Hide from what, Greg? The cops? The Overtakers? Their orders?
An uncharacteristically cold wind for Orlando in summertime prickled the hairs on the back of my neck and arms. I glanced back at the mirrors, even stuck my head out the window to make sure I wasn’t being followed. In my mind’s eye, I could see it as though it were happening right now. All of them crowded around the fire, burning bones and other unrecognizable substances, cackling, planning. I needed to get the information, or I’d be in for it. They’d kill me.
Driving down the off-ramp and into the older suburban area, my heart thumped so hard inside my chest that I was sure it would bore its way out. I drove around to the back of the church and parked, out of sight of the main road.
I must have fallen asleep. I had no idea for how long. Using the impending darkness as a cover, I ran through the parking lot and took the church stairs three at a time, delivering fisted blows to the air and wall on my way up. As though it were responsible for my problems.
In the creaking hallway that led to the rooms above the church, I heard muffled voices. Some sort of meeting seemed to be going on below me.
The first unlocked room was empty, except for a few milk crates and sofa cushions. Curtains were drawn over a window on the right wall. Good. I had multiple ways out.
As I paced the little room, my shoes kicked up the dust that had settled in the Freaks’ absence. I felt ready to breathe fire. I’d nearly had my hands on Philby for the second time. But then his stupid dad had to call the police.
The floorboards whined we—eak we—eak.
“I am NOT weak!” I roared, and with the last syllable I punched a hole through the wall. The old drywall crumbled away; it was no match for my inhuman strength. I glared at it furiously, wishing I could burn a hole through the wall with my eyes.
“I just don’t want to be their puppet anymore,” I whispered.
I sat down on one of the overturned milk crates with a thud. My weight almost broke it.
I hated the Keepers, especially Finn, and I didn’t mind doing the dirty work if it meant getting rid of them, but I hated Disney more. The most. That hate was engrained in my mind; it flowed through my veins, and yet, it felt like it didn’t belong to me. Like a virus taking me over, making it hard to think straight…
I turned my head at the sounds of footsteps crunching on gravel in the parking lot below.
Something snapped inside of me. Fear. Hatred. Revenge.
We-eak! We-eak! People coming up the stairs.
I braced myself for them.
The door swung open.
Oh, this was getting good.
MATTIE
There were no AA people in the basement meeting room, only an ambulance parked out back. No explanation as to why it was there. Not knowing how to drive, having no keys, and not wanting to steal an ambulance, it didn’t help me. Neither did my new phone, which was locked and basically useless.
Desperate, I searched around a found a landline that the AA group meeting room that they must keep for emergencies. I called the number on the AA sign. The man on the line gave me Joyce’s info. She answered the phone in a groggy voice. I explained my predicament, leaving out the part about being abducted by impostor agents who ran a fake boarding school on an abandoned military base outside of Baltimore. No sense getting too cozy with a relative stranger.
Joyce responded as if we were sisters who’d been separated at birth. We were in the middle of making plans for me when I happened to make a snide remark about the ambulance out back.
“Yeah, that showed up as we were leaving,” she said.
“You mean someone just parked it there?”
“I guess. I thought he was a friend of yours. He must have used your entrance.”
“Which one? The window or your door?”
“The window. One of our girls was outside catching some air, she said—she meant having a cigarette, but she doesn’t want to talk about things like that with me—and caught a look. She was all hot and bothered because he was a big, boyish guy with red hair and stunning eyes.”
“Green eyes?” I said dryly.
“No idea. Why? You know him?”
I looked up at the ceiling involuntarily, imagining who was up there. Knowing who was up there.
“Actually,” I said, “I’m not so sure you need to come over, but I sure appreciate the offer. Do you think it might be possible for you to send a Pictogram message to a friend of mine with this phone number? I don’t have Internet.”
She agreed without asking a single question. “But you call me right back if you need anything, okay? I’m here for you.”
My throat knotted. That wasn’t something I was accustomed to hearing. I tried to thank her, but my voice cracked.
When Amanda finally called, I cried. So did she, though she said they were happy tears over my escape. She caught me up on everything that had happened, told me to keep an eye on the ambulance and sit tight.
She had a plan.
AMANDA
Arguing with one of the lead Imagineers as an eighteen-year-old girl who’d already benefited immensely from his kindness and generosity proved far easier than I’d expected.
“It’s too dangerous,” Joe said.
“Trusting you is dangerous,” I said. “Bringing Jess with you seemed like such a nice thing to do…until it occurred to me that it made catching the three of us in one place that much easier.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“I know that now. But it took Mattie reading about a dozen Imagineers for us to realize that you’re still on our side.”
“Of course I am! We are!”
“Then why aren’t you telling me about finding the burned bones with DNA that tested as reptile?”
Joe’s attempts to keep the shock off his face were very good, but not good enough. I’d hit the bull’s-eye, and I had Wanda to thank for the theory. Throw a bunch of women together in a small cabin and watch what happens. Wayne’s daughter was able to connect the DNA testing Jess had heard the Imagineers discussing in the airport terminal with the other bits and scraps of information we’d collected. I’d thrown the idea at Joe, not knowing what might happen—and here I was, celebrating.
