by Jeff Dixon
Hawk was a good swimmer; years ago he would have been considered a strong swimmer, and the water was cool but not cold. He was making better time than he thought he would, and he could see the shore growing closer. As he swam, he was careful to breathe properly, not to get in too much of a hurry, and do his best not to expend all of his energy in a sudden burst. It would take time to get to the other side, there was no way to rush it; and just like other things in life, if you get in too big of a hurry, then you find yourself in serious trouble. Hawk was calculating all of the things he needed to remember for this lengthy swim. His shoes felt heavy, but he had decided to keep them on in case he needed them on the other side. If they became too cumbersome, he could always drop them on the way across. Minutes moved past as he glided through the water. For a few moments, it seemed for each stroke he took, he was moving backward. What had appeared to be a reasonable swim before he got into the water was becoming a greater chore now that he was immersed in the reality of it. He steadily pushed his body closer and closer to the other shore.
After a deep stroke he surprisingly felt soft sand under his fingers. He stopped kicking and let his feet fall to the bottom. Half swimming and half walking he made his way to dry land and pulled himself up to rest on the beach. Breathing deeply, still clutching the treasure chest, he laid on the soft white sand of Fort Wilderness Beach, taking in all the air he could get and resting for a few minutes. As he lay there, he began to strategize.
He needed Kiran to open the treasure chest. She had promised—or warned him—that she would be close…very close. He didn’t know how to contact her and he wondered just how close she had meant by very close. If she had been very close, she could have brought a boat to get him off the island; at least then she would have been helpful. He also pondered what could have happened to his boat. He replayed in his mind his arrival on the island. He was sure he had secured it. Then the better question was who had released his boat. And where had they gone? And how had they known his boat would be there and what he was doing?
He wanted answers to all of those questions, but he instead he willed himself to his feet to get back to his office in the Bay Lake Towers. Since that had been the place Kiran had showed up before, he would make it easy for her to find him again, because he needed her to find him. The buses didn’t run through this area this early in the morning, so he also was going to have to find a way back to his office. Most guests who visited Fort Wilderness would use bus transportation to get from their camping areas or the main parking area to the Settlement Outpost, where they could eat, shop, and play. What many did not realize is that you could cut over to the Wilderness Lodge from the bus stop at the Settlement Outpost. That is what he would do now. It would take time; the massive size of the resort was something you didn’t appreciate until you had no easy transportation to get around it. But once at the Wilderness Lodge, he would secure a ride back to his office.
The walk to the Wilderness Lodge seemed to take an eternity. The campground was nearly deserted, and although it had been difficult for him to keep track of with all the distractions, he believed the hurricane was due to hit Central Florida tomorrow. Already he could see that many things in Fort Wilderness had been secured and tied down in anticipation of the storm. The lonely, darkened roadway toward the Wilderness Lodge unwound in front of him. His clothes were soaked from the swim, the evening air was blustery, and there were short bursts of rain that prevented him from drying out at all. His clothes were clinging to him and he pushed back his hair as it fell across his face. He imagined he had traded his usual slightly shaggy, unkempt look for a more drowned-and-miserable vibe. The rain once again slowed and then stopped. He shivered, realizing how uncomfortable he was in his wet clothes. He determined he would change in his office.
Twin shadows unexpectedly stretched out in front of him as lights glowed behind him. He moved from the center of the road where he was walking to the side and turned as the lights of a car approached. The automobile slowed and began to drift toward his side of the road. A surge of energy coursed through his veins. His inability to see the driver past the blinding headlights left him vulnerable. Hawk turned his head to calculate which direction he would run if he needed to escape. The car stopped behind him, bathing him in brilliant light from the headlamps. He faced the car and waited.
“Don’t you know better than walking alone at this time of night? It could be dangerous out here…even at Walt Disney World.”
Hawk recognized the voice, but amazement prevented him from speaking right away.
“Do you want a ride or not?” Kiran Roberts demanded from the behind the wheel of the parked car.
