As they walked out the exit and headed for the entry queue again, Adam wanted to know their thoughts.
Beth brought out the lack of any X that she could see. “Do either of you know what that map on the Captain’s bed looks like? You mentioned it was used in a movie, Adam. Were there any pictures of it?”
“Too bad we can’t just go up and take a look at it. That would be fun.” Adam gave a grin as he remembered his jump from the train. “We could look it up when we get back to my place, I guess. Lance, what do you think about the skull and crossbones?”
“Only that most of them look generic. Beth mentioned the Captain’s Quarters which had the most elaborate skull.”
“Well, that’s two votes for the Captain’s Quarters. Lance, you’re taller than me. Maybe you can get a glimpse of the treasure map before we leave that scene.”
Lance just nodded as they wound through the queue, silent with his own thoughts again. He didn’t even acknowledge the two female cast members who were trying to say hi to him as they boarded their boat.
“Please remain seated!” was loudly broadcast as they floated into the treasure cache.
“You get that a lot, don’t you, Stick?” Beth laughed, gently poking Lance in the ribs. Her smile faded as he continued in his oppressive mood. She frowned at Adam, who just shrugged and shook his head.
Trying to say something to Lance as they went through the tunnel leading to the ship and fort fight scene, he shushed her, listening to the ominous voice within the darkness. Annoyed at Lance, she looked around the dark tunnel—which she knew was called the transition tunnel because it connected the two buildings that housed the attraction.
When they emerged into the cannon fire, Lance apologized by explaining he had been listening to the warnings back in the cave. He knew most of it, but he wanted to hear the rest. “It said that we had seen the cursed treasure and know where it be hidden. The other voice, closely following, had said an evil curse will strike the greedy beholders of this bewitched treasure.”
“Well, we did just leave the buried loot room,” pointed out Adam.
Lance was distracted. “I know,” he snapped curtly. He then looked away, embarrassed. “Sorry. It’s just the words struck me this time, that’s all.” Lance paused, and then added defensively, “You did ask for our thoughts.”
“Did you see anything on the treasure map before you got caught standing up?”
Lance shook his head. “The edges are folded up too much and it’s too far away.” Disappointed, he ignored Adam’s muttered, ‘need glasses?’ “We’ll have to see what we can find online.”
They rode around two more times. The result was the same: They weren’t sure. Their attention was drawn mostly to the Captain’s Quarters and, thanks to Lance, the warnings in the misty dark tunnel. The threesome decided to focus their research on those two places. Once those leads were exhausted, they would try again to find something else.
“Listen to this.” Lance was again at Adam’s computer and he started to read from a website he had found. “While Robert Louis Stevenson popularized the pirate treasure map—and its ‘X marks the spot’—in his 1883 book Treasure Island, he wasn’t the first. Author James Fenimore Cooper’s 1849 book The Sea Lions tells about a sailor who left behind ‘two old, dirty and ragged charts.’ Anyway, that must be where Walt got the idea for the map he used in his movie and put into the Pirate ride.”
“Did you find any picture of the map?” Adam looked up from the book he was about ready to discard.
“No. They show the map from the book Treasure Island, but not from the movie. I’ll keep trying, but I don’t know where else to look.”
Beth was staring at the picture of the Captain’s Quarters in Adam’s E-Ticket Magazine again. She thought she had seen it before, not just on the ride. But where? Her postcard collection? One of her books? “Adam, I think I need to go home. I have something that could help. I’m just not sure what or where. I may be gone a while.” When Adam said that would be great, Beth looked over at Lance, wondering what might be eating at him. “Hey, Lance,” she called over to him. “Do you want to come with me?”
She was disappointed by his brief, “No.” She might have been able to talk to him about whatever was bothering him. Instead, she left alone.
