1

LIGHTNING FLASHED ON THE HORIZON. A breeze swirled around the Cast Members. The air tasted

dusty, almost bitter, with electrical charge.

Finn Whitman, one of five kids on top of the final parade float, pointed to the far gate where

the Magic Kingdom’s DHI-Day parade was to pass through, where five identical kids, wearing identical clothing to theirs, stood waiting.

DHI stood for Disney Host Interactive or Daylight Hologram Imaging—depending on whom

you asked—a recent addition to the Magic Kingdom that offered the holograms of five teenage

kids as Park hosts. The five kids who had auditioned for those roles were typical y forbidden to

enter the Magic Kingdom. But tonight was special: it was a DHI celebration.

Finn sensed trouble coming, wondering if it had to do with the electronic il usions waiting by

the gate.

“How weird is that?” he said, seeing himself as a hologram not thirty yards away. The Finn

Whitman standing by the gate looked no different from himself, except for a slight sparkle, a glow, when viewed from a certain angle.

“It gives me the weebies,” said Charlene, regarding her identical, though electronical y projected, twin. She too wore a cheerleader’s outfit; she too had her blond hair pul ed back severely into a ponytail, not a hair out of place; she too looked slightly embarrassed to have the body of a young woman, instead of a girl. Charlene was an athlete and champion gymnast and

had clearly been recruited as a Disney Host for her clean, cheerleader looks and her uncanny physical ability. She was good with people and could make friends with anyone. Most kids at school were jealous of her—but the other DHIs appreciated the skil s and abilities she brought to the team.

The hologram of Charlene stood next to the hologram of Finn, but the software had al five

holograms in PAUSE, making them look more like glowing mannequins than kids. They awaited the

start of the parade with the patience of the robots they were.

“We’ve been here before as them,” said Wil a, “but never with them.”

“I was, once,” corrected Finn. “Only the one time, and I was being chased by Security. I have

to admit, it was plenty strange to see myself guiding some guests while I was also running for my life.”

“What’s that?” asked Philby, pointing up at the rise behind the tal boundary fence inside the

Magic Kingdom.

“Cinderel a Castle,” answered Charlene.

“No, the gray bal oon,” Philby said. “It’s massive.”

“Looks like a weather bal oon,” said Terry Maybeck, who seemed to stand more than a head

tal er than al of them. An African American, Maybeck currently wore his hair in dreads, making him look older than the others.

The swarming clouds suddenly swal owed the large bal oon.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Philby. “You don’t release a weather bal oon in an electrical storm unless you’re Ben Franklin.”

“Not our problem,” said Maybeck. “Al we’ve got to do is ride the float and wave to the guests.

Let’s stick with the program.”

At that moment, music started and the first float moved toward the open gate. The five holograms came to life, as if a switch had been thrown. They formed a line at the front of the parade, waving to the bushes, as if guests were waving back.

“Sometimes our DHIs look so stupid,” Wil a said.

“Sometimes?” Philby said sarcastical y.

“They paid us wel ,” Maybeck reminded them, “and we got Gold Fastpasses for our families.

We’ve got nothing to complain about.”

“And they’re having a parade to celebrate our DHIs returning to the Kingdom,” Finn said, “and

we get to be part of it. Things could be worse.”

“Who here doesn’t miss the way it used to be? Before they patched the source code?”

Maybeck met eyes with each of them.

Finn had been the first to “cross over” during his sleep: to wake up as his own hologram in the

Magic Kingdom. Initial y it had seemed impossible, but encounters with pirates and witches had

made him reconsider what was real and what was make-believe. Soon, al five kids had come to

the same realization: when they went to sleep at night they awoke inside the Magic Kingdom as their DHI holograms. In reality, it had not been a corruption in the software’s source code but the ingenious work of a veteran Disney Imagineer named Wayne, who had needed their help. But no one at Disney knew this other than them, so recently programmers had inserted a software patch to correct “the problem.”

None of them knew if Wayne could, or would, undo it, al owing them to return to the Magic Kingdom as nighttime holograms. But al of them secretly hoped he would.

“Here we go!” said Finn. “Hang on!”

Their float jerked and climbed up the sloping asphalt just behind another float carrying Aladdin and Jasmine. With al the floats strung out in a line, the kids had lost sight of their matching holograms out in front, leading the way.

The music swel ed, and a man’s voice dramatical y announced, “Welcome to DHI-Day at Magic Kingdom!” The sound of applause rose above the lush jungle landscaping.

“Keep your smiles on,” said Maybeck, “and hang on tight.”

But at that moment, al five kids lost their balance and stumbled into each other. Jasmine and

Aladdin also slipped off their pil ows as their float accelerated to close a sudden gap that had appeared in the parade line.

It took Finn a moment to spot the problem: one of the floats—the vil ains float—had been pul ed out of the line and off to the side. The Aladdin float, and the one carrying the DHIs, had sped up to close the gap.

“What’s with that?” said Maybeck. “Broken down?”

“No,” said Philby. “It’s empty.”

He was right: the float’s platform lacked a character or Cast Member. It was just an empty

wooden rectangle. Below it, the Cast Members responsible for preparing the floats scurried around frantical y, hurrying to get the empty float out of the way and to fil the void created by its absence.

“What happened?” Finn cal ed down to one of the Cast Members just before reaching the gate and the adoring guests.

The man didn’t answer immediately. But his face gave away his concern. “He was right there

a minute ago,” he mumbled, nearly drowned out by the music. “I swear he was!”

“Who?” cal ed Finn. “Which character?”

He and the others had long since learned to take nothing for granted. Not when there were

Overtakers in the Park, who wanted to gain control of the Magic Kingdom. There were no accidents here: everything happened for a reason, even if the other Cast Members didn’t recognize it.

“That float should have Chernabog on it!” said Philby shouting to be heard above the music.

“Only he’s not there.” He turned and looked back at the empty float as they passed ful y through the gate and into the Park. Finn had turned around as wel . So had Maybeck.

“Who’s Chernabog?” grumbled Maybeck.

Philby answered, “Only the most powerful vil ain Walt Disney ever created.”

Finn’s voice was overpowered by the joyous music and the crush of applause. “And he’s gone missing? That can’t be good.”

2

FINN FELT THE QUICKENING BREEZE of the lightning storm bearing down on the Park. He hoped the

weather would hold off at least until the parade finished. It was an evening parade with fireworks to fol ow. He didn’t want it canceled. It wasn’t every day he was asked to ride a float in Disney World.

He kept checking the sky as the line of floats reached a view of Tom Sawyer Island. He noted

that the water looked oddly green and mysterious. His four friends waved and smiled at the crowds—big crowds. Al but Maybeck, who nodded with his whole body but never actual y waved,

his head bopping and moving to the parade music.

As their float moved through Frontierland, Finn caught sight of a girl among the crowd. She

was like a beam of light or a bright star in the night sky, the way she stood out. Amid the hundreds of guests—thousands?—she had appeared almost magical y. Nut-colored skin, thanks to an

Asian mother and African American father; a tangle of dark hair bouncing as, running now, she

kept up with the steady movement of the parade. She seemed almost to float above the ground.

Immediately behind her fol owed Jezebel. And though they claimed to be sisters, it had to be by

adoption. Amanda’s skin was a rich caramel, her hair so dark brown it was mistaken for black.

Jez had once had jet black hair as wel , though it was no longer so. But her pale, translucent skin set her apart, not just from Amanda, but from every girl Finn had ever met; it had depth, as if you could see into and through the first layer to some part of her that lay beyond.

“Amanda!” Finn shouted, breaking a strict rule that required silence of any Cast Members on

a float.

The other kids hurried over and waved enthusiastical y at both girls.

Amanda and Jez waved back, glad to have been spotted. Amanda gave Finn an enthusiastic

thumbs-up—or at least he thought she’d intended it for him. He hadn’t seen or heard from her in

weeks. She hadn’t been in school. She’d disappeared the same day her sister had somehow been transformed by Finn—an event he stil didn’t ful y understand. Jez had gone from evil twin to a sweet, even angelic, girl, al in less than a minute. Only then had Amanda dropped the bomb that Jezebel was her sister, an explanation that had never been ful y clarified.

“Where did they come from?” Charlene asked. Even now Finn heard a tinge of jealousy in her

voice. Or was that suspicion? There was a lot unanswered about Jez and Amanda. “And check

out that hair color. Since when is she a strawberry blonde? Last time we saw her she had hair like my granny’s.”

“What the heck are they doing here?” Philby cal ed out. He didn’t mean the sisters.

Two big monkeys were moving in the bushes, swinging and keeping perfect pace with… was

it possible?… the float. Their float.

“Since when are there monkeys in the Magic Kingdom?” Maybeck said.

“Are they wild?” Charlene asked, having noticed them as wel .

Finn saw something his friends apparently didn’t: the monkeys weren’t fol owing the float; they

were fol owing Jez and Amanda, keeping perfect pace with their movements.

“There aren’t any primates in the wild in northern Florida,” Philby said, ever the expert. Philby

was a walking encyclopedia—he knew everything, and what he didn’t know he knew how to research. His red hair and rock-climbing, thril -seeking mind-set played against the geek he real y was. A favorite of the girls at school, he wanted nothing to do with them. He spent his weekends

with a climbing wal and a laptop.

The parade turned just then, making a graceful arc past the Hal of Presidents. The crowds

thickened. Amanda’s efforts to keep up with the DHI float failed. She and Jez stopped, caught in a bottleneck of Park guests. Finn waved, and Amanda waved back, but it wasn’t a pleasant or friendly wave; it was more like panic.

Growing smal er now and being absorbed by the crowd, Amanda pointed to Cinderel a

Castle. Then sharply up. Finn nodded, hoping to communicate that he too was aware of the oversize gray bal oon. But Amanda shook her head violently, as if he didn’t understand. He nodded, again trying to say that he did understand. He felt constrained by not being able to shout down at her. Amanda frantical y pointed toward the sky. Then she tore a leaf off a plant and pushed it against her face. Again she pointed toward the castle. Then the float rounded the corner, and Amanda was gone.

Finn looked up at the swirling, dark clouds. They’ll cancel the parade, he wanted to shout.

Maybe she was concerned that he and the others were so high above ground when lightning threatened. But surely the Park authorities had it under control. He wasn’t worried about their safety—he just didn’t want the parade canceled.

Maybeck edged closer to Finn, pushing past Charlene, who was waving two pompoms.

“What do you suppose they’re doing here?” Maybeck asked, while bobbing his head and trying to

keep a smile on his face.

“No clue.”

“AWOL al this time, and they suddenly reappear for our reopening celebration. Doesn’t that

strike you as just a little bit odd?”

“Everything about them is odd, if you ask me,” said Charlene, overhearing.

“What was with the leaf?” Finn mumbled. No one heard him.

“I like them both,” said Wil a, joining in. Wil a looked constantly on edge. She had chocolate—

colored, captivating eyes and a somewhat grating voice.

“You like everybody,” Charlene said.

“So what?” Wil a complained.

“It just doesn’t work. You can’t like everybody,” Charlene said.

“Why not? Of course you can!” Wil a said.

“Oh, forget it,” Charlene said, shaking her pompoms. She looked more eighteen than

fourteen.

“Amanda knows where I live,” Finn said. “Otherwise I might have said that they came here to

catch up with us after reading about the grand opening.”

“If she’d wanted to catch up with you, she’d have come by your place,” Maybeck said.

“So it’s you, I suppose,” Finn said. Maybeck believed every girl was in love with him. “She

knows where you and Jel y live, too, don’t forget.”

“I’m just saying the timing’s kind of interesting,” Maybeck said. “We know there’s something

strange about those two, and there just happens to be a pair of monkeys fol owing them.”

Both Jez and Amanda reappeared, staying with the parade float once again.

With Amanda stabbing the sky and looking worried, Finn pointed back, behind her, trying to

show her the monkeys. But before he could tel if she saw them, he lost sight of Amanda.

“She could have been pointing to the bal oon,” Finn said. “Even though it disappeared, maybe they saw it too. Whatever she saw, she was…I don’t know…agitated. I don’t think they came here to celebrate. I think they came to warn us.”

“Warn us?” Charlene said.

“About the weather?” Maybeck said skeptical y. “I doubt it.”

“Could have been about the primates,” Philby said.

“Yeah. A couple of monkeys,” snapped Maybeck sarcastical y. “Now, there’s something to set

your legs trembling.”

“Maybe they were running from the monkeys,” Wil a said.

“I’m not even sure they saw the monkeys,” said Finn.

The parade kept moving, and their float along with it. They crossed the lagoon, heading for

the Hub, the density of the crowds increasing. Cheers arose. Kids screamed out their names.

“We’re rock stars,” said Maybeck.

“Our DHIs are the rock stars,” clarified Finn. “Let’s not confuse the two.”

Finn caught a lightning flash out of the corner of his eye. The storm was moving closer. He

looked up at the sky to see that it was far darker than even a few minutes ago. Was this what Amanda had wanted him to see? His mind reeled with possibilities. Why had she seemed so agitated? The low clouds and swirling fog obscured any sight of the gray weather bal oon. Would

anyone believe him now?

Suddenly the music was interrupted. “Ladies and gentlemen!” the booming voice announced.

“Welcome to the Magic Kingdom’s DHI-Day celebration! Please direct your attention to Cinderel a

Castle, where the fireworks wil begin shortly.”

“Look!” Philby said, “they’re cutting the parade short!”

Sure enough, the parade now hooked around the Hub, and instead of heading down Main

Street, USA, for its final segment, it went ful y around the Hub and back the way it had come. Finn briefly saw the five DHIs far ahead, leading the way.

Whoever was in charge didn’t want the parade caught in the storm.

“Don’t you think we should tel someone about that bal oon?” Wil a asked. “That’s got to be

dangerous in an electrical storm.”

“They must already know, don’t you think?” said Finn.

Philby said, “The string or wire holding it is tied to that window. Maybe it’s some kind of experiment.”

“Isn’t that the window to the apartment?” Finn asked. As DHIs, the kids had previously used

the castle’s penthouse apartment as a hiding place.

“What if that’s what Amanda was pointing to?” Finn continued. “What if she was trying to show us the bal oon?”

“But why?” Wil a asked.

“What’s so important about a bal oon?”

“Nothing the Overtakers would like more than to ruin the DHI celebration,” said Philby. “What

if they’re trying to use lightning to set Cinderel a Castle on fire or something?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them,” said Finn.

“We don’t know if the Overtakers exist anymore,” said Maybeck. “If they do, don’t you think

Wayne would contact us? Has anyone heard from the old dude, by the way?”

The Overtakers were a group of Magic Kingdom characters, rebels led by Maleficent, the evil

sorceress from Sleeping Beauty. Their goal was to overthrow the good and take control of the Park for themselves. Wayne and others believed the Overtakers intended to imprison any characters and Cast Members not part of their group. They had been caught preparing vast dungeons beneath Pirates of the Caribbean, which were said to be for this purpose.

The DHIs were now also known as the Kingdom Keepers—one of the most popular

attractions in the Park. The last thing the Kingdom Keepers could afford was for Maleficent to gain power again. They had barely stopped her the first time, and she now considered them among her

greatest enemies—a distinction they could have done without.

“We should probably tel someone about the bal oon,” Finn said, moving to the back of the

float and the smal ladder there. “At the very least, it shouldn’t be up in the storm.”

The peculiar phenomenon that had been discovered shortly after the Disney Host Interactives

had been instal ed in the Magic Kingdom had carried al five kids into a struggle with the Overtakers and the evil fairy Maleficent.

Wayne had showed them an astonishing three-story maze cal ed Escher’s Keep in

Cinderel a Castle, which led to the little-known penthouse apartment, now a secret hideaway used

by Wayne.

Finn wondered aloud if the bal oon might be something Wayne was responsible for.

“If Wayne’s up there,” Philby said, “we should go see him.”

“You can’t leave now,” complained Charlene, waving her pompoms eagerly for the cheering

crowd.

“Cover for me,” said Finn. “No one’s going to notice if one of us isn’t here.”

“They’l notice if you aren’t,” Wil a said. “They won’t notice if I’m not.”

“That’s not true. Besides, I’m the one going, so I don’t think it real y matters.”

“We never go solo. Remember what happened to Maybeck?”

Finn stopped, one foot over the rail and on the smal ladder leading down. Maybeck’s DHI

had once fal en into a trap that had prevented the real Terry Maybeck from waking up. The so—

cal ed “Sleeping Beauty Syndrome” might have kil ed him.

“It was your rule,” Wil a reminded him. “And it was a good one. We’ve had no trouble since we started pairing up.”

“Okay,” Finn said. “So?”

“Someone’s going to notice if you leave,” Maybeck warned.

“Just keep moving,” said Finn. “The more the three of you move around up here, the less likely I’l be missed.”

“You don’t actual y think we’re going to let you do this alone, do you?” Maybeck said.

“We’re al coming,” Philby said. “Here’s the plan….” He pul ed them al into a huddle at the

center of the float. “The fewest number of guests wil be on the bridge to Liberty Square. We get

off and start shaking hands and signing autographs like it’s al part of the parade. That’s also the closest we’re going to get to the castle. When we make our break, we al go at once—again, like

it’s scripted. If we get separated, we meet inside the castle in Escher’s Keep.”

Lightning flashed again. A few seconds passed before the first rumble of thunder rippled through the air.

“That lightning is stil some distance away from here, right?” Charlene asked anxiously.

“Closer than it was. You couldn’t hear thunder a few minutes ago,” Philby said. “I’l bet they’re

closing the rides—the mountain attractions and rol er coasters. That’s going to mean a whole bunch of the guests in and around the Hub for the fireworks.”

“If we real y saw a bal oon, whether they believe us or not, we’ve got to convince them to check it out before that lightning gets here.” Finn couldn’t stop thinking about Amanda holding up that leaf to her face. Green skin? Was that the message? More than anything, he hoped they might find the two sisters. He sensed they had some of the answers.

“And if they don’t care about the bal oon?” Wil a said.

“We’re approaching the bridge, people,” Philby announced. “If we’re going to do this, now’s

our chance.”

“Okay,” Finn said, working his way down the ladder. The others fol owed.

He happened to look up at Charlene just as she blinked furiously to protest leaving the float.

“We can’t do this!” she said.

Her blinking revealed a subtle green shadow on her lids, which enhanced the color of her eyes.

Finn spoke what he’d been thinking—what Amanda had been trying to tel him by putting the

green leaf to her cheek.

He cal ed out to the others, “Maleficent is inside the castle. That’s what Amanda was trying to

tel us.”

3

THE KINGDOM KEEPERS MET UP AGAIN at the base of Escher’s Keep, a confusing maze of

interlocking staircases, mirrors, and doors that crawled up the inside of Cinderel a Castle. It had been built years ago as an attraction but had never opened to the public, as it had proved too dangerous. One misstep, and you were dumped into chutes or slides, some of which landed you

in the castle moat.

“I tried to tel a Cast Member about the bal oon,” Finn said. “But he thought I was my DHI playing some kind of trick on him. I shook him, and he said, ‘Amazing technology! That feels so

real!’ What a jerk! I tried to point out the bal oon, but with the clouds, you can’t even see the string or wire or whatever.”

“We’ve got to get up there,” Philby said, “Maleficent or not.”

“But what if Amanda was trying to warn us?” Charlene asked nervously. “Wouldn’t that mean

we might be walking into a trap?”

“She’s got a point,” Maybeck said.

Finn quickly reorganized them: he and Philby would ascend Escher’s Keep to the apartment;

Maybeck and Wil a would try to find Amanda and Jez while Charlene stood sentry on the path to

Fantasyland, giving Philby and Finn eyes on the castle from the outside.

They said their good-byes, Maybeck uncharacteristical y wishing them luck, his dark, troubled

eyes expressing concern. They agreed to meet after the fireworks in front of Cinderel a’s Golden

Carrousel, immediately behind the castle.

“And if you guys don’t show up?” Wil a asked Finn.

Thankful y, Maybeck dragged her out the door and into the castle gift shop’s storage room

before Finn had to think of something plucky to say.

“You okay with this?” Philby asked nervously, his foot on the first step of Escher’s Keep. It

was a route that had to be memorized, and neither boy had attempted to climb it in several months.

“Let’s do it,” said Finn.

Philby stepped aside, al owing Finn to lead the way. It was no picnic. Sometimes stairs led

nowhere. A single misstep would mean fal ing down a slide to the ground floor or into the moat.

The route up to an elevator that accessed the penthouse apartment included invisible bridges, upside-down staircases, and trapdoors. The il usions were the result of mirrors, projections, and

trick lighting, their combined effect overpowering.

“Do you remember the way?” Finn asked. He faced four doors, al in different colors. They

formed a semicircle on a smal platform of polished floor tiles. He and Philby were fifteen feet above the ground floor, having ascended the first staircase correctly—skipping every other tread.

“I want to say second from the right: blue. But it’s your cal ,” Philby said.

Turning the wrong door handle caused a trapdoor to open.

Philby stayed off the platform in case Finn chose incorrectly. The plan was to take turns until

they got it right.

Finn tried the blue door, and the floor fel out from under him. Down, down, he raced, the slick

slide spinning him in tight coils before throwing him out onto the floor. He headed to the slanted stairs and began climbing again.

Philby tried the yel ow door. The trapdoor opened beneath him.

Green—for “go”—seemed too simple a choice, so on Finn’s next attempt he tried the purple

door, and it opened.

“Purple,” Finn cal ed down to Philby, who was gingerly skipping steps as he made his way up

the slanted staircase.

Once through the purple door, Finn started across an invisible bridge—an effect so

convincing he would have sworn there was nothing beneath his feet. He moved across it in tiny

steps, just barely sliding each running shoe forward, making sure something solid was beneath it.

Philby, behind him, took the novel approach of getting down on hands and knees and breathing

low onto what turned out to be glass, and then fol owing the orbs of fog.

“It’s a mirror,” said Philby, sneaking up behind the slower Finn. The trick was compounded by

the fact that a false destination—a second purple door—was projected at the other end of the invisible bridge, making Finn want to head in that direction. In fact, at its midpoint, the bridge veered right, arriving at what looked like a solid wal , which wasn’t solid at al . The two boys ended up on a second smal platform.

“I remember this part,” Philby said. “This is where we go down the stairs in order to go back up.”

“Are you sure?” Finn tested the “up” staircase: it was real. He thought Philby had it wrong.

But Philby waved his hand across the step four steps above this first step, and then punched

his hand right through the il usion—the stairs stopped midflight, nothing but a projected image. He led the way down a staircase and then back up a longer staircase, which would make it appear to

anyone standing below as though the boys were walking upside down.

“You two!” a low voice cal ed out loudly. “Come down from there!”

Finn caught sight of an upside-down Cast Member. He was dressed as a barbershop singer,

in white pants, a red-and-white-striped shirt, and a straw hat: a Dapper Dan Cast Member.

“Security,” Finn whispered to Philby. “I faced Dapper Dans just like him that time Amanda and I were here taking pictures of everyone’s DHIs. They were trying to catch me.”

“You are not permitted in this area!” the man hol ered. “Come down at once.”

“I don’t think we should trust him.”

They reached a third platform and ducked behind a false wal with two windows. “You think

he’l come after us?” Philby asked.

Thunder cracked high above them.

“I think there’s something going on here,” Finn answered. “The weather bal oon, the monkeys,

Amanda and Jez showing up for the first time in forever. And personal y, I don’t trust anyone dressed up like he’s sel ing fried chicken. He could be anybody. That’s an easy costume to fake.”

“So we ignore him?”

Another crack of thunder. It was getting close.

“Outrun him,” Finn said, “is probably more like it.”

“And if we’re caught?” Philby said. “You ever read those contracts we signed? They’l remove

our DHIs from the server. They’l replace us with other kids. We’l no longer be Disney Hosts, no

longer have the Gold Fastpasses. We’l lose it al .” He hesitated. “Al that for some weird bal oon?

You sure it’s worth it?”

“You’re the one who saw it, not me. Listen, I’m not sure of anything,” Finn said. “You want to

head down, I’m not going to stop you or anything.” He added, “But I’m going after that bal oon, Security or no Security. Amanda was pointing at the castle, and that’s good enough for me.”

“How could she possibly know anything about it?” Philby asked.

“How can we possibly go to sleep at night and wake up as DHIs inside the Park? When was

the last time any of this made sense?”

Philby pursed his lips. He nodded. “Yeah, okay. You’re right. If they toss us, so what? We go

down fighting.”

“Exactly.” Finn peered around the edge of the wal .

“What do you see?”

The man in the straw hat was gone.

“I think he’s coming after us.”

4

MAYBECK DUCKED INSTINCTIVELY as the sky flashed, and, only moments later, thunder boomed and

rol ed in a long series of endless echoes. A few early raindrops splattered in huge globs onto the footpath, and the air smel ed dusty and sweet—ozone—foretel ing the electrical charge it carried.

Charlene stiffened with the crack of thunder. “I…do…not…do…lightning,” she said.

The Park guests scattered for cover, quickly emptying the paths.

“Then forget what Finn said and come with me!” Wil a said, taking Charlene by the hand. “The

parade blocked Jez and Amanda from coming over the bridge. They’l probably head past the Haunted Mansion and through Fantasyland to reach the castle. We’re going this way,” she said,

pointing in the direction of Cinderel a’s Golden Carrousel, “to cut them off. Maybeck, you go around past the Mansion. Hopeful y, one of us finds them before we meet up somewhere near Peter Pan.”

“See you in a minute,” Maybeck said.

“It’s hard to see much, so pay attention,” she said. The swirling clouds had brought an early

darkness.

“Never fret. Eyes like a hawk,” said Maybeck.

“What about the monkeys?” Charlene mumbled. “What if that was some kind of omen?”

“I’l keep that in mind,” said Maybeck.

They split up, Wil a dragging Charlene by the arm. Maybeck jogged off.

Park guests waved at Wil a and Charlene. Some braved the increasingly steady rain to

chase after them, cal ing for autographs. Wil a pressed on.

Charlene said, “We’re getting wet.”

“That’s what usual y happens with rain,” Wil a said.

“We can’t get wet!” she complained. “DHIs don’t get wet. The rain runs right through them. We

can’t disappoint the kids like that!”

“Are you worried about the kids, or your hair?”

“Both, I guess.”

“Okay. So let’s run faster.”

5

AMANDA AND JEZ RAN THROUGH the light rain, dodging clusters of guests who were determined to

stick it out and wait for the fireworks.

“It’s not far now,” Amanda said, spotting the spires of Cinderel a Castle.

Jez didn’t answer.

Amanda glanced back. It wasn’t like her sister to avoid a chance to make a snide comment.

“Keep up! You’re fal ing behind,” she cal ed out. Jez was a fast runner; it made no sense that she should lag. She seemed to be running at a steady pace, no faster, no slower, no matter what Amanda said or how fast she ran.

The rain made the walkway more slippery. Amanda slowed and shortened her strides to

avoid fal ing. When she looked back, Jez was stil running at the same pace, the same stride. She

apparently had magical footing—she didn’t slip.

Amanda stopped and turned ful y around and stared at her sister. How could she not slip even a little bit?

Despite the fal ing rain, Jez’s shirt was…dry, her hair perfectly in place.

What a princess, Amanda thought.

But then she tensed.

Jez’s feet landed on the wet walkway. No splash.

“Jez? Stop! Answer me, Jez!” Amanda cried out.

But Jez just kept on running toward her. The same perfect form and posture. The same perfect Jez.

Jez final y did stop, though she remained several yards off, like a fearful animal.

There was a reason her shirt and hair were both dry: the rain fel through her, hitting the walkway below.

Amanda stepped forward, now only inches from her sister. The rain fel harder, soaking her

own hair and shoulders. Jez remained dry.

“Say something,” Amanda whispered.

She reached out her arm and swung it from right to left, cutting her sister in half, her hand

passing right through.

A hologram. A DHI.

“Where’s my sister?” Amanda managed to choke out, the drops of water now flowing down

her cheeks having nothing to do with the rain. “What have you done to her?”

6

“HE CAN’T POSSIBLY KNOW the way up here,” Finn whispered. “Only Wayne understands Escher’s

Keep. He said so.” But he could hear the swishing of the man’s clothing as he climbed the upside-down staircase. He not only knew the way, he seemed to be quickly closing in on them.

“I don’t think that actual y matters right now,” Philby said. “We are going to be in some serious

—” He gasped. “What are you doing, Finn?”

Before him, Finn Whitman, the fourteen-year-old boy, transformed into a glowing version of

himself with a slightly shorter haircut. He was now his DHI hologram.

“Wil a said she s-saw you do this.” Philby stuttered when nervous. “But I d-didn’t believe her.”

“It’s not very stable. I can’t hold it for very long,” Finn said. “Go. Black tiles. Never two in a row.

It’s the left staircase when you reach the other side. There’s the final invisible bridge and then the black hole. I’l meet you there. Wait for me.”

Philby waved his arm through Finn just to confirm what he’d seen him do. “But if you’re here

as your DHI, then where’s the real you? Not back asleep in bed? And why can’t any of the rest of

us do this when we’re awake?”

“Philby, I don’t know. Maybeck said he’s had the same thing happen. Wil a, once or twice. We

can discuss this later, okay? For some reason, I’m able to wil myself to cross over. I don’t understand it, but I don’t try to understand it. It just happens if I let it. Wrap your mind around that. It doesn’t last long, and it’s exhausting. So I’l meet you in the black hole, and I’m going to need your help from there on.”

“And you’re going to stay and…what?… fight this guy?”

“Yeah, right,” Finn said sarcastical y, his voice sounding a little bit different, like the buzzing of something electronic. “I’m going to make him wonder what he’s chasing. I’m going to freak him out

of his shorts. If I’m lucky…wel …let’s hope I’m lucky.” He waited only seconds. “GO!”

Philby took off across the checkerboard floor, making sure the toes of his shoes landed only

on the black squares, and never two black squares in the same horizontal row. It required a kind of dancing across and down the floor that made him look like a kid in Riverdance.

Finn’s ability to cross over while awake had to do with achieving a kind of meditative state. If

he focused on having no fear, no worries, he temporarily crossed over. He didn’t know the rules or how it worked, only that he could make it happen—though only inside the Magic Kingdom, where

hologram projectors existed throughout the Park. He took a moment to test his ability, aware of its unpredictability and his lack of control over it. He grabbed for the nearby doorknob. His hand landed on it, and he was able to turn the doorknob. Then he pul ed his hand away, closed his eyes briefly, and concentrated on just a single idea: light. He opened his eyes and reached for the doorknob once again. This time the doorknob passed through his hand. It sparkled and glowed as he swept his hand on through the doorjamb and back out.

So far, he seemed to be in control of his hologram, but he knew from previous attempts that

his hologram quickly deteriorated. A few minutes was al he had, until Finn, the fourteen-year-old boy, came back to replace the DHI.

He stepped out of the way as he heard footsteps approaching. The man arrived at the platform. Finn hid behind him. The man was big, with thick, heavy legs and broad shoulders. He

looked a little foolish in his red-and-white-striped jacket and straw hat. He studied the checkerboard floor like a person trying to remember the code, bringing his thick hand to his scrabbly chin in contemplation.

“White or black? Odds or evens?” Finn said, startling the man.

The man spun around, his face a knot of anger. “You’re not al owed here,” he said in a deep,

dry voice. Incredibly quickly for his size, he jumped toward Finn and swiped at him, his hands passing right through the DHI, at which point he stood up in astonishment, looking at his own hands as if they’d betrayed him.

“One wrong step, and you fal ,” Finn said, darting past the man and out onto the checkerboard

floor. He concentrated on the idea of light— pure light. A DHI weighed nothing, and only weight triggered the tiles in the floor. But he knew he couldn’t maintain this pure state for very long. He had to lure the man out onto the floor quickly. There wasn’t much time.

He tried another tack. “I’m a Cast Member,” Finn said, “like you.”

“I don’t care. You’re not al owed up there,” he said. By saying this he confirmed he knew about the penthouse—Walt Disney’s former apartment—the secret room Wayne had offered the

DHIs as a place to hide.

An Overtaker? Finn wondered. The group loyal to Maleficent, dedicated to changing the balance of power in the Parks.

“I said you’re not al owed up there,” the man said.

“White or black?” Finn said, his DHI standing on one of each.

The pleasant warmth of the DHI gave way to a slight chil , and Finn knew the internal light was

giving way to flesh and blood. He wished he understood how to control this transformation better,

but that was for another time. He took advantage of his brief weightlessness and crossed the checkerboard floor to a platform that presented another three ascending staircases. He had one

last trick left.

The man stepped out onto the checkerboard, keeping his eyes on the squares. It was a long

fal below—thirty feet or more, though the floor had been painted in perspective, which made it appear more like three hundred: a bottomless, rocky cavern. He took that in, and then, as he looked across at Finn, his face turned scarlet with anger.

“You won’t talk your way out of this, son.” He stepped onto a black tile. Then another. He knew the pattern! Making sure he avoided any two black squares in the same horizontal line, he progressed cautiously but quickly across the floor.

Finn felt the DHI fading. He’d managed to maintain it for a minute or more, but he suspected

he weighed something now. Would he trip the sensors that opened the floor, or could he make it

across?

His plan was to run right through the man. He believed if he concentrated, he could summon his pure DHI for the fraction of a second it would take to pass through him. In doing so, he was

certain to cause the intruder to misstep, which would send him plummeting. But Finn would have to

move quickly to avoid being on the floor when it fel out and gave way.

He stepped out onto two black squares. He could feel his weight on his feet. He was about

equal parts boy and DHI. How much longer?

The Dapper Dan stopped halfway, his face a scowl. Then something occurred to him, and he

belched out a laugh. “Going to wrestle me, are you?” He grinned mischievously. “I’l save you the

trouble.” His right foot reached out for a white square.

Finn had not considered that the fastest way for the man to catch Finn was to make Finn fal

with him.

Finn ran forward on the black tiles, simultaneously letting go of al fear. He felt the warmth return like a blast from a furnace. But wel before he reached the other side—in fact, before he

even reached his adversary—the floor went out from under him.

The man fel , letting out a short scream as he was funneled into a red plastic chute.

Finn was floating. The trapdoor had opened beneath him, but his DHI simply hovered. He was suspended ten feet above the evacuation chute, with only air beneath him.

He felt the chil returning. He managed three steps toward the edge of the open pit and then

fel . His fingers caught the lip of the hinged flooring, and his body smacked into the hanging trapdoor. Normal y not good at pul -ups, he must have been partial y DHI, because he managed to

lift himself, hook a leg, and pul himself up. Seconds later, the trapdoor snapped back into position. He stayed on the black squares and recrossed.

Middle staircase. Red door. He remembered this section wel .

He heard the Dapper Dan hit bottom and, seconds later, the sound of him climbing stairs again. Faster now. Ever more determined to apprehend Finn.

Finn stepped forward into total darkness, a matter of extreme trust. The first time he’d fol owed Wayne in here, he’d nearly puked from fear. The black hole.

He ran smack into Philby.

“There’s no elevator,” Philby said.

“What?”

“No elevator. It’s not here.”

“It has to be here,” Finn said.

“No such luck, Sherlock.”

“But that means—”

“Somebody’s up there,” Philby said. “Already in the apartment. And what do you want to bet

it’s not Wayne?”

“There’s got to be another way up,” Finn said. “Fire stairs. Something for an emergency.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s pitch black. You don’t happen to have a flashlight on you, I

suppose?”

“Turn your back to me,” Finn said. He mustered his strength. Transforming into his DHI sapped his energy. He felt exhausted from having chal enged the man just now, but knew he had

to do this. He closed his eyes. He felt the warmth return. He couldn’t hold it for more than a few seconds. He came out of it, his legs weak, his head swooning.

“Oh, man! How cool is that?” Philby said excitedly. “Hold on to my shirt, lightning bug. I saw

some stairs over here.”

Finn reached out and held on, as much to keep his balance as to stay with Philby. They reached a set of metal stairs, the handrail cool to the touch.

“Going up,” said Philby.

They started climbing the spiral stairs. Higher and higher.

From below them came the heavy breathing of the man pursuing them.

He’d already caught back up. He sounded incredibly close.

7

MAYBECK PROVED HIMSELF the faster runner, arriving next to Amanda at nearly the same instant as

Charlene and Wil a despite having come the long way around. The rain was fal ing in punishing

waves, and thunder was cracking menacingly overhead.

Amanda, soaking wet, was on her knees, crying. Jez just stood there, the rain passing through her. It took Maybeck and the girls a few seconds to realize what Amanda already knew.

“Oh, man,” said Maybeck. “How long ago did this happen?”

Wil a and Charlene helped Amanda to her feet. Everyone but Jez was now drenched.

Charlene held her hands over her hair, as if that would do any good.

“She didn’t keep up,” Amanda said. “I thought she was probably fiddling with her iPod—trying

to protect it from the rain. She won’t stop messing with that thing. So I looked back, and …she was there.” She pointed to the DHI of her sister.

“But how is that possible?” Wil a asked. “Jez isn’t a DHI.”

“She is now,” said Maybeck, contradicting. He ran his hand right through Jez’s body and out

the other side.

Some kids cheered and cal ed out from the crowded area in front of Peter Pan’s Flight, where they stood protected from the rain.

“Somebody did this,” Amanda said. “They programmed a DHI for her. But it’s not much of a

program. She’s just…standing there.”

“But why?” Maybeck said.

“Who?” Wil a said. “The Imagineers wouldn’t do this without Wayne tel ing us.”

More kids cal ed out from the line, this time wanting autographs.

“We can’t stay here,” said Maybeck.

“I have to find her,” Amanda said. “The real her.”

“We need Finn and Philby,” Wil a said.

Hunched over and miserable in the rain, Charlene added, “Could we maybe move this

meeting somewhere dry?”

Maybeck said, “We saw you two not five minutes ago. If they grabbed her…if they made a

switch…it had to have happened between then and now. Somewhere real y close to here.”

“Are you saying she was…kidnapped?” Charlene said, a little too concerned with her hair to

have stayed with the discussion.

“If humans take you, you’re kidnapped,” Maybeck answered. “I doubt there’s a name for it when it’s a band of Disney vil ains. But yeah. She’s missing.”

“But why?” Charlene asked Maybeck. “Why kidnap Jez?”

The three kids stared at Amanda, waiting for an answer. She pursed her lips as if she’d swal owed something bitter. “If I told you—which I can’t—you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try us,” Maybeck said.

“You’d be surprised at what we can handle,” said Wil a.

“The Overtakers?” Maybeck asked, winning Amanda’s attention.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Amanda said.

“Try us,” Maybeck repeated.

“Please tel us,” Wil a pleaded. She wiped the rain from her eyes. “We want to help, but we

need to know what’s going on, what we’re involved in.”

Charlene proved she’d been paying attention after al . “This has to do with Finn, doesn’t it?

When Finn got tangled up with Jez, and you said some kind of spel had been removed.

Maleficent’s spel .”

That incident had happened months ago, though the kids remembered it as if it were

yesterday. Maleficent had kept Jez under her control to prevent Jez’s own powers from interfering

with Maleficent’s plan. The DHIs had managed to trap Maleficent, and Finn had helped free Jez

from the spel —though her powers had yet to be explained to any of them. Maybe this was why the

sisters had vanished recently: to keep from having to explain themselves.

“We have to hurry,” Wil a said. “For one thing, those kids are blowing our cover. For another,

every second counts. She can’t be far.”

“Since when are you a detective? You’ve been reading too many American Girl books,”

snapped Charlene.

“No, she’s right,” Maybeck said. “Time is in our favor, but not for long. Amanda and I wil retrace her route, looking for her. Wil a, you and Charlene get Finn and Philby out of the castle and meet up with us.”

Amanda jerked her head toward Cinderel a Castle. “He’s in there?” she gasped, and then mumbled, “I’d nearly forgotten.”

“Forgotten what?” Maybeck asked.

Amanda looked back and forth from the sputtering and sparking DHI of her sister to the colorful lights il uminating the castle.