Slowly he stepped back toward the car as he shielded his eyes from the headlights. They suddenly went dark, with only the amber emergency lights still illuminated. Blinking, he moved to the passenger side and looked in as the window was rolled down. It was a Disney security car.
“Hi,” Kiran bubbled. “Have you been thinking about me?”
He had been thinking about her not too long ago, wondering how he would contact her, but telling Kiran the truth seemed like an unwise tactic. “I’ve been busy.”
“I know.” She smirked as he got into the car. “What do you have in your hands there?”
He looked down at the treasure chest then back toward her. He glanced toward her arm as she clutched the steering wheel. There on her wrist was his MagicBand.
“A treasure.” Hawk closed the door.
“Open it.”
“Can’t.”
“Why not?” Kiran tilted her head.
He turned the front of the treasure chest toward her and allowed her to see the locking mechanism. She flashed a dazzling smile and he knew she understood. She drummed her manicured fingers on the steering wheel and shook her head in disappointment. “You lied to me.”
“Lied?” A lie of omission, perhaps. “When?”
“Just now.” she turned the lights of the car back on and put it in gear. “When you said you were too busy to think about me. But you knew I was the only one who could help you open your treasure.”
“I wouldn’t need you to help if you hadn’t stolen my MagicBand.” Hawk peered out the front window.
“Like I said, it was just an insurance policy I needed to get you to help me find what we are looking for.”
“You’re crazy.” Hawk found himself smiling in disbelief at their conversation. “Without a doubt, you are crazy.”
“I am a lot of things, Grayson Hawkes.” Kiran turned toward him as she drove. “But the one thing you know I’m not…is crazy.” She turned her attention back to the road. “Where are we going?”
“Where did you get the car?” Hawk turned slightly in the seat toward her. “Why are you in a Disney security vehicle?”
“I borrowed it.” Kiran glanced toward him momentarily. Her quick glance had an edge that told him the conversation was going nowhere. “So, where are you going?”
“My office.” Hawk resigned himself to her seeing whatever was in the chest. “I need you to unlock the lock.”
“Glad to be of service.” Again she smiled as she spoke.
“How did you know where I was?”
“I already promised you I would be close…I have been close.”
She pressed harder on the accelerator, driving Hawk back deeper into the plush leather seat. The car streaked along the roadway, turning away from the Wilderness Lodge and setting a new direction toward the Bay Lake Towers.
CHAPTER FORTY - ONE
One Day Ago
2:30 A.M.
Hawk emerged from his office in a dry set of clothes, hair towel dried, and clutching the treasure chest under his arm. He had told Kiran to wait in the conference room while he changed, and he’d kept the treasure box by his side the entire time. Kiran looked him over as he approached the large table in the center of the room.
“You clean up nicely.” She motioned for him to place the box on the table. “Now, let’s open it up.”
Hawk placed the box on the table but kept the locking mechanism turned toward himself, away from her. She reached out to slide the box around, but he kept a firm grip on it and did not let her move it. They both held the box on the table between them. She locked gazes with him.
“What happens after we open the box?” Hawk asked.
“ We find out what’s inside.” Kiran kept both hands on the treasure chest.
“I know that. But after we find out what is in there, what happens then?”
“You and I will follow whatever clue we find.”
“Kiran, there is no scenario that unfolds where I allow you to solve the mystery or have whatever it is we are looking for.” Hawk searched her face for a response. “You understand that, don’t you?”
“Hawk.” She smiled at him sweetly. “You don’t have to make this difficult. There are some who want what you are looking for and want you dead. I just want what you are looking for. I have no desire to see you dead. You play nicely with me…noth-ing happens to you or the third Imagineer you so desperately want to find. You don’t play nicely with me”—her voice grew softer and more intense—“I will take what I want, and I promise you, you will never…ever…meet the third Imagineer. I’m not trying to take your power, your theme parks, your studio, your entertainment empire. I just want Walt’s secrets.”
