Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn

by Ridley Pearson

  “It’s not,” said Maybeck. “We’ve got to lock it up…do something with it, so it can’t fol ow us.”

  “You al know what I think we should do,” said Philby.

  Everyone ignored him.

  “It’l be light out soon. Bats don’t fly around in the daylight. The main thing is: we don’t want it to find us or Maleficent.”

  “Why can’t we just hide it among the other bats?” Maybeck said. “Have you even seen the bat

  enclosure? This thing won’t be going anywhere. And it’s not like Maleficent can walk in there and

  take it out.”

  Finn said, “That’s bril iant!”

  “Earth to Maybeck. It’s just a bat. It is not Maleficent, or she’d be in our face right now,” said Wil a emphatical y.

  “So you’d just let it go?” Finn asked.

  “Not me,” Maybeck said, speaking directly to Finn. “At the least it deserves a bat jail. I can

  bluff my way into the bat enclosure.”

  Maybeck rarely lacked self-confidence.

  “And if you’re stopped?” asked Charlene, always the cautious one.

  “I’l tel whoever stops me I’m returning a bat that was sick. You think anyone’s going to want

  to get up close and personal with this thing?” He jiggled the pil owcase. The bat turned and flapped its enormous wings and tried to nip at Maybeck through the fabric.

  “Okay. That’s settled,” said Charlene. “Let’s just get it out of here.”

  And now Maybeck, inside the Park, was tel ing the contents of his pil owcase to settle down,

  and much to his astonishment—it obeyed. He told himself that his tone of voice was responsible,

  that the bat had responded to his anger. But what if it had actual y understood him?

  At a few minutes past 6 AM there were more Cast Members in the Park than he would have

  expected. He realized that employees must arrive between six and seven because they were suddenly everywhere: sweeping, opening up attractions, zipping around in golf carts. It was a frenzy of activity. He fol owed a road to his left, a road he’d seen a number of Cast Members take, not entirely certain where he was. He’d entered to the left of the main entrance—that much he knew. He sneaked Philby’s map out of his back pocket. Philby had done his homework, supplying

  both a Disney il ustrated map with a key and a Google Earth satel ite view of the area. On the satel ite map he’d drawn and labeled some red circles, including DeVine’s entrance gate, the two

  monkey temples, the Conservation Station, the Park’s main entrance, and the group rendezvous

  spot.

  Once on Discovery Island, Maybeck headed for Asia and the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

  Some birds cal ed out from the top of a tree. He moved a little faster.

  He crossed Discovery Island, to the right of the Tree of Life, aiming for a bridge to Asia. He

  texted into the DS.

  mybest: i’m inside, on the island.

  Finn: okay.

  With each of the kids checked in to the chat room, they could al fol ow the conversation.

  Maybeck then wrote to warn them about how many Cast Members were already in the Park.

  mybest: until park opens u wil stick out unless dressed as a cast member.

  Had Maybeck looked back and slightly to his left, he would have seen that what had started

  as six or seven birds was now many times that number. They flew to the next tree and settled there. Then more joined them, and they flew to the next tree.

  Finn: wil wait 4 park opening, discovered something useful, meet us @ home base?

  mybest: need to play bat boy first, wil meet u after park opens.

  philitup: agreed, wil meet @ home base after park opens.

  wil atree: how’s the bat?

  mybest: quiet for now.

  He was glad the bat had stopped moving so much. He didn’t dare inform the others that he

  thought the thing understood what he said.

  He crossed the bridge—the entrance to the Maharajah Jungle Trek just ahead. A cacophony

  surrounded him; he could barely hear himself think. He looked up to see two trees ful of birds. For a moment, it seemed as if they were fol owing him.

  Na…he thought. Couldn’t be…

  Finn had heightened Maybeck’s curiosity. What had they discovered in the short time it had

  taken him to enter the Park?

  More obnoxious bird noises overhead.

  He looked up.

  Four trees. Hundreds of birds.

  What the…?

  18

  PHILBY SWIPED THE ID through the card reader at the door to the AK Maintenance facility. A smal

  red light turned green, and Philby pul ed on the door. It opened, and no alarms sounded.

  Finn held out his hand to Amanda, who looked down at her sister’s diary and then reluctantly

  gave the book to him.

  “I’m not sure she’d want me doing this,” Amanda said, stil keeping one hand on the diary,

  unwil ing to ful y let it go.

  “I promise, only the pages we talked about,” Finn said.

  “We don’t know that they have anything to do with this,” Amanda protested.

  “You’re the one who said she could dream the future.”

  “Sometimes, sure. But this is personal stuff.”

  “You said she wrote in it each morning after waking up.

  “It’s true. She did,” Amanda confirmed.

  “Then maybe, without knowing, she left us clues how to find her. She drew lightning striking a

  castle. There are drawings of monkeys in there.” He tugged gently on the journal, but Amanda would not let it go.

  “Please,” Finn said to her.

  For a moment the journal connected them. Then Amanda let go.

  “You’re standing guard for us,” Finn reminded her.

  He held up his DS. “Send us a text if you see anyone coming.”