Beth went to the second bedroom in her condo. It wasn’t set up for guests but was more like a library. Being an avid reader she shelved all her favorite books there. Some Disney collectibles from both her time working in the Park and earlier trips were showcased in a tall oak and glass cabinet. What she was looking for were her various Disney books—the souvenir hardbacks commemorating different eras, Imagineering books on concept and design, children’s coloring books and comics, and the 1965 set of The Wonderful Worlds of Walt Disney.
She first pulled out her 1995 copy of The Nickel Tour instead of going through her hundred individual postcards. This in-depth and detailed book had nearly every postcard ever printed about Disneyland. More importantly to Beth, they were in chronological order and indexed in the back. It was a lot better than her vague system of filing them by different lands in folders. However, this book had only two interior shots from the Pirate ride—the Auction scene and the Jail Scene. There was also a set of twelve postcards depicting the drawings of Marc Davis, but they didn’t help.
Her Imagineering book contained mostly the new ideas that went into Florida and Epcot. She couldn’t find any interior views of the ride. Thumbing through the souvenir books, she then quickly tossed aside the comics and story books. A small yellow book was almost added to the growing pile until she glanced at the title and cover photo. It was a 1997 pictorial souvenir book called Where in Disneyland Attractions? She let out a whoop when the cover showed in luxurious detail a close-up of the Captain’s Quarters and its skeleton owner looking over the map Lance was trying desperately to find.
And, there on the upper right corner of the map just above the bony fingers, was a big red X.
Breaking a few driving laws, Beth hurried back to the apartment, the book stashed in her purse. She was met at the door by a very animated Adam.
They both said, “I found it” at the same time.
“Found what?” Adam was first.
“Stop that!” as they both laughed.
Beth held her book up to his face. He barely looked at it. “We are so stupid!” He slammed the door behind her and walked over to his desk. “Show her, Lance,” as Adam held Beth in front of him by her shoulders.
“It’s actually listen,” Lance pointed out. He had a website devoted to the Pirate ride pulled up and clicked a ‘Play’ button in the middle of the screen.
Amazed, she listened to the entire soundtrack from the dark tunnel that had captivated Lance’s attention. Then he scrolled back two pages and played the track from the talking skull over the first waterfall. Before she could say anything, he held up a finger for her to wait. He started to read from the ride description. “It says, ‘the talking skull (voiced by Disney legend X Atencio) cautions the riders to heed his warnings. Atencio not only provided that voice, but he also wrote the entire show’s script and the song “Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me”.’ It also says he voiced part of that warning in the dark tunnel—the second part called the Friendly Warning.”
“Do you see?” Adam eagerly asked. “That has to be the X on the clue. The period after the letter shows it’s an initial. Xavier Atencio’s name was usually just portrayed by an X. And, the name we have been throwing about so carelessly is also the rest of the clue.”
At her blank look, he continued. “X. Marc the spot. Marc, not Mark, or marks. Just Marc. As in Marc Davis, one of the Nine Old Men, one of the premier animators and designers! He basically designed the look for the whole ride. Look through that magazine. Almost every sketch of his was turned into a scene in the ride.”
“Oh my word. We saw it in the Captain’s Quarters over and over without really seeing it!. Oh…oh, wait a minute. Lance? Those words in the cav
e? You said you kept going back to them. ‘You’ve seen the cursed treasure. You know where it be hidden.’ Xavier wrote them, right? The treasure is right next to the Captain’s room. Is that too weird?”
“What are you saying? That the treasure room is THE treasure room?” Lance began to think over the possibilities.
Adam paced around the room. “Brilliant!” Excited, he rubbed his hands together. “Absolutely brilliant! He hid it all in plain sight!”
Beth shook her head. “Wait a minute. We need to back up. It can’t be. That treasure is just painted gold. It’s…it’s like a huge sculpture, like bubble wrap with coins pressed in plastic, not an actual pile of stuff. Sure, some of the outer pieces are individual things, but they aren’t real.”
