Power Play (37 page)

The server had never faltered, but without warning the Projection icon had turned red, indicating a full Park-wide failure of all projectors.

“It’s some kind of power failure, I think,” he said. “The projectors are out, but the server is still up. It’s probably on a battery backup of some kind. But if that’s right, it won’t last long. Five minutes. Ten, at the outside. I’ve got to get them back.”

“I thought you said they
were
back,” she said.

“That was Maybeck and Charlene. Yeah, they Returned okay. It’s Finn and Amanda.”

“The sick girl…”

“Yeah…We hope not.”

“So, can you help them?”

“I’m late. And I’m kind of busy here.”

“I’ll shut up,” she said, straining to sit back, but then sticking her face alongside his shoulder.

Philby executed a few lines of code and pushed Enter.

The screen filled with data that then began to scroll automatically.

“What’s that?” his mother asked.

“It’s okay,” he said, fed up with her questions, but trying to sound patient. “It’s begun. A few minutes is all, and we’ll know.”

* * *

Finn and Amanda—invisible—jumped onto the raft, joining Pluto and Minnie.

“Go!” Finn said to Minnie, who startled, and looked around trying to see him in the moonlight. “Please! Take us back!”

Minnie threw a lever and the raft pulled away from the dock ahead of the Overtakers’ arrival. Once to the other side, an invisible Finn kissed Minnie on the cheek before he and Amanda jumped off.

They ran hard, Pluto at their side, keeping up with them effortlessly.

When Pluto barked sharply three times, Finn looked behind them.

The wolf, head to the ground. Moving like a tornado toward them.

“We’ve got company,” he told Amanda.

“How can he possibly—?”

“Who knows? Smell? Maybe he’s after Pluto.”

The hub and Cinderella Castle came into view and, as they did, all the lights in the Park pulsed once and went dark again. With them, Amanda’s DHI sparkled, eerily translucent, and then vanished again with the loss of power.

“Almost there,” Finn said. He caught up and reached for her. Trying to feel her. He bumped her back with his fist, reached down her arm, and took her hand. He tingled all over. He knew that feeling. Knew it only too well.

F
INN AWAKENED IN HIS BED
, his clothes damp with sweat and the fetid smell of the tunnels. His mother sat in a chair two feet away.

“Mom?”

“Oh, thank God! Are you okay?”

Finn took inventory of his condition. “I’m fine.”

“You crossed over.”

Duh!
“Yes.” He sat up sharply. “Can I use your phone? I’ve got to text Philby.”

She had her phone in her hand. She passed it to him.

i’m bak. others?

yes. all 4. amanda 2. she’s good.

Finn released a huge sigh of pent-up anxiety. He explained things to his Mom. She raised her hand for a high-five and Finn looked at her strangely.

She lowered her hand. “Too much?”

“And then some,” he said.

“So, it’s over?”

“I wish,” he said. “I failed.” He agonized for a moment. “I had them.…”

“Who?”

“The Queen. Cruella.
I had them!
” His mother’s phone rang. “That’s Philby for me.” He answered the call.

Their conversation was intense. They spoke in a Kingdom Keepers shorthand, Finn relating what had happened on the island, and the discovery of the fort; Philby relayed what Maybeck had told him about the activities at the power plant, including Hugo Montcliff being a DHI. That news was the hardest to take. Finn tried to swallow away his terror. Other kids as DHIs. Where did that leave the Keepers?

Philby told Finn about Charlene winning back the fob and dropping it into a drawer in the control room. Despite some losses, there were gains, he realized.

Finn told him, “Something happened during the power failure when I was in projection shadow. Cruella said something about tomorrow morning. That by seven it wouldn’t matter. The Queen stopped her. She didn’t want me hearing it.”

“Maybeck’s theory is that the power failure has to do with the prison break, which makes sense, but we have no way to know if it’s true or not,” explained Philby.

“Don’t we?” Finn said.

“I’m listening.”

“This is your stuff, not mine, but didn’t you say that counting Hugo that made five DHIs for them?”

“Yup.”

They had yet to identify the remaining two, but Finn now had an idea. “Have you checked the server log since the power failure?”

The line crackled.

“Are you there?” Finn asked.

“Thinking. Checking…Stand by.…”

Finn heard Philby’s fingers clacking on the keyboard through the phone.

Philby mumbled, “I thought I was supposed to handle the techie stuff.”

“Whatsup?”

“Bandwidth bump. How’d you know that?” Philby said. “Stand by.…”

More clicking from his end.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Philby said.

“Try me.”

“The prison?”

Finn nearly came out of his chair. “Yes?”

“I think it’s in the Animal Kingdom. There’s something I’ve got to show you. Check your e-mail…now.”

A moment later, Finn opened the e-mail from Philby, recognizing Jess’s artwork immediately.

“She drew that
tonight
,” Philby told him over the phone.

Finn studied the diary entry. A gate? A ladder on its side? Bunk beds? Something hanging on the wall. Or was that a window?

And if it was a window, that small, that high on a wall—where would that be? A basement. Only basements had weird, tiny windows like that.

Basements and…

…prison cells.

Finn felt physically sick to his stomach. He leaned over his trash can thinking he was going to hurl. His mother patted him on the back.

“What’s wrong, dear?”

It was like being blindfolded and spun around, trying to hit the piñata, only to have the piñata hit back at you. Smack you in the head.

A prison cell.

Finn said, “I know how they’re going to do it.”

