Kingdom Keepers Boxed Set

by Ridley Pearson

  “But what if they’re being guarded? The guards will just turn off the DS.”

  “They weren’t guarding you that time at Space Mountain.”

  “True.”

  “Why guard someone who’s asleep and can’t wake up? Kind of a waste, don’t you think?” Finn thought about how he would do it. “You’d put them on the bed, pull the drapes, put a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door, and leave them.”

  “Okay! Makes sense,” Maybeck said. “Then we start with rooms that have DO NOT DISTURB signs on the doors. At four o’clock in the afternoon, how many rooms can that be?”

  “Not many,” Finn agreed.

  “Start sending messages while I find the rooms with the DO NOT DISTURB signs.”

  “If they’re here,” Maybeck said, “we’re going to find them.”

  * * *

  Finn pressed his ear to the door outside a room with a DO NOT DISTURB tag on the handle. He’d found three doors so far. With his ear to the fourth such room, he heard a faint but familiar beep and knew it was a DS.

  Finn: found it!!!

  A minute later Maybeck came down the hallway toward him.

  “This is their room,” Finn declared. As Maybeck leaned his ear against the door, Finn sent a text.

  Maybeck smiled and pulled away from the door. “Bull’s-eye!”

  “You’re a better liar than I am,” Finn said.

  “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

  “Charming. I meant to say you’re more charming than I am. You’re better with the ladies.”

  “That goes without saying,” Maybeck said.

  “There’s a room being cleaned, back toward the elevator.”

  “I passed it,” Maybeck confirmed.

  “I think you left your family’s Park Hoppers in this room, and your father’s in here asleep with a headache, which explains the DO NOT DISTURB sign.”

  “I think you’re brilliant,” Maybeck said.

  “Goes without saying. Can you pull it off?”

  “This is me we’re talking about!” Maybeck boasted.

  “Same question.”

  “You’ll need to get yourself gone,” Maybeck said.

  “I’ll hang at the next set of windows.”

  “I’ll text you once I’m inside,” Maybeck said.

  * * *

  Less than five minutes later, Finn received the text message. He returned to the room and knocked softly. Maybeck opened the door.

  The room held a big bed and a pair of bunks. Philby was drooling onto the pillow of the big bed. Willa slept peacefully on the lower bunk. They shook both kids, but to no avail: perma-sleep—Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.

  “The one thing I remember,” said Maybeck, who yawned all of a sudden, “is how much I dreamed when they had me in this state. I dreamed of being locked up. I think I was dreaming what my DHI was seeing.”

  Finn yawned reflexively. “Don’t get me tired, or we’ll end up like them.”

  “A nap wouldn’t hurt,” Maybeck said, eyeing the bunk. “We could take turns. Ten minutes.”

  “Do not go there.”

  “I’m tired.”

  “That’s the point. Hang on.” Finn sent Charlene a text message.

  Finn: ready when u r.

  angelface13: all set.

  Both Maybeck and Finn heard the loud scratching sound at the same time. At first Finn thought it was a radio or TV in another room.

  Maybeck hurried over and cracked the curtains. “Apes!” he hissed. He held up two fingers.

  Two apes, Finn realized. Out on the balcony. The sliding door squeaked as one of the apes pulled on the handle from the outside.

  Maybeck pointed to his own chest and then the closet. Seeing this signal, Finn hurried into the bathroom, stepped into the tub, and pulled the shower curtain closed. He heard the door swing open and the sounds of the two apes moving around the room. Were they looking for them? Had the maid told someone about letting Maybeck into the room?

  A message from Charlene appeared on Finn’s screen.

  angelface13: i’m in position, will push remote in 3, 2, 1…

  The bathroom door was flung open. Finn could hear one of the two orangutans breathing hard, and the room suddenly smelled different. He reached up and turned the showerhead to face the curtains, his hand on the faucet.

  Four hairy fingers appeared at the edge of the shower curtain. Finn felt as if he might pass out.

  The shower curtain was jerked open.

