H
AVING WITNESSED THE ENCOUNTER
with the, Amanda kept a close eye on Finn and Maybeck as they headed toward the Park entrance. She had a good understanding of the camera system by now, enabling her to guide the boys and check the area both in front and behind for any sign of Overtakers.
A family waited behind Amanda to use her AnimalCam. Among them was an obnoxious boy who heckled her. She wondered what would happen if she were forced to surrender her viewing station, when the person to use it next realized they had access to every security camera in the Park. Again, the boy raised his voice.
“You don’t own it, you know! Give it a rest.”
The outburst won the attention of a Cast Member, who then headed toward her. Amanda quickly reset the viewing menu to match what was offered by the three other AnimalCam stations, but if the next user happened to scroll down…
The little boy jeered at Amanda as he stepped up to the station, which worked in her favor: his mother took away his “privilege” of using the AnimalCam, allowing Amanda to retake her place.
She caught his reflection in the Plexiglas that protected the AnimalCam’s television monitor.
She spun around sharply, getting a better look at the boy’s arm.
The boy snapped at her, “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
“Your…tattoo…” Amanda muttered.
“What about it?” the boy asked.
“May I?” She took a tentative step closer.
The boy tried to step away and deny her, but his mother blocked him, suddenly Amanda’s ally.
Amanda reached into her back pocket and withdrew the photocopied page from Jez’s diary.
Amanda held the photocopy up to the light and peered through the paper to reverse the image.
It was a match, a near-perfect sketch of the tattoo: a gorilla on crutches with a yellow bandage on its right foot. On the boy’s arm, “Help Care for Wildlife” was written across the top and “Disney’s Animal Kingdom” at the bottom. But Jez’s version offered only the image, not the words. Amanda had mistaken the figure in the sketch for a man.
“Where’d you get this?” she asked.
The mother answered, not the boy. “Here,” she said, pointing toward the large windows at the far end of the area that looked in on a veterinarian suite and several laboratories where animals were housed or cared for. “They give them out if you take the private tour. The keepers.”
This won an overwrought reaction from Amanda, who was thinking:
Kingdom Keepers.
“The animal keepers,” the woman clarified.
“Ohhh…”
“My husband is a consultant to Disney. They gave Preston and me a private tour, earlier. Really incredible, if you can arrange it.”
“It was awesome,” said Preston, his mood suddenly pleasant.
Boys
!
“At the end of the tour, the tattoo was one of the keepsakes they gave him,” the mother explained.
“Backstage,” Amanda mumbled, her mind whirring as she calculated how to get herself a private tour. Jez had been back there in her dreams. She felt certain of it.
Then she reconsidered her situation: she had an Animal Kingdom Cast Member pass in her pocket.
What was to stop her from going back there?
I
NSIDE THE
A
NIMAL
K
INGDOM’S
main entrance, in the large central courtyard where Park guests gathered, stood a talking recycling bin. A metal box standing about four feet high, it looked like a U.S. Postal Service box painted green. It was currently surrounded by several small boys and a pair of curious girls, amazed that when they asked it a question, the box could answer them.
Finn and Maybeck slowed and approached the recycling bin cautiously, not wanting to draw attention to themselves.
“Find a newspaper,” Finn said to Maybeck.
“What?”
“Split up. We’ve got to find something recyclable. The trash cans make the most sense.”
“You want to Dumpster-dive the trash cans for something recyclable?”
“Exactly. A newspaper. Soda can. Plastic water bottle. Doesn’t matter. I need an excuse to open the flap and put my hand inside. I hadn’t figured on it being so popular.”
“FEEEEEED MEEEEEE,” the can was saying to the giggling children. “Do you recycle at home?”
The kids were getting a kick out of the talking can, their amused parents standing back and watching.
The boys split up, and shortly thereafter, Maybeck returned with an empty water bottle.
“Perfect,” Finn said, taking hold of the bottle.
Suddenly, the bin turned sharply toward Finn. The younger kids jumped back, followed by a volley of laughter.
“FEEEEEED MEEEEEE,” the can repeated, now aiming directly at Finn.
Finn had no doubt that Wayne had arranged this somehow.
“Eleven o’clock,” Maybeck whispered at Finn.
Finn carefully looked slightly to his left and identified a casually dressed man wearing sunglasses and a pair of headphones. He carried what looked like a radio in his hands, but Finn recognized it as the remote control device that was steering the box. This man was also listening and speaking through the moving box. His sunglasses prevented Finn from knowing where he was looking, but Finn believed the man was very much aware of the task at hand.
Finn hoisted the water bottle.
The box said, “Did you know that recycled water bottles are made into Park benches, picnic tables, and car parts?”
“I did not,” Finn answered.
“Are you going to feed me or not?” the box asked.
“Feed it!” one of the little kids said boldly.
“Do it!” chimed in another.
