“Stop what?” Maybeck asked.
“I wish I knew.”
“The lightning?” Willa 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 all 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’ll close the Park,” Willa 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 all.”
“Well, then, pull up your hood. Mess up your hair. We gotta do this,” Maybeck said. “If they close the Park, we’ll 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 yelled over his shoulder.
Charlene and Willa 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 fall.
One of them shouted, “The Kingdom Keepers rule!”
Willa winced at hearing the nickname that a local newspaper had adopted for the kids and their DHIs. She felt a chill 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 fully 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 chill 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 Bell. Finn got the tape off her mouth.
“Are you all 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 spelled disaster for the boys.
“Who’s coming?” the Tinker Bell 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 wall. “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 pulley 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 will probably support a tank.”
“What if Tinker Bell doesn’t catch us?”
“My advice? Don’t look down.”
Philby tested the pulley 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 pulley 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 Bell caught them at the far end, in front of a set of pads. She unhooked the pulleys 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 Bell led them down a very steep metal staircase and into an alley. 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 Willa and Charlene,” Finn said.
“How can you be sure?” Philby said, squinting.
“Trust me. It’s them.”
The boys ran toward the girls, circled carefully, and hid on the other side of a stone wall, waiting. They squatted down and caught their breath.
Finn dared to raise an eye above the walclass="underline" 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’ll get across the Hub and catch up to the girls. We’re just two kids now among all 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. Cinderella 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 Willa.
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 trolled 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 fire-house 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.