Kingdom Keepers Boxed Set

by Ridley Pearson

  “Can I say something?” Amanda said. “Do you people see what’s happening? Jess and I, we’re new to this. But one of the things that’s so impressive about you, about this group, is how you work together. How one person picks up where the other person leaves off. I mean…it’s actually pretty awesome. And now, all of a sudden, in like five minutes, no one is trusting anyone and every decision is taking about twice as long as you usually take. Just an observation,” she said, sitting back.

  “How do you undo something like this?” Charlene asked. “It’s not like I want to see any of you as the traitor, but how am I supposed to not? Wayne wrecked it.”

  “But he wrecked it for a reason,” Philby said.

  “He knew how this would mess us up,” Finn said.

  “Wayne operates on serious bandwidth,” Philby said. “He wouldn’t have thrown this out there if it wasn’t important.”

  “We’ll pick from a hat,” Finn said. “Three names. They’ll go to the store.”

  “No irony there,” Willa said. “A hat?”

  “We don’t even have a hat!” Maybeck said.

  “It’s an expression,” Finn said.

  The gloomy mood was broken.

  Charlene wrote out their names on small pieces of paper and folded them up. Jess drew three from the pile.

  “Philby, Finn, and Charlene,” she announced, unfolding and reading them.

  “Fate,” said Philby.

  “I rest my case,” said Maybeck. “I am the man.”

  FINN HADN’T SAID ANYTHING, but he’d known he had to be part of the scout team; they would need him to fully cross over to all-clear and enter the gift shop in order to open it for the others. After a few minutes of sneaking over to the Mission: Space Gift Shop, being careful not to be seen, Finn unlocked the doors from the inside and admitted Philby and Charlene.

  “I don’t feel good about this,” Finn said. “Seems Security—the real park Security—would know if someone was cruising the gift shop.”

  “If park Security’s doing anything, they’re dealing with whatever the Overtakers failed to clean up after the Test Track wreck.”

  “We still should make it quick,” said Charlene. “We don’t even know if this is really the clue Wayne meant for us.”

  “Hats,” Philby said. “It has to be hats.”

  It was dark and gloomy in the shop despite the abundance of cheerful gifts, lending the vast space a sense of foreboding. They split up. Charlene knew where the princess hats were; in fact, she knew much more about the layout of the gift shop than the boys did. She directed Philby to the back and Finn to the left.

  Finn found a collection of khaki-colored ball caps for sale. The caps bore a variety of logos and emblems, which made him wonder if those details had anything to do with whatever Wayne wanted them to see. Philby discovered a space helmet and some character hats. Finn joined him in the back, feeling overwhelmed. How were they supposed to make any sense of this? There were a dozen or more different hats, any one of which might be important.

  “If we only knew why the hat is important,” he said.

  “Over here,” hissed Charlene.

  By the time he and Philby joined her Finn felt they’d already spent too much time in the shop. He also found himself wondering who the traitor might be, and when he or she might turn on the rest of them. He tried to push the idea from his mind, but it wouldn’t yield.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” he pressed.

  “So what jumps out at you?” Charlene asked the boys, indicating a shelf of Mickey and Minnie accessories.

  “Let’s not make this into twenty questions,” Finn said.

  “I want to make sure this makes sense,” she said. “I don’t want to just tell you, I want you to see it.”

  “You’re worried we’ll accuse you of being the traitor if it doesn’t work out,” Philby said, picking up on her tone of voice. “Aren’t you?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to,” he said.

  “Mickey ears?” Finn said. “A Minnie hat?”

  “OMG!” Philby said, stepping toward the display. He reached out and took Mickey’s sorcerer hat in hand. He looked at Charlene. “This is what you wanted us to see,” he said. She nodded timidly.

  Finn took a good look at the pointed sorcerer’s cap. It was decorated with a crescent moon and several large stars. “You stand under it to get out of the rain.”

  “We are so dense!” Philby said. “Where do stars never grow old? These stars are always there.”

  “But the Channel!” Charlene said. “The Channel got us here.”

