Kingdom Keepers : Disney After Dark (9781423141129)

by Pearson, Ridley

  “You’ve gone awfully quiet,” Amanda said a moment later, as she rejoined Finn.

  “I’d never seen that before. A kid walking through a DHI like that.”

  “They shouldn’t be allowed to do that,” Amanda said. “It’s disrespectful.”

  It wasn’t the actual act that bothered Finn. It was the concept. A hologram was nothing but light—a three-dimensional image. How could he become one by falling asleep? What was he thinking?

  “Do you believe in weird stuff?” Finn asked her.

  “Depends how weird, I suppose.”

  “Real weird.”

  “Try me.”

  But at that moment Amanda spotted another DHI and started toward it.

  Maybeck.

  Finn’s legs didn’t move. He felt something odd. Like someone was watching him. He spun around.

  Main Street was crowded with people. Finn searched faces, his focus shifting.

  He stopped on a white-haired guy—an old guy—wearing a barbershop costume that made him look even older. Wayne! He was looking right at Finn, the same way Finn’s dad looked at him when Finn had done something wrong.

  Wayne signaled for Finn to look to his left.

  There, Finn saw four older guys in band uniforms—red jackets with brass buttons. It took him a second to realize they were headed right for him.

  Security?

  Finn turned to Amanda, who was posing with Maybeck, expecting Finn to shoot a picture. He called out to her, “Trouble!”

  They’d discussed this possibility and reviewed various options. They had agreed that if they had to separate for any reason, they would try to meet up again at the exit from the Haunted Mansion. Amanda took off at a run without a second thought. Finn tucked his father’s camera into his pocket and ducked into the Emporium. Made to look like an old-time general store, it sold everything Disney—clothing, dolls, stuffed animals, CDs, and DVDs. It was packed wall-to-wall with shoppers.

  Finn hurried past several displays, deeper into the store. He passed shelves of princess costumes. A rack of hats and caps. A poster hung from the ceiling by a string, announcing the Virtual Magic Kingdom. He stopped and used a mirror to watch the store windows behind him. There he saw a uniformed band musician enter the store.

  Coincidence? The band musician glanced to his right. Finn followed that line of sight—to another band member. They exchanged a look, and then they turned and scanned the store.

  Finn felt sick with fear. He’d blown it, entering the park without the proper authorization. His family would probably lose their comp tickets. He supposed his DHI might even be terminated. They were coming for him: quickly, and with great determination. Finn worked not to be seen. He found himself cornered in the hat section.

  “Hey,” said a little boy, looking up at Finn with awe and wonder. “Are you him?”

  “Go away!” Finn told the kid, not wanting to be bothered.

  “But it’s you, right?” the little boy asked. He stepped closer, sucked in a chest full of air, closed his eyes, and marched right into Finn. Finn stumbled back as the boy fell over.

  “Wow!” the boy said, recovering and coming to his feet. “You’re real!”

  The little boy’s attempt gave Finn an idea.

  The Emporium sold clothing. Finn spotted a rack of DHI merchandise, including the outfit that his own host character wore.

  He snagged a pair of loud purple shorts and a green surfing shirt and pulled them over his own shirt and shorts. He didn’t like leaving his Devil Rays cap behind, but saw little choice.

  He placed his sunglasses into the empty pocket of his own shorts.

  Two of the band members saw him and turned. Finn squeezed between them and ran.

  Several kids spotted him at once. Shouting for autographs, they followed after him. Parents played catch-up, hollering after their kids, “Stop!” and “Get back here!”

  Finn led the children out onto the sidewalk and into Main Street. An alarm sounded loudly as Finn left the store in clothing that hadn’t been paid for. Anxious parents clogged the door, blocking the security guys.

  “Hey!” one of the kids shouted above all the others. “Check it out! Two of them!”

  Finn glanced over, only to realize he was standing twenty feet from his own DHI. His host self was surrounded by a pair of families and was answering questions.

  The two band musicians stumbled out onto the street. They looked back and forth from one Finn to the other. Which was which?

