The room was
full
of bad guys. Violet and Katie were seated on the couch, surrounded by menacing villains of all makes and models. Every one
of them had a gun. The old man, Holloway, was there too. He seemed really unhappy and was being noticeably quiet, but Violet couldn’t figure out why. The old man never spoke to Violet or Katie; he’d simply watched as two of his men led the girls into the room and made them sit on the couch. He kept checking a little computer that sat in front of him, sighing every time when he didn’t see whatever it was he was looking for.
Violet sat forward and craned her neck to take in the surroundings. A small sigh escaped her lips when she realized that this room was identical to the one she’d been in with her mother and Katie. However, one interesting detail piqued her interest. She noticed that one of the panes in the giant window was cracked. A large puddle of something dark pooled on the floor nearby. It was interspersed with shards of broken glass—maybe from a vase or a bottle. The window worried her; it was bowed out and looked like it could easily break if touched.
On impulse, Violet stood and walked across toward the chair by the window—much to her captors’ surprise. She ignored the strange stares from the bad guys and continued on her way until one of the men stepped in front of her and blocked her path.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the man asked, trying to sound scary.
Violet wasn’t impressed. She stared up at him and crossed her arms, like she’d seen her mother do when she was really mad at somebody or when she needed to say something important.
“I’m going to sit in the chair by the window. I want to look outside,” she stated, still staring at the man defiantly. She could see confusion written all over his face. At one point, he even looked toward Holloway for a suggestion. Violet was losing patience. “Don’t look at him! I’m on vacation. You ruined it. I want to look out the window at the Magic Kingdom. Now be nice and turn that chair around so that me and my sister can sit in it.”
Violet almost giggled at the bewildered look on the man’s face. It was so funny that some of the other men in the room laughed aloud at him. He turned bright red and looked over at Holloway one more time for direction.
“Be nice, Masters,” said Holloway, with a nod toward the chair in question, before returning his eyes once more to the small computer.
The man, Masters, looked from Holloway to Violet and back again before finally shaking his head and turning around. Violet was forced to stifle another laugh as he turned the chair around and then angrily stalked off to another room.
“Come on, Kay,” Violet said, and waited for her sister to join her before taking a seat by the window. The two girls easily fit in the large chair; Violet did not want her sister anywhere near that broken window—it looked like it was ready to give way at any moment.
The view from this room was as stunning as the view from the villa next door. The park looked different in the mid-afternoon light; a little less bright but warmer—even more welcoming than it had looked earlier in the morning. Violet sighed lightly again, wishing she and her family could be down there. Her mood had darkened considerably in the few minutes since she’d been in this room. She’d almost been able to trick her mind into believing that she was still on vacation when she was in the room next door. Violet remained strong, because she knew it took an iron will to make it through any difficult situation, but she worried about her Mom. After a while, she could no longer keep quiet.
“Mr. Holloway,” Violet called, without turning around. She could see him in a reflection in the glass. Her voice seemed to startle him, and he jerked his head in her direction before answering.
“Yes?” he said, slowly and with mild irritation in his voice.
“Why did you bring me and my sister over here, but not my Mom?”
Holloway hesitated before answering. “It’s all a part of things to come. You girls and your mother have different roles to play. Everything will be over soon.”
Violet didn’t understand the way he spoke—so mysterious and enigmatic—but she thought that she must not be meant to understand. “Is my Daddy coming?”
Again, Holloway hesitated.
“Yes.”
Violet knew she wouldn’t get any more answers out of the old man. She shared a smile with her sister at the mention of their father coming to rescue them.
•••
The next while went by in almost complete silence, with only passing conversations happening between the few men who were still left in the room. Earlier, Holloway had sent away all of his men, except for Masters and two others, to ‘take up positions’—whatever that meant. He’d even told two guys to ride the monorail and wait for orders. Violet didn’t mind; fewer scary guys with guns was never a bad thing. She was finally able to relax, and Katie had fallen asleep next to her. Although Violet still worried deeply about her mother, she could not take her eyes off the Magic Kingdom—so close, yet so far away. The view greatly helped to distract her.