  “Maybe by accident. Or maybe there was something else showing that day besides Dumbo. We can check on that.”

  “I’ll bet it was Fantasia. I’ll bet we missed it. Mickey wears that same cap in the movie,” said Charlene.

  “But the point is,” Finn said, “that the sorcerer’s hat fits the riddle in keeping off the rain, and about it being on your brain, but it isn’t this hat, it’s the one in Hollywood Studios. That is the hat that keeps you out of the rain.”

  “Fantasmic!” Philby said. “It all adds up. You see? Mickey’s hat. Hollywood Studios. The sword. Mickey defeats the dragon in the show with the—”

  “Sword,” Finn said.

  “And the dragon is Maleficent,” Charlene said. “It’s either Chernabog or Maleficent that turns into the dragon. Right?”

  “It’s Maleficent,” Professor Philby said. “First Mickey encounters the Wicked Queen from Snow White, then she summons all the baddies—Ursula, Cruella, Scar. Jafar becomes a genie and Mickey accidentally calls out Hercules and Chernabog. It’s Chernabog who summons the dead, and who brings Maleficent. And it’s Maleficent who transfigures into the dragon.”

  “Where does the sword come in?” Finn asked.

  “It doesn’t. Mickey defeats the dragon with a wall of water. In the movie, Fantasia, it’s the ringing of a bell that drives Chernabog back to his mountain.”

  “No sword?”

  “Maybe this is a new version,” Charlene said. “With a new hero.” She was looking intently at Finn.

  “This is what Wayne wanted us to find,” Philby said. “I’m sure of it. The stars. All the clues. And Fantasmic! is the perfect place for Maleficent and Chernabog to hide. That show is all about them, and it’s virtually deserted twenty-three hours a day.”

  “You and I saw her right here,” Finn reminded.

  “We did,” Philby agreed. “But the parks are close to each other. She can transfigure herself into a bird. I’m not saying she’s in two places at once. I’m just saying Wayne wants us over at Fantasmic!”

  “Not before we find him.”

  “We may not have a choice on that,” Philby said. “What if we don’t find him here?”

  “We will,” said Finn.

  “If only we could go back in time, we could have rescued him from Wonders.”

  Charlene’s comment stopped Finn cold. For a moment he faced her as if in a trance. Then he took her by the shoulders and all three of them thought Finn was about to kiss her. Charlene looked terrified; Philby looked surprised; Finn looked out of it.

  “We blew it!” Finn said.

  “You don’t have to sound so excited about it,” Philby said. Then he added, “Blew what, exactly?”

  “‘Go back in time.’ Charlene just said: ‘Go back in time.’” He still held her shoulders; she still looked panicked.

  “Yeah? So what?” Philby said.

  Charlene was speechless. She turned her cheek toward Finn so that at least if he tried to kiss her it wouldn’t be on the lips. But she didn’t push him away, and she would later secretly wonder why not.

  “Think about Jess’s dreams,” Finn said. “Her visions. What’s the one thing we know about them? About when they take place?”

  “The fut—” Philby said, catching himself. “No way!”

  “What’s going on?” Charlene asked, still braced for the pos
sibility of a kiss.

  Philby answered for Finn. “When we went to Wonders, the writing wasn’t on the wall behind the chair. It wasn’t exactly like Jess’s dream. No Wayne. No words on the wall.”

  “I was there. I know all this.”

  “We were all there. But we were too soon,” Finn said. “Wayne hadn’t been brought there yet. We got there ahead of Jess’s vision. It wasn’t that she’d gotten it wrong—”

  “We were just early,” Philby said, completing his thought.

  “So at some point he’s still going to end up in that chair?” Charlene said.

  “At some point they start moving him around to keep him hidden,” Philby said.

  “Like, for instance,” Finn said, “after the Kingdom Keepers cause a car crash at Test Track.”

  “Or discover the maintenance log at Soarin’,” Philby said.

  “Or end up on Mission: Space,” Charlene added.

  The excitement sparked between them. Finn finally released Charlene’s shoulders, apologizing, and she quietly sighed in relief.

