KK02 - Disney at Dawn

by Ridley Pearson

  He was responsible for Finn and his friends’ becoming DHIs in the first place. He had created the concept and had overseen the development of the software. More important, as far as Finn could tell, he controlled a secret group of Cast Members that opposed the Overtakers’ attempt to gain control of the Magic Kingdom.

  we’re not safe here. do you have video abilities?

  yes.

  then go onto the web site: www.dgamer.com/vmk. it’s a secure link. but before you do that, you’ll need to write something something down.

  Finn wondered if Wayne had been in a coma or something. He typed: vmk was shut down months ago.

  to the public, yes. the site had to be closed for security reasons. write this down. at the sign-on, use the username: imagineer1. your password is our uncle’s full name spelled backward with no dashes or spaces.

  Finn quickly scribbled down yensidtlaw. walt-disney spelled backward.

  okay. got it.

  you will see a video link button on the landing page. right click on that button: it will open up a video chat with me. see you in a minute.

  The sudden closing of VMK had come as a shock to Finn and his friends. News that the Web site remained accessible surprised him. But he didn’t doubt Wayne for a moment. Wayne lived and worked in a secret world. He was full of surprises.

  * * *

  “It’s really you,” Finn gasped, seeing the man’s weathered face on his computer screen. There was no telling how old Wayne was, but he wasn’t young.

  The video signal wasn’t perfect: static overlaid Wayne’s face, and the sound of his voice was crackling and uneven. He looked and sounded older than Finn remembered him.

  “You don’t have much time,” he said, causing gooseflesh to ripple up Finn’s arms.

  “Excuse me?” Finn replied.

  Wayne was continually checking over his shoulder, as if afraid of being found out, which Finn found disturbing.

  “You were lucky at the Park tonight,” Wayne said.

  “You were there?”

  “Never mind about me. You were there. That’s all that matters.”

  “It was Maleficent.”

  “Tell me exactly what happened.”

  Finn kept his summary of the evening’s events as short and succinct as possible. He described spotting Amanda and Jez during the start of the parade; of later seeing a pair of monkeys in the bushes near the crowd. Wayne quizzed him about the monkeys. Then Finn described his being chased up Escher’s Keep, and finished with Maleficent’s daring escape out the window and down Tinker Bell’s zip line.

  “We’d moved her there,” Wayne said. “Third move in as many weeks. We had intelligence that the Overtakers were planning for her escape. We thought by moving her around frequently…But it obviously wasn’t enough.”

  “What about the weather balloon? The lightning strike?”

  “The apartment was locked down like a jail cell. Sealed tight. We had to provide a way out in case of fire, but the closest exit was locked from the inside. Our security guard would have had to open that door for her to escape.”

  “The Dapper Dan chasing us…was he one of your guys?”

  “You had no way of knowing that.”

  But I should have, Finn thought. The Dapper Dan had known the way up the Keep. Only Wayne could have taught him the route.

  “We put on an ankle bracelet that would send an alarm if she moved more than fifty feet from the transmitter,” Wayne explained. “It housed a GPS transmitter, so we could track her down. They used the power of the lightning strike to break open the bars. Nothing short of a small bomb would have accomplished that. The lightning also temporarily knocked out the power, which was crucial for her to escape. They bought her enough time to cut the ankle bracelet off. We found it up there in the Tinker Bell tower.”

  That didn’t sound good. “So she’s just…gone?”

  “I doubt very far. A green face tends to stick out. It’s control of the Park that she’s after. She’ll stay in the Park, we think. But to accomplish her goal of domination, she’ll have to rebuild, and reorganize the Overtakers. And she’ll need the five of you out of the way. You defeated her last time. She won’t risk that happening again.”

  Finn didn’t like the way Wayne said that so calmly. Out of the way? He tried to wrap his mind around the fact that they were talking about a Disney character—villain or not—as if she were human. And after all that he and the other DHIs had been through, it wasn’t so hard. Something weird was going on, and somehow they were now a big part of it. Whatever kind of being Maleficent was, however it was that she existed, her presence was very real, as was the threat to the DHIs.

