Storming the Kingdom

by Jeff Dixon

  The room fell silent for a moment. Hawk had just said out loud one of the many thoughts rushing through his brain. If Walt had protected these secrets for the sake of the people important to him, because they were dangerous, or too much to comprehend, how in the world would Hawk ever know what to do with them? How could he protect them? He looked at Kiran, who was staring at him, her green eyes sparkling with excitement…and Ollie, who wrinkled his brow.

  “You may be right, Hawk.” Ollie nodded. “But I can help you with only this one secret.”

  “And you are going to find it,” Kiran hissed at him from across the room. “If you don’t, you will never see the third Imagineer, the one piece of your puzzle that you must have to make everything in your world make sense.”

  Hawk glared at her. He felt his face flush with anger. He didn’t want her to find whatever Wernher von Braun had given to Walt for safekeeping. But he also knew she would keep the third Imagineer, whom he did desperately want to meet, at great risk if he didn’t keep looking. With resignation, he turned back toward Ollie Elsie.

  “How do I find Walt’s secret?” Hawk asked the older gentleman.

  “Hit the streets, find a man named David, but don’t become part of his business or you’ll never come back.” Ollie waited for Hawk to register what he had just said. It was meant to be vague; it was the next clue. Hawk’s internal processor turned the phrase over and over in his head.

  “Got it.” Hawk stood and reached out his hand to shake hands with Ollie. The old man gripped his hand with force and strength that surprised Hawk. “Thanks, Ollie.”

  “You’re welcome.” The elderly Elsie then cut his gaze toward Kiran and back to Hawk. “Good luck, you’re going to need it.”

  “He doesn’t believe in luck,” Kiran threw out, the phrase dripping in sarcasm.

  “You know, I can sense that.” Ollie still gripped Hawk’s hand. “You believe in something that is real, something that lasts, something you draw strength from… you have faith. You don’t need luck, do you?”

  “No, I don’t.” Hawk smiled at the man. “I’ll come back and visit with you soon.”

  “Do that.”

  Hawk strode from the command center toward the exit of the attraction. Kiran was right on his heels. He walked fast on purpose, making her work to keep up. Leaving the attraction, they stepped into the gray, overcast morning. The wind was gusting in short bursts and then disappearing with a sudden stillness, a reminder that they were hours away from the arrival of Hurricane Ginger. By this time of the morning, the activity in Epcot should have been picking up as the park was prepared for guests. This day, Hawk saw only one cast member moving about, stepping inside the Electric Umbrella restaurant. Hawk and Kiran moved back beneath Spaceship Earth and headed toward the park exit.

  “I wasn’t kidding you back there,” Kiran said. “You know the deal. If you want to see the Imagineer, then you get me to Walt’s secret.”

  “I know you aren’t kidding.” Hawk pinched the bridge of his nose as he grimaced. “It just makes me sad to know that you are as evil as you are. You could have been so much more.”

  Kiran grabbed Hawk by the arm and swung him around to face her. Stepping up and invading his personal space, she shot him a disgusted look. “Don’t you dare judge who am or what my motives are. I have given my life to being a cast member here at Walt Disney World, I have given my life to learning Disney history, and I have done all I could to preserve the dream that Walt started.”

  “You have?”

  “Yes, I have.” Kiran jabbed her finger at Hawk. “Long before you took over the kingdom by storm, I was here, doing what I could to protect and preserve all that Walt had created. I didn’t know what I was protecting, but I knew it was important. Then all of the sudden, you come bursting on the scene and are given everything.”

  “So you think I was given something that should have been given to you? You think Farren should have given you the kingdom key?

  “I didn’t know there was a kingdom key until you had one.” Kiran took a step back. “But you became the chosen one, and it ruined everything.”

  “How did Farren’s choosing me ruin everything?” Hawk was completely taken aback by her accusations.

  “Never mind.” Kiran turned away and headed toward the exit.

