The heavyset woman, whose real name was Bess, had not been given her nickname as a result of her girth—substantial though it was—but on account of her own mispronunciation of the name Shel y as a child. Jel y had a choir girl’s smile, kind eyes, and four chins. Her voice was low and husky, and when she looked at you it felt as if she could see things others could not—like a fortune-tel er or priest.
With al the Kingdom Keepers assembled in the tight space, Jel y opened the kiln and careful y extricated a baking sheet containing a dozen chocolate chip cookies, which explained the incredible smel of the place. She moved some bricks and pul ed out a second sheet of the oatmeal variety. Maybeck headed upstairs and returned with a box of cold milk and the after-school ceremony began. Once lips were properly licked free of remaining crumbs and the last drops of milk had slid down sugary throats, Jel y left them, shutting the door to the outer room to deal with her customers.
“So,” Maybeck said, “I was doing an art project for school, this thing of layering colors, when something occurred to me, so I texted Philby. I suppose you know that or you wouldn’t be here.
The point being, I could be way wrong about al this, and I didn’t mean to cal a massive meeting or anything.”
“No one forced us to be here,” Wil a said. “We wouldn’t have come if we hadn’t wanted to.”
“Yeah, right. The thing is,” Maybeck continued, “we al know how tricky our friend is. He’s always doing stuff that has multiple meanings, multiple layers. That’s what got me, I think: layers.
Working with the colors. ’Cause the thing is, you layer yel ow over red and you get orange, orange over yel ow and you get yel ow-orange. It’s al about what’s in front and what’s behind.”
“You kinda lost me there,” Charlene said.
“It’s the shapes on the box. They’re like symbols or something. Curves. Lines.”
“Code?” Philby said.
“Yeah, I think. In a way at least.” Maybeck extended his open palm and Philby produced the smal paper box and handed it to him. Maybeck switched on the light box, which consisted of a sheet of white glass in front of a powerful, uniform white light, like the devices radiologists use to view X-rays.
“My theory,” he said, continuing, “is that Wayne expected us to figure out what others would not: that what alone looked like symbols combined to something more.”
“You mean, kind of like us?” Charlene said. “We make more sense as a group.”
“We’re capable of more,” Philby added.
“Exponential,” Jess added.
Finn realized this was something new—the DHIs talking about themselves as a group. It had always been there, lingering just below the surface—the idea that Wayne had intended them to act as a group, not as individuals, but this was the first he could remember anyone actual y acknowledging it.
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” Finn said.
“Yeah, like that, I suppose,” Maybeck said, “but al I’m interested in is layers.” He held up the box. “See, on this side is a parentheses—the left side. Turn the box around, and there’s another parentheses, also the left, like a stretched C.”
“Matching,” said Wil a.
“You think they’re both meant to be capital C s?”
Philby asked Maybeck.
Maybeck didn’t answer. He spun the paper cube to show a different face. “And this weird shape.” He turned the box to show the opposite side. “And this one.”
“I’ve looked through a dozen languages and a few hundred fonts: Cyril ic, Greek, Roman, of course,” said Philby. “Those symbols aren’t part of any modern alphabet. A few of those marks are pretty close to some accents used in modern languages, but I don’t see where that gets us.”
“Because it’s Wayne,” Maybeck said. “If I’m right, it’s not about the individual symbols, but the way they combine.”
He moved the paper box closer to the light table, the left parentheses facing the kids. For a moment the box caught the light and glowed like a lightbulb; it appeared to grow between Maybeck’s fingers. Then, as he delivered it atop the light box’s glass plate, the mark on the opposing face came into crisp focus. The kids pressed together in a tight huddle.
Charlene gasped.
“OMG!” said Wil a.
“I thought so,” said the ever modest Maybeck. “The left parentheses joins the right parentheses and together—”
“They form an O!” said Philby. “Our alphabet after al !”
