Storming the Kingdom

by Jeff Dixon

  His open and straightforward message had connected with the crowd. Many had lingered to talk and to share their sympathy, and thankfully Jonathan had stepped in to get Hawk away from them before he was overwhelmed.

  Now Hawk walked with his friends into the conference room. In a swirling moment of recognition, Hawk realized this was the room where he first met Kate. She had busted into a meeting to introduce herself. His world was turned upside down from that moment on.

  Already inside was Sheriff Cal McManus, seated alone, waiting for them. He stood, and Hawk motioned for them to take seats. As they did, the clock ticked loudly on the wall; the silence lingered before McManus spoke.

  “Nothing has changed, I’m sorry to say.” McManus cleared his throat. “We still haven’t found Kiran Roberts.”

  “How can you not have found her?” Hawk asked. It was the same question he had asked the first day when the police had cleared Tom Sawyer Island. The dark-haired assassin had tried unsuccessfully to hide in the mine, but Kiran was nowhere to be found.

  “We’re tracking down the leads you gave us about her mother, Nancy Alport. But we haven’t seen her for years. About the time the Reginald Cambridge was trying to hurt you, and she disappeared from the grid.” McManus leaned forward and placed his hands on the table. “I think your theory is correct. She had been working with the group Cambridge put together to kill you, but she decided to splinter off and create her own plan. That put you in the position of having two groups trying to kill you instead of just one. Shep has been willing to help us in any way he could. Of course, the number he used to contact her is a dead end. There are just no traces of her…yet. We will find her.”

  Hawk sighed and leaned back in his chair. This was not what he wanted to hear. He should have known better. Kiran always seemed to be able to survive. Even in stopping her, he had underestimated her…again.

  “We still know nothing about a third Imagineer, except what you told us she said. There are no reports or details about any current or former Disney Imagineer being missing. We’ll keep looking, but she may have been bluffing to get you to comply with her wishes. Peter Breck, your assassin, is a mystery. The guy has no record, almost no traceable identity. However, he connected with Cambridge, and how he was recruited was very professional, very slick, very intricate. Time will unravel it. But you are safe from him. No worries there.”

  “Thanks,” Hawk said reluctantly. It bothered him that there were so many loose ends still hanging out there, but there was nothing he could do about any of them.

  “Now, what was this all about?” McManus asked Hawk. It was not the first time, and it would not be the last.

  “Walt Disney and the secrets the man had.” Hawk was honest.

  “What secrets?”

  “If I told you, they wouldn’t be secret, would they?” Hawk smiled.

  “Are they worth dying for?” McManus asked.

  “They are now. Others have died so I could keep them, so I could protect them, and so I could discover them in the first place.” Hawk nodded. “So the secrets will be mine to keep now.”

  “OK.” McManus sighed and got to his feet. He walked over and warmly hugged Hawk and his friends, and he exited the room.

  Once the room was empty, silence returned. Juliette spoke first.

  “So what happens now?”

  “I’m leaving,” Hawk said. “For a while. I have some things I need to do.”

  “Like what?” Jonathan asked.

  “Things. I don’t know how long it will take. You guys can take care of things here until I get back. Right?”

  “Yes, but where are you going?” Juliette had concern in her voice. She was worried about Hawk and how he was emotionally, no matter what he was showing on the outside; they had known him long enough to know he was hurting badly.

  “Let’s see…we have theme parks in California, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and here. I think I have plenty of places to go. If you need me, all you have to do is call. I’ll check in, I promise.”

  Hawk stood, and they all hugged one another. They shed a few more tears and watched, stunned, as Hawk left the room.

  CHAPTER SIXTY

  Aftermath—

  Post Storm—Day Three

  11:59 P.M.

  Its discovery could turn the world upside down…all you have to do is go get it… in the same place it was found…and then you decide what happens next.

  The clue had taken a few moments to figure out, but Hawk had known what it meant shortly after he had found it. He decided that, since Kiran had been misdirected by the receipt for the rock, it would be best to wait to finally pick up what Farren had hidden. Whatever was waiting for him had been the reason this entire mystery had been created.

  The Magic Kingdom was closed for the day. The park was empty, and with the exception of a few waves and handshakes, Hawk had moved through the park easily with no distractions. He crawled along the infrastructure of Space Mountain. This highly detailed rocket ship roller coaster was where he would find the secret of Walt Disney given to him by Wernher von Braun. On this thrilling ride, the rocket car is pulled smoothly up the hill to the top of the building before being released with its riders into space. As they get ready to take off, they pass a launch control center that features two astronauts in a spacewalk working on the launch station. Their world was upside down, Hawk reasoned, and the discovery was made in space originally by von Braun, where it had been found, so all he had to do now was go get it. That was what he was here to do.

  Carefully climbing below the two spacemen, he searched for what might hold the secret that had cost so many so much. On the back of the display, out of the sight line of those going up the hill, but easily spotted by those who would streak by as the ride progressed, he saw it—a small, circular opening on the workstation. The last item he had found on his quest he hadn’t mentioned to anyone, and he was the only one who knew what was hidden under the rock at the monument.

