Greg looked at the time. Looked at Dustin, still descending, still very much alive. Looked back at the time.
Two and a half minutes left. Plenty of time. The death would happen on landing. It had to. A bad angle,a gust of wind, a?—
Dustin touched down soft as a breath. He rolled once and came up grinning.
The crew burst into applause.
2:15
“That's a wrap on the jump!” someone shouted.
Dustin unclipped his harness, still buzzing with it. The high never lasted long, but right now, he felt like he could do anything. Fight a bear. Call his dad back. Eat a vegetable willingly.
He wouldn't do any of those things. But hecould.
1:45
No. No, no, no.
This could not be happening!
Greg scanned the file. Everything was in order. Everything.
Except for the fact that Dustin was not dying.
1:30
Dustin pulled off his helmet and shook out his hair. Someone handed him a bottle of water. Someone urged him to move on to the interview segment. Someone else tried to give him crap for jumping early.
“So sorry,” Dustin said. “Want me to go back up and do it again?”
“No, of course not. But next time?—”
Dustin didn’t listen to the rest of the sentence.
He caught a glimpse of the duck again.
“Can we move that thing?” he asked. “It's in the shot.”
“It's supposed to be in the shot,” the producer said. “That’s the whole point.”
“The whole point of a BASE jumping video is a giant duck?”
“The whole point isbrand visibility, Dustin.”
1:15
Greg moved closer. The humans couldn't see him, but he still felt exposed. Like everyone knew he was failing.
He only had one minute and fifteen seconds left. And the human was still standing.
What if Greg failed his first freaking assignment?
0:45
“Fine,” Dustin said. “Leave the duck. But I'm not doing the interview next to it.”
He turned away, heading toward the water cooler. All he had to do now was answer a few stupid questions and he'd be free of this circus. He could go back to his motel. Have some fun with the locals, maybe.