Maybeck picked up the box, turned it, and replaced it. The letter was a backward N, but reversing the box formed the letter correctly. There was another, fainter, V, but it looked like something drawn and then erased. He rotated the box a third time. Each pair of images on the opposing sides of the cube’s six faces combined to form a letter.
“Turn it around!” Wil a said. “It’s either a lowercase b, or a lower-, or uppercase, P.”
“Then it’s a P,” Maybeck said, “because the O and N are both uppercase.”
“Agreed,” Philby said, already grabbing a shaping tool and drawing the letters into some soft clay on the table beside him: P N O.
“Initals?” said Amanda. “A what-do-you-cal -it?”
“Abbreviation?” said Jess.
“No,” said Amanda. “A…”
“Piano?” asked Charlene.
“Try again,” said Maybeck. “A different order.”
Philby wrote: N P O, then N O P.
Each of the kids was throwing out an idea of what the various letters stood for.
Philby moved the tool through the wet clay…O…
Before he’d reached the second letter Jess said quietly, “Open.”
The shouting stopped. The kiln hummed, or maybe it was the light box or the overhead lights.
“Open,” she said again. “O P N.”
“Open,” Maybeck repeated. “Of course.”
“That is s o Wayne,” Wil a said.
Maybeck careful y found the edge, sealed with a thin strip of tape. It took him a minute to locate a razor blade, but no one was going to suggest they hurry into this and tear the box in the process. At last, he ran the blade through the tape and the flap was loose. Two more incisions through the gaps, and al sides were free. Maybeck careful y unfolded the box.
“I’ve done this in math a hundred times,” said Philby. “It forms a—”
“It’s a cross,” said Amanda. Maybeck turned the box around in his palm to make it a proper cross. The V now pointed down, toward his wrist.
“That’s not a V,” said Finn. “It’s a point.”
Philby said, “It’s a tip of a—”
“Sword,” said Maybeck.
“Only boys would see that as a sword,” said Charlene cynical y. “It is so obviously a cross.”
“It’s a sword,” Philby said, agreeing with Maybeck. “This is Wayne, don’t forget.”
“It’s a cross. And in Epcot, that means France.”
“And it was outside of France,” Amanda said to Jess, “that you felt…you know…felt something the first time you crossed over.”
Jess nodded timidly.
Wil a said, “And France also means Notre Dame. The Hunchback—that’s Disney.”
“It’s a sword,” Maybeck repeated.
“And in Epcot,” Philby said, mimicking her, “that’s…” He squinted his eyes. “Norway. The Maelstrom ride—”
“I love that ride!” said Finn, immediately wishing he hadn’t.
“—has a sword in it,” Philby said, finishing his thought.
“Impressions de France,” Wil a said, “is a film in Epcot’s France. It shows the cathedral, as does an exhibit while you’re waiting to get into the film. He’s left us another clue or the answer there. Maybe he’s being held in France.”
“Maybe he’s being held in Norway,” Philby fired back.
“Maybe we split up and figure this out,” said Finn.
“Divide and conquer,” said Ama
nda. “Girls to France, boys to Norway.”
“Tonight,” said Maybeck.
“Nine o’clock,” said Philby. “I can cross over and program the projectors.…I have to cross over to program them; there’s no way past the firewal s from out here. I can’t promise the system won’t go down at midnight. I tried to reprogram that, but things got weird, and I’m not sure I did any good.”
“That wil give us about three hours,” said Charlene. “Isn’t that enough?”
Philby answered for the boys. “It depends on what we find.”
27
BY NINE-FORTY THEY HAD ALL crossed over into Epcot. They arrived into the same location as before
—near the public restrooms on the way to Test Track. This time Philby wore dark clothes, while Charlene arrived in the same cotton nightgown she wore so often, a victim of her single mother’s lying down on Charlene’s bed with her and both of them subsequently fal ing asleep.
Finn’s DHI appeared, on his side with his legs tucked up against his chest, his hands flat under his head, in the same position in which he slept in his bed at home. He sat up and headed for the concrete block planter before even saying hel o to anyone.