  Hawk watched her stalk away. She was angry and had just vented to him. But she also had cracked the door of her character for a moment, and he had seen a hint of vulnerability and hurt. Yet, he didn’t understand where it was coming from, and it made no sense to him. There was so much more to her story. She had always been a mystery to him, and even more so now. Suddenly she stopped, turned back toward him, and marched back to where he was standing.

  “Where are we going?” Apparently Kiran’s flash of anger had driven her as far as it could carry her. She still needed Hawk for their next move, just like he needed her to lead him to the third Imagineer.

  Hawk almost laughed at her frustration. “ We need to find a ride.”

  Exiting Epcot, they passed a security guard standing near the front gate. Hawk went over to him and explained he needed a vehicle. Moments later, Hawk sat behind the wheel of a white SUV marked with a Disney security logo on the side and fired up the engine. Kiran was seated next to him. She hadn’t said a word since their conversation inside the park. A roar of thunder rippled through the clouds in the sky, and the heavens opened up, dumping water in heavy globs all around them. The wipers tried to fight back the deluge but managed only to create disappearing streaks across the windshield of the car. Hawk placed the car into gear and slowly began to make his way out of the parking lot.

  “Do you want to explain what you were talking about a few minutes ago?” Hawk asked. His tone was easy, almost pastoral.

  “No, I think I said quite enough.” Kiran huffed. “Where are we going?”

  “We’re hitting the streets, of course.” Hawk leaned forward over the steering wheel, trying to see through the rainstorm.

  The driving was slow over the nearly deserted roadways inside Walt Disney World. The parks were shut down, guests were relocated or being entertained in safe venues, and the only people moving about were doing so because they had to be out. Hawk had been very out of touch with the impending storm they were now facing. The weather was just the early stages of the storm that would hit with full fury hours from now. He was confident that everything that could be done to make people safe had happened. It was a well-known fact that if you had to ride out a hurricane—or even worse, the aftermath of a hurricane—there was no better place to be than at Walt Disney World. The power rarely went out, and if it did, it was not for very long. The infrastructure of the resort was designed to face any type of storm, and the support systems built into their normal operations allowed them to be self-sustaining, quickly able to get things working quickly if needed, and to care for thousands and thousands of guests even if the greater Metro Orlando area was without power and water.

  Wind beat against the side of the SUV as he pulled through the entrance to Disney Hollywood Studios. This day there were no parking attendants or trams shuttling guests. Hawk decided to drive the SUV right up to the turnstiles where guests would normally enter, so he pulled under the covered main entrance area, slowed, stopped, and got out of the vehicle. The massive gates forbade anyone from entering. Hawk walked to the gate on the far right side of the entrance area, pulled out his kingdom key, and with a click, opened it so they could enter.

  Once they stepped through the entrance into the Crossroads of the World, they were immediately pummeled by rain. Facing a brisk headwind, they began making their way down Hollywood Boulevard, which served as the main street of the studios. Hawk guided them down the street, keeping them close to the edge of the buildings. Occasionally they would step under the cover of an entrance to a shop to get a brief break from the rainstorm.

  “Where are you taking me?” Kiran asked. She was soaked through and brushed back her hair, which clung to her face
in wet strands.

  “We’re doing what Ollie said, we’re hitting the streets.” Hawk reached into his back pocket and removed a red handkerchief. He handed it to Kiran to wipe the rain off her face. “If you’d like to wait for me here where it’s dry, I could come by and pick you up on the way back.”

  “Sure you would.” She handed the handkerchief back to him.

  “OK, suit yourself.” He tucked the red handkerchief into his left back pocket, letting a good amount of the fabric stick out, and stepped from underneath the porch back out into the rain.

  The pair made their way through the deserted theme park and turned to their left in front of the Great Movie Ride. Hawk was playing a hunch and hoping he was right. If there really were people who could help him, he was going to need them to extract Kiran from his search. This walk was to see if anyone was out there. The more he had thought about it, the more he realized that his red handkerchief request for help might be linked to his MagicBand. Although Disney did not use them improperly, the technology was there to track people in the park through those bands. Hawk wasn’t wearing it, Kiran was, but they were together, so perhaps that was a way that Farren and George had set up to help him. Right now, he needed to have the freedom to solve the mystery—and he needed help.

