“Cartoons,” Finn said. “There’s a place where stars don’t grow old: cartoons. Even child actors grow up at some point. Not Dumbo. Not any of the other cartoon characters. That’s why this show is important to us.”
“And because any of those other shows could be on any night,” said Willa. “This is the fourteenth. This is the night he wanted us to watch, and this is the only night Dumbo’s going to be on. The only night it has been on the Disney Channel in…what?” She addressed Philby, the fount of all knowledge.
“Two years,” Philby said. “It’s tonight’s special movie.”
“It’s gotta be it,” agreed Finn.
“But it’s torture,” Maybeck said.
“It’s not either. It’s a good movie,” Charlene insisted. “And it has a good message.”
“Which is: ‘You’re never too young for plastic surgery,’” said Maybeck. They all laughed, even Charlene.
The ads stopped and the movie continued. Over the next hour, Mrs. Whitman delivered popcorn, soda, cupcakes, milk, and hot chocolate. Finn and Philby took notes about the characters in the movie as well as tracking the plot. Willa wrote down the settings of the various scenes. Maybeck snorted and made derisive comments, some of which would have gotten him thrown out of class at school. Amanda and Jess watched enraptured, with Jess displaying a serious appetite for kettle corn and Amanda for lemon cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting.
By the end, Maybeck said, “I don’t get it.”
Finn muted the television. “Wayne never makes it easy, you know that.”
“Admit it, Whitman,” Maybeck said. “You don’t have a clue why we just watched that movie.”
“We watched the movie,” Finn answered, “because Wayne told us to watch the movie.”
“That’s only if you interpret the coded message a certain way.”
“And how do you interpret it?” Philby asked.
“How should I know?” Maybeck said.
“Meaning you don’t have a better idea,” Philby said.
“All I’m saying is, none of us knows why we just watched that movie.”
Silence settled between them. Finn studied his notes and Willa leafed through hers. They looked at each other and Willa shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“Any ideas, people?” Finn proposed. “Remember, the Stonecutter’s Quill was no cakewalk. He never makes it easy.”
“No one could accuse him of that,” Charlene said. “Elephants? Ears? Mother–daughter? Determination?”
“Try, try again,” contributed Philby.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” said Maybeck. “It’s a geek elephant with ear-wings. An overweight Will Smith.”
He won another laugh from everyone.
“The circus,” said Jess.
They all looked at her. She hadn’t spoken a word in nearly two hours.
“It’s true,” Willa chimed in. “We’re talking specifics like elephants and ears, but the theme, the overall setting is the circus.”
“The horses are from a carousel,” said Amanda. “In Jess’s diary. The picture she drew. The horses aren’t being stabbed. They’re on a carousel.”
“I pointed that out before,” Maybeck reminded, “and nobody thought to consider it.”
“A chair in front of a carousel,” Finn said.
“The Dumbo ride in Magic Kingdom!” Charlene said.
“Just one problem with that idea.” As the resident expert Philby won the group’s attention. “Dumbo the Flying Elephant is not a carousel and there are no horses on the ride.”
“Other than that,” Maybeck said, “it’s pretty much a perfect match.”
“So, it’s Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel,” Charlene proposed.
“I hate to be a stinker,” Willa said, “but one of the horses in Jess’s drawing has straight legs.”
The boys eyed Willa suspiciously. Was this a girl–boy trap they were being led into? A joke or prank?
Charlene quelled that notion. “She’s right! And on Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel all the horses have bent knees.”
“You can’t possibly know that,” said Philby, believing himself the expert in everything.
“How many times have you ridden it?” Charlene inquired. “Trust me: bent legs.”
“And there’s the jacket, people,” Maybeck said. “Let’s not forget the jacket.”
“The Epcot jacket Wayne is wearing,” Finn said, nodding.
“Carousel horses in Epcot?” Willa questioned. “I don’t think so.”
“When in doubt…?” Philby said to Finn.
“Google it!” Finn answered. He returned less than five minutes later carrying a printout.