His hands dug around in the planter.
“Okay! Who’s got it?” he said, trying to keep his voice calm.
The others looked at him blankly.
Jess said, “Got what?”
“The Return,” Philby answered, understanding immediately. “The fob.”
“Our way home,” said Maybeck. “Without the fob, we’re stuck here.”
“The Syndrome,” Charlene choked out.
“Seriously,” Finn said. “This is no time for games. Who’s got it?” He searched their faces in the dim light and knew immediately that it was not a practical joke.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, desperately.
“Listen,” Philby said. “It may not be stolen. It could have easily been found by a gardener who thought it had fal en out of someone’s pocket when they were sitting on the wal .”
“Lost and found,” Charlene said.
“Exactly,” said Philby.
“Oh, perfect,” said Wil a. “How are we supposed to find lost and found?”
“By looking for it,” Finn answered. “We can’t freak out. Stuff happens.”
“Yeah, but it happens to us all the time,” Wil a said.
“That’s part of it, I think,” Finn said. “Part of being whatever it is we are.”
“Kingdom Keepers,” said Amanda. “Don’t you guys get it? You think it’s coincidence that we’ve al met? That Jess and I just happened to meet you? I don’t think so. Wayne put you together for a reason. Each of you has a purpose, and together we have some bigger reason for being here.”
“We get it,” said Maybeck. “We just don’t talk about it a lot.”
“It’s kind of freaky,” said Charlene.
“Finn is right,” Amanda said. “You—we—can get through this. We have to get through this. I have the ability to move things around. Finn can walk through doors. He and I wil look for the fob.
Once we get it back I’l go to France and Finn wil go to Norway—how ridiculous does that sound?
—and catch up with you.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Maybeck said. He rarely agreed with a plan, so Finn took this as a major endorsement. “Philby and I wil head to Norway and look for the sword.”
“Jess, Wil a, and Charlie,” Finn said, using Charlene’s nickname, “wil make for Paris and the possible connection between the box and a cross. You’l also make sure no one attacks Jess from her left.”
“I think that threat is over,” Jess said.
“No matter what,” Finn injected, fiddling with his mobile phone, “we meet here before midnight. No matter where any of us are at eleven-forty-five, we head back here to return.”
“We apparently can use our phones,” Philby declared. “In case you’re interested,” he said to Finn, reading the screen, “lost and found is in a gift shop to the right of the entrance.” He held up his phone. “I Googled it.”
“I’m interested,” said Finn. He reached out and grabbed Amanda’s arm above the elbow.
“You okay with this?”
“I’m fol owing you,” she said.
* * *
Wil a voiced what Charlene and Jess were both thinking. “They didn’t try to stick a boy with us.”
“I was sure they would,” Charlene said.
“It’s the sword,” Jess said. “Boys and swords. I’l bet if you asked Finn, he’d have rather gone after the sword than the lost and found.”
“Stay down,” Wil a said. “No matter what, we can’t be caught or get in trouble. The boys would fry us if that happened!”
The most dangerous moment lay ahead: crossing the fountain plaza. Their DHIs shimmered in the dark, like the face of a wristwatch losing its glow; they didn’t throw light—they wouldn’t be easily seen from any kind of distance, but within ten to twenty yards they were visible.
“We’l go one at a time,” Wil a instructed. “Charlene, you’re the fastest, so you’l go first. If you’re chased, don’t lead whoever’s fol owing to France, so you’d better have a plan now for where you’l go.”
“There are trees behind The Land,” Charlene said. “And on the other side of The Living Seas is a smal forest. I can lose anybody in there.”
“We’l meet at the Eiffel Tower in twenty minutes if we get separated,” Wil a announced.
“Later,” Charlene said.
Crouching low, she raced out across the open expanse and into the trees across the way.
She waved at them and then stepped deeper into the vegetation, disappearing.