The sun was just beginning to set, and Violet noticed another change in tone for the park. As lights gradually came on throughout the property, Violet found the place as irresistible as ever. She’d always enjoyed the Magic Kingdom at night, sharing her father’s love of the colorful lights of Tomorrowland after dark. It was only the night before when they’d taken their fateful ride on the PeopleMover, but it felt like an eternity had passed since she’d last set foot in the park.
Needing to stretch her legs a bit, Violet slowly stood, careful not to wake Katie as she gently eased her into a more comfortable position. Satisfied that her sister was still asleep, Violet decided to head to the nearest bathroom. She felt the eyes of the bad guys upon her, but nobody said anything as she made her way across the room.
Finally, some privacy.
After Violet finished, she was washing her hands at the sink when she heard voices from the other room. It sounded like Holloway and Masters were concerned about something. She quickly dried her hands and left the bathroom, eager to make it back to Katie’s side and watch over her.
When she opened the door, Violet noticed that lights had been turned on throughout the villa. Holloway and Masters were hunched over the small computer, speaking in quick hushed tones. Violet couldn’t make out much of what they were saying, but Masters kept pointing to different places on the screen and asking “What about that one?”
Violet rushed back over to the chair by the window just as Katie was waking up, rubbing her eyes and yawning.
“What’s going on, Vi?” she asked.
Violet made a shushing gesture with her finger and spoke to her sister in a whisper.
“I don’t know. They’re interested in something on that computer. Something’s going on, though.”
“They turned all the lights on—woke me up,” Katie complained.
The sun had almost completely set outside as Violet looked down upon the grounds before her. She scanned the ground below for anything of interest, but nothing seemed to catch her eye. After a few moments she’d begun to grow disenchanted with the view, and had decided to find a pen and paper so that she could draw. Just when she shifted to stand up, something amazing happened.
Three cars in the parking lot below suddenly and inexplicably exploded.
Clouds of fire and smoke climbed toward the sky. Katie let out a startled yelp as the shockwave from the blasts rattled the windows in their frames. Impossibly, the broken pane held strong, though Violet couldn’t believe that it remained in place. It looked as if it could fall away at any moment.
Ignoring the commotion caused by Holloway and his men following the explosions, Violet gazed out at the scene and noticed that she could still see the monorail smoothly gliding in for its stop at the Contemporary’s main tower. Something wasn’t right about the train. She couldn’t make out any details through the tinted windows but, from one of the compartments near the front, she saw several bright flashes of light coming from within. She leaned closer to the window for a better view, but the flashes had stopped almost as soon as they’d started and the monorail had pulled entirely inside the main building.
Before she could even begin to speculate about the source of the flashes or the cause of the explosions, a man burst into the room, clenching a squawking radio in his fist.
“Sir, they’re here!” he yelled, before disappearing back into the hallway.
“Masters, it’s time. You know what to do. Go,” the old man commanded.
Masters nodded, drew his weapon and exited the room, leaving Violet and Katie alone with Holloway and the two other men—who had taken up positions on either side of the door. Holloway looked tense, and the other two looked nervous—exchanging worried glances with each other. The explosions outside seemed to have rattled more than just the windows.
Something was
definitely
happening.
Violet checked her watch; the time was just before eight o’clock. Deep within her heart, she knew—absolutely
knew
—that her Dad was coming. These men were on the defensive; they were excited—maybe even afraid.
Violet looked at Katie and smiled the characteristic all-knowing grin of her father. If there was one person on this Earth who could strike fear into guys as scary as these, they knew it could be none other than Charlie Walker.
At ten minutes past seven PM, Charlie and Kalani met up with Victoria and the rest of X-ray Team inside Tomorrowland, near a few benches that had a good view of Space Mountain’s entrance. Their fruitless search at Hollywood Studios had frustrated the detective, and Kalani had been required to crack a handful of bad jokes before he could finally snap Charlie back to the present. The big Hawaiian was absolutely brimming with positivity and was relentless in his quest to infect everyone else with it.
Charlie sat down on one of the benches, taking an open spot between Victoria and Mason, who had a satellite laptop resting on his thighs.