  “He’s there now,” Finn said. “I can feel it. He’s leaving a message on the wall for Jess that she got days ago. We can still save him.”

  “If you’re right, he’ll be under heavy guard,” Philby said, not contradicting Finn.

  “Since when has that stopped us?”

  WONDERS OF LIFE loomed out of a gray ground fog sucked from the earth as the night stretched its cold arm toward morning. Four AM had come and gone beneath an overcast sky that seemed to darken by the minute. It was as if Maleficent herself were in the sky, directing the darkness to continue, blotting out any attempts of a dawning sun to hint at its impending arrival.

  From within the jungle landscaping, not far from their original position, seven pairs of eyes studied the abandoned pavilion, seven hearts beat wildly from a combination of fatigue, fear, and anticipation. Where was the snake? The cavemen? Where were the Norwegian and his son?

  The plan, hastily thought up by Maybeck, but agreed upon by all, was a simple one of tactical diversion: Maybeck and Finn, both capable of all-clear—though Maybeck less so than Finn—would enter the pavilion first and position themselves with a view of the boardroom. Charlene would arrive to provide a distraction, making herself the object of pursuit. Her athletic ability was supposed to best any effort by the Overtakers to capture her. While she kept the Overtakers busy, Maybeck and Finn would rescue Wayne.

  Jess, Willa, and Amanda were to take up positions outside the pavilion, keeping it under constant surveillance, while Philby would infiltrate the pavilion’s utility area—which they believed to be in the basement—hoping to be able to monitor, if not control, the structure’s electricity and security.

  It took them ten minutes to finally spot Gigabyte. The humongous snake came from their left, up the path toward the pavilion, its tongue lashing the air for unexpected scents. It circled the pavilion and headed back down the path and through the line of potted trees that blocked the view of the pavilion from the park.

  Philby checked his watch. “Twelve minutes,” he said. “We need to be in and out in ten, or the snake is going to present a major problem.”

  “Is everyone clear on what to do if we find Wayne?” said Finn.

  “It’s up to Charlene,” Jess said, “to create a diversion.”

  “Eleven minutes,” Philby warned, “and counting.”

  “Let’s go,” Finn said to Maybeck.

  The two approached a side window together, avoiding the front door.

  “I can do this,” Maybeck said. He closed his eyes, let out a deep breath and stepped forward, knocking into the window as he tried to step through. He fell back, but Finn caught him.

  “A little quieter wouldn’t hurt,” Finn said, standing him up again. “Picture a train—”

  “I said I can do this!” Maybeck said. He tried again, but the window blocked him for a second time.

  Finn could imagine Philby counting down the minutes. He checked his watch: ten minutes left.

  “One last try,” he told Maybeck. “Then I go it alone.”

  Maybeck closed his eyes, released a cleansing breath, and said, “Okay. A train light at the end of a tunnel. Now what?” Maybeck did not enjoy having to ask anyone for help with anything.

  “Let the train come toward you. It takes over all the darkness, it blots out all sound, even the sound of my voice.”

  Maybeck stepped through the glass. Finn closed his eyes and followed. They were inside.

  * * *

  Charlene entered through the front door, left open by Finn, exactly three minutes after Finn and Maybeck had been seen stepping through the pavilion’s side window.

  Had Finn set a trap for her? Was he the one Wayne had warned them about?

  She hurried up the main stairs, keeping low and holding on to the banister, knowing that Finn and Maybeck would, at this same moment, be ascending the stairs.

  She didn’t look back, but heard Philby enter shortly behind her, wondering if he’d have time to be effective but putting nothing past him.

  In the back of her mind lingered Wayne’s warning: “Beware your friends and know your enemies.” If ever there were an opportunity for betrayal, this hastily put together plan was it. All it would take is one of them failing to fulfill his or her responsibility and any number of them might be captured. It was an obvious place to set a trap. She pushed away all her negative thoughts and kept her mind on what had to be done. She was supposed to do the distracting, not be the distracted. She was the decoy, the diversion. It was time for action.