  “She needs cold, don’t forget, or at least the illusion of cold. She loses her powers in the heat. For this and other reasons, we think she’s likely gone to the Animal Kingdom.”

  “Because?”

  “There are several attractions there that are kept quite chilly. And of course there’s Everest.”

  “Is that where Jez is?”

  Wayne’s face tightened. “You want to explain that, please?”

  Finn told him the rest of what had happened. He related what Willa had told him briefly upon their meeting by the castle: that Jez had been replaced by a DHI and the real Jez had vanished.

  “That’s why I was IMing the others,” he explained. “At midnight we were going to meet and try to figure out how to get Jez back.” He listened to himself say that, and wondered what chance they had against Maleficent. Then he checked the computer clock and, seeing it was well past midnight, wondered why no one else had joined the chat.

  “Amanda,” Finn continued, “supposedly said something about Jez being…different. Like she’s a Cast Member or something.”

  “She’s not a Cast Member,” Wayne said knowingly. If he knew something about Jez, he hid it well, for although the reception was poor—sparking and sputtering—his expression didn’t change.

  “What I’m going to tell you now,” Wayne said, “is done so in the strictest confidence. Do you understand me, Finn? You can share what you must with your friends, but only if absolutely necessary, and only if they promise to protect the information. It’s critical to the safety of all of us.”

  “I promise.” A second chill raced through Finn.

  Wayne glanced suspiciously over his shoulder for the umpteenth time. “I’m in hiding, as you must be aware by now. The Overtakers are said to have obtained the DHI technology. They are working on projecting me—turning me into a DHI so that they could mislead our efforts to defeat them. And if they managed to contain my DHI when I was sleeping…well…you saw what happened to your friend Maybeck.”

  Months earlier, Maybeck’s DHI had been prevented from crossing back over—a process that was triggered by a small black remote control device that Wayne possessed. As a result, the human Maybeck had remained asleep in bed in a kind of induced coma while his DHI had been trapped in a maintenance cage in Space Mountain. Finn had freed Maybeck’s DHI, and Wayne had then crossed them over, allowing the human Maybeck to awaken from his comatose state. But the idea of that happening to Wayne or any of the other DHIs ever again was terrifying. Unthinkable.

  “What you’ve just told me about Jezebel’s disappearance,” Wayne said, “figures into this theory, I’m afraid. It suggests the Overtakers do, in fact, have the DHI technology at their disposal, and that presents us with some difficult choices.”

  “Our DHIs went back on line tonight,” Finn muttered.

  “Precisely! You’re aware of the DHI expansion plan?”

  Finn had heard rumors that the Animal Kingdom was planning Disney Host Interactive characters—using DHIs of Animal Kingdom animals to guide guests through the Park the same way holograms of Finn and his friends guided guests around the Magic Kingdom.

  “Animal Kingdom this year,” Wayne said. “Then they’ll put your DHIs at Disneyland and the cruise ships within two years. You and the other DHIs have become so popular that the Imaginee
rs are ramping up expansion into all the Parks around the world: Paris, Hong Kong, Japan. You have developed an enormous fan base.”

  The video briefly sputtered and went dark, but a moment later Wayne’s face grew larger as he leaned toward the camera.

  Wayne spoke softly. “Imagineering won’t confirm or deny my team’s accusations that the Animal Kingdom’s DHI server was cloned, but now with what you’ve told me, I’m sure of it. The Overtakers have a second DHI server, Finn. No one around here is ever going to admit it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. They have stolen the software responsible for projecting you five kids as holograms. If they’ve created DHI data for me, as I believe—and for Jezebel, as you’ve just told me—then it’s in an effort to trick us or spy on us or manipulate us. What if my DHI is used so that I give my people orders that they, the Overtakers, want given?”