“So, I tried a bunch of things. Epcot carousel—got all these hits for Carousel of Progress. It’s in MK and is rarely opened. Circus, Epcot was a waste. But circus tent, Epcot, was it. Fun Facts of Epcot came up with the words circus tent highlighted. It’s a blog,” he said, showing them the printout, “from 1997. I searched it for circus tent, and got this part that talks about a field trip to Wonders of Life. There was a hallway with a circus tent at the end of it. And in the very next paragraph, there’s a lounge mentioned that has a Mary Poppins theme with…get this…carousel horses painted on the walls.”
“Mary Poppins!” an excited Charlene shouted too loudly. “I knew I recognized those horses. That’s it!” At Charlene’s beckoning, Jess handed her the photocopy from her diary and placed it for all to see. The kids gathered around. “These carousel horses are from Mary Poppins. Absolutely. I can’t believe,” she said to Jess, “you got it as perfect as you did.”
“I’ve never even heard of Wonders of Life,” Maybeck complained.
“Neither had I, so I Wiki’d it,” said Finn. “It was closed in 2004. And get this: it’s used sometimes for receptions and—”
“Field trips,” Philby said.
“That’s where they’re holding him,” Maybeck said, sitting up and paying more attention.
“I thought you didn’t believe any of this,” Willa sniped.
“I was locked up by those bad boys,” Maybeck reminded everyone.
“So was I,” said Willa. “The Animal Kingdom Lodge, remember?”
“So you know, and I know, how bad it is. I was waiting for you geniuses to figure it out. But now that you have and it’s time for action…”
“Maybeck to the rescue,” Charlene said.
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Maybeck said.
“Tonight?” Finn asked. He slowly looked around the room, from face to face. He realized how these six people had become his closest friends. He didn’t see that much of Dillard, a neighborhood pal, anymore. These six and their mission to stop the Overtakers consumed him. He could use his being a Kingdom Keeper as a convenient excuse with his other friends. The role required him to record vocal tracks and occasionally model a new move or two for the hologram Imagineers. But more than any excuses, he wanted to be with the Kingdom Keepers; he wanted to find Wayne and take on Maleficent and Chernabog and get them locked up again. To voice that aloud would get him an appointment with a psychiatrist, but these six others understood; they had been there.
“Tonight,” Maybeck said. “Tomorrow is Saturday. We can sleep it off.”
“What time?” Amanda asked. “We’re kind of new at this.”
“It’s late already,” Finn said. “If we all try to get to bed by quarter of eleven, we should cross over about a half hour later.”
“We left the fob at the Studios,” Philby reminded him.
“I’ll pick up the fob,” Finn said. “Fantasmic! Friday will mean there are buses running late.”
“Won’t you be spotted?” Jess asked.
“My projection will die somewhere outside the Studios. I can get on a bus without being seen. If I happen to pop on and off a couple of times, it’ll only convince the other guests that I’m my DHI. That’s all that matters.”
“So,” Philby said, “eleven-fifteen, the
bathrooms on the way to Test Track.”
Each of them nodded.
“We wait for everyone,” he said. “I’ll use the back-door in the software to send us all. I’ll turn the Studios on for you, Finn.” Finn nodded. “Once Finn is there with the fob, we’ll wait until eleven-thirty and then head for the Wonders pavilion. If you’re late, you can catch up to us there.”
“The lounge,” Finn said, “is on the second floor.”
“What if the Overtakers are using Wonders as a kind of base?” Charlene asked.
“We’re not going to just barge in there, if that’s what you’re asking,” Philby answered.
“We should go to bed wearing dark clothing and running shoes,” Finn advised.
“I’ll bring some rope,” Charlene said.
“Bring your phones with you,” Philby told them.
An anonymous benefactor—Wayne?—had sent all five Kingdom Keepers free phones as a reward for their efforts in the Animal Kingdom. The phones, which could connect to the Internet as well as send texts, had a direct-connect feature—like an intercom—just between the five of them. “And flashlights,” Finn said. “And, Jess, make sure you have paper and pencil, in case you have one of your…you know….”