  “Okay,” she said, her eyes fil ed with concern.

  “Al we’re going to do is make copies,” Finn reminded her. “There’s got to be a copy machine

  or a scanner inside.”

  “And what about bats?” she asked.

  “We’l be careful. I promise,” Finn said.

  He fol owed Philby inside to a reception area, where a wel -organized desk held a telephone

  and computer. Some Disney cartoons were taped to the computer monitor, and there were framed pictures of three kids. The few lights that had been left on cast murky shadows and offered a dimly lit corridor running in both directions off this front room. There were two signs, each with an arrow: one read MAINTENANCE and pointed left; the other read ANIMATION TRAINING LAB and pointed right.

  “Cool,” Philby said, turning right. “I’ve got to see this.”

  The animation training lab was a garagelike workshop that reminded Finn of the workshop in

  his grandfather’s basement. The L-shaped room had countertops that ran along every wal , behind

  which were pegboards holding every conceivable kind of tool. Computers and hand tools littered

  the counters. But what made it much different from Grandpop’s basement was its purpose. The

  room was designed for the repair of the Audio-Animatronics—the talking robots—that were used

  extensively throughout the Park. The result was the disturbing presence of human torsos, heads,

  hands, and legs in every stage of creation, from pieces that looked like robots to painted faces

  dressed in costumes that seemed so real Philby kept spinning in circles, afraid one or more of

  them might suddenly move or attack. Of equal concern were the dozens of animals under construction, including pieces of tigers, lions, Stitch, Donald Duck, and a fantastic hand—possibly from a goril a—that was nearly three feet across and supported by a metal superstructure that held it four feet off the floor.

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sp; “Whoa…” Philby said, taking a look around. Both boys spoke in whispers, as if the “body”

  parts might overhear them.

  “Somehow I don’t think we’l find a copier in here,” Finn said, holding Jez’s journal.

  “Oh, I bet you’re wrong. Give me a minute.” Philby walked the lines of workbenches. He muttered words like “impressive” and “interesting” and “incredible.” Then he addressed Finn.

  “Articulated, motor-control ed limb movement—very cutting edge.” He stopped in front of a six-foot tyrannosaur head with wires sticking out of a missing eye.

  “What about a copier?” Finn reminded him, not so impressed.

  “Yeah, okay,” Philby said. “But I could stay here for hours.”

  “Let’s save the extra-credit work for another time.”

  Philby’s curiosity carried him to the far end of the room, where the lab opened out into a large

  space that appeared to be used for assembly. Most of the robotic dummies stood on their own

  here—cables and wires running from them—and many were at least partial y clothed and had faces. Most of the Audio-Animatronics were of animals in various poses, al of which looked incredibly lifelike. But it was the far end of the room that intrigued Philby.

  “Check it out,” he said, approaching the area somewhat cautiously and with great respect.

  “Remember this?” he asked.

  The three wal s at the end of the room were covered in jungle-green paper, as was the floor.

  There were stage lights and tripods and cameras and a dozen computers on rol ing stands.

  “I do,” said Finn. He and the other DHI kids, upon acceptance by Disney, had been computer-

  modeled by Disney Imagineers. Their movements were recorded to create the DHIs. The empty

  cages off to their left suggested the obvious.

  “Animals,” Philby said, immediately understanding the setup. “They motion-modeled animals

  here to create DHIs.”

  “Wayne told me they were doing that,” Finn said. “Animal hosts.” The cameras were al set

  low to the ground. Then there were the cages and—he realized as he stepped closer—paw marks

  seen faintly on the green-paper floor covering.

  “Check it out,” Philby said again, this time directing Finn’s attention to five photographs thumbtacked to the wal nearby. There were several monkeys, a baby elephant, a pair of tigers,

  and a goril a.

  “Got it!” Finn said, pointing to a flatbed scanner hooked up to a computer. He touched the

  computer’s space bar and the machine woke up.

  Philby laid Jez’s diary on the scanner bed and began scanning the pages. As he printed them out, Finn received a text message.

  panda: 2 guys out front!!!

  “Visitors!” Finn whispered to Philby.

  Finn: got it! thanx

  The lab’s only door was a long way away. There was one EMERGENCY ONLY door to the right of

  the green-screen area, but it had an alarm, and Finn had no desire to draw the wrath of Security

  upon him and Philby before they managed to even get into the Park.

  “We can hide!” Philby said in a harsh whisper. He pointed to an area where dozens of parts

  and partial bodies of the Audio-Animatronics figures had been heaped into a kind of junk pile.

  Many of the human robots had faces that looked phenomenal y real.

  Finn grabbed the printouts, and the boys jumped into the junk pile, worming their way down

  into the parts so that only their shoulders and faces showed. They blended in with the robotic human parts.

  Two men entered the room, both wearing dark blue coveral s. Neither seemed surprised to

  find the lights turned on—something Philby had done upon entering.

  “It’s always something,” the thinner of the two said. “I could have told you the sound system

  was going to go out at some point. They should have rewired the Asia system when they instal ed

  Expedition Everest. Not my fault.”

