For the next few days, Adam and Blake trained at low‑altitude spots along the coast, using the sea as a safe landing zone. Meanwhile, Austin, Tom and Patty headed into the Daintree to scout the first location. Austin guided them along the tourist paths until they reached a good vantage point, then Tom sent the drone beyond the trails to map cliffs, wind corridors and potential landing zones. Patty watched the footage, checking for water depth, rocks, and anything that could turn a jump into a medical nightmare.
On the fourth day, during their scouting, they finally found a gorge wide and long enough for Adam to try a first run. A deep natural basin formed at the end of it — wide, calm, and perfectly aligned with the flight path. It was exactly the kind of landing zone Adam needed for the full stunt. The gorge itself was long, open, and stable enough to test the entire sequence from launch to dive.
It was, on paper, the perfect spot.
And even if Adam hadn't seen it yet, he would've agreed instantly. With two other locations still to check afterward, this one already felt like the ideal starting point.
"Wow… I didn't think we'd find something like this on the first spot," Tom muttered, glancing at Austin and Patty crouched behind him, both staring at the screen. "We've been looking for a spot for three days and I'd basically given up. There are trees everywhere in this place…" he added, rubbing his neck and hands, sore from flying the drone nonstop.
There shouldn't have been trees crowding the trail like that… Austin thought, glancing back at the path they'd followed. Vegetation had started reclaiming it, roots snaking across the ground and branches pushing in from both sides.
Patty leaned closer, his perpetually sunken eyes scanning the image. "Mmm… it's long and wide enough for him to decelerate, with a decent margin for error…" he murmured. "For the landing, we'll need to get closer to check how deep that basin really is and whether anything dangerous is hiding in it… but from here, it looks promising… as long as the depth checks out, it should be perfect…"
"Yeah, and for the launch, that cliff behind should be perfect," Tom added.
Austin focused intently on the screen. He knew gorges like that could hide all sorts of things — snakes curled in the shade, goannas wedged between rocks, even loose stones waiting to fall. And with a deep basin at the end, there was always the possibility of a crocodile drifting just beneath the surface. Nothing guaranteed to be deadly if they were careful, but enough to make him frown.
"Can you get inside the gorge and scan the sides and the ground from top to bottom?" Austin asked.
"Sure. Let's make sure one last time it's suitable," Tom replied without turning.
He guided the drone back above the cliff, then dipped it into the gorge. The machine descended slowly, stabilizing itself as its rotors hummed against the walls. Tom made it sweep along the rock faces, then down toward the floor, moving in tight arcs to capture every angle. The drone climbed, dropped, rotated, and followed the gorge all the way to its end, mapping every crevice and shadow.
Snakes, lizards, birds… Austin recognized the usual shapes clinging to the rocks. As long as Adam stayed in the air and reached the end, there shouldn't be any problem.
Then something flickered on the screen. A dark, shifting mass stuck to the wall.
"Zoom here," Austin said, leaning forward.
Tom obliged. As the drone approached, the shapes sharpened.
"Are those… spiders?" Tom muttered.
They were — but not like the ones Austin knew. These were larger, their bodies bulky and their legs far thicker than they should've been. The proportions were wrong, as if the exoskeleton had grown too fast for the rest of the body. A cluster of them clung to the rock, their dark, stone‑like carapaces blending disturbingly well with the gorge wall. Taking their legs into account, each one looked roughly the size of a steering wheel.
Austin frowned.
"They're… bigger than usual," he said slowly. "Much bigger."
Tom swallowed hard as the drone camera lingered on the cluster.
"Will it be… a problem?" he asked, voice tight.
"No," Austin replied, though he didn't sound entirely convinced. "It's just… that's exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. The record for a Huntsman is around thirty centimeters across… these ones are clearly larger, and…" He leaned closer to the screen. "They almost look like a branch species… the legs, the texture… it's off…"
Tom let out a shaky breath.
"You scared me. I thought it was something dangerous… but yeah, they look disgusting," he muttered, steering the drone away to finish scanning the canyon.
Finally, they reached the end of the gorge, and the basin.
Patty leaned in as Tom slowed the drone, hovering it just above the water. The surface was dark but still, reflecting the cliffs around it.
"Nothing on the surface… no movement…" Patty said. He hadn't reacted at all to the spiders; he didn't care. Huntsman weren't dangerous, and their size didn't change that. "No crocs in sight either… but we'll still need to check the depth ourselves and make sure nothing's hiding under the overhangs…"
Tom made the drone circle the basin, sweeping low passes along the edges. The camera skimmed over submerged rocks, patches of shadow, and the darker pockets where the water dropped deeper. Nothing unusual appeared.
"Looks clean from up here," Tom said.
"Yeah… if the depth is good, this place is perfect…" Patty murmured.
"Okay, then it's a wrap," Tom said enthusiastically, already recalling the drone at full speed and clearly eager to get back to the comfort of the house.