  “That would give them control of the Park.” Finn paused, deep in thought. “But wait a second. If they have the same server, the same software, does that give them control over our DHIs too?”

  “You see? You understand things so quickly. There’s a reason you’re the leader,” Wayne said, his eyes briefly looking brighter.

  “I’m not the leader.”

  “Of course you are.”

  “We’ve never voted on a leader.”

  “Not all leaders are elected, Finn. Some just rise to the occasion.”

  Finn ignored that. He and his friends worked as a group. Wayne wouldn’t understand that.

  “So what you’re saying,” Finn said, “is that the Overtakers may be able to use our DHIs like they used Jez to trick Amanda? They could have us doing stuff we wouldn’t want.”

  “It’s not only that, I’m afraid. If they have a second server up and running—and by everything you’ve told me about Jez’s disappearance, they must—then the greater concern is their generating DHIs for each of you inside the Animal Kingdom. If they trap those DHIs and prevent them from crossing back over when you’re asleep…”

  “We’d end up like Maybeck was.”

  “Sleeping Beauty Syndrome,” Wayne said.

  “Yeah: SBS,” Finn whispered so softly to himself that Wayne didn’t hear. It was the nickname Wayne had given to the comatose state. “But why would they want to do that to us?”

  “Because Maleficent wants you out of the way. For good. They can only accomplish that if you go to sleep,” Wayne reminded Finn. “That’s the key, you see? If none of you goes to sleep, there’s no way you’ll cross over in the first place, no way you could be trapped in the Syndrome. They cannot gain that control over you as long as you remain awake.”

  “I thought the software was rewritten so that SBS couldn’t happen again. Wasn’t that the point of the DHI server being down for the past couple months? The Grand Opening was to celebrate everything working again.”

  “Yes, yes, yes. And I’d like to think the same rewritten software had been installed at the Animal Kingdom, but that installation has been going on while the original software was being debugged. I know a software update was made available to the Animal Kingdom, but I can’t get anyone over there to confirm it ever took place.”

  Finn stared at Wayne’s flickering face, his thoughts whirring. Wayne was warning him that the Overtakers had a DHI server with the original flawed software that allowed Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. “You’re freaking me out,” Finn said.

  “Yes. I can understand that.”

  “How do you know any of this is for real?”

  “I don’t. All I can tell you is, as a precaution, I’ve been taking twenty-minute naps—never a minute longer, hoping to keep them from crossing me over. So far it has worked. But for how long? The crossing over has to do with the dream state. We designed it that way. It occurs in the first few moments of REM sleep, which is about twenty minutes into a decent night’s sleep. The crossing over feels to you like it happens immediately—instantly—but that’s not the case. And another thing: I designed the crossing over to synchronize—that is, if you all go to sleep at about the same time, all five of you would then cross over at roughly the same moment. It saves the code from having to reload for each of you.”

  “But what about the remote control? If we got in trouble, couldn’t you use that to cross us back over?”

  “If your DHIs were all in the same place at the same time. Yes, that’s more than likely possible. But they could prevent that easily enough.”

  “By keeping our DHIs apart.” Finn didn’t like what he was hearing. “So, what am I supposed to do?” he asked. Wayne was making it sound as if there was no hope: they were doomed.

  “You need to stay awake. You need to find where the real Jezebel is being kept,” Wayne explained. “And you need to find that second server and take it back. At the very least, you need to crash it. But only once Jezebel is safe and you see that she’s fully awake. I wouldn’t mind if you contacted me then as well. If you crash that server before saving Jezebel…well…I’m not sure you or anyone else will ever see her again.”

  “And if they catch you sleeping, then the same applies to you.”

  “Never mind about me. It’s Jezebel we must concentrate on.”

  “Why? Who is she?” Finn asked, hearing something different, something urgent, in Wayne’s voice. He knew something he wasn’t sharing.

  Wayne grimaced. He looked sternly into the camera. “It’s not for me to say.”

  “But you know?”