“We will talk about that another time. Don’t go jumping to any conclusions.”
“The OTKs are coming after the Keepers. The Barracks 14 guys are coming after us. We can change all that tonight if you just agree to help us.”
“We’d need agreements with the parents.”
“I don’t think you’ll encounter any resistance. They, we, all of us, are exhausted. And scared. It’s time we come together as a team.”
Joe thought so long and hard that for a moment I was sure he’d dozed off with his eyes open. I’d seen a cat in Baltimore that could do that.
Then he snapped out of it, and he looked straight at me. “Your plan is not for the faint of heart. You girls will need to show a great deal of courage.”
I took that as agreement.
Not long after my meeting with Joe, Jess, Mattie, and I celebrated our reunion with a quick group hug. Then we found ourselves tiptoeing up the church stairway in the bluish light of night, whispering nervously about our plans.
We passed a window. I unlocked it and opened it quietly.
“How am I supposed to read Luowski for what happened in the past?” Mattie asked.
“You’re the expert,” I said.
“That’s not very nice, Mandy,” Jess said, chastising me. “Mattie’s asking what she should focus on in order to get a clear read.”
“Greg’s the only one we know who’s connected to all of this. I don’t think you read him for the past, I think you read him to find out who’s pulling the strings. Essentially: who is he working for? If we’re going to fight an enemy, we have to be able to see him.”
“Or her,” Jess said.
“Jess and I are here for the sake of numbers. Three against one, if we’re lucky.”
“But if
the girl’s here with him?”
“We’ve still got them three to two. Jess and I will distract the girl while you get a read on Luowski. Whatever it takes. Jess’ll get a hand on him, too, and maybe she dreams something about it or because of it. He’s all we’ve got.”
We stopped on the upper landing, looking at each other in the strange light, and we felt something collegial pass between us. I nearly giggled, I felt so giddy. Or maybe it was nerves.
“Ready?” I whispered.
Jess and Mattie nodded, though with something less than outright enthusiasm.
Holding hands, we entered our old apartment.
A brooding, evil-spirited Luowski sat unmoving on an inverted plastic milk crate with a pillow on top. Dressed in an EMT medic’s uniform shirt, he looked official—entirely different from the bull-headed ape I knew he was.
“Bad timing,” he said, making no effort to stand. “I need a private moment.”
Mattie’s eyes quickly searched the few places the girl might have been able to hide. Then she returned her gaze to us, shaking her head. He was here alone.
“We heard about it,” I said.
“Shut up.”
“You could have hurt them, overpowered his parents to get to Philby, but you didn’t.”
“I said shut up!”
“You made a choice. The right choice.”
“They called 911, you idiot.”
Jess spoke up. “You had time. The thing is, Greg—if Greg Luowski is anywhere in the boy I’m talking to—you’re not a kid who hurts the innocent. You pick on kids, sure, but that’s different.”
“What do you know about it?” Luowski’s face was beet red.
Jess said, “I know you’re in trouble now—with them. You’re scared, like we are.”
“You three have more to be scared about than I do. They have plans for you.”
They, I noted. But I said nothing.
“That may be true,” Jess said. “But I bet failure’s not tolerated very well by the Overtakers. You had your chance. You know it. We know it. You’re here because you wanted a place to think it out. What’s next, Greg? What did you figure out?”
“Shut up and get out of here.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I said. “We’re going to the Central Plaza in the Magic Kingdom. The Imagineers are going to help us. You can join us, Greg. They’ll help you, too.”
The sound of slamming car doors won our attention. All of us, including Luowski, turned slightly toward the windows.
Mattie worked her way toward the window, toward Luowski’s side.
“Keep your hands off me,” Luowski said.
No effort to attack us. I wondered if he might actually be afraid of me. It gave me a little rush of adrenaline: Greg Luowski, afraid of me, afraid of another pair of scissors at this throat.
“Three guys,” Mattie said, looking out. “Suits. Someone must have called them.”
“No way!” I said. “We’d better hurry. It’s Central Plaza for us, Greg, ASAP.”
“Who are we talking about?” Luowski asked. “Who’s out there?”
“Our former jailers,” I said, “from a long time ago.”
“Return of the Living Dead,” Mattie said.
“Your doing?” I asked him, keeping my gaze steady.
“Yeah,” he said sarcastically, “My best friends. Didn’t you know?”
“You could have taken a plea bargain. Maybe you want to turn us in, exchange us for leniency.”
“So I magically attracted you here,” Luowski said. “I mean you came to me—or am I missing something?”
“A bug,” Jess said. “He could be wearing a recorder.”
“Take off your shirt,” I instructed him, “or Mattie’s going to do it for you.”
“Nice try,” Greg said. “That girl is not touching me.” Then he added, “Nice job with the Imagineers in the Studios, by the way.”
Mattie snarled at him.
“Those three guys are coming up here,” Jess said.
“So? Let them.” He didn’t sound too concerned.
“You could say we aren’t here,” I suggested.
“Why would I do that?”
“So that when they take you away, there are three of us here to rescue you.”
“No one’s taking me anywhere.”