  The real Finn pointed to the castle. He recited the memorized tour information recorded during the filming at Disney-MGM Studios. The DHI Finn, the hologram, not far away, mimicked the same moves and recited the same words from the same script.

  Unable to determine which Finn to pursue, the band members froze. The real Finn then moved his small group of followers up the street at the exact same pace as his DHI. The two were perfect duplicates of each other.

  Then, with enough distance between himself and his pursuers, Finn slipped down a side path. He quickly shed the DHI-Finn T-shirt and dumped it into the trash. He hopped out of the ugly shorts, slipped his sunglasses back on, and made off at a run, headed for the Haunted Mansion.

  Ten minutes later, Finn spotted Amanda waiting on a bench near the Haunted Mansion’s exit, as planned. A neat apron of lawn surrounded the towering brick Victorian-style structure. The paved area in front of the entrance was divided with chains and stanchions into three lanes, including one for the holders of the Fastpass. Parked against the mansion’s front wall, equidistant between the entrance and exit, stood a gleaming all-black horse-drawn hearse—even the windows were black. The harness hung in midair; the horse was invisible.

  Finn waited briefly before approaching Amanda, taking time to determine if either of them had been followed.

  “Hey, there you are,” Amanda said.

  “I was spotted. I got away, but just barely.”

  “Will they bust you?”

  “Not sure they can without catching me first, without proving it’s me.”

  She glanced around. “So what now? How do we get you out of the park without your being caught?”

  Finn hadn’t thought through this possibility when forming their original plan. “I suppose they might watch the exit.”

  “You think? Get a life! Of course they will.”

  “There’s a guy…an old guy. I think he might help, if I can find him.” Finn spotted a pair of clean-cut young men approaching the Fastpass entrance, not thirty feet away, just on the other side of the hearse. He and Amanda moved a few feet to be screened from view.

  Finn said, “Okay. Look over my shoulder. See those two tall guys in line? They’ve got wires in their ears, and I’ll bet they’re looking for me. And guess what? We’re trapped.”

  Amanda studied the two. With Finn’s back to them, at this distance, he was safe. She looked at the Haunted Mansion, then at the way the exit line converged toward the entrance line, the two separated by only a chain. “We can’t leave through the exit line. Not with them there.”

  “I know.”

  “But they’re pretty far back in the entrance line,” she observed.

  Finn’s skin was crawled. How to explain any of this to his parents? “So we’re trapped. I already had that much figured out.”

  “But they’re just standing there, waiting.”

  “So?” Finn asked.

  “So, we’ve got to get them to move,” she answered.

  “And how are we supposed to do that?” he asked sarcastically. “Call them on their radios and tell them they’re wanted somewhere else?”

  Amanda’s brow knit tightly, deep in thought. “They’ll move if they see you.”

  “What? Are you crazy?”

  “Shush,” she cautioned him. “Come on!” she said, taking him by the hand. He wasn’t sure why, but he let her take charge. There was something about her confidence that reassured him. It felt almost as if she’d been through this kind of thing before—
the way she stayed so calm; the way she studied the situation carefully. She led Finn quickly under a chain, behind the hearse, then between it and a low brick retaining wall. She peered around the hearse, monitoring the two security guards. “When I say, ‘Go,’we go,” she instructed.

  “Ah—” Finn said, having second thoughts.

  Amanda watched. The line was moving along, but the two security guys remained near the Mansion’s entrance.

  “Go!” she hissed.

  Together they hurried into the open, ducked under a chain, and cut into the entrance line. A bunch of people moaned and groaned. A few openly complained. But as the line surged, Amanda and Finn moved with it.

  Amanda was no giant, but she was an inch taller than Finn. She rose onto her tiptoes, looked back, and warned, “Okay…here they come.” She tightened her hold on Finn’s hand. Together, they moved with the line, which surged again. A few seconds later, they were inside the Mansion. Amanda kept watch behind them.