“And if you get the secrets…what then?”
“I guess that depends on what secrets we find, doesn’t it?”
Hawk realized there was a showdown coming with Kiran. He needed her right now but understood that he would not be getting rid of her quickly. He had no plan yet as to how to deal with her. Not yet, but he would come up with one.
He turned the front of the treasure box toward her. The oval lock emblazoned with the outline of Mickey’s head now faced her. She lifted her wrist and touched the MagicBand to the iconic emblem. Instantly a green light illuminated around the oval and flashed as it surrounded the icon. Then the Mickey Mouse–shaped head lit up also. Shining a stunning emerald green, it flashed three times, and then a distinctive click sounded as the lock opened. Kiran turned the oval, and it rotated away, revealing a latch. She flipped open the latch and then lifted the lid of the chest. Inside there was a plastic tube, sealed at both ends, that she carefully removed and then opened. Tapping it on the table between them, she allowed the contents to fall out. It appeared to be a rolled-up package, swaddled in a plastic covering. She found an edge and began to unwrap it. Layers peeled back until it became obvious what was inside.
“It’s a newspaper,” she said as she continued to unwrap it.
“Walt delivered newspapers when he was a boy,” Hawk said. He wasn’t sure why he had offered that bit of trivia or if it meant anything in regard to the clue.
The newspaper was an old edition of The Huntsville Times, dated April 13, 1965. As Kiran flattened out the paper in front of them, they read the headline: Walt Disney Makes Pledge to Aid Space. Silently they read the article, which gave an account of Walt and Roy Disney visiting the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. A quote from Walt that caught Hawk’s eye read, “If I can help through my TV shows, to wake people up to the fact that we’ve got to keep exploring…I’ll do it.” Hawk remembered that Walt had helped create excitement about the space program in the years before 1965 with a series of television shows about traveling in space. His reading was interrupted when Kiran pointed to something else on the page. This was a handwritten note. Once again, he recognized the writing as the work of Farren Rales.
If ELSIE is worth 31573, then he is worth 197 more.
The name of the last of Walt’s nine will help you find what is forgotten in space and time.
“So what does it mean?” Kiran was staring at Hawk.
“No clue!”
“What do you mean, you have no clue?” she snapped.
“Just what I said, I have no idea.” Hawk was taken aback by the sudden edge in Kiran’s tone. She was anxious to solve the puzzle. But more so than he’d previously thought. He had no reason to believe that Kiran suspected he had figured out there was more than one group of people trying to unravel this mystery. Perhaps she was in a race with the other group as much as he was. That might be the one thing that would help him later, but he was not yet sure what relevance it might have. He wondered whether Kiran was really a part of the group that was trying to kill everyone close to him, as she had implied, or she was bluffing him and represented the other group that seemed to be trying to intimidate him. Or another possibility was that Kiran was simply a group of one, working alone to her own advantage. Hawk allowed his thoughts of the conspiracy to distract him from the clue for a moment, then realized she was still watching him.
“Think of anything?”
“No.” He slumped into one of the conference chairs. “‘The last of Walt’s nine will help you.’ Have you ever heard of Walt’s Nine Old Men?”
“Yes, that’s what he called his animators, right?”
“Very good, I’m impressed.” Hawk sat up a bit.
“Is that what the clue is about? Walt’s Nine Old Men?”
“That one line hints at that.” Hawk scratched his chin. “‘The name of the last of Walt’s nine—’”
“That was Ollie Johnson. He passed away in 2008,” Kiran blurted.
“Wow.” Hawk studied her closely. “Kiran, how do you know that?”
Hawk was curious. That was the kind of information Disney trivia fans would know but most would never have a clue of. Her knowing which one was the last of Walt’s old men and even when he died was not just impressive, it was…well, weird. It was information Hawk was going to have to go look up because he wasn’t sure. But somehow she knew.
“You aren’t the only one who knows your Disney trivia,” she said proudly.