Finn knew how to play this. He approached the box warily, the water bottle extended as an offering. He reached into the bin. Then he lurched forward, as if the box were trying to swallow him. As the kids recoiled in a mixture of laughter and screams, Finn ran his hand along the roof of the box and bumped into something hard. He took hold of it and pulled. Some tape came loose, and he now had the remote in hand. He cupped it in his fist, drew his arm back out of the bin dramatically and gestured wildly, pocketing the device.
“Yum, yum!” said the recycle bin. “More! I want more!”
“I’m afraid that’s all,” said Finn, backing up and moving away. The bin spun toward the other children, drawing their attention and making it easier for Finn to slip away.
He glanced over at the man secretly controlling the bin and thought he saw a slight nod of acknowledgment.
His DS beeped and he checked the chat room.
angelface13: they’re almost through the moving ice.
Finn: we’re on our way. we did a little recycling.
H
AVING HANDED OFF THE REMOTE
control device Charlene, who stood watch outside the bat enclosure, Finn and Maybeck rode a Disney bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Charlene would, once again, use her stilts and camouflage to approach the backstage area behind the enclosure. This time, she would circle around, rather than enter the enclosure, avoiding the scrutiny of the Park visitors. Once she established herself atop the wall near the two cages and the ice truck, she would notify Finn on the DS.
The boys had to discover where the real Willa and Philby were being kept and be on hand to get them out of the hotel once they awakened. Charlene was to trigger the remote, canceling their DHI state.
They entered the Animal Kingdom Lodge lobby, and both boys gasped. Finn had never seen such a place. It felt as if he’d stepped into Africa itself: the vast floor and the columns were crafted from a dark, unusual wood; the lobby furniture was covered in brown-and-white animal skins; giant chandeliers made of spears and shields hung from the ceiling. African music played, the rhythm enchanting. The bellhops wore brown safari outfits. The lobby stretched two hundred feet or more, leading to stairs and giant windows that looked out onto an African savannah, where Finn could see two giraffes and several wildebeests.
Upon seeing all of this, Maybeck hissed a bad word.
There were people everywhere. Some occupied the sumptuous furniture; others milled about, heading this way or that. The clatter and hum of people eating and talking wafted up from a lower level to the right. A few people waited in line at the registration desk to the left. But all around, there was a feeling of excitement and mystery as families and staff came and went. Into this walked two boys, one in a Park worker’s coveralls, the other in shorts and a T-shirt.
No one paid them the slightest bit of attention.
“We’re invisible,” Finn said softly.
“I hear you,” Maybeck agreed.
Finn rarely found a place inside Disney World where he was not self-conscious about being a DHI actor, where he didn’t feel the weight of eyes trained on him wondering if he was
him
, the Disney host from the Magic Kingdom. Yet here, in the wondrous lobby of this magnificent lodge, he felt transported across the oceans to another continent, one far away from Mickey and Minnie and the person he had become.
“Any ideas?” Maybeck asked.
“We can’t exactly ask someone if they’ve seen a boy and a girl,” Finn said, having already walked past a few dozen boys and girls, most in the company of their parents, but not all.
“No.”
“If I could get on to VMK, Wayne might be able to look up what rooms have been checked into in the past few hours, but there would be too many to count.”
“Yup.”
“Not much help.”
“Nope.”
“So, do you have any bright ideas?” Finn asked. The two boys passed a small study, like a private library, on their left, and they continued down a long corridor of hotel rooms.
“We can’t exactly go knocking on every door,” Maybeck said.
“You think?” Finn stepped aside and allowed a family coming toward them to pass. “I was hoping for something more constructive.”
“I’ve got nothing,” Maybeck said.
“I noticed.”
“We could divide and conquer,” Maybeck suggested. “I could take the upstairs or the other side of the hotel.”
The lodge was fashioned in a giant Y, with the lobby in the stem, and the rooms stretching out into both wings of the V at the top of the stem. The V stuck out into a savannah, and the long corridors periodically offered viewing stations on either side, where all kinds of wildlife could be seen, from birds that stood four feet high to zebras and Thomson’s gazelles.
“We could stay in touch by DS,” Maybeck continued.
Finn stopped and grabbed Maybeck by the arm. “That’s it!” he whispered harshly.
“It is?”
“The DSs,” Finn said. “When a DS gets a new message, it beeps.”
“So?”
“So…if we keep texting, and if one of us is near the door to their room when it beeps, then we’ll hear it and know which room they’re in.”
“Sweet,” said Maybeck.
“But what if they’re being guarded? The guards will just turn off the DS.”
“They weren’t guarding you that time at Space Mountain.”
“True.”
“Why guard someone who’s asleep and can’t wake up? Kind of a waste, don’t you think?” Finn thought about how he would do it. “You’d put them on the bed, pull the drapes, put a
DO NOT DISTURB
sign on the door, and leave them.”
“Okay! Makes sense,” Maybeck said. “Then we start with rooms that have
DO NOT DISTURB
signs on the doors. At four o’clock in the afternoon, how many rooms can that be?”
