by Dixon, Jeff
“I’m so sorry, Dr. Hawkes.” The conductor again spoke kindly to the preacher. “I know finding out you were being used must be painful.”
“So what happens now?” Hawk looked to the conductor and Sandy. “What do I do now?”
“Whatever you were doing before!” Sandy blurted incredulously.
“What he means,” the conductor helped, “is that our job is to help protect you. It became apparent that Kiran and Jim were getting too close. We have no idea what you have found or what you are trying to do.”
“Do either of you know the whereabouts of Farren Rales?” Cambridge addressed the conductor and Sandy.
“No,” they replied in unison.
“I must admit I am intrigued and fascinated by this entire scenario. Farren Rales, as the last of Walt Disney’s personal Imagineers, makes him a very precious and valued part of this company. The fact that he is missing and there is reason to suspect foul play leaves me with very few options.” He paused and drummed his fingers on the table. “We are going to have to talk; I need to know what has been going on.”
“Of course,” the conductor replied, “we will be happy to help, but we don’t really know what is going on.”
“Let me determine that,” Cambridge said as he turned his face toward Hawk. “As for you, Dr. Grayson Hawkes, I have grown weary of you turning my theme parks upside down. I want it to stop and I want you out right now.”
“But—”
“Let me finish,” Cambridge continued briskly. “I have a friend who has called me on your behalf, Al Gann. He has filled me in on some of the things that you have been managing to do right under my nose.” He cleared his throat. “I also have found out, much to my surprise, that you are suddenly listed as a cast member of this company, a cast member with access unrestricted to every area, even places that I cannot go. I don’t completely understand this, but I do want answers and I want it resolved.”
Suddenly Reginald Cambridge pushed away from the table and got to his feet. He motioned for Sandy and the conductor to accompany him as they headed toward the doors to step back onto Main Street USA, leaving Hawk seated at the table alone. As the trio exited the restaurant, Cambridge closed the door behind them and turned back toward Hawk.
“Dr. Hawkes, I do not like that which I do not understand.” He narrowed his eyes. “However, I do understand from Gann that you have an appointment with him early this afternoon. I suggest you finish your business in my theme park and keep that appointment. Then I suggest you and I sit down to help me understand the things that are not yet clear to me.”
“I would be happy to do that, Mr. Cambridge,” Hawk said. “And thank you for your help.”
Cambridge nodded to the pastor and turned to leave. Hesitating, he turned back to Hawk.
“I hope you find what you are looking for, Dr. Hawkes,” Cambridge said stoically.
“Thanks, and call me Hawk . . . please.”
“Very well . . . Hawk,” he again turned to leave. “And if you don’t mind, you can call me Reg. All my friends do. I have a feeling we are about to become friends.” Reginald Cambridge shot Hawk one last glance and flashed a very pleasant grin, which immediately disappeared as he stepped through the door and back onto Main Street USA.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
* * *
Day Seven
Late Morning
GRAYSON HAWKES SAT in the quietness of Tony’s Town Square Restaurant. The muffled noises from Main Street shoved their way through the windows only to fade into the background of his thoughts, which were very far away. The numbness that he felt had enveloped him as Reginald had closed the door to leave. The six of them had all converged on this place. Sandy had proven to be ally instead of an enemy. Reginald Cambridge was simply a man who took his job seriously and carried it out with pride. He wasn’t an enemy either. Jim had proven to be an adversary who was willing to stop at nothing to get what he wanted. He had been willing to kidnap Juliette, he had been willing to attack, and been willing to deceive the preacher. Then, of course, there was Kiran. Hawk knew she was the real source of his pain. He had been suspicious of her but had convinced himself he was wrong. It was his lapse in judgment that opened the door for her to get too close. He should have known better, he did know better, he had just hoped for better.
Time was running out. He forced himself to rise from the chair and get moving. The end of this quest had to be near. He had never considered what would happen if he couldn’t solve the puzzle. Slowly leaving Tony’s, he stepped back into Exposition Hall and walked to his left. This carried him to an area where guests could meet and greet Mickey Mouse. After Mickey’s Toontown Fair had been removed, this area was created for guests to meet their favorite character. Mickey, according to Roy Disney, became the closet thing anyone had left of Walt. Here, where people could always meet Mickey, the preacher was trying to find something that Walt wanted him to find.
Open daily in the Magic Kingdom, this attraction did not open for another hour. Moving through the various greeting areas he noticed a curtain toward the middle of the attraction creating a barrier. Pulling it aside he slid behind it. Certainly off-stage; he observed boxes, clutter, and other things stored away from the sight of guests. It was boringly plain and nothing caught his interest—until he saw an unmarked wooden doorway.
He moved toward it. Opening it he found another place to store things, too big to be called merely a closet, but not large enough to be a room. This area housed stacks of boxes, each with a tag indicating what was inside. The storage closet was much better organized than the open backstage area. Closing the door, he looked to the opposite side and saw another door, identical to the one he had just entered. He guessed he would find another storage area, but since he was trying to find anything that might be helpful, he decided to take a look. Grabbing the handle and turning it, he was surprised to find it was locked. He bent down to look at the doorknob and noticed a keyhole beneath the knob.