  Their rain-soaked walkway carried them down Commissary Lane, past the large dining area, and toward the corner where the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant and the Writer’s Stop are located. Near the end of the street, a man appeared. He stood waiting, facing the pair as they made their way toward him. The rain was blinding, and Hawk couldn’t make out who it might be standing in front of him. The man was not threatening them in any way; Hawk noticed from his shape that he was too big to be the dark-haired assassin. Kiran reached up and placed a hand on Hawk’s arm as they grew closer. Her fingers tensed around his arm as they finally got close enough for Hawk to recognize the man. It was Douglas Hall.

  “Douglas, I’m glad you are OK.” Hawk blinked back the rain hitting his face.

  “Glad to see you’re OK as well, sir.” Ignoring Kiran, Douglas smiled at Hawk. “Is everything under control here?”

  “Yes, it is, actually.” Hawk nodded toward Kiran. “But since you’re here, I would appreciate it if you would accompany Ms. Roberts here back to the main gate. I have a security vehicle there, and I’ll join you in a few minutes. There’s something I need to find first.” Hawk took Kiran’s arm and handed her over to Douglas Hall.

  “I wasn’t asking you,” Hall said to Hawk.

  “Pardon?”

  “He said, he wasn’t asking you.” Kiran’s face beamed with a huge smile. “He was asking me if everything was under control.” She wrapped her arms around Douglas and kissed him deeply as the rain fell over them. Both Kiran and Hall were smiling as they ended the kiss but held onto the embrace.

  Hawk was momentarily stunned but quickly recovered as he realized that Kiran had been able to keep up with his whereabouts because Hall had been working with her. It didn’t answer all of his questions about how Kiran knew what she knew, but it did answer some of them.

  “Why did you blow up my Mustang?” Hawk looked to Hall.

  “I felt bad about that, but orders are orders.” Hall pulled Kiran closer to him.

  She tilted her face up to the rain. “I wanted to remind you I was serious…and it gave me a chance to take something else from you that you loved.”

  A flash of lighting illuminated the dull morning with an eerie glow. The three of them stood there, drenched, unwilling to give up their ground.

  “Why would you want to take things from me that I love?” Hawk asked.

  “Because you have taken so much from me.” Kiran stepped in front of Douglas, facing Hawk. “You took what should have been mine. So I decided to get it back, and along the way, I would strip you of the things you love most. I must admit, you are much tougher than I ever thought you would be. I tried to take away what Farren gave you, I took one of your friends away from you, and I tried to steal Walt Disney World from you. But somehow, you figured out how to stop me.” Kiran brushed back the streaks of rain running down her face. “So I took something else from you… your heart.”

  Her words caused him to take half a step backward. “My heart?”

  “Yes, your heart. No matter what you say or how you try to act like it didn’t happen…I got you to fall for me. You fell in love with me—or as you would explain it, you chose to love me. I took your heart…and then I tore it out when you found out I had been playing you. And you still haven’t recovered.”

  “I have nothing to recover from.” Hawk studied her face. “But you have allowed your hate to consume you. Evil has unhinged you. The tragedy is that you could have been so much more.”

  “I am so much more than you will ever know.” Kiran lunged toward him aggressively. “And I’m not done. I am still taking from you the things you love…you’ve lost Farren, you’ve lost George, and I will take the third Imagineer from you as well. I will also take Walt’s secrets, and you will be disgraced, you will have failed, and you will never know or understand all that was yours. And just because I want to, I won’t stop taking things from you until I am satisfied.”

