Unlocking the Kingdom

by Jeff Dixon

  The speed of the car threw Kate off balance, and she rocked toward him and then back toward the passenger side door. She held her hands out to steady herself as they approached the archway to the Walt Disney World resort. Now Hawk stepped forcefully on the brakes, pulling the car off the side of the road and shifting her forward against her seat belt. As the car screeched to a halt, he removed both hands from the wheel and spun in his seat toward her.

  “You’re right, I don’t know how to deal with press.” He leaned toward her and narrowed his eyes. “So since I am obviously so bad at it, here is how I am going to deal with you. You saw something tonight you were not supposed to see. There was no great evil plot unfolding in the cemetery. You just saw something that is none of your business.” His lip curled. “I can’t do anything about that. You saw it, you filmed it, what’s done is done.”

  He lowered his voice to an intense whisper that scraped in his throat. “So you can take that footage and brag about how you got total access and show it to the world. Your ratings will skyrocket, and my life will get much more complicated than it already is. But that is all you get, and you are done. If you want a shot at finding out what really was happening, if you want any hope of getting more than some hard-to-explain footage, and if you might just believe you have stumbled across a more interesting or important story . . . then, Ms. Young, we are going to have some off-the-record conversations. Some will need to be way off the record.”

  He shoved the car back into gear and hit the accelerator, driving a surprised and silenced Kate Young back into the high-backed leather seat. Her silence was exactly what Hawk had been hoping for. Baiting the investigator like that was a risk, and he was banking on her curiosity to carry the moment. He hoped he had thrown her off track. He could sense her gathering her thoughts as the car raced past the gate of the Magic Kingdom, headed for the Contemporary Resort. The road sloped downward as they swooped into a tunnel below a canal.

  “I take back what I said.” The smile reappeared across her face, more brilliant than ever. “You do know how to handle the press.”

  Hawk wanted to grin, but he didn’t. He knew she was playing a game with him. He had managed to stun her for a moment and buy himself a few minutes, but that was all he had done. She had some very damaging footage of him and wasn’t above using it, and she had admitted as much. What made him nervous was that she had seen something that would make for a great story, and the journalist in her might not be able to resist going public with it.

  They pulled up to the security station of the Contemporary, and Hawk produced an identification card that released the gate to let them in. The security guard in the building one traffic lane over recognized the car, and Hawk waved at him. Kate nodded and waved. The guard tried unsuccessfully to look unfazed. The gate lifted, and Hawk drove into the resort at a slightly more sedate speed.

  “Congratulations,” he told Kate, glancing down at his watch. “I bet he’s wondering who was in the car with me at three o’clock in the morning.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself. He saw me and wondered why I was stuck in a car with a guy covered in mud who scared me to death with his driving and then pulled over to yell at me on the side of the road.” Her eyes danced across his face, searching for a reaction. “It’s easy to see that I could do better.”

  He wheeled the car through the general parking area and into a section marked Service Vehicles Only. Screeching to a halt, he turned off the ignition and opened his door. Kate remained seated and watched as Hawk walked around the front of the car and made his way back to her door. Grasping the handle, Hawk looked across the parking area for any unusual activity. Other than his car, all seemed quiet.

  He opened the door like a gentleman, despite her provocation, and held it while she swung her legs out and stood. Hawk and Kate were a sight to behold. Both looking like storm survivors, mud caked in clumps on their bodies and clothes, accented by faces smudged with rain-streaked dirt. If someone managed to grab a picture of them in this moment, it would be the lead story on some scandal news website by morning.

  Taking her by the arm, he led her toward an unmarked doorway. He used his security card once again, the door clicked open, and they stepped inside to a very industrial utility area at the base of the resort. Gently guiding her with a hand on her arm, he led her forward. Their footsteps echoed in the deserted concrete passageway.

  Hawk kept his voice flat and emotionless. “You would have been bored.”

  “What?” Kate’s voice raised in pitch ever so slightly as they walked.

  “You said a few minutes ago that it was easy to see that you could do better. That is very true, but I was pointing out that you would be bored.”

  “Oh, you think?”

  “I know . . . because right now you don’t know what to do, Kate Young. Do you run with the footage you have and offer some half-baked, lame story that will get you great ratings? Or do you roll the dice and see if you can come up with something even better?” Hawk now allowed a smirk to flash across his lips. “What to do? What to do?”

  “Why, Grayson Hawkes . . .” Kate stopped, forcing Hawk to stop as well. “I said it before and I’ll say it again. You do know how to handle the press, don’t you? You’re teasing me . . . daring me to figure out what was going on and not running the footage I have . . . yet.” She tilted her head.

  He couldn’t tell whether she was impressed, intrigued—or acting.

  Hawk shook his head and resumed walking, motioning for her to follow. She caught up with him in just a few steps. In silence they traveled the length of the hallway and ended up at an elevator. When he pushed the button, the door opened instantly due to the lack of traffic at this time of the morning. They stepped inside, and he hesitated at the control panel. He didn’t know which floor her room was on. She smiled, brushed past him lightly, and pushed the button for floor number five. They both stood watching the lights change as they climbed from floor to floor.