“What’s going on?” Charlie asked Victoria.
Without taking her eyes off the entrance, Victoria told him, “They’re just finishing up the evac. If you take a look at the entrance, you can see it’s already chained off. There should only be a handful of guests left inside and we should see them exit the arcade any second now.”
“That’s a relief,” Charlie agreed. “What about the bomb—do you think he’ll blow it?”
Victoria didn’t hesitate before answering.
“I don’t think so. The old man is definitely pissed off, but I don’t think he’s that petty or spiteful. The bomb is useless now and I don’t think he’d waste his time just to force Disney to fix a section of track. I’d say the bomb is safely neutralized.”
“What about disposal?” Charlie asked, concerned for any maintenance workers who might come across the explosive.
“I’ve notified Langley and Disney of the threat, as well as its current status. Disney has agreed not to reopen the ride, and to remove all personnel from the vicinity until further notice. I’ve also warned them to keep everything else operating as usual—with the exception of the PeopleMover due to its close proximity. They were hesitant, so I had to tell them the truth. They’re definitely worried—a bomb on an attraction is no laughing matter—but I think I’ve made them understand that the threat is confined to the Mountain and that evacuating the entire park would be an unnecessarily dangerous decision. A Company disposal crew is en route and, after the old man is taken care of, they’ll head inside and dismantle the weapon.”
Charlie nodded and breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed as if he’d been holding his breath for the last day and he was finally able to breathe again. It was a great relief to know that the bomb was no longer a threat to anyone. He felt reinvigorated, able to devote all of his focus, effort and brainpower to saving his family. The threat of the bomb had torn him, and he’d been forced to spread his resources thin in an attempt to solve both problems simultaneously, but now he could breathe a little easier knowing that his focus was whole once again.
“So what’s the plan?” he asked, eagerly. Normally, Charlie was the decision maker, the master planner, the chief tactician and the bloodhound, but he was absolutely fine with letting this remarkable woman take the reins. Victoria was beyond intelligent, and Charlie was thankful for her support.
“Let me expand a little on what we talked about on the phone,” she began, finally taking her eyes off Space Mountain and turning to face Charlie. “The way I see it is this: when the ride went down, my Dad must have noticed. A standard Code V doesn’t take long to clean, so he put two and two together and figured out that we’d taken the ride offline. I’m guessing that as soon as he saw that his bomb was useless, he recalled his dogs to the Tower. He knows we’re coming, and he’s setting up one hell of a welcoming party.”
“What kind of resistance are we looking at?” Charlie asked.
“Mason, laptop,” Victoria requested, extending an open hand across Charlie, toward Mason. When the thin agent handed over the computer, Victoria moved closer to Charlie to allow him to see the screen. “When I said they’ve turned Bay Lake Tower into a fortress, I meant it quite literally. My Dad and your family are on the fourteenth floor, occupying two large villas.”
Involuntarily, Victoria glanced in the direction of the Tower while she absently pulled up a floor plan of the villa. Returning her attention to the screen, she went over the layout of the rooms with Charlie and showed him a few interior pictures so that he knew what to expect when they finally made their way inside.
“He’s rallying his knights and barricading himself in his castle,” she continued. “I assume he knows that we’re prepping to hit him hard, so he’s trying to use his Chaos boys to stop us before we can reach him.”
“That’s either a hell of a gamble, or some epic confidence,” Charlie offered. “Why not just cut and run?”
“Because I have him and he knows it,” Victoria stated, directly—the most intense Charlie had ever seen her. “If he bugged out now—sure, he would survive the day—but I have his scent and I’d follow it to the ends of the Earth to find him. He knows that I’ve picked up his trail and that it would only be a matter of time before I followed it straight to him.”
“But that would mean…” Charlie began, absently making the obvious connection.
“Yes. He’s going to be gunning for me too. He knows he’ll never be safe until all of us are dead. While the old man seems
to be on the defensive, he is very much on the offensive
.
”
“Son of a bitch.”
“I know. It’s hard to come to terms with, but this is the way it has to be, Charlie. I can’t let him go, and he can’t let you or I live. We are far too great a threat to each other. This ends here, one way or another.”