“Something horrible’s going to happen,” Amanda whispered. “Jezebel dreamed about it. We

came here to warn al of you.” She met eyes with Maybeck and then Wil a. “He’s actual y in there?”

“She dreamed about it?” Charlene said, distrustful and sarcastic. “Your sister can dream the

future, I suppose? Is that what you’re trying to tel us?”

“Fairlies have abilities you wouldn’t believe.”

“What’s a Fairlie?” Wil a blurted out.

“I told you you wouldn’t believe me.”

8

FINN FOLLOWED PHILBY up the tightly wound spiral staircase in complete darkness, his lungs and

legs burning, his head pounding. Transforming himself into a DHI—twice in a matter of minutes—

had taxed him. He climbed, half in, half out of consciousness, sliding his hand along the cool steel handrail, faint of head but not of heart. Someone was trying to attract lightning to Cinderel a Castle. He envisioned the penthouse apartment converted into a Frankenstein laboratory, some

Disney monster strapped to a stainless-steel table with wires attached to his head and heart. He

didn’t know what to think—except that the Overtakers had sent the Dapper Dan to stop them. That

had to mean something big was going down.

Thunder cracked outside, sending a rumble up his legs. Climbing higher in a lightning storm

was not the smartest move. He felt another tremor in his chest.

Speaking in a breathless whisper as they climbed, Finn said, “What if it’s al a trap? An elaborate trap? What if this guy is supposed to drive us to the top of the castle? What if the weather bal oon and lightning are intended for us? To kill us?”

Philby stopped, and Finn bumped into him. He had trouble catching his breath. His heart was

about to explode.

The staircase vibrated: the man was climbing toward them.

“But if that’s the case, then this guy’s suicidal,” Philby said, “because he’s right behind us.”

“But if he’s an Overtaker, how do we even know he’s real?”

“How do we know if any of this is real?” Philby quipped. “Not one of us has ever told our parents about what happens to us at night. Why do you think that is?” He answered his own question. “Because they wouldn’t believe it.”

Shadows flickered on the wal . A flashlight. The guy!

“Climb!” Finn hissed.

They started climbing higher, running up the stairs as fast as they could. Their pursuer wasn’t

nearly as light on his feet as they were. The beam from his flashlight and the strange, shifting shadows it cast propel ed them hurriedly up, up, up. At last, they faced a door.

It was bolted shut; there was no doorknob or handle.

In the dim light, Finn caught sight of a handwritten sign taped to the wal :

OPEN ONLY IN EMERGENCY

“Do we dare?” Finn asked.

“It has to lead into the apartment,” said Philby.

“Agreed.”

The light from the flashlight rose more quickly now. “And we’re trying to get into the apartment.”

Finn moved the bolt, and the door popped open.

Together they entered into another dark space. Finn reached out. It was narrow and tight. The

sound of bel s…no…Finn knew that sound. It wasn’t bel s. It was… hangers.

“We’re in a closet,” Finn said softly. “A closet inside the apartment, I’l bet.”

“The stairs are the apartment’s fire escape,” said Philby. “Makes sense.” But why lock a fire

escape from the outside? Finn wondered silently.

He groped in the dark and touched another door in front of them and opened it a crack. The

closet led into the apartment’s smal bedroom, the shiny bedspread a hideous shade of grass green. The air smel ed stale and dusty. The boys slipped into the bedroom. It felt unbearably warm.

Heavy footsteps clomped up the stairs.

“Hurry!” Finn hissed. He and Philby rushed out of the closet, shut its door and, working together, slid the bed to block it. At the very least they had bought themselves a few seconds.

They hurried to the bedroom door, and Finn put his ear to it.

“Anything?” Philby asked, one eye nervously on the blocked closet behind them.

“It sounds like someone mumbling.” Finn opened the door careful y and then quietly stepped

through. Philby fol owed. They were in a smal hal way with a view into a larger living room. The

decor might have once been cal ed modern. Now it looked slightly cheesy.

Finn angled his head around the corner to get a better view into the living room. Then he jerked back.

Maleficent—the most powerful of the Disney fairies and Finn’s greatest enemy—stood by the

apartment window. Amanda had somehow known! Maleficent had enormous evil powers,

including the ability to conjure spel s with nothing more than incantations. Finn had once seen her transfigure a trash bag into a rat. She had demonstrated powers of fire and electricity, conjuring a cage of glowing “wires” around him. Her one weakness was temperature—she could only conjure

when cold, which helped explain her being jailed in an apartment kept so warm. He doubted she

was at her ful powers, given the warmth of the apartment, but that could change in an instant. She had her back to them, and her dark robe hung to the floor. Now Finn understood what he’d heard:

Maleficent was chanting while facing the open window. It was blocked on the outside by a heavy

iron grate—like a jail cel .

Casting a spell? Finn wondered.

His legs shook with fear. The last he’d known, she’d been locked in a jail cel in the catacombs beneath Pirates of the Caribbean. What was she doing here?

She stepped away from the window but continued chanting. Through the window, the sky

darkened. The storm roared as lightning flashed and thunder cracked. Finn tensed with the next

lightning strike: a tremendous flash was fol owed instantly by a crack and boom. Was she summoning the lightning? Another loud crack. A bolt of electricity struck the iron grate. It glowed red hot, and then sparks flew. The iron grate melted and fel open, the window no longer blocked.

The evening’s cool breeze blew through.

Maleficent climbed up onto the sil . The crowd cheered from below.

Color fil ed the sky—the fireworks display had begun.

“Stop!” he shouted.

She turned. “YOU!”

It was no trap. Their being here clearly surprised her.

Her red eyes locked on to his. Her green, hideous skin scrunched tightly around her eyes. If

looks could kill…he thought.

Finn stepped back, afraid. The cool air… Three loud bangs of thunder mixed with the fireworks, making a war zone out of the sky. A fiery backdrop played out behind the green creature standing in the window.

She glanced back at him one more time and then climbed outside.

Finn and Philby hurried to the smoldering window opening and looked out.

Maleficent was climbing the castle wal , her cape swirling in the wind. She moved like an insect.

He looked down and gasped. They had to be a hundred feet up.

“I’m not going out there!” Finn said.

“The stairs!” Philby said.

With every second she would be cooling off, regaining her powers. The boys hurried back to

the bedroom, determined to fol ow her. The Dapper Dan was pounding on the closet door from the

other side.

“Ready?” Finn said, his hands against the bed frame.

Philby, selected as a DHI in large part for his brainpower, did not need to hear what Finn had

in mind. He knew intuitively.

“One…two…”

On three the boys shoved the bed out of the way. The door flew open.

The Dapper Dan, who’d been pushing hard on the closet door, fel through and tumbled down

onto the carpet. Finn and Philby ducked into the closet, hurried out the emergency door, and threw the bolt before the Dapper Dan had climbed to his feet. They had trapped him inside.

They hesitated on the landing.

“Up or down?” Finn asked Philby, the chal enge obvious to both boys.

Philby looked down the stairs, knowing this meant safety. Then he looked at Finn. “If she gets

free, we’l never be safe again,” he said.

“Up!” the two boys said in unison.

The boys climbed the dark staircase, slowly at first, but then, holding the rail, Finn picked up

the pace.

As they neared the top, the sound of the crowd grew louder. The stairs ended in a smal stone

chamber with an open window.

It took only seconds for Finn’s eyes to adjust. There was a young woman tied up in the corner.

She had wings, and for a moment he thought she, too, was an Overtaker. Then he recognized her

as Tinker Bel . She was a Cast Member, in costume.

Maleficent stood in the open window, her robe fluttering, the fireworks flashing colors in the

sky beyond her. Now Finn saw the metal wire secured to the wal .

“Sil y boys!” Maleficent said in a raspy voice. “The end is near.”

She jumped.

Finn ran to the window.

But she hadn’t fal en. Instead, she flew off, away from them.

She could fly!

But then Finn understood: near the conclusion of the fireworks show, Tinker Bel flew from the

castle. Tinker Bel was actual y a Cast Member riding a zip line from the castle onto a roof in Tomorrowland. But on this night, it wasn’t Tinker Bel riding the zip line.

Maleficent let out a bloodcurdling screech—to the delight of the crowd—as she rode the wire

high in the sky. She grew smal er and smal er.

The crowd went crazy with cheers and screams.

Her hideous screech rang in the air until swal owed by the next thumping blast of fireworks—

the grand finale—that joined the rippling of thunder echoing off the Florida landscape like the aftereffect of a bomb exploding.

9

THE LIGHTNING STRIKE that hit Cinderela Castle charged the night sky with intense light as fire

rained down. The bolt of lightning had grounded out on the thin wire holding the weather bal oon.

Next, the lights went out in a large area encircling the castle, including the street lamps surrounding the Hub, most of Liberty Square, and as far away as Tomorrowland. Spotlights that

normal y lit the sky went black, leaving the colorful glow of the fireworks’ grand finale.

Then something—or someone—flew out toward Tomorrowland, and it was quite obviously

not Tinker Bel . The caped figure was chased by a bal of swirling orange flame. A chorus of cheers arose. No one was exactly sure what they’d just witnessed, but whatever it was, it was amazing.

Wil a and the others heard the cheer. Only moments later a swirl of rumor reached them: a

witch had flown from the castle. Maybeck said a few words that would have gotten him detention in

school.

“Which witch?” Charlene wondered aloud.

“Three guesses,” said Amanda.

The three others looked at her sharply.

“Finn!” Charlene muttered, her worry hanging in the air.

“What do we do now?” Wil a gasped.

“You’ve got to tel us what you know,” Maybeck demanded of Amanda.

“It’s Jez that saw this coming, not me,” Amanda said.

“Saw what coming?” he asked.

“Trouble.”

“You already said that. You gotta give us more.”

“I told you: Jez is different.”

“She’s your sister!” he complained.

“Yeah,” she said, sounding apologetic. “Kind of. I guess you could say I’m a little different as

wel .”

“Different how?”

“Just…different.”

“She’s not on trial,” Wil a complained to Maybeck. “She and Jez came to warn us!” She addressed Amanda. “What did Jez think was going to happen?”

“She saw things. She wrote them down—drew things—in her journal. Kept track of them—

dreams mostly. And daydreams. But…” She cut herself off and looked at each of the others searchingly. “The real y creepy part is she showed me a sketch she made of lightning striking the

castle. She knew it was going to happen, and I think she knew that Finn was going to be inside.”

“You owe us an explanation,” Maybeck said impatiently.

“And you’l have it,” Amanda agreed. She glanced around—a number of guests were braving

the rain to get a better look at the castle. “But not here. Not now. You have to help Finn. He’s in danger. More danger than from just the lightning. It’s the Overtakers. They did this. They’re responsible. Jez…I have to find Jez. They’re afraid of her…powers. She can stop this by warning

you and others, but not if they control her.”

“Stop what?” Maybeck asked.

“I wish I knew.”

“The lightning?” Wil a asked. “We’re a little late, if that’s the case.”

“It was more than that,” Amanda said. “Listen, I’ve got to find Jez. You al need to help Finn

and Philby. They’re in danger. Jez saw that coming. That was what she was trying to prevent.”

“Okay,” Maybeck said, “enough chit-chat. Let’s get going. Amanda and I are going to head

back to look for Jez while you two check out the castle and find Finn and Philby.”

“With the power out, they’l close the Park,” Wil a warned. “They’re not going to let us run around for long. And if they recognize us, they’re not going to want us in the Park at al .”

“Wel , then, pul up your hood. Mess up your hair. We gotta do this,” Maybeck said. “If they

close the Park, we’l IM and figure this out.” He grabbed Amanda’s arm and tugged. She hesitated, then moved with him.

They took off at a run.

“Everyone IM at midnight,” he yel ed over his shoulder.

Charlene and Wil a headed for the castle, which was shrouded in darkness and a veil of smoke left over from both the fireworks and the lightning strike.

Behind them, they left the sputtering hologram of Jez, who, as another series of street lamps

flickered and failed in the spreading blackout, sputtered and went dark.

Gone, just like the real Jez.

Some kids cheered from under awnings. Rain continued to fal .

One of them shouted, “The Kingdom Keepers rule!”

Wil a winced at hearing the nickname that a local newspaper had adopted for the kids and

their DHIs. She felt a chil down her spine and a pain in her stomach. They weren’t superheroes;

they were teen models mixed up in some confused technology that no one ful y understood—not

even the people who’d invented it.

She’d gotten a good look at the thing flying. She hadn’t mentioned what she’d seen to the

others, because who would have believed it?

But she knew what she’d seen— whom she’d seen—and the chil was replaced with a spasm

of terror.

Maleficent had escaped. Jez had been turned into a DHI.

To think that those two events were some kind of freak coincidence and unrelated was just

plain wrong.

10

IT SOUNDED LIKE DOZENS of footsteps were hurrying up the spiral staircase as Finn and Philby

rushed to untie the woman dressed up as Tinker Bel . Finn got the tape off her mouth.

“Are you al right?”

She looked terrified. “Who… what… was that?”

Philby said, “Finn, we’re cooked.”

The approaching footsteps were noticeably closer. They were either security guards or

Overtakers. Either way spel ed disaster for the boys.

“Who’s coming?” the Tinker Bel woman asked.

“We don’t know.”

“I’m not sticking around to find out,” she said.

The boys looked paralyzed.

She said, “Harnesses,” pointing to the wal . “They’re rescue harnesses, in case I get stuck out

there.” She hesitated only a second before grabbing one. “Put them on!”

She helped both boys into the harnesses and double-checked them for safety. “Have you ever ridden a zip line?”

Finn shook his head.

Philby said, “In camp once.”

“Same thing,” she said. “I’m going to go first.” She clipped a pul ey to the guy wire. “That way I can catch you two as you arrive on the other end. Ready?”

Whoever was coming up the spiral stairs was moving fast.

“See you down there,” she said. With that, she jumped.

Finn watched as she zoomed away, into the dark of the night. She disappeared.

“I am not going out that window,” Finn declared.

“Listen,” Philby said, “we have two choices: we can get busted and blamed for everything that

just happened, or we can go out that window.”

“You’re insane.”

The sounds coming up the stairs grew even louder.

Philby grunted and pushed Finn toward the window. “You’re first,” he said.

“I don’t think so.”

“Those guys are going to be here in about two seconds.”

“What if it doesn’t support us?

“This is Disney. The thing wil probably support a tank.”

“What if Tinker Bel doesn’t catch us?”

“My advice? Don’t look down.”

Philby tested the pul ey and pushed Finn.

Finn felt a blistering wind on his face.

He was… flying. It was, for an instant, the coolest thing he’d ever done. He was zooming down the wire, high above the grass and the water, headed for the lights of Tomorrowland.

The whine of the pul ey rose to a high-pitched whir. Philby was behind him now. Down, down,

down they raced. Then the wire leveled off, and their speed decreased. They were headed above

a set of rooftops. Finn caught sight of the MONSTERS, INC. COMEDY CLUB sign to his left. With the wire more level, they continued to slow.

Tinker Bel caught them at the far end, in front of a set of pads. She unhooked the pul eys and

helped them both out of the harnesses.

Finn looked back to see several men huddled in the tower they’d just left.

“Nice timing,” Finn said. Seeing how far they had traveled, his knees went weak. “That was

not a smart thing to do.”

“It was incredibly stupid!” Philby agreed. He looked at Finn sheepishly. “But man, was that fun!”

Tinker Bel led them down a very steep metal staircase and into an al ey. A moment later, she’d showed them how to reenter the Park. They hurried toward the Hub.

“FINN!” He heard his name shouted from far away. It took him a moment to see in the glow of

a few emergency lights what Philby saw first: two figures up near the castle. Girls.

“It’s Wil a and Charlene,” Finn said.

“How can you be sure?” Philby said, squinting.

“Trust me. It’s them.”

The boys ran toward the girls, circled careful y, and hid on the other side of a stone wal , waiting. They squatted down and caught their breath.

Finn dared to raise an eye above the wal : he saw a pair of Cast Members that he took to be

security guards, searching the crowd.

“They’re looking for us,” he told Philby. “Might be Overtakers. Might just be Disney Security.”

“We’l get across the Hub and catch up to the girls. We’re just two kids now among al the

others.”

It was true: the rain had stopped and the crowds had returned. An announcement was

repeated several times, apologizing for the fact that the Park would close early due to the weather.

Cinderel a Castle had been roped off.

Finn nodded his agreement.

The two boys crossed the busy Hub outside of the castle. As they reached its center a number of lights came back on, and the look and feel of the castle was restored. Some firemen

were packing up.

And there, looking down on them from the castle plaza, were Charlene and Wil a.

The girls looked terrified.

11

AT TWO MINUTES BEFORE MIDNIGHT, as Finn was preparing to IM with Philby, Maybeck, and the

others, his messaging window showed an unexpected visitor. The Instant Messaging program was only connected to people on his buddy list, so the appearance of this uninvited visitor was

somewhat surprising, unsettling, and even alarming. His parents made a big deal out of how unsafe the Internet could be, how stalkers often trol ed for kids by pretending to be kids themselves. And while he thought his parents overdid their warnings, he knew that stuff happened.

The appearance of the uninvited guest made him wonder if it was happening to him.

I’m from the firehouse.

Finn’s breath caught. Wayne lived above the firehouse in the Magic Kingdom. Could this possibly be Wayne? His Wayne? He’d been missing for a long time now.

WAYNE? Finn typed. But nothing appeared in the IM window. It was as if the program was blocking that name from being written, the way some Web sites prevented the use of certain words. He considered how to work around the problem. Then he typed again.

W…A…Y…N…E…?

you always were the clever one. my name was supposed to be blocked, but separating the letters! brilliant!

Finn wasn’t convinced it was Wayne on the other end of this written conversation. He could

be an imposter.

Finn typed: you have something I found, but you kept.

it’s magical, what is it?

He anxiously awaited the answer. This question, he felt, would determine if it was in fact Wayne.

uncle wait’s pen

Finn cursed at the screen, not meaning to. It real y was Wayne. No one but he and the other

DHIs knew that answer.

An unusual feeling overcame Finn. For months he’d wondered if Wayne had died or been captured by the Overtakers. Thril ed to now reconnect with him, he let his fingers hover over the

keyboard.

Where to start?

A Disney old-timer and former Imagineer, Wayne knew more about Disney World than any

living person. He had once counted Walt Disney himself as a personal friend. A legend in Disney

circles, his name often appeared on blogs.

He was responsible for Finn and his friends’ becoming DHIs in the first place. He had created the concept and had overseen the development of the software. More important, as far as

Finn could tel , he control ed a secret group of Cast Members that opposed the Overtakers’

attempt to gain control of the Magic Kingdom.

we’re not safe here. do you have video abilities?

yes.

then go onto the web site: www.dgamer.com/vmk. it’s a secure link. but before you do that, you’ll need to write something something down.

Finn wondered if Wayne had been in a coma or something. He typed: vmk was shut down months

ago.

to the public, yes. the site had to be closed for security reasons. write this down. at the sign-on, use the username: imagineer1. your password is our uncle’s full name spelled backward with no dashes or spaces.

Finn quickly scribbled down yensidtlaw. walt-disney spel ed backward.

okay. got it.

you will see a video link button on the landing page. right click on that button: it will open up a video chat with me.

see you in a minute.

The sudden closing of VMK had come as a shock to Finn and his friends. News that the Web

site remained accessible surprised him. But he didn’t doubt Wayne for a moment. Wayne lived

and worked in a secret world. He was ful of surprises.

*

“It’s real y you,” Finn gasped, seeing the man’s weathered face on his computer screen. There was no tel ing how old Wayne was, but he wasn’t young.

The video signal wasn’t perfect: static overlaid Wayne’s face, and the sound of his voice was

crackling and uneven. He looked and sounded older than Finn remembered him.

“You don’t have much time,” he said, causing gooseflesh to ripple up Finn’s arms.

“Excuse me?” Finn replied.

Wayne was continual y checking over his shoulder, as if afraid of being found out, which Finn

found disturbing.

“You were lucky at the Park tonight,” Wayne said.

“You were there?”

“Never mind about me. You were there. That’s al that matters.”

“It was Maleficent.”

“Tel me exactly what happened.”

Finn kept his summary of the evening’s events as short and succinct as possible. He

described spotting Amanda and Jez during the start of the parade; of later seeing a pair of monkeys in the bushes near the crowd. Wayne quizzed him about the monkeys. Then Finn described his being chased up Escher’s Keep, and finished with Maleficent’s daring escape out

the window and down Tinker Bel ’s zip line.

“We’d moved her there,” Wayne said. “Third move in as many weeks. We had intel igence

that the Overtakers were planning for her escape. We thought by moving her around frequently…

But it obviously wasn’t enough.”

“What about the weather bal oon? The lightning strike?”

“The apartment was locked down like a jail cel . Sealed tight. We had to provide a way out in

case of fire, but the closest exit was locked from the inside. Our security guard would have had to open that door for her to escape.”

“The Dapper Dan chasing us…was he one of your guys?”

“You had no way of knowing that.”

But I should have, Finn thought. The Dapper Dan had known the way up the Keep. Only Wayne could have taught him the route.

“We put on an ankle bracelet that would send an alarm if she moved more than fifty feet from

the transmitter,” Wayne explained. “It housed a GPS transmitter, so we could track her down. They

used the power of the lightning strike to break open the bars. Nothing short of a smal bomb would have accomplished that. The lightning also temporarily knocked out the power, which was crucial

for her to escape. They bought her enough time to cut the ankle bracelet off. We found it up there in the Tinker Bel tower.”

That didn’t sound good. “So she’s just…gone?”

“I doubt very far. A green face tends to stick out. It’s control of the Park that she’s after. She’l stay in the Park, we think. But to accomplish her goal of domination, she’l have to rebuild, and

reorganize the Overtakers. And she’l need the five of you out of the way. You defeated her last

time. She won’t risk that happening again.”

Finn didn’t like the way Wayne said that so calmly. Out of the way? He tried to wrap his mind

around the fact that they were talking about a Disney character—vil ain or not—as if she were human. And after al that he and the other DHIs had been through, it wasn’t so hard. Something

weird was going on, and somehow they were now a big part of it. Whatever kind of being Maleficent was, however it was that she existed, her presence was very real, as was the threat to

the DHIs.

“She needs cold, don’t forget, or at least the il usion of cold. She loses her powers in the heat.

For this and other reasons, we think she’s likely gone to the Animal Kingdom.”

“Because?”

“There are several attractions there that are kept quite chil y. And of course there’s Everest.”

“Is that where Jez is?”

Wayne’s face tightened. “You want to explain that, please?”

Finn told him the rest of what had happened. He related what Wil a had told him briefly upon

their meeting by the castle: that Jez had been replaced by a DHI and the real Jez had vanished.

“That’s why I was IMing the others,” he explained. “At midnight we were going to meet and try

to figure out how to get Jez back.” He listened to himself say that, and wondered what chance they had against Maleficent. Then he checked the computer clock and, seeing it was wel past midnight, wondered why no one else had joined the chat.

“Amanda,” Finn continued, “supposedly said something about Jez being…different. Like

she’s a Cast Member or something.”

“She’s not a Cast Member,” Wayne said knowingly. If he knew something about Jez, he hid it

wel , for although the reception was poor—sparking and sputtering—his expression didn’t change.

“What I’m going to tel you now,” Wayne said, “is done so in the strictest confidence. Do you

understand me, Finn? You can share what you must with your friends, but only if absolutely necessary, and only if they promise to protect the information. It’s critical to the safety of al of us.”

“I promise.” A second chil raced through Finn.

Wayne glanced suspiciously over his shoulder for the umpteenth time. “I’m in hiding, as you

must be aware by now. The Overtakers are said to have obtained the DHI technology. They are

working on projecting me—turning me into a DHI so that they could mislead our efforts to defeat

them. And if they managed to contain my DHI when I was sleeping…wel …you saw what

happened to your friend Maybeck.”

Months earlier, Maybeck’s DHI had been prevented from crossing back over—a process that

was triggered by a smal black remote control device that Wayne possessed. As a result, the human Maybeck had remained asleep in bed in a kind of induced coma while his DHI had been

trapped in a maintenance cage in Space Mountain. Finn had freed Maybeck’s DHI, and Wayne

had then crossed them over, al owing the human Maybeck to awaken from his comatose state.

But the idea of that happening to Wayne or any of the other DHIs ever again was terrifying.

Unthinkable.

“What you’ve just told me about Jezebel’s disappearance,” Wayne said, “figures into this theory, I’m afraid. It suggests the Overtakers do, in fact, have the DHI technology at their disposal, and that presents us with some difficult choices.”

“Our DHIs went back on line tonight,” Finn muttered.

“Precisely! You’re aware of the DHI expansion plan?”

Finn had heard rumors that the Animal Kingdom was planning Disney Host Interactive

characters—using DHIs of Animal Kingdom animals to guide guests through the Park the same

way holograms of Finn and his friends guided guests around the Magic Kingdom.

“Animal Kingdom this year,” Wayne said. “Then they’l put your DHIs at Disneyland and the

cruise ships within two years. You and the other DHIs have become so popular that the Imagineers

are ramping up expansion into al the Parks around the world: Paris, Hong Kong, Japan. You have

developed an enormous fan base.”

The video briefly sputtered and went dark, but a moment later Wayne’s face grew larger as

he leaned toward the camera.

Wayne spoke softly. “Imagineering won’t confirm or deny my team’s accusations that the Animal Kingdom’s DHI server was cloned, but now with what you’ve told me, I’m sure of it. The

Overtakers have a second DHI server, Finn. No one around here is ever going to admit it, but that

doesn’t mean it’s not true. They have stolen the software responsible for projecting you five kids as holograms. If they’ve created DHI data for me, as I believe—and for Jezebel, as you’ve just told me—then it’s in an effort to trick us or spy on us or manipulate us. What if my DHI is used so that I give my people orders that they, the Overtakers, want given?”

“That would give them control of the Park.” Finn paused, deep in thought. “But wait a second.

If they have the same server, the same software, does that give them control over our DHIs too?”

“You see? You understand things so quickly. There’s a reason you’re the leader,” Wayne said, his eyes briefly looking brighter.

“I’m not the leader.”

“Of course you are.”

“We’ve never voted on a leader.”

“Not al leaders are elected, Finn. Some just rise to the occasion.”

Finn ignored that. He and his friends worked as a group. Wayne wouldn’t understand that.

“So what you’re saying,” Finn said, “is that the Overtakers may be able to use our DHIs like

they used Jez to trick Amanda? They could have us doing stuff we wouldn’t want.”

“It’s not only that, I’m afraid. If they have a second server up and running—and by everything

you’ve told me about Jez’s disappearance, they must—then the greater concern is their

generating DHIs for each of you inside the Animal Kingdom. If they trap those DHIs and prevent

them from crossing back over when you’re asleep…”

“We’d end up like Maybeck was.”

“Sleeping Beauty Syndrome,” Wayne said.

“Yeah: SBS,” Finn whispered so softly to himself that Wayne didn’t hear. It was the nickname

Wayne had given to the comatose state. “But why would they want to do that to us?”

“Because Maleficent wants you out of the way. For good. They can only accomplish that if you

go to sleep,” Wayne reminded Finn. “That’s the key, you see? If none of you goes to sleep, there’s no way you’l cross over in the first place, no way you could be trapped in the Syndrome. They cannot gain that control over you as long as you remain awake.”

“I thought the software was rewritten so that SBS couldn’t happen again. Wasn’t that the point

of the DHI server being down for the past couple months? The Grand Opening was to celebrate

everything working again.”

“Yes, yes, yes. And I’d like to think the same rewritten software had been instal ed at the Animal Kingdom, but that instal ation has been going on while the original software was being debugged. I know a software update was made available to the Animal Kingdom, but I can’t get

anyone over there to confirm it ever took place.”

Finn stared at Wayne’s flickering face, his thoughts whirring. Wayne was warning him that the

Overtakers had a DHI server with the original flawed software that al owed Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. “You’re freaking me out,” Finn said.

“Yes. I can understand that.”

“How do you know any of this is for real?”

“I don’t. Al I can tel you is, as a precaution, I’ve been taking twenty-minute naps—never a

minute longer, hoping to keep them from crossing me over. So far it has worked. But for how long? The crossing over has to do with the dream state. We designed it that way. It occurs in the

first few moments of REM sleep, which is about twenty minutes into a decent night’s sleep. The

crossing over feels to you like it happens immediately—instantly—but that’s not the case. And another thing: I designed the crossing over to synchronize—that is, if you al go to sleep at about the same time, al five of you would then cross over at roughly the same moment. It saves the code from having to reload for each of you.”

“But what about the remote control? If we got in trouble, couldn’t you use that to cross us back

over?”

“If your DHIs were al in the same place at the same time. Yes, that’s more than likely possible. But they could prevent that easily enough.”

“By keeping our DHIs apart.” Finn didn’t like what he was hearing. “So, what am I supposed

to do?” he asked. Wayne was making it sound as if there was no hope: they were doomed.

“You need to stay awake. You need to find where the real Jezebel is being kept,” Wayne explained. “And you need to find that second server and take it back. At the very least, you need to crash it. But only once Jezebel is safe and you see that she’s ful y awake. I wouldn’t mind if you contacted me then as wel . If you crash that server before saving Jezebel…wel …I’m not sure you

or anyone else wil ever see her again.”

“And if they catch you sleeping, then the same applies to you.”

“Never mind about me. It’s Jezebel we must concentrate on.”

“Why? Who is she?” Finn asked, hearing something different, something urgent, in Wayne’s

voice. He knew something he wasn’t sharing.

Wayne grimaced. He looked sternly into the camera. “It’s not for me to say.”

“But you know?”

“I suspect. Knowing and suspecting are two different things.”

“Then tel me.”

“I can’t. That wouldn’t be fair to her or you. For one thing, I could be wrong. Listen, Finn, there are powers at work far greater than my own. It’s not for me to guess. If you’re to learn about Jezebel, it wil have to come from another source.”

“Amanda.”

“Perhaps.”

“They’re sisters.”

“That’s a loosely thrown around term, now isn’t it, Finn? We’re al sisters and brothers, depending how far back you go.”

“They aren’t sisters,” Finn said, seeking an answer.

“It isn’t for me to say. That’s the best I can do.”

“Find Jez,” Finn said, repeating his instructions. “Find and crash the second server. Recover

it if we can.

“It’s chal enge enough, I know,” Wayne said. “But the bigger chal enge wil be how quickly you

can accomplish any of this. You absolutely must have Jezebel safe and the server crashed before

any of you fal asleep. If you sleep, you very wel may be crossed over into that second server, the Overtakers’ server, and that would leave you—the real Finn—”

“SBS,” Finn said, cutting him off. “The Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.”

“Yes, I’m afraid so.”

“You’re afraid?” said Finn sarcastical y. “How do you think I feel?”

“There’s one last thing I need to explain.”

Wayne was constantly doing this: holding stuff back, and Finn found it frustrating and annoying. It was as if…as if he were testing him.

“You’re surprised your friends haven’t IMed you,” Wayne said.

“Yes.” But how do you know that?

“And you’re probably wondering how I know that.”

“Okay. You win.”

“You’l find them in your private room inside VMK. Maybe I’l have time to explain about VMK

at some point. For now, al you need to know is that I sent your friends the same link and password I just gave you. When we end this chat, al you have to do is click on the VMK logo on the landing page. It’l link you directly to VMK.”

“No way!” Excitement fil ed Finn. He had loved the virtual community. The idea of returning…

“I promise you it’s true. Remember the link: dgamer-dot-com, forward slash VMK. You’l use

the same user ID and password I’ve just given you. And by the way, something you may need…

There’s a new Web terminal in Camp Minnie Mickey. It’s supposed to be used for making Disney

vacations reservations, but if you click on Dream Vacations and type the password I gave you, it

wil grant you Web access and through it, a way into VMK.”

“But Camp Minnie Mickey is in the Animal Kingdom?” Finn said.

“Once you’re inside VMK, if you need me type my name. It won’t show in the text box, but I’l

see it and I’l come find you. Trust no one, not even the avatars in VMK. The Overtakers are everywhere. Take every precaution you can.”

“But I’m going to Animal Kingdom?” Finn said, repeating himself. After al he’d been told, he

wasn’t sure he wanted to get anywhere near the park.

“You must find Maleficent and destroy the second server. So, yes. You and the others are going to Animal Kingdom.”

Wayne turned to look over his shoulder again. “Oh, no…” he said, his voice panicked. The

screen erupted into static, and Wayne was gone.

*

Finn found his way to to the DHIs’ private room inside the Virtual Magic Kingdom. He was disappointed he didn’t have time to enjoy being back in VMK. The game was nearly empty of players, and the effect was chil ing. As he reached and entered the room, he found Maybeck sitting on a virtual couch; Wil a and Charlene were over in a corner, their text boxes fil ed with dialogue about what had happened during the lightning storm.

Philby stood near to the room’s only door, guarding the entrance. Text bubbles appeared above each of the avatars as the Kingdom Keepers began “talking.”

philitup: he’s here

mybest: about time

Maybeck’s avatar stood up and crossed to the door, meeting up with Finn. Quickly the other

avatars swarmed around Finn as wel .

willatree: we got the message to wait, but we worried what it meant.

Finn: it was _. He’d forgotten that the VMK server wouldn’t al ow him to type Wayne’s name.

philitup: who?

Finn: the old guy with the white hair, five letters.

mybest: you mean _? But the system again refused the name. where’s he been?

Finn: he appeared on my IM buddy list and we had a video chat, he’s in trouble, we’re all in trouble.

philitup: and?

Finn: serious problems, philby, stay by the door, we don’t want anyone entering unannounced and reading us.

Philby’s and Maybeck’s avatars pushed the couch to block the room’s entrance. Philby stood

there, just behind the couch, while the others moved to the far side of the room. Charlene brushed her hair in the mirror. Maybeck’s avatar shot free throws at a basketbal hoop on the wal .

Finn described the meeting with Wayne as simply as possible.

Finn: the Animal Kingdom is installing a DHI server—animal hosts as guides, our old friend thinks the original server may have been cloned, possibly when Maleficent was hiding out in the server room, remember that? if that’s right, the Overtakers may have their own DHI server, or they may have control of the new one at AK. that means if we go to sleep they may be able to cross us over—to control us and prevent our return, we’d be in perma-sleep the same way Maybeck was at Space Mountain. Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.

willatree: Jez’s DHI

Finn: exactly, that was them, it confirms some kind of second server is up and working.

philitup: are you saying we can’t go to sleep?

Finn: he’s warning us not to.

philitup: exactly how long does he think we can stay awake?

Finn: depends on how much Coke we can drink.

angelface13: i’m tired right now. Charlene’s avatar final y turned away from the mirror.

mybest: this is crazy.

Finn: we can do whatever we want, he’s just warning us.

mybest: not to sleep.

Finn: yes.

mybest: and I’m saying that’s crazy.

philitup: so what’s the drill?

Finn: we find jez and get her to safety, then we find or destroy this cloned DHI server and put it out of commission.

mybest: all before we go to sleep.

Finn: that’s the safest for all of us

It was a long time before any dialogue lines appeared above any of the avatars. Final y, Wil a’s avatar stepped away from the others.

willatree: if it was my sister, i’d be freaking out

angelface13: same here.

mybest: do we know they’ve got her in AK?

Finn: remember the monkeys we saw tonight? they’ve got to be from the Animal Kingdom! and it fits with what the old guy said about the server—that’s AK as well.

philitup: AK’s a big park

angelface13: i love Animal Kingdom

mybest: we can’t get in there at night without being busted, i don’t need any trouble, my aunt is using my DHI money for my college.

Finn: the guy who chased philby and me…turns out he’s with the old guy…he can get us in around 5 am, when the park is waking up. there’s work to do before then, we need to know everything there is to know about the park mybest: such as?

Finn: layout and cast members—that’ll be willa. electronics and security—philby, of course, including the coldest buildings, maybeck will find out everything about the animals—their feeding, where they’re kept, how dangerous they are. charlene: we may need costumes, ways to blend in.

i’ll IM with amanda. she mentioned her sister’s diary, amanda will be part of this. Anyone have any trouble with that?

No one typed a thing.

Finn: okay, good luck getting out of your houses, i’m going on bike, we should all bring our DSs so we can communicate, everyone has one, right?

He waited. No one came on to say they didn’t own a DS.

Finn: meet up with a food truck at 4:45 am outside the entrance to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, the dapper dan guy will be driving, if anyone can’t make it early, we’ll all meet after the main gates open on the path leading in to the Rainforest Café, agreed?

mybest: i’m in

philitup: me too.

willatree: likewise

angelface13: what if we can’t find jez?

Finn had half expected a question like that from Charlene. But he wasn’t prepared for the sinking feeling in his gut as he read it. His fingers hesitated briefly above the keyboard. And then he typed.

Finn: that’s not an option.

12

FINN DIDN’T GET ANY great joy from sneaking out of his house at 1 AM. His parents were pretty good about giving him his privacy and space. The two things they asked in return were honesty and trust. He broke their trust by opening his second-story window and shinny-ing down the fire rope

instal ed for emergencies. The only justification for his actions was that this qualified as an emergency—though he’d never be able to explain it to them. If caught, he’d be grounded for al

eternity.

He quietly walked the Hawk Tracer BMX out to the sidewalk. Then he climbed onto the bike

and took off down the sidewalk. It was the most beautiful bike he’d ever owned—silver-and-black

frame, monkey bars, al oy levers—and it ripped along, teasing him into trying a few tricks, such as jumping curbs and popping wheelies, which he resisted because of the dark.

He kept to the residential streets as much as possible, avoiding the busier avenues, afraid

that a policeman would stop and question a kid on a bike. It was a long ride, and he settled into a rhythm of slowing at stop signs, looking in al directions for headlights, and then crossing—but never ful y stopping. The residential streets were total y quiet and empty of cars. Soon he had two miles behind him. Then three. He crossed two major avenues, finding his way into Orlando’s older

neighborhoods, one connecting to another. Final y, the residential gave way to the commercial. He

flew past shuttered buildings, businesses of every kind: psychic readings, dry cleaning, a yarn store, a bakery, dozens of restaurants and coffee shops, dog grooming, curtains and drapes, lamps, a half dozen banks, and a copy shop. He spotted the red tile roof and stucco wal s of a

building he’d been to once before. Amanda’s house.

It had a tal , stained-glass window in the front, just below a squared-off steeple that showed a

white angel against a blue background. Maybe it had once been a church.

He pul ed the bike around back to an apron of cracked blacktop that had once been a parking lot. He locked the BMX to a metal railing and then circled the building, wondering, What now? He’d never been inside Amanda’s house before, though he assumed, from what she’d said, that she and Jez had separate bedrooms. Each ground-level window had a grid of heavy wrought-iron bars on the outside to protect against burglars; it gave Finn a ladder to climb. He went from the railing to the bars on a window, grabbed hold of an iron pipe running from the gutters, threw a knee up over the edge, and pul ed himself onto the Spanish-tile roof. He walked gingerly, for the

first tile he stepped on cracked.

A shade was pul ed down blocking the first window he reached. Finn edged around the

corner to another window with its shade up. There was a smal solar panel propped up on the window ledge. It was dark behind the glass. Finn cupped his face to the glass and was able to

make out an empty bed. There were no posters on the wal —no artwork at al . The place looked

dumpy and unlived-in. He took this to be Jez’s room. There were no bars across the second-story

windows, so he tried to open one, but it didn’t budge. He moved along slowly; the roof was steeply pitched. The Spanish tile felt smooth and slippery beneath his sneakers.

The last window on this side had its shade up, but gauzy curtains were pul ed across it. It also

had the same kind of solar panel outside—this one taped to the jamb. He tried cupping his eyes

with his hands to the glass but could barely see anything in the dark room. What he did see was a

pair of sneakers on the floor: Amanda’s black high-tops. Convinced he had the right room, he tapped lightly on the pane. Waited. Tapped again.

