get them in his lens while Josh climbed up the short stairs and stepped onto the platform. It looked more like the plank on a pirate's ship - just a couple of boards sticking out into the air.
The thrill of adrenaline that hit him was immediate and strong. After all the adventure and mind-numbing boredom, this was it. They were jumping, and even if John Dread himself had beamed down onto the bridge right at that very moment, Josh wouldn'tve turned away. "You ready, Ryan?"
"Team Steel is go!" Kat announced, a devil's gleam in her eyes, and then launched into a series of flawless backflips down her platform.
The crowd shouted and cheered its approval. Not to be outdone, Josh waited a beat and then sprinted, flat out, down his platform and dove headfirst off of the edge as if it was nothing more than a really high diving board. The crowd liked that, too, but their shouts were instantly lost in the wind that roared against him.
There wasn't anything in the world like freefall. It was a rush for even the most seasoned action junkie, and the fact that he only had eight-point-eight seconds until he smacked into the ground made it even better.
After seven seconds, you had about a fifty-fifty chance of surving impact. Josh was extreme, but he wasn't that crazy, so he counted to five and then opened his 'chute. It caught the wind immediately and filled, jerking him upright and slowing his plunge considerably. He looked up and caught sight of Kat right above him, parachute open and no problems visible.
The parachutes boasted eye-searing stripes of aqua and green and were dominated by an oversize N-Tek logo. "N-TEK" was printed along one edge in foot-tall letters. Jefferson was taking no chances with this publicity opportunity.
Berto, wearing a slim silver communicator in lieu of the full biolink gear, buzzed in Josh's ear along with the background roar of 250,000 people: "Looks like fun, but I'm glad I'm up here."
"I'm sure Carlie's glad you're up there, too," he said back, guiding the parachute down to the gravel-and-mud clearing on the right-hand side of the riverbank, where a smaller crowd was waiting. There was a big white circle painted on the ground, and he was intent on hitting it dead center.
"Uh, yeah," Berto said, and Josh could practically hear him turning red. "There is that."
Then the ground was rushing up and Josh prepared to land. It was perfect, of course, and he gathered up the chute and got out of the way as fast as possible so Kat could land. There'd be the devil to pay if he screwed up her own perfect landing.
She landed and was wadding up her chute almost before her feet hit the ground. "Let's go - the truck is about to leave."
The truck was a shiny new pickup with mud spattered all over its sides. It was one of several vehicles that were ferrying the jumpers up to the bridge from the DZ - along the same road that Lance had used two nights prior. Five jumpers were already in the cargo area, and the driver was gesturing impatiently for Josh and Kat to hurry. If they missed it, they'd have to wait for some time, and Josh had no intention of doing that. He started jogging. "Berto, you have the other parachutes, right?"
It was easier to pack a bunch of parachutes than repack the same one over and over again. Unfortunately convenience meant that someone had to hold onto them in between jumps - but that was why Team Steel came with a manager. And a manager's girlfriend, now.
"Carlie's watching them," came the reply, practically daring him to comment. "Orrin just nominated you both for 'play of the day'."
Josh ducked his head so that the other jumpers in the truck couldn't see him talking to thin air. "We're heading back up, and then we'll give him something else to talk about."
The jolting ride up the mountainside was amiable enough, despite the steadily increasing chill in the air. The other jumpers laughed, joked, and traded stories about their wildest jumps; two of them recognized Josh and Kat from the TV coverage of the DOX and struck up a conversation about Del Oro Bay's premiere extreme sporting event.
Team Steel managed to jump two more times before Bridge Day was over. The second time was with Trip, whose ankle had apparently healed faster than Kat's ear, and the last time was barely squeezed in under the deadline. In fact, and through no planning of their own, they were the final jumpers of the day.
The excitement was still there, but the urge to perform a wild jump wasn't, and they simply stepped up to the edge of the platform, exchanged a high-five, and jumped. Josh threw his pilot chute immediately, wanting to get the full experience this time, but Kat held out for a bit longer.
When she did open her chute, she didn't steer towards the landing area. Instead, she held steady over the middle of the river. Josh watched her splash down and surface, snatched out of the water by the people in the rescue boats almost as soon as she hit. A dangerous stunt - she could've easily drowned - and a stupid one, because the officials would be even more upset with them.
He landed - on land, thank you - at roughly the same time the boat carrying her made it to shore. "Hey, Kat!" he called to her. "You haven't had enough cold water on this trip or what?"
She climbed out of the boat soaking wet and laughing. "Don't knock it 'till you try it, McGrath."
"Yeah," he said, trudging toward their next designated ride back up the mountain. "Think I'll wait for next year, though."
She nodded, sending water droplets flying. "We are so doing this part again. None of that other mess, though."
He rolled his eyes at the mere thought of a repeat journey. "No argument here."
They made it back up to the bridge with no trouble and played nice with the tourists for a while, signing autographs and answering questions and just generally being minor celebs, then packed it in and went back to the hotel parking lot when the bridge opened up to vehicular traffic again. Berto greeted them at the van - sans Ms. Hoffman, for once, and checking the underside of the van for damage and/or suspicious objects before their departure the next morning.
Josh took the opportunity to heckle him. "Hey, bro. Where's Carlie?"
"Team Raptor left already," he said, rather stiffly.
Kat feigned curiosity. "Is that right? Hmm."
Berto stood and brushed his hands off, evidently not willing to dignify that with a response. Josh tried again. "Gee, Kat, why do I get the feeling that a lot of Team Steel-Team Raptor co-appearances are in our future?"
"It would be good publicity," Berto said in a half-hearted attempt at defense. Josh and Kat gave him twin unfooled looks and he quickly changed the subject to, "How was the jump?"
"Fantastic," Kat said. "Josh chickened out and stayed dry."
"Hey, you never consulted me on the water landing," he countered, but the argument was good-natured, and they headed towards the van door in high spirits.
Orrin, cameraman trailing along behind him and looking a little wilted by the long day, caught them before they could get there. "Just a quick one, folks," he said, forestalling any objections. "It's been a busy couple of days, and believe me, I'm done too."
"Fire away," Josh told him. Orrin was a nice guy. They could make time for him, even if the idea of kicking back and chilling was starting to sound really attractive.
Orrin gestured to his cameraman and looked professional. "Team Steel had not one, not two, but three amazing jumps today. This is a non-competative event, but you weren't holding anything back."
Kat pushed her damp hair out her eyes and made a tsking noise of rebuke. "That's so not our style."
The reporter nodded appreciatively and turned the microphone on Josh. "What about you, McGrath? Any thoughts on Bridge Day or West Virginia?
Josh glanced at Kat, and Berto, and gave Orrin a shrug and a smile. "What can I say? Wild and wonderful."