  “I suspect. Knowing and suspecting are two different things.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “I can’t. That wouldn’t be fair to her or you. For one thing, I could be wrong. Listen, Finn, there are powers at work far greater than my own. It’s not for me to guess. If you’re to learn about Jezebel, it will have to come from another source.”

  “Amanda.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “They’re sisters.”

  “That’s a loosely thrown around term, now isn’t it, Finn? We’re all sisters and brothers, depending how far back you go.”

  “They aren’t sisters,” Finn said, seeking an answer.

  “It isn’t for me to say. That’s the best I can do.”

  “Find Jez,” Finn said, repeating his instructions. “Find and crash the second server. Recover it if we can.

  “It’s challenge enough, I know,” Wayne said. “But the bigger challenge will be how quickly you can accomplish any of this. You absolutely must have Jezebel safe and the server crashed before any of you fall asleep. If you sleep, you very well may be crossed over into that second server, the Overtakers’ server, and that would leave you—the real Finn—”

  “SBS,” Finn said, cutting him off. “The Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.”

  “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

  “You’re afraid?” said Finn sarcastically. “How do you think I feel?”

  “There’s one last thing I need to explain.”

  Wayne was constantly doing this: holding stuff back, and Finn found it frustrating and annoying. It was as if…as if he were testing him.

  “You’re surprised your friends haven’t IMed you,” Wayne said.

  “Yes.” But how do you know that?

  “And you’re probably wondering how I know that.”

  “Okay. You win.”

  “You’ll find them in your private room inside VMK. Maybe I’ll have time to explain about VMK at some point. For now, all you need to know is that I sent your friends the same link and password I just gave you. When we end this chat, all you have to do is click on the VMK logo on the landing page. It’ll link you directly to VMK.”

  “No way!” Excitement filled Finn. He had loved the virtual community. The idea of returning…

  “I promise you it’s true. Remember the link: dgamer-dot-com, forward slash VMK. You’ll use the same user ID and password I’ve just given you. And by the way, something you may need…There’s a new Web terminal in Camp Minnie Mickey. It’s supposed to be used for making Disney vacations reservati
ons, but if you click on Dream Vacations and type the password I gave you, it will grant you Web access and through it, a way into VMK.”

  “But Camp Minnie Mickey is in the Animal Kingdom?” Finn said.

  “Once you’re inside VMK, if you need me type my name. It won’t show in the text box, but I’ll see it and I’ll come find you. Trust no one, not even the avatars in VMK. The Overtakers are everywhere. Take every precaution you can.”

  “But I’m going to Animal Kingdom?” Finn said, repeating himself. After all he’d been told, he wasn’t sure he wanted to get anywhere near the park.

  “You must find Maleficent and destroy the second server. So, yes. You and the others are going to Animal Kingdom.”

  Wayne turned to look over his shoulder again. “Oh, no…” he said, his voice panicked. The screen erupted into static, and Wayne was gone.

  * * *

  Finn found his way to to the DHIs’ private room inside the Virtual Magic Kingdom. He was disappointed he didn’t have time to enjoy being back in VMK. The game was nearly empty of players, and the effect was chilling. As he reached and entered the room, he found Maybeck sitting on a virtual couch; Willa and Charlene were over in a corner, their text boxes filled with dialogue about what had happened during the lightning storm.

  Philby stood near to the room’s only door, guarding the entrance. Text bubbles appeared above each of the avatars as the Kingdom Keepers began “talking.”

  philitup: he’s here

  mybest: about time

  Maybeck’s avatar stood up and crossed to the door, meeting up with Finn. Quickly the other avatars swarmed around Finn as well.

  willatree: we got the message to wait, but we worried what it meant.

  Finn: it was_ _ _ _ _. He’d forgotten that the VMK server wouldn’t allow him to type Wayne’s name.

  philitup: who?

  Finn: the old guy with the white hair, five letters.

  mybest: you mean_ _ _ _ _? But the system again refused the name. where’s he been?