“Not many,” Finn agreed.
“Start sending messages while I find the rooms with the
DO NOT DISTURB
signs.”
“If they’re here,” Maybeck said, “we’re going to find them.”
* * *
Finn pressed his ear to the door outside a room with a
DO NOT DISTURB
tag on the handle. He’d found three doors so far. With his ear to the fourth such room, he heard a faint but familiar beep and knew it was a DS.
Finn: found it!!!
A minute later Maybeck came down the hallway toward him.
“This is their room,” Finn declared. As Maybeck leaned his ear against the door, Finn sent a text.
Maybeck smiled and pulled away from the door. “Bull’s-eye!”
“You’re a better liar than I am,” Finn said.
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Charming. I meant to say you’re more charming than I am. You’re better with the ladies.”
“That goes without saying,” Maybeck said.
“There’s a room being cleaned, back toward the elevator.”
“I passed it,” Maybeck confirmed.
“I think you left your family’s Park Hoppers in this room, and your father’s in here asleep with a headache, which explains the
DO NOT DISTURB
sign.”
“I think you’re brilliant,” Maybeck said.
“Goes without saying. Can you pull it off?”
“This is me we’re talking about!” Maybeck boasted.
“Same question.”
“You’ll need to get yourself gone,” Maybeck said.
“I’ll hang at the next set of windows.”
“I’ll text you once I’m inside,” Maybeck said.
* * *
Less than five minutes later, Finn received the text message. He returned to the room and knocked softly. Maybeck opened the door.
The room held a big bed and a pair of bunks. Philby was drooling onto the pillow of the big bed. Willa slept peacefully on the lower bunk. They shook both kids, but to no avail: perma-sleep—Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.
“The one thing I remember,” said Maybeck, who yawned all of a sudden, “is how much I dreamed when they had me in this state. I dreamed of being locked up. I think I was dreaming what my DHI was seeing.”
Finn yawned reflexively. “Don’t get me tired, or we’ll end up like them.”
“A nap wouldn’t hurt,” Maybeck said, eyeing the bunk. “We could take turns. Ten minutes.”
“Do
not
go there.”
“I’m tired.”
“That’s the point. Hang on.” Finn sent Charlene a text message.
Finn: ready when u r.
angelface13: all set.
Both Maybeck and Finn heard the loud scratching sound at the same time. At first Finn thought it was a radio or TV in another room.
Maybeck hurried over and cracked the curtains. “Apes!” he hissed. He held up two fingers.
Two apes
, Finn realized. Out on the balcony. The sliding door squeaked as one of the apes pulled on the handle from the outside.
Maybeck pointed to his own chest and then the closet. Seeing this signal, Finn hurried into the bathroom, stepped into the tub, and pulled the shower curtain closed. He heard the door swing open and the sounds of the two apes moving around the room. Were they looking for them? Had the maid told someone about letting Maybeck into the room?
A message from Charlene appeared on Finn’s screen.
angelface13: i’m in position, will push remote in 3, 2, 1…
The bathroom door was flung open. Finn could hear one of the two orangutans breathing hard, and the room suddenly smelled different. He reached up and turned the showerhead to face the curtains, his hand on the faucet.
Four hairy fingers appeared at the edge of the shower curtain. Finn felt as if he might pass out.
The shower curtain was jerked open.
Finn yanked the lever. Water roared into the face of an ugly orange ape. The ape slapped his own face, screamed, and jumped back.
Finn leaped from the tub, pulled a terrycloth robe from the back of the bathroom door, and tossed it over the ape. He then used the bathrobe’s belt to take a strong turn around the confused ape, pulled it tight, and knotted it around the ape’s legs. The orangutan fell over, kicking and thrashing and screaming, doing nothing but spinning in circles on the bathroom floor.
The second ape appeared at the doorway. Finn lunged for the other bathrobe, but it drew him closer to the ape, whose big mouth came open, teeth bared. Just as Finn feared the ape would strike, Maybeck leaped out of the bedroom closet and poked it with a hanger that he wielded as a sword.
This provoked the ape. It spun around to challenge Maybeck, giving Finn the extra seconds he needed to take hold of the robe and throw it over the orangutan. He and Maybeck made quick work of tying up this one as well. They dragged it into the bathroom and, as they shut the door, both apes were seen whirling angrily on the tile floor.
Finn shook Willa. Maybeck pulled on Philby’s arm. Both groaned and squirmed uncomfortably: they were awakening! Charlene had used the remote on the DHIs in the cages, and it had worked. The cages were now empty—the DHIs gone, zeroed out by the server. Maleficent and the Overtakers with her had to be terribly confused.
And angry.
The orangutans screamed loudly from the bathroom.
Maybeck said to Philby, “I know you feel like a zombie. I’ve been there. But we have to hurry. We’ve got to get you out of here.”