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ALSO BY RIDLEY PEARSON

Kingdom KeepersDisney After Dark

Steel TrappThe Challenge

WITH DAVE BARRY

Blood Tide

Cave of the Dark Wind

Escape from the Carnivale

Peter and the Secret of Rundoon

Peter and the Shadow Thieves

Peter and the Starcatchers

Science Fair

www.ridleypearson.com

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped” book.

The following are some of the trademarks, registered marks, and service marks owned by Disney Enterprises, Inc.: Adventureland® Area, Audio-Animatronics® Figure, Big Thunder Mountain® Railroad Disneyland®, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park, Epcot®, Fantasyland® Area, FASTPASS® Service, Fort Wilderness, Frontierland® Area, Imagineering, Imagineers, “it’s a small world,” Magic Kingdom® Park, Main Street, U.S.A. Area, Mickey’s Toontown®, monorail, New Orleans Square, Space Mountain® Attraction, Splash Mountain® Attraction, Tomorrowland® Area, Walt Disney World® Resort

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters © Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar Animation Studios

Toy Story characters © Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar Animation Studios

Winnie the Pooh characters based on the “Winnie the Pooh” works by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard

Copyright © 2008 Page One, Inc.

Illustration on page vi by Greg Call

All rights reserved. Published by Disney • Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

For information address Disney • Hyperion Books, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011-5690.

Printed in the United States of America

First Disney • Hyperion paperback edition, 2009

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file.

eISBN 978-1-4231-0708-8

ISBN 978-1-4231-0708-8

This book is dedicated to all those readers who,

by e-mail, demanded it be written.

You see?

Someone’s listening….

CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT PAGE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 36

CHAPTER 37

CHAPTER 38

CHAPTER 39

CHAPTER 40

CHAPTER 41

CHAPTER 42

CHAPTER 43

CHAPTER 44

CHAPTER 45

CHAPTER 46

CHAPTER 47

CHAPTER 48

CHAPTER 49

CHAPTER 50

CHAPTER 51

CHAPTER 52

CHAPTER 53

CHAPTER 54

CHAPTER 55

CHAPTER 56

CHAPTER 57

CHAPTER 58

CHAPTER 59

CHAPTER 60

CHAPTER 61

CHAPTER 62

CHAPTER 63

CHAPTER 64

CHAPTER 65

CHAPTER 66

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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 typically forbidden to enter the Magic Kingdom. But tonight was speciaclass="underline" it was a DHI celebration.

Finn sensed trouble coming, wondering if it had to do with the electronic illusions 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 electronically projected, twin. She too wore a cheerleader’s outfit; she too had her blond hair pulled 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 skills and abilities she brought to the team.

The hologram of Charlene stood next to the hologram of Finn, but the software had all 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 Willa, “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 tall boundary fence inside the Magic Kingdom.

“Cinderella Castle,” answered Charlene.

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

“Looks like a weather balloon,” said Terry Maybeck, who seemed to stand more than a head taller than all of them. An African American, Maybeck currently wore his hair in dreads, making him look older than the others.

The swarming clouds suddenly swallowed the large balloon.

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