“They may feel differently about that, Greg.” Lifting my palms to him, I asked again for him to unbutton his shirt.
He reluctantly undid the top three buttons, then untucked his shirttail to confirm there was no wire. “Satisfied?”
Mattie was. She had used the distraction to sneak up behind Luowski and place her hand on his neck. Luowski jerked up, waving his arms wildly, barely missing Mattie as she jumped away.
“Out that window,” I informed him, “is a ledge. Where it meets the church roof, you can slide down and grab the pipe that’s sticking up. It’s a drainpipe; it’ll get you to the ground. Jess and I had to use that a couple of times. Believe me, it works.”
“You first,” Luowski said. The sound of footsteps climbing the stairs was louder now. “This type of guy always leaves one man on the ground. I’d be walking right into their net.”
“If you insist,” I said. Mattie climbed out, then Jess. Luowski looked troubled; he thought I was bluffing or trying to trap him. I hesitated in the window, just long enough for the door to open. Long enough to be seen. Luowski jumped up—but I was blocking the window. I slipped out, ran along the ledge, slid, caught on the pipe, swung to the drainpipe, and climbed down. The part I hadn’t told Luowski about was simple: use the open window halfway down. I climbed through the window I’d opened on my way up. Back in the stairway, I met Jess and Mattie. We slid the window shut and locked it.
The next step, leaving by the AA meeting entrance and bypassing any “agent” waiting by the cars, was made easier by the fact that Luowski had taken our route, but had ridden the drainpipe all the way to the ground, falling straight into the hands of the waiting Barracks 14 man at the bottom. The man saw us running; I made sure of that. Preoccupied with Luowski, he had no choice but to call for his partners.
The trick now was to make sure we got caught—and this part of my plan required Joe’s help.
Halfway up the block, the back doors of a white van swung open, and the three of us piled in. Joe shut the doors behind us.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked. “You have to be absolutely certain.”
The woman on the seat beside him wore purple surgical gloves; there was a tackle box open at her shins.
“We’re sure,” I said, speaking for the three of us.
Joe gave a signal, and the van drove off.
MATTIE
When I placed my hand on Luowski’s beefy neck, I wasn’t sure what would happen. I had never read an individual four times. But it was easy. I had Luowski mapped out. I channeled his thoughts to the Overtakers and the orders he was following.
Immediately, memories of Tia Dalma that didn’t belong to me filled my mind. Luowski’s impressions of her were clear: furious and sinister. He was afraid of her because she had threatened him.
Even after Luowski jerked away, the strand of words that haunted him and held him so tightly to his task remained fresh in my mind. It was as though Tia Dalma had spoken them to me herself.
“I must know their secret. If you do not bring me de secret, you will die. We all will die.”
I felt like a cavern, empty, her threat echoing in silence. This seemed terribly dangerous. What secret was so important that it would put someone’s life on the line? So important that the Overtakers were worried, too?
I slipped out the window, Jess following, wondering if “they” could mean the Keepers. Finn and the others obviously knew something that they hadn’t told us.
Halfway down the drainpipe, I angled myself through the second-story window we’d left open.
Luowski’s thoughts had to have something do with the Keepers being trapped in SBS. Or informa
tion that Finn had known before he’d gone comatose.
Amanda slid through the window behind Jess, and slammed the window shut, locking it. From the hallway, we watched Luowski ride the drainpipe to the ground and get caught by the Barracks 14 guy waiting at the bottom. I laughed.
Lost things often hide in plain sight. Maybe we were making this out to be more complicated than it was.
Maybe the answer was staring us in the face.
AMANDA
By the time Jess, Mattie, and I arrived at the Magic Kingdom’s Central Plaza, the end of the extended hours had pushed tens of thousands of weary guests toward the front gates. It was past midnight.
We sat together on a bench facing the Partners statue, the area ringed by bronze figurines of famous Disney characters. People watching, one of my favorite things to do in Disney parks, hit new heights of amusement; strollers seemed to be pulling the parents trailing them, and young children bounded and bounced, not wanting to leave.
“How much longer?” Jess asked. “You think they’ll make it?”
“I’m sure,” I said. “I have no doubts. If there’s anything we can trust, it’s that they’ll get here before we’re thrown out.”
“If you say so,” Mattie said.
“I do. Joe knows what he’s doing.” I paused, and then said, “Are you both afraid?”
“Yes.”
“Me, too,” I admitted. “Good! Hold on to that fear. We’re going to need it.”
“What if this is the last time we see the park?” Mattie asked. “What if that happens?”
“One thing at a time.”
“But if it does?”
“Then we’ll consider it a success,” Jess said slowly. “We’ll have provided the necessary distraction to make the move. What choice do we have?”
“I’ll miss the music,” Mattie said. “I’ll miss it the most. I like having a soundtrack in my life. The parks are great that way.”
“Yes, they are,” I said. “The parks are great in every way.”
“You’re worried about him, aren’t you?” Mattie asked.
“I’m worried about all of them,” I answered. “All of.”
“Uh-huh.” Mattie’s cynicism was beginning to annoy me. Or maybe I was just stressed. Either way, I snapped at her.
Kingdom Keepers: The Syndrome Page 17