by Jeff Dixon
The man who had spoken those words to them was Walt Disney.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Six Days Ago
Night
The office where Mr. Disney now stood was a replica of his office in California at the Walt Disney Studios. It was created exactly like the replica in the One Man’s Dream attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. A small stuffed Pal Mickey sat on the edge of the desk. Hawk smiled as he noticed it once again. It was that Pal Mickey, a high-tech interactive souvenir designed especially for him by Farren Rales, that had given him the clues he had needed to discover this very place.
“They look like they are in shock, Hawk,” Walt Disney said. “You better help ’em out a bit.” He sat back down behind the desk.
“I’d like for you all to meet the one and only audio-animatronic Walt Disney.” Hawk waved his hand toward the man behind the desk. “There is not another one like him. The most advanced audio-animatronic anyone else has ever seen is the A-100 Audio-Animatronic figures in the theme parks. Jack Sparrow, the Wicked Witch of Oz, and Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story Mania. Walt is an entirely different level of technology. He is so lifelike that he actually has an artificial intelligence built into his programming. He can remember, process, and respond in ways that are as close to lifelike as you can get.”
“Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” laughed the rich and familiar voice of Walt Disney. “In these parts, I am what you would call the AI 1000 Audio-Animatronic. I can move anywhere in this office, I can interact with you, and I will remember your names. Of course, Hawk told me he was bringing you here tonight. And you are Juliette, you are Shep, and you would be Jonathan, I believe, but where is Kate?”
“She couldn’t make it, Walt,” Hawk answered. “I’ll bring her another time.”
“Well, my new friends, you have a lot to do…so you better get busy.” Walt spoke with his Midwestern drawl. “We can visit another time.”
Hawk waved to him and ushered the group through a door on the side of the reception area and into a massive, long corridor. They began to pepper Hawk with questions about the Walt Disney audio animatronic figure they had just seen.
“Who built it?” Shep wanted to know.
“Just how advanced it is?” Jonathan asked.
“Why was he created?” Juliette wondered.
Hawk stopped and turned back to face his friends. “All of your questions are exactly the same ones I had a few years ago. I’ll do my best to answer them, but we need to keep moving.” He pointed to the tunnel they were in. “There are only two ways in and out of this tunnel. One is the way we came in. The other is a private entrance that I can access from my apartment. That is how I was able to meet you in the Town Square Theater while my security guard still thinks I’m in my apartment.”
They came to another door with an identical locking mechanism to the one they had entered moments ago. The combination of code, steel bars, and the key unlocked this door as well, and the four of them stepped inside a room lined with counters, workstations, consoles, walls of flat screens blazing with images from all over the resort; and in the center of the room stood a tall, silver cylinder resembling a rocket ship loaded with gauges and dials. This ten-foot-tall hub looked like it had been ripped right out of Tomorrowland.
The group spread out and began to examine the technological marvels that surrounded them. Hawk gave them a moment to take it all in as he’d done in the past.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.” Shep was impressed.
“I call it the bunker,” Hawk informed them. “From here you can control the entire Magic Kingdom. You can see things security can’t. You can override systems and from here can run the park if you have to in an emergency.”
“And no one else knows about this?” Juliette asked, still trying to absorb all she was seeing around her.
“Farren designed it, he gave it to me, and now I am showing you.” Hawk glanced around the bunker.
“It’s impressive,” Jonathan said. “But what does it all mean? I guess I am saying, why is it here?”
“And why is Walt Disney sitting in his office down the hall?” Juliette added.
“It isn’t really Walt,” Hawk corrected. “It’s—”
“I know,” Juliette cut him off. “I got it, it…he’s an audio-animatronic. Why is he there?”
Hawk motioned for them all to take a seat. They each grabbed a leather office desk chair and rolled it over to where Hawk seated himself.
“By now you’ve managed to figure out bits and pieces on your own, but I’m going to give you the short version of this because we have something we have to do,” Hawk began. “When Walt and then Roy died, they had put a plan in place… an emergency plan in case they ever needed to reassert leadership into the direction of their company. Three Imagineers—Farren Rales, George Colmes, and someone else whom I have never met—were entrusted to create this plan. The audio-anima-tronic Walt was created just in case they ever decided to make a few films that might give more direction to the organization…long-lost, recently discovered Walt films, I suppose. But they didn’t because it would have been dishonest and probably something Walt would not have wanted.”
His listeners nodded approvingly.
Hawk inhaled deeply. “This facility is self-powered, so even if everything in the park were to shut down, this area would still work. It’s an emergency crisis center, a safe zone. I was afraid, and Farren warned me that no place was safe when Reginald Cambridge tried to steal the key and the clues to the Disney journal. But I don’t think he ever figured out where this was or what was down here. Even if he did, he never got in. The bunker was never breached.”
“OK, so what are you not telling us?” Juliette smiled. “It’s very impressive, but you haven’t given us any reason you or anyone else needs this kind of facility.”
“Because Walt Disney is here,” Hawk said flatly.
“No,” she replied. “He is not real, he is an audio-animatronic.”