  The men scrounged around on the workbenches, apparently looking for parts.

  “Finding the break in the wire, if there is one, is going to be a bear,” said the heavier man.

  “Don’t mention bears,” said the other one. He pointed to an Audio-Animatronics figure of a

  standing bear cub designed for the Country Bear Jamboree. “This one wil get jealous.”

  Both men laughed—harder than the joke deserved.

  The thin one suddenly turned and headed directly for the junk pile where the boys were hidden. “Didn’t we loan these guys our acoustic coupler?”

  “It’s the tester we’re looking for. Forget the coupler.”

  The thin man picked up a piece of one of the robots. He was about two feet away from Finn,

  who held his breath in an attempt not to be noticed.

  “You know what?” the thin man said, looking right at Finn, then at Philby, then at the stack of

  robots. “This place gives me the creeps sometimes. Some of these things look so real…I gotta tel

  you.”

  “Found it!” the bigger man said. He held up a box with a lot of wires running out of it. “I knew

  the guys had borrowed it.”

  He tucked the box under his arm. The two men reached the door. The thin man stopped at the

  light switch.

  “Hey,” he said, “did you turn on the lights when we came in? Because I didn’t.”

  “I don’t think I did.”

  Finn felt sweat trickling down his rib cage. He calculated the distance to the emergency door,

  ready to run for it.

  “Wel ,” said the big man. He switched off the lights.

  19

  FINN’S FIRST DECENT look at the contents of Jez’s diary came as he, Amanda, and Philby awaited

  the Park’s opening. The main parking lot was a steady stream of arriving vehicles. Awning-covered shuttles were used to transport visitors to the Park entrance. The shuttles were stacked

  up at the back of the lot awaiting use. The three kids sat on a shuttle bench together and reviewed their personal photocopies of Jez’s journal in detail.

  Finn had always pictured a girl’s diary to be line after line of neatly written cursive on wel -

  organized pages, the contents of which held secrets about her love interests. What he saw here

  surprised him. Jez’s was a stream-of-consciousness col age, a col ection of images, sketches of

  animals, and musings. There were clothing receipts pasted into the pages; pieces of postcards,

  stapled; a fortune cookie fortune taped to a page; there were recipes, movie ticket stubs, pieces

  of torn photographs; ribbons and candy wrappers. There was an arch that looked like the letter M, with a blob of ink on the right side. Surrounding and interweaving it al were lines from poems, song lyrics, comments, and what looked like quotes from conversations she’d had. It was al mixed

  up into a mess of heavily scribbled pen and pencil.

  “Are these supposed to mean something?” Finn asked, fingering the three photocopied

  pages.

  “They must have meant something to her,” Amanda said. “Jez took her journaling very

  seriously.”

  “And at what point did she cut off her ear?” asked Philby. “Go van Gogh.” He won a few smiles.

  “Look,” Finn said, indicating the upper right-hand corner of the photocopy. “That’s a castle and a lightning bolt.”

  “That’s what I told you about,” Amanda said. “And look down here.” She pointed to what was

  obviously a monkey.

  “Yeah, but this could be coincidence, right?” Philby said, sounding somewhat apprehensive.

  “Are we actual y going to believe a person can see into the future?”

  Finn looked over at him with a dumbfounded expression
.

  “Okay, okay. But it doesn’t mean everything on this page is significant,” Philby protested.

  “How do we know it isn’t?” Finn asked.

  “This is several nights’ worth of dreams,” Amanda said. “You can tel because some are pencil, some pen. The movie tickets and postcards—that stuff is memories, reminders.”

  “But what about this decal, or whatever it is?” Finn asked.

  “No idea. A stamp, maybe,” Amanda said.

  The letters were reversed, the image backward.

  “There’s a tiger, a goril a, and…what’s this, a bowling pin?” Finn turned the page upside down, but couldn’t quite tel what he was looking at.

  “I think they’re al clues,” Amanda said.

  Philby exhaled loudly, so as to be noticed. “We all want to find her, Amanda. But if we go chasing down sketches from her diary, then that’s a lot of valuable time that could have been spent looking for her.”

  “I think we can trust this,” she said.

  “We need more proof,” Philby complained.

  “We have a castle and a lightning bolt!” Finn pointed out.

  “On opposite corners of the page. There’s also an aqueduct, some bal oons, and a railroad

  track.”

  “These are dreams, not instant replays,” Amanda told Philby. “She had visions. Glimpses.

  How much of your dreams, your nightmares, do you remember? Bits and pieces are what I get.

  Sometimes more than that, a piece of a story, but not that often. Maybe we al dream pieces of the future but just don’t happen to know it. How often do we write them down or make sketches and

  keep track? She left us clues, Philby.” She waved the photocopy in the air. “This is the map of her dreams. Maybe she didn’t know she was leaving it for us, but there’s no ignoring the castle and

  the lightning, is there? So maybe not everything on here is helpful. It probably isn’t. But we won’t know that until we check it out. Right? We’ve got to check out each thing on here, because if even one other thing on this page can help us find her—” She covered her mouth with her fist, on the verge of crying.