Al at once, black objects fled from the overhead eves. Bats! Finn instinctively jumped back,

slipped, and fel face-first to the curved tile roof. He reached out and clawed his fingertips into the windowsil . Just then, the curtains sprang back, and there was Amanda looking out the rain-stained window at him, her face a sleepy, twisted knot of curiosity. She wore a spaghetti-strap top and plaid pajama bottoms.

Finn’s fingers slipped an inch, leaving scratch marks on the sil . Another half inch, and he was

gone.

Amanda threw open the window and grabbed both his wrists. They locked grips. She put her

foot to the wal and heaved and pul ed. Finn grabbed the inside of the sil , got his knees under him, and, with her help, climbed inside.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

“The front door is easier,” Amanda said in a normal voice. “Or you could have cal ed.”

“Shhh!” he said, ducking low, as if that would help.

“Why?” she said, again in her normal voice. “I’m the only one here.”

“What?”

“I…ah…” Amanda switched on the light. It was a dim compact fluorescent bulb hanging from

a wire that led to a car battery. A second wire led from the battery to the window and the solar

panel beyond. As Finn took al this in, Amanda spoke, but unlike the Amanda he knew, she wasn’t

tel ing the truth. “Our mother…my mother…she…she…her sister down in Boca needed her. She

had to leave suddenly. Left me by myself.”

“Al alone?”

“I’m a big girl.”

“You’re fourteen. My parents never leave me alone overnight.” He paused as their situation sank in. “You’re alone? We’re alone?” He spoke in his normal voice.

He took in the light, the battery, and the solar panel outside the window. He saw no light in the

hal way. He’d seen no other lights from the street.

“We are. Stay there.” She went to a closet and put on a robe. She sat down on the edge of

her bed and pointed to a rickety chair at the desk.

Finn moved the chair closer.

“It’s two in the morning,” she said. “Just for the record.”

The air from the open window was cool. The curtains danced at the sides. Amanda stood

and closed the window. “Whoa!” she said. “Check it out!”

It took Finn a moment to spot the bat hanging upside down from the eaves above the window.

It was big, though Finn didn’t want to appear scared by a bat. It had a blue iridescence to its black wings, tucked at its sides. It looked dangerous.

“Creepy,” he said.

“There are a lot of bats here,” she said. “I think they live in the attic. Though that’s the biggest one I’ve seen, by far.”

She pul ed the curtains, shuddered, and sat back down on the bed. “They make the weirdest

sounds at night. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping.”

“Flying rodents. Never been a big fan. I’m not one of those guys with rats for pets. No thanks.”

“I’ve never had a pet.”

“Seriously?”

“We moved around a lot.” She blushed and looked away; he wondered what that was about.

“You remember Wayne?” he asked.

Her eyes went wide. “I thought he’d disappeared.”

“Yeah, So did I.” Finn went on to explain his encounter with Wayne, and then the meeting that

had fol owed. Amanda interrupted several times, clarifying the connection between Jez’s

disappearance, her DHI being seen at the Magic Kingdom, and the possibility that the DHI server

had been cloned.

She sat for several long minutes with her head in her hands, her hair cascading over her forearms and forming a veil she hid behind.

“I’m going to trust you,” she said.

Finn felt a shiver. He looked up at the bat, a long, dark silhouette seen through the translucent

curtains. “Okay,” he said.

“I can trust you, right?”

“Right.”

“Because I’m not supposed to tel anyone.”

He didn’t say anything, but she had every cel in his body focused on her.

“Most people, they would never believe it. And that’s a good thing. It’s better if people don’t believe it. It’s safer for everyone. There’s some saying about hiding behind ignorance, isn’t there?

There should be, if there isn’t. Am I rambling?”

“Sort of.”

“Nervous.”

“It’s just me.”

She came up from under the veil of hair and met Finn’s eyes. Hers were close to tears, shining like marbles. “You, of al people, might understand. You and the others. I can’t think of anyone else. Maybe you won’t believe—and that’s okay,” she said, reaching out and touching his

knee. “I won’t be mad or anything.”

“I can’t believe it if I never hear what it is,” he said, a little impatiently.

She nodded, her eyes apologetic. “Jez and I are different,” she said.

“I know that,” he said quickly. “You’re very different.”

“No…I don’t mean from each other. I think it might be better if you just listen. No offense or

anything, but this is kind of hard to explain.”

He nodded, thinking he shouldn’t speak.

She saw this and giggled. Covered her mouth. Looked as if she might cry. When she spoke,

it was very softly.

“I guess the only way to explain this is just to say it.”

Works for me, he thought, but didn’t say so.

“We’re Fairlies.”

“You mean: fairies?”

“No. Fairlies. As in, fairly human. It was supposedly a joke a long, long time ago, but it stuck.

Fairlies. Go figure. We’re not witches or fairies, or anything like that. We’re just kids with…unusual abilities.”

“Such as?”

“I’m not al owed to say. Sorry. Rules, you know?”

“You and Jez are sisters?”

“Sort of, I guess. Not exactly. We’re both orphans. Al Fairlies are orphans. My parents drowned. Jez’s went on this trip to South America and never came back. They think pirates— real pirates—got them. She and I were raised in the same foster home. That’s why I cal her my sister.

Fairlies display certain qualities at a very young age: spoon-benders, mind readers, clairvoyants.

There was a boy who could set fire to things by just looking at them. Very strange. But real. Jez dreamed the trouble here in the Parks. This was way before you guys were hired to be the models

for the DHIs. She and I…we kind of ran away. Not recommended, I might add.”

Finn understood the solar panels then: there were no parents. Jez and Amanda lived by themselves.

“The day we got here, Maleficent put a spel on Jez or bewitched her or something. Jez didn’t

even recognize me. Then you and the DHIs came along. Somehow, you released her right before

Maleficent was captured. I wanted to go back after that, to the foster home, but Jez had more dreams. She keeps them in a diary, a journal,” she explained.

“So, she can dream the future?” Finn asked skeptical y.

“Believe whatever you want to,” Amanda said, “or not. I believe the Overtakers have taken Jez prisoner to prevent her from interfering with whatever they have planned.”

Finn’s skin crawled. He felt slightly sick to his stomach.

She stared at Finn long and hard, her eyes fiery pinpricks. “I can’t expect you to believe any of

this. Asking that is probably too much. I hope you do someday. I hope this makes us better friends, not worse. I’m trusting you in ways I’ve never trusted anyone.” She paused. Her breathing was labored, her skin flushed. Finn felt as if he might explode with anticipation.

“And your powers?” he asked.

“Sorry,” she said squinting. “Can’t say. Not now. Not yet, anyway.”

“You and Jez are squatting. Here, in this house, this church. Whatever it once was. The solar

power.” He pointed.

Amanda eyed Finn cautiously. “You’re not going to tel .”

“I’ve got bigger secrets than this, believe me.”

“It was closed up. Abandoned. We always enter by the back. We’re very careful. Only once

have I used the front door, and that’s when you and your mother dropped me off here. I wasn’t even sure it could open.”

“And the neighbors?”

“What neighbors? It’s stores and stuff. No one’s ever said anything. It’s only been a couple of

months. The water’s on. It’s cold; no hot water, but it works. We shower at school. The toilets work.”

“This is way cool.”

“It’s not great, but it’s what was available. We had to think fast.”

“Don’t Fairlies have money?” he asked.

“If you’re going to tease me, we’re done here.”

“Can’t take a joke?”

“Not about that. And yes, I have an after-school job. But right now, I think we both could use

some sleep.” She yawned.

“No! We can’t sleep,” he said. “Wayne says if any of us—the DHIs—go to sleep, we might get

trapped the way Maybeck did last time. He said the only way to protect ourselves is to find Jez,

get her to safety, and then find and crash the second server.” He let this sink in. “We need your

help. That is, only if you want to.”

“Of course I want to.”

He liked the idea of her being involved. She was the most unusual girl he’d ever met. He wondered what powers she might have and why she wouldn’t tel him about them. “You were going

to join us on IM,” he reminded her.

“Yeah, wel …my computer access is through our local library. A little late for that.”

“So what about her journal? Can I see it? Maybe she left clues or something. We don’t know

what we’re looking for, and it’s a huge park. We’re al real tired, and we haven’t started. We don’t know for sure she’s in the Animal Kingdom. Wayne thinks so, but no one knows for sure. I don’t

know if you can help, but—”

“Absolutely. I absolutely want to help if I can.”

She took off, out the bedroom and down the dark hal . A light popped on in the next room,

casting a trapezoid of light against the far wal , where a mural of a woman’s stern face had been

painted. She seemed to be looking at Finn. He ducked back into Amanda’s room.

She returned, clutching a leather journal. Reluctantly, she passed it to Finn. “This is private

stuff, remember?”

Finn nodded and flipped through the pages. The diary was fil ed with writing, drawings, sketches. Clippings and photographs had been pasted, paper-clipped, and stapled to the pages.

Fortunes from fortune cookies. Ticket stubs.

In the upper-right-hand corner of a page crowded with sketches was a drawing of a castle

being struck by lightning. Finn pointed to it. “Okay,” he said. “Now I believe.”

13

FINN CLIMBED BACK UP the fire rope to his bedroom window, while below him, barely seen, Amanda

waited for him, straddling his mother’s mountain bike, which he’d loaned her.

His mission was to get hold of his father’s BlackBerry; to make sure his parents didn’t worry

about him or question where he’d gone; and to borrow his little sister’s DS for Amanda, who didn’t own one.

He reached his parents’ bedroom on tiptoe and quietly opened the door. His mother was snoring; his father lay on his side facing the window. The clock on his mother’s end table read 4:08 AM.

He found his father’s dresser in the dark and patted around, searching for his BlackBerry. On

Saturdays, his father only took his phone if he went on an extended errand. Finn could only hope

that his father had no such errands planned. If he did, and he looked for his phone, he wasn’t going to find it.

He returned to his mother’s side of the bed and quietly turned the clock so that it faced away

from the bed, where it couldn’t be read by his mother. Then he gently shook her awake. She was a

heavy sleeper, and he was counting on her not coming ful y awake.

“Mom…”

Her eyes squinted open, saw him, and then shut again.

“Finn,” she complained.

“It’s just after six,” he lied, wishing he didn’t have to. “I’m going on my bike over to the skate park. Might go to Blizzard Beach later. I’l cal .”

“Don’t forget sunscreen.” She opened her eyes a little more and looked for the clock, but she

made no effort to turn it around. This he’d been counting on.

“I’l cal ,” he repeated.

There was precedent here: early Saturday morning rides at the skate park were part of his

routine. Bikes weren’t al owed in the half pipe after 9 AM on weekends. He often got up early and

returned for a late breakfast. By adding the bit about Blizzard Beach—a favorite among his friends

—he’d bought himself the rest of the day.

“Take your father’s phone,” she said, rol ing over.

“Ah…okay,” he said, his hand tapping his pocket.

He put away the fire-escape rope and left the house by the back door, joining Amanda and

climbing onto his bike.

“How’d it go?” she asked.

“Worked out great. I’m good to go for the rest of the day.”

“Your parents let you leave the house at four in the morning?”

“Not exactly. But we’re cool.”

Had he looked overhead he might have felt otherwise: hanging upside down from the gutter

of his house, the large bat with the blue tint on its wings dropped free and flew away. Flapping

frantical y, it circled just above the two bikes as they sped off down the empty street, red safety lights flashing in the dark.

14

THE FOOD-SERVICE STEP VAN had double tires in the back and mud flaps that carried silhouettes of

silver mouse ears on their black rubber.

The man behind the wheel had florid cheeks, blue eyes, and bushy eyebrows. He spoke in a

deep voice to Finn, who pul ed the passenger door open.

“Everyone in back. Find places to hide in case they check back there.” He popped open his

door. “It’l be pitch black in there once I pul that door down, so hurry!”

Finn rushed the others into the back. They climbed up into a refrigerated area of cardboard

boxes fil ed with fresh fruits and vegetables stacked onto wooden pal ets and strapped to the wal s. Each stack offered a place to hide behind. The kids doubled up. Charlene and Wil a hid

behind a tower of raspberry and strawberry flats. Maybeck and Philby ducked behind the lettuce,

leaving Finn and Amanda to press into a smal space behind six stacked boxes of carrots.

“Okay,” the driver said. “That’s good. Stay like that. Al set?”

The door came down hard, with a bang of finality. It was dark as a cave inside. The refrigerator unit up near the cab wheezed loudly as it blew an icy wind, freezing them.

“Dang…” Maybeck said. “This is how I always imagined prison.”

“What if one of us is afraid of the dark?” Charlene asked timidly.

“Then she should hold on to Wil a, Charlene,” said Maybeck.

“I didn’t say it was me!” Charlene said.

“Right,” said Maybeck.

The truck grumbled and groaned as it lurched around a series of corners toward the back

side of the Animal Kingdom. Pretty soon its brakes squealed to a stop. Finn and the others had

been in the same situation before—at the reinforced, militarylike security gates at the back of the Magic Kingdom. He could picture the guards outside. Supplies and merchandise and employees

came through these entrances. The driver’s credentials were checked, manifests and work schedules cross-referenced. The kids heard some talking through the shel , though the words were indiscernible. Then a single thump. The Dapper Dan had elbowed the back wal of the cab, trying to warn his passengers.

“I dropped my purse,” Charlene announced in a harsh whisper. “I can’t find it! I can’t find my

purse.”

Finn knew that if Security saw a purse, they would probably climb up into the back of the truck

to retrieve it. And if so, then they’d spot the kids.

“I can’t see!” she hissed again.

Sounds of the door hardware rattled at the back of the truck. The back door was definitely

about to be lifted.

“My purse…” Charlene moaned.

Finn stepped out from behind the stack of carrots. Amanda reached out to stop him, but she

was too late.

He felt around the floor. Nothing. Then he remembered his father’s BlackBerry. He pul ed it out of his pocket and hit a button on the keypad, and the screen came to life like a flashlight.

Charlene’s arm shot out from behind a stack of boxes, and she grabbed hold of her purse. It

vanished.

The door rol ed open a crack. Finn shoved the BlackBerry into his pocket, snuffing its light.

His knees didn’t flex. He didn’t move. He just stood there. Light flooded into the back of the truck.

He turned, but it was too late. The door continued up.

In an instant everything changed: he was suddenly pasted to the ceiling—floating—hidden by

the rol ing door, which was carried on tracks like a garage door.

“Clear,” one of the Security guys announced.

Finn sank toward the truck bed. From the light of the BlackBerry he saw Amanda facing him,

her arm extended. As her arm fel , so did Finn.

The back door clattered shut and the clunk of hardware confirmed they were locked inside

again.

“You did that!” he said, accusing Amanda.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” she whispered.

“You saved us,” he said.

“That was way cool, Finn,” said Maybeck. “You mind tel ing me how you did that?”

Amanda whispered warmly into Finn’s ear. “No…not yet.”

Finn said into the dark: “Ah…I could show you, but I’d have to kil you.”

Maybeck chuckled.

“I want some, too,” added Philby.

“Later, dudes,” said Finn.

Again, he felt Amanda’s breath warm against his neck as she whispered softly, “Thank you.”

He wanted to say something, but his voice had gone dry, and he couldn’t get a word out.

15

A MOMENT AFTER the truck finaly puled to a stop, the Dapper Dan climbed up inside and then

lowered the garagelike door behind himself, leaving it open just enough to admit some light from

the nearby light poles.

“This is as far as I go with the truck. Finn gave each of you an assignment, as I understand it.”

“I’ve got a pretty good handle on the tech side of the Park,” Philby said. “There are cameras

al over the place, some for Security, some for the Park visitors. Basical y, we won’t be alone wherever we go. But there’s a very cool element to this I think we should consider.” He glanced

around at the group. Charlene was trying to wipe a smudge off her clothes, but everyone else was

paying strict attention to him. “Out at Conservation Station—which everyone in the Park cal s ‘CS,’

by the way—is a bank of camera monitors that are interactive. Visitors can actual y move and zoom the cameras, searching for animals and that kind of thing. But I think they give us a real good opportunity to monitor what’s going on.”

“That could be my job,” Amanda said, volunteering. “If no one else wants it,” she added careful y.

Everyone nodded.

“Other than that,” Philby said, swinging his backpack around and reaching inside, “I got nothin’.”

“Is anyone going to explain to me why I brought along my DS?” Charlene asked.

“The Parks al have free Wi-Fi,” Philby said, as if this answered her.

“Yeah? So?” she said.

“So I’ve set-up a D-Gamer chat room so we can IM each other,” he explained. “It’s total y secure. No one can eavesdrop.”

“A D-what?” she asked.

“D-Gamer,” he said. “Let me show you.” Philby took her DS from her and changed her

settings to al ow Wi-Fi access. Then he showed her how to enter D-Gamer mode. Turning on his

own DS, he typed a message to her. An alert appeared on her screen and she answered it. Then

he switched devices with her and sent one from her device to his.

“How total y awesome,” she said, marveling. Taking back her own DS, she sent Philby a text

message:

angelface13: i never knew it could do that.

philitup: it’s a new feature, added last spring.

Finn set up his sister’s DS for Amanda. Philby had invited them al to join the private chat,

and soon they were al texting back and forth.

The Dapper Dan cleared his throat to stop them, and they put their Nintendos away. He asked if they knew their way around the Park. “I’m acquainted with the layout,” Wil a said, piping up. She handed out maps for each of them. “Basical y there are five areas—Asia, Africa, Camp

Minnie-Mickey, and DinoLand USA. These four surround a lake that holds the fifth, Discovery Island, in the middle—the Tree of Life, some food stal s, and shopping. I don’t know our plan, if we have one, but there are five of us, not counting Amanda, and five areas. Seems pretty obvious.”

“And I’l be watching you from the Conservation Station,” said Amanda, reminding everyone.

“In terms of costumes,” Charlene said, “the best thing we could do is just dress as rangers or

animal care. Either light green or dark green short-sleeve shirts and shorts. It would be best if we could get the real thing, but I don’t see how that’l happen.”

“That wil happen because I’m going to help you,” the driver said. “Cast Members are now

responsible for their own uniforms. But there’s a costuming shed that used to be for outfitting everyone. Now it’s more of a storage facility and costume-repair facility, but I can get you in there.”

Finn said, “Here’s what I suggest: Wil a wil be a conservation ranger; Maybeck an animal—

care worker; Amanda, Philby, and I stay dressed as we are. Charlene…you get the tricky one.”

“Which is?” she asked, final y looking up from the smudge.

“DeVine.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“The character,” Wil a corrected. “He wasn’t giving you a compliment!”

“Who knew?” Charlene asked.

“I thought your cheerleading experience might make you a better gymnast than the rest of us.

DeVine walks on huge stilts and dresses in total camouflage so that it’s almost impossible to see

her. Can you use stilts?”

“I’ve used stilts before, though not real high ones.”

“These are real high,” said Wil a.

“There are four complete DeVine outfits,” the driver explained. “But I’ve got to warn you: DeVine enters the Park at ten, twelve, two, and four. If two DeVines are seen in the Park at the

same time, that wil alert Security. So if you do this, you’l need to hide deep within the jungle when the real DeVine is in the Park.”

They were al staring at Charlene.

“Wil you do it?” Finn asked.

“What’s the costume like?” she asked the driver.

But it was Wil a who answered. “It’s amazing. With the makeup, she blends into the jungle so

wel you can’t even see her when you’re only a few feet away.”

“There’s makeup involved?” Charlene asked. “This is so total y my thing, I can’t believe it. Of

course I’l do it.”

“Wayne wanted me to tel you,” the driver said, “that Maleficent can transform herself from human to animal. It doesn’t last long, and it exhausts her, but any animal you see in the Park could be her. He said it’s incredibly important to keep that in mind: any animal. ”

“And remember about the security cameras,” Philby reminded. “The whole Park is watched.

Only the washrooms are absolutely safe. No cameras.”

He yawned a massive yawn. It was contagious: each of them yawned in succession.

“The hardest part of al of this,” Maybeck said, “at least for al of you, is looking older than you real y are. Thankful y that’s not such an issue for me.”

Philby cringed. “Give me a break,” he muttered.

“It’s true,” the driver said. “We can use some makeup to try to help, but those of you in costume must remember that Cast Members are eighteen and up. So act it where possible, and

avoid encounters with Park visitors as much as you can. Whatever you do, don’t talk to other Cast

Members. It’s a family here—even as big as it is. Cast Members know the other Cast Members.

You wil be found out.”

“That’s encouraging,” Maybeck said sarcastical y.

“That’s reality,” the driver said.

“Yeah?” Maybeck snapped a little testily. “Wel , that would be the first time we’ve dealt with

reality in a long, long time. So pardon me if I don’t recognize it.”

“Any questions?” the driver asked.

He hoisted the truck’s rear door. And while the sun had not yet risen, they found themselves in

a vast, empty parking lot, alongside several steel-sided, mostly windowless buildings that looked

like warehouses. The sky was ful y aglow with the push of dawn as the kids climbed out of the truck and hurried to fol ow the Dapper Dan.

16

THE DRIVER SHOWED THEM into the Cast Services building. Even if the lights had been on, it stil

would have been gloomy and creepy inside, with its rows of hundreds of abandoned lockers. But

under the hazy glow of the dim, off-hours lighting, the place looked positively haunted. Not one locker had a person’s name on it, nor did any of them look used—no scratches, decals, graffiti, or dents. Nothing like the lockers at school.

“This was original y going to be where Cast Members changed for work,” the Dapper Dan

said, “but it became impractical because of the distance to the Park. But if anything goes wrong—

a missing button, a broken zipper—it comes here. The building’s only open a few hours a day.”

The six kids stood just inside the building. The driver walked past and unlocked an interior

door to the left of a narrow counter, behind which was a retractable metal barrier, padlocked shut.

“Make sure this is locked behind you. When you’re ready, you cross the roads out here. Stay

to the far left of the parking lots. There’s a pedestrian entrance on West Savannah Circle. Philby, if you find you need anything mechanical, any tool of any sort, the adjacent structure is the maintenance facility. The animation training lab is in that building as wel . Parts for anything you can dream of to do with the Animal Kingdom can be found over there. You can use these IDs to

access it and any other facility,” he said, handing each of the kids a plastic ID card. Finn’s card had his picture on it and a fake name, Finnian Thomas, with a fake address. “Each of you is in the system as an employee of the company—and you’re al in there as being eighteen. So if anyone

should ask…the department you work for is on there as wel . Memorize it. These wil get you into

and out of the Park via the pedestrian entrances, al ow you to charge food, buy merchandise. But

don’t abuse them. In most cases, you don’t need them to go backstage. But in certain buildings,

certain facilities, you may, so keep them handy. They get you past the electronic security.

Whatever you do, don’t lose them. I’l need them back, and I’l need to destroy them.”

There was a noise then, like the wind: a swishing, whooshing sound, as if someone had left a

window open. But no one felt a breeze, and not a hair moved on anyone’s head. However, quite a

few hairs raised on the back of Finn’s neck.

“What was that?” he asked.

The driver turned to the door they had come through. “I’ve got to go,” he said. “You’re on your

own from here on out.” He was gone in an instant. His hurrying off so quickly added to the sense of impending danger.

He closed the door a little loudly on his way out. The boom echoed around the building.

“Check it out,” Maybeck cal ed to the others. He was holding open the door that the driver had

unlocked. The others stepped forward and peered inside. The ceiling was thirty feet overhead, steel beams with cross supports—al unfinished and basic. Displayed before them were fifty or

sixty rows of clothes hanging from steel pipes. The rows stretched from where they stood to the far side of the building, fifty yards or more.

“Oh…my…gosh,” gushed Charlene.

There had to be thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of garments—every kind of

Animal Kingdom costume and Cast Member outfit, in every size. And accessories: hats, boots,

belts, buckles, backpacks, clipboards, pointers, pens, notepads—in containers on shelves just above the clothing that matched their theme.

“Wow…” Wil a said.

“You al know how you’re dressing,” Finn said. He spotted the signs across the room.

“Women’s locker rooms to the right, men’s to the left. The sooner we’re out of here the better.

Philby, Amanda, and I wil stand guard.”

“Against what?” Wil a asked.

“Use your imagination,” Maybeck said.

“If I whistle like this,” Finn said, emitting a whistle that sounded a little bit like a sick bird, a little bit like a leaking bal oon, “then hide until you hear it again.”

“If you whistle like that,” Maybeck said condescendingly, “you’re going to get me laughing so

hard I’l never be able to hide.”

“Your problem, not mine,” Finn said.

That silenced Maybeck for the moment, just long enough for Philby to say he’d look for a door

at the back where he could stand guard. Amanda would stay basical y where they were. Finn would patrol the general locker area where they’d entered.

No one had a good feeling about this. No one but Charlene, who was acting like she’d just

unlocked her grandmother’s attic.

*

Suspended above the impossibly long rows of clothing and costumes were large hand-painted signs done in the Animal Kingdom’s African-style lettering. They divided the space into sections, a system used to organize a hundred thousand Cast Member costume pieces into something

manageable.

While Maybeck cruised ANIMAL CARE and Wil a PARK RANGERS, Charlene browsed the area

marked PERFORMERS, searching for DeVine costumes.

The first suggestion that they might not be alone came in the form of noise: the familiar sound

of hangers tinkling like dul bel s. Charlene noticed it first, or was at least the first to voice her concern. She hurried to find Wil a and whispered hotly, “Did you hear that? The hangers? Coming

from over there?” She pointed.

“What?” Wil a was busy trying to find a shirt that would fit her.

“Hangers. Like someone else is in here,” Charlene explained in a conspiratorial hush. “Don’t

forget Smal World.”

As DHIs, the kids had once ridden through It’s a Smal World late at night only to have al the

dol s come alive and attack them. It was a memory—more like a nightmare—none of them cherished. Other parts of various attractions in the Magic Kingdom had come alive as wel , often

threatening them, or outright causing them harm. It had instil ed a reluctance in them al , a distrust of what might happen next, that had stayed with them long since, and whether they spoke of it or

not, haunted them.

“You’re just buggy because it’s dark in here.”

“I’m not buggy! I heard hangers banging around over there. What’s with that? You think I should tel Finn?”

“Boys? We don’t need boys.”

Some hangers rang out quite near them. Charlene jumped back. Wil a stood her ground but

peered inquisitively into the room’s twilight. “It’s got to be Finn or Philby playing a joke,” she told Charlene.

“Ha-ha.”

Wil a stood tal er and spoke with authority. “Okay, you guys! You got us. Al y-al y-in-free.”

The ting-ting of hangers faded, like a clock running down. The girls waited for someone to jump out and surprise them, but it didn’t happen.

“Are you going to check it out?” Charlene asked, partly hiding behind Wil a.

Together the girls explored the rack in front of them, pushing clothes aside. They did so cautiously, a few garments at a time. Wil a grabbed a bunch of shirts and slid them to her right.

A large bat dropped from the rack, unfolded its wings, and flapped violently to gain altitude.

Wil a ducked. Charlene screamed and went over backward, fal ing to the floor.

The bat spiraled into the upper reaches of the warehouse and, because of Charlene’s

scream, got the attention of everyone on the floor.

It was a big bat, an ugly bat, with a wingspan of at least two feet, but it moved through the air

as fast as a cat after a toy, fluttering and flying, weaving and diving, one moment up high near the ceiling, the next dive-bombing down one of the endless aisles.

The commotion drew Finn and Amanda, running. Philby hurried from the back. But it was Maybeck who proved to be the shrewd thinker. He grabbed a butterfly net from the props section

and came after the bat like a lacrosse player, swinging the bil owing net with remarkable agility.

“Find the lights!” he shouted, fol owing the bat down a row of grass skirts. “Bats don’t like light!”

Where the others might have been satisfied with scaring the bat out of the building, Amanda

and Finn understood the tension in Maybeck’s voice. Finn had seen a huge bat at Amanda’s. The

same bat? Not a great believer in coincidence, he, too, wanted to catch it. Clearly Maybeck also

believed it was no ordinary bat.

“Philby,” Finn shouted, “the lights!” He had no idea how to turn on the lights in a building this

size, but if there was a switch, Philby would find it before anyone else.

True to form, the overhead lights came on only seconds later, and the warehouse lit up like

the school gymnasium. As the lights flashed on, the bat dove as if it had been shot, and there was Maybeck, lunging through the air. He swung the net. The bat swooped. The two met in a tangle of

nylon mesh, high-pitched squeals. Maybeck skidded down the smooth concrete floor like a base

runner diving for home plate. He twisted the net, throwing it over itself and trapping the prize inside.

The kids let out an unplanned cheer.

They had taken a prisoner.

17

MAYBECK APPROACHED the employee pedestrian entrance to the Animal Kingdom holding a

pil owcase that wouldn’t stay stil . The Cast Member entrance—employees only—was a revolving

door of steel tines that moved only clockwise and required the employee card to open. The unattended entrance—he was grateful for that—required him to swipe the ID card the driver had

provided. A red light turned green, and Maybeck pushed through the turnstile. Use of the pil owcase prevented the contents from being seen: the bat. Stil , it was too close for comfort, and he was only too happy to dangle it away from his side as he cleared the entrance.

The pil owcase danced again.

“Settle down!” he said harshly, aware that he was speaking to a white pil owcase. Or more

precisely, its contents: a Rousette fruit bat.

To his surprise, it quieted.

Wil a, an animal lover, had identified the bat the moment Maybeck had caught it. This led to a

group discussion of what to do with the thing. Charlene wanted it released and out of the building as quickly as possible. Philby suggested doing something to it that wouldn’t have been approved

by the SPCA, and while Wil a thought it was “cute” and that it might make an interesting pet, Maybeck and Finn came up with a solution that seemed to please everyone—except Philby, of

course, since it meant keeping it alive.

“We can’t let it go,” Finn had said. “I know it’s completely ridiculous to think it might be Maleficent…” Wil a groaned at the mention of this. “But what if it is? Or what if we’ve captured Maleficent’s spy? Amanda and I saw a bat at her house. What if that was this same one?”

“If it is Maleficent, don’t you think she’d turn back into herself and do something bad to us?”

Wil a suggested sarcastical y. “I’d say this would be a good time for that.”

“Good point,” Charlene said.

“Wayne told me the heat slows the powers she uses to transform herself. It’s like her kryptonite. We don’t know what she’s capable of,” Finn said. “I just don’t see how it’s worth taking any risks.”

“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.

“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.

“I’m just saying we don’t have much time. I’m nodding out like every other minute. We fal asleep and we may stay asleep forever. That’s what Wayne said. I just want us to use our time

efficiently, that’s al .” He studied the sheet. “For instance, who’s Rob?” In several places on the cluttered page Jez had written, Change Rob.

“Rob Bernowski,” Amanda said. “From school.”

“A friend? Boyfriend? Or what?” Philby asked.

“A little of both, I think.”

“And she wants to change him? And this is relevant to us, how?”

“I don’t know. Sure, I guess. She put that into the journal in a bunch of places.” Amanda opened up the journal and flipped through several pages around the ones they had copied. “The

way she writes it, it’s like she’s real y set on it.”

“So are we supposed to talk to Rob about this?” Philby asked sarcastical y. “You think Rob

has her?”

Amanda glared at him.

Finn asked, “What can it hurt to cal him? I don’t see why we don’t fol ow up on everything we

can. Am I missing something? What if this is important, and we ignore it?”

“That’s why you cal ed the meeting, isn’t it?” Philby asked. “I say we put it to a vote. We could

spend al day chasing a bunch of meaningless ramblings, and we haven’t got al day. How much

longer can we stay awake?” He yawned, and then Finn and Amanda yawned right along with him.

“Stop it,” Finn said.

“We’re out of time here,” Philby complained, “and we haven’t even started. I’m going to have

to cal my mom at some point, or she’l have the cops out looking for me.”

“We’l put it to a vote,” Finn agreed. “But in the meantime, we’re going to make a list of everything on this page and what it might mean, no matter how far out.” He addressed Philby.

“We’l do it scientifical y.” He said this knowing it would appeal to him.

“I can get behind that,” Philby said.

Amanda looked over at Finn, her eyes red and shining behind tears she struggled to hold back. But her eyes also had a twinkle in them. She seemed to be thanking him. Finn reached out

and took her clenched fist in his hand.

“We’re going to find her,” he said.

20

MAYBECK APPROACHED the bat enclosure from the Maharajah Jungle Trek path. The enclosure was

quite large, with colorful prayer flags strung between the facade of a fake building, rock wal s, and the large boxlike frame that supported a wal and roof of mesh netting. A three-stage viewing room had been built along the path. A ranger would be on duty once the Park opened at 9 AM, but for

now it stood empty. Maybeck avoided the viewing room, just in case, staying outside, moving along the perimeter wal of the netting. He left the path and entered the jungle, keeping close to the enclosure’s netted wal .

It was only then he saw the birds. His first reaction was one of astonishment. He thought it

beautiful in a way—a thousand or more dark birds so crowded into the treetops that large branches bent under their weight. He thought how fortunate he was to see such a phenomenon—

that it probably only happened in the early hours before guests arrived and scared away al but the most brazen of the wild creatures that had adopted the Animal Kingdom as their home.

Then he noticed something strange about the birds: they al seemed to be looking right at him. He knew this was impossible, and yet…The thril of astonishment gave way to the electric jangle of raw nerves. They were looking right at him.

Two things happened then: he spotted a door into the enclosure about ten yards farther into

the jungle, and the first of the birds left their perches and flew toward him.

He knew he shouldn’t panic. It was only birds, after al . But the way they surrounded him…the

way the jungle went suddenly silent…the way the bats in the enclosure awakened with a start

— nocturnal animals—a restless jittering as they hung from their perches sent a spike of terror through him. Birds flew in flocks, certainly. But they didn’t attack as a group. Did they?

The birds attacked.

It was as if someone had blotted out the sun. They came at him as a dark cloud of beating

wings and unflinching black eyes. Their smal bird legs were aimed right at Maybeck. The birds

came at him in such numbers that at first it was just plain scary—they landed on his head, his shoulders, his arms, his back. But then it went beyond scary—to dangerous—as the weight of them pushed him down. To an outside eye, it would have appeared as if thousands of birds had

landed in the same spot of the jungle at once, but to Maybeck it meant a pitch-black flurry of wings and beaks and scratching claws. He fought them off one-handed—grabbing, poking, sweeping his arm, and knocking the birds away. But back they came.

He knew he could not sustain the weight of the birds. The pecking.

Now, crushed by the heaviness, feeling it might break him in two, Maybeck released the pil owcase to defend himself.

A tiny hand reached out…

A monkey hand! It snatched up the pil owcase, and the monkey took off running. As it did, the birds flew off. In a flutter of feathers, the sun reappeared, and Maybeck watched as the monkey,

pil owcase in hand, hurried down the path.

Maybeck took off after it.

He looked himself over as he ran—not a scratch on him. If he were to tel anyone what had

happened, they wouldn’t believe him. He had no proof whatsoever. A thousand birds attacked me! It would sound like a lame excuse for his having lost the pil owcase and the captive bat. He had original y thought Finn’s claim that the bat might be Maleficent was a bit of a stretch. But now he reconsidered. Birds didn’t organize like that, he reminded himself. Monkeys were known thieves, but what was a monkey doing loose inside the Animal Kingdom, even if the Park was not yet official y open? He had questions that needed answering.

He ran as fast as he could.

When the monkey stole off into the jungle, Maybeck fol owed.

21

WILLA CROSSED DISCOVERY ISLAND, feeling as if everyone were staring at her. Could they tel she

was underage? She didn’t think she looked al that much younger than the other girls. The formality of the uniform helped her look older, adding a good three or four years to her fourteen. But what if they were staring because they recognized her face as that of a DHI? If caught, she could lose her family’s Gold Pass, as wel as her performance contract. She might no longer be one of the Kingdom Keepers. She kept her head down and wished she’d used more makeup at the costume

warehouse. The ID badge Wayne had given her was clipped to her waist, helping to make her

look official. With her eyes to the ground, she walked with her back straight and took determined

strides, knowing the importance of body language.

She had volunteered for what was probably the most dangerous assignment that Finn and

Philby had come up with: to infiltrate and search the Kilimanjaro Safari grounds. The idea was a

simple one: if someone was hiding Jez in the Animal Kingdom, why not stash her someplace where people were prohibited from going? When the Park was open, the safari teemed with hundreds of wild animals. People riding on the safari were restricted to the backs of the safari trucks with a driver/guide who pointed out animals and took guests on a “mission” to save a baby

elephant from make-believe poachers. But, according to Philby’s research, throughout the safari

grounds there were feeding stations, way points, and even some hidden gates offering backstage

access. The Overtakers had once hidden Maybeck in a maintenance cage inside Space

Mountain; it seemed possible, logical even, that they might hide Jez in a similarly impossible-to—

access place. But if one of them got there before the animals were released…

“It’s done in stages,” Philby had explained. “Thomson’s gazel es are pretty tame and

harmless. Some aren’t even rounded up at night, but most of the other animals are. They’re fed

and washed and doctored, if need be, after the Park closes to the public.”

“But what about early morning?” Wil a had asked.

“Before the Park opens, they return the animals in a specific order that offers the fewest problems. The trick for you is to get inside before eight AM.”

Wil a didn’t wear a watch. She had no idea what time it was. That was an oversight. She was

guessing it was between 6:30 and 7:00 AM, which gave her about an hour. But the later it was, the

less time she had. She quickened her steps, off Discovery Island now, and headed toward the entrance to the Kilimanjaro Safari. A tremendous flock of black birds passed overhead—there must have been thousands of them. They streaked across the morning sky and were gone.

“If you hurry, you can catch the last one.” She looked up. It was a cute guy wearing a uniform

identical to her own. He stood below the sign for the Kilimanjaro Safari.

“Ah…yeah,” Wil a said. But she tensed as she felt his eyes fol owing her. Did she look old

enough to carry an ID badge?

She walked quickly through the empty waiting area, turning and winding her way down to the

loading dock, where one of the trucks was waiting. There was an older woman—she had to be

nearly thirty—leaning forward from the front bench, coaching the driver. Wil a was the only passenger beside the instructor. It was obviously some kind of training run. The truck rumbled off down a path that wound through the jungle.

Wil a cal ed out, “I’l be hopping off at Ituri Forest.”

The instructor, without so much as looking back, lifted her arm and waved.

Wil a heaved a sigh of relief and held on as the driver avoided puddles and recited some memorized lines into the radio, “communicating” with other rangers who were searching for the

poachers. Wil a had taken the safari ride many times and enjoyed the story behind it as wel as the animal-watching. But the emptiness of the place at this hour gave her the shivers. The truck rounded a bend and slowed.

“Is here al right?” the instructor cal ed back inquisitively. Suspiciously?

The Ituri Forest, Wil a realized.

“Fine!” She hopped the three feet down to the muddy ground, hoping the instructor wouldn’t

see that she was wearing running shoes and not the required ranger boots. She slapped the side

of the truck, and it lumbered off. The minute it was gone, she regretted getting off.

Alone on the truck route, in the midst of a thick forest of bamboo and sea cane, Wil a spotted

a pure white ibis as stil as a statue. The bird stood on one leg, perfectly balanced.

She unfolded the map Philby had given her, tried to establish her position, and punched through the forest to her left, expecting to come across a feed station within the next thirty yards. It was tough going, the forest thick with vegetation.

Had she looked behind her, she would have seen a lizard fol owing. It was five or six feet long,

with a thin tail and little claws on its feet. Not so much a lizard—more like a Chinese dragon.

22

MAYBECK LOST GROUND to the smal, agile simian that moved through the jungle’s tight growth in a

seamless, fluid motion. He wondered if the monkey was under Maleficent’s control. But if so, then

why had it not been ordered to release the bat? His answer came as a slice of first light caught his eyes. Bats were nocturnal; it was sunrise. Releasing the bat was not an option.

Maybeck had to get it back. He smashed into bamboo and rubber trees, baby banyans and

mangrove. He sloshed through the flooded jungle floor, quickly gaining on the monkey.