  Finn and Amanda stepped into the Stretching Room—a hexagonal space twenty feet across. Portraits hung on the walls. Finn had just begun to feel safe, when, as Amanda tensed, he looked back and saw the two security guys enter—the last two people into the Stretching Room before its doors closed.

  Amanda rose up. “Uh-oh,” she said.

  “What?”

  “They’re pushing their way over here.”

  The Stretching Room, jam-packed with people, did not make movement easy.

  A loud voice boomed over the speakers, welcoming the visitors to the mansion. It warned them not to lean against the walls. The lights dimmed. Finn didn’t need to stand on his tiptoes to see the two blond heads coming toward them.

  Amanda pulled Finn down into a crouch. Together, they ducked and moved through the crowd. It seemed that the floor was beginning to sink. It looked and felt as if they were going down, down, down, in an elevator. The walls stretched. The ceiling receded above them. Even the oil paintings stretched longer.

  “We’re cooked,” Finn said.

  “No,” Amanda said, still leading him. “We’re okay.” They reached a far wall.

  Finn glanced back. The two guys were still pushing through the crowd toward them. “You’re dreaming.”

  “We’ll use the chicken door,” she said.

  “The what?”

  “When I was something like five years old, I completely freaked out in here. Screamed my lungs out. Totally lost it.”

  As she said this, the room’s floor stopped moving, the painted portraits now stretched grotesquely. A dead man dangled from a noose attached to the ceiling. Some kids shrieked.

  Amanda continued, “My mom got me out without having to ride the Doom Buggies. It’s called the chicken door.”

  “Here they come!” Finn cautioned in a whisper. But just as he said it, the crowd surged, pressing Finn against Amanda.

  “Perfect timing,” she said, smiling.

  The two security guys got stuck in the jam, still a few yards away.

  One of the wall panels opened like a door. The crowd—fat people, sweaty people, smelly people, bald people, and two teenage kids—lunged ahead.

  The moment the door opened, Amanda took Finn by the hand and tugged. They hurried out into the dimly lit corridor leading to the Doom Buggies.

  “Run!” Amanda whispered. “We have to hurry.” She led him through an unmarked door immediately to the right. Finn found himself in a narrow, dimly lit corridor. Ghoulish sounds in the distance. Amanda ran, with Finn following closely behind her. She proved herself a very fast runner. It’s almost as if she’s flying, he thought.

  Seconds later, they headed through yet another door. Outside again, they were only a few yards from where they’d been sitting only minutes earlier, the black hearse and the Fastpass line to their right. The entrance/exit was straight ahead.

  The air came alive with the sound of piped-in music and the steady rumble of park guests talking.

  Amanda glanced back at the Mansion. Her eyes went wide, and he knew they were in trouble. She practically pulled his arm off as she drew him into a small gift shop. They ducked behind a carousel of postcards.

  The two security guys hurried past, only seconds behind them.

  Finn stood beside Amanda, their arms touching.

  “They’ve gone,” she said. “We lost them.”

  Finn held up his father’s camera. “Let’s try to get a few more shots on our way out.”

  5

  “But you gotta help us!” Finn pleaded.

  “Listen, I can’t,” said Brad, the Imagineer who had produced the DHI film shoot at MGM-Disney. Behind him the soundstage hummed with forklifts moving equipment around.

  From the Magic Kingdom, Amanda and Finn had ridden a bus to the Transportation and Ticket Center, and then another to Disney-MGM. It was late in the afternoon now, going on evening. Finn had to get home soon or face being grounded.

  Brad looked at Amanda a couple times. “Do I know you?” he finally inquired.

  “She’s a friend,” Finn said, interrupting before Amanda could answer.

  Again Finn showed him one of the four images on the digital camera. “That’s Willa. Remember? You must know how to find her. It’s important.”

  “Your parents could make a formal request, I suppose.”

  “Yeah, right! My parents?” Finn complained. “It’s not like I’m a stalker! I want a phone number, is all. Her school. Anything.”

  Brad shook his head, said he was sorry, and stepped back onto the soundstage. Finn called out loudly, “What if I can prove there’s something wrong with the DHI technology?” This was his last resort.