Adam pulled out the well-worn copy of the E-Ticket Magazine. He bypassed the page showing the pile of treasure and turned to the middle aerial shot, pointing to the same thing Beth had shown him earlier. “They had already excavated the area and were building parts of the ride. You worked there. Tell me, Beth, what’s under Disneyland?”
When she realized what Adam was implying, her breathing became very shallow. “In that section there are underground tunnels leading through the different rides in New Orleans Square. Pirates, Mansion, the back road that maintenance uses behind the ride buildings.” She paused. “It isn’t as elaborate as the Magic Kingdom in Florida where they built entire streets under the park so everything could move from one part of the Park to the other. But in New Orleans Square, there are corridors with dozens of doors that open into different sections of each ride.”
“What else?”
“Employee break areas, an employee restaurant, storage.” She stopped her counting, her eyes bright. “Storage!”
“Give the girl a cigar. Do you think Walt had access to that area?”
Beth smiled. “He designed it. He knew every inch of his Park.”
Adam looked at both of them and took a deep breath. “I think we need to take a closer look at that map on the bed. I want to know exactly what that bony finger is pointing at.”
“You’re going to jump?” Beth couldn’t believe her ears. “In the Pirate ride?”
Lance walked over to the window, leaving the computer for the first time in hours. “I think we all need to go. “ He turned to face them. “If this is it, we all need to be there. And be ready for whatever happens next.”
Adam thought about it and agreed. “This is a lot different than hiding in a dark tunnel. Boats go by there all the time loaded with people. We have to think of the boats….”
“….and the security cameras,” Beth finished for him. “There are cameras all through the ride. We need to know where they are and find a way to avoid them.”
Lance looked unseeing out the window. “I can find out about the cameras. I know someone.”
“What’s her name?” Adam hoped to get some kind of familiar rise out of him.
“Patty,” was all he answered.
After waiting a moment for some clarification, Adam rolled his eyes. “Fine. Check with your Patty. I assume she works on the ride?” Still no explanation. “See if you can pull a favor.”
Thinking ahead to what they might possibly need, Beth opened the closet where Lance said Adam had stashed his cast member costume collection. She pulled out a one-piece blue Monorail costume. There was also a complete Jungle Cruise outfit. She slowly took out an olive-colored shirt—a very familiar olive-colored shirt. “You dirty…,” she broke off, holding it out in front of her. “This is MY Keel Boat shirt! You had it all along?”
“Oops.” Adam just now realized where she was. “I was going to tell you…someday. Really!” She looked like she was ready to kill him. “You…uh, left it in the River when they pulled you out and took you backstage. I was going to give it back to you but then I didn’t see you….” He just stopped talking. The hole he was digging for himself was getting deeper.
She took the shirt and threw it next to her purse. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“I’m sure we will,” Adam mumbled to himself, edging over to the amused Lance. “Thanks for telling her about the closet, Brentwood. That helps a lot.”
Lance just shrugged. “You should have told her yourself.”
Taking a minute to calm down, Beth returned to his closet. “Don’t you have anything from Pirates?”
“Nope. Just a Star Tours jacket in the back. Why?”
“It might be a good idea for us to be dressed sort of like a cast member working the ride. Some kind of shirt that would blend in. Do you have that ugly brown vest from when you played in the band?”
Adam made a face. “That vest wasn’t ugly. And, no, I don’t have it any more. I think my mother burned it.”
“Margaret always did have good taste.” Beth smiled at the look on his face. “Well, we need some kind of puffy shirt and a nametag for each of us. I stole some extra ones when I was there if you don’t have any.”
Lance could see where she was heading. “That’s a good idea. Just like Adam wore all black to jump off the train and then took off the jacket when he ran for it. We could have the costume on under our jackets until we need to jump. If we had some pirate hats, we might not get too much attention from the other people in the boat. Act like we’re doing quality control or something. That’s good, Beth. Real good.” Lance was more animated than he had been in days.