Every locked door holds something behind it.
Hawk stood, remembering all the doors that had magically opened as he used his key to the kingdom. Once again, like so many times before, he took out the old key and attempted to place it inside a lock that to an observer would not be a good fit. Feeling resistance he almost stopped trying; then the key slid into the lock with a soft click. Turning the key to the left, he felt the lock mechanism open, and the knob was released to turn freely in his hand. Behind the door was a stairwell, its steps descending away from him. Hawk stepped forward to see where the steps were going. As he did the door shut behind him, plunging him into darkness. Retreating to the door he reopened it, allowing light to fill the stairwell. There was no light switch to be seen on the wall. Scoping out the area visually, he saw no light fixtures. He didn’t want to take the time to go a buy a flashlight and wasn’t sure which gift shop would have one. Time was running out; if he were going to go down the stairs, it would be in the dark.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
* * *
Day Seven
Late Morning
EACH STEP DROVE HIM DEEPER into the stifling blackness, blindly spiraling downward, and the steep descent felt as if it were taking much longer than it should have. He tried to judge how far down he might be going and guessed he must have descended at least three stories if not more. Each tread dropped him down another foot deeper, then another, and yet another.
His journey abruptly halted when his foot hit a solid mass in the blackness and his face pushed up against a cool surface. Placing both hands on the unyielding barrier he blindly searched for a doorknob. His hand traced what felt like a lever. Gripping it tightly he pushed it down. It did not move. He muscled up on it and shoved it down with more force and felt it slowly slide downward. A muffled click echoed up through the stairway as the latch released. Without releasing the handle he pushed against the heavy bulk of the door.
The hinges creaked as the massive door cracked open, flooding Hawk with blinding light. Blinking
away the sudden brightness he reoriented himself. The stairs dead-ended into this door with the width of a step serving as the landing facing the doorway. Whoever had designed this stairwell had not designed it to meet the code of any inspector. It was clearly a private passage that very few ever traveled. The door opened into a small space, leaving enough room for the door to open and for a person to step inside. Directly opposite him was another door. The preacher stepped completely into the space and allowed the stairway door to close behind him. Facing the next door he was able to inspect it closely as his eyes continued to adjust to the light.
Eight feet high, four feet wide, and made of stainless steel, the door literally formed the entire wall of this small alcove. The door had no handle and no visible hinges. It had a lock mechanism unlike anything Hawk had seen before. A blinking light was the only reasonable point of interaction with the lock.
Dropping down to one knee he leaned in and carefully inspected the complex locking unit. Like the door it was stainless steel. It had a keypad with an intimidating number of keys. Six rows, each containing six keys, featured a corresponding key for each letter of the alphabet along with ten numeric keys beginning at 0 and ending with 9. Above the keypad was a narrow display screen. Below the keypad were two rows of slots each measuring one inch wide. Two slots in each of these rows surrounded a classic keyhole that sat in the center of the four slots. The entire mechanism was stainless steel like the rest of the door with a red light flashing a steady cadence at the bottom of the shoe-box-sized interface.
Hawk wondered if this was what he had been looking for. Could this be the end of his adventure? He had to know what was behind this door. He immediately reached for his key to the kingdom and placed it in the opening for the standard key. It fit perfectly and the blinking of the red light sped up. He tried to turn the key. It didn’t budge to the right or the left. Pulling the key back, Hawk was consternated when the key refused to be extracted. Applying steady force to make the key release had no effect. It was now securely fastened into this massive lock. The red light continued to blink an accelerated rate, creating a sense of urgency within Hawk that may have been necessary or imagined. He didn’t know what to do, it was the only key he had.
Bending over and inspecting the slots around the key, he noticed something about them that was familiar. Perhaps it was the smooth silver with the red slivers of light reflecting off of it in rhythm with the blinking bulb above. Reaching into his pocket he removed the shiny silver box and reverently opened it. Taking great care he removed the first metallic bar containing a phrase Walt Disney had once uttered.
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
Turning it in his fingers he leveled it out flatly and lined it up on its edge with the opening of the slot up and to the left of his key. Carefully he slid the bar into the slot and felt it click into the mechanism. He tried to reverse what he had just done and just like the key it was now locked in place. He pulled the second bar out of the box.
“All of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Gently he placed the bar into the next opening, and exactly like the first one it slid into place. He discovered this one could not be retrieved either.
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
The words on the third bar disappeared into the slot as Hawk pushed the bar found in the Kepple House into place. The light continued to blink and he quickly grabbed the final bar that had been found at Sir Mickey’s.
“If you can dream it you can do it.”
The final bar slid into place as Hawk realized he had been holding his breath. Exhaling loudly, he was startled as the red light began blinking even more rapidly. The key and all four bars were now in place inside the mysterious lock. There was no lever and no latch. The only apparent way to open the door was to find the right combination for the locking apparatus. The red light served as a steady reminder he had not yet managed to open it.