  To be effective, her decoy could not be spotted as such: it had to look as if she intended to rescue Wayne. If she just went in yelling and screaming, the Overtakers might sense that her intrusion was merely a ruse and she would put Maybeck and Finn at risk.

  So she came into the lounge area quietly, raised up on tiptoe. She kept to the wall and then quietly slipped between it and the circus tent, moving slowly enough not to ripple the tent canvas.

  The door to the boardroom was partially open. To her right was another doorway that led into the room where Finn and Maybeck would be hiding. If she was chased, her plan was to lead her pursuers right beneath Maybeck and Finn, who, by agreement, would be up the ladder and hidden in the circus tower in the center of the room.

  With the door open, she could just make out the Norwegian in profile. He had a mane of red hair, a strong jaw, and a weight lifter’s biceps.

  She moved closer, inch by inch, the clock ticking in her head. The young boy lay fast asleep with his head in the man’s lap.

  Was that all? she wondered. Just the two of them?

  She didn’t trust it. Wayne’s warning about a traitor in their midst made her question everything, everyone. She hated this change in herself. She stood stone still and took in her surroundings, alert for someone hiding in waiting. Seeing no one, she darted across the carpet and planted herself behind the open boardroom door, and placed her eye to the crack.

  Wayne! He was sitting in the chair, his wrists bound, his eyes wide with expectation. Could he possibly know she was there?

  It all seemed so possible now—everything they’d worked toward. She didn’t want to blow it. Wayne, a few feet away. One man between her and Wayne’s freedom.

  It didn’t make any sense. It had to be a trap. Finn was always the first to point out that where the Overtakers were concerned, when it looked too good to be true, it probably was. There were more Overtakers nearby. Had to be. Maybe already watching her. Just as she feared that Wayne’s rescue now looked suspiciously too easy, the Overtakers, she thought, must be holding back, wondering why it looked so easy to grab her. Nothing was as it seemed.

  The clock kept moving in her head. Philby would cut the lights with five minutes left—exactly thirty seconds away.

  She used her gymnastic skills and her exceptional sense of balance to stretch her legs between the lower door hinge on her left, and a piece of molding to her right.
Her foot found the middle hinge, and she went up the wall like Spider-Man. Now with her left foot on the top hinge, she paused, hooked her fingers over the door and swung it open slightly.

  “Hvem er der?” the man said. “Who dere?” he tried in heavily accented English.

  Charlene struggled to hold herself high above the far side of the door. Finally she heard the man move the boy off his lap and the whisper of his clothing as he came out of the boardroom. She dove over the door, reached back, and caught her hand, flipping herself over and landing squarely on her feet.

  As the Norwegian left the boardroom, Charlene entered it. She pulled the door shut behind her and locked it.

  Wayne, in the corner to her left, was tied to a chair. His mouth was gagged, his eyes fixed straight ahead. He didn’t look over at her and she wondered if they had him drugged. This time it was obvious that the wall behind him had been scrubbed clean—she could imagine the cryptogram having been written there. It was now erased.

  The boy was waking up in front of her.

  Four heads poked up from the far side of the table.

  Trolls!

  They’d been sleeping in the boardroom chairs, but they were too short for Charlene to have seen. They came awake groggily, but with looks of fierce determination. She’d heard trolls called cute, but there was nothing cute about these. Two jumped up onto the table. Two others leaped down to the floor and ran beneath the table toward her.

  The sleepy boy rubbed his eyes and looked at her as if she were a ghost. It was too late for her to try to all-clear. She ran to Wayne and was reaching for the knot on his right wrist when a troll grabbed her legs from behind, pulling her away from the chair. She kicked back and the little man went flying into one of his friends.

  Wayne continued to stare off into space.

  “Hang in there,” she said, no longer able to think about untying him. A third troll latched onto her lower leg. He opened his mouth and bit her.

  Charlene cried out and kicked him. The little man rolled like a soccer ball and crashed into the far wall below one of the Mary Poppins Carousel horses.