“Or is it the other way around?” Finn called 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 totally 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 wall 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 yellow. 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 all right?” Finn asked.
Amanda coughed hard but nodded.
Finn squeezed even tighter. “Tell Chernabog it’s over,” he said. “He will 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. All 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 satellite 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!” Willa 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.”
Willa pushed her way to a closer view of the screen.
Maybeck said, “Are we just going to watch TV all day? Let’s do something.”
Willa pointed. “Zoom in on this.”
“On what?” Philby said.
“Just do it,” Willa persisted.
Philby used the AnimalCam’s joystick to aim the camera where she pointed: a section where the wall 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 hill 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 all 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.”
“Brilliant,” said Willa.
“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 personally I don’t believe, doesn’t that mean…?” He didn’t finish his thought.
“That if she’s still down there at closing, then the tiger gets her for dinner,” Philby said.
Willa gasped.
“How could she have gotten down there in the first place?” Maybeck questioned.
“She could have crossed the savannah,” Willa proposed, “after escaping the tree trunk. Jumped a wall, 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 follow 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 satellite 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.
“Well, for one thing,” Willa 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.”