  “You brought me in the service entrance and up the freight elevator so we wouldn’t be seen,” she said.

  “I figured we could stay out of the main lobby, be seen by fewer people, and then have fewer people talking about us . . . looking like we do.”

  “I appreciate your thoughtfulness,” she said drily. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  The elevator made a ringing sound as they arrived at the fifth floor. The door opened and Kate stepped out. Hawk stepped in front of the door, to keep the sensor engaged so it wouldn’t close the door, and pointed at the set of doors to his right.

  “Go right though there, and you’ll end up in the guest area. You can find your room from there.” Then he looked down at her feet. “And try not to track mud all through the corridor of my resort.”

  Looking down at the mud and then back at him, she said, “I’ll walk lightly.”

  “Good night, Kate.” Hawk stepped back and the doors began to close.

  Her fingers caught the door before it shut completely, and she came back into view as the door reopened. “I believe we have an interview scheduled in the morning at ten. I will get my story, Hawk. I’ll figure out what was going on tonight.”

  “Good night, Kate.” Hawk smiled, the door closed again, and he began the ride back down to the ground.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  * * *

  THE POUNDING ON THE DOOR ROUSED HAWK from a deep sleep. He rolled over in his bed, swung to the side of it, and his feet found the floor. The early morning stagger carried him out of his bedroom and into the living room as the pounding thundered louder. Blinking to focus his eyes, he trained them on his Mickey Mouse watch. It was 7:05 a.m. The pounding continued, and he unlocked the door of his Main Street apartment to see Reginald Cambridge with his fist raised, ready to pound again.

  “Good morning, Grayson. We need to go.”

  “Hi, come in.” Hawk stepped away, leaving the door open. He moved off toward the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. After droppin
g Kate off at the Contemporary, he had parked his car at the Bay Lake Towers, walked back to the Magic Kingdom, hopped across the fence, and made it back to his apartment by four in the morning. He had decided not to open the package he had found in the cemetery, even though the curiosity was killing him, until he could get Shep, Jonathan, and Juliette together. He had excluded them last time he tried to solve a mystery, and this time wanted to include them as much as possible. It was probably safer and wiser to do it that way.

  His encounter with Kate had distracted him enough that he hadn’t had time to dwell on his discovery. He was worried about what she was going to do with the footage and more concerned as to how to handle the situation. She was not going to disappear, and he had no idea how he could persuade her to ignore what she had seen. The coffee dispensed into the cup at the push of a button as he leaned over the kitchen counter, waiting.

  “Want a cup of coffee or something to eat?” Hawk yelled into the living room.

  “No, but thank you for asking.” Reginald seated himself on the couch. “I am not eating breakfast today.”

  “Why?” Hawk emerged from the kitchen carrying his mug of java.

  “I appear to be having some type of dental issue this morning.” Reginald pointed toward his jaw. “I am dealing with some discomfort and have decided it is probably best not to create additional discomfort.”

  “You’d better get to a dentist.” Hawk raised the hot cup to his mouth.

  “I was going this morning until I had to detour to pick you up. Again, I repeat, we need to go.”

  “Where?” Hawk stood to slip into something more appropriate than the pajama pants he was wearing.

  “Epcot.” Reginald looked grim. “We have another situation we need to check out.”

  Hawk hurriedly brushed his teeth, threw on a pair of jeans and a button-up shirt, and rushed back into the living room carrying his shoes. Sipping his coffee and gesturing toward the door with his shoes, he left his apartment with his friend. They headed to Cambridge’s SUV waiting just behind the doors that carried the pair out of the eye of the public guest area. Sliding gently into the front seat, Hawk balanced his coffee mug and put on his shoes as Reginald began to give him details.

  “This morning, as our cast members were getting ready to send one of our attractions through a pre-opening test sequence, they noticed something on a security monitor,” Reginald explained.

  “Oh, no . . . not another ghost.”

  “Not exactly, but some might classify it as that.”

  “Stop.” Hawk sat up in the seat as the vehicle hit a stretch of roadway to take them toward Epcot. “What attraction are we talking about?”

  “Soarin’. There were already guests seated on the attraction.”

  “But the attraction wasn’t opened yet.”

  “Exactly, sir.”

  Soarin’ is one of the most popular attractions in Epcot. On a busy day, the wait can grow to ninety minutes easily for guests unable to secure a Fast-pass. Yet line up they do. The technology is genius. Figured out on a holiday weekend by an Imagineer who constructed a model with an erector set he had played with as a child, the ride seats guests in multiple rows under a winged canopy. A cantilever hoists the vehicles forward and into the air so the guests’ feet dangle beneath them. The ride vehicles are lifted forward into a concave movie screen that, in essence, surrounds them and puts them into the movie. The effect—feeling like you are in flight—is popular with all ages.