“You don’t understand.” Hawk hesitated. “Walt Disney is here, right behind you. In that massive rocket-like structure behind you.”
Mouths slightly agape, they all turned to look at the gleaming silver cylinder in the center of the room. There was an extended silence as the explored the tube with their eyes.
“So Walt Disney is cryogenically suspended inside of that tube?” Juliette said, her voiced tinged in horror and disbelief. “And you are the keeper of that secret? You are the keeper of Walt Disney?”
“That’s just an urban legend,” Jonathan laughed. “Right?”
“No.” Hawk drew in a deep breath. “No urban legend. It’s real. He’s there—and up until now, I was the only one who knew. Now you do.”
“And just what are you supposed to do with…Walt?” Juliette was caught between being appalled and fascinated.
“I guess…decide whether he needs to be brought back to life, when and if the technology ever exists to do that,” Hawk said.
“That’s playing God, isn’t it, boss?” Shep asked. “And what about his soul… you…we are ministers. He has slipped into eternity. You just can’t bring him back.”
“This is way beyond the realm of right or being partially right,” Juliette began to lecture him. “To bring Walt back would be wrong. To have him here is, well… wrong.”
“Hold on!” Hawk rose to his feet. “I am not bringing Walt Disney back to life. I don’t know how, and if I did know how, then we would have an ethical question we would have to wrestle with. So don’t start giving me a “mommalogue,” Juliette.” Hawk moved toward the cylinder. “This was a part of the deal, and Farren told me that I would have to make the call when and if it ever needed to happen. He knew I would do the right thing because I am serious about following God. But yes… being the keeper and protector of the kingdom means that this is one of those secrets. So this room will never lose power. No one else knows it is here. It is safe from the rest of the world.”
&nb
sp; “So now people are trying to kill you because they’ve figured out that you have the body of Walt Disney?” Jonathan frowned, trying to connect the dots.
“No,” Hawk answered. “I don’t think so. There is no way anyone else knows. Only Farren knew. George didn’t, the other Imagineer doesn’t…it wasn’t the way they set up the plan. I have never shown anyone else what you are seeing. I have the only key to get it. Remember, I don’t know what I have…”
“How do you know?” Juliette stood. “How do you know you don’t know what you have?”
“Because when we got shot at in the limousine, before I got out at the hospital, Farren grabbed me and told me…‘You don’t know what you have.’” Hawk paused. “I don’t know what they want, I don’t know what I have, and so this is where I start to figure it out.” The tension in the room had risen a level. “So are you going to help me or not? Was it a mistake bringing you here, or can you get past knowing what you didn’t know a minute ago and work on this with me?”
“Sorry,” Juliette said as she sat back down. “It’s just a lot to take in, and finding out the urban legend isn’t an urban legend is . . .”
“I know.” Hawk smiled at her. Looking at each of them he said, “The plan Walt and Roy put in place is a big secret to be responsible for. It is creative and complicated, and it seems to keep getting bigger and bigger.”
“In other words, the secret is expanding,” Jonathan summarized.
“Apparently.”
“But Hawk,” Juliette said, her voice low with concern. “How can you keep and protect a secret when you don’t know what the secret is? It’s an impossible task.”
“There are days like this when it seems that way. But most days, it has been fun.”
“Except when people are trying to kill you and others are dying,” Jonathan reminded him.
“Like what is happening now.” Shep was still mesmerized by the cylinder in the center of the room. He rolled his chair closer to it, examining the gauges and dials, trying to decipher how it worked.
“Yes, like what is happening now.” Hawk moved toward the cylinder next to Shep. “So this is where we start.”
“ We start with the cryogenic cylinder containing Walt Disney?” Shep quickly turned from the silver tube back toward Hawk.
“After Farren got shot, when we arrived at the hospital, he grabbed me.” The memory made Hawk’s eyes start to tear up. He blinked. “He grabbed me and told me that I didn’t know what I had…and that I needed to…I needed to open the cylinder.”
“What?” all three said nearly simultaneously.
“I need to open the cylinder.”
“You are going to open the cylinder with the cryogenically suspended body of Walt Disney inside?” Juliette again stood to her feet in disbelief.
“Yes, I am.” Hawk turned toward the cylinder.
“When are you going to do this?” Jonathan asked.
“Right now.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Six Days Ago
Night
Hawk moved reverently in front of the massive cylinder. Slowly he placed the old skeleton key in the center of the locking mechanism, which was identical to the locks he had opened bringing the group to the bunker. He repeated each step with precision. The silver bars were placed in their respective slots, and he reached to punch in the code on the keypad. As his finger reached the letter N, Juliette placed her hand across his forearm, stopping him.
“You’re sure about this? Right?” Juliette’s expression told him she wanted him to offer another option.
“Farren told me I had to open it.” Using his other hand, he gently moved hers off his arm. “It’s the only thing I know to do. If I don’t, I don’t have another move to make.”
“Do you know what happens once you put in the code?” Jonathan asked, keeping his eyes focused on the keypad.