Maybeck’s progress registered on the monkey’s face as wide-eyed terror. It shrieked and exploded into a frenzy, briefly increasing its lead on Maybeck. But only briefly.

Maybeck broke out of the jungle and felt something hard beneath his feet. He looked down:

train tracks! The Wildlife Express Train was going through its morning test run. Maybeck jumped

out of the way when he heard a blast from the train’s whistle. “You crazy?” the conductor shouted

through the open window.

He’d been spotted. As the train passed, he saw the conductor reaching for his radio.

Not good.

The train whistle pierced the morning air, sending a flock of sandhil cranes into the blue sky.

Maybeck spotted the monkey. It had been crouched in the center of the birds. He closed the distance to ten yards, then five.

The train had fol owed a long, sweeping curve of track but was now coming around and catching up to them. It reappeared to Maybeck’s right. The monkey changed directions, going straight for the train. Maybeck skidded to a stop, caught a toe, and went down hard.

He looked up to see the monkey slip beneath a train car, the pil owcase in hand. Maybeck

hurried to his feet and ran toward the train. The train conductor hung out of the locomotive, shouting at him. Maybeck squatted in time to see the monkey racing across a short distance of

grass toward more jungle. There was no way Maybeck was about to crawl under a moving train.

He waited it out impatiently. It seemed to move very slowly. Final y, Maybeck took off toward the

end of the train and came around it, once again crossing the tracks.

He found himself next to the Chakranadi Chicken Shop. He came to a halting stop, looked

left…right… there! A flash of the white pil owcase was al he caught—just rounding a bend in the path. He took off, heading away from Flights of Wonder. Again, his size and speed overcame the

monkey’s efforts.

The monkey sensed its pursuer and skittered back and forth in a zigzag, chattering loudly. It

crossed the path and shot straight up a dangling rope toward a concrete tower. It reached the turret, nearly thirty feet off the ground, and briefly disappeared. The next time Maybeck saw it, the monkey—stil carrying the pil owcase—hurried across a set of ropes toward a crumbling Asian temple encased in bamboo scaffolding. This was on an island surrounded by a narrow moat.

Maybeck stopped at the concrete tower. The end of the rope the monkey had climbed was

frayed as if it had been chewed through. He studied the layout, noticing that the rope bridges connected back to the temple, which meant that the monkeys weren’t supposed to be able to get

down off the towers. The moat was meant to prevent their escape from the island. But the monkeys had managed to drop a rope that had yet to be spotted. By doing so, they’d given themselves an escape route.

The monkey disappeared into the red brick temple, dragging the pil owcase behind it, and

was gone.

Maybeck, understanding the importance of acting quickly, rol ed up his pant legs, pul ed off

his shoes, and waded into the murky water. A pair of ducks startled and splashed away to the other side of the temple, squawking and quacking.

Maybeck felt the cold mud ooze between his toes. Bubbles rose to the surface al around him,

giving off an unpleasant odor.

He faced a wooden door with iron bars over its smal , square window. It was the only way into

the temple that he could see.

He arrived there in five giant steps and, sloshing out of the water, reached for the door’s handle.

23

WILLA CHECKED PHILBY’S MAP once more: he had marked the location of a feeding station—

disguised as a large stump—at the edge of the savannah. Its proximity to a nighttime animal holding pen qualified it as a possible hiding place where Jez could be kept and never discovered.

A clock ran off the seconds and minutes in her head—she had several such places to check before the animals were released.

She pushed though the forest, fol owing the map, and reached the edge of the sprawling savannah: a flat plain of low grasses interspersed with trees and rocks and a few smal ponds, al

of it surrounded by low rol ing hil s. It glistened in the first golden rays of dawn.

There, quite some distance away, she saw a stump, thinking immediately that it couldn’t possibly be Philby’s stump because it looked so real. But the location was right, so she decided

to have a look.

The problem was, there was no way to sneak up toward a stump in the middle of a field without being seen. She had to cross a hundred yards in the open. Not that there was anyone to

see her, but another training truck could come by at any minute. She decided rather than run out

and look suspicious, she would walk casual y—just another day on the job. Hopeful y, the ranger

uniform would do the rest.

Then, taking in her surroundings, she happened to look back.

At first, she thought it was an al igator. Terror gripped her: al igators ate people. It happened

al the time in Florida. She’d heard they could run faster than humans, and when you saw one you

didn’t want to run because it teased them into chasing you—and if they chased you, they considered you food. So she continued walking, though slightly faster than before. The stump—or

fake stump—rose at least three feet off the ground. If she could only reach it in time…

But then she looked again. It wasn’t an al igator after al , but a giant lizard, maybe six feet long. She’d studied Komodo dragons in school, and this looked pretty much exactly like one.

Komodos didn’t eat people, but they were known to bite and do serious harm. She didn’t know the

rule about Komodos—did you run or walk? The lizard turned sideways for a second, as if to size

her up, and once again she changed her mind: it wasn’t a Komodo; it looked more…prehistoric,

with thick scales and…was that possible?… wings, tucked in along its back. It looked more like…

A dragon. She’d read stories about dragons. Had seen movies. She’d always considered

them mythological creatures. But now she was looking at one.

It had a disgusting, pink tongue that flicked like a snake’s—but about two feet long. The tongue curled as it drew back between the rows of gray, stubby teeth.

She wanted to think of this as coincidence—the two of them had just happened to cross paths, and it was now fol owing her. Tracking her was more to the point, she thought. But then something even more strange entered her thoughts: what if Jez was indeed locked up in the stump

—the food locker—and the dragon was some kind of patrol for the Overtakers? After al , the safari

was fil ed with al sorts of animals, from giraffes to zebras, but a scaly Asian dragon with wings?

The Overtakers.

It was the first thing to come to her: if Jez was being kept out here on the savannah, it seemed

obvious who would guard her. And if there was a dragon mixed in with al the rest of the animals,

could that possibly be a coincidence, since dragons hadn’t existed for the past few mil ion years—

if ever?

So what exactly was the dragon waiting for? It just lingered back there, a dozen yards away,

trol ing back and forth across the grassy landscape as if sniffing around for food. If he was going to attack her, why not get to it?

Could a dragon possibly think? Could it be waiting to see if she headed for the stump? She

subtly increased both the quickness and the length of her strides. She glanced back to see that

the dragon had stayed right with her. It didn’t seem to be moving any faster, either, and yet…there it was.

Now more convinced than ever that she was its intended target, she looked around and realized that she was al alone out on the savannah. She saw an ostrich in the distance—perhaps

they had begun releasing animals already. A herd of Thomson’s gazel es shot across the field, but

some nights they were left on the grounds; it didn’t mean much to see them. If, on the other hand, the animals were already being released and introduced to the savannah, then Wil a hoped they

might distract the dragon from its current obsession with her.

She moved increasingly closer to the stump, and now, looking back, she saw the dragon fol owing her. If she climbed on top of the stump, she would be out of reach of the dragon. But what about the wings? Could something like that possibly fly?

She heard the sudden beating of hooves, seconds later mixing with the rumble of a truck engine. A herd of zebras had been released—again to her left—and from somewhere behind her

a truck was approaching. If she was going to inspect the stump it had to be now—right now.

She ran the last few yards, and if she’d harbored any doubts as to the dragon’s intentions,

they were answered by its light-footed sprint to keep up with her. There was no turning back now.

No changing her mind. The dragon raced toward her, its mouth open, snapping at the air.

She reached the side of the stump—though shaped like a stump, it was made of metal, with

a smal door in the side. She worked the snap lock off the hasp and opened the door.

The dragon charged, seemingly not touching the ground at al . It flicked its long tail back and

forth, moving in a snakelike fashion, quickly closing the distance between them.

Wil a dove inside and pul ed the door shut behind her. It was incredibly warm inside. Enough

light filtered in to al ow her to see that Jez was not there. There were sacks of food and salt licks. It smel ed like a pet store. A coiled hose hung from a hook.

The dragon smashed into the door, then slammed its powerful tail against the stump. Her ears rang. A rumbling in the ground grew louder. Wil a looked out a crack in the access door to

see the herd of zebras bearing down on her as it crossed the savannah.

The dragon took off for a distant tree and climbed it in a creepy, effortless way.

Wil a sagged down to sit, trying to catch her breath.

And then she saw it: freshly scraped into the fake stump’s rusty metal was a simple message

that made absolutely no sense—and yet somehow she knew it had been written by Jez.

It read: Change Rob.

She curled up and held her breath, waiting to flee the stump once the storm of zebras had

passed.

24

MAYBECK STOOD INSIDE a dark enclosure the size of a large closet. It had a concrete floor from

which a low brick wal rose to waist level. From there, framed lumber intersected by long bamboo

poles rose geometrical y overhead, wrapped on the outside with heavy brown vinyl: fake brick.

Together, it added up on the outside to what looked like an Asian temple. But inside it smel ed

bad—real y bad—like one of those Porta-Potties at the state fair. It was surprisingly cool inside—

a place for the monkeys to escape the heat. There was a white plastic tub with a metal handle

sitting by the door. Alongside it was a neatly coiled green hose connected to a spigot.

The door clapped shut behind him. He turned in time to see the monkey overhead, carrying

the pil owcase, climbing effortlessly, up, up, up, pul ing himself between the bamboo poles and jeering down at Maybeck.

Sunlight seeped in through several square openings at the top of the temple. The temple provided shelter for the monkeys, a place to hide from storms and a cool place to sleep. The smel

was the problem: the monkeys used the concrete floor as their bathroom. He understood the purpose of the hose, then, and felt tempted to give the concrete a spraying off.

If the monkey made it to the top window, the pil owcase and its contents would be gone.

Maybeck considered climbing, but that was a race he was sure to lose.

The monkey crossed along the bamboo rafters, and then, to Maybeck’s surprise, began to

work its way back down. Maybeck’s eyes slowly adjusted to the dark. And then something moved

from the shadows.

Maleficent.

She stepped out to where Maybeck could see her, regal in her purple-fringed black cape, her

startling green skin glowing with maliciousness.

“Hel o, Terrance.” A voice like grinding stones.

The monkey handed her the bag. She accepted it with an outstretched arm, never taking her

eyes off Maybeck.

“Do you know what happens to children who play where they don’t belong?”

He couldn’t get a word out.

“They get…burned,” she said. A flaming orb appeared in one hand. She cocked her arm

back, ready to throw.

Maybeck dove for the hose, swiveled its nozzle, and shot a ferocious stream of water at the

witch.

The monkey cried out and leaped up into the rafters.

The water stream knocked the burning bal out of Maleficent’s hand but produced a cloud of

steam that immediately fil ed the smal space so thickly he couldn’t see.

A dark shadow shifted inside the gray cloud of steam: Maleficent moving to cut off his path to

the door. He abandoned the hose and sprang for the door. But she was much faster than he’d

anticipated. He came face-to-face with the green skin and bloodshot eyes. Her breath was like a

dead mouse caught in a trap as she said, “No. I don’t think so.”

Maybeck didn’t hesitate. He kicked out, punching the door open and admitting a flood of light.

Maleficent, stil holding the pil owcase, moved to block his exit, just as he’d hoped.

He sprang up overhead, through the bamboo, and squeezed out the hole at the top. Hand—

over-hand, he swung up the taut connecting rope—five yards…ten—as he pul ed himself toward

the tower.

Maleficent stepped out into the sunlight but jumped back—the heat of the sun’s rays already

too much for her.

Maybeck reached the tower and found the dangling rope and slid down, burning his hands,

reached the ground, and took off running without looking back.

He understood with absolute clarity what was going on: the bat was a spy— Maleficent’s spy—and she’d dispatched the birds and the monkey to make sure she received the bat’s report.

The bat had fol owed Finn since Amanda’s. It knew al about them. And now Maleficent knew,

too.

He shuddered with the thought of that as he broke into the jungle and ran for his life.

25

THE MOMENT THE PARK gates opened to the public, Finn, Amanda, and Philby entered through the

Cast Member entrance, using the IDs that Wayne had provided. Finn and Philby were determined

to mix in with the crowds and reach the rendezvous in time to meet up with the others. Famous as

DHIs, their faces were known throughout the Disney kingdoms, a fame that threatened—for they

were forbidden from attending except on special y approved days. Getting around without being

recognized was not going to be easy. They wore basebal caps to hide their faces, and they kept

to themselves as much as possible.

By the time they reached the benches just inside the large gates north of the Rainforest Cafe,

where the Animal Kingdom parade originated, a wet Maybeck and a dirty-faced Wil a were waiting. Finn handed out copies of the page from Jez’s diary.

Quiet at this hour, it was a good place to meet. They gathered around a bench, awaiting Charlene’s grand entrance as DeVine, the ivy-covered chameleon.

Maybeck told them about being attacked by birds, about losing the bat to a monkey, and about his encounter with Maleficent.

Wil a spoke of her pursuit by a miniature dragon and her discovery in the metal stump of the

cryptic message left by Jez.

“There’s something to be learned from what we both went through,” Wil a said, continuing.

“We can’t trust any of the animals we see. Maleficent can control them. Whether a flock of birds, or a dragon with wings. We’re no longer in the Animal Kingdom, we’re in Maleficent’s kingdom.”

“If she went to al this trouble to be here, there’s got to be a good reason.” Finn heard something behind him and glanced over his shoulder into the jungle. He saw nothing. Wil a and

Maybeck were freaking him out.

“Maleficent’s weak in the heat. She needs cold to survive. If she’s hanging out here, it’s someplace cold.”

“But why here?” Finn asked.

“We need to keep watch on the bat enclosure,” Maybeck proposed.

“I can go places none of you can,” said a girl’s voice from behind them. Once again Finn looked back into the jungle. Again he saw nothing.

“Up here,” said the voice.

He and the others looked up to see a vine-covered leotard, with no face and no arms. It was

Charlene, in costume as DeVine, her face painted green and black. The overal effect was disarming: she’d been standing there al along, immediately behind Finn.

Philby applauded. “Outrageous!” he said.

“Whoa,” said Maybeck. “You total y blend in.”

“I can’t believe it!” said an exhilarated Wil a. “I’m looking right at you and I almost can’t see

you.”

“I’l need to leave the area before the real DeVine comes out. But I can go almost anywhere

undetected. Even Maleficent isn’t going to see me in this.”

“Okay, Charlene wil watch the bat enclosure,” Finn stated with a feigned authority. He remembered Wayne tel ing him that he was the group’s chosen leader, though he stil wasn’t buying it. But to his surprise, no one argued with him.

Charlene, blending into her surroundings, waited for some Park guests to pass and then said, “Wil someone please hand me the page from the diary?”

Amanda produced it, stood on the bench, and passed it up to her.

Charlene studied it. “Monkeys…tigers…a bat…This is enough for now,” she said.

“It’s possible that everything on that page is significant,” Finn cautioned.

Catching Philby dozing off, he punched him in the arm. “And NO fal ing asleep,” he reminded

them.

“I’m exhausted,” Wil a said.

“We cannot sleep!” Finn repeated. “Wayne warned us about that. We’ve got to believe him.”

Maybeck indicated a food cart. “Cokes al around!”

A few minutes later they were al loading up on caffeine. “Maybe Maleficent can’t get Jez out

of the park until after it closes,” Amanda said, “or maybe the plan is to run al of you around until you tire out. If she can trap you al in the Sleeping Beauty Syndrome, she eliminates the enemy

and is free to rule without chal enge.”

“You think she took Jez to bait us?” Wil a asked.

“None of this means anything,” Maybeck said, “until we find Jez. The chal enge is to stay awake long enough to find Jez and crash this cloned server—if it even exists. Then maybe we hunt

down Maleficent, if we’re stil standing. But until we find Jez, none of it matters.”

“Listen!” Charlene said from high on the stilts.

The kids turned their attention toward the jungle.

“Not to me!” Charlene clarified. “To the music.”

The kids perked up their ears. It was Ashley Tisdale’s “Kiss the Girl,” coming over the Park’s

speaker system.

“Yeah? So?” asked Wil a. “Radio Disney plays that al the time.”

“I know that,” Charlene said. “But me and my family come as often as possible, and I’ve never

heard that song in this Park before.”

The kids listened some more. “You’re right. It’s always Lion King and stuff like that.”

“It’s Jez,” Amanda stated.

“What’s Jez?” Finn asked.

“‘Kiss the Girl’is Jez’s favorite song,” Amanda said. “She abuses that song on her iPod. If it

doesn’t belong in this Park, then it’s her. It’s some kind of message.”

“I think you’re more tired than the rest of us,” Maybeck said.

“Which is completely understandable,” Wil a chimed in, “given the stress…”

“Listen…listen!” Amanda demanded, raising a finger to try to shut them up. “Raven-Symoné

is going to sing ‘Under the Sea’ next.”

“Yeah, right,” said Maybeck. “I suppose if your sister can dream the future, you can hear it.”

“Philby,” Amanda said, “Jez had her iPod with her. Is there some way she could use it over

the sound system?”

“Hijack the sound system?” Philby said, considering the question. “Depends, I suppose. If she

stripped a wire from the earbuds and tapped into—”

But he was cut off by the music changing.

Raven-Symoné was singing “Under The Sea.”

Al the kids went quiet.

Some visitors walked past talking about going on Expedition Everest. The parents sounded

reluctant to try the ride.

But it wasn’t the guests that had silenced the kids.

“Coincidence,” Maybeck said in a whisper. He didn’t sound at al convinced.

“It’s Jez,” Amanda countered, her voice noticeably brighter.

“I know for a fact that they never play that song here,” Charlene said from up high. “I believe

Amanda. And besides, it’s softer than the regular music—not as loud. It doesn’t sound right.”

“Which would also explain why Finn and I overheard two maintenance guys talking about sound-system problems,” Philby said.

Finn’s face brightened. “That’s right!”

“Then why doesn’t she just send us Morse code, or something?” Maybeck complained.

“Because she can’t give away what she’s done,” Amanda said, trying to think as Jez would

think. “She doesn’t want them figuring it out. So she’s trying to communicate with us, without it being real y obvious.”

“Wait right here,” Philby said, taking off at a run. The kids watched him go.

They used the downtime to review the page taken from Jez’s diary.

“The animals could symbolize different things,” Wil a suggested.

“Like what?” a skeptical Maybeck questioned. “Listen, I see the drawing of the lightning striking a castle, and even I’ve got to admit it’s pretty coincidental. But the rest of these? They’re animals. So what? She likes animals. It doesn’t mean they mean something.”

“It doesn’t mean they don’t,” Amanda countered. “You don’t know Jez. They’re clues. Clues

we’re supposed to fol ow.”

Philby came running toward them.

As he did, there was suddenly no music at al : a rarity in any of the Disney Parks.

Then “Under the Sea” began playing again.

One thing al the kids knew: music never repeated in any of the Parks. Not ever.

Out of breath, Philby said, “It’s playing on this side of the Park and in Asia. Discovery Island

and Africa have different music going.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Maybeck said. “How do we know that isn’t always

the case?”

Philby explained, “From what I know, the system is designed to be able to move sound around the Park. The parades require that the music fol ow the floats. It’s a sophisticated, computer-control ed sound system. I’ve never read anything about one half of the Park being sent

one kind of music, and the other half another.”

“That confirms it’s Jez,” Amanda said excitedly. “She just repeated ‘Under the Sea.’ We know

that song doesn’t belong here, and on her iPod it fol ows ‘Kiss the Girl.’ Pretty obvious she wants someone to hear it. Maybe us. Maybe someone to try to fix it, someone to go looking for the problem.”

“Or maybe,” said Wil a, “the song itself is significant. Ariel. Or Ursula—”

“I hate Ursula,” Charlene tossed out.

“Or it has to do with where they’re keeping her,” Amanda continued. “Or it fits into her dreams

in some way.”

“We’ve got to take it seriously,” Wil a pleaded, looking at Finn, knowing the decision would

somehow be his to make.

Finn felt al eyes fal on him. He stifled a yawn. Every minute was precious. His head was clouded and heavy.

“Let’s run down everything to do with The Little Mermaid,” Finn said.

Maybeck groaned. “Isn’t that wasting time? The bat is real. That monkey is real. The dragon was real. Let’s fol ow things we can actual y see.”

“How do we know that?” Charlene asked from atop her stilts.

“Ariel’s Grotto,” Wil a said. “Magic Kingdom.”

“We split up,” Finn said, pul ing out a pencil and writing on the back of the photocopy of the

diary page. “Maybeck wil try to locate the animals and images sketched in the diary. The rest of

us wil look for anything to do with ‘Under the Sea’ and The Little Mermaid. ”

“I don’t know if this counts,” Philby said, “but when you stand in line for Nemo, over at Epcot,

the ocean is painted above you. You’re literal y under the sea.”

“I like it,” Finn said. He wrote it down.

“The same thing’s true at Hol ywood Studios,” Wil a said. “On the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, you stand under the sea while waiting.”

“Okay…Okay…” Maybeck said, final y going along. “I don’t know if this counts, but there’s this

poster my little sister loves. Always points it out. It’s by the Mickey’s PhilharMagic line. I’m pretty sure it’s says something like ‘A Must Sea,’ spel ed S-E-A. ”

“That definitely counts,” Finn said, writing this down as wel . “Anything else anyone can think

of?”

One by one, the others either shook their heads or shrugged.

“It’s a lot. And they’re spread al over the place.”

“It’s a waste of time,” Maybeck cautioned. “It’s just a song.”

“You have your assignment,” Finn said. “Philby wil stay and try to figure out the Park’s sound

system. Get on to VMK if you can and find Wayne.” He explained how to use the Disney vacation

kiosk in Camp Minnie-Mickey. “Maybe he can help.” He turned to Amanda. “You wil keep watch

for Jez using the Animal Cam at the Conservation Station. Wil a wil take Ariel’s Grotto and Mickey’s PhilharMagic—both in Magic Kingdom. I’l take Nemo and the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Maybeck, you stay and keep after the monkey and bat. Fol ow the clues in the diary,

working with Charlene. Any problems?”

To his surprise, no one complained or tried to change the assignments. Maybe he actual y

was the leader.

“Al of us have to study this page from the diary. We each have a copy. We need to write down where we’ve seen any of these animals, or images of these animals. This building she drew…this dude wearing a turban. And I’l cal Rob, since his name keeps coming up.”

He met eyes—tired eyes—with Maybeck, and saw Maybeck’s frustration and impatience.

“I’m open to suggestions,” Finn offered.

A silence hung heavily in the air.

It was broken by the music beginning again. “Under the Sea.” Playing now for the third time in

a row.

“Two hours,” Maybeck said. “We meet back here.” “Agreed,” Finn said.

The kids scattered.

26

LIKE THE OTHERS, Wila had put her Animal Kingdom Cast Member costume on over her regular

clothes. She’d slipped out of the AK costume and had tucked it into a bush outside the gates of

the Magic Kingdom. Using the ID Wayne had given her, she was admitted through the CAST

MEMBER ONLY line.

She stopped at a pay phone and cal ed her mother. This was critical, because shed sneaked

out in the early hours of the morning before, saying she’d gone to Mass. She did this on her own

periodical y—something her mother found “dear”—so she knew it wouldn’t raise a suspicion. Her

mother was no longer a churchgoer, not since her father’s accident, so the only excuse she had to

make now concerned what she was doing with her morning.

“I’m at Disney World,” she told her mother, settling for the truth. For al she knew, the pay phone’s cal er ID had already given her away.

“But you’re not al owed. They’l pul our pass if they catch you.”

“It’s important.”

“What could be that important?”

“I’m doing it for a friend.”

“Doing what?”

“Research.”

“You’re not tangled up with those other kids again, are you?”

“They’re my friends, Mom.”

“They got you into a lot of trouble last time.”

“I’l be home…later. I’l cal if it’s going to be after dark.”

“It is not going to be after dark, young lady. I want you home by five.”

“I can’t promise that.”

“You can, and you wil . I’m stil your mother, and if I say five, then it’s five. And remember: stay away from the Magic Kingdom. If they make us give that money back…”

“They won’t, Mom. I’l cal . I love you, Mom.” She hung up. Her mother hadn’t been herself since the accident. In some ways the two of them were closer; in other ways they’d kind of traded

roles: Wil a felt more like the parent. She wondered why certain things happened in life—

happened to some people but not others. Why had she become a DHI? How very different her life

would be had she never auditioned for the part. Now she was caught up in something few would

believe; she didn’t even believe it herself some of the time. Rescuing a girl who could dream the

future? It sounded so stupid. And yet…

She kept her head down on the way to Ariel’s Grotto. If she was spotted, she’d be mobbed by

autograph seekers. If busted by Security, they would throw her out and take action. She hoped the

little bit of makeup she had on would help disguise her. She promised herself to keep a low profile and get this over with as quickly as possible.

She charged a princess wig and Disney hat onto her credit card. A khaki-colored basebal

cap, it was a little large for her head, but it held down the red wig and hid her face wel . She walked briskly and turned off Main Street as soon as possible, cutting in along the Monster’s, Inc.

Laugh Floor and looping around toward the grotto. Not a single glance in her direction. The disguise was working.

She stopped at the tentlike structure bearing the name ARIEL’S GROTTO and studied the

marquee. It held just the two words with an image of Ariel between them. Some fake flags flew.

If she remembered correctly from the night before, the Ariel parade float was adorned with

colorful sculptures of Sebastian, Scuttle, Triton, and Ursula. Did Jez’s musical clue have anything to do with the parade?

After a long wait in line, she stood inside the grotto, where girls lined up to meet Ariel and

have their pictures taken with her. She was posed inside a giant clam shel .

“Under the Sea,” Wil a was thinking, searching for a possible connection to Jez’s

disappearance. The song played repeatedly inside the grotto. With it, she felt a tangible connection to the missing Jez.

Something in here is important to Jez.…

She made herself believe this, having no idea whether or not it was true.

She was now third in line, behind mothers with their daughters lined up to get their photos

taken. Behind Ariel, large colorful starfish clung to the aquamarine wal , and next to her was a smal wooden chest.

Nothing here seemed of interest save for the chest, the possible contents of which intrigued

her. What was in the chest? It looked to be nothing more than a prop—something for young girls to lean against while getting their photos taken. But oh, how Wil a wanted a look inside.

She stepped forward, now second in line.

A girl and her mother got their picture taken. The Cast Member playing Ariel was beautiful.

She spoke politely to both the mother and daughter, then glanced ahead to Wil a.

She motioned Wil a forward.

“I think we have something in common,” she said softly. She’d seen past the wig and hair,

recognizing Wil a.

“Don’t tel ,” Wil a pleaded. “Please?”

“No way!” Then louder, for others to hear. “Would you like your picture taken?”

“I forgot my camera.”

“Wel , then.” Ariel extended her hand for Wil a to shake. “Nice to meet you.” She lowered her

voice, “Your secret’s safe with me.”

“I have a favor to ask,” Wil a said.

“I’m real y just here for handshakes and photographs.”

“The treasure chest,” Wil a said, pointing to the wooden trunk. “What’s inside?”

“No idea.” Realizing others were listening, she addressed everyone. “I’ve never opened it.”

“Could you please?”

“I’ve never been asked.”

“If you don’t mind?” Wil a said.

Ariel clearly didn’t know what to do. She kept her composure, but her eyes wandered as if a

handler might step forward to help her. In fact, that was exactly what happened.

“May I help?” a young woman asked.

“This young lady would like me to open the treasure chest,” Ariel explained.

“It’s important,” Wil a said in a whisper.

Though the company had never publicly acknowledged the work the Kingdom Keepers had

done to save the Magic Kingdom, word had spread through the community. There were few that

didn’t know the story by now, both inside and outside the network of Park employees. A book had

been written and published as fiction, but many knew the truth.

“How important?” Ariel asked.

Wil a raised the basebal cap, revealing herself. A shock of recognition overcame the girl.

Wil a hoped this was the right thing to do. She lowered her voice. “Did you hear about Tinker Bel

last night, during the fireworks?”

Ariel’s eyes widened, and she nodded.

“What is going on here?” the handler whispered hotly into Wil a’s ear.

“What? I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t give me that! First Captain Hook comes through our line nosing around where he doesn’t belong, and now you? And not fifteen minutes apart? What is it with you people?” She leaned in even closer. “Are you inspecting us or something?”

“Captain Hook?”

“Don’t give me that.”

“What did he want?”

“Captain Hook’s a walkaround. He doesn’t talk, in case you’ve forgotten. How would I know

what he wanted?”

“He was just here?”

“They never used to pul surprise inspections,” the handler complained. “And I don’t like it.”

Wil a tried to process al that she was being told. The Overtakers? Here before her? Also interested in Ariel? Why?

“You want your picture taken with me?” Ariel asked. “It would be an honor.” She’d opened the

treasure chest for Wil a: empty.

Wil a felt her head spin. She had to beat Captain Hook—or whoever he was—to Mickey’s

PhilharMagic.

“I’m fine!” she shouted over her shoulder, already hurrying away.

27

FINN ARRIVED AT HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS bone-tired, wel aware that if he or any of the other Kingdom

Keepers fel asleep, they might not be seen again. Ever. Worse, Jez’s disappearance pressured

al involved to find her quickly. He was going to be in trouble if this went on much longer. He didn’t put it past his parents to go looking for him at Blizzard Beach. When they failed to find him there…

He hurried down Hol ywood Boulevard toward Mickey’s giant sorcerer hat, which towered

one-hundred-and-twenty feet over the central plaza. He had his his own cap brim pul ed down low

over his sunglasses as he kept an eye out for any kids recognizing him—he didn’t need that. He

would take evasive action if necessary. He identified possible escape routes in each direction.

While checking out a Kodak shop to his left, he spotted a large black crow on the building’s

roof. The bird was certainly big enough to draw attention to itself, but Finn’s curiosity ran deeper: it seemed to be staring at him. The bird had its head cocked so that its large black eye was trained

down, not just on the street but on Finn. As Finn moved, so did the bird’s head. As Finn hurried up the street, the bird flew and fol owed, building by building.

Finn might not have taken any notice or interest in a stupid crow, but he couldn’t ignore Maybeck’s tale about being attacked outside the bat enclosure by a flock of birds. He’d been bitten badly by a parrot once and could remember it as if it were yesterday.

Now, hurrying to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, it seemed pretty obvious that the crow was

fol owing him. This, in turn, made him search the area to see if there were any other animals nearby. He spotted a group of chickadees in a tree outside the Brown Derby—but they didn’t seem particularly threatening. A solo jay stood watch from a roof overlooking an icecream vendor.

Finn’s distraction with the animals caused his attention to falter.

He heard the voice too late. “Aren’t you… him?” A boy of ten or eleven. His parents stood a few feet back, his mother’s face bright with expectancy. Finn glanced around. How had the boy

possibly recognized him? He didn’t want this to get out of hand; sometimes signing a single autograph could start a big line.

“Do you like the Magic Kingdom?” Finn asked the boy, who then nodded vigorously.

“The Kingdom Keepers,” the boy said. “You’re Finn. You beat up Maleficent.”

Finn bit back a smirk. “Not hardly. Those are just stories,” he said, accepting an autograph

book from the boy. “I’l sign this, but only if you promise not to tel anyone.” He lowered his voice and said conspiratorial y, “I’m here on a mission.”

The boy’s eye went wide. He shook his head, too awed to speak.

“Good.” Finn led the boy over to the sidewalk, where he could sign the autograph book with

his back turned to the street. In the Disney Parks, anyone signing anything attracted attention.

The boy fol owed. As Finn put pencil to paper, he briefly glanced up and into the reflection in

the store window. Three brooms, one holding a bucket of water. He spun quickly around, dropping

the autograph book. The boy bent to retrieve it.

The brooms stood facing him.

“Thank you!” the boy said, cherishing his autograph.

Finn had nearly forgotten about him. “No problem.”

Then something occurred to him. “You see those brooms over there? They look real familiar,

but I can’t remember why.…”

“Fantasia,” the boy said.

“Fantasia,” Finn said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that one.”

“It’s a pretty weird movie,” the boy said. “The brooms show up in ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,’I

think. Mickey, the apprentice, can’t control the magic—you know? It gets al out of hand. The brooms are part of that.”

Uncontrollable magic, Finn thought. Yes, he knew exactly what that was about, just like uncontrol able holograms. The brooms were there for him. He felt certain of it al of a sudden.

Finn thanked the boy, who ran back to his mother’s side.

Were the brooms part of Park Security? Were they going to bust him for being in the Park?

Or were they something more sinister: uncontrollable magic?

The brooms swept their way across the street and drew closer.

He walked quickly away. He looked back: the brooms were definitely fol owing.

Up ahead, he heard music from High School Musical. A huge crowd of onlookers formed a

half moon around a street show of cheerleaders and basketbal players dancing and singing.

Finn worked his way into the dense crowd, glad to see the brooms stop at the back. But then

the three split up. The one with the bucket went around the crowd in one direction; one stayed put; the other swept off in the opposite direction. He was surrounded. If they weren’t Security, then they were something much worse.

The leader of the High School Musical street show cal ed for volunteers to dance with them. A

number of kids raised their hands. Finn fol owed one of the kids as the music started. He kept his back to the crowd and headed toward the movable stage.

The brooms al were trapped with the crowd.

Finn dodged his way through the cheerleaders and ducked behind the stage. He hurried

through the plaza beneath the sorcerer’s hat, running hard now. He arrived at The Great Movie Ride.

The brooms regrouped and moved through the crowd—but they didn’t seem to be in any

hurry.

Finn entered the ride. He was directed into one of the cars, joining a family of three on a long

bench. He lowered his head to keep from being seen. But he looked up to steal a peek toward the

entrance.

For some reason, the brooms hadn’t fol owed him inside.

28

TWENTY MINUTES LATER, with no sign of the brooms, Finn joined the line for Voyage of the Little

Mermaid. The ceiling was painted to look like water. His heart beat excitedly: he was “under the

sea.”

There was no tel ing what he might find. Big or smal , ordinary or out of the ordinary, it could

be anything.

He heard a commotion behind him—the people waiting for the doors to open were oohing

and ahhing. Finn turned careful y around and spotted the three brooms. They danced and bowed

and entertained as they progressively moved closer.

Finn nudged past several people. “Excuse me…I got cut off from my family…pardon me…I’ve

lost my family and I think…” He never quite completed a sentence, thinking this made each excuse

less of a lie.

People complained, but no one physical y stopped him. He pushed to the very front of the line, putting a good distance between himself and the brooms. What did they want? he wondered.

Would they possibly try to hurt him with al these people as witnesses?

The doors swung open. Finn hurried across a row in the middle of the large auditorium. If he

kept going he’d have reached the seats closest to the exit doors, but he was afraid he might be

more easily spotted there. So he took a seat near the middle.

The theater fil ed quickly. The brooms appeared at the end of the line. They spread out and

moved along the wal to the back of the auditorium.

Before he had time to think, the lights dimmed and the theater went dark. Very dark. As an

artificial rain began to fal , Finn took a chance and peeked over his shoulder. The brooms seemed

to be watching the show along with the crowd. A wet mist blew from the stage, surprising the audience. A child cried out. Then there were laughs as the audience settled in for the show. The

theme music rang out: “Under the Sea.”

The song was the connection to Jez, and Finn searched the stage for possible clues as dozens of brightly colored sea creatures, glowing in the pitch black, began swimming across the

stage to the music. Ariel arrived onstage, and the audience applauded.

Flashes of color drenched the auditorium. He stole a look to the back: only one broom.

He fought off a sense of panic. There! Midway down the auditorium, a broom on each side.

To his relief, they stil appeared focused on the show, not the audience. To play it safe, he lowered his head and pul ed the brim of his cap down farther. How long until they spotted him? And then

what?

The crowd laughed, but not Finn.

A cel phone rang in the audience. Several heads turned in his direction. His father’s BlackBerry was ringing in his pocket. He’d forgotten al about it. He fumbled with it and shut it off, but by the time he had, it seemed as if half the theater were looking at him.

Including the two brooms on either side.

The music grew louder. The auditorium darkened once again.

Finn dropped to al fours and began crawling to his left toward the exit doors. Guests moved

their legs to al ow him past, creating a commotion. A storm erupted onstage. Finn reached the

end of the aisle and hesitated. Light flooded the theater. People applauded.

Finn jumped up and made for the exit.

He ran straight for the broom and pushed it over.

Hitting the blinding sunlight, he took off at a ful run, unwil ing to look back to see if a crow was fol owing, or a broom chasing him. It seemed to him he’d picked up nothing of value. A waste of

time.

Or maybe not, he thought. Had the Overtakers been fol owing him? Why had the brooms

seemed more interested in the stage show than in finding him? Maleficent’s powers clearly extended throughout al of the Disney Parks—the existence of the brooms confirmed that much.

On his way back to Animal Kingdom, he sent a text warning to the others.

Four members checked in on D-Gamer: Philby, Maybeck, Charlene, and Amanada. Al but

Wil a.

Finn tried several times to reach her, final y giving up and hoping her DS was somehow off—

line.

But it didn’t make sense. There was free Wi-Fi al over the Parks.

So why wasn’t she answering?

29

WILLA TRIED TO USE HER ID to jump the line for Mickey’s PhilharMagic, but to no use. So she

joined a long line that moved in waves, as a group of three hundred guests was admitted into the

auditorium.

With each surge in the line, she passed more posters—al with a funny play on words. The

line moved ahead, and it wasn’t long before she faced the one Maybeck had mentioned. It showed Ariel and Triton, as Maybeck had remembered. It was titled, “A Must Sea!”

A plaque on the bottom of the frame read: ARIEL BROUGHT PART OF HER WORLD INTO OUR WORLD.

…

Wil a knew this was somehow significant. She sat down to make a note of it, to copy it out

exactly as it was written.

Some of the smal er kids were also waiting out the line by sitting on the floor.

Jez had brought a part of her world into our world, as wel , Wil a thought. She’d brought her dreams about the future. She had foreseen things happening in the world that had now taken place: the lightning striking the castle, for one. Finn was right. If they were to find Jez, her drawings were the answer! The poster seemed to confirm it.

Wil a wrote the note and put it in her pocket. Then she leaned her head back— just for a minute, she told herself—and tried to think of what else the message might mean. The more she concentrated, the heavier her head became. Her eyes began to blink away the stinging fatigue.

She fel asleep.

The rest was a dream. She saw herself being helped to her feet by—of al things—two bears

from the Country Bear Jamboree. The kids around her, bored with waiting, were thril ed to see the

bears. As she was taken out of the line and through a Cast Member door, she felt her entire body

tingle. Not a nice tingle, but like when a foot fal s asleep—the same kind of tingle she’d experienced on the nights when, fal ing asleep, she’d crossed over as a DHI.

Where the bears were taking her she couldn’t tel , but there were voices and the sound of an

engine. A few minutes later came the sounds of car doors and more voices. A friendly voice welcoming people. She heard the Animal Kingdom mentioned. It wasn’t long until she felt incredibly comfortable, and it was quiet again. Beautiful y quiet. Wonderful y quiet.

Far, far in the distance she heard the cal s of exotic animals—as if someone had Animal Planet playing on their television.

Wherever she was, it felt like she could sleep there forever.

30

PHILBY APPROACHED THE Disney Vacation kiosk in Camp Minnie-Mickey, a stone’s throw from the

Lion King pavilion. He clicked on Dream Vacations and typed in yensidtlaw. Presented with a Web page, he typed in the address: www.dgamer.com/vmk, as Finn had instructed. He next clicked on the logo and was asked for his username and password. A moment later, to his surprise, he arrived at VMK’s Central Plaza, in control of an avatar. He navigated the avatar toward a bench at the center of the screen.

Wayne? he typed. But as Finn had warned, nothing appeared, only the question mark. He typed the name again. His speech bubble showed only his ID—philitup—and a question mark.

Growing impatient, Philby walked his avatar around the plaza. A minute passed, feeling more like

five. For a third time, he tried typing the name. Nothing.

As he circled back around to the benches, a speech bubble appeared above an avatar with

unusual y white hair. Philby couldn’t remember having seen hair that color inside VMK before.