  The SUV moved into a backstage service area of Epcot, behind the pavilion known as the Land, where Soarin’ is located. Cambridge and Hawk left the vehicle and jogged toward the door, which put them inside the Land. Moving across the huge dining area that consumed the bulk of the floor space of the pavilion, they moved through the still-empty queue lines. Following Cambridge’s lead, Hawk stayed close behind, and they were greeted by a young woman who had been waiting for them. Her name badge read Melinda.

  “We were just doing our normal morning maintenance,” she informed them with a strong southern accent, “when we found our surprise passengers.”

  “Thank you very much.” Reginald stopped her at the entrance to the ride area. “We will take it from here.”

  “But I just wanted to show you.” She tried to follow them inside.

  “I think we can handle it.”

  Hawk slipped past them both and went into the ride area. Normally people would file in, fill up each row, and then wait to be hoisted up in front of the screen. The ride moved with the film; the Imagineers had designed it so smells could be pumped in, and the multi-sensory experience was one most guests never forgot. In the dimly lighted area, Hawk slowly stepped to the front of the room, near the screen, and surveyed the passenger area. What he saw took him aback.

  Cambridge entered without Melinda, Hawk noted. He closed the door, and now only he and Hawk stood in the room. Scattered throughout the seats of the flying vehicles were audio-animatronic figures. This time, however, they were not pirates. Instead, strapped into the seats of the flying kites, as though waiting for the ride to take off, were a number of United States presidents.

  “Welcome aboard flight 5505,” Hawk muttered.

  “What was that, sir?”

  “Flight 5505.” Hawk looked toward Cambridge. “That is the imaginary flight number for this ride. It opened on May 5, 2005, so the flight number pays homage to the opening date.”

  “I see.”

  “How many presidents do we have here?”

  “According to my count, we have ten guests.” Reginald moved to one and began to unbuckle the presidential figure. “As you can imagine, this was quite startling to see on a security monitor. And with the figures being presidents dressed in their period costuming, it is as if ghosts from the past have attempted to take over the ride. Which is why I stated they could be classified as ghosts.”

  “Yes, I got the connection there, Reginald.”

  Hawk watched as Reginald released President Teddy Roosevelt from the bench, carried him to the back of the room, and placed him by the door. Hawk walked back and forth across the front of the room, looking at the presidents still seated.

  “Are all the presidents still on display in the Hall of Presidents?”

  “Yes.” Reginald, answering instantly, must have anticipated the question.

  “I had a detail check out the Hall of Presidents, and all is as it is supposed to be. It appears that these figures came from one of our storage areas. Like before, according to all of our records, there are none missing. But I believe we will make the same discovery we made with the pirates from yesterday. There will be some we can’t account for. I have Clint Wayman checking once again.”

  “What about the other attractions with the presidents?”

  “I’m not following where you are going.”

  “The models for the figures used in the Hall of Presidents can be found in various attractions throughout Disney World. If you look closely, sometimes they look familiar. On Spaceship Earth alone you can find Teddy Roosevelt as an Egyptian Priest and also a Roman politician. James Buchanan—” Hawk pointed toward the president seated in front of him. “—is Gutenberg in the other attraction. You can also see Dwight Eisenhower as a lute player and Ulysses S. Grant as a sculptor.” Hawk gestured toward the president. “Make sure these really did get plucked out of a storage warehouse.”

  “I will check,” Reginald said, setting down another president and stepping toward the front of the attraction where Hawk stood.

  “How did they do this?” Hawk’s curiosity was causing his mind to race.

  “They took their time, and that is what troubles me, Grayson. This did not happen quickly.” Reginald turned slowly and looked at the presidents still seated on the ride. “Someone was able to move these into the building, seat them on the ride, and then get back out. They have too much access, and they are not afraid of getting caught. And they are disrupting our operations.”

  “Why is today a day for p
residents?”

  “I think clearly it is to remind you of the warning they sent you yesterday.”

  “I haven’t forgotten, but I am growing tired of their little displays.”

  “I imagine that would be what they are hoping for, sir.” Reginald scowled. “Whoever is doing this is trying to show you they can do things that you can’t stop. They have threatened you, and they are trying to show you they have the means to create real havoc in the theme parks . . . if you don’t give them what they want.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “I understand that, but we can only anticipate they will heighten their malicious activity. I want to assign protection for you.”

  “No, you can protect me if I need it.”

  “No, I can’t,” Reginald grumbled. “As I have told you before, you are prone to doing the unpredictable, and that makes it impossible for me to cover you and find whoever is doing this.”

  “I appreciate your concern.” Hawk patted his friend on the shoulder. “Have your team get the place checked out so we can open on time today.

  Heighten our security in every area. I’ll authorize you to bring in extra manpower for the next few days. We have to keep our guests safe.”

  “It will be taken care of.” Reginald nodded. “I will get additional security for you as well.”

  “Thanks for the concern, but I will be fine.” Hawk turned and headed for the exit. “I have an interview to get to. All things considered, I’d better not be late. And you get to the dentist and take care of yourself, got it?”

  “Indeed I will.” Reginald almost smiled and nodded toward his boss as he exited the ride area.