“Fair enough.” He smiled at her. But even he didn’t know that much detail. “So what does it mean to us?”
“Do I have to figure out everything?”
“Well, let’s think through the clue for a minute. We know the name of the last of Walt’s nine old men, Ollie Johnson.” Hawk got up from the table and paced the room as he thought. “But there are other parts of the clue, and I can assure you they mean something.” He stopped to look out the window toward the Magic Kingdom. The cloud cover of the night sky hid the stars and the moon from view, the overcast darkness creating a gloomy shadow around Cinderella Castle in the distance. “‘If ELSIE is worth 31573, then he is worth 197 more,’ So who is Elsie, what is up with how much she’s worth, and what are we looking for ‘in space and time’?”
“Something that is ‘forgotten,’ according to the clue. Hawk, maybe . . .” Kiran paused, pondering. “Maybe to ‘find what is forgotten in space and time,’ we have to figure out where to look.”
Hawk listened and reasoned through her statement. “Perhaps. And the clue is backward. Normally the phrase would be in time and space, but clearly this way it emphasizes space first.”
“So?”
Hawk closed his eyes and thought. He realized just how weary he was and how nervous he was feeling with Kiran near him. She was dangerous, and for the moment she was actively engaged in trying to help him solve the clue. He shook his head, reminding himself that she was not trying to help him, she was trying to hurt him and steal whatever they might find. He was just a necessary part of helping her accomplish her goals. He had to keep his guard up and remind himself of that. For now, she was involved; he would figure out a way to remove her from the equation.
“If I were going to find something forgotten in space and time here at the resort, I would go to Mission: SPACE in Epcot.” Hawk opened his eyes.
“Why there?” Kiran asked.
“Because the attraction is loaded with the history of space travel, lots of stuff that most have forgotten, and maybe there’s something there that we need.”
“Then let’s go.” Kiran started toward the door.
Hawk moved to follow and then re
membered he no longer had a car. The memory of his burning collectible automobile returned, making him sad. He patted his pocket and realized he no longer had a cell phone either. Since he already had used the replacement cell phone stashed in his office, he didn’t have another one to replace it. He was totally unprepared to go anywhere.
“You’ll need to drive,” Hawk said as they were traveling down the stairs to the bottom floor of his office. When they had arrived at his office, Kiran had left the security car running in the parking lot. When he had asked her why, she had retorted that someone would be missing it soon. By now, that car would have been discovered and moved.
“Seriously?” Kiran stopped, and Hawk nearly ran into her. She turned back to glare at him. “I bet you would just love to have the make and model of my car, wouldn’t you? I’m not driving. Figure something out.”
Hawk rapidly checked off his possibilities. He could get another automobile from security, but they were busy hustling around, working to keep the guests safe as the storm grew closer. The resorts were now busy with activities to keep the guests happy. Since he had made the unprecedented decision to close the theme parks until after the hurricane blew through, there were now thousands of guests stuck in their resort hotels, and a team of amazing cast members were doing their best to keep them entertained and occupied. Suddenly an idea emerged. Hawk retreated back up the steps and into his office as Kiran followed him. Picking up the phone on his desk, he punched in a few numbers and momentarily had someone on the line. A few questions and a few sets of instructions later, he hung up and then moved back toward the door.
“Come on, we’re going to Epcot,” Hawk said as he brushed past Kiran and headed toward the steps.
“How are we getting there?”
“Follow me.” Hawk motioned for her to come after him as he arrived at the bottom of the steps and glided toward the front door of the office.
CHAPTER FORTY - TWO
One Day Ago
4:15 A.M.
Hawk and Kiran climbed up the unmoving escalator inside the Contemporary Resort. Their destination was the boarding level of the monorail. Although the Walt Disney World Resort’s fleet of 12 Mark VI monorails had been secured and stored for the storm, Hawk had managed to get the monorail back on line for his use. As they crested the top of the escalator, Kiran looked over and saw Monorail Blue sitting in the loading area.