Adam frowned. “Well, I hate to rain on your parade, but whether we look the part or not, three people jumping off a moving boat will be noticed by the other guests.”
“How about if we distract them?”
“Well, Lance, let’s assume we find a good place to jump before we get to the scene.” Filled with nervous energy, Adam began to pace his living room. “There are the waterfalls first, then the sandy beach thing with the two skeletons, and after that, the bar. All those things are on the right side of the boat. The Captain’s Quarters are on the left, around the corner just after the bar. We need to make sure the other people are all still looking over to the right when we get off.”
“Agreed, but how?”
Adam shook his head. “Not sure. Let’s work on that problem, find some clothes, and Lance can meet with his Patty. How long do you need, Lance?”
Lance gave a ghost of a smile. Patty was always happy to see him. He would have the information by tonight. “Let’s say two, three days? That enough for you, Beth?”
She was lost in thought. “I can’t believe we’re going to jump off Pirates. This won’t be easy.”
“Hey, you stole a canoe, remember?”
“Yeah, but that was after dark and nobody else was using the River. There’s a BIG difference.”
“We have to do it, Beth. There’s no other way.”
“I know.”
Tuesday, the three were back at Adam’s apartment. Beth handed Adam and Lance white puffy-sleeved shirts that laced up the front. Both guys eyed them with disdain. “Hey, you agreed it was a good idea,” Beth defended herself. “I found them at that costume place on the 5. Just be glad I didn’t get you the eye patches.” Beth next handed them cast member nametags that read Brian for Adam and Mark for Lance. The nametag she had for her shirt was Catie.
The guys looked at each other, both thinking the same thing: The eye patches would have been cool.
Lance, with a sigh of resignation, told them what he had found. “Beth was right, of course. There are cameras throughout the ride, but most of them shoot from behind the boats for a short distance. There’s some kind of reddish light above or below each lens which provides the infrared illumination needed for the cameras to see in the darkened interior of the ride. There’s a bank of monitors in the dispatch tower above the place where the boats first enter the bayou from the loading dock. You can see the monitors if you look back after the boat passes under the tower. There’s a Dispatch Operator in charge of looking over the monitors between the loadings of the boats. That person, I’m told, makes sure the boats are properly loa
ded and everyone is seated properly. After that, he—or she—dispatches the boats. He wouldn’t be watching the cameras unless he happened to notice something wrong—like someone taking pictures or standing up.”
“Or jumping out of a boat,” Beth added, as Lance nodded in agreement.
“So we’re already screwed with the cameras.”
“No, Adam, not necessarily.” Lance gave them the information Patty had told him. “The cameras in that part of the ride shoot boats from the side as they exit the last waterfall and don’t watch them again until they reach the Captain’s Quarters. The next camera is about halfway past the scene. There seems to be a good sized dead zone.”
Beth nodded. “Okay, so we now have to worry about the other people in the boat with us.”
Adam took over here. “I was thinking about that and came up with a possible solution. It might be more of a problem; however, I’m not sure.” He went to his desk and pulled two little firecrackers out of the top drawer.
“Aren’t those illegal?” Beth asked with narrowed eyes.
“That’s what I meant about a problem if we get caught with them.” He held up one for them to see. “They’re called Ladyfingers and have a waterproof fuse. I went to the store and got a cigarette lighter, too. The usual lighters make too loud of a click when you light them. Then I found this butane lighter.” Adam pulled a thin plastic lighter from the drawer. “When adjusted down, the flame is really low. I think we can light it down by our feet without anyone being the wiser.” He demonstrated, showing the flame was barely visible and there was only a nominal sound as the wheel was turned. “If we need a distraction, we can toss one of these babies onto the beach scene or the bar or in front of the boat in the water. Since there isn’t much noise there, it should draw their attention…enough at least for us to jump out from the back of the boat.”
“Won’t the people in the boat wonder what happened?”
Sometimes Dead Men DO Tell Tales! Page 33