Anne was a paratrooper first, before anything else. She loved sky diving. It was partly how she had come up with the insertion plan for the team. It was the oldest trick in the book for a covert insertion, in fact. The SAS had been using it for a little over a century, before they were disbanded permanently.<br/><br/>Fly your team on a slow moving commercial flight over the target country and have them jump out, preferably over a radar blind spot.<br/><br/>Of course, she knew Oni would never jump, and they had two heavy crates of equipment to drop with them, hence her decision to use the bottom opening cargo bay...<br/><br/>She sped downwards through the early morning light... Of course at altitude it was already light. As she plummeted earthwards, the sun retreated rapidly back below the horizon. She was diving into darkness. Her enhancements and altimeter software told her exactly where she was, where the target field was. and she steered towards it. She glanced upwards at the others. Oni was aparrently on his back, flailing his arms and legs around. "<em>Oni"</em>She sent, on a secure channel,<em>"Tuck your arms and legs in, then throw one arm out. That will start you spinning. When you are face down, throw the other arm out to stop. Your chute will not open while you are on your back!"</em><br/><br/>Lyn was taking it like a pro. She was monitoring the direct radio links in their helmets, listening to what each of them was saying. Lyn was obviously having as much fun as herself. As for Maria, the girl was basically a child in a lethal war machine's body. She was having fun too, it seemed. Anne just hoped the reinforced parachute Iffy had subbed in at the last minute was strong enough! Iffy said it would be. Even if it wasn't, the kid would probably survive. The problem would be digging her out of the hole she would make in whatever she landed on!<br/><br/>Anne tucked up, and rushed ahead of the others. She needed to stay ahead of them, below them, because their chutes were keyed to home in on hers.<br/><br/>Darkness enfolded her now, and she tracked in on the field she had selected.<br/><br/>A green light lit in her HUD, then began blinking and she counted the seconds off. Five-one-thousand, four-one-thousand, three-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, one-one-thousand, Deploy!<br/><br/>"WHOOOHOOOOO!" She shrieked in joy as the chute opened with a massive crack above her, and jerked her hard on her shoulders and crotch.<br/><br/>She swung free below the canopy, her airspeed down to a more manageable velocity and the ground rushing up to meet her was now doing so at a considerably safer rate.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>Several hours earlier...</em><br/><br/>Mona waited a few minutes and walked out of the club. Zhang was waiting for her outside and she led the way to her car, a little Toyota Vix, probably the worst car Toyota had made in the last fifty years. The batteries lasted about twenty miles, making it almost impossible to drive at night unless you were only going locally.<br/><br/>They drove back to Mona's flat. It wasn't exaclty the most luxurious place in the world, but it was okay. A living room, a kitchen, a small bedroom with a single bed in where she slept, and the big bedroom with the double bed and all the BDSM gear.<br/><br/>She let Zhang in, smiling. "Can I get you a drink, dear?"