[ ]: were you looking for someone? appeared above the white head.

philitup: uncle wait’s pen. finn sent me.

[ ]: follow me

As Finn had done before him, Philby fol owed Wayne on a long trip through the Web site to a

private room Philby had never seen before. Wayne’s avatar shut a door behind them.

[ ]: we can talk here, anything typed is encrypted.

philitup: okay.

[ ]: do you have a message from finn?

philitup: we need engineering blueprints for the AK, it looks like Jez may have messed with the sound system, if i can study the way it all works, maybe we can find her.

[ ]: messed with?

philitup: a song—Under the Sea—was played over the PA. not only does that song not belong in AK, but it played three times in a row, and amanda says it’s the same singer jez has on her iPod, not the singer disney uses.

[ ]: i see.

philitup: finn thought you could help me get the plans, i thought about that maintenance place you showed us, but how can i get past the workers?

[ ]: you won’t need to. besides, this time of day it’s too risky, there’s a better way. once we leave this room, we’re no longer encrypted, i won’t answer any questions out there, so i’ll explain everything now. once we leave here, you’re on your own, although i’ll show you the way. i’ll get you inside.

philitup: inside where?

[ ]: patience, my boy.

Wayne’s avatar moved back to the door. He typed in a code that showed only as asterisks in

his speech bubble. The door opened. The avatar stepped out into the hal , looked in both directions, and returned to the room, again shutting and code-locking the door.

[ ]: can never be too careful, it would appear we’re all alone, which is good. VMK was not always a game, originally, the imagineers wanted to create a virtual control room for the various parks, essentially, they were lazy, they wanted a way to fix small mechanical problems, or study the schematics from remote locations—their homes, or while they were traveling, the more employees, the more sets of plans were needed, and the paper plans were constantly changing and needing updating as systems were improved or modified, a guy named alex wright came up with the idea of putting it all online, they would encrypt access for security reasons, and each Imagineer or employee would have his or her own avatar—a mock human being with hands and feet that could not only study the schematics online but could carry out some minimal maintenance or switching procedures: open boxes, pull switches, the area they created was termed the virtual magic kingdom—vmk—and in their spare time they began to create games with each other, they built rooms and attractions in their virtual world, it was only much later it occurred to someone to allow the public inside, at that time, they sealed off what they call the mechanicals, hiding them behind encrypted firewalls, last year it became apparent the Overtakers were trying to compromise VMK. the site was closed to the public, i can get you access to the mechanicals if that’s what you want?

philitup: does that include the music system?

[ ]: i would imagine, follow me. and don’t write anything until I tell you to do so. it is not beyond consideration that the overtakers are monitoring vmk. they should never be underestimated, they are devious and powerful, and it’s apparent they will stop at nothing to control the kingdoms, we must be vigilant.

Philby didn’t type anything. He guided his avatar toward the door and waited as instructed.

Wayne approached. Asterisks appeared in his speech bubble. The door swung open.

Philby’s avatar fol owed the white-headed figure out into the hal way. Wayne knew his way around VMK, taking Philby to places he’d rarely visited. They entered a private room that didn’t

look particularly interesting. Philby realized this was a trick: the less interesting it looked, the less interested anyone would be in spending time in there. Wayne coded the door shut and then approached the far wal . Again, asterisks fil ed his speech bubble. A door swung open, and the

landscape changed considerably. The wal s and floors were silver and black. Dark blue signs with

white lettering acted as trail guides:

They turned left, fol owing the signs to the Animal Kingdom.

Access through the door marked AK CONTROL required yet another code from Wayne. The

door opened, revealing a room with a flow chart projected on a large wal . It reminded Philby of a war room, like he’d seen in movies. The flow chart showed: MECHANICALS, SECURITY, STRUCTURES,

ATTRACTIONS, GATES/ACCESS, BACKSTAGE . Under some of these were smal er tides like ASIA, AFRICA, CAMP MM, DINO L. It looked like a giant outline or family tree, with branches connecting a main tide to its smal er subtitles.

Wayne’s avatar climbed into a cage on the end of a long mechanical arm. It reminded Philby

of the cherry pickers road crews used to trim trees or repair phone poles. Wayne pul ed the door

to the cage shut, and Philby watched as he pushed levers and the cage rose to pass in front of the titles on the flow chart.

He maneuvered them to stop at MECHANICALS. Wayne reached out and pushed against the

screen. Immediately, the projection on the wal changed. Now MECHANICALS was listed at the top,

and there were dozens of subcategories, including—Philby noticed—PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM.

Wayne reached out and tapped the title.

The lettering folded back, opening an entrance like a window in the wal . Wayne opened the

cage door and led them through this new opening in the wal and into a massively complex room.

Philby gasped. He heard his own voice and only then was reminded of where he was: standing in

a smal hut, in Camp Minnie-Mickey. For the past few minutes he had almost become his avatar.

He’d been transported. He hadn’t remembered where he was. Now, glancing behind him, he looked out through the open doorway into Camp Minnie-Mickey and reminded himself to remain

alert; the Overtakers were not to be underestimated.

He then looked to the screen; Wayne was waiting for him.

[ ]: we’re safe now.

Philby moved his avatar forward. He faced a large sound-mixer projected on the floor in front

of him. He studied it, realizing this was a photographic image, probably of the actual soundboard

somewhere in the Animal Kingdom’s control room. And, like the real thing, the virtual soundboard

would not only al ow him to change volume or inputs throughout the Park, it also displayed cables

to switching stations and the hundreds of speakers placed throughout the Animal Kingdom. With a

click of a button, he could then overlay either a satel ite image or a map of the Park, making it

easy to identify the exact location of the various sound-system elements. Wayne was right: it offered an easy method for troubleshooting problems or identifying problem spots without being in

the Park.

Slowly, he got the hang of the technology.

philitup: whoa…

[ ]: no one ever accused the imagineers of being stupid.

philitup: this is incredible, i can follow any wire anywhere.

[ ]: and perform tests on it i should think that was the purpose after all: long-distance testing and repair.

philitup: how much time do i have?

[ ]: no one will bother us here, take as long as you like, since i’ve gone into hiding, i have nothing but time.

Philby’s main interest was the separation of the Park’s background music, divided into the

five sound areas. Each area had its own output, volume, and tone controls. He located the output

wires on the back of the mixer—virtual speaker wires leading out into the Park.

philitup: what are the chances the Overtakers have jez locked up in the sound control room? she could input her iPod into this mixer pretty easily.

[ ]: i would doubt that but i can go check if you like.

philitup: check, how?

[ ]: all the security cameras are on the screen out there, where we just were: the main screen, i can go into the security control room and view any camera in the park.

Philby had an idea. He wondered…

philitup: some of those cameras connect to the Conservation Station, the TVs that visitors can control.

[ ]: the AnimalCams. yes.

philitup: could i reroute all the security cameras to one of the AnimalCams?

[ ]: if you know what you’re doing, i suspect you could.

philitup: I do all the cable TV stuff at our house, i can probably figure it out.

[ ]: let’s finish up here, and i’ll take you over there.

Philby spent several minutes fol owing the speaker cables, quickly determining that from where he and the others had heard “Under the Sea” playing over the system, they’d actual y been

part of the Asia speaker system. He rechecked the soundboard, looking to see if he could explain

Jez’s iPod having played over the system. There were so many knobs and dials he didn’t know

exactly what he was looking at. He’d used GarageBand on his own computer, but this was far more complex.

philitup: she’s either being kept in the control room or somewhere in asia.

[ ]: asia is big.

philitup: tell me about it. I’m done here, can you show me the security room?

He felt excited as Wayne led him back out to the caged lift. Wayne directed the cage to the

SECURITY title, selected the menu, and then navigated to the camera control room. Soon Philby’s

avatar had again passed through a window in the wal and was standing in front of an enormous

second wal of TV screens. There had to be hundreds of them. There was a control board here as

wel . It only took him a few minutes to connect a master cable from the video control board to one of the AnimalCam console inputs. This fed al the security cameras into a single AnimalCam console in the Conservation Station.

Philby wrote to Amanda on D-Gamer, double-checking his work. Amanda located the

console and took it over. Thril ed, she wrote back how she now had control of hundreds of cameras. She could view most of the Park now: inside al the attractions, outside walkways, parking lots.

panda: this is incredible, philby. thank u.

She waited for Philby to write back. But no message was returned.

Philby never had a chance to answer her. Once again he’d lost track of himself—so

engrossed in the virtual worlds of VMK and D-Gamer that he’d forgotten to keep an eye on his

surroundings.

But near the end of their discussion, he had final y looked around.

And found himself face-to-face with a very angry tiger.

31

OF COURSE, AT FIRST PHILBY couldn’t believe it.

A tiger.

He’d never realized how big they were: the tiger stood as high as Philby’s shoulder. Orange,

black, and white stripes, like war paint. Its eyes were hypnotic; he couldn’t pry his own away from them. They stared at him like he was… lunch.

The tiger blocked the door to the smal hut. There was no getting past it, even if Philby’s legs

had worked, and at that moment he had no sensation in his legs whatsoever. He felt nothing but

tremendous fear charging his system. It took him over completely. Owned him.

A tiger loose in the Animal Kingdom! Where were the sirens? Where were the animal police?

He opened his mouth to scream, but his throat proved too dry, and he croaked out a pathetic

noise that didn’t even sound close to the “Help!” he’d intended.

The tiger cocked his head, looking at him from an angle. Sizing him up. Preparing to attack, it

crouched slowly and silently. As graceful y as a dancer, it squatted onto its haunches, its leg muscles flexing as if there were steel cables beneath the colorful hide.

Philby couldn’t take it anymore. He squinted his eyes shut and braced himself for the attack.

When nothing happened, he slowly edged his left eye open slightly, stealing a look.

At that exact moment, the tiger jumped.

Philby’s world went dark.

He felt nothing.

32

FINN ARRIVED TO THE RENDEZVOUS at the specified time. There was a tal guy in a Disney cap and

green coveral s hanging out by the gate to backstage, and it took Finn a moment to realize it was

Maybeck. With his face in the shadow of the cap, he looked about twenty years old. The two boys

met up and stood to the side, near the jungle, amazed at the numbers of visitors that now jammed

the Park.

Speaking under his breath, Finn explained his encounter with the brooms.

“Maybe the brooms mean the Overtakers are trying to clean things up,” Maybeck said,

amused by his own joke. Finn didn’t dignify that with a response. “The DeVine Charlene is over by

the bat enclosure,” Maybeck continued. “I walked around trying to find stuff from the diary. Ended up back at the Gibbons Temple, and I gotta tel you, Whitman”—Maybeck always cal ed Finn by

his last name—“there was some serious action over there. Bunch of the rangers al making a stink. From what I overhead, some orangutans pul ed a fast one. One of the apes supposedly stole

a key, hid it in his upper lip, and then pul ed off a jail break. Some kind of smarts, these apes. Six of them are missing. There’s some serious stuff going down, no doubt about it. And far as I can

tel , we’re the only ones who have a clue, and not much of a clue at that.”

Finn checked his watch. “Where’s Philby? And Wil a? Philby’s never late to anything.”

“Haven’t seen either of them. Amanda’s hanging at the Conservation Station,” Maybeck said.

“Philby hooked up a bunch of other cameras somehow. So now she can see basical y everything

going on: the attractions, the paths, and al the buildings, inside and out. But she’s stuck out there.

She can’t leave her AnimalCam console because she doesn’t want anyone to discover what Philby rigged up for her. What about you?”

“The thing about the brooms—” Finn said, starting to explain the way he’d felt. But then he cut

himself off.

“Yeah?”

“Doesn’t make any sense.”

“As if any of this makes sense! Hel o? Try me, Whitman.”

“Okay. So pretty soon after I arrived at Hol ywood Studios, I thought this crow had spotted me.

Then the brooms show up. You know? But they didn’t exactly come after me. They just kind of followed me there. At Voyage of the Little Mermaid it was almost like they were there to watch the show. The way I was.”

“I don’t get it,” Maybeck said.

“You see?” Finn said. “When the BlackBerry rang they saw me. Everybody saw me. But I think the brooms were surprised to see me there. Or maybe they didn’t care.”

“I stil don’t get it,” Maybeck admitted, though somewhat reluctantly. Maybeck prided himself

on knowing things before others.

Finn blurted out what he’d been thinking ever since the encounter. “Maybe the brooms were

at Voyage for the same reason I was: to look for answers. My being there both confirmed they

were in the right place and threatened them.”

“Threatened them how?”

“What if the crow was some kind of spy?”

“Like the bat,” Maybeck said.

“Yeah! Exactly! And what if the brooms were sent to fol ow me? So they did. Until The Great

Movie Ride. They didn’t fol ow me into there. Why?”

“I hope you’re going to answer that.”

“Because by my going in there, they were no longer worried about me. And then when I got to

Voyage, they weren’t even looking for me. It was the show that they were interested in.”

“The show,” Maybeck said. “Listen, I’m not getting this. What’s up?”

Finn gathered his courage. “I think the Overtakers heard ‘Under the Sea,’ same as we did.”

“Meaning?”

“Think about it,” Finn said.

He watched as the mental tumblers clicked into place and unlocked Maybeck’s thought.

Maybeck spoke slowly. “They’re fol owing the music clue the same way we are…because…

they’re…looking for Jez.”

“She escaped,” Finn declared. “They had her in the stump on the savannah. We know that

much. Maybe in transferring her, maybe sometime before they ever moved her, she managed to

escape. She hid someplace here in AK. And for some reason yet to be determined, she used the

music as a clue.”

“She’s stuck in the Park,” Maybeck said, “and she can’t get out without our help. So she played the music to send us a clue.”

“We heard it,” Finn said, “but so did the Overtakers. We both started looking at anything and

everything that had to do with ‘Under the Sea.'”

“It makes sense,” Maybeck agreed.

Finn tried the D-Gamer chat room again, sending a shout-out to Wil a and Philby. But the screen didn’t change. They weren’t answering.

“So what do we do now?” he asked.

“We can’t wait for them any longer. Maybe the dreams in Jez’s journal are supposed to help

us find her.”

“We need Wil a and Philby,” Maybeck said. “There are a lot of drawings to make sense of.”

Finn said what they both were thinking. “What if something’s happened to them?”

The two boys met eyes with horrified expressions.

33

AMANDA PRESSED THE right-hand button on the camera controls, zooming in to get a closer look at

Finn and Maybeck.

The AnimalCam stations—four in al —were enough like a video game that she had

immediately gotten the hang of it: a smal screen to her right displayed rows and columns of thumbnail images, each representing a different camera mounted somewhere in the Park.

Normal y, there were about a dozen vantage points offered, al of them devoted to the wildlife on

display in the Park: giraffes, elephants, tigers. Philby had upgraded hers. Scrol ing down the thumbnail screen, she had dozens of views available to her—maybe a hundred or more. Selecting

a particular camera transferred the view to a much larger television screen mounted at eye level.

She could then zoom in and out using the two buttons to the right, or maneuver the camera to look

left or right, up or down, using a joystick. It provided her with a virtual tour of every aspect of the Animal Kingdom.

At the moment, she was watching Finn and Maybeck as she was writing to Finn on D-Gamer.

panda: have not seen either wil a or philby on camera

Finn: can u c the cast member entrances?

panda: yes. but have not seen them, park is packed, could be here.

Finn: i think the otakers may have heard the change in music same as us. U watch home base for Phily and Wila. also keep eye on us. watch our backs.

panda: can do.

Finn hesitated before writing the next message. But he felt he had to tel her.

Finn: maybeck and i think there’s a chance jez escaped, it might explain some stuff that’s been happening, if so, she’s prob hiding in park.

For a long time the screen flickered, but no message appeared. He couldn’t imagine what

Amanda must have been feeling.

Finn: we could be total y wrong, maybeck and i are going 2 track down each of the diary drawings, maybe her escape was part of her dreams. ????? r u ok?

panda: scared 4 jez

Finn: my dad’s crackberry does the internet, i wil go onto vmk and try 2 find wayne. maybe he

can help us find philby.

panda: i’l watch 4 them and i’l watch u and maybeck too…

The cursor hesitated. She wasn’t done typing.

…but if she escaped, why haven’t we heard from her?

Finn didn’t have an answer for that.

Finn: ????? don’t know.

Amanda zoomed the camera back and tried to stay with Finn and Maybeck as they headed

off. It took her a minute to figure out how to fol ow them, one camera to the next—she lost them

twice—but not long after, she pul ed up their images as they moved from camera to camera. She

pieced together the route they were taking to Discovery Island. At the same time, she studied the

tiny thumbnail views, hoping beyond hope to catch a glimpse of her missing sister.

*

Finn and Maybeck walked the Jungle Trek in a hurry, though not so fast as to stick out. They kept

about ten yards apart; if one of them was spotted, maybe the other wouldn’t be. The Trek had an

occasional park ranger at an education station—there to give hands-on demonstrations to the curious—any one of whom might be an Overtaker. Finn paid particular attention to each of these

rangers as Maybeck passed, glad to see that none seemed to take any particular interest in him.

Soon, they reached the tiger-viewing yards, where they stood among the ruins of an Indian

temple—the jungle and buildings so authentic that, although he’d never been there, Finn could imagine himself halfway around the world. The footpath rose here to where it was fifteen or twenty feet off the ground, the wal s of the crumbling temple holding in the Park guests, offering views to either side, down into grassy knol s and fields. In the heat of the day, the tigers had taken to the shade at the edge of the wal that contained them. People crowded the temple’s viewing windows

to get a decent look at the wild cats. The arching windows held no glass but were divided into

smal squares as if they did, or once had. And while there was no pushing or shoving to win the

best view, there was some seriously competitive leaning going on.

But before Finn ever reached the clot of guests at the windows, Maybeck stopped and pul ed

him aside.

“Check it out!”

Just Maybeck’s tone of voice told Finn it was something important. Typical y, Maybeck was

much too cool to get excited about anything. “Son of a ______.” Maybeck said a word that would

have once again gotten Finn grounded for a week.

“Oh…man,” he said, while Maybeck was busy unfolding his copy of the page from Jez’s diary.

The temple’s stone wal held a series of stone carvings, four feet by four feet pictographs showing different scenes. The primitive carvings were beautiful. One showed a person with his or

her arms in the air, and an eagle flying overhead. Another had a fruit tree at its center, with birds in the branches and deer surrounding it. A monkey sat at the base of the tree holding a piece of the

fruit. There were two others, both depicting a weird-looking guy with a mustache dancing around

and doing strange things. But it was the image of the monkey that captured and held Finn’s attention.

Maybeck pointed to the monkey. “That’s the monkey she drew,” he said. “It wasn’t a live monkey, it was this one.”

“Agreed.”

panda: finn, check out the diary page.

He quickly texted back to her.

Finn: the monkey? can u c what we c?

panda: check out the window, my angle matches the diary exactly.

“The windows,” Finn told Maybeck, pointing to the knot of visitors straining for a look. He then

found the incredibly similar drawing on the photocopy of the diary and pointed this out to Maybeck as wel .

He and Maybeck moved toward the crowd.

“I gotta tel you,” Maybeck said, “until now, I wasn’t buying that Jez could dream the future.”

“And now?” Finn asked.

“Yeah, wel . A person’s got a right to be wrong.”

34

FINN AND MAYBECK steadily pushed to the front of the throng gathered at the windows overlooking

the tiger yards, where a blanket of green grass was interrupted by some trees and rocks. A huge

tigress slumbered in the thick shade of a bamboo stand, her back against the tal rock wal that

contained her. Jez had sketched both this window and the sculpture reliefs they’d just been studying, meaning this location had played a significant role in her dreams.

But what role? Finn wondered.

“It could be she’s hiding in the tiger yards,” Finn said quietly to Maybeck.

“You see her out there, do you?” Maybeck asked.

“No. But—”

“That’s because she isn’t there.”

“But it makes sense. She wouldn’t exactly be able to move if she was stuck in there. Not with

tigers roaming the place.”

“Whitman, look around.”

Finn moved to the opposite side of the wal ed bridge dividing the two tiger yards. He didn’t

have to chal enge any crowds, because there weren’t any. There weren’t any tigers seen from this

side.

“Convinced?” Maybeck said from behind him. He, too, had switched sides.

“But why would she have drawn both the window and the monkey? Can you explain that?”

Finn asked anxiously. “They have to mean something.”

“She drew a lot of stuff: a dinosaur, the monkey, the window, a bat, some old dude. How are

we supposed to know what it al means?”

“That’s just the point,” Finn said. “We are supposed to know what it means. We’re supposed to figure it out. We’re supposed to help her.”

“Maybe it’s about the animals, not the locations,” Maybeck suggested. “Something to do with

monkeys, tigers, and dinosaurs. What do they have in common?”

“Nothing,” Finn said, “except that they’re al part of the AK.”

“The server!” Maybeck said excitedly. “The second server. Didn’t Wayne tel you the plan was

to—”

“Make animals into DHIs!” Finn shouted a little too loudly. “You’re right.” He pul ed out the page of Jez’s diary and studied it again. “What if these animals are the ones they’re turning into DHIs? Jez saw them in her dreams. They meant something to her, something important.”

Maybeck wrote to Amanda on the DS.

mybest: amanda. how many tigers u c?

panda: 3

mybest: finn and me think some animals may B DHIs.

Finn joined the D-Gamer chat room.

Finn: otakers might use dhis 2 fake us out.

mybest: maleficent cannot be trusted, she could have made a dhi of herself 2 use as decoy or

something, no way 2 know.

panda: she wants control of the parks, it makes more sense she would use the dhis 2 scare

the guests, or 2 put us into sbs. she doesn’t want us around, that’s 4 sure.

Finn: and with jez being able to see the future, she’s a real threat, what if she knows what

Maleficent has planned?

panda: that would explain why maleficent wants 2 control her.

Finn: the diary drawings of animals may be 2 warn us 2 watch out for this or something.

panda: no. it’s more than that, her dreams involve her. have u ever had a dream that you’re

not in? never! the diary is about her dreams, her life.

The screen flickered. She wasn’t through typing.

panda:…there’s a truck being unloaded behind the bat enclosure. 2 cages…both wrapped

with tarps.

mybest: doesn’t mean anything.

panda: listen to me! the truck driver has a monkey on his arm. a live monkey, the park would

never al ow a monkey to be running around loose, these cast members are fakes.

mybest: how big r the cages?

panda: big! big enough for a large dog or…a wild cat or…

Maybeck interrupted by typing quickly:

mybest: philby and wil a!

Finn: amanda, watch every camera in that area, we’re on our way!

35

FINN AND MAYBECK made their way toward the bat enclosure, just down from the tiger yard along

the winding, dark trail of the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Bugs buzzed past their heads as the heat

enveloped them, making their chests tight and their breath short. Birds cried out and fluttered past, winning Maybeck’s unflinching attention as he recal ed his earlier horrifying experience. His DS

beeped and he checked for the message.

panda: the backstage camera @ the bat enclosure just stopped working.

“That cannot be a coincidence,” Maybeck whispered to Finn. “That camera was sabotaged.

Something’s going on back there, and we need to know what it is.”

angelface13: hey, guys, right behind u.

Finn spun around, looking for her.

angelface13:2 your left.

Finn glanced in that direction.

Finn saw her first: a paler green shape amid the dark green of the undergrowth. She was on

the stilts and ten feet into the jungle, al but invisible thanks to the twisting vine of leaves that disguised her. It was only when she made a slight motion that he was able to spot her. The boys

moved closer to the jungle so they could talk to Charlene in a whisper.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on the enclosure as Maybeck asked,” she said. “There’s been a lot

of activity, a lot of coming and going through those doors at the rear. The workers have paid particular attention to that big bat near the red flag on the far left. Twice they’ve carried him through to the back and then returned him out front. I don’t know if that’s the one that was in the pil owcase, but…it might be.”

Finn and Maybeck weren’t where they could see wel into the enclosure. Maybeck walked steadily closer to the viewing station, leaving Finn behind. He positioned himself with a decent view of the enclosure, then turned toward Finn, and both shrugged and nodded, as if to say: It’s certainly big enough to be the same one.

Finn said, “We need to get back there and find out what’s in those cages.”

“No way!” Maybeck protested.

Charlene asked, “Stil no sign of Wil a and Philby?”

“No,” Finn answered with a heavy heart.

“I think I have an idea,” Charlene said. “A way to find out what’s going on back there.”

Finn, surprised by Charlene’s offer, turned toward the jungle to face her—though because of

the way she blended in, he found it difficult to see her. Maybeck’s attention remained ful y focused on the enclosure. He and Charlene were opposites: Maybeck tended to react too quickly to situations and liked to work as a loner; Charlene rarely contributed in discussions, and when she

did participate, enjoyed working as part of a team.

“What are you thinking?” Finn asked.

“I’m going to need a diversion,” Charlene whispered. “Something big. Something everyone

wil watch. And by everyone, I mean every last bird and caterpil ar, and especial y the people and bats”

36

INGENIOUS, FINN THOUGHT as he moved through the swinging doors and into the forward viewing booth. There were three levels of viewing offered at the bat enclosure, three open-air rooms constructed of dark wood that led the Park guest closer to the risk of contact with the flying rodents. The first viewing room offered glass windows; the middle room, screens; and the final room—more of a long booth—nothing but wel -spaced vertical wooden bars to keep the large bats at bay. The bars were clearly wide enough for Finn to poke his head through, yet too narrow

for the extended wings of the large African bats.

Finn kept his cap pul ed down snugly, hoping to avoid being recognized; that was the kind of

distraction he could do without. The viewing room was staffed by a col ege-age girl in a ranger’s

uniform. Presently, she was answering the questions of two young boys who had too much energy

for such a smal space. Their mother seemed unwil ing to contain them, which served Finn’s purpose wel . He slipped the case off his father’s BlackBerry and stepped close to the open-air

viewing windows, hoisting the phone to take a picture. He pressed up to the bars, a warm breeze

striking him, and caught a fleeting and exasperated glance from the ranger, who was finding her

patience taxed by the two boys.

Finn purposely fumbled with the phone and case, al owing the case to slip out of his hands

and fal through the bars, down into the enclosure. He pocketed the phone.

“My case!” he shouted. He jumped up onto the sil and began to squeeze himself through the

bars.

Finn was relatively slight of build. He actual y got partway through the bars before the ranger’s

strong hand grasped him by the upper arm.

“GET OUT OF THERE!!” the girl screamed at the top of her lungs, pul ing on him. “YOU

CAN’T GO IN THERE!!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?”

The effect was exactly what Charlene had hoped for: every human eye was drawn to Finn;

some of the bats were spooked by the ranger’s admonishments. For a few precious seconds, the

ranger pul ed and Finn resisted.

“My case!” he hol ered.

“GET DOWN FROM THERE!”

Finn stole one quick glance. Maybeck helped Charlene, on stilts, through the jungle door and

into the enclosure. Charlene’s ivy-clad costume pushed up against the rocks at the far end of the

enclosure, and within seconds a miracle occurred: she disappeared. DeVine’s costume fit into the

environment so wel that her form appeared as ivy growing up the rocks. There was no mistaking

this whatsoever for a girl on stilts. The change was extraordinary.

Finn, apologizing and complaining at the same time, al owed himself to be drawn back into

the viewing room, actual y grateful for the ranger’s efforts, since the swirling bats swooped and dove too close for comfort. The ranger scolded him briefly, then promised to have his lost case

retrieved. She tried to contact someone over her headset, but clearly there was no answer. She

double-checked both the headset and the radio it was plugged into, obviously annoyed by the lack

of response.

She blushed, apologized, and asked Finn to stick around. “I don’t know why I’m not getting

anyone back there,” she said.

I do, Finn thought to himself. The people behind that door are not the people you normally work with. If they’re even people at all…

Once again, his eyes strayed to the far side of the enclosure, where he saw that the ivy patch

on the rocks had migrated a few feet farther along, a yard or two closer to the enclosure’s center doors. Charlene was moving so incredibly slowly, so expertly, that it was impossible to detect her movements. The ivy seemed to be growing and extending al on its own, blending in perfectly with

the ivy already there.

37

WITH HER BACK TO a false rock wal, Charlene watched Finn being grabbed by the ranger in the

viewing booth. The girl stopped him from jumping into the enclosure, and then the two had words.

Charlene thought that Finn seemed to be looking right at her a couple of times, and she wondered

how good a job she was doing at blending in.

With her face painted camouflage green, white, and brown, only the whites of her eyes threatened to give her away; so Charlene tried to keep her eyes averted. But it wasn’t easy.

Jangled by raw nerves, she inched her way along the wal , trying not to look at the bats. She hated bats, and the ones in the enclosure were the size of bowling pins: big, gray, winged rats, hanging upside down from clotheslines. As long as they kept their distance, she thought she could make it.

The only people who might spot her were those in the viewing station: the Park visitors and

the ranger. When she did look up, it was toward the booth. She didn’t know if Amanda had a camera aimed at her, and she’d lost sight of Maybeck, who was somewhere off to her right near

the jungle door. She was on her own: fenced in with several dozen giant bats, in a place that smel ed…wel , funky…trying to slow dance her way clear around the curve of the smooth, irregular

rock wal to the center doors.

She inched a stilt to her left, stepped the other along, and then froze, al owing her vines to

blend in with those growing on the rocks. Then, a minute or two later, she moved again. She and

the vines crept ahead, no one the wiser.

Finn left the booth, and Maybeck appeared out on the path with him. They both glanced once

in her direction. She saw Finn lift his DS, signaling for her that a text was coming.

Finn: can’t c u at al , Charlie, great job, we’re here if u need us.

The two boys walked off.

It was the first time Finn, or anyone else for that matter, had ever cal ed her Charlie, and she

actual y liked the nickname. There was something pleasing about it, something incredibly personal

that made her feel especial y good about it. She hoped it might stick, providing she got out of here alive.

The left stilt caught on a rock as she moved, and the rock shot out from under it like a wet bar

of soap, raising a puff of dust. This, in turn, startled the bats, already edgy from Finn’s distraction.

Three of the ugly things flew straight for her, coming toward her face at incredible speed, flying close enough that she could see not only the black glass, buttonlike, beady eyes, but the tiny gray hairs that surrounded their ratty faces, and the eerie translucence of their wings. Her stomach knotted, her head swooned, and a scream bubbled up from her lungs. She kept silent only by snapping her lips shut and clenching her teeth. The last of the three brushed against her hair, dislodging a careful y placed plastic vine and causing a strand to fal into her eyes—undoing her

disguise. If anyone looked directly at her now, they were sure to see a length of blond hair inexplicably sticking out from the ivy—and that couldn’t be good. She blew the hair out of her eyes with upturned lips and moved more quickly now, slipping her way around the curving rock wal and

nearing the green doors at its center.

She was partial y hidden by several trees as she neared the two doors, suddenly realizing

that on stilts she was much too tal to fit through without Maybeck’s help. Being near the middle of the enclosure, she was also now the center of attention. Without her knowing it, the Park guests

were looking directly at her.

She wasn’t going to get through those doors, and she’d come too far to turn back. She looked up: the rock wal rose high above her head, but though it was uneven and craggy, there

were plenty of handholds visible. Charlene climbed the rock wal at her gym—she considered herself something of an expert.

The trick was getting her feet out of the stilts without being seen and then leaving the stilts

propped against the rock so that she could return to them and effect her escape. She eased down

into a squat—not an easy balancing act on stilts—and managed to release her left foot. She freed

her right foot, too, and then careful y stepped out of both stilts to leave them resting against the fake rock wal . Some of the ivy strands that wrapped around the stilts continued higher and merged into those that surrounded her leotard. She managed to disconnect the tendrils one by

one; far more were sewn to the leotard and remained part of her costume. These also helped disguise her as, by handhold and foothold, Charlene climbed higher up the rock face. With each

smal ascent she paused for what felt like a very long time, al owing her vines to combine with rock and make it more difficult to spot her. She was helped out by the trees and vegetation between

her and the viewing booth. But soon she rose above the crown of the nearest tree, clinging to the

odd texture of the fake rock and staying close to the line of real ivy to help camouflage her.

Then, any possible route disappeared above her. She was used to having to plot her way up

a rock wal , so she paused and looked for a possible route. The only smal handholds she saw

moved away from the patch of real ivy. But she had no choice. As she started off in that direction, she realized she was heading directly above the double doors at the center of the enclosure. She

was also exposing herself to being seen by Park guests, as she was now directly in front of the

viewing booths. Because of this, she tried to move incredibly slowly. But the slow climbing taxed

her strength and weakened her.

She couldn’t “creep” between handholds and footholds, so she watched the viewing booths,

waited for the attention of the guests to stray to one side or the other, and then made her move.

The doors swung open beneath her, and a worker stepped through.

Only then did she realize that some of the sandy texture was shredding off the wal where her

running shoes touched. Painted sand rained down toward the ground, fal ing right on the head of

the man who’d come through the doors. If he looked up, he would see her.

Counting on his entrance to have distracted both the guests and the ranger, Charlene no longer took her time. She gathered her strength, reached out, and moved with accuracy—three

handholds, two footholds. She climbed quickly and deliberately, clawing her way up to the very top of the rocks, where, enclosed by the aviary’s netting, she spread herself flat.

The dust sprinkled into the hair of the man below. He turned to look up. But he saw only a wal

—an empty wal . He brushed the sand out of his hair and cursed the people who’d built the enclosure. The darned thing was clearly fal ing apart.

38

CHARLENE SCOOTED TO the far edge of the top of the wal and peered over the lip. She had a good

view through the netting of the backstage area. The enclosure’s wooden doors opened onto a smal , courtyardlike area between the fake rock wal and a large garage with a flat roof. The steel wal facing her had been painted as a backdrop to look like rocks and vines.

She could hear a good deal of activity to her left but couldn’t see what was going on. She

spotted a camera mounted a few feet directly below her and aimed backstage; she assumed this

was the camera that Amanda had mentioned, the one out of commission, an easy assumption,

given that the wire running from it was currently unplugged.

She reached under the edge of the netting, almost touching the camera, her fingers grasping

for the dangling wire. If she could only reconnect it, Amanda could take over the surveil ance. It was no use—she was too far above it, and to move any lower would risk her being discovered. But

Charlene was not one to be discouraged. She squirmed her upper body slightly farther off the ledge and stretched out, her fingers now only an inch or two from the wire.

She lunged and grabbed hold of it, the wire firmly in her hand.

The worker who had entered the enclosure only a minute earlier, the man whose hair she had

dusted with sand, now came back through the twin doors and shut them. There was no time for

Charlene to retreat. Instead, she hung over the wal ledge directly above him, her left hand holding the wire, her right keeping herself from fal ing.

The man stopped and put down a white bucket.

“Wel done.”

Charlene heard the voice—a woman’s sterile voice, uncaring and even rude, if uttering two

smal words could be made to sound rude.

“Tie him up,” the same voice said.

Immediately three big monkeys appeared from around a corner. Fast as lightning, they

swarmed the worker. One tied and knotted a length of rope around the man’s wrists, holding them

behind his back. Another secured his ankles. Within seconds, the man was bound. The third monkey leaped at the man and knocked him over. The man fel , and the two monkeys immediately

dragged him across the blacktop and propped him up against a metal box, while the third tied a

gag around his open mouth.

Only then did Charlene detect movement to her left, from where the voice had been heard: a

flash of purple fabric and green skin.

Maleficent.

Charlene didn’t actual y see her, but she didn’t have to. Purple and green were like Maleficent’s team colors. Who else could it be?

With the monkeys’ attention on the hostage, Charlene reconnected the camera and wire. The

camera immediately sprang to life, tracking left. Charlene quickly retreated back to the top of the wal , flattening herself. She had a choice now: she could leave this to Amanda and the camera

or…

She spun around and crawled in the direction of the noises. She had to see for herself.

Something prompted her to glance back toward the viewing booth. From this height she could see

out to several sections of the Jungle Trek path. It surprised her how much she could see—

including Maybeck and Finn, who, standing to the side of the path, were shaking their heads furiously at her.

And then she understood: if she could see so much, then Park guests on the trail—like Maybeck and Finn—could see her as wel . But rather than go back, she continued crawling, her

curiosity ignited by the flash of green and purple, by the eerie sound of the woman’s voice, and by a trio of large monkeys who had acted on orders. She crawled past a narrow wal that acted like a

buttress, supporting the fake rock wal . It also screened the source of the noises, and by leaving it behind, she now saw through the netting what al the commotion was about.

Four hairy orangutans were directing smal er monkeys while Maleficent stood in the shade

watching. The monkeys were unloading bags of ice from a large rectangular truck. They were stacking the bags into a heap, and the ice was melting in the sunshine and leaking out into a large puddle that disappeared beneath the truck. The whole operation looked so human—bosses and

workers. And yet these weren’t humans at al .

Then she saw the two cages. Big, as Amanda had described. They sat on the pavement, pushed up next to the steel barn. Both were wrapped in canvas tarps, but the canvas was not secured wel along the bottom, al owing Charlene to see a slice of forest green fabric inside the

cage: a ranger’s uniform.

Willa!

She couldn’t see anything inside the second cage, but she didn’t need to: Philby. She had no doubts.

“Faster,” Maleficent ordered. “We need more room. Bigger! If he’s to fit, it must be bigger!”

Were they taking Philby somewhere? Smuggling him out of the Park in an ice truck? Or

was she talking about some other hostage?

She tried to make sense of it al : the monkeys clearly obeying Maleficent’s orders as if they

understood her, the cages containing her friends, the melting pile of ice bags, the urgency in Maleficent’s voice.

She knew what had to be done: she had to untie the worker and set him free. But did she

dare climb down and attempt that? Wasn’t it wrong not to? And if she messed up, if she got caught, would she end up like Wil a and Philby? Where would that leave Maybeck and Finn, except further isolated?

Backing up slowly now, she decided this needed a team effort. She was no match for the power of Maleficent, who had once, with nothing but a wave of her hands and a mumbled incantation, created an electronic fence to surround Charlene’s friends.

The climb back down the wal proved more difficult than her ascent. She had just strapped her

feet back into the stilts when she heard: “Look, Mommy! What’s that?”

The “that” was her, of course—the boy was pointing at her.

She stood absolutely stil .

It felt like five minutes passed; it was more like thirty seconds.

“What? Where? The big one hanging from the rope?” the mother asked.

“Not the bats! The thingy. The creature. The vine thingy.”

But no one saw her. Charlene had blended into the foliage around her. A few minutes later

the unwil ing boy was led away, stil protesting that he could see the vine lady, and why couldn’t anyone else see her?

It took Charlene fifteen minutes to work her way around the rock wal , and a second distraction—this time executed by Maybeck—to leave the enclosure.

A moment later, Finn and Maybeck joined her.

“So?” Finn asked. “Did you see anything?”

“We’ve got problems,” Charlene answered. “Big…big problems.”

39

FINN IMMEDIATELY UNDERSTOOD what Charlene and Maybeck did not: it wasn’t Philby and Wila in

the cages. Not exactly.

He took off down the jungle path, forcing Maybeck to hurry to keep up with him. Charlene had

been asked to blend into the jungle and keep a strict eye on the bat enclosure. He used the DS to

tel Amanda the same thing. Now that Charlene had repaired the sabotaged camera, Amanda had more opportunity to monitor events backstage.

Though winded, Maybeck kept up. “What’s going on, Whitman?”

“You, of al people, should know,” Finn said.

“Me? Why?”

“Space Mountain.”

Maybeck said, “What about it?”

Finn stopped and pul ed Maybeck to the side of the path, out of earshot of the other guests

who passed in a steady stream. He spoke in a hush. “When they trapped you in perma-sleep, they

put your DHI in—?”

“A maintenance cage!” Maybeck answered. “It wasn’t Wil a and Philby Charlene saw. It was

their DHIs.”

“Exactly,” Finn agreed. “Even someone as warped as Maleficent wouldn’t put a kid in a cage

that smal . But a DHI is another story.”

“But if the DHIs are in those cages,” Maybeck said, “then why don’t they just walk out?”

