Months earlier, Maybeck’s DHI had been prevented from crossing back over—a process that was triggered by a small 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, allowing 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’ll 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 all 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 all 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’ll 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 installed at the Animal Kingdom, but that installation 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 allowed 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. All I can tell 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 all go to sleep at about the same time, all 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 all 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 fully awake. I wouldn’t mind if you contacted me then as well. If you crash that server before saving Jezebel…well…I’m not sure you or anyone else will 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 tell 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 will 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 all 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 challenge enough, I know,” Wayne said. “But the bigger challenge will be how quickly you can accomplish any of this. You absolutely must have Jezebel safe and the server crashed before any of you fall asleep. If you sleep, you very well 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 sarcastically. “How do you think I feel?”