  He took the ring he had found, lined it up, and pressed his fist forward. The ring locked inside, and he felt the mechanism give. It was another lock, opened by the ring. The bottom of the workstation opened up, and inside, tucked into a slot, was a thin, leather-bound notebook. Hawk reached in and took it. He flipped it open and saw the distinctive handwriting of Walt Disney. A red grease pencil had been used to make notes on the pages, and the pages themselves were handwritten by—Hawk assumed—Wernher von Braun. This was it, the discovery conspiracy theorists had wondered about for years. The secrets he found as his rocket did things no one ever anticipated it could do.

  Hawk stepped down. He realized he would have to read this book, try to understand it, then decide what to do next. Pausing, he again did a quick review of the notebook as he stood inside the massive metal mountain. The information was technical, there were details, lots of details, and he flipped to the back page of the book. A personal note to Walt had been left by von Braun.

  “Walt, what you have here are things I don’t think the world is ready for. I believe these discoveries can revolutionize what we know about energy, power, and in the right hands can be used to accomplish great good. In the wrong hands, they could be used to control others. So I am placing them in your hands. I am hoping you can figure out how we can best use them, when we can share them, and who we can trust.—Wernher”

  Hawk assumed von Braun had given this to Walt when they traveled together in 1965. Walt died before he could ever do anything with the information but did manage to figure out how to keep it safe. Wernher had died in 1977 and never told anyone except Walt what he had discovered. And now, Hawk held those secrets in his hands, and it was up to him to decide what to do with them. He had already determined he would make the decision carefully, not recklessly.

  He wanted time to do it right, so he had made the decision to go away for an extended period. He wanted to visit the rest of their theme parks, spend some time there, and eventually…decide what to do with Walt Disney’s secret.

&nbs
p; CHAPTER SIXTY - ONE

  Post Storm—Six Months Later

  The office in Bay Lake Towers was filled with the happy sounds of a reunion. Grayson Hawkes was back, and he was surrounded by his closet friends. Juliette, Jonathan, Al, and Shep had all been asked to come and meet him. He had stunned them when he entered the room. The six months he had been away had been good for him. He was relaxed and ready to get back to work. Hawk entered sporting hair that had not been cut in the six months he had been gone. Usually he had a shaggy look, but his hair now was much longer than they had ever seen it. His face was covered with a salt-and-pepper beard. Neatly trimmed and looking distinguished, Jonathan told him he looked more like a seminary professor than the Chief Creative Architect of the Walt Disney Company. Juliette scolded him, kiddingly, that he was in need of a haircut and he needed to lose the beard as soon as possible. Hawk promised to do that soon.

  They laughed and spent a few minutes catching up. Although apart from him, they all had kept in close contact using email, he had not spoken to or seen any of them since he had left. Shep had been fairly quiet during this reunion, but in the midst of the laughter and lighthearted chatter, Hawk had made his way to his friend, placed a hand on his arm, and whispered to him.

  “It’s OK, Shep.” The bearded face grinned. “We’re OK.”

  An unexpected guest joined them. Mitch Renner from the Orlando Police Department entered the room, surprising the small group. Mitch had made an appearance at Kate’s funeral, but that had been the last time any of them had seen him. Or so they had thought. Hawk had spoken with him regularly since he had been away, and tonight, they were going to find out why.

  “Sit down, everyone.” Hawk motioned for them to sit. “It’s great to see you. I can’t tell you how much I have missed you, how much I have missed being here.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  “I guess you’re surprised I asked Mitch to drop by. Mitch and I have stayed in pretty close contact since I’ve been gone. I wanted him here tonight to explain why.” Hawk motioned for Renner to speak to them.

  “It’s good to see you all again. As you know, when we all met, it wasn’t under the best circumstances. Since then, a lot has happened, and I wanted to be here to share that with you.” Renner paused. “You will remember that night in the hospital after the limousine was attacked, it was pretty rough. After what happened to Farren, then the assassin tried to take out Hawk right there in the hospital, so…well…it’s best if I show you.”

  Mitch Renner walked to the door. Opened it and looked into the hallway. As he swung open the door, in walked Farren Rales.

  Frail and looking weak, he still moved steadily as Renner ushered him in. To say the people in the room were stunned would be an understatement. They looked toward Hawk, who was beaming. His smile spread across his face like a kid on Christmas morning. His friends were surprised and he had been in on it. He gestured for Renner to take the floor.

  “I had pulled Hawk aside in the hospital and told him I wanted to talk to him about the death of Farren Rales,” Renner said, then he took a seat. “I asked Hawk if he would help me pull off a scam of sorts. I wanted to announce to the world, which we did, that Rales had been killed. I believed it was the only way to protect him that night, since we weren’t sure Hawk was the only target. He agreed, and we made Far-ren disappear.”

  Hawk smiled. “Now in fairness, this was not the easiest secret to keep.”

  “But you said . . .” Juliette raised an eyebrow.