Jess went next. She, too, was a fast runner and reached the trees apparently without causing any alarm. Her DHI sparkled in the shadows.
Wil a waited, a tingle tickling her at the base of her neck. Something wasn’t right. She waited, looking both directions. It was a hum. Not an engine—not exactly—but a bike maybe, that sticky sound of rubber on concrete. To her left she saw them: a pair of Segway scooters, those two-wheeled motorized scooters that maintain perfect balance and are ridden standing up. Police used them in airports and mal s. But it wasn’t policemen riding the two Segways; the riders were…crash-test dummies.
She squinted and blinked, believing she’d seen wrong. Despite everything she’d learned about the parks after dark she stil couldn’t always accept what she saw.
The dummies were talking to each other, riding the Segways side-by-side, their voices too faint to be heard at a distance, but voices nonetheless; there was no mistaking that sound.
The Segways fol owed the path curving around the World Showcase Lagoon and, a moment later, were gone.
Wil a sprinted across the plaza and into the trees, making a mental note to ask Philby about the Segways. If crash-test dummies could get hold of a pair of the things, why couldn’t the Kingdom Keepers manage to as wel ?
“Did you see that?” she asked the other two as she reached them, deep into the trees.
“What?” Charlene asked.
“No,” said Jess.
“Ah…wel …you probably wouldn’t believe it anyway. Let’s just say there are patrols out, and I’m not talking Disney Security.”
“Overtakers?” whispered Charlene.
“That would be yes,” Wil a said. “On Segways, and moving fast.”
“That’s random,” Wil a said.
“Is it safe?” Jess said, clearly frightened.
“It’s never safe for us,” Wil a informed her. “The thing to remember is we’re nothing but projected light. I mean, that is, that’s what we are when we’re pure DHI, which is basical y never.”
“Unless you’re Finn,” Charlene said. “And Maybeck once. And I’ve been practicing.”
“If we could make ourselves pure projection—what Finn cal s ‘al -clear’—then there would be nothing to catch—like waving your finger through
a flame, or one of those laser pointers.” Wil a sounded like Philby but with a high voice. “But the minute you let fear into it, which is basical y al the time, then you’re catchable.”
“So let’s get this over with,” Jess declared.
They worked their way through the planting around and behind Canada and past some bathrooms to a spot where Wil a motioned for them to stop and squat down behind a merchandise kiosk. The Eiffel Tower, shimmering with lights, rose to their right. The night air made it look so impossibly close.
“This is the worst,” Wil a whispered. “The only way over to France is across that bridge.
Unless you feel like swimming?”
“No thanks,” gushed Jess.
“We’l be total y exposed,” Charlene said. “Total y out in the open.”
“That’s right.”
“It turns at the island,” Wil a said. The bridge was supported by what amounted to a large rock at the middle. “We might be able to hide there, but I doubt it. The trouble is, you can see that bridge from just about anywhere in the World Showcase. Even from across the lagoon.” She pointed to the two Segways moving past Japan: smal , swift, silent shapes.
“Their backs are to us,” Charlene said. “We could go for it.”
“There are more,” said Jess in a chil ing voice. She rubbed her forehead as if fighting a headache.
“You feeling okay?” Charlene asked, with evident concern.
“Pictures in my head,” Jess whispered. “It hasn’t been like this before. Same thing last time. It must be this place.”
“Or,” Wil a said, “maybe becoming a DHI did something to you. Maybe we should have thought about that.”
“I think it has to do with getting older,” Jess said. “Every week it’s different now. Stronger.”
“We don’t want to lose you to some surprise attack.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Jess said. “How do we get over the bridge?”
Charlene answered. “We don’t.”
The two looked at her intently.
“We go under it,” she said.
* * *
At Spaceship Earth Finn and Amanda crossed to the west side of the plaza and then into a jungle planting, heading toward the entrance and the gift shop. They were both jumpy, alert for Overtakers.
Kingdom Keepers III Dinsey in Shadow Page 17
