Chapter 33
SANTIAGO
What the fuck is that pilot up to? My stomach had turned to stone and my mouth was bone dry. The guy was being a cowboy and I didn’t think it was funny.
Meanwhile, Robertson and Ford seemed to be betting on every pass he made, putting money on whether he’d hit the water or not. The others were in on it too, and I was honestly starting to wonder if they’d put him up to it.
Everyone was having a little too much fun with this for my liking. As I watched Layla’s group go up, fear turned my extremities to ice. This was what Neil had been talking about. This was why it was dangerous to get involved with someone who put their lives at risk for a living.
Not only because you had to be braced for the possibility of actually losing them, but because with the way I was feeling right now, I really would do something stupid to save her if it looked like she was in danger. And she was in danger. And I was on edge about it. And none of that was good.
My teeth pressed together so hard, my dentist would be pissed if he saw me right now. I was sure to crack at least one before she made it back to the cutter.
The cadets who’d just had their turn were boasting to those who still had to go and my coworkers were egging them on, talking smack while keeping an eye on the chopper and how low the pilot would go this time.
Something reeked about the way everyone was handling this, and while I knew they didn’t want their legacies to be the same as the one Ron had left, it was getting out of hand.
Way fucking out of hand.
The atmosphere around me was too light. Too festive for what we were doing. Shit, if I’d been blindfolded and dropped off on this deck, I’d have thought they’d put me down in the middle of a party.
Laughter and chatter rang out, and the boys on the Zodiac beside me were so relaxed it looked like they were on a booze cruise.
No one seemed to be paying much attention as the chopper circled and dipped, but when it kept descending as it made the return trip, the stones in my stomach procreated.
My fingers were curled into fists so tight that my hands hurt, but that pilot was too low.
Much, much too low.
I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I sure as fuck was going to find out before he took the next team up. This was reckless and just plain—
My mental rant died a sudden death when the chopper touched the water, and I was running for the Zodiac before I even heard the gut-wrenching sound of the crash. Metal shrieked and roared at the moment of impact, but I didn’t turn to look. There was no time.
Flat out sprinting across the deck, I grabbed the railing and launched myself over without checking to see if the Zodiac was even still there. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew this was the stupid behavior Neil had warned me against, but the chopper had gone down and my cadets were in it.
My girl was in it. I landed with a hard thud on the hull of the Zodiac. I shoved whoever had been at the helm away and took over, planting my feet and wrapping my palm around the throttle.
I was too focused on my task to really look at anything, but at least I yelled a warning before I hit down on the throttle. “Hang on! It’s going to be bumpy.”
I heard a grunt of some sort, but again, I didn’t stop to check.
I simply gunned it away from the cutter and sliced through the water in a desperate attempt to get to her.
Lifting the outboard motor slightly to get more speed faster, I bent my knees, and as soon as the crash site came into view, I desperately scanned the surface as we sped toward it.
It was a tricky situation, though. The motor could hit debris and send us all up in a ball of flame, or worse yet, I might hit a person if I got too close while they were surfacing. In my head, I kept repeating the same chant over and over again.
They’ll be fine. This is what the simulation was for. She’ll be fine. She knows how to get out of a sinking chopper. They’ll be fine.
Abruptly cutting the engine when we got close enough, I dove into the water without any hesitation as soon as I saw what appeared to be the first person surfacing.
My training kicked in and took over, and I shouted to the cadet before helping him back to the Zodiac.
He seemed to have forgotten how to swim now that he’d found his way to me, so I had to tow him, but I did it without a second thought.
I didn’t have a motherfucking choice. The other instructors on the Zodiac helped me get him up, but they were all staying dry. “What are you doing?”
I had to yell to be heard above everything else as I pushed the cadet’s ass up while Adams hauled him in, but the guy who was supposed to be helping me just shrugged. “They’ll be fine, bro. Relax. You bring them here, we’ll haul them up and check them out. We’re all good.”
We were not all good, but I didn’t have time to argue. Instead, I helped another cadet to the Zodiac while the instructor who had been on the chopper swam beside the other. My head swiveled from side to side, but there was no sign of Layla. She hadn’t come up yet.
Terror tore through me like a thunderclap, and before I could reconsider, I was going under to find her. Once again, I was acting rashly. I knew I should’ve gone back to the Zodiac and grabbed some gear, but the terror refused to let me swim away from the wreckage instead of into it.
I kicked toward the sinking chopper, ducking into the open door after taking one last breath. The visibility was terrible without a mask and with all the bubbles and debris around, but I squinted through it all, ignoring the stinging of the salt water on my eyes when I finally spotted Layla.