“Why didn’t you just walk out of the maintenance cage in Space Mountain?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “It was like I was half asleep or something. Until you showed up, it hadn’t occurred to me.”

“Because we had crossed over, and you had not. With your body in perma-sleep I have a feeling your DHI is kind of in this suspended state. It doesn’t know what’s up. Remember, Wayne

programmed the server that control ed our DHIs. Maleficent is running the second server. Who knows how their DHIs are programmed?”

“So we need to cross them back over,” Maybeck said. “That’s the only way to get them out of

the control of the second server.”

“Exactly!”

“But why would the Overtakers do this?” Maybeck wondered aloud. “Why trap them in perma-sleep in the first place?”

“There’s only one guy I know who can answer that. And he’s also the guy who holds the button. The remote control that can cross them back over.”

“Wayne!”

“If I can get that remote from him, and we can get close to those cages, we can release the

sleeping Wil a and Philby—wherever they are. And I happen to think I know where they are.”

Maybeck didn’t dignify that with a question, but he also couldn’t wipe the curiosity off his face.

“Animal Kingdom Lodge,” Finn answered. “Those are the closest beds to the Park. You can

reach the lodge from the savannah, and we know the Overtakers are on the savannah.”

“I’ve got to admit: it does make sense,” Maybeck said. “When exactly did you figure al this

out?”

“Back there,” Finn said. “When Charlene described the cages, it al fit.”

“And now we’re headed to find Wayne.”

“Yeah. There’s the terminal in Camp Minnie-Mickey. I can access VMK there,” Finn said.

“I thought Philby never came back from that terminal.”

“Which is why we’re doing this together,” Finn said. “Charlene wil stay and keep an eye on

the enclosure. I’l use the terminal to try to get to Wayne, and you’l stand guard. We’l use the DSs.

You see anything weird, you can text me.”

They started walking again.

“But what if we’re wrong about the cages?” Maybeck asked.

“We’re not,” answered Finn.

*

Finn’s avatar stood by the bench in the VMK’s central plaza, while Finn himself occupied the smal

booth near the Lion King pavilion in Camp Minnie-Mickey. The air was burning hot, and he picked

up the smel of popcorn, which made him realize how hungry he was. He knew that soon his parents would start to worry. They would expect him home from the water park. But he had things

to do.

Knowing it would not print, he typed WAYNE into his dialogue box. Sure enough, it turned red in the text frame and wouldn’t print.

Players’ avatars entered the plaza, pausing below the bil boards or circulating while waiting

to meet each other. Finn’s patience was wearing thin when a white-haired avatar final y appeared

from his right. Wayne’s avatar never stopped moving as Follow me appeared in the dialogue box.

He led Finn to the same room where he had taken Philby. Wayne locked the door with a special code.

[ ]: we’re safe here.

Finn: philby and willa have gone missing, we think their DHIs are being kept in cages behind the bat enclosure, i need the button.

[ ]: I spoke to philby not long ago. right here.

Finn: he never showed up. i think Maleficent is holding them to protect the second server, we can’t crash the server with willa and philby stuck in Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.

[ ]: this is most disturbing.

Finn: can you get me the button—the remote control?

[ ]: yes. of course, though i’ll have to use a messenger…. may i suggest the talking recycling bin. a few minutes from now, near the ticket gates, the remote will be taped inside the recycling bin. reach in and feel along the top.

Finn: i’ll be there.

[ ]: if she’s trying to protect the second server, then I fear the worst: she will either turn herself into a DHI to fool

[ ]: if she’s trying to protect the second server, then I fear the worst: she will either turn herself into a DHI to fool us or do harm, or she will compromise the animal DHIs created for Animal Kingdom and use them to her advantage, this is a grave situation, in the magic kingdom she recruited Overtakers from within the attractions, most notably the pirates and the small-world dolls, in animal kingdom there are few, if any, such characters she can recruit for her army, it is our fear she has corrupted the animals themselves, five more orangutans have escaped, along with a half dozen gibbons, several snakes cannot be found, a wildebeest rammed one of the electrical fences attempting to break out. she is clearly gaining strength.

Finn: we want our friends back. Jez drew some things in her diary that have already come true, we think the diary may be—

He stopped typing as Maybeck shouted: “Mayday, dude! Mayday! Mayday!”

40

MAYBECK KEPT WATCH from the side of a popcorn cart, where a multicolored umbrela was angled

to throw shade onto the Cast Member behind the cart. The tilted umbrel a offered Maybeck a screen from behind which he peered, spying on Finn and the Park guests mil ing about Camp Minnie-Mickey, as wel as the surrounding jungle. Nearby, a gardener was watering some plants

and hosing down the base of two tal trees, al owing the water to pool.

Because of his personal experiences, Maybeck also kept an eye on the sky, alert for any birds. But it was a lizard, not a bird, that caught and held his attention.

Smal lizards inhabited most of Florida. He’d grown so accustomed to seeing them zip up

trees, across sidewalks, and down the wal s of buildings that he almost didn’t notice them at al .

His aunt Jel y, who was as close to a mother as Maybeck would ever get, cal ed them “little dragons” and considered them close relatives to the cockroach and mouse. She wasn’t beyond

trying to beat them with a broom as she shooed them from the house. He’d been catching them

since he was five; if you grabbed one by the tail, the tail came off. For a while he’d kept the tails—

he’d had about twenty—but Jel y had found them and thrown them out, never saying a thing about

it, then lying to him when he asked.

But the lizard he saw wasn’t like other lizards. For one thing it was fairly big—five or six inches, instead of the typical three or four. It was also some kind of chameleon, quickly changing from the brown of the wood chips in the jungle to the grayish black of the paved path as the reptile emerged into sunlight. But more than anything, it was the way the lizard headed straight into trouble that won Maybeck’s interest. Despite dozens of running shoes and sandals slapping down

around it like mal ets, the creature never wavered from its mission, dodging this way and that as it risked getting crushed. The lizards that Maybeck lived with spooked easily and skittered away as

fast as lightning when approached. He’d never seen a lizard as bold as this one. It headed straight for…

…the Disney Vacation Web terminal.

Maybeck looked back toward the jungle from where the lizard had emerged. From there, in

the shaded darkness held in place by tangled vines and leaves the size of tennis rackets, two sets of green glowing eyes stared out. He fixed his attention on them, trying to strip away the camouflage of plants and undergrowth in order to see to what those eyes belonged.

Monkeys…he thought at first. But the eyes were too widely set for a gibbon, and too far off the ground. Orangutans!

It was then that he saw the chameleon stitch its way back through the slalom course of legs

and slither into the jungle, heading directly for the green flash of eyes.

As much as he resisted the idea that any of this was actual y happening, he sorted it out quickly: the lizard was some kind of messenger; the monkeys were on a mission; Finn was their

target.

A moment passed, and he realized he’d almost had it right.

Almost, but not quite. That’s when he saw a lion slink out of the jungle. He fumbled with the

DS, but it was going to take too long.

“Mayday, dude! Mayday!” he shouted.

The Park visitors saw the lion as wel . A man screamed as a woman grabbed her children by

the hands and started to run. The crowd scattered.

Finn turned around and froze.

Maybeck again glanced to his left—the gardener. He knew what to do.

41

FINN SPUN AROUND to see a lion stroling toward him. A big lion. A lion with a thick colar of fur, a huge head, beady eyes, and glistening white teeth. He instantly knew this was not a case of bad

luck: the lion was coming for him just as the bats had come for Maybeck.

The lion lumbered toward him, now only a few yards away. The guests had scattered but now

encircled an area about twenty yards across, with the beast at its center.

Heat flashed through him, and al the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck rose with his

fright.

He knew what he had to do: he had to cross over. The lion couldn’t hurt a DHI. But as the

enormous cat began to flex, as if preparing to strike, Finn’s fear was not to be conquered. The lion opened its mouth and let out a tremendous roar that seemed to come from al around. It surrounded Finn and shook the ground. It didn’t sound natural. Finn threw his hands out, fending off the attack. He swooned, feeling dizzy.

And then, at once, several hands grabbed him and began to drag him away.

He heard applause and laughter.

He blinked his eyes open but was immediately blinded by the sun in the sky.

He averted his eyes and happened to catch a glimpse of one of the hands wrapped around

his arm: black and cal oused, with long, thin fingers. The hand was connected to a hairy arm.

Finn wrenched his head around.

He was being dragged off by a pair of orangutans. He tried to break the grip of the one on his

left, and the thing bared its teeth and lunged toward his face as if to bite him. Finn jerked away, narrowly missing those teeth.

They were dragging him toward the jungle. They were kidnapping him.

And the audience thought it was al part of the show.

42

MAYBECK HEARD THAT ROAR and ran for the gardener who was watering the trees. He stole the

hose out of the man’s hands. Not real y a man—more like a col ege kid. The guy didn’t appreciate

someone stealing his hose.

Maybeck’s aunt Jel y had a mutt named Porky who considered their smal backyard his

domain. About once a month some stupid neighborhood dog would decide to visit their backyard

without an invitation from Porky, typical y resulting in a dogfight of epic proportions.

The first time Maybeck had tried to break up one of the fights, he’d nearly gotten his hand

bitten off. He’d been saved by Jel y, who had broken up the fight with the garden hose. Ever since, Maybeck had used a strong burst of hose water to separate Porky and his prey.

He took the hose and sprinted toward the large apes who were dragging his friend across

the pavement. He fought his way through the thick crowd, which was actual y laughing and cheering.

Maybeck gave the hose one last tug, but he’d reached its limit. It would extend no farther.

He squeezed the handle and shot a burst of water at the lion. The water pressed right through

the animal.

A DHI!

Next, Maybeck aimed the hose at the nearest orangutan, hitting him squarely in the head. The

ape was real. It let go of Finn to block the water streaming toward its face.

Again, the audience let out a cry of approval, clapping and hol ering.

The ape shot a glance at Maybeck as if to chal enge him, then quickly seemed to reconsider,

and turned back toward Finn.

Maybeck blasted the other ape.

Finn broke loose just as the gardener jumped onto Maybeck from behind, wresting the hose

from his grip.

Finn scrambled to his feet, slipped on the wet blacktop, and went down hard. Both

orangutans rushed him, and Finn rol ed out of the way, causing the two apes to col ide. He got to

his feet and took off toward Maybeck, who knocked the gardener aside, opening a smal hole in

the crowd, which Finn charged through.

The two took off at a ful sprint, the orangutans fol owing, their backs hunched, their teeth bared.

Finn glanced over his shoulder, but it slowed him.

“Don’t look back!” Amanda said into his ear. “I’ve got you. The Lion King show is running! You

can lose them in there!”

“This way!” Finn shouted at Maybeck, who had heard Amanda as wel .

They angled slightly toward the large, open pavilion, where a flash of bright color and loud African music confirmed the show was underway.

“They’re gaining on you,” Amanda warned. “Zigzag!”

Finn and Maybeck immediately cut left and right, right and left, in random patterns. Rather than run straight and intercept them, the orangutans fol owed their paths exactly, and the boys, having the longer strides, increased their leads.

“It’s working!” Amanda cheered them on.

Together the boys burst into the show already in progress. Four sets of wooden bleachers

rose from a theater-in-the-round, at the center of which were colorful y dressed acrobats performing on a giant trampoline, with trapeze artists spinning overhead.

As Finn slowed, Maybeck didn’t hesitate for a second. Perhaps it was the result of forward

momentum, perhaps because the Lion King stage set blocked their way; but Maybeck ran right up

a ramp, hit the trampoline, and vaulted his way through the air and across to the other side. He

tucked into a somersault, rol ed to standing, and went running down the opposing ramp—right out

of the pavilion.

Trying to avoid a col ision with the ramp, Finn skidded and tucked his legs under him as if

sliding into home plate. He braced himself to be crushed into the side of the stage, only to fly through the fabric skirt that surrounded it and find himself under the movable stage platform and the giant trampoline at its center. He crawled toward the other side, looking back to see two orangutans right behind him.

He glanced overhead. The trampoline’s fabric stretched toward the concrete floor as the acrobatic show continued above him. Whenever anyone hit the trampoline, the fabric stretched so

low that Finn had to lie flat; he couldn’t squat without the risk of being crushed. Watching the orangutans approach, he suddenly saw his situation not as a threat but an opportunity: he could

use the trampoline to his advantage.

Doubting that he and Maybeck could outrun the two apes, Finn turned and took a stand. The

apes were faster and stronger than he, but Finn had the edge in intel igence. He remained directly under the pulsating trampoline, now turning to face the two apes, who immediately slowed with this chal enge.

Finn egged on the apes, drawing them toward him, while keeping an eye on the pattern of the

stretched trampoline fabric. There were currently four performers on the trampoline. The pattern of jumps was: the four corners; the center; the four corners.

Finn bel y-crawled to the right. The nearest ape took the bait, turning to intercept him. The trampoline suddenly caved in over the ape’s head, stretching toward the ground. The ape, caught

between the trampoline and the concrete, was crushed by the weight of the acrobat. The ape was

flattened. It cried out sharply, rol ed away, and took off at a run in the opposite direction.

The trampoline came down immediately in front of the other ape, and that proved enough motivation. This one took off as wel , fol owing his buddy. Finn rol ed and crawled out the other side and then sprinted for the sunlight outside the pavilion.

Maybeck had waited for him. Maybeck, who never thought of anyone but himself.

They took off running before either said a word, but as they reached ful stride, Finn, the slower of the two, managed to pul even with Maybeck, though only briefly.

“Thanks,” Finn cal ed out to Maybeck. “I think we now know what happened to Philby!”

“The water shot right through the lion,” Maybeck said. “It was a DHL”

“Maleficent’s building an army,” Finn told him. “An army of animals,” he added. Maybeck flashed him a suspicious and disbelieving look. “Wayne told me,” Finn said.

Finn turned and led Maybeck toward the Park entrance, stil at a ful run.

“Where are you going?” Maybeck huffed.

“The button,” Finn said. “The remote control. We can’t free Wil a and Philby without the button.”

43

HAVING 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 scrol 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, al owing 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’l 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

al y.

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 goril a on crutches with a yel ow 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.

Real y 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?

44

INSIDE THE ANIMAL KINGDOM’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 smal 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, fol owed by a

vol ey 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 careful y looked slightly to his left and identified a casual y 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 swal ow 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 pul ed. 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 dramatical y and gestured wildly, pocketing the device.

“Yum, yum!” said the recycle bin. “More! I want more!”

“I’m afraid that’s al ,” 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 control ing 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.

45

HAVING 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 wal near the two cages and the ice truck, she would notify Finn on the DS.

The boys had to discover where the real Wil a 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 bel hops 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 al of this, Maybeck hissed a bad word.

There were people everywhere. Some occupied the sumptuous furniture; others mil ed 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 al 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 coveral s, 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 al .

“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 smal 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 al owed 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 periodical y offered viewing stations on either side, where al kinds of wildlife could be seen, from birds that stood four feet high to zebras and Thomson’s gazel es.

“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’l hear it and know which room they’re in.”

“Sweet,” said Maybeck.

“But what if they’re being guarded? The guards wil 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, pul 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 hal way toward him.

“This is their room,” Finn declared. As Maybeck leaned his ear against the door, Finn sent a

text.

Maybeck smiled and pul ed away from the door. “Bul ’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 bril iant,” Maybeck said.

“Goes without saying. Can you pul it off?”

“This is me we’re talking about!” Maybeck boasted.

“Same question.”

“You’l need to get yourself gone,” Maybeck said.

“I’l hang at the next set of windows.”

“I’l 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 pil ow of the big

bed. Wil a slept peaceful y 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 al 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’l 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: al 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

pul ed 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 pul ed 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, wil 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 smel ed 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, pul ed 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, pul ed it tight, and knotted it around the ape’s legs. The orangutan fel 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 chal enge 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 wel . They dragged it into the bathroom and, as they shut the door,

both apes were seen whirling angrily on the tile floor.

Finn shook Wil a. Maybeck pul ed 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.”

46

FINN AND MAYBECK escorted Philby and Wila to the train platform for the Wildlife Express Train.

Amanda had announced a discovery and asked that they meet her. She’d been very secretive,

and they were eager to talk with her.

Charlene was stil keeping an eye on the bat enclosure. The ice truck had not been moved.

The kids stood around watching Finn as he final y made the cal to Rob Bernowski, Jez’s boyfriend. He had the BlackBerry on speakerphone so everyone could hear.

“Rob?”

“Yeah? Who’s this?”

“My name is Finn Whitman. I’m a friend of—”

“Jez’s. Yeah, I know.” He didn’t sound too thril ed. “She talks about you and the others al the

time.” Too much of the time, his tone of voice implied.

“Have you seen her by any chance? Heard from her?”

“No. Why?”

“Just curious,” Finn said.

“What’s up with that?”

“Just asking.”

“Because?”

“Yeah, wel …listen…I know this is going to sound stupid, but if there was one thing Jez could

change about you, what would it be?”

“Is this some kind of contest or something?”

Finn hesitated. Wil a was nodding violently.

“Yeah, that’s it exactly,” Finn said. “A contest. A school thing. How wel do boyfriends and girlfriends know each other?”

“The one thing she would change?”

“Yes. That’s the question.”

A long hesitation on the other end of the cal . “My clothes. She doesn’t like my jeans, man. I

wear ‘em kinda low.”

“Your jeans?”

“Yeah. Did I answer right?”

“I’l have to get back to you on that,” Finn said. “That’s al you can think of?”

“I can tel you the one thing I’d change about her,” Rob volunteered, not giving Finn a chance

to stop him. “I’d take her iPod away from her. She’s, like, addicted to that thing. That, and al the word games she plays. She’s into scrambling every word she can—making other words out of the

same letters, you know?”

“Anagrams,” Finn said.

“What’s that?” Rob asked.

“It’s what you cal that: an anagram is a word that can be made from the letters of another

word.”

“Never heard of it.” He paused. “So what about my prize? Do I win a prize?”

“Ah…we’l let you know. Thanks for your answers.” Finn ended the cal .

“Anagrams,” Philby said. “You think it’s worth a try?”

“Do we think what is worth a try?” Maybeck asked.

“Jez wrote ‘change Rob’in her diary—”

“And inside the tree stump,” Wil a added.

“Some kind of code?” Finn asked.

“Give me the BlackBerry,” Philby said, reaching toward Finn.

“I real y don’t think we should cal him back,” Finn said.

“I’m not cal ing anyone. The BlackBerry has Internet. We can settle this pretty quickly.”

Finn and the others leaned over Philby’s shoulder as he used the BlackBerry to Google an

anagram site. Then, reaching a site, he typed in “change Rob,” and hit the button to generate anagrams.

The smal screen showed a long list of possible letter combinations.

“‘Branch ego,’” he read from the screen. “‘Corn bag he.’” They laughed. “‘Herb can go.’”

“Let me see that.” Wil a moved in next to Philby, to where their shoulders touched. No one

missed how close she got to him, least of al Maybeck, who suddenly started shifting anxiously.

Wil a studied the screen and spoke in a quiet voice.

“We’ve done this before,” she reminded him. “The clues from the Stonecutter’s Quil .

Remember? We solved that anagram without a Web site.”

“That’s because we didn’t have a BlackBerry. There’s nothing here,” Philby said.

“There are no proper names,” Wil a said.

“So?” Philby chal enged.

Wil a took the BlackBerry out of Philby’s hand and held it where she could study it clearly.

Then she calmly returned the BlackBerry to Philby, who passed it back to Finn.

“So I’ve got one,” she said, capturing the ful attention of the others. She meant this as a chal enge. She remained incredibly close to Philby, and she was looking him directly in the eyes.

“One word. A name. A Disney name.”

“I give up,” Finn said.

“I don’t! Wait! Wait!” Philby barked, not wanting to lose to Wil a.

“A Disney name?” Maybeck asked. “But then that’s got to be it. What is it, Wil a? Tel us what it is!”

“Give up?” she asked Philby, her voice a hoarse whisper. There was something going on between these two. And Maybeck didn’t like it.

“No…No…” Philby pleaded.

“He gives up,” Maybeck said. “WE ALL GIVE UP.”

Wil a’s eyes scrunched, as if to convey her disappointment in Philby. But Philby didn’t see

her. His eyes were closed, his lips moving as if reading to himself.

“Chernabog!” Philby shouted out.

“And I was about to give up on you,” Wil a said, obviously impressed.

“The creature from Fantasia?” Finn asked.

“You ever see that movie?” Maybeck questioned. “He is one mean dude.”

“And guess what?” Wil a said. “Chernabog’s not only the most evil of al the Disney vil ains, he

happens to be a demon with bat wings!”

The kids went silent, the air suddenly shattered by the train’s sharp whistle, announcing its

arrival at the station.

47

HE’S THE BADDEST OF THE BAD. The most evil Walt Disney ever created.” Philby was in fine form,

back to himself, alert from the sleep he’d gotten and able to think more clearly than either Maybeck or Finn. They waited in line for the Park train to the Conservation Station.

Charlene remained behind in the jungle just outside the bat enclosure. She blended in wel

there and, having found a log to stand on with her stilts, could keep an eye on the activities backstage by peering over the top of the wal . The back doors of the ice truck had been shut, Maleficent inside. As far as Charlene could tel , before entering the back of the truck neither Maleficent nor the monkeys and apes had realized the cages were empty. The tarps used to contain the captive DHIs and to block their projections from showing had also served to fool their captors.

Once the line was moving, Maybeck, Finn, Wil a, and Philby separated for the ride out to the

Conservation Station. They each took a place on the long benches amid the Park guests, al on

different train cars. Summoned by Amanda, they were anxious to rendezvous and find out what

had her so overheated.

As the train arrived at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, the kids split up. Park visitors trudged up the

long path toward the Conservation Station. They were a team now, protective of one another and

concerned for each other’s safety. These kids, who had once been strangers, were now anything

but—brought together by a common enemy and the strange manifestations of a technology gone

wrong. To remind them of their previous lives would have been foolish, for they could barely remember a time when fal ing asleep did not mean crossing over into a strange world, and where

a white-haired old man had not control ed their shared fate.

Finn, who’d taken up the rear, entered the facility and joined the others in a huddle by the restrooms.

“I’m starving,” said Wil a.

“Later,” said Philby.

“What’s so important?” Finn asked Amanda, who had abandoned her viewing station. The

crowd had thinned as a veterinary demonstration had begun at the central display window: a snake had eaten a golf bal and was undergoing surgery.

“We have to act while they’re distracted. And I have to get back to the AnimalCam before

someone realizes how many cameras that station has access to.”

“Act?” Finn inquired.

“One of the sketches from the diary.” She unfolded the original page of the diary and pointed

out the ape on crutches. “It’s a tattoo. A washable tattoo for the children. It’s given to them after the private tours of the vet clinic. I think our passes wil get us back there, but I didn’t want to leave my station for too long. And since the veterinary clinic means animals, I thought it was better to get some help and maybe do this as a team.”

“Agreed,” said Finn, attempting to digest everything she’d just told them.

“A tattoo?” Maybeck quipped in complaint. “What about Chernabog? What about the two

apes we left spinning donuts back in the lodge? Who cares about some bleeping tattoo?”

“If it’s in the diary,” Philby said, “then it’s part of the puzzle she left us. That makes it significant. Amanda’s right: we have to pursue it.”

“Says the one who just got a couple hours’ sleep,” Maybeck complained.

“I know this may sound foolish,” Amanda said, apologizing to Maybeck, “but I feel it’s important. I real y do. I wouldn’t have cal ed you out here otherwise. I know how hard you’re al working to help Jez. How much risk you’re taking. I can’t tel you how I appreciate it. I have no right to ask you to do anything more.”

“That’s true,” Maybeck said.

“Shut up,” said Wil a.

“I’m agreeing with her.”

“You’re being a nimrod, and you know it,” Wil a protested.

“A tattoo!” Maybeck shouted, a little loudly.

“Everything in the diary has proved out,” Finn reminded them. “The tiger and lion were DHIs.

She drew the lightning hitting the castle days before it occurred.”

“Change Rob,” Wil a said. She reviewed Finn’s phone cal to Rob for Amanda, and the

discovery of the Chernabog anagram.

“And that too,” Finn agreed.

“The apes,” Philby added.

“And now the tattoo,” Maybeck mumbled. “Okay. I get it. So what now?”

“I’m going back there,” Finn said. “Into the vet clinic.”

“And I’m going with you,” Amanda stated, leaving no room for argument.

“I can take over the viewing station,” Philby offered eagerly.

“Wil a and I wil stand guard,” said Maybeck. “Our DSs at the ready.”

“What’s the code word if there’s a problem?” Finn asked.

“Give it a rest, Whitman.”

“Chernabog,” said Philby.

Al eyes fel on him.

“At least that way we’l al understand it’s serious,” Philby said.

48

FINN SWIPED HIS ID in the card reader. A smal light changed to green. An even smaler light went

off in his brain: what if the Overtakers had figured out the kids were using fake IDs and were now tracking them through the use of their cards? He shook it off.

He tried the doorknob, and the door opened. He and Amanda stepped through, leaving the

sounds of activities behind them.

The hal way he found himself in reminded Finn of the veterinarian’s office where his mother

volunteered part-time. It also served to remind him of his mother and the fact that he hadn’t yet

cal ed home. He’d messed up: soon his parents would be at Blizzard Beach looking for him. They

were going to be furious. He wondered if any of the other kids were in the same predicament. One

thing was certain—time was running out. The Park would remain open only another hour or so.

Jez’s chances of being freed were quickly diminishing.

He knew that no matter how they tried, he and Amanda stil looked like kids. Tired, even exhausted, kids—but kids nonetheless. There was no getting around it. And he had no idea if unaccompanied kids his age were al owed backstage. With this in mind, he signaled to Amanda

to hurry, and they moved down the hal way with an eye out for someplace to hide. Thankful y, most

of the doors had glass panels, al owing them to see inside. They passed an examination room,

and another, fil ed with medical equipment. There was one door marked PRIVATE, and another with

stickers and cartoon clippings taped to it. It was this door Finn tried first. Inside was a single table and some vending machines—an employee lounge. It was empty. They ducked inside, both wide-eyed and slightly out of breath due to the excitement.

“I’m terrified,” Amanda said.

“Me too,” Finn admitted.

“We have no idea what we’re looking for.”

“No. But she must have dreamed about that tattoo. That has to mean something.”

“But what?”

“The tattoos are given out to kids who take the private tours. Maybe there’s something on the

tour we’re supposed to see?”

Amanda’s blue eyes brightened. “That’s got to be it! You’re a genius.”

Finn felt his face warm. “Hardly,” he mumbled under his breath, wondering how a guy like Maybeck could carry himself so confidently.

There was noise in the hal way, and both of them instinctively looked for a place to hide. But

the employee lounge offered them nothing: a few lockers, al padlocked.

A text message appeared on both their DSs

angelface13: the green one just left the ice palace.

“Maleficent just left the ice truck,” Finn whispered.

“Yeah…I saw that. But what’s it mean?”

“No idea. But it can’t be good.” Amanda looked terrified. “Okay, here’s the thing: try to look

like you belong here,” he advised, bracing himself for whoever was out there to come through the

door.

Instead, he saw a woman dressed in green nursing scrubs leading two adults and a string of

four or five kids down the hal way. A tour!

“I’ve got an idea,” Finn said.

A moment later, he and Amanda were in the hal way trailing only a few feet behind the family.

For anyone seeing them they would appear to be a group. The nurse, busy with her explanations,

a memorized tour she probably did too often, seemed to pay little attention to those at the back of the pack.

The guide pointed out the purpose of several of the rooms, explaining in some detail about

the care and attention lavished on the animals in the Park. This facility was so advanced it was

used not only for Disney-owned animals, but for al sorts of wild animals rescued throughout the

state. Finn found himself getting caught up in the tour as Amanda tugged on his shirt. They stopped, and the tour went along without them.

On the wal was a corkboard. Pinned to it were photographs of some of the recovered animals—including a gorilla with a broken leg. There were maps and brochures tacked to the board as wel .

“The tattoo!” Amanda said.

She was right: the similarity of the subjects was unmistakable. A photo of a goril a with a broken leg and a tattoo sketch of the same thing.

“But how does it help us?”

“I don’t know,” Amanda said, “but we’re in the right place.”

Finn studied the rest of the stuff thumbtacked to the corkboard. One of the items was a very

large satel ite photo of the entire Animal Kingdom. Finn spent a good deal of time—probably too

much, according to his mother—on Google Earth. He loved everything about satel ite photos.

Using the image, it took him only seconds to establish where they were: in a complex of buildings

near the top right of the photo at the end of a loop that was obviously the train line.

And then he saw them: an M near the bottom, and a C near the top.

For a moment his breath caught; it felt as if a bone were stuck in his throat. His hands were

moving before he knew exactly what he was doing. He pul ed the thumbtacks from the four corners

of the satel ite photo.

“How stupid could we be?” he muttered.

“Finn? What’s going on?” Amanda asked, the concern apparent in her voice.

“Hey!” came a man’s voice. “You can’t do that! Put that back!”

Finn glanced to his right. The man was a long way off, at the end of the hal way.

“Finn?” Amanda said heatedly.

“They’re both here: the M she wrote in her diary, and ‘Under the Sea’!” Finn answered. He pointed to the satel ite photo, which he had turned counterclockwise.

The man picked up his pace, heading toward them. “Hey there!” he cal ed out.

“It wasn’t ‘Under the S-e-a,'” Finn spel ed. “But, under the letter C!” Turning the photo, he traced the prominent shape at the top of Asia. It was very clearly a big bold letter C, formed by an arched bridge. “She’s here. Jez…is under the C on the map.”

“Oh…my…gosh!” Amanda squealed with excitement. “You found her!”

“It’s the tiger yards,” Finn said, recognizing the route of the Jungle Trek. “Maybeck and I walked right by there.”

The man was nearly upon them.

Finn kept hold of the satel ite photo, already folding it as he turned to Amanda and shouted

harshly, “I think it’s time we…RUN!”

49

AMANDA AND FINN turned the corner. At the far end of the halway glowed a red EXIT sign. Finn was

already in the process of texting a D-Gamer message.

Finn: chernabog!

The green fairy rounded the far corner, coming between Finn and the EXIT sign. She held a

black kitty in her arms.

She set the cat down, waved her hand over it, and it stretched and grew to the size of a panther. The man pursuing Amanda and Finn skidded to a stop.

“Sil y, sil y boy,” Maleficent said, aiming her finger at him. “Won’t you ever learn to mind your

own business?”

“Who are you?” the man shouted from wel behind Finn.

“Pest!” she cal ed out, waving her finger at the man. The panther took off—running right past

Amanda and Finn—and chased the man around the corner.

Finn pushed the fear from his thoughts and drove away his anger. He whispered,

“Examination room,” and pointed subtly with his left hand, holding it behind his back. “Get the others. We’l meet up at the trek.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Amanda informed him. “Not without Jez.”

He couldn’t al ow her defiance to ruffle him. Above al , he had to clear his mind of any frustration, resentment, or il wil toward others. As he did, he felt the familiar tingling sensation in his toes and fingers, and he knew it was starting. Knew, without looking, that he was crossing over.

In the past, he had only been able to sustain his waking-DHI form for a matter of a minute or

two. Somehow he knew it would have to be longer this time—that this was to be a test of his strength.

He suspected that by becoming his DHI, he risked the Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. This was

uncharted territory, but he had to do something to counter Maleficent’s power.

“Go!” he cal ed out to Amanda.

“No. I’m staying.”

Maleficent drew her scrawny hands toward her face, her fingers twitching, her lips bubbling

with an incantation. Finn could sense a spel coming, but he would not al ow himself to fear it. Even his frustration with Amanda for not listening had to be ignored. He would be no help to her if Maleficent’s spel affected him as wel .

“You have a powerful master,” Finn cal ed down the hal . He watched as Maleficent’s face became rubbery with surprise and wrinkled with concern.

“You know nothing of my master,” came the reply.

“More than you think. Is it control over the Animal Kingdom that Chernabog wants?”

Maleficent cringed at mention of the name; it was as if Finn had spoken a sacred secret. She

curled her hands into a tight bal , and Finn could feel it coming.

“Look out!” he shouted at Amanda. He turned to warn her.

Amanda was gone. Vanished. No longer by his side.

Maleficent hurled a blinding bal of energy down the hal . About the size of a softbal , it spun

through the air, throwing off sparks like a tiny, blazing sun, and looked as if it would burn up anything in its path.

“Duck!” said Amanda’s voice.

Finn glanced up to see her floating horizontal y near the ceiling.

“DUCK!” she repeated.

But it was too late for Finn to duck. The burning bal arrived and passed right through him. It

exploded at the end of the hal , hitting a tile wal and erupting into a cloud of black smoke that rose to the ceiling. The smoke crept toward a blinking sensor mounted in the ceiling.

“But how…?” he muttered.

Amanda, stil floating, said, “I told you Jez and I had unusual abilities.”

“You can fly?”

“Not exactly. I can levitate.” She sank then, and returned to her feet.

Finn knew this discussion would have to wait until later.

Maleficent twisted her ugly fingers. A cage of blue-white lines surrounded Finn and Amanda.

Finn wasn’t scared of the laser cage. His DHI stepped right through it, coming closer to Maleficent. Amanda floated off her feet and swam through the air, slipping through a gap between

the electric bars. She sank back to the floor.

“Or is it the other way around?” Finn cal ed out to Maleficent. “Is it that the Animal Kingdom

controls him, and you’re going to ‘save’ Chernabog? To free him! His powers are limited here. Is

that it?”

Maleficent took a step back, away from Finn. It was the first time he’d ever sensed an ounce

of retreat in her. He savored the moment.

By gloating, he briefly lost his DHI.

“My master’s powers are anything but limited,” she said. “Just you wait!”

She threw an arrow of flame at Finn. His cherishing Maleficent’s retreat had cost him more

than half his DHI. He was now half kid, half light. And as he turned his back against the oncoming arrow, he unknowingly offered her his mortal half Seeing this, Amanda leaped in front of him.

The arrow struck her in the chest and was total y absorbed. Her arms and legs glowed as she

sank to the floor.

Maleficent grinned an evil grin.

“Looks like your girlfriend shouldn’t play with fire,” Maleficent said.

Amanda lay unconscious on the floor at Finn’s feet, a burn mark on her shirt. His fear removed him from his DHI state and exposed him to Maleficent’s powers.

But something else overcame him—a wild, pent-up anger that he could no longer control. He

charged the witch.

A wide-eyed Maleficent seemed to sense her situation. As her lips muttered another

incantation, she was too late.

Finn hit her with a body block, his momentum slamming her against the wal and pinning her

there. He brought his hands to her throat.

Her skin was ice cold.

He said, “Release her this instant. You bring her back…or so help me…” He tightened his

grip. Her cold skin was like nothing he’d ever felt.

Maleficent’s sickly green skin turned yel ow. He was choking the life from her. She had no voice. No incantations.

“RELEASE AMANDA!!” Finn shouted, holding the wild panther at bay with his voice. He

tightened his grip. Maleficent’s eyes bulged. She waved her hand.

Amanda coughed and sat up, coming back to consciousness.

“Are you al right?” Finn asked.

Amanda coughed hard but nodded.

Finn squeezed even tighter. “Tel Chernabog it’s over,” he said. “He wil never regain his power. The Overtakers are through.”

He threw her to the floor, turned, and ran, grabbing Amanda by the hand just as the smoke

reached the smoke alarm.

“You saved my life,” Amanda said, clinging to his arm. “Maleficent was scared of you!”

“I was…mad,” Finn said.

“I didn’t know you cared,” Amanda teased him, just as they opened an emergency door and

sprinted outside.

“Who says I do?” he said to her, his voice breaking.

“Boys…” she muttered.

50

THE KINGDOM KEEPERS and Amanda stood watching the AnimalCam, with Philby at the controls.

Al but Charlene, who kept vigil at the bat enclosure, her DS in hand. Philby, being Philby, had quickly located two cameras that served the tiger yards and a third that looked back toward the

arched bridge that separated the two enclosures. It was this bridge that caused the C on the satel ite photo.

“They keep tigers on either side of the bridge,” he explained. “Both sides have water and some trees for shade. From the bridge you have a good view of either yard.”

“But if she’s under the C, she’s under the bridge,” Finn said.

“I don’t know that that’s possible,” Philby said, switching camera views.

“Zoom back!” Wil a said in an excited voice.

Philby did as she asked.

Amanda stepped forward, her finger pointing to the screen. “The window! That’s from the diary.”

“Yes,” Finn said. “You showed us that before, when Maybeck and I were over there.”

“She dreamed about this place,” Amanda said. “No question about it.”

Wil a pushed her way to a closer view of the screen.

Maybeck said, “Are we just going to watch TV al day? Let’s do something.”

Wil a pointed. “Zoom in on this.”

“On what?” Philby said.

“Just do it,” Wil a persisted.

Philby used the AnimalCam’s joystick to aim the camera where she pointed: a section where

the wal met the dirt.

“Zoom in,” she directed.

It wasn’t dirt, as it turned out. Slowly a geometric shape became apparent: a wooden hatch

with grass growing around its edges.

“That couldn’t be what I think it is,” Maybeck said.

“It’s a trapdoor!” Amanda declared.

“A trapdoor in a tiger yard,” Maybeck said. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“She’s in there,” Amanda said. She looked to Finn for support. “Don’t ask me how I know, but

she’s in there.”

“Philby?” Finn asked. “What’s a trapdoor doing there?”

“You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

“Try me,” Finn said.

“Let’s say you’re the person running the tigers. How are you going to get any tigers into this

lower yard?” He switched camera views. It showed a slowly rising hil of grass.

“How ‘bout trying the gate?” Maybeck asked.

“There is no gate. Not in the lower yard, only in the upper yard. We know from what Wayne

told us that al the animals are accounted for each evening. They’re kept in barns and pens backstage. I’m thinking they probably move a couple tigers into this upper yard in the morning—

then they open the hatch. It leads to a short tunnel that connects to the lower yard. Tigers are cats, so they’re smart. They learn fast.” He zoomed the camera to where a second hatch could be seen,

this time in the lower yard. “Once the first tigers are in the lower yard, they close the hatches and put two more tigers into the upper yard. Tigers are territorial, so this system keeps them apart.”

“Bril iant,” said Wil a.

“I don’t mean to play devil’s advocate,” said Maybeck, who thrived on playing devil’s advocate, “but if they let them in in the morning, then don’t they let them out in the evening? So if Jez is down there, which personal y I don’t believe, doesn’t that mean…?” He didn’t finish his thought.

“That if she’s stil down there at closing, then the tiger gets her for dinner,” Philby said.

Wil a gasped.

“How could she have gotten down there in the first place?” Maybeck questioned.

“She could have crossed the savannah,” Wil a proposed, “after escaping the tree trunk.

Jumped a wal , or entered an open gate, only to find herself facing tigers. Maybe the hatch was

already open; maybe she opened it herself. We won’t know until we find her.”

“One thing,” Philby said, “supporting this theory…if I were rigging the sound for the Park, the

wires would fol ow the path. It might make sense to have a junction box down in the tunnel connecting the yards. Workers would have a place to check the wires that’s out of the view of the

guests and safely away from the tigers.”

“No matter what,” Finn said, “I think we talked ourselves into checking out that tunnel.”

“A tunnel we don’t even know exists,” Maybeck reminded them.

“But there’s something else to think about,” Finn said. “The M on the satel ite photo is a match with the M in the diary.”

“So she could just as easily be hiding someplace on the M,” Maybeck said, pleased to have

some evidence to support his view.

Amanda shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. She played that song over and over. She has

to be under the C.”

“Then what’s the M about?” Maybeck asked.

“Wel , for one thing,” Wil a said, “it’s your initial.”

Maybeck looked as if he might stick his tongue out at her, but he resisted.

“In the diary there’s a blob of ink on the lower right stem of the M,” Philby pointed out. “That could be a mistake, or it could mean something. And I might add that everything in the diary so far has meant something.”