Hawk turned his attention to the thirty-six-key pad, the only part of the lock he had not yet tackled. He wondered what combination he would have to key in to satisfy this level of security. Randomly he placed his fingers on the keys and typed the letters D-I-S-N-E-Y.
Each letter displayed itself on the screen above the keypad as he typed. They flashed on and off, and then disappeared. As the screen went blank the red warning light increased its rate of blinking. Hawk wondered if typing in the wrong code would cause the lock not to open at all. He again glanced down at the key and bars now all resting in their places. Each was a discovery he had made on his travels through Walt Disney World. If each piece of the puzzle was a piece of this lock, then what else had he found that might be the code necessary for the keypad?
The strobe effect of the light cast a quickly bursting crimson glow across his face as his mind replayed his journey of the last few days. His finger brushed across the keypad carefully as not to punch a key in error. Allowing his finger to come to rest on a letter, he pushed it, uttering a quick prayer to be correct. The letter immediately lit up on the display screen.
N. Moving to the numbers he pressed in 2-3-4. Committed to finishing his hunch he completed the call letters and registration numbers he had been sent to find on Walt Disney’s airplane. MM for Mickey Mouse. The entire display glowed back at him once again. N234MM . . . the letters flashed once, twice, and then went blank. This time the red light also disappeared and then in a deafening silence the light turned green.
The green light was accompanied by a metallic click and the door automatically swung open, leaving the locking mechanism attached to what Hawk now saw to be the stainless steel door frame. The door stopped, leaving enough room for Hawk to enter.
The preacher paused and reached down to the lock once more. He grabbed each of the silver bars, which now slid effortlessly back out of their slots into his hands. The Key to the Kingdom came out of the lock as if it had never been held there. Placing all of these back in his pocket, Hawk stepped in and peered around behind the opened door.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
* * *
Day Seven
Noon
THE ROOM BEHIND THE DOOR was a reception area. Plush carpet covered the floor, and in the center of the room an oversized chair faced a wall of thick glass. The glass wall reached from floor to ceiling and stretched twenty feet across. The reception area was well lit but what lay behind the glass wall was cloaked in darkness. Hawk stepped behind the chair in the center of the room and looked into the murky blackness behind the glass. He was sure he saw something moving, but could not make out what was in the shadows of the room. His own reflection kept getting blocking his field of vision. The lighting contrast between the two areas sufficiently kept him unable to see what was behind the glass. Apparently that had been the idea.
“Please have a seat, Grayson,” came a familiar voice from a set of speakers embedded into the ceiling.
Hawk moved cautiously around the chair, trying to distinguish why the voice was so familiar. He had heard it before many times, he was sure of that, but his name sounded strange as the voice said it. Taking a seat in the chair, he sank into the cushioned back as the chair engulfed him. Staring toward the darkness he waited for what was to happen next.
“We’ve been waiting for you,” the same familiar voice said again as the lights softly began to pierce the darkness behind the glass.
Hawk leaned forward slightly as the lights began to warmly radiate from behind the now transparent barrier. The voice had been familiar but now as he sat staring he knew what he was seeing was impossible. The voice speaking to him was Walt Disney’s.
Rising to his feet from behind his desk was the creator of the things so familiar to Hawk. The dreamer, the doer, the man himself; Walt Disney smiled as he stood, giving the preacher a chance to absorb what he was seeing. Mr. Disney was in his office, just like the one Hawk had broken into at One Man’s Dream.
Suddenly Hawk’s gaze shifted to
the right as he noticed someone seated in the office facing Walt. This man now rose to his feet and turned to face the stunned preacher on the other side of the glass. This too was a person very familiar to Hawk; it was his friend Farren Rales.
The old Imagineer was beaming as he turned to face his dear friend. No one uttered a word as the reality of what he was seeing rippled through his brain cells. Hawk sat in disbelief as his eyes flitted between the two legends, Walt Disney and Farren Rales.
“Hello,” Farren said, smiling excitedly. “I knew you would find us.”
Slowly Walt turned and looked toward Farren as he spoke and then sat back down behind his desk. Walt’s hair was mostly white yet his facial features, the distinct mustache, and the familiar frame were exactly what Hawk had seen time and time again on television, DVD, and in pictures. This Walt Disney was an older version of the man who had spoken to him on the Old Yeller DVD. The genius turned his head back toward Hawk as Farren sat back down, spinning his chair toward the massive glass wall to face his friend.
“You know,” Walt Disney said, “I’ll bet you have a million questions. Now that you’ve made it here, you can have those answers. But before I let you and Farren talk I just want you to know that I’m glad you finally made it.”
“I got here as soon as I could,” Hawk softly said and then realized how dumb it sounded. His mind was a blazing racetrack of activity. What he was seeing was impossible; Walt Disney was over one hundred years old. There is no way he could be here talking to him right now. Farren Rales hadn’t disappeared, instead he was hiding, and they had been waiting for him to come and find them. It didn’t make sense.