  “I never said to any of you Farren was dead, I said he was gone…and he was.” Hawk laughed. “Even I didn’t know where he was.”

  “And that is what makes it a great story,” Farren Rales added. “Now, I did spend the last five months in the hospital. According to the doctors, it is a miracle I survived. I didn’t even know about you telling the world I was dead until I was feeling, well, much more alive.” He winked at Juliette. “I am never riding anywhere with you and Hawk again.”

  “Allowing me to make Farren disappear guaranteed that Hawk was going to be the only target for certain. And as it turned out, he was. It gave Farren time to heal, so we kept him in Florida Hospital and then a rehab center under an assumed name,” Renner said. “And then it meant we got to spend all of our time chasing Hawk and trying to keep people from killing him.”

  “Are you OK?” Jonathan asked Farren.

  “Older, more tired, and a bit weary…but good, thanks for asking,” Farren said. “But I was a bit disappointed to hear about the turn of events you all had to go through without me.”

  “Well.” Mitch Renner got to his feet. “It was good seeing you all again. I’ll be going. You have not seen each other for some time. I want to give you a chance to get reacquainted.”

  As Renner left, he shook hands with everyone and they talked briefly. As this was taking place, Juliette slid over and stood next to Hawk, watching him as he smiled, looking at Farren Rales.

  “You are good.” She patted him on the back. “You cheated death this time.”

  “I just wish I could have cheated it for Kate as well.” Hawk looked toward the floor.

  “Hey, it’s going to be OK. We live forward and follow, right?”

  “Right.” Hawk watched his friends talking. “You know, when I was away…I think I was looking for some sort of closure. I have told people for years that when someone dies or something bad happens, they have to find closure before they can move on. I found out I was wrong.”

  “Wrong? About finding closure?” Juliette focused completely on Hawk.

  “Yep, you don’t need to find closure. You can’t just close the book when you love someone and instantly move on. You have to quit trying to find closure and instead try to find enclosure. You have to find the place to keep those memories and feelings. From time to time, you have to open them up, remember, and experience them all over again. You need those moments—they’re a part of who you are, and they can make you better. Then you can enclose them…move forward and follow.”

  “Sounds like you’ve had a good six months.” Juliette smiled.

  “I have.” Hawk nodded.

  “So is this all over?” she wondered out loud. “Are the secrets of Walt Disney finally safe?”

  “I have no idea…” Hawk admitted. “Why don’t we just enjoy today? Let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

  Author’s Afterword

  A lot of young people think the future is closed to them…

  WALT DISNEY once said, “People sort of live in the dark about things. A lot of young people think the future is closed to them, that everything has been done. This is not so. There are still many avenues to be explored.” This particular quote from Walt resonates with me and serves as a powerful reminder that there are great adventures yet to be taken, great discoveries yet to be made, and great experiences waiting for those who are willing to keep trying and keep moving forward…even when most around them have quit.

  We have come to the end of Storming The Kingdom, and for some of you it is the third journey you have taken with me into the life, times, history, and worlds created by Walt Disney. In this installment, I have deliberately gone back into the previous two books to wrap up some loose ends and answer some of the lingering questions readers have asked me about that were hinted at in the first two installments. Of course, you will notice that while I wrapped up many loose ends, I have also unraveled a few other things…and now created even more questions.

  This saga for Hawk and his friends was a little bit different than the times I had previously traveled with him. I wanted to dig deeper and spend more time with some of the impact of Walt Disney as a force of cultural change and the influence he had across the globe. I was able to weave one or two of those threads into the fictional story line that makes this book as much a work of “faction” (fact and fiction combined) as the previous books were.

  After the first two books were released and received so well, the response was so overwhelming that pe
ople began asking if there would be a book three. For the fictional character of Hawk, I asked the question, “Has everything been done…are there any avenues yet to be explored?” It was out of that line of questioning and drawing on the inspirational quote of Walt Disney above that this novel was born.

  I want you to know that once again, I am honored you have taken the time to turn these pages with me. If the trip across the sentences was as much fun for you to read as it was for me to write, then we have had a good time together. I continue to be fascinated with the details to be discovered inside the world of Walt Disney. You never know what you might find, and when you find something, you want to share it with those who have a love for the things Walt dreamed. Hopefully you read some things that surprised you, some things that confirmed what you thought to be true, and some things you have seen before that caused you to smile because it unleashed a treasured memory from within.

  A novel is designed to allow you to free your imagination and go to places for just a few moments and see them in a way you never have before. It is my hope as an author that your imagination has taken flight, and along the way, you have been encouraged by the words you have read. I want you to know I am a huge fan of each of you, the reader. Because you are the kind of person who reads stories about the world of Disney, I know this about you: There is a dreamer within, and there is a vision you are chasing. I want to encourage you to remember what Walt said: There is much for us to do, much for us to discover, and the future is not closed…it is open for business, and it is time to come inside and start living it. As I wrote a few sentences ago…I am a fan of yours. So let me encourage you to keep dreaming, keep trying, don’t quit. You are a gift to the world. There is no one else like you. Share who you are with others, and you just might change the world.