“Agreed?” Finn said.

“So look where it is,” Philby said.

“Dinoland.” Philby looked around at the others. “Do any of you ever come to this Park?” he

inquired sarcastical y. “Dinoland is ridiculously boring except for one attraction.”

“That research thing—Dr. Grant Seeker,” Wil a said.

“Dinosaur. Remember anything special about it?”

“Only that it was real y cool,” Wil a answered.

“Not cool—wel , yes, it’s cool—but it’s also cold. And it’s computer control ed. Majorly computer control ed. There have to be some serious computers running that ride.”

“The second server,” Finn whispered, “could be hidden among them.”

“As good a place as any.”

“Listen to you!” Maybeck sniped. “We don’t know any of this for sure!”

“No…” Philby said. “But there might be a way we could find out. If I can get back on VMK, and

Wayne gets me into the control center, I may be able to track network bandwidth usage.”

“Speak English,” Maybeck snapped.

“Think about it: if we go after Jez, how is Maleficent going to come after us?”

“With birds,” Maybeck said.

“And monkeys,” Wil a added.

“And lions,” said Finn.

“And DHIs of al of the above,” Philby said. “The more DHIs she uses, the more bandwidth

usage on the network. What I’m saying is this: we want her to come after us with everything she’s got, because when she does, I can probably locate the second server. And if I do, then maybe I

can cut it off the network. That would take al the DHIs of animals out of the equation.”

“So we split up,” Finn said. “Maybeck, Wil a, and Philby wil team up to take out the second

server, to destroy it if possible. Charlene, Amanda, and I wil get inside the tiger yard and get into that hatch.”

“Oh, yeah, like that’s going to happen,” snipped Maybeck.

“Philby said the tunnel makes sense for maintenance. If that’s the case, do you think the maintenance workers go through the tiger yards every time there’s a problem? I don’t think so.

There’s going to be another entrance—a hatch, a manhole, something—probably hidden in the jungle. Something that Jez can’t get to, or isn’t strong enough to move. Philby can check it out when he gets into VMK. There must be a way to open the hatches in order to move the tigers.

Philby can look for that, and we’l be in position, ready to move.”

“There are stil a few sketches in the diary that we haven’t run into,” Amanda reminded everyone. “We shouldn’t forget about them. There’s the hairy goril a and the owl on the branch.

There’s the elephant and the hunchback guy who looks sort of Indian.”

“Everyone wil stay alert for those,” Finn said.

“Alert?” Maybeck said. “I’m half asleep on my feet.”

“No sleeping!” Philby warned. “Wil a and I messed up things by getting caught. We’re both

sorry and appreciate everything you did for us. But the Park is closing soon: six o’clock. And that means the animals wil al be moved backstage, including the tigers. If there is a tunnel between

the tiger yards, and Jez is down there…” He didn’t have to finish the sentence.

But apparently Maybeck felt obliged to. “Then she becomes kitty chow.”

51

CHARLENE INSISTED THAT she could slip over the wal of the upper tiger yard with no one the wiser.

“I don’t think so,” said Finn. He, Amanda, and Charlene were assembled along the edge of

the Jungle Trek, very near the tiger yards.

“I can stay close to the wal , like I did at the bat enclosure,” Charlene said. “No one’l see me, and that includes the tigers.”

“Tigers are fast,” Amanda reminded her. “Very fast. And they can jump, let’s not forget.”

Charlene nodded. “But also lazy. I’l be on the opposite wal . If the tiger moves or shows any

interest, you can warn me. I can vault the wal in a nanosecond. It’s not as if it’s going to get me.”

“No, probably not,” Finn said. “But it’s also not worth the risk. At the very worst, we wait until they try to move the tigers. If we’re right, they’l open the hatches at that point. Jez wil get out of there. Our jobs wil be to distract the tigers so Jez doesn’t get attacked.”

“Tiger bait?” Amanda asked, horrified. “Your plan is to use us as tiger bait?”

“My plan is to rescue Jez. At the very worst, we wait out the Park’s closing.”

“Let’s look for a maintenance entrance,” Amanda encouraged. “If it actual y exists, it can’t be

far from the bridge.”

“Agreed. And Charlene promises not to jump the wal ,” Finn said, looking up at her. “I would

suggest you scout the perimeter looking for other hatches, gates, or anything else we should know

about.”

“I can do that. But I can also—”

“Don’t even think about it,” Finn said, interrupting her.

Amanda and Finn set off down the path toward the tiger bridge. At Finn’s suggestion, they

kept a few yards apart in case they came under attack from the Overtakers. They sharpened their

senses, alert to what was overhead and al around them for anything out of the ordinary—

especial y monkeys and orangutans.

They scouted both tiger yards from an old Indian temple made of stone and plaster, which

was at the top of the tiger bridge. Amanda stared out the window that matched what Jez had sketched in the diary. An enormous tiger was stretched out in the shade about twenty feet below

and across the yard. She couldn’t see the trapdoor from where she stood but could place it just to her left in her mind’s eye. She switched sides and kept looking around.

Finn patrol ed the center of the bridge, also switching sides and looking into both tiger yards.

He’d hoped to see a manhole cover in the path—some indication of maintenance access—but

there was none.

“I think I have something,” Amanda said from behind him. She faced some plants and a beautiful section of the wal , where four large stone panels had been carved, each depicting a unique scene. Finn recal ed these from having seen them earlier, and he said so.

“I don’t think we should be seen staring, so I’m going to turn my back, but check out the second panel,” Amanda said, spinning around.

“The owl!” Finn said. “And the elephant with the headdress.”

“Both of which she sketched in her diary,” Amanda reminded.

“It’s a secret panel,” Finn said. “The access to the tunnel.”

“We don’t know that,” Amanda protested.

“Screen me,” Finn said. “I’m going back there and looking for some kind of switch to open it.

The way it’s on the corner, it’s perfect for maintenance, because you’re hidden to start with. No

one’s going to see me, but just to make sure…”

“I’ve got you covered,” Amanda said.

Finn slipped into the vegetation and stepped into shadow. The ground here was disturbed,

and he noticed several large shoeprints in the mud, convincing him al the more that they were right about this.

He ran his hand along the edge of one of the large stone panels, hoping to find some kind of

trigger. Nothing. He tapped on it lightly. It sounded hol ow. “This has got to be it,” he hissed. “But I can’t find anything to open it.”

“Try the owl,” Amanda cal ed over her shoulder.

Of course! he thought. He stretched to reach the owl, opened his hand, and pushed. The tile

with the owl moved. The panel clicked and popped open an inch. Finn threaded his fingers behind

it and pul ed. It was incredibly heavy.

“I’ve got it!” he announced.

But behind the panel he saw a metal gate. And the gate was padlocked. This helped explain

why, if Jez had found this entrance, she’d been unable to get out.

He didn’t hesitate for a moment. Understanding the risk he took, Finn flushed al thought from

his mind. He was neither anxious nor excited. Neither angry nor tired nor hungry. He felt the now

familiar tingling in his arms and legs and witnessed a slight glow on the back of the stone panel

that hung open: he had crossed over. He stepped through the wrought-iron gate, his glow il uminating a dank, stone stairway that spiraled down to his left. He turned around, his DHI already fading as fear crept into him. Fear of the dark. Fear of the unknown. He was himself again. He

reached through the gate and grabbed a heavy iron handle on the inside of the panel. He pul ed

with al his strength, and the massive stone door clicked shut.

He’d acted a little too hastily: it was pitch dark.

He couldn’t see a thing.

52

FINN FELT HIS WAY DOWN the damp stones as the stairs beneath him fel away in a spiral to his left. It smel ed at once of dust and mold, like his grandparents’ basement. He counted the stairs as he

went: ten, eleven, twelve… before they leveled off. He walked on the flat now, straight ahead, his left hand skimming a rock wal , the occasional cobweb tangling in his fingers and making him jump. Finn didn’t like spiders.

The sound of his running shoes scraping the concrete changed; he could feel he was in a more open area. His vision, which had shown him nothing but sparkles and curlicues, improved to

where he could make out a haze both to his left and right. It hung in the air like a gray mist. And now, slowly forming, a lump, an interruption in the mist. An imperfection in the horseshoe-shaped

glow that continued to define itself.

“Jez?” he cal ed out softly.

The lump moved. He thought it might have turned in his direction.

He cal ed her name again, this time a little more loudly.

“If you’re a dream, go away!” Jez’s voice!

“It’s Finn,” he said, taking steps toward her, his hand stil guiding him along the wal .

“Why can’t I wake up?” she muttered.

Finn felt good. His heart swel ed in his chest. It was not simply the pride of success, of beating the odds and final y finding her. It went beyond that, to something more. He felt an importance in being here. A significance. He was saving Jez. He was doing something that real y

mattered, not just studying or wasting time on his computer. It gave meaning to al the effort they had gone to, al the risks they had taken.

And then the tunnel fil ed with a colorful glow, like a light warming up. And it was a light warming up. His light. His DHI. It fil ed his end of the tunnel, and what had been a lump of darkness transformed into Jezebel. She stood up from her slumped position looking almost angelic and came toward him slowly, as if she were floating. He couldn’t sustain his DHI, and it vanished. He

pul ed out the BlackBerry, using its glowing screen as a flashlight.

He thought of her as having jet black hair and bone white, almost translucent, skin. Intriguing

eyes. That had been how she’d looked when he’d first met her on the Sports Complex soccer field, what seemed like years earlier. In fact, it had only been a matter of months. But Jez had made a radical transformation when Maleficent’s spel had been lifted. Her hair was now a shocking blond—almost white. Her thin lips shined luminously red.

She came into his arms, like a young child hugging a parent, and then let go.

In the BlackBerry’s weird light, they both looked vaguely blue.

“I didn’t think…” she stammered. “I hoped and even prayed, though I’m not very good at praying…I wired up the iPod but couldn’t be sure…”

“Amanda found a page in your diary,” he explained. “We fol owed your sketches.”

“I don’t even remember what I drew.”

“Dreams,” Finn said. “Amanda said it was what you dreamed.”

“Nightmares is more like it. I’ve had them here as wel —down here in the dark.”

She explained the ordeal she’d been through. It was much as the Kingdom Keepers had

come to suspect: her detention on the savannah; her escape, which turned on a mistake made by

one of the monkeys; her flight across the savannah and over a wal that turned out to be the tiger yard. The early morning release of the big cats and her finding herself fol owing one down a wooden hatch and into the tunnel while being stalked by another left behind in the upper yard.

“The hatches both closed at the same time, and I was trapped. At first I realized how lucky I

was, because the Overtakers would never think to look in such a place, but then as time went on, it occurred to me that no one would look down here. That I was not just hidden, I was trapped. And that’s when I realized that a dream I’d had—of a landscape, but from above, like from a plane—

made al the more sense. I was in the tunnel, under the C in the photo.”

“It was a satel ite photo,” Finn said, explaining. “One of your sketches led us to it.”

“And that’s when I realized the song on my iPod might help you find me. I used my earbud

wire to connect to a box.” She turned the glowing iPod, revealing a series of three junction boxes mounted to the stone wal and a number of wires leading from them. “I couldn’t be sure it would

work, but I thought it probably should. And maybe you’d hear it. If you were even here in the Park.

And so I decided to save the battery and only play the song every few hours.” She pointed at the

glowing face of the device. “It stil has some power, though not much, I’m afraid.”

“We need to get out of here. Amanda and Charlene are up there waiting for us. Philby is on

VMK with Wayne—”

“But VMK is closed!”

“Wayne fixed that. The two of them are monitoring network traffic and also trying to see if they

can control the hatches in the tiger yards.” Finn had nearly forgotten about the DS. He checked

that it was turned on.

No signal. He tried the BlackBerry: no bars, no signal.

“To get down here,” Finn said, “I had to cross over to get through a maintenance gate. You

can’t turn yourself into a DHI the way I can. You can’t cross over to get back out.” He paused, trying to think clearly. “We’re kind of stuck down here.”

“You can stil get out.”

“That’s not going to happen. I’m not leaving without you.”

“You don’t happen to have a hamburger and fries in your back pocket, do you?”

“I’m going to try the DS again, closer to the hatches.”

“I’l take that as a no.”

She disconnected the iPod and carried it in front of her as a very dim flashlight. Finn did the

same with the BlackBerry. The tunnel’s floor was concrete, its wal s, stone. The tunnel was longer than Finn expected. Nearing the far end—the end leading into the upper tiger yard—the tunnel floor began to rise, forming a ramp. The space became lower and tighter, ending in a box of concrete three feet square, a space Finn could just tuck himself into.

“It’s exactly the same on the other end,” Jez said.

Finn already knew their situation had improved: the static in his ear had lessened. “Have you

tried opening it?”

“Yes. Of course. It doesn’t open.”

“What if two of us pushed?”

“It’s not that it’s heavy. It’s latched shut. Tigers are much stronger than either of us. I’m sure it’s constructed to stop a curious tiger from opening it.” She paused a moment. “Why do you keep

checking your watch? It’s only a few minutes later than when you first looked.”

Finn said nothing. But he checked his watch again. She was right, it was 5:18. He’d last checked at 5:15.

“What is it?” she asked.

“The Park closes at six.”

“So Amanda and the others wil have to leave. That’s not the most awful thing.”

“It isn’t just that,” he said. “They move the animals—al the animals—out of the Park at closing.”

“Including the tigers.” Jez made it a statement.

“I’m afraid so.”

“And if we’re down here when they move them Her voice trailed off.

Finn caught himself nodding.

The DS beeped, indicating a connection.

philitup: Finn? Finn?

Finn: i’ve got jez!!! she’s ok!

Messages started to compete, but Philby cut everyone off with an announcement.

philitup: found the virtual switch, i think i can open the hatches, want me 2 try?

Finn looked up at Jez. “What do you think?”

“Do we have a choice? I’d rather get eaten running for my life than trapped in a tunnel.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

angelface13: ten apes just entered the tiger yards, looks like someone knows what we

know.

Finn explained to Jez, “A guy saw us take the satel ite photo. It’s possible that the Overtakers

heard about it and figured out you were down here the same way we did.”

“There are monkeys out there?” Jez asked, unable to keep the tension out of her voice.

“Mean monkeys,” Finn confirmed. “Though the orangutans are the worst.”

“Wel , that’s certainly reassuring. And we’re going out there?”

“I’m not sure we have any choice.”

53

MAYBECK AND WILLA stood guard at the Dream Vacation kiosk in Camp Minnie-Mickey. With their

backs to Philby, who occupied the computer terminal, they kept their eyes on the crowd as wel as

on the jungle, acutely aware that the last attack had come quickly and without warning.

Philby had his hands ful . While he was negotiating an intricate set of networking cables, represented on-screen by a rainbow of wires that spidered out from various network hubs to the

myriad attractions, security cameras, and cash registers throughout Animal Kingdom, Wayne had

worked his way through the virtual schematics to find a switch he believed responsible for the tiger-yard hatches. Philby had double-checked Wayne’s work and, agreeing with him, had cal ed

Finn over the DS.

philitup: changed a timer, in 5 minutes the tunnel hatches wil open.

“Five minutes,” Finn said, sounding anxious.

philitup: wil try to knockout any dhis. not sure if possible.

With Charlene’s announcement that the monkeys had arrived in the tiger yards, Philby

noticed that the volume of network traffic increased exponential y. Data flowed along the colorful cables, not in data streams, but in data rivers. Philby worked the cursor to move his avatar along the virtual catwalks that carried the network cables like colorful hoses. Screen by screen he fol owed the increase in color that signaled a rise in data flow. Blue indicated outbound data—

from various servers placed throughout the Park—while red signified data returning, check sums

used to tel the server the data had reached its intended destination. Like data over the Internet, it moved in pulses, or parcels, which when combined added up to a whole message or image. With

the jump in data traffic, the blue lines pulsed sky blue, and the red lines turned fire-engine red. The pulses got faster and the bursts brighter, until al at once a good number of lines turned into a shimmering purple—a combination of the red and blue, the data moving in such quantity and at

such speeds that the two colors became a third.

These were the lines that interested Philby, for as life-size graphic images, holograms consisted of phenomenal amounts of data. His avatar hurried, staying with the same purple data

line through a half dozen screens, making sure he never confused one purple line for another. (By

simply rol ing the cursor over the purple line a corresponding number appeared—like an ID tag.

He fol owed number 518912.) The data was passed from one network hub to another, the largest

and most complicated being a hub marked Discovery Island Hub.

From here, the purple lines traveled southeast across a bridge. Just before the bridge, a network line led to a structure marked Flame Tree Barbecue. Philby’s avatar reached the far side

of the bridge and turned to fol ow the purple cables as Wayne’s white-haired avatar popped up

from below the bridge. Wayne’s avatar held two silver swords cradled in his arms.

[ ]: here, one is for you. i fear we may meet resistance, and remember: although only a virtual world, if your avatar is killed or captured, it’s Game Over, i won’t be able to reconstruct you and reinsert you into VMK for at least an hour or two, and I fear by then it will be too late, if you’re to accomplish your mission you must stay in the game.

philitup: a sword?

[ ]: it’s all i could find on short notice.

philitup: how many of them?

[ ]: no idea, maybe none, but the closer we get to destroying them, the bigger the fight they will put up. they know you were in vmk earlier. I assume they’ve adjusted their defenses accordingly.

Philby took hold of the smal sword—it looked like a silver toothpick—and swung it back and

forth. It took him a moment to get the hang of it. Then Wayne stepped in front of him and the two

sparred, Wayne handling the weapon with surprising aplomb. In fact, the more aggressive Philby

got with the sword, the more effortless Wayne’s motions. They continued to duel, Wayne’s avatar

dancing circles around Philby. Then Philby held his sword to his chest and typed a message.

philitup: you’ve done this before.

[ ]: a little, perhaps.

philitup: more than a little.

[ ]: there was a time…a long time ago…when the overtakers challenged the kingdom, this is why uncle walt left the stonecutter’s quill in the first place. I was a member of the team sent to repel the overtakers.

The Stonecutter’s Quil had been central to the Kingdom Keepers’ first attempt to defeat the

Overtakers. Philby found it interesting, important even, to hear the history. He told himself to remember everything so he could tel the others.

remember everything so he could tel the others.

philitup: sent?

[ ]: disney world was just being built at the time, the real power of the kingdom lay in disneyland, as it does to this day.

philitup: what kind of power?

[ ]: it needn’t concern you now.

philitup: but it does.

[ ]: patience, my young friend, if the battle ever returns home, believe me, the kingdom keepers will be part of it.

philitup: you were a swordsman?

[ ]: we learned many defenses, the sword but one of them, surprising how easily it comes back, you’re doing well enough, just remember: it is double-edged, it cuts just as easily on the backswing. conserve your energy and always swing in both directions.

philitup: I’ll try.

[ ]: it’s all that can be asked, now let’s be off…

Together they continued along the catwalks, up and down staircases, always fol owing the pulsing purple cables. A group of cables ran to the right. Philby stopped to examine them: none

was purple. Others continued straight ahead.

[ ]: we’re in dinoland. those are restaurants to our right the rides are to our left: fossil fun games, primeval whirl, and triceratop spin.

Six cables continued straight ahead—four of them pulsing a rich purple. What had left the Discovery Island hub as hundreds of data cables had been reduced to just a few, the majority of

which were purple, indicating a large amount of data transfer. The cables were nearing the source

of that data— the second server.

Philby was scared. For Finn, the key was to defeat the second server, to eliminate the DHIs

Maleficent was using to increase her army. Who knew how many of the monkeys, birds, or tigers

were real? The only way to absolutely know was to shut down the second server—for good—and

that task now fel to him and an old man with toothpick swords. If they were going to encounter

resistance, it was going to be soon.

He didn’t need to ask Wayne where those cables led. There was only a single attraction at

the bottom of DinoLand USA.

Philby, the boy, not the avatar, briefly released the VMK controls. He turned around, found Maybeck’s face in the crowd, and cal ed out, “The Dino Institute. You and Wil a…as fast as you

can!”

Then he turned back to the screen to see that he was too late: Wayne was under attack.

54

TWO MINUTES…

Finn counted down the seconds on his watch. He heard his mouth speak before he meant to

say anything.

“The first time I saw you I was scared of you,” he told Jez. The two were huddled close together just below the hatch in the upper tiger yard.

“Me?”

“Your long hair. The way you looked at me.”

“I was under Maleficent’s spel ,” she reminded him.

And I was under yours, he thought. “Yeah,” he said. “The thing is, as it turned out, there was nothing to be afraid of.”

“Are you trying to tel me something?” she asked. Their faces were about a foot apart. Only a

tiny bit of light seeped in from around the edges of the hatch, emitting a dul glow. He saw the shape of her head, nothing more.

“Fear is a weird thing. It can total y take over, or you can push it away and suddenly it’s gone.

That’s how I’m able to be a DHI—I remove al thought, al fear, and suddenly I cross over.”

“It’s going to be scary out there,” Jez said, suddenly understanding what it was Finn was trying to say.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Why can’t boys ever say what they actual y want to say? If you were Amanda, you’d have just

said, ‘Heads up, girl! It’s going to be freaky out there.'”

“Heads up, girl,” Finn said.

“Ha-ha,” she mocked him.

“I wil try to leave the hatch as my DHI. If Charlene’s inside the tiger yard, she wil be near a

wal . Have you ever been to a rodeo?”

“Are you serious?”

“In a rodeo, the clown’s job is to distract the bul . To draw the bul ’s attention away from the

bul rider to give the rider enough time to get over the fence, out of danger. Think of Charlene and me as the clowns. You’re the rider.”

“They’re coming after me,” Jez said.

“They’l come after al of us,” Finn said, “but they can only hurt you. They don’t know that, so

that’s to our advantage.”

“It’s not much.”

“No. But it’s al we’ve got. If Charlene has jumped the wal , then she’l know the way out. You

must fol ow Charlene. No matter what happens to me, no matter what you see, ignore it. Stay with Charlene.”

“I don’t like the sound of this.”

“I’m just saying.”

One minute…

“Finn, if you’re trying to impress me…I already have a boyfriend…”

“Rob,” Finn said. He saw her head cock to the side in curiosity. “‘Change Rob’—it was in your diary. Amanda told us Rob was your boyfriend. It took us forever to realize why you’d written that.”

“And why had I written that?”

“It’s an anagram for Chernabog,” Finn said.

“Like the guy in Fantasia?”

“The same. We think he’s Maleficent’s boss, or king, or whatever you’d cal it.”

“Superior,” she said.

“Whatever. He’s the one in control.”

“I think…oh my gosh.”

“What?”

“I think I had a daydream,” she said. “While I was down here in the dark. King of the Mountain, I cal ed him. Big and ugly, and real y hairy. He was trying to kil me. Me and Amanda.

He had this club in his hand. No! It wasn’t a club. It was—” She gasped. For the first time in the dul light he could see her face clearly: her eyes were squinted closed.

“What?”

“It wasn’t a club in his hand,” she repeated. “It was…you, Finn. He had you by the legs and

was swinging you like a club.”

Finn knew the strength of Jez’s dreams. He found it hard to breathe, his chest tight, his throat

dry.

Fear!

He had to push it away. He had to find a sense of calm. He needed to cross over to his DHI.

Because at that moment, the hatch above their heads began to squeak and groan. Light flooded in and blinded them.

The hatch was coming open.

55

PHILBY RAISED HIS AVATAR’S SWORD and blocked the swipe of silver steel that aimed for his head.

Wayne was fighting two at once, his sword nothing but a blur of shining light.

The things coming at them—there were four altogether—were hunchbacked trol s with

exaggerated noses, long hair, and strong arms. Never mind that they were avatars, they were horrendous-looking creatures, incredibly quick with their swords and determined to eliminate Wayne and Philby from VMK.

Philby blocked a second swipe and then a third. He backed up and moved to his right, noticing that the trol pivoted on its left foot as it turned to stay with Philby. Philby raised his sword as if to strike a blow to the head. The trol crossed its sword to block, but Philby released the sword, al owing it to fal and, as it did, he bent forward and was there to catch it before it hit the ground. He swung at the trol ’s left leg. It sliced in two at the knee. The trol stepped forward and fel over onto its face. It tried to stand but was useless without a left leg.

Philby stepped around it in time to engage the sword of the third trol to attack Wayne, who

was already busy defending himself against two of the attackers. Philby caught this trol ’s sword

as it swung back over its head. The contact spun the trol around and it came at Philby with a series of swift slices to the air, narrowly missing the chest of Philby’s avatar, which was in steady retreat. The trol reared back and lowered its sword with power and speed. Philby sidestepped,

tripped, and his avatar went down.

The sword smacked into one of the purple networking cables, cutting it in two. The purple color immediately switched to gray, and Philby realized that since this was an internal maintenance site, anything done to the mechanism was for real and affected the real world.

Wherever that data feed had been headed, it was now nul and void. He considered cutting al the

cables. Wouldn’t that have the desired effect? Wouldn’t it stop al the data—and more than likely

al the DHIs? He thought it would, but at the same time, without that vivid color, he wouldn’t be able to fol ow the cables to their source—the second server. And that was the ultimate prize.

A trol left the fight with Wayne. It squatted and jumped a phenomenal distance, landing right

in front of Philby. It raised its sword to do Philby in. It was now two against one. Philby spun in a ful circle, his sword outstretched. It was similar to a martial arts move, and it caught the two others by surprise. He hit the first in the arm, severing it. The second took the tip of his sword across its chest. Philby spun again, this time taking a step forward.

The one-armed trol merely switched hands, now holding the sword with its right. It lowered it

at Philby, who danced to the left just as the blade came down like a guil otine. It chopped off the end of Philby’s right foot.

Philby moved and saw his avatar sway, about to fal . He jerked left and maintained his balance: he could stil stand, but his steps had to be shorter.

Wayne had dispatched the remaining trol . He came at the two on Philby from behind, and

soon there was a flash of swords as Philby battled the one-armed trol and Wayne took the wounded one. Philby moved to his right, seeing that Wayne was moving that way as wel . And now

Philby saw Wayne’s scheme. The two trol s were battling in close quarters, too near one another.

They each pivoted on one leg as they turned—a faulty design—and Wayne was working to tie their legs together, to cross their legs.

It worked beautiful y. One more move to his right, and Philby watched as the two trol s tumbled

over. Before Philby could even lift his sword, Wayne had removed these two from the game as

wel . Wayne hurried to the one spinning on the floor and stopped it with a sword thrust.

[ ]: if we don’t hurry, they’ll generate another fifty of these and send them our way. can you find the server?

philitup: I’m sure I can.

[ ]: then do it. and tell your friends up top we may need their help, my guess is these trolls aren’t going to let us anywhere near that server.

56

THEIR EYES ADJUSTING as they climbed up the smal ramp and out of the open hatch, Finn and Jez

beheld an intimidating sight. The upper tiger yard was a large enclosure, an open expanse of sloping green grass surrounded by fifteen-foot-high wal s. The enclosure’s boundaries were broken by bamboo trees, wild grasses, and jungle shrubs. In the shade to their left, and just coming to her feet, was an enormous tigress, six feet from shoulders to tail with a huge head, and paws the size of oven mitts. She glanced back at them with her amber eyes and let out a thunderous growl—they were intruders and she didn’t appreciate being awakened from her nap.

Directly ahead of them, coming over the crest of the smal rise, were two more tigers—

barreling toward Finn and Jez at ful speed and, to the right of the yard, a half dozen monkeys and four large orangutans were also charging. The number of wild animals, as wel as their combined

ferocity, every twitch of muscle aimed directly at Finn and Jez, froze the kids. They stood absolutely stil , which was a good thing.

Then Finn spotted the ivy creeping along the right wal —just behind the gang of monkeys.

Charlene.

“Finn?” a terrified Jez said, her voice breaking.

“No fear,” Finn whispered. He had tried to cross over on his way out of the hatch, but his excitement had prevented it. He didn’t want Jez to know this, so he spoke with authority.

“Move to your right,” he said. “Stay close to the wal .”

“But the monkeys!” she said.

“I know.”

A hol ow growl reverberated from behind them: another tiger, this one coming through the tunnel from the lower yard.

Finn picked up a stick and stepped forward, putting himself between the charging monkeys

and Jez. The two center tigers continued their advance, while the one in the shade to the left had spun ful y around to face the hatch. If he didn’t do something quickly, he and Jez were going to be animal crackers—a late afternoon snack.

“Go!” he said.

Jez took off along the wal at a run.

Finn attacked the line of advancing monkeys and apes, swinging the stick like a basebal bat.

The monkeys skidded to a stop, forming a semicircle around him. He saw a flash in the eyes of

one of the orangutans: the ape had spotted Jez fleeing along the wal . He chose this ape to go

after, chanting under his breath: Nothing can hurt me.

He charged the orangutan, swung the stick, and forced the ape to dance backward, out of the

way of contact. In doing so, the orangutan left a smal gap between him and the ape to his side. It was just big enough for Finn to squeeze through. He ran forward and shot the gap. The ape turned.

This offered Jez the opportunity to run even harder, quickly moving along the wal toward the

slowly advancing Charlene, who, posing as DeVine, was high atop her stilts.

The large cat to the left stepped out of the shadows, her strides calculated and control ed: she

was hunting. If not Finn, any one of the monkeys would make a worthwhile snack.

The monkeys saw the cat as wel , their hackles raised in alarm.

Finn was facing the wal of monkeys as the second cat climbed up and out of the tunnel. He

glanced over his shoulder: the other two cats would arrive at any moment.

He’d done a fine job of pul ing attention away from Jez, but his own situation was far more

tentative. If he didn’t think of something quickly, his lone stick was not going to be enough to defend himself.

He held the stick high overhead and cried out loudly in a war cry.

“Go ahead, try it!” he shouted, watching Jez continue her progress. But the monkeys grew daring, tightening the circle around Finn.

Preparing to strike.

57

PHILBY’S AND WAYNE’S AVATARS ran along a catwalk of steel mesh, folowing the few remaining

cables like train tracks toward an unconfirmed destination. But everything pointed toward the Dino Institute. Final y, the first wal of the institute appeared, and then the identification on the schematics.

The trick for Philby was to juggle back and forth between the DS and the computer terminal. It

wasn’t easy.

philitup: it’s definitely dino-institute.

mybest: we’re almost there.

He studied the wires ahead of him. The purple wires turned right just inside the doors of the

institute.

The virtual blueprint spread out before him and Wayne. As they neared the entrance, the plan

shifted from two to three dimensions. He and Wayne moved inside the guest entrance. Philby stayed alert for any other ways to get in.

Wayne’s avatar stopped at the edge of the doorway.

Philby typed a message to Wayne.

philitup: what’s wrong?

[ ]: i sense a trap.

philitup: why?

[ ]: we should have met more resistance, i am familiar with their tactics, this is unlike them.

philitup: maybe they’ve changed.

[ ]: not likely, the overtakers never rest, they are cunning and clever and they possess many spells.

i would suggest we look for another access point.

philitup: there’s no time, besides, the cables are right here.

[ ]: have you considered the cables themselves may be part of a trap?

Philby had not given it any thought. The data flow had convinced him he was fol owing the right cables. If it was a trap, then Maybeck and Wil a were also walking right into it.

[ ]: please…another door, it’s safer for all of us.

Philby hesitated, incredibly tempted to fol ow the cables. But Wayne had gotten him this far.

He had to trust him. He backed his avatar out of the entrance, took his hands off the controls, and texted a message to Maybeck’s DS

philitup: if u can get backstage @ dino institute, u r looking 4 a rack of servers, there wil b

thick blue or gray ethernet cables clipped into the back of each server, there may be a hub—

a box with flashing lights.

As his avatar stepped out of the structure, the schematics returned to two dimensions. He studied the ful schematics. The biggest backstage areas were to the right.

philitup: workshops are @ end of ride, must destroy server.

He waited to make sure Maybeck had received the messages.

mybest: got it. . i hope.

58

THE APES AND MONKEYS ENCIRCLED FINN, closing around him like a net. How simple to cross over

briefly into his DHI and just walk right through that hairy line, but it was not to be: he was terrified.

He wasn’t going to cross over on his own.

He spun, looking for the weak link in the circle. He considered charging some of the smal er

monkeys, breaking the line there and running for it. But they al were ferociously fast on their feet and, at the moment, baring their teeth in a display of aggression and anger.

He caught sight of Jez as she reached Charlene. Excitedly, the two girls worked it out to where Charlene was leaning her back against the wal , and the nimble Jez now climbed up the

stilts—using them as a ladder—toward Charlene’s waiting hand. Finn looked away as the fingers

of the two met, confident that Charlene would get Jez up and over to the other side.

“Over here!” a high-pitched voice cal ed out.

Finn heard guests shout: “Check it out!” “Look at this!” “There are kids in with the tigers!”

Where had she come from? Finn wondered. It was Amanda. She was inside the tiger yard, the huge, prowling cat to her left, the circle of monkeys directly in front of her.

Disney Security would be on them in minutes. They had to get Jez—and themselves—out

before they were either eaten by the tigers or caught by Security.

The other two cats arrived at the same time. They, too, began to circle, along with the tiger

that escaped the hatch—a wider circle than the monkeys, one that included Amanda.

The escaped tiger stil confused Finn: how had it gotten into the tunnel in the first place?

Was the lower yard hatch open? If so, who had opened it?

Only the prowling tigress that had emerged from the shadows remained on her own,

majestical y moving with long, confident strides, restlessly back and forth. She seemed to be agitated, studying the commotion in her yard, calculating a strike.

Several of the monkeys spun around, distracted by Amanda, and broke their chain. Finn took

advantage of the distraction and shot for the opening.

The two charging tigers turned at the last minute, now aiming for Amanda.

Finn took two steps toward her, intending to defend her, but then witnessed her leaving the

ground. She levitated, floating higher and higher. The monkeys, carried by their own momentum,

ran right through the space she had occupied. The two charging tigers leaped into the air, reaching their claws toward her. One caught the leg of her jeans, but there was no sound of tearing fabric. No scream.

The leaping tiger flew through the air and landed with a rol .

The slinking tigress sat back on her haunches and sprang for the charging tiger. It looked as

if the tigress were trying to defend Amanda. The two tigers growled at the tigress and the three

cats began to circle each other.

Ignored, Amanda lowered herself to the grass.

“The wal !” Finn cal ed out to Amanda as he raised his stick toward the remaining two monkeys.

Amanda sprinted toward Charlene.

Finn turned his back in their direction, battling most of the monkeys, who darted about him

trying to sink their teeth into his legs. He knocked them back with his stick, but apparently they barely felt it.

Looking over the heads of the monkeys, Finn saw the tigress swiping her huge claws at the

other two grand cats. It looked as if the cats made contact, but none of them reeled with pain—

they held their ground.

Charlene let out a squeal as Amanda climbed up her stilts; her hand had become caught between a stilt and the wal .

With that squeal, al three cats turned. One minute fighting each other; the next, acting like curious cats. They clearly saw the monkeys, then Finn, and final y the girl in the distance clambering up a wal .

They charged.

Finn had his hands ful with the monkeys. He had not an ounce of strength nor a second of

time to deal with three enormous cats barreling down toward him.

This is it, he thought. It was too late to turn and run. Too late to escape.

The cats were lightning fast. They seemed to pul the earth, and Finn with it, dragging him toward them. Without looking, the monkeys knew. They darted to their left, removing themselves

from the tigers’ line of sight.

Finn readied his pathetic stick; it was al the defense he had. He was going to be eaten alive.

The two smal er tigers leaped into the air when just five yards away, perfectly calculating the

distance. They would land on Finn, crushing him, then snap his neck with their powerful jaws and

start the feast.

Finn braced for the end.

59

PHILBY’S AND WAYNE’S AVATARS HAD , only five minutes earlier, moved around the right wal of the

Dino Institute, as it appeared on the virtual schematics.

philitup: if you helped create the place, how about a little hint of how to reach that room?

Near the south wal of the institute, the purple cables terminated. The blueprint showed a series of wal s around them, but no door. So was the server in a closet? A workspace? The ceiling? The hiding place in the floor?

[ ]: computers came way after my time. I have no idea where that is.

philitup: none? are you sure? they don’t need much space, but it has to be a cool room, and they require a lot of cabling, so they would be over a tunnel or sewer, or—

[ ]: storm sewers.

Wayne’s avatar lifted its arm to point.

[ ]: I remember a meeting, years ago, where routing data lines over the storm sewer pipes was discussed, storm sewers carry the rainwater out of the park, the sewer lines are in maintenance conduits throughout the park.

philitup: but this is a server they want to hide, that they don’t want anyone to find.

[ ]: the employee bathroom in the Dino Institute is way too cold, and every bathroom has drains, right? some drains feed the storm sewers.

Philby grabbed hold of the DS. It was worth a try.

philitup: dhi server is in an employee bathroom close 2 the south wal .

mybest: on our way.

philitup: wayne and i wil try 2 cut the cables, u try 2 find server.

Philby looked back at the VMK screen and, as he did, the screen popped and sparkled. It

occurred to him that someone could be monitoring them. The Overtakers could know that he and

Wayne were online. Could they trace their locations? If so, both he and Wayne were at great risk.

philitup: hurry up! we have to cut the cables.

Wayne’s avatar rushed to keep up with Philby. It forced Wayne to keep his hands on the mouse and off the keyboard: he couldn’t type a message as long as Philby kept him moving.

They traveled around the corner of the institute and back to the catwalk that carried the data

cables. Philby struck the purple cables with his sword. Once…twice…three times. Al the cables

were cut. They immediately turned gray—the data stream was dead.

Why wasn’t Wayne helping? Philby turned his avatar to look.

Wayne’s avatar wasn’t moving.

philitup: come on! hurry!

The white-haired avatar just stood there not doing anything.

Philby wished he could scream at Wayne, instead of just typing. Why wasn’t the old guy fol owing him?

Then the impossible happened: Wayne’s avatar dissolved.

60

MAYBECK AND WILLA occupied the backseat of one of the exploration vehicles inside the Dino

Institute. The front seat stood empty, and given the size of the crowd lined up for the ride, this should have told them something; but they’d been too preoccupied with Philby’s instructions to pay much attention to anything beyond looking for doors offering employees backstage access.

The ride was dark and very cold, with stunningly real dinosaurs appearing at every turn.

Asteroids fel to Earth in a shower of fiber optics. The vehicle rounded a long turn. The prehistoric creatures looked up and turned toward the truck.

“How are we going to do this?” Wil a asked Maybeck in a whisper. “We can’t jump from the

car without setting off the alarms.”

“We’l find a way backstage,” Maybeck promised. “The trick is to know where we’re going.”

He indicated the part of the ride to their right. “This section is al interior to the track. Philby said a workshop or bathroom. Those rooms are going to be in spaces between the ride and the exterior

wal s—or currently to our left.”

“Are you sure about that?” she asked.

“I’m not sure about anything,” he conceded.

The next scene showed a tyrannosaurus eating a lizard.

“It’s creepy the way their eyes move,” Wil a hissed. “It feels like they’re looking right at—”

But her words were cut off as the dinosaur’s giant tail swiped over the engine of the open—

topped vehicle. Maybeck reached out and pul ed Wil a down onto him a fraction of a second before the massive tail nearly beheaded her. The tail broke some equipment off the vehicle, and it tumbled to the track.

Maybeck dared to sneak a look and pushed Wil a back up.

“Was that…supposed to happen?” she gasped.

Maybeck pul ed at a lap belt at his waist; then he tried Wil a’s. The belts wouldn’t release—

they were locked shut. The kids couldn’t jump out of the vehicle even if they’d wanted to.

“I don’t think so. No,” Maybeck answered. “I think that was intended for us. Heads up!”

He glanced back. No vehicles in sight in either direction.

The ride was designed so that no car ever saw another. There was no use cal ing out for help.

“You remember Smal World?” he asked her.

“I was on Winnie the Pooh with Charlene,” Wil a answered. “We nearly drowned, don’t forget.”

“I haven’t forgotten. My point is: I think this is like that.”