  Finn yanked the lever. Water roared into the face of an ugly orange ape. The ape slapped his own face, screamed, and jumped back.

  Finn leaped from the tub, pulled a terrycloth robe from the back of the bathroom door, and tossed it over the ape. He then used the bathrobe’s belt to take a strong turn around the confused ape, pulled it tight, and knotted it around the ape’s legs. The orangutan fell over, kicking and thrashing and screaming, doing nothing but spinning in circles on the bathroom floor.

  The second ape appeared at the doorway. Finn lunged for the other bathrobe, but it drew him closer to the ape, whose big mouth came open, teeth bared. Just as Finn feared the ape would strike, Maybeck leaped out of the bedroom closet and poked it with a hanger that he wielded as a sword.

  This provoked the ape. It spun around to challenge Maybeck, giving Finn the extra seconds he needed to take hold of the robe and throw it over the orangutan. He and Maybeck made quick work of tying up this one as well. They dragged it into the bathroom and, as they shut the door, both apes were seen whirling angrily on the tile floor.

  Finn shook Willa. Maybeck pulled on Philby’s arm. Both groaned and squirmed uncomfortably: they were awakening! Charlene had used the remote on the DHIs in the cages, and it had worked. The cages were now empty—the DHIs gone, zeroed out by the server. Maleficent and the Overtakers with her had to be terribly confused.

  And angry.

  The orangutans screamed loudly from the bathroom.

  Maybeck said to Philby, “I know you feel like a zombie. I’ve been there. But we have to hurry. We’ve got to get you out of here.”

  FINN AND MAYBECK escorted Philby and Willa to the train platform for the Wildlife Express Train. Amanda had announced a discovery and asked that they meet her. She’d been very secretive, and they were eager to talk with her.

  Charlene was still keeping an eye on the bat enclosure. The ice truck had not been moved.

  The kids stood around watching Finn as he finally made the call to Rob Bernowski, Jez’s boyfriend. He had the BlackBerry on speakerphone so everyone could hear.

  “Rob?”

  “Yeah? Who’s this?”

  “My name is Finn Whitman. I’m a friend of—”

  “Jez’s. Yeah, I know.” He didn’t sound too thrilled. “She talks about you and the others all the time.” Too much of the time, his tone of voice implied.

  “Have you seen her by any chance? Heard from her?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Just curious,” Finn said.

  “What’s up with that?”

  “Just asking.”

  “Because?”

  “Yeah, well…listen…I know this is going to sound stupid, but if there was one thing Jez could change about you, what would it be?”

  “Is this some kind of contest or something?”

  Finn hesitated. Willa was nodding violently.

  “Yeah, that’s it exactly,” Finn said. “A contest. A school thing. How well do boyfriends and girlfriends know each other?”

  “The one thing she would change?”

  “Yes. That’s the question.”

  A long hesitation on the other end of the call. “My clothes. She doesn’t like my jeans, man. I wear ‘em kinda low.”

  “Your jeans?”

  “Yeah. Did I answer right?”

  “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Finn said. “That’s all you can think of?”

  “I can tell you the one thing I’d change about her,” Rob volunteered, not giving Finn
a chance to stop him. “I’d take her iPod away from her. She’s, like, addicted to that thing. That, and all the word games she plays. She’s into scrambling every word she can—making other words out of the same letters, you know?”

  “Anagrams,” Finn said.

  “What’s that?” Rob asked.

  “It’s what you call that: an anagram is a word that can be made from the letters of another word.”

  “Never heard of it.” He paused. “So what about my prize? Do I win a prize?”

  “Ah…we’ll let you know. Thanks for your answers.” Finn ended the call.

  “Anagrams,” Philby said. “You think it’s worth a try?”

  “Do we think what is worth a try?” Maybeck asked.

  “Jez wrote ‘change Rob’in her diary—”

  “And inside the tree stump,” Willa added.

  “Some kind of code?” Finn asked.

  “Give me the BlackBerry,” Philby said, reaching toward Finn.

  “I really don’t think we should call him back,” Finn said.