“Not exactly. I have been doing some research on how cryogenics works.” Hawk sighed and decided to take the time to answer before continuing. “Funeral directors have been trying to put cryopreservation into perspective over the last few years, helping people to understand that the process is not ghastly or gruesome. Some people believe it is. But what is really happening is that the body is being preserved, in a more natural state, for an indefinite period during which it does not begin to break down or decay.”
“So you are a fan of this method?” Juliette shot him a dark look.
“I didn’t say that,” Hawk fired back. Tension was making the room heavy. “I’m just saying, I found out that what happens is very complicated and involved surgical procedures to preserve people this way and great care has to be taken in unfreezing them.”
“If we open this up, a body isn’t going to come falling out on top of us?” Jonathan took a step back from the cylinder.
“A frozen body. Like a human icicle.” Shep’s eyes grew wide.
“No, nothing or no one is going to fall out of the cylinder. You don’t unfreeze someone just by opening the cylinder. We aren’t going to do any harm to Walt.” Hawk pressed the keypad, punching in the code. “At least, I don’t think so,” he whispered.
Juliette turned toward him. “What did you just say?”
As the lock released, a kathunk echoed in the bunker. A whirring sound rumbled inside the container, and the cylinder split in two, a large seam opening up from the bottom to the top. Partially open, the entire cylinder began to lean back on two support legs that rose up from the base the metallic tube was resting upon. Gently, as if rocking back into a reclining position on a table, the cylinder now looked like a futuristic coffin getting ready to open in front of them. A loud clank announced it was completely horizontal, and then the whirring resumed as the sides of the cylinder opened completely. A blast of frosty mist billowed toward them, chased by the hiss of depressurization. The four of them stepped back as they were absorbed in the icy mist. The cold vapor gripped the ground, and a low-hanging fog clawed its way through the bunker. The lights of the control panel disappeared in the fog, and an eerie glow radiated through the chamber. Once the mist had cleared the opening of the cylinder, they stepped forward cautiously to peer inside.
Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Six Days Ago
Night
I don’t care what you say, that is not Walt Disney.” Shep’s voice cut through the chilly air swirling around them.
“You’re right, it is definitely not Walt.” Hawk leaned closer to the cryo-coffin. Tilting his head to the side and pursing his lips, he rubbed his chin, trying to understand what he was seeing.
The inner chamber that normally would have held a body in cryo-suspension was a hollow shell. Nestled inside it was a small square box swaddled in thermal wrapping. Hawk took his hand and moved it toward the package.
“Wait,” Jonathan cautioned. “Shouldn’t you be wearing a pair of gloves or something? It’s cold, really cold right? You could get cryo-bite or frostbite.”
“No, it should be fine.” Hawk hesitated. “According to my research, once the inner chamber is open, the temperature to the touch is safe, whatever is frozen remains fine for a short period of time. I think I can touch it.”
“I hope those are the cold hard facts.” Shep offered a sly grin. “If not, you are going to regret what you’re about to do.”
Hawk reached in and with a tug pulled the box away from its resting place and held it in front of him for closer inspection.
“Most of the reports when Walt Disney died were that he was cremated and put to rest in a small family ceremony at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in California. If I remember, it was very quick, and Walt’s remains were put there almost before anyone knew he had passed away.” Juliette cleared her throat. “Maybe those are the remains of Walt Disney.”
Hawk stared at the box he was holding in front of him and gently turned it over to look at it from all angles. His gaze went from the container to each of his friends then back
to the cube he held in his hands. The coolness of the room didn’t dull the heat of his brain boiling over every possibility and theory he could create as to what had happened and what he might be holding.
“Farren told me that Walt Disney was here.” Hawk shook his head. “I’m not disappointed or anything like that, just stunned. Farren was so emphatic about giving me the responsibility to care for him. I never once for a minute thought he was not telling me the truth.”
“So, could Juliette be right?” Shep piped in. “Could you be holding the cremated remains of Walt Disney?”
“Could Juliette be right?” Juliette rolled her eyes as she took the box from Hawk. “Of course I could be right. We won’t know until you open it.”
“But why would the cremated remains be frozen in the cryo-chamber?” Jonathan asked. “That makes no sense.”
“When does anything surrounding our world make sense anymore?” Juliette finished her inspection of the box and handed it back to Hawk.
Moving over to a counter in the bunker, he rustled through a container loaded with pens, highlighter markers, and a single pair of scissors. Swinging them open and using one of the sharpened edges like a knife, Hawk cut into the soft thermal wrapping, creating a line all the way around the four sides of the box. Returning the scissors, he gently peeled back the thermal layers, revealing a Styrofoam storage box. Whatever was inside had been protected from the temperature by the box itself and the thermal cover. The box pulled opened, and for the second time in a matter of minutes the four were surprised by what they saw. Hawk reached inside the container and retrieved the item, then held it up for all to see.
“Seriously?” Juliette pointed toward it with her index finger. “That is what was inside this massive cryogenic cylinder?”
“A little underwhelming isn’t it, boss?” Shep agreed.
Jonathan tilted his head. “You know, I learned a few years ago not to be surprised at what happens to you or us anymore. But this is not really what I would have guessed.”
