Gone (Gone #1)(93)

"What's the time. Jack?" Caine asked.

Jack checked his PDA. "Ten minutes"

Jack busied himself with the cameras, four of them on tripods, three video, and one a motorized still camera. He had two lights on poles shining down on Andrew.

Andrew was lit up like he was some kind of movie star.

"I don't want to die" Andrew said.

"Me neither" Caine agreed. "That's why I really hope you can beat the poof"

"I would be, like, the first, huh?* Andrew said. He sniffed. Tears were starting to flow.

"First and only" Caine said.

"This isn't fair," Andrew said. Jack adjusted the lens to encompass Andrew's entire body.

"Five minutes," Jack said."I'm going to go ahead and start the video running."

"Do what you have to do, Jack, don't announce it," Caine said.

"Can't you help me out, Caine?" Andrew pleaded. "You're a four bar. Maybe you and me, if we both used our power at the same time, right?"

No one answered him.

"I'm scared, okay?" Andrew moaned, and now the tears were flowing freely. "I don'l know what's going to happen."

"Maybe you wake up outside the FAYZ," Panda said, speaking for the first time.

"Maybe you wake up in hell," Diana said. "Where you belong."

"I should pray" Andrew said.

"God forgive me for being a creep who starves people?" Diana suggested.

"One minute" Jack said softly. He was nervous about when to start the still camera. No one figured Andrew's birth certificate was exact to the minute—Benno's had been off by weeks. He could disappear early.

"|esus> forgive me for all the bad stuff I did and take me to my mom I miss her so bad and please let me live Pm just a kid so let me live okay? In Jesus' name, amen."

Jack switched on the still camera.

"Ion seconds"

The room erupted with a sonic explosion from Andrew's upraised hands. Waves of shattering sound began to crack the plaster ceiling.

Jack covered his ears and stared in fascination and horror.

"Time" Jack remembered to yell over the barrage of noise. Chunks of plaster were falling from the ceiling like hail. The bulbs in the chandelier all shattered, sending down a snowfall of glass dust.

"Plus ten" Jack yelled.

Andrew was still there, hands high, crying, sobbing, beginning to hope maybe, beginning to hope.

"Plus twenty" luck said.

"Keep it up, Andrew,"Caine yelled. He was on his feet now, eager, hoping it was true that the blink could be beaten.

The ceiling was cracking more deeply, and Jack wondered if it would fall.

The sonic blast ended.

Andrew stood, exhausted, but still there. Still standing.

"Oh, God," he said. "Oh thank—"

And he was gone.

The ropes fell, suddenly released.

No one said a word.

Jack pushed rewind on one of his high-speed video cameras. He backed it up ten seconds. Then he hit play and watched it on the tiny LCD screen, frame by frame.

"Well," Diana was saying, "so much for the theory that you don't ditch if you have powers"

"He stopped blasting," Caine said. "Then he blinked out"

"He stopped blasting and then ten seconds later, he ditched" Diana said. "Birth certificate records are never going to be a hundred percent, precisely accurate. Some nurse writes down the time, maybe it's five minutes one way or the other. Some are probably off by a half hour"

"Did you get anything, Jack?" Caine asked. He sounded disheartened.

Jack was advancing, frame by frame. He saw Andrew projecting sonic blasts. He saw him stop, worn out from the effort. He saw the nervous half smile, the moment when he opened his mouth, each syllable, and then ...

"We need to play this on a bigger monitor" Jack said.

They carried the cameras to the computer center and left the tripods and lights behind. There they found a twenty-six-inch monitor, crystal clear. Jack didn't waste time downloading, just hooked up the leads and started playing. Caine, Drake, and Diana crowded around over his shoulder, eager faces lit with blue light. Panda 'imped over to a chair and slumped down.

"Look" Jack explained." Right here, Watch what happens "

He advanced the tile frame by frame.

"What is that?" Diana asked.

"He's smiling. See?" Jack said. "And he's looking at something. And what's weird is that it's not possible because this frame is, like, a thirtieth of a second but he's got time to go from this expression ,. " He backed it up a frame. "To this expression. To this, see here where he's moved his head again. And right here, the ropes are slipping away, his hands are free. Move it ahead just three frames and he's completely gone."

"What does it mean. Jack?" Caine almost implored.

"Let me look at the other cameras," Jack stalled.

Of the two remaining video cameras only one had a shot of the actual moment. This one, loo, showed a blurry picture of Andrew moving in a sudden jerk from one posture to another. In this one too, the ropes were loose and his arms were extended.

"He's reaching out for a hug "Diana said.