  “I’m not calling anyone. The BlackBerry has Internet. We can settle this pretty quickly.”

  Finn and the others leaned over Philby’s shoulder as he used the BlackBerry to Google an anagram site. Then, reaching a site, he typed in “change Rob,” and hit the button to generate anagrams.

  The small screen showed a long list of possible letter combinations.

  “‘Branch ego,’” he read from the screen. “‘Corn bag he.’” They laughed. “‘Herb can go.’”

  “Let me see that.” Willa moved in next to Philby, to where their shoulders touched. No one missed how close she got to him, least of all Maybeck, who suddenly started shifting anxiously. Willa studied the screen and spoke in a quiet voice.

  “We’ve done this before,” she reminded him. “The clues from the Stonecutter’s Quill. Remember? We solved that anagram without a Web site.”

  “That’s because we didn’t have a BlackBerry. There’s nothing here,” Philby said.

  “There are no proper names,” Willa said.

  “So?” Philby challenged.

  Willa took the BlackBerry out of Philby’s hand and held it where she could study it clearly. Then she calmly returned the BlackBerry to Philby, who passed it back to Finn.

  “So I’ve got one,” she said, capturing the full attention of the others. She meant this as a challenge. She remained incredibly close to Philby, and she was looking him directly in the eyes. “One word. A name. A Disney name.”

  “I give up,” Finn said.

  “I don’t! Wait! Wait!” Philby barked, not wanting to lose to Willa.

  “A Disney name?” Maybeck asked. “But then that’s got to be it. What is it, Willa? Tell us what it is!”

  “Give up?” she asked Philby, her voice a hoarse whisper. There was something going on between these two. And Maybeck didn’t like it.

  “No…No…” Philby pleaded.

  “He gives up,” Maybeck said. “WE ALL GIVE UP.”

  Willa’s eyes scrunched, as if to convey her disappointment in Philby. But Philby didn’t see her. His eyes were closed, his lips moving as if reading to himself.

  “Chernabog!” Philby shouted out.

  “And I was about to give up on you,” Willa said, obviously impressed.

  “The creature from Fantasia?” Finn asked.

  “You ever see that movie?” Maybeck questioned. “He is one mean dude.”

  “And guess what?” Willa said. “Chernabog’s not only the most evil of all the Disney villains, he happens to be a demon with bat wings!”

  The kids went silent, the air suddenly shattered by the train’s sharp whistle, announcing its arrival at the station.

  “HE’S THE BADDEST OF THE BAD. The most evil villain Walt Disney ever created.” Philby was in fine form, back to himself, alert from the sleep he’d gotten and able to think more clearly than either Maybeck or Finn. They waited in line for the Park train to the Conservation Station.

  Charlene remained behind in the jungle just outside the bat enclosure. She blended in well there and, having found a log to stand on with her stilts, could keep an eye on the activities backstage by peering over the top of the wall. The back doors of the ice truck had been shut, Maleficent inside. As far as Charlene could tell, before entering the back of the truck neither Maleficent nor the monkeys and apes had realized the cages were empty. The tarps used to contain the captive DHIs and to block their projections from showing had also served to fool their captors.

  Once the line was moving, Maybeck, Finn, Willa, and Philby separated for the ride out to the Conservation Station. They each took a place on the long benches amid the Park guests, all on different train cars. Summoned by Amanda, they were anxious to rendezvous and find out what had her so overheated.

  As the train arrived at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, the kids split up. Park visitors trudged up the long path toward the Conservation Station. They were a team now, protective of one another and concerned for each other’s safety. These kids, who had once been strangers, were now anything but—brought together by a common enemy and the strange manifestations of a technology gone wrong. To remind them of their previous lives would have been foolish, for they could barely remember a time when falling asleep did not mean crossing over into a strange world, and where a white-haired old man had not controlled their shared fate.

  Finn, who’d taken up the rear, entered the facility and joined the others in a huddle by the restrooms.

  “I’m starving,” said Willa.

  “Later,” said Philby.