“I think you’re right.”

If they could have jumped from the car, the sensors would have stopped the ride, but the locked seat belts prevented their escape.

Suddenly, a pterodactyl shot down at them from out of the pitch-black ceiling. It was dark and

angular, with a wingspan of over six feet. With its sharp talons extended, it descended too quickly for Maybeck to react, catching him by the wrist as he shielded his face from the attack. At the moment the talon grabbed hold of him, his seat belt released, the timing too perfect to be coincidental. The bird locked on to his forearm and dragged him up and out of the vehicle.

Wil a screamed, spun, and grabbed him by the boots. Maybeck was now stretched between

the overhead bird and Wil a, stil locked in her seat. Neither was wil ing to let go. He groaned in agony—it felt like every joint was separating simultaneously.

He twisted his forearm to the left then quickly to the right, breaking the bird’s grip on him. The pterdoactyl’s long beak bent back to peck at Maybeck, but too late. Maybeck reached out and snapped the bird’s leg at the knee. The creature cried out, flapped its wings, and was absorbed

into the darkness of the ceiling.

Was it alive?

Wil a pul ed him down into the backseat, but he avoided the seat belt.

The pterodcactyl’s broken leg in hand, Maybeck studied it. An electrical wire extended from

the broken knee.

“You’re bleeding,” she said.

He studied the three holes in his skin. “It doesn’t hurt much. I’m fine.”

“It got you.”

“Dang right it did.” Only Maybeck didn’t say ‘dang.’

“This ride is trying to hurt us!”

“You think?” he snapped sarcastical y. “You’re not surprised by that, are you? There are sensors on every ride. Probably cameras, too. Throw in a little artificial intel igence, and how hard can it be to program a server to defend itself?”

“You think the server is doing this?”

“I think it knows we mean business. It has every right to be scared. I’m going to fry its innards

if— no, when!—we find it.”

“But how—?” Wil a began. She cut herself off as Maybeck stood up in the seat, grabbed a

light, and turned it to show them something of the track in front of them.

Back behind the jungle plants, he il uminated a black door and a disguised device protruding

from beside it.

“Ten-to-one that’s a card reader,” Maybeck said. “That’s our way in.”

“But I’m stuck,” Wil a reminded him, indicating the locked seat belt. She pul ed and squirmed,

but there wasn’t any way she was going to slip out of its grip.

Maybeck glanced around sharply. The car had already moved them past the black door. They

were rounding a turn toward the end of the ride. They would be caught and—at a minimum—

thrown out of the Park. If the Overtakers got hold of them, then things were about to get a lot worse.

“There has to be an emergency release,” Maybeck said, trying to think like Philby. What would Philby do?

“If a car stops,” she said. “Like a fire or something…”

“The belts would release!” Maybeck nearly shouted, agreeing with her.

“We’re going to have to move fast,” he said. A rhinoceroslike dinosaur stepped out of the scene up ahead and lowered its head. It was going to head-butt them.

Maybeck jumped from the vehicle.

Nothing happened.

He’d expected flashing lights and sirens and for the vehicle to stop. But the car continued forward, aimed directly at the armor-clad beast with its head lowered.

Maybeck tore loose a branch from a tree. He hurried to the front of the research vehicle and

swung the branch repeatedly at the vehicle’s bumper and gril e.

“Terry!” Wil a shouted, cal ing Maybeck by his first name.

“There has to be…” Maybeck muttered to himself as he continued to bash the vehicle while

he backed up toward the waiting dinosaur. His pants belt snagged on something on the front gril e.

If the beast charged now, it would crush him against the car.

Again, he smacked the front of the car.

It stopped.

He’d knocked out a front sensor.

Struggling to free his hooked belt, he turned and glanced over his shoulder. The dinosaur broke loose from his scene— the thing was definitely alive!—and charged.

With the stopping of the vehicle, an alarm now sounded throughout the building.

Wil a’s seat belt released, freeing her.

She leaped from the backseat. “The black door!” Maybeck cal ed out calmly. Again he

wrestled with his belt. Now he fiddled to unstrap it: he was stuck.

The dinosaur snorted and charged down the track at him. Only at the last second did Maybeck spot a smal pool of oil along the track—one of the vehicles ahead of him was leaking

oil. As he noticed it, he elected to stay perfectly stil .

“MAYBECK!” Wil a cried out.

His belt stil caught, Maybeck turned around and faced the charging animal.

His belt buckle came loose and slipped out of the loops on his pants.

He dropped to the floor.

The dinosaur slipped in the oil and crashed into the front of the vehicle, demolishing the rover

into a twisted V of bent metal.

Maybeck was lying directly between the dinosaur’s legs.

He scrambled to his feet.

Wil a held the black door open.

Maybeck ran like he’d never run. The dinosaur turned and fol owed, not slowed by the crushing impact with the vehicle.

Maybeck literal y dove through the black door. Wil a swung it shut. The wal shook as the dinosaur impacted the metal door and concrete fire wal . Wil a took Maybeck by the hand and pul ed him to his feet.

“You could have been kil ed.”

“I saw that his legs were like stumps. As long as I stayed between them…”

“That was too big a risk to take.”

“It’s not like I had forever to think about it,” he replied.

He looked around. They were in a long, curving hal way. There were no markings on the gray

wal s. Overhead, hundreds of wires were carried in a kind of metal ladder that hung from the ceiling; it ran in both directions and out of sight. Among the wires were dozens of blue ones.

“We fol ow the wires,” Maybeck said.

“But in which direction?”

“This way,” Maybeck said.

“But how do you know?” Wil a asked.

“I don’t,” he said. “Some things we’ve just got to take on faith.”

“Faith? This is you speaking? What have you done with the real Maybeck?”

“Give it a rest.”

They were hurrying now, the alarm stil sounding. Perhaps employees al rushed to assigned

stations in emergencies—or to unload guests. Whatever the case, the hal way was empty.

Maybeck moved not with his eye down the hal , but in the tangle of wires overhead. Wil a did

much the same.

“There!” she said, pointing out a massive group of blue wires running from the wire carrier

through a hole above a door to their right.

Maybeck swung open the door.

Workbenches ran along the far wal , covered with spare parts, soldering guns, tools, and hydraulics. In the middle of the space to their left was a metal rack, floor-to-ceiling shelving holding dozens of computer servers, network hubs, and surge suppressors.

“We’ve got it!” Wil a proclaimed.

“No!” Maybeck countered. “It can’t be this easy. Philby said we should look for a closet or a

bathroom.”

“But these are computer servers. It could easily be—”

“No, it couldn’t be here. This ride uses al these computers. The nerds that work on them would notice a server that didn’t belong. Philby’s got to be right.”

“Then where?”

“The wires,” Maybeck said, hurrying around the back side of the rack of computers. There had to be several hundred wires—both blue and black—the blue wires interconnecting the servers

and the hubs. The black wires ran to power supplies. Some of the groups of wires were wel -

organized and held together by plastic ties; others had been added hastily and were in a tangled

clump of spaghetti.

Maybeck looked this al over and said, “We’re not going to find it here.”

“How can you tel that?” Wil a asked.

“Because the same guys that work the computers know the wires. They could spot wires that

didn’t belong.”

“In this mess? I don’t think so.” Wil a stepped forward and dragged her fingernail along one

wire, then another.

“What are you doing?”

“Every girl knows that makeup can hide anything,” she said. “The way you fool the nerds is

you paint the blue wires black. Then they don’t notice—” She cut herself off as her thumbnail flaked away some black paint, revealing the blue wire below. “Voilà!”

“If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” Maybeck said.

Footsteps… coming fast down the hal .

“The door!” Maybeck whispered.

Wil a raced to the door and quietly spun the lock.

The people in the hal ran past. She looked at Maybeck and rol ed her eyes: that had been

too close.

As she rejoined Maybeck, he fol owed the painted network line to where it had been run along

the underside of the bottom shelf. Together they traced it and three others to the interior wal , and along this wal and another set of shelves to where a smal hole had been dril ed through some

plasterboard. A door stood immediately to Maybeck’s right where a wal jutted out. He tried the

doorknob.

Locked.

Wil a pointed to a smal sign that identified the door: JANITOR.

“That’s perfect!” Maybeck said. “It’s certain to have a drain—which is how Philby says they

run the wires around the Park.”

“I need something the size of a credit card,” Wil a said.

Maybeck looked at her curiously.

“I have brothers who are constantly trying to lock me out of the bathroom. They think it’s funny.”

She found a metal plate on a workbench. She slid it into the crack next to the doorjamb, and

the dark room popped open.

“Sometimes I hate being an only child,” Maybeck quipped.

The room was a pile of junk—a neglected storeroom. It took him a minute, but Maybeck located the server mounted beneath a photo-developing bench—a blue-and-silver Del that looked

a lot like a piece of a home stereo.

If they were right, this smal box control ed al the holograms of the animals they’d battled, and it possessed the power to erase them al .

“What now?” she asked.

“We don’t just pul the plug. I know that much.”

“A magnet,” she said. “We need a magnet!”

Together, the two returned to the workshop and began searching for anything magnetic. Wil a

found a couple of smal magnets, but they both agreed they wouldn’t be powerful enough to do any

real damage. They needed to rearrange al the magnetic information on the hard disk. It was going

to take something…

“There!” Maybeck said too loudly.

At that very moment, another line of footfal s had been coming down the hal way. The noise

stopped just outside the door. A fist banged on the door.

“Block it!” he hissed, instructing Wil a.

For what he’d spotted was currently up near the ceiling. It was a very large device with two

metal plates connected by wires; it hung from the end of a hydraulic arm and was clearly meant to

raise and lower heavy pieces of the dinosaurs that were under construction or repair.

Wil a rol ed a tool chest in front of the door and then locked the wheels.

Maybeck threw a switch and worked the hydraulic arm, attaching the magnet to the end of it.

He found the power switch and tried it: a wrench and three screwdrivers jumped off a workbench

and stuck to the magnet. He’d gotten it too close to the workbench, but he’d proven his point.

He flipped off the switch, and the tools dropped to the floor in a cacophony of banging metal.

Now the people on the other side of the door tried al the harder.

Maybeck wrestled with a giant cotter pin that held the magnet to the arm. He got the magnet

free, extended the wire connecting it, and was able to stretch it to al the way inside the dark room.

The thing was massive. He knew it had to be right on top of the server to corrupt the hard drive. It took most of his strength to lift the magnet and al his strength to hold it under the counter and against the hidden server.

“Throw the switch!” he cal ed out.

“I’m a little busy here,” Wil a said, having dragged a leg of a tyrannosaurus to block the door.

“I…can’t…hold…it,” Maybeck gasped. “Throw the freaking switch.” Only he didn’t say

“freaking.”

Wil a abandoned the door and ran to the controls. She threw the switch.

The magnet leaped out of Maybeck’s hands and glued itself to the server. A smal , green LED

on the front—meant to indicate hard-drive activity—turned to amber, then flashed red. Next, al the lights on the server failed completely, and there was an electrical smel in the air.

The second server was dead.

Maybeck and Wil a hugged, only to realize what they were doing. Then Wil a pushed him away and said, “Don’t disgust me!”

Maybeck brushed off his clothes and quickly changed the subject. “I probably should have checked with Philby before doing that. I hope it doesn’t mess things up.”

The workroom door banged open an inch, the tool carrier sliding on the concrete floor.

Two inches.

Then five.

“What now?” she asked, her voice tight.

Maybeck glanced overhead: it was a drop ceiling, maybe a foot or two lower than the one out

in the hal way.

“How are you with smal spaces?” he asked.

61

THE TWO TIGERS VANISHED IN MIDAIR. As did four of the six monkeys and two of the orangutans.

The big tigress from the shadows remained and so did the massive tiger that had come through the hatch. Finn counted two monkeys and two orangutans.

DHIs, Finn realized. Two of the tigers and several of the monkeys and apes had been holograms. No wonder his blows with the stick hadn’t done much.

Amanda’s climb had distracted the charging animals just long enough for Finn and Jez to get

past them. Meanwhile, Philby’s team was about to defeat the second server.

Now it was time to get out of there.

Finn took off running. A caged-in jungle Jeep appeared from over the rise, a flashing light atop its roof.

The orangutans moved to intercept Finn. Jez ran toward Charlene and the wal .

Incredibly fast, and easily as big as he was, the apes came at Finn with wild eyes and drooling snorts of intention. The first of the two bounded toward Finn, made one gigantic leap, and would have torn his head off with its outstretched hand had the tigress not sprung. The cat scared the orangutan. The ape rol ed into a bal , came to standing, and saw the cat bearing down on it

once again. Forced to choose between pursuing Finn or confronting the cat, the orange ape turned to escape. Now, faced with a Jeep coming at it headlong, the orangutan sprang for the bamboo grove and disappeared, the huge cat fol owing hotly on its tail.

The second ape saw its partner flee and beat a hasty retreat. Thankful y for Finn, that retreat

took it into the path of the Jeep, which veered sharply to avoid a col ision. The Jeep skidded to a stop near the open hatch, away from Charlene, who remained poised, her stilts pressed at an angle against the wal . Jez was nowhere to be seen. She’d made it over the wal .

“How about a lift?” Finn shouted.

Charlene bent low and offered her cupped hands as a boost.

Finn climbed up, lay flat, and offered Charlene his hand. She took it, stood, and, as rangers

hurried from the Jeep, shook her legs violently, managing to kick loose first one, and then both of the stilts. Some of the ivy that connected her costume with the stilts tore loose. She left the rangers with a pair of stilts in their hands as she and Finn both lowered themselves down off the wal .

Dozens of guests had gathered to observe the excitement. Some applauded as the Kingdom

Keepers dropped to the path, but they didn’t stick around to take a bow.

Charlene said, “This way!” and led the others directly across the formal gardens and into the

jungle on a route she now knew wel .

But just before they entered the dense jungle, Jez pul ed to a stop, transfixed by something to

her right.

Al the kids stopped and looked in that direction. They saw a snowcapped peak of a towering

mountain.

“That mountain was in my dream,” she told Finn. “The dream I told you about.”

“King of the Mountain” Finn said. “Where you and Amanda were under attack.”

“Yes.” Jez reached out and took Amanda by the hand. She said nothing, but the look that was

exchanged between the two “sisters” would have quieted even the most cynical person.

“That’s Expedition Everest,” Charlene said.

“Then, like it or not, that’s where we’re headed,” Jez said. “Never once, not once, has one of

my dreams lied to me.”

62

HAVING RECONNECTED ON THE DS’S, al the Kingdom Keepers, along with Jez and Amanda,

reunited in a smal patch of jungle. Behind them towered Expedition Everest, and screams were

heard periodical y as the rol er coaster thril ed its riders. After a quick celebration of Jez’s return, Finn brought up the daydream she had had while trapped in the tunnel.

“But so what?” Maybeck asked. “We had two things we had to do: get Jez back and kil the

second server. We’ve done both. I’m so tired I can barely stand. Let’s get out of here while we stil can.”

“You al can go. It’s al right,” Amanda said matter-of-factly. “We wil never be able to repay

you for al you’ve done.”

“But your dream,” Charlene said. “The giant attacking you. Finn in his hands.”

“Al the more reason,” Maybeck said, “we should just boogie and forget about al that.”

He looked to the others for agreement but saw only vacant faces.

“Come on, people!” Maybeck chastised. “Quit while you’re ahead. Ever heard of that?”

“Leave no stone unturned,” Finn said, “might be more appropriate. Wayne has gone

missing.”

“Philby cut the data lines. Who knows how that affected the data flow in the Park? Besides, it

wasn’t Wayne. It was his VMK avatar! Are you kidding me? We’re going to stay and try to find a

missing avatar? Are you serious? Half the Park is out looking for us.”

“Maleficent serves Chernabog. We know that Chernabog defeated Mickey at the

Fantasmics. Wayne told us that a long time ago. That means he has major powers. He’s the one

Disney demon that we know virtual y nothing about—”

“And let’s leave it that way!”

“But Jez dreamed something awful. And Maleficent could have hidden in any of the Parks.

Why here? Why now? What’s being planned? With Wayne missing, it’s up to us to find out.”

“You’re hal ucinating,” Maybeck said.

Philby stepped forward. “Without Wayne we’d have failed. I promise you that. Maleficent’s got

him. Don’t ask me to explain that, but I just know it. And if that’s true, it’s my fault—it’s al of our faults. Can you honestly just go home and go to bed knowing that?”

Maybeck hung his head and shook it back and forth. “No.” He sounded so despondent.

“No,” Philby agreed. “I didn’t think so.”

Charlene unfolded the photocopied page of Jez’s diary. She pointed to the sketch of what

looked like a goril a. “What if this isn’t a goril a at al ? What if it’s the yeti?”

Jez spoke up. “You just told us that Chernabog was missing from his float, remember?

Maybe Maleficent thought that that was the real Chernabog, only to discover it a fake. The bat…

the monkeys…something could have told her the real Chernabog was locked up here in AK.”

“Or maybe this whole thing,” Finn said, “was cooked up by Maleficent to use us to lead her to

Wayne. Has anyone considered that possibility?”

He drew stunned expressions.

“What if we did exactly what she wanted us to do?” Finn asked in a softer voice. “We couldn’t have gotten Jez without Wayne’s help. He knew they were looking for him. So Maleficent cooks up

this plan to basical y use Jez as bait. We think she’s after Jez to keep Jez’s dreams from forecasting what Maleficent is up to—and that could be right. But it doesn’t mean there wasn’t a

bigger plan.”

A light breeze broke the silence between them as, once again, it carried the cries from Expedition Everest.

“One thing we know,” Wil a said, “is that Everest is cold. At least, it represents the cold.” She

indicated the goril a on Jez’s diary page. “What if this is the yeti, like Charlene said?” The other kids stared at her with puzzled expressions. “What if, like Maleficent, the yeti can’t handle the heat? So Maleficent’s job is not only to get him out of the Park, but keep him cold. Keep them both cold.”

“The ice truck!” Charlene said.

“Exactly!” agreed Wil a.

“But to what purpose?” complained Maybeck.

“How do we know? A refrigerated truck can take him anywhere he wants to go.”

“But where?” asked Finn.

“So Expedition Everest was a way for Wayne and the others to control Chernabog?”

Charlene asked. “The Imagineers basical y locked him up in a deep freeze?”

“It could be,” agreed Wil a. “They locked up Maleficent in the dungeons, let’s not forget.”

Philby spoke confidently. “I say we get inside Expedition Everest and check out the yeti. That

could be where the answers lie. Jez drew it in her diary. It has to mean something!”

“It means that’s where the danger lies,” muttered Jez.

Finn said quietly, “Chernabog is using Maleficent—maybe to get him off of Everest or even

out of the Park. Maleficent used us to reveal and capture Wayne. If they eliminate Wayne, then

they take away years of knowledge about al the Parks, al the history of this place. If they’re trying to gain control of the Parks, Wayne has to go. He’s proved that.”

“He has the knowledge and leadership,” said Wil a, “to stop them.”

Leadership, Finn thought. Wayne had given him a lecture on how to be a good leader. Had Wayne known what was coming?

“Wayne is not the only one they need to get rid of,” Maybeck reminded them. “I’d say we’ve

become a pretty big pain in the—”

“But!” Finn said, interrupting, “there’s obviously stuff we haven’t figured out. Maybe a lot of stuff. It’s pretty obvious we don’t have it al . We can’t make any conclusions without going in there, without knowing more. I’m going in there. And I have a hunch Amanda and Jez are, too, because

Jez dreamed about it.”

The two sisters nodded.

“This is stupid,” Maybeck whined. “It could be a trap.

“Which is why you and Wil a and Charlene wil remain outside of Everest,” Finn directed. “If

we get nailed, you’l have to come save us.” He knew if there was one thing Maybeck loved, it was

being the hero.

Maybeck snorted. “Okay,” he said, relenting.

“Philby wil come with me because he’s so good with tech stuff, and if there’s one thing we

know about Expedition Everest, it’s that it’s high-tech.”

“I haven’t studied it much,” Philby cautioned.

“We’l take our chances,” Finn said.

“The Park closes in, like, five minutes,” said Charlene.

“That may work even better for us,” Finn declared.

“What about the fact that Jez’s daydream has Ape Man swinging you around like a

drumstick?” Maybeck crossed his arms, believing he’d final y found a hole in Finn’s plan.

“But what he doesn’t know,” Philby said, “is that we already know that, and that’s gotta be to

our advantage.”

“Not if you’re the one being swung around,” said Maybeck, clearly chal enging Finn.

“I’l take my chances,” said Finn, staring back at Maybeck’s twitching smile and wondering

why he’d volunteered.

63

THE LINE FOR EXPEDITION EVEREST had been shut down fifteen minutes prior to the Park closing to

make sure the rol er coaster was free of passengers by the appointed time. The line twisted through a startling reproduction of a Nepalese vil age, complete with prayer flags and Asian memorabilia.

Finn, Philby Amanda, and Jez stuck together. They passed into the backstage area through a

“Park Rangers Only” gate and simply walked into the enormous structure that housed the exotic

rol er coaster.

Finn had expected to need his ID and perhaps some quick talking to get them al inside, but

with the closing of the ride to the public, someone had left the backstage door open, and the kids simply walked in.

“It’s three structures in one,” Philby explained in a hush. “The massive superstructure that supports the exterior building, the rol er coaster, and the yeti.”

“I thought you hadn’t studied it,” whispered Jez.

“I haven’t studied it thoroughly,” Philby replied, “but that doesn’t mean I haven’t read up on it a little.”

“We may need the rol er coaster for our escape,” Finn said to Philby. “Why don’t you stay and

try to handle that?”

“Done,” said Philby. He could be a handful when he showed off.

“See you up there,” Finn said.

The metal stairs reminded him of a fire escape. The three of them climbed and climbed. Then

they climbed some more. Far below they suddenly heard men’s voices. The lights went out. Then

a reverberating thunk as a door was slammed shut with a finality that Finn felt up his spine.

With the lights out, the building’s vast interior was held in an unnatural haze caused by the few

emergency lights strategical y placed throughout.

No one said anything at first, but a tremor of fear passed between them.

Finn couldn’t lose the image of his being swung around by his feet. Step by step he felt himself drawn to that fate.

Amanda started talking, possibly to break the mood established by the lights going out.

“What is it that something—someone—like Chernabog wants?”

“Power,” Jez answered.

“Exactly,” Amanda agreed. “He’s been locked up in here ever since they built the ride, and

now he wants freedom and power, probably in that order.”

“And you’re saying he’d have gotten both if I hadn’t dreamed what I dreamed,” Jez said.

“He stil may get both,” Amanda cautioned. “And what’s the one thing anyone seeking power

is afraid of?”

“What is this?” Finn complained, “a social sciences class?”

“Answer the question,” Amanda pushed.

“His enemies,” Finn answered.

“Yes! His enemies,” Amanda agreed. “In particular, any enemy who is potential y more

powerful than he is. So who are his biggest enemies? You—the Kingdom Keepers—or Wayne, or

Jez, or whom?”

“Al of the above,” a winded Finn replied. The stairs seemed to go on forever. The trio passed

along the rol er coaster’s high-tech tracks and the arctic scenery that only made the chil of the air al the more convincing. “Or none of the above,” Finn said, his mind racing.

“You’re messing with us?” Amanda said accusingly.

Finn answered, “Chernabog is rarely seen in any of the Disney stuff. Fantasia and Fanstasmics are it, I think.”

“And al the postcards and stuff that show the Disney vil ains,” Amanda corrected.

“That, too. But in the Fantasmics—he’s beaten by the sorcerer, Mickey,” said Finn. “And in

Fantasia, by the sun.”

“Interesting,” said Amanda. She didn’t sound winded at al . Finn wondered if she was

levitating herself up the endless stairs.

Jez asked, “Are you saying he has to defeat Mickey before he can be assured of maintaining

any power he gains?”

“Defeating Mickey,” Finn said, “defeats us al . Without Mickey, there is no Magic Kingdom, no Animal Kingdom, no Disney at al .”

“But then why kidnap Jez? Why involve the five of you? What do you guys have to do with

Mickey?” Amanda asked.

“Nothing,” Finn answered. “That’s what’s puzzling. But think about it: the sooner he eliminates

Mickey, the sooner there’s no one to stop him from overtaking the Park.”

mybest: ice truck just arrived!!!

Finn told the two sisters the news. “The ice truck pul ed up around back.”

“Then this is it,” Jez said, her voice trembling. “Whatever Maleficent has been planning, it’s

happening right now.”

They rounded a corner and then quickly jumped to one side to hide.

What they’d witnessed was emblazoned in their minds. Far above them towered the

frightening figure of the yeti. It stood thirty feet tal or more, leaning out over the track—the embodiment of evil: monstrous and otherworldly.

At the yeti’s feet stood a tal figure in a black robe. They were too far away to see the purple

fringe on the cape or the green skin, but no one in the group doubted it was she. Hidden by an

outcropping of rock, they continued higher until the steady chanting of her voice could be heard.

She was conjuring a spel . As the staircase curved, fol owing the rocks, they were forced to drop to their stomachs and bel y-crawl up the metal stairs. Then Finn raised a hand signaling the others to stop.

He didn’t know exactly why they’d come here—only that they couldn’t turn away from Jez’s daydream. Perhaps they were here to witness whatever Maleficent planned, perhaps to stop it. He

believed their attendance here critical to Wayne’s rescue, yet he knew they were no match for the

yeti. Not if Maleficant awakened the thing.

And then it became perfectly clear to him: they had to stop her from awakening the yeti in the

first place. Chernabog must not come to power. This was the secret to preserving the peace in the

Animal Kingdom. This was why Jez had dreamed it in the first place.

More than anything, Finn’s concern for Wayne remained at the forefront of his thoughts. He

had to find out what had happened to him, where he’d gone. And to that end, he must not be afraid.

This became his focus: he must not be afraid. He felt a tingling sensation wash over him.

It was true: he did not see the green skin or the fringe on Maleficent’s robe, and he was betting she couldn’t make out the sudden slight shimmer to his skin, either.

He rose to his feet and cal ed out boldly, “Do you real y think you’l get away with it?” His electronical y-edged voice echoed in the cavernous building.

Amanda and Jez slunk back and down, once again hiding in the lee of the rock outcropping.

Far below—miles it seemed—a loud pop was heard, fol owed by sudden humming. The round rail to the left of the stairs carried a slight tremor.

The rol er coaster had been switched on.

64

IT ALL HAPPENED SO QUICKLY: his words echoing around the building; the steady increase in electronic and mechanical sounds as the rol er coaster started up; Maleficent’s arms shooting up

from her sides and lifting her robe like magnificent wings.

The twitching of the yeti’s fingers, like the paws of a sleeping dog.

Too late! She had already awakened the giant.

His massive head moved side-to-side, and a loud crack thundered through the snowcapped

mountains.

The hum and whir of the rol er coaster grew steadily closer.

“Sil y, sil y, boy!” Maleficent spun around and shot a bal of fire at Finn. The size of a soccer

bal , it exploded at his feet, flaming out.

And whereas once Finn would have been terrified by such things, would have stood

transfixed by the power she displayed, something had come over him. She was nothing but an

il usionist, a magician using her substantial skil s to scare him. He was no longer convinced she

even possessed the ability to kil him—or, if she did, then why hadn’t she done so?

“If you were going to kil me,” he shouted, “then you would have done that the first time we

met. But you can’t, can you? Walt Disney would never al ow a creation of his imagination to take a life.”

The tingling grew stronger; he felt it in a way, a degree, he’d never experienced. This confrontation was making his DHI stronger.

“But I am not of his imagination,” Maleficent said. “I am of the old stories—tales that existed

for hundreds of years in places al around the world. Tales of things that actual y happened.” She shot another bal at him. Again, he did not move from his spot. Again, the flames fel short.

The giant yeti was awake now, towering over them al , eyes blinking. Finn did not recoil. He

could not picture Wayne and the other Imagineers building creatures designed to harm them.

The rol er coaster sped closer.

“I wil kil you,” Maleficent said, “when you are no longer of use to me.” She bent backward and

looked up at the hairy creature above her. “When Lord Chernabog has no further use for you.” She

let out a laugh—a bloodcurdling cackle—that for the first time chal enged Finn’s DHI status. His

feet and hands grew cold, and it took al his wil to overcome this poison and return to his ful DHI.

The beast had the reaction time of a snake. One moment Finn was standing on the stairs.

The next, the yeti had him by the legs and was swinging him overhead.

His legs…not the legs of his DHI. Amanda and Jez jumped out from their hiding places and

Jez shouted, “Let him go!”

“Ah!” Maleficent cried out. “If it isn’t the Fairlies.”

Amanda craned forward, her neck thrust out. Maleficent knew way too much.

Finn knew the secret to his own survival was to push away his fear, but being swung at thirty

miles an hour over the head of a forty-foot-tal giant proved a difficult chal enge.

Maleficent suddenly floated—levitated—off the platform, clearly, nothing she’d planned for herself, for she flailed her legs and arms, dog paddling like a kid struggling to swim for the first time.

“You put me down, child!” she roared.

She hurled a bal of flame at Amanda, who leaned slightly left, al owing the asteroid to pass. It

exploded into the Himalayas.

“PUT HIM DOWN!” cried out Amanda, “OR I WILL DROP YOU AS YOU WISH!”

Maleficent moved like a puppet twenty feet to the left. Now there was nothing but a sixty-foot

fal to concrete beneath her.

Finn felt the tingling return, and, as it did, the yeti’s hand closed shut through his body—

nothing but light. Finn clamored up the beast’s arm toward its massive head. The yeti swiped at

him, but again his hand passed through Finn’s DHI, unable to touch him.

He caught a glimpse of Maleficent as she began to transform into a crow. But as she did,

Amanda released her and the green-skinned creature fel fifteen feet straight down before stopping in midair.

“You try that again,” Amanda warned, and I’l drop you before you have the chance.

Maleficent looked down and seemed to consider her odds. Then she looked back at

Amanda.

“You harm me, you little tart, and your friend wil never see his precious Wayne again!”

With the mention of Wayne, Finn slipped. He fel off the yeti’s shoulder, and the sensation immediately removed his DHI. He slid down the side of the creature, grasping at the matted gray

hair and somehow control ing his fal . As he reached the yeti’s leg, it moved. Then the other. The giant’s feet broke free of the platform where it had stood for several years. The entire building shook.

A series of screams was fol owed by the rol er coaster shooting up at them through the darkness. Philby, Maybeck, and Wil a zoomed past—backward—and out of sight.

Maybeck waved at Maleficent.

The witch proclaimed: “You wil bring me the Stonecutter’s Quil , or you wil never see the white-haired man again.”

At that moment, the yeti began to change. The hair was sucked inside its arms, turning the

gray skin smooth; the legs and arms shrank, and the neck grew thinner, while the head also lost its hair and sprouted horns. The giant creature had been reduced to a figure much greater than Maleficent, but no longer a thirty-foot-high beast. Horns sprouted, while black webbing formed under the thing’s arms like…bat wings.

Chernabog.

Finn heard the rol er coaster slowing in the distance. It would be returning—and when it did,

he, Amanda, and Jez needed to be on it.

The pen, Finn realized. The Stonecutter’s Quil was the pen Walt had used to imagine the

first plans of the Parks. It had demonstrated great powers the one and only time Finn had seen it

used. Powers, he assumed, that could be put to evil use as easily as they had been to good.

A wal of tension formed between Amanda and Maleficent. The witch produced another bal

of fire, but this time Amanda levitated it as wel . It hovered next to the witch, burning hotly and il uminating her green face.

“You wil regret this, little one,” Maleficent muttered, clearly afraid of her own fire. “You are playing with things you know nothing about.”

She grew the head of a vulture. Wings began to sprout.

Amanda released her. Again, Maleficent fel abruptly, before slowly being carried aloft.

Evidence of the vulture was gone; the green-skinned fairy hovering over the precipitous fal .

The strain on Amanda was evident. She had quickly grown pale, her body now shaking.

Finn saw that Maleficent was merely playing for time. She knew Amanda couldn’t keep this

up forever.

“Release Wayne!” Finn cal ed out, “or she’l drop you.

“The Quil ,” Maleficent said, “or you’l never see him alive again.” She looked over at Finn, who held to Chernabog rather than drop to the platform where the creature might squash him like

a bug.

Amanda’s strength gave out, and she col apsed into Jez’s arms.

“You harm any one of us and you wil never see that pen!” Finn shouted. He let go, jumped,

slid down the mountain slope, and aimed straight for the two girls, hoping his timing was right, for he could see the rol er coaster from the corner of his eye. Chernabog stepped forward, raising his arms in defiance. But he was too late.

Finn’s wild slide down the mountainside connected with both girls at the exact moment the

rol er coaster arrived. He stretched out his arms and caught both Amanda and Jez, his momentum

carrying al three of them headfirst into the passing rol er coaster. They tumbled into a middle car.

But the safety bars on the ride were already set, having been locked at the start; and, as the

cars gained substantial speed, Finn held on to the weakened Amanda as Jez reached out to cling

to the car, and with Maybeck, Philby Charlene, and Wil a cal ing out from the back, the Kingdom

Keepers plummeted down into the dark.

65

CHERNABOG MOVED WITH surprising agility for something that was a beastly demon with a pair of

batlike wings the size of boat sails.

To the surprise of al , Chernabog made no attempt to stop the Kingdom Keepers. He flew

toward the bottom of the ride. For once in his life Finn wil ed a rol er coaster to go even faster.

He did not want to lose them.

Finn had ridden on Expedition Everest before. Within a matter of seconds they would be thrown into a spiral that would crush them against each other if they couldn’t hold on tightly.

Holding on with one hand each, he and Jez wrapped their free arms around the other’s shoulders and, with Amanda pinned between them, leaned forward, braced for the spinout.

Expedition Everest roared into its climactic spiral, the G-force driving Finn and Jez to their

right, their hands slipping along the restraining bars. The force nearly threw them from the car, but together Finn and Jez managed to keep Amanda pinned in, and soon the rol er coaster began to

slow to a stop.

As it came to rest, the restraining bars released, and Maybeck and the others hurried to join

Finn, Amanda, and Jez.

Finn left Amanda in the care of her sister and led the others through the building and out an

enormous garage door that was standing wide open.

They ran out into the street where they caught a final glimpse of the back of the ice truck as it

sped away.

“What now?” a gasping Philby said, clutching his sides.

“They got away,” Finn said.

“But we can’t just let them go!” Maybeck said.

“We got Jez back,” Finn said, “and we crippled the second server.” He looked at each one of

his friends. “I think it’s safe to say that Jez and Amanda are now official y Kingdom Keepers.”

The others nodded.

“We have work to do,” Wil a mumbled.

“Let’s get some sleep,” Finn said. His suggestion met with no resistance.

66

THE STORY MADE THE morning news: a refrigerator truck, being driven poorly, had been puled over

by the local police. The officer swore that he’d been knocked over when he’d gone to open the

back of the truck, and that two creatures had been seen hurrying away. He refused to describe

them. He said only that they had traveled in the general direction of Disney’s Hol ywood Studios

theme park, and that from everything he’d seen, that was where they belonged.

For nearly two weeks, Finn—who’d been grounded for a month—sneaked onto VMK the way

Wayne had told him. He hoped to find Wayne by typing the name into a text screen. When the

white-haired avatar failed to appear, Finn organized the other kids, most of whom were also currently grounded.

So it was that exactly a month after the event at Expedition Everest, Finn went to sleep ful y

dressed, holding a smal black remote button in his right hand.

As he fel asleep that night, he intentional y dreamed of the Magic Kingdom, and he

awakened there on a Park bench, his body glowing under the moonlight.

He was at the hub near the entrance, at the end of Main Street, USA.

Soon, the other Kingdom Keepers joined him. Only Charlene was stil in her nightgown, having forgotten to change into street clothes before going to sleep. Or maybe this was how she

wanted to dress.

The five headed up and into the smal apartment above the firehouse in the Magic Kingdom.

It was exactly twelve midnight.

This was Wayne’s apartment. Most had visited it before. There was incredibly sour milk in the

refrigerator and food that now wore a coat of green fuzz—Wayne had not been here in a very long

time.

They searched for over an hour for the Stonecutter’s Quil , but to no avail. If Wayne had hidden it, he’d hidden it wel .

“What now?” Charlene asked.

“Is there any choice?” Finn asked.

“But without the pen,” Philby said, “what leverage do we have? We can’t win his release without that pen.”

“We’l think of something,” Finn said.

“Or maybe Jez wil dream it,” said Charlene, “and give us more clues to fol ow.”

“The point is, we did save Jez, and we pretty much saved the Animal Kingdom from being

overrun by DHIs. We can’t be giving DHIs a bad name, after al .”

They laughed. Five shimmering kids, glowing as they enjoyed a rare moment of levity.

“Maleficent used us to bring Wayne out of hiding,” Finn said. “We failed him. And although we

don’t know enough about Chernabog, we’ve seen his power. And I have a hunch that the bat with

green wings was him al along, although I’m not sure how to explain that.”

“We know that even Maleficent cannot transform herself for very long,” Philby said. “Especial y

in this heat. She and her animal army may have been planning to take over AK. They had the ice

truck as their backup, in case they failed. It was only when we crashed the server that she resorted to moving Chernabog. What’s strange is that if they hadn’t captured Jez, if she hadn’t been in that tunnel to have that daydream, we might never have known what Maleficent was planning, might

never have been there when she was freeing Chernabog.”

“I think it was intended—us being there. I think if we’d failed to defeat the server then the animals would have caught us al and taken us to her. I don’t know what would have happened, but

I think she had plans for us. Amanda saved us al by levitating her. Without that…”

“I always thought staying up that late would be fun,” said Charlene. “But it—”

“Stank.” Although Maybeck used another word.

“We’ve got work to do,” Finn said. “And we need to act quickly. Who knows what secrets Wayne might have in that old head of his? Secrets no one should know.”

“Tel us what to do,” Wil a said.

Al eyes fel on Finn. They waited for him to say something.

He smiled, a warmth fil ing him and making his DHI glow even brighter.

Wayne would have been proud.

“We’l meet after school. We’ve got to find Wayne.”

He raised his right hand. In it was the black remote with the smal button at its center.

“Ready?” he said.

The others nodded.

He pushed the button.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Kingdom Keepers novels depend on a team, in part because the research conducted inside

the Parks, and also about the Parks, is both complex and time-consuming, and ultimately essential to the story.

First, I want to thank my co-writer (from other novels), Dave Barry, who, during a car ride to

Orlando’s airport made suggestions to the outline that formed and framed the book, forever changing it. He jokes how I’m the “plot guy” in our partnership, but for once he is “making this up.”

He set the clock in the book ticking and gave me one of the most important twists. Thanks.

The real dedication of the book should probably be to Alex Wright, a Disney Imagineer, a man with tireless patience, who has endured (and I am not making this up!) hundreds of e-mails where I picked his brain for details. Alex also hosted several behind-the-scene tours for me in Animal Kingdom and introduced me to:

Dr. Joseph Soltis—Wildlife Tracking Center

Dr. Don Neiffer—Veterinary Hospital

Debbie Weber—Animal Nutrition Center

Matt Hohne—Animal Barns

Jason Surrel —Disney Imagineer (and AK tour host/insider)

I’d also like to thank my niece, Blair M. Daverman, for fil ing in some blanks about the sport of lacrosse.

My wife, Marcel e, along with Laurel and David Walters, as always, copyedited the various

drafts. And Tanner Walters, who in sixth grade reads more than I do, gave me an early read and

caught a bunch of problems. So did my daughter Paige. And thanks to daughter Storey for reading KK1 and tel ing me what she liked!

Special gratitude to Nandy Litzinger, my office manager; Wendy Lefkon, Disney editor; Amy

Berkower, agent; Matthew Snyder, film agent; and Jennifer Levine, Disney publicist.

It obviously takes a vil age.

— Ridley Pearson

January 2008

St. Louis, Missouri

RIDLEY PEARSON

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 66