Charlie nodded, slowly. He knew that the end was near, and he’d been steeling himself for the inevitable showdown for the better part of the day. He now found himself looking forward to the moment in which he would stand toe-to-toe with the enemy. It was sure to be dangerous, and a detective against a unit of militarized special operatives didn’t seem like a promising scenario, but he now had a clear path to his objective. These mercenaries stood between him and his family and, for that, they’d signed their own death warrants. Charlie wondered if Victoria and her team felt this way before every operation. In the short time he’d known them, he couldn’t imagine Victoria or Kalani actively looking forward to the things they had to do in the line of duty. He attributed his uncharacteristic feeling of malice to the fact that this situation was deeply personal. Holloway had transformed him from a lawman who took pride in his job to a vengeful entity that would do anything it took to save the ones he loved. It would be the last mistake that Spencer Holloway would ever make.
“We need to plan,” Charlie stated.
“That’s why I called you here—this is your operation, now,” Victoria stated.
“What?” Charlie exclaimed, taken aback. “I’m a detective, not an operative. I don’t know the first thing about planning something like this.”
“I think you do, Charlie. You know the layout of the entire Disney property better than anyone on my team. You know the inner workings of an evil mind better than detectives twice your age. You’re a
genius
,” she winked. “You are absolutely our number one resource right now, whether you like it or not.”
Charlie took a deep breath, considering what she’d said.
“Where do we start?” she asked him.
“The monorail,” he said.
“Is it safe?” Victoria asked.
“It’s the best option,” Charlie told her. “If the Chaos guys are in Bay Lake Tower, then they’ll be lax on security at the main Contemporary building. The resort loop heads from just outside the Magic Kingdom to the main building of the Contemporary. From there, we have the best chance of making it to Bay Lake Tower unseen. Any other approach is too exposed; they’ll literally see us coming. There’s a bridge between the two buildings, though it seems like an excellent place for an ambush—or at least a sentry—so I think it would be safer to avoid it.”
Victoria took a moment to consider Charlie’s suggestion.
“Smart,” she agreed with a shake of her head. “You seem to have a knack for the subtleties of covert operations planning. Beginner’s luck?” she joked.
“I read a lot of books,” Charlie said with a shrug.
Victoria let out a light laugh before moving on. “So, we have a way in. What else do we have?”
“We know our enemy,” Jen-Jen offered.
“Bingo,” Victoria said with a snap of her fingers. “We know exactly what we’re up against. There aren’t going to be any surprises on the personnel front. Jeremy is done for, and all that remains are twelve idiot mercs and my Dad. We’ve been up against worse.”
“Prince Edward Island!” Kalani blurted, with a pump of his fist.
“Prince Edward Island, indeed, old friend,” Victoria acknowledged with a slight bow of her head. “We’ve eliminated two variables—Jeremy and the bomb—but many remain, so it’s important that none of you let your guard down.”
Just then, Mason spoke up. His eyes were locked on his laptop, which Charlie had returned to him moments earlier.
“Vee? I just noticed something…uh…not good.”
“Hit me,” she ordered, with a sigh.
“Cameras have stopped picking up Chaos Squad.”
“What?” Victoria asked. “Why? Figure it out.”
“Already did. The cameras are being looped. It was a well-done job, but they can’t slip that shit past me. The feeds are all running in a constant thirty-second loop. I spotted the seam where the loops restart. Smart, because the shots are either devoid of people, or contain stationary people who don’t move enough to ruin the continuity.”
“Does this mean what I think it means?” Victoria asked, looking irritated.
“Yes,” Mason said. “It means that we don’t know where these fuckers are anymore. They could be anywhere.”
“Goddamn it!” Victoria barked. “Well, at least we still have the photographs. We’ll just have to memorize them and do it the old-fashioned way.”
“Uh, Vee?” Mason asked, apprehensively.
“What.”
Not a question.
Mason sighed and swallowed.
“Those are gone too,” Mason said, holding up his phone, the screen displaying just one terrible number and a single word:
0 images.