The pilot’s head rolled forward like he was unconscious and she seemed to be battling to get him unbuckled. Ice cold rage simmered at the center of my being. A cadet should not be doing that. How the fuck had her instructor left both her and an unconscious damn pilot behind?
With a couple powerful kicks of my legs, I reached them and pushed her out before going back for the pilot. She tried to fight against me pushing her until she realized who I was. Then she shot up to the surface while I struggled with the jammed buckle.
Black spots started flickering at the edges of my vision and my lungs were burning like they were slowly being filled with hellfire, but I didn’t stop. This idiot would certainly drown if I did, and he wasn’t dying on my watch.
Not when I was about to put every last fucking professional on this exercise in front of a disciplinary committee—at the very least—for what had happened here today. Dying was the easy way out, and I wasn’t letting him take it.
Eventually, I remembered what Layla had done when her friend’s buckle had jammed much the same way, and I worked at getting the pilot free around it.
This was another reason why I should’ve gone back for gear.
Having the proper equipment in a situation like this made it far less treacherous, but I didn’t have a knife nearby.
All I’d had in my pocket had been my keys, and those were most certainly gone by now.
Tugging and heaving, I finally managed to get the man’s limp body out of his seat, and I used the last of my oxygen and strength to get the fuck out of the wreckage before it sank all the way down.
I rolled him onto his back as he hit the surface, and then the black took over my field of vision and I passed out.
The next thing I knew, faint beeping echoed in my ears and I was vaguely aware of something soft underneath me. I groaned. Where the hell am I? What happened? Am I dead? Is this heaven? If so, why the hell does it smell like a hospital?
“Cortez?” It sounded like someone was saying my name underwater, and that was when it all came rushing back.
The exercise. The chopper going lower and lower on every pass. The crash. Layla. Fuck! Layla!
I wrenched my eyes open and blinked hard against the harsh light above me. As I came to properly, I was vaguely aware that my body felt like it’d been hit by a truck but that was the least of my worries.
The room came into focus and with it, Commander Nicholson’s face. As soon as he realized my eyes were open, relief softened his features for just a moment before they hardened again. “Cortez, thank God. What the hell happened out there?”
My throat felt like that hellfire from earlier had scorched it, too, but I pushed words out anyway.
It hurt like hell, but fuck that. “Someone could have been killed because of their fucking negligence. They were reckless. I was alone. The chopper went down. I think they bet on how low he could get it. Is the pilot alive? Layla? Is everyone okay?”
He nodded briskly and handed me a glass of water. “They’re all fine. Steve, the pilot, is a little worse for wear but he’s next door. They’re taking care of him. We’ve been assured he’s going to make a full recovery. Thanks to you.”
“Layla?” I repeated, knowing I was dangerously close to betraying just how much I cared about her, but I couldn’t help it. Not right now. My vision was still fuzzy and my throat and head were sore as shit, but I needed to know. I needed to be sure.
Nicholson frowned. “The Perkins girl? She’s fine. A little shook up maybe, but physically okay. The report we got from her about the incident is alarming, though. Do you need some time to rest before you tell me your side of it?”
I shook my head as I remembered seeing Layla trying to free the pilot instead of the people whose actual fucking job it was.
“No, I’m good. It was a shit show, Commander.
Decatur left Perkins and the pilot behind.
I saw him swimming back to the Zodiac with another cadet without even looking back.
When I realized she wasn’t coming up, I dove in, found her trying to get Steve out, then I pulled her away and went after him myself. ”
The commander’s jaw tightened. “That confirms Perkins’s report, then.
Okay, Cortez. I’ll let you rest. The docs say you need to stay for observation for at least a couple hours.
I’ll let them know you’re awake. For God’s sake, stay here and let them check you out.
Follow their instructions. I’ll get a detailed report from you once we know you’re in the clear. ”
I nodded, and he spun on his heels and left, no doubt either to do damage to the others who had been on that exercise or to go do some damage control. Both had to be done, but I supposed it was up to him to decide which was more urgent.
It turned out that the doctors kept me more than just a couple hours.
By the time I got discharged and back to the Station, it was dark out and everything was quiet.
Everything except my doorstep, that was.
As I trudged up to my living quarters, I saw a hunched-over figure waiting for me and I recognized it immediately.
Layla Perkins had been waiting here for me to get back from the hospital.
It was almost certain that someone would’ve seen her here and that they’d be wondering why a cadet was so worried about her dick of an instructor that she’d be waiting for him to get back.
This was the last thing I needed today on top of everything else that had happened.
Shit, this is not good. Not good at all.