“Trances?” Jess said.
“Whatever it is you have,” Finn said.
“Anyone up for s’mores?” Mrs. Whitman shouted down into the basement.
“Quick!” Finn said, “get out of here before you don’t fit through the doors!”
22
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” Everything had gone smoothly for Finn. He’d made it into the Studios, had retrieved the fob, and had been about to board the last bus back to the Transportation Ticket Center, when he realized he’d be stranded there. He’d gone invisible shortly after leaving the Studios’ gate and had been standing near the bus loading area wondering what to do when he’d overheard a conversation behind him.
“Catch a ride back to Epcot with you?” Printed in large yellow letters across a windbreaker Finn read: ORDNANCE CREW CHIEF.
“Sure, climb in! Don’t know what we’d have done without you, Pete,” the driver of the pickup said. Pete climbed in. A Mickey Mouse bobblehead nodded at the two men from the dashboard. “Would have been a disaster without those pyro effects.”
“Without problems,” said Pete, “I wouldn’t have a job. Happy to help out. I just wish we weren’t doing the run-through of Fantasmic! at five again tomorrow.”
“Every morning this week.”
“Don’t remind me. I can hear my alarm ringing already.”
As Pete pulled himself up into the cab, the invisible Finn stepped onto the bumper and pulled himself into the truck bed.
The problem came as the pickup truck was passing through Security backstage at Epcot, for, as it turned out, the Epcot DHI projectors could reach all the way out to the checkpoint. Finn’s DHI began flashing and flickering on and off in the truck bed, only seconds before the pickup pulled to a stop at the Security blockade. There was no tarp to hide under. No empty cardboard box. So he rolled to the side of the truck bed nearest the guard station and hid as best he could. Hiding his projected image was one thing—his effort accomplished that. But there was nothing to stop his pulsing glow from illuminating the back of the truck. He feared either the guard, or Pete, from the passenger seat, would pick up on his blinking glow and discover him. He was like a neon sign going on and off. He tried to think of how to talk his way out of this if spotted, but couldn’t come up with any decent excuses.
The driver announced himself and must have passed the guard some identification for him and his passenger. Would the guard check the back of the truck?
He didn’t. The truck pulled forward. Thirty yards past the checkpoint Finn’s DHI stopped flickering. He was fully projected now, and he had to get out of the moving truck before being spotted. He calmed himself, repeating the procedure he’d outlined for Philby, not forcing, but allowing his DHI to realize all-clear. Then he rolled over the side of the moving pickup truck and dropped. If he’d been human, he would have broken bones and suffered a road rash that would have stayed with him through Christmas. Instead, he fell to the pavement and bounced. No matter how prepared he’d been, he couldn’t keep fear entirely out of his system. He felt the contact with the asphalt; his elbows and knees hurt as he rolled and sat up, now on the edge of the access road. His palms were scraped, though not badly, and it occurred to him he’d have these wounds when he awakened later that morning, that he’d need an excuse for them to use on his mom. But he was in surprisingly good shape for a kid who had just jumped from a moving vehicle.
He stood up, took his bearings by locating Epcot’s famous golf ball, and headed off to join the others.
His surprise, upon arriving at the rendezvous, was Philby.
He was standing there, wearing only his underpants.
“No, I’m not kidding you,” Philby said. “It was a situation beyond my control.”
“As in?” asked Charlene, who couldn’t keep the smirk off her face.
“As in, I happened to fall asleep before I expected. I was getting dressed—putting some dark clothes on—when I heard my mom coming to check on me. She’d probably heard my dresser drawers or something—”
“Your drawers?” Maybeck said, winning a volley of laughter.
“And I had to get into bed fast, and next thing I know I’m waking up here.”
“Here,” said Jess, who’d worn a sweater. Philby thanked her as he tied it around his waist.
“I can all-clear into one of the gift shops and borrow you a pair of pants. We just have to put them back before we leave.”