Austin was still thinking about the spiders when their voices pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked at their faces — all of them ready to leave — and sighed.
"Yeah, we're done. Let's head back, summarize everything, and tell the others."
They gathered their gear, retrieved the drone, and headed back along the trail, leaving the gorge and the forest behind.
On the other side of the region, on a high coastal cliff south of Cairns — one of the rocky outcrops overlooking Trinity Inlet — Adam and Blake were training.
"Come on, control your arms like we practiced. Stay wide and steady if you want the most distance," Blake said through the earpiece.
He was standing on a small rental boat below, with the local skipper keeping the vessel steady while Blake focused entirely on Adam. One hand held the binoculars pressed to his eyes, the other hovered near the tablet streaming the live feed from Adam's suit camera. Between the two, he tracked every shift, every wobble, every correction Adam made in the air.
Gliding through the air in his wingsuit, Adam focused on keeping his body stable while fighting the shifting sea winds. He had spent the past few days pushing his technique as far as he could. It wasn't his first time in a wingsuit, but he needed to sharpen everything — maintaining a wide, steady profile, keeping a clean glide in unstable winds, and controlling his speed well enough to dive safely.
He was getting closer to his objective: reaching a 500‑meter distance. The past few days, he had kept getting shut down by sudden, violent gusts as he approached that mark. If he could hold his altitude and keep a clean trajectory in conditions like this, then flying through a gorge with almost no wind would feel like a walk in the park.
A sudden crosswind slammed into his left side. But after days of getting tossed around, Adam was ready for it. His muscles tightened instantly, his shoulders angling with the gust instead of against it. He pivoted with the airflow, letting the wind slide along the suit rather than trying to brute‑force his way through it.
He had learned the hard way that resisting only made things worse. Riding the wind — guiding it instead of fighting it — was the only way to stay stable.
Come on… come on… Blake thought, shoulders tense as he watched Adam suddenly shift with the gust.
"450m — almost there!" Blake's voice crackled in Adam's earpiece.
That last burst of wind was exactly what he needed. Adam held his line, gliding cleanly, and for the first time in days he pushed past the invisible wall that had been stopping him.
"500! You're there! Now the dive — control your speed. Shift forward to slow down, and arc your body to catch as much air as you can!" Blake shouted, fists clenched with excitement.
Adam steadied himself, feeling the suit tighten around him as he adjusted his posture. Then he leaned forward, letting his chest drop and his back curve, shaping his body into a smooth arc to bleed off speed without losing control.
Adam breathed gently, trying to relax himself. He slowed again and again, and lowered his altitude as much as possible until he felt it. He was ready.
"You've slowed enough. Less than ten meters from the water. Dive whenever you feel it!" Blake's voice echoed one last time in his ears.
Adam's eyes sharpened. He grabbed the small cord on his chest and pulled. A compact mini‑parachute deployed behind him with a sharp snap, adding a burst of drag that shaved off the last bit of speed without interrupting his glide.
He felt the suit tighten as the airflow changed, but he kept moving forward, still descending, still in control.
His body tensed in a single, precise motion. He pivoted sharply, rotating until he was almost perfectly vertical. Then he folded in — arms tucked, legs straightened, shoulders rounded — and let gravity take him.
He plunged cleanly into the ocean below.
On the boat, Blake saw Adam disappear into the water. His stomach tightened. He snapped his head toward the sea and didn't hesitate.
"Go! Get closer!" he barked.
The skipper reacted instantly, pushing the throttle forward and steering straight toward the impact zone.
The closer they got, the more the tension built in Blake's chest. They had done this for days, but the moment after the dive always hit him the same way — a sharp surge of worry he could never quite shake.
Then a dark shape rose beneath the surface.
Adam burst through the water, gasping, soaked, grinning — both thumbs raised high.
Blake let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. He grabbed a buoy from the deck and threw it toward Adam.
Adam quickly made his way toward it, swimming awkwardly with the suit restricting his movements, but he reached it after a few strokes. Blake leaned over the edge while the skipper kept the boat steady.
"Got you—come on!" Blake grunted as Adam grabbed his forearm. With one strong pull and Adam pushing with his legs, they managed to haul him onto the deck in a wet, clumsy heap.
For a second, Adam just lay there, catching his breath. Then the adrenaline hit.
He sprang up as much as the suit allowed, arms raised high, and let out a raw, triumphant scream:
"HAAAAAAAAA!"
Blake laughed, proud and relieved—until Adam turned toward him with that wild, victorious look and rushed straight at him.
"No—no, don't you wet‑dog me—!" Blake yelped, backing away.
Too late.
Adam wrapped him in a soaked, crushing hug, cutting him off mid‑protest. A loud squish echoed as a wave of water squeezed out of the suit and splattered across Blake's shirt.
Blake froze as the cold water seeped through… then he gave up. He sighed, lifted his arms, and returned the hug, patting Adam on the back.
"You finally did it… I thought you were gonna keep floating like a drunk seagull for another few days…" he muttered, half proud, half exasperated.