* * *

Finn’s mother waited at the curb, the car running. He knocked on the door, rang the bell, then knocked again. Wanda Alcott answered, fully dressed. Finn knew there was no way anyone could dress that fast, much less an older lady—she had to be at least thirty. It meant she’d been awake all night. It was past four am. Doing what? he wondered. Monitoring the situation, perhaps?

“I need to talk to him,” Finn said.

“If it’s about the power failure, we’re looking into it,” she said.

“We were there,” he said. “The cogeneration facility.”

She looked stunned. She nodded thoughtfully. “The supervisor mentioned children.”

“One was an OT. Two were us: Maybeck and Charlene. All DHIs. The Return’s there. We need it back. Now. We’re not safe until we have it back. It’s in a drawer. You have to get someone to get it for us.”

“I can do that.”

“I know you can; that’s why I’m here.”

“He’s safe. I appreciate your concern—”

“It’s not concern. Not for him. The power failure was part of the jailbreak. They’re going to bust them out.”

“Yes. I’m sure that was the intention. The power failed there for nearly ten minutes. But it’s all under control. The…Our guests are where they belong.”

“No,” Finn said, “they’re not. Do you have clearance? Can you get me into the prison?”

She stared at him.

“I need to see him. I need clearance.”

“That’s not going to happen,” she said. “No one sees him. You’ll have to tell me.”

“I’m not telling you. I’m sorry, but I can’t. I’ll only tell him. Face to face. No more video. No more tricks.”

“That’s impossible.”

“By seven this morning,” Finn said, “they’ll be gone. And it’ll be on you. Think about that.”

She did just that.

“What’s happened to you?” she said. “When we spoke earlier—”

“Everything you said at Epcot was true. You’ve been a tremendous help. An amazing help. I need you to help me one more time.”

“When did you get so all grown-up?” she asked.

“It’s been a different sort of night.”

“I guess.”

“And I’m tired,” he said apologetically.

“Amanda?”

“Is fine. She Returned, with the spell broken.” He waited only a matter of seconds. “I’ll try on my own, but they won’t listen to me.”

“You don’t even know where it is,” she said.

“And if I do, will that convince you?”

Her eyes went wide. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

“Good,” Finn said.

Less than a minute later, he marched back to the car and indicated for his mother to roll the passenger window down. “I’ll be with an adult,” he said. “She’s Wayne’s daughter.”

“I know, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. I know it’s late. I don’t expect you to understand but—”

“If your father finds out, you’ll be looking for a new mother.”

“I only have one mother.”

“That may change,” she said, although she glowed from his comment. “Your father will be at the breakfast table promptly at seven-thirty. You’d better be too, buddy boy, or I don’t know what.” Her eyes grew glassy. “I’m scared,” she said.

“Don’t be.”

“For you. Not for me.”

“I know, Mom.”

She rolled up the window, looked at him once more through the glass, and drove off.

* * *

Wanda drove Finn into the Animal Kingdom through the backstage vehicle Security entrance, where it took five minutes of phone calls to get Finn approved.

“I still can’t believe you knew about this,” she said from behind the driver’s wheel. The dashboard clock read 5:37 am. Finn felt wide awake.

“Philby has a different kind of magic,” he said. “Ones and zeros.”

He’d never been to this particular part of Animal Kingdom, a warehouse structure near the elephant cages.

“It was originally designed as a medical quarantine for western lowland gorillas. When a military coup denied our chance to obtain the animals, the facility went unused for nearly a decade. Then the problem arose. Some modifications were made to transform it into a high-security retention facility,” Wanda explained.

“A prison.”

“It has continued to be listed as an animal housing facility. You’ll forget you ever saw it.”

“Saw what?” he asked.

“That’s the spirit.”

She stood before a video camera and pushed a button. She then had to swipe an ID card, and place her index finger on a biosensor—the same kind they used at the Park entrances.

“My father has been housed here since the Fantasmic! threat. He’s viewed as too important—he knows too much, so he’s kind of a prisoner himself.”

A light turned green and the door unlocked. They entered. The hallway was blocked by a double set of security doors with glass two inches thick. They went through a security check as at an airport, and then down a flight of stairs. Another hallway. She pushed a doorbell, and a moment later the doorjamb buzzed, and she let them inside.

Wayne was sitting on a small couch. He looked older, reminding Finn of a lamp that had been repaired—much the same, but something different. The twinkle in his eyes remained, but his voice was dry and salty, like that of a man who didn’t speak much.

“Welcome,” he said. He motioned Finn into a chair facing him.

Finn saw through an open door to a bedroom. It was not an office, but an apartment; Wayne lived here. He seemed older and weaker. Finn felt a pang of sadness.

“Why?” Finn asked.

The man’s white eyebrows arched.

“Why here?” Finn said.

“The funny thing about the past,” Wayne said, “is it’s behind us. There’s nothing we can do that will change it. The future is much the same—out of reach. When you get to be my age you realize you have only right now. This moment. You are over there. I am here.

For how much longer, neither of us knows. Let’s not worry about me. Tell me what you want.”

“Who said I want anything?”

“We all want something.”

“What do you want?” Finn asked.

“To hear what you want,” the old man answered.

Finn sighed. There was no arguing with Wayne. Why had he tried?

“I’m listening,” Wayne said.

“Jess drew this place. I think she did.…I need to see if it’s what she drew.” Finn unfolded his computer printout of Jess’s diary drawing. “Something is going to happen before morning.”