That’s exactly what he did on their way to the Wonders of Life pavilion. Finn walked through the front door of the Future World gift shop, found some clothes for Philby, and shoved them through a mail slot. Philby ended up in sweatpants and a Test Track T-shirt.
“Okay, that’s the entrance,” Willa said as they approached a line of potted evergreen trees. The trees had been cleverly placed to both block the entry ramp and screen the closed pavilion from view.
“Over here,” Finn said, moving them into the planting to hide. He lowered his voice. “We’d better split up.” He’d long since accepted that the other Keepers looked to him to have a plan. “That way if there’s trouble, maybe one group can help the other. Or, at the very least, not all of us get caught at the same time.”
“That doesn’t sound great,” Charlene said, the climbing rope carried over her left shoulder.
“Do you feel like climbing?” Finn asked.
She peered out at the round pavilion. “I should be able to get up those Xs to that lip in the middle of the glass. It looks like I can get clear around the building.”
“There’s a sunroom terrace, over there,” Philby said, pointing. “If you could lower the rope—”
“Yeah!” said Maybeck.
“You’ll need to tie off both ends,” Charlene told Maybeck. “I’ll double it, like we do for climbing, so we can pull it down from the bottom after we leave.”
“No sweat.”
“Philby, Willa, and Maybeck will climb and meet you on the balcony,” Finn said. “Philby, you or Maybeck could all-clear and go through the door and get it open.
“Amanda, Jess, and I will hang near the front doors. Once you guys are in, if there’s no one watching the front door, one of you will come let us in. You guys will take the second floor, we’ll take the ground level.”
Charlene held up her mobile phone. She wore a black baseball cap to help hide her blond hair. “I’ll call if I spot trouble.”
“Might be too risky,” Finn said. “Too noisy. Let’s stick with the flashlights. Three flashes is clear. One means we hang here and wait for you to come back.”
“Okay,” Charlene said, the strength in her voice belying her pretense of bravery. “But you’ll need a view of the sunroom.”
“I’m with you,” Maybeck said. “I can give you a leg up, the
n I’ll get around to the side and wait for your signal. I’ll pass it on.”
“That works,” Finn said.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Jess asked Charlene somewhat timidly.
“She’s fine,” Maybeck said, resenting Jess’s voicing her concern.
“Help me tie this on,” Charlene said.
Amanda and Jess knotted the coil of rope into a figure eight that fit snugly on Charlene’s shoulder. She double-checked the flashlight, cupping it to avoid giving their position away.
“One last thing,” Finn said. “If it goes bad in there, we rendezvous in two stages. First, here, if it seems safe. Then, where we crossed over, over near Test Track. If some of us miss the first crossover, I’ll leave the fob on the water fountain by the bathrooms. We’ll need a better hiding place for it after the final crossover, so keep that in mind.”
“We’re good,” an impatient Maybeck said. “Let’s do this thing.”
He and Charlene slipped out of the bushes and, ducking low, ran quickly toward the looming pavilion.
23
FINN KEPT AMANDA and Jess close, crouched and sneaking through the trees and shrubs, with Philby and Willa lagging slightly behind. The group gathered where they’d have a view of Maybeck, who had scurried off into the overgrowth after boosting Charlene up into the superstructure. Maybeck had taken a position where he could see around to the back of the pavilion.
The five watched in amazement as Charlene scrambled up the crossbeams like a monkey. She threw a knee over the rim that stuck off the curved surface like a shelf, and then rose to her feet, leaning against the wall and inching her way to her left. After a few minutes, she disappeared around the curve of the building.
“We wait for Maybeck’s signal.”
“Finn!” hissed Jess. She was pointing toward the pavilion. “On the ground.”
“I don’t know what you’re pointing at.”
Amanda shuddered. “Is that a—”
“Snake?” gasped Willa.
“Not just a snake,” Philby answered. “A python. A giant python.”
“That’s Gigabyte,” Finn said, finally seeing the thing. “It’s from Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.”
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