Adam nodded to himself with exaggerated seriousness.
"Jealous of my style, I see…"
Blake rolled his eyes.
"Now you just have to do the same thing, but ten times harder and with a much higher chance of dying," he shot back mockingly.
"That's not like danger ever stopped me from doing anything. On the contrary — that's what makes things interesting." There was a spark in his eyes, quick and sharp, and a faint, hungry smile tugged at his lips.
"Right. Danger makes everything more interesting," Blake replied, flashing a similar smile.
They looked at each other and burst into laughter.
"Well, time to head back. We'll keep practicing until you can do it perfectly every time over the next few days. We'll see how long it takes you to absorb that — though knowing you, it shouldn't take long." Blake finally said, signaling the skipper to drive the boat back.
As the boat headed back, Adam lay on the deck, the suit finally off with Blake's help.
To think I'll be able to do it soon… I imagined it years ago, always wanted to try it, to be the first one to pull it off...
He looked up at the sky, felt the breeze on his face, and closed his eyes for a moment.
I'll pull it off. And after that… I'll keep pushing. Doing the craziest things I can dream of. Going further than anyone ever has. Feeling things no one else ever will.
The boat cut steadily across the water, leaving the horizon behind as they made their way back to shore.
By the time they reached the house, evening had settled in, and the others were already waiting to debrief.
"How was today's session? Finally succeeded?" Tom asked without looking up, still glued to his computer screen as he heard them come in.
"Yeah, finally did it. Just need to train a bit more," Adam answered, kicking his shoes aside and crashing onto the couch next to Patty.
"Yeah, you should've seen it — it was pretty damn exciting," Blake added, dropping onto the couch as well.
"What about you guys…?" Adam mumbled, face half-buried into the cushions.
"We got you a big surprise!" Tom said as he stood up, grabbed his laptop, and nudged Adam and Patty aside to make room on the couch.
"Look what we found today," he continued, tilting the laptop toward Adam so he could see the screen.
Adam straightened up and leaned forward to look at the screen.
"Wow…" he breathed, genuinely stunned by the footage Tom was scrolling through. A beautifully carved canyon, thriving wildlife, and finally a breathtaking basin of deep, still water — everything he'd ever dreamed of.
"We ran the primary analyses before you guys came back.. The width and length of the canyon, the height of the cliff for the launch, the overall conditions — everything lines up almost perfectly with what we need," Tom explained.
"That's incredible ! Even I feel tempted." Blake said, pushing Patty further away who merely grunted.
"To make sure it's safe, we still need to run further analyses," Austin said as he entered the room with a bag of chips. "We don't know yet if the pool at the end is safe. There could be rocks, debris, dirty water… even wildlife."
He sat at the dining table a bit farther away and continued:
"We've only looked at it through the drone. We'll need to go there ourselves to really inspect the basin."
"Yeah, but before that — so we don't waste time — you guys should keep training and perfect your technique, and I'll work on modeling the circuit up to the canyon so you can adapt your training to that trajectory," Tom said, turning toward Blake and Adam.
"Let's do that," Adam answered. "But this time, let's bring Patty with us. I'd rather not hurt myself in the next few days," he added, shooting a look at the blob slipping off the couch.
Blake nodded at that. When Patty didn't respond, he glanced over and realized the guy was actually asleep. He turned back to Adam, gave him a thumbs‑up, and grinned.
"He said yes."
Good enough, Adam thought as he looked around the room. He felt lucky to be working with such incredible people.
For a whole week, the team settled into a steady rhythm Adam trained nonstop with Blake at his side, working on both his performance and his consistency. They kept each session moderate to avoid overstraining him — a full‑power jump was far too taxing to repeat daily — but the week still felt intense thanks to how fast Adam recovered. In parallel, they drilled the canyon trajectory Tom had modeled, trying to engrain it into Adam's body through repeated simulations.
Patty made sure he didn't break himself in the process and kept him taking proper care of his body. Tom kept refining the model and updating them with new trajectory adjustments. As for Austin… since they didn't need a guide for now, he became the full‑time cook — and he took the job seriously once he saw how much they appreciated his meals.
Finally, with the week behind them, Adam felt more ready than ever. They packed their gear and set off toward the Dantree.
A few minutes later, just as they reached the forest perimeter, a ranger stepped out of a small checkpoint and raised a hand to stop them.
"Sorry. Access is restricted." He blocked the path with a firm but polite stance.
The group froze, stunned into silence.
"The fuck?" Blake finally muttered, as blunt as ever.
"What do you mean, restricted?" Austin asked, his tone suddenly serious. "We came here a week ago without any problem."
"The government put most wild areas under containment this week," the ranger said, still calm.
"Why now?" Austin asked, alarm creeping into his voice. "I've been a guide for ten years. I've crossed almost every forest and desert in the region, and I've never heard of the government doing something like this."
He lowered his head for a moment, thinking, then looked straight at the ranger.
"What happened exactly?"