The chute jerked him upright in his harness. Thunder boomed and he waited to see if the blue serpent snaking across the sky had its fangs set on him, but thankfully the electric pain never came. He pulled sharply on the left riser, spiraling left before releasing it. He was coming in hot, too hot. At the last moment, he pulled hard on both risers, braking his fall and insane forward velocity. He felt the brick pavers under his feet, but as he released the risers, a powerful gust of wind dragged his chute violently to his right and then jerked him up again. Finding his Koch fittings, he released the parachute and dropped eight feet to the ground. On impact, he rolled out of the hard fall and came to rest lying on his back, staring up into the tempest.

He took a second to perform a self-check for broken bones and torn ligaments. Finding his body relatively painless, he thanked God and scrambled into a crouch. With practiced efficiency, he loosened his rifle sling with his left hand as he raised his weapon with his right. Then taking a knee, he dropped his night-vision goggles into place and scanned the grounds for threats. Seeing none, he searched the sky for parachutes.

He counted two—one released and skirting along the ground, the other attached to a jumper in the last moments of descent. The winds had scattered them, but they were all touching down within fifty yards of each other. He felt a squeeze on his left shoulder.

“That was a heckuva ride,” Eli said with a grin. “I thought I was going to go splat there for a second.”

“Tell me about it,” Jed said, watching Johnny spiral in for a picture-perfect landing while Bex came in like Jed did, fast and fighting the wind, thirty yards away.

“Wooo-hoo,” Johnny hollered into his mic. “Cross me another one off the bucket list. LALO-ing in a thunderstorm, baby.”

“Little help here,” Bex said, and Jed could see that she’d gotten tangled up and the wind was dragging her chute along the ground.

“I got her,” Eli said and took off in a sprint.

Johnny fell in on Jed, breathing hard but smiling. “Man, when that lightning arced across the sky, I thought I was barbecued fer sure.”

“Me too,” Jed said, then keyed his mic. “Sword is on the ground and intact. Power is out. No targets or friendlies.”

“Copy all,” Nisha said. “We’re still tracking two incoming vehicles—ETA eight minutes.”

“Check,” Jed said and swiveled to look back at the campus, where the main building stood completely dark and seemingly lifeless. He watched for muzzle flashes in the windows, but thankfully saw none.

“You’re thinking about splitting the team?” Johnny said.

Jed nodded, hating both his options.