  Hawk saw an opening, a crack in Kiran’s rant. Again she had overplayed her hand. She still did not know that he had figured out there was more than one group of people trying to stop him. On her orders, Doug had blown up the Mustang while Hawk was fighting the assassin. While she was trying to send him a message, someone else was trying to kill him. Two plans, two agendas, and he had to conclude there were two different strategies in place. Kiran and Doug controlled only one of them, so while she was claiming credit for what had happened to Farren, George, and the third Imagineer—if indeed she really did have him hidden somewhere—that credit may or may not actually have been hers to claim. Perhaps she really had gone rogue from the original group, although he wondered if she was ever really a part of it, but now it seemed as if his enemies were everywhere and pulling out all the stops to take whatever he was trying to find. But now he could see that for Kiran, this was personal, emotional, and that might be her misstep.

  Behind her, three other men stepped out of the Commissary and joined them in the rain. They positioned themselves around the CCA and fastened their gaze directly on him. He searched their faces to see if he recognized any of them. One of the men looked familiar—he may have been on some sort of security detail Hawk had seen over the past week—but he couldn’t be sure. The other two didn’t look familiar at all. Kiran smiled coolly as she reached back and joined hands with Douglas.

  “You were about to find a man named David. And you are about to give me the secrets that Wernher von Braun gave to Walt Disney for safekeeping.” Kiran motioned to the men surrounding him. “These gentlemen are here to make sure you hand over what you find. So what do you say, Hawk…one more adventure together? Let’s solve this mystery.”

  “Fine.” Hawk glanced at the men surrounding him. “If that’s how you want this to end, so be it. Follow me.”

  Hawk led the group down the street to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant. He paused at the door, which was locked, and removed his kingdom key and opened it. Douglas Hall reached over his shoulder and grabbed the key from his hand. He held it up in front of Kiran and then, inspecting it closer, closed his fist around it.

  “I have waited a long time to take this key from you.” Douglas spoke loudly to be heard over the pounding rain. “I will be keeping it now.”

  CHAPTER FORTY - FIVE

  One Day Ago

  10:30 A.M.

  The dark, cavernous interior of the restaurant was designed by the Imagineers with such detail that it looked as if you were outdoors at a drive-in theater at night. Surrounding them were a series of six-seater automobiles arranged in four rows, which were tables for dining. The front of the room featured a twenty-foot-high movie screen. Although the restaurant was closed along with the rest of the theme park, the film reel that playe
d each day, entertaining diners while they ate, was playing on the screen. This was a classic forty-five-minute film reel that was pieced together from at least nine major 1950s B movie creature features. Mingled among the trailers of the science fiction horror films were some News of the Future snippets, a few cartoons, vintage snack bar commercials, and clips from Disney’s Man In SpaceTV series. The television show he and Kiran had seen a short time ago, which had set the backdrop for their conversation with Ollie, was where he had gotten the idea to come into the theater. The back of the theater featured tables for larger parties. He led the group past them and into the rows of cars.

  “Keep watching the screen, Kiran.” Hawk pointed to the film loop playing. “Somewhere in this footage, you will see scenes from Walt Disney’s Man In Space special. That’s what we just saw. I remembered that it was a part of the film in here. We have taken to the streets, ended up here, and there’s some connection to someone named David in that clip. All we have to do now is figure it out.”

  “No, all you have to do is figure it out.” Kiran stalked around Hawk as she spoke, like a predator circling her prey.

  “OK, I’ll figure it out.”

  “How you just explained the clue didn’t make sense to me.” Kiran stopped in front of him and eyed him suspiciously. “Usually you connect the pieces of the clue more tightly than that. Why don’t you explain it again?”

  She was right. He was bluffing, but he didn’t want her to catch on so quickly. He had decided there was no way he was going to lead them to the secret Ollie had been telling them about. Kiran wasn’t going to be fooled for very long. She did know a great deal about Disney, trivia, and park details. He had to act fast. However, he was outnumbered, if there was help coming it should have been there by now, so every plan he was coming up with was foolish.

  “I’ll say it slower so you can keep up this time,” he said smugly.

  At that moment the Man in Space clip featuring Walt began to play. Silently he pointed to the screen, and they all turned to look and listen for a hint as to what they were searching for. Hawk knew it was time to do something. Foolish ideas are sometimes all desperate people have to work with, he concluded as he rushed toward Douglas Hall.