  Brad slowed a step, but did not stop completely.

  “What if the DHIs are all in danger?”

  Amanda and Brad looked at Finn curiously.

  “What are you talking about, kid? There’s nothing wrong with the technology,” he said, taking a step closer.

  “No?” Finn thought he had him now. “Get me the names of their schools. I’ll do the rest.”

  “What’s wrong with the technology? There’s nothing wrong with the technology,” Brad said more forcefully. “Nice try.” He turned his back on Finn once again.

  Finn said, “An old guy named Wayne. An Imagineer, like you.”

  “Wayne Kresky? How do you know Wayne?” Brad sounded impressed.

  “That’s for me to know and you to find out. Call Wayne. Ask him if he knows me.”

  “You know Wayne,” Brad repeated, somewhat astonished.

  “I know about the Overtakers.”

  The color in Brad’s face drained away. Finn thought if he’d pushed him he would have fallen over.

  “The sooner you clear this with Wayne, the better. The longer it takes for me to get to the other hosts, the greater the danger.”

  Brad’s voice cracked as he said, “No one is in danger.”

  Finn said, “Talk to Wayne.”

  Finn signaled Amanda with his eyes: time to go.

  A few minutes later they walked past the giant replica of Mickey’s sorcerer’s cap.

  “What was that all about?” she asked. “What school do the Overtakers play for?”

  “School?”

  “They’re a sports team, right?”

  “Oh…Right.” Finn said. He felt he owed her more than that. “Have you ever had a dream so real that when you woke up you were sure you’d just been wherever you’d been in the dream?”

  “Everybody has dreams like that. For me…well…it’s more like a nightmare.”

  “But what if somebody tells you something in the dream, something to look for when you wake up, and you wake up, and there it is?”

  “I’d have to think about that,” she conceded.

  Finn felt frustrated. He wanted to be alone, with time to think things through.

  She said, “If you know this guy Wayne, maybe he could help you find the others.”

  “No. He’s the one that asked me to find them.”

&n
bsp; Amanda’s face twisted. “Oh.”

  They reached the bus pickup point at the Transportation and Ticket Center. Her bus arrived.

  She said, “The Overtakers aren’t a sports team, are they?”

  “No.”

  “And you’re not going to tell me what they are.”

  “Maybe sometime.”

  “I can help you, Finn. I want to help you. But you’ve got to let me in.”

  He saw something behind her eyes, as if she knew more than she was letting on. Or was that just another girl trick? Finn couldn’t think what to say.

  Amanda climbed onto the bus, pausing briefly to talk to the driver. There were no tickets required on the Disney buses, so why would Amanda stop to talk to the driver? As the bus pulled away, Finn couldn’t get the driver’s face out of his mind: an old man with white hair, ice-blue eyes, and a kind face.

  Wayne? Was it possible?

  6

  His hand trembling, Finn reread the list that had been left for him at the school office the next day:

  Howard

  Lee

  Maitland

  Jackson

  He recognized these as the names of four middle schools. Four schools where he now believed he’d find the other DHIs. The note wasn’t signed, but he knew it was from Brad.

  “You don’t have to do this,” he reminded Amanda, though it was a little late now. They were riding a somewhat smelly city bus toward Lee Middle School. One-story buildings painted pink, sea blue, and white streamed past. Heat waves shimmered from the pavement. Another fall day.

  “I’m okay,” she replied.

  He wanted to think this had been his idea, but he knew better. He wasn’t sure how she’d managed to talk him into letting her join him, but here she was.

  “We might not get back in time for fifth period,” he warned. They’d skipped out on lunch together, slipping out a door near the gym. They’d be in some serious trouble if caught.

  “I’m a big girl, Finn.”

  The bus driver, a fat guy with a blotchy red face, kept an eye on them in the mirror. Finn was feeling paranoid. “Hey, do you think—?”

  “That he’s watching us?” Amanda said, interrupting. “Yes.”

  “What if he’s some kind of spy?” Finn asked.