  “What’s so important?” Finn asked Amanda, who had abandoned her viewing station. The crowd had thinned as a veterinary demonstration had begun at the central display window: a snake had eaten a golf ball and was undergoing surgery.

  “We have to act while they’re distracted. And I have to get back to the AnimalCam before someone realizes how many cameras that station has access to.”

  “Act?” Finn inquired.

  “One of the sketches from the diary.” She unfolded the original page of the diary and pointed out the ape on crutches. “It’s a tattoo. A washable tattoo for the children. It’s given to them after the private tours of the vet clinic. I think our passes will get us back there, but I didn’t want to leave my station for too long. And since the veterinary clinic means animals, I thought it was better to get some help and maybe do this as a team.”

  “Agreed,” said Finn, attempting to digest everything she’d just told them.

  “A tattoo?” Maybeck quipped in complaint. “What about Chernabog? What about the two apes we left spinning donuts back in the lodge? Who cares about some bleeping tattoo?”

  “If it’s in the diary,” Philby said, “then it’s part of the puzzle she left us. That makes it significant. Amanda’s right: we have to pursue it.”

  “Says the one who just got a couple hours’ sleep,” Maybeck complained.

  “I know this may sound foolish,” Amanda said, apologizing to Maybeck, “but I feel it’s important. I really do. I wouldn’t have called you out here otherwise. I know how hard you’re all working to help Jez. How much risk you’re taking. I can’t tell you how I appreciate it. I have no right to ask you to do anything more.”

  “That’s true,” Maybeck said.

  “Shut up,” said Willa.

  “I’m agreeing with her.”

  “You’re being a nimrod, and you know it,” Willa protested.

  “A tattoo!” Maybeck shouted, a little loudly.

  “Everything in the diary has proved out,” Finn reminded them. “The tiger and lion were DHIs. She drew the lightning hitting the castle days before it occurred.”

  “Change Rob,” Willa said. She reviewed Finn’s phone call to Rob for Amanda, and the discovery of the Chernabog anagram.

  “And that too,” Finn agreed.

  “The apes,” Philby added.

  “And now the tattoo,” Maybeck mumbled. “Okay. I get it. So what now
?”

  “I’m going back there,” Finn said. “Into the vet clinic.”

  “And I’m going with you,” Amanda stated, leaving no room for argument.

  “I can take over the viewing station,” Philby offered eagerly.

  “Willa and I will stand guard,” said Maybeck. “Our DSs at the ready.”

  “What’s the code word if there’s a problem?” Finn asked.

  “Give it a rest, Whitman.”

  “Chernabog,” said Philby.

  All eyes fell on him.

  “At least that way we’ll all understand it’s serious,” Philby said.

  FINN SWIPED HIS ID in the card reader. A small light changed to green. An even smaller light went off in his brain: what if the Overtakers had figured out the kids were using fake IDs and were now tracking them through the use of their cards? He shook it off.

  He tried the doorknob, and the door opened. He and Amanda stepped through, leaving the sounds of activities behind them.

  The hallway he found himself in reminded Finn of the veterinarian’s office where his mother volunteered part-time. It also served to remind him of his mother and the fact that he hadn’t yet called home. He’d messed up: soon his parents would be at Blizzard Beach looking for him. They were going to be furious. He wondered if any of the other kids were in the same predicament. One thing was certain—time was running out. The Park would remain open only another hour or so. Jez’s chances of being freed were quickly diminishing.

  He knew that no matter how they tried, he and Amanda still looked like kids. Tired, even exhausted, kids—but kids nonetheless. There was no getting around it. And he had no idea if unaccompanied kids his age were allowed backstage. With this in mind, he signaled to Amanda to hurry, and they moved down the hallway with an eye out for someplace to hide. Thankfully, most of the doors had glass panels, allowing them to see inside. They passed an examination room, and another, filled with medical equipment. There was one door marked PRIVATE, and another with stickers and cartoon clippings taped to it. It was this door Finn tried first. Inside was a single table and some vending machines—an employee lounge. It was empty. They ducked inside, both wide-eyed and slightly out of breath due to the excitement.