by Jeff Dixon
Having his attention diverted for a moment, Hawk looked back to the man who’d been watching him, only to find he was gone. Letting his eyes roam the crowd of people, Hawk did not catch a glimpse of him as he searched the tops of heads for the hat the man had been wearing. He stood and looked again. With all that was going on, he might be a little paranoid. Satisfied the man was gone and that he was overreaching to think the man was watching him, he sat down and opened the package from the Toy Soldier.
The cancan dancer was of the same design and craftsmanship as the other priceless Western River Expedition figurines. This would be the third in his collection that was being stored in the trunk of his car. He had no idea if that was any more secure than anywhere else right now. When he got the chance, he would stash them in the control bunker for safety. But he hesitated to do so yet, remembering Farren’s warning. In the short term, his trunk was the spot. The Mickey Mouse pin he had found was in his pocket; in a moment, he would put it in the box designed to hold it.
Laying the box on the table, Hawk opened it and put Mickey in the upper left-hand corner. Now, carefully removing the pin placed on the back of the figurine, Hawk took a better look at it. It was Minnie. She, like Mickey, was a high-quality collectible pin. She was crafted facing to the viewer’s left. Which meant that if she was side by side with Mickey, she would be facing him. This was a common design in creating a piece of art that included them both. Flipping the pin over, he saw the QR code stuck to its back.
He turned on Amy’s phone and did a quick check of her apps to see if she had a scanner. She did, and he used it to read the QR code. The lights flicked in small points across the screen, and then with a flash, the screen changed. The face of George Colmes appeared again. Instantly Hawk was struck with the same thoughts he’d had each time before. The video had the look of an old film, but the background was in motion. George was giving these clues as he was riding in something. The background suddenly went dark. George’s face was now in shadows lit by the light on the camera he was using to film.
“Good to see you are still with me.” George smiled. “Your adventure continues with the host of the showcase . . . when you are followed by the airplane as far as you can go, then you find a lesson for the future . . . Listen to the teacher . . . her story is your story and where you will find a word . . .”
The screen went dark. Hawk scanned the QR code again just to see if the video would no longer be available to watch again. He wanted to pay attention to where George was. Each time, he’d had too little time to focus on the background—but each time, he’d noticed it enough to be curious. The scanner tried to read the code, only to find it was no longer available. He carefully placed the Minnie Mouse pin in the top right slot of the box and shut it. Hawk got to his feet and reloaded the shopping bag with his discoveries. Rolling the bag up tightly, he shoved it under his arm and picked up the phone to return it to Amy. He found her busy getting ready to open, though he was sure she’d been keeping a curious eye turned toward him as he used her phone. He was also sure she would check to see if he had placed a call. Of course, he had not.
“Amy, thank you so much. You saved me a trip back to my office, I don’t have a phone with me.” He handed her the phone. Stuck between the phone and his thumb was his business card. She took it and looked at it and then looked back toward him. He tilted his head. “If you ever find that you need anything, that card contains my direct office phone number. You have been very helpful, and I’d like to return the favor if you ever need one. Don’t be afraid to use the number.”
Hawk hurried out the door.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
* * *
HAWK MOVED TO HIS LEFT TO MAKE HIS WAY around the World Showcase. The first part of the next clue seemed simple: Your adventure continues with the host of the showcase. Hawk was heading toward the American Adventure. Located in the middle of the World Showcase, the USA served as the host nation. When Epcot was built, much thought was given as to how to present America as the host of this festival where the world comes together. The American Adventure, built in the center to welcome the world with outstretched arms around the World Showcase Lagoon, was the answer.
The colonial-style manor house captures a period in American history that defined the direction of the nation. Red, white, and blue show up time and time again in the decor, whether in banners or flowers. Hawk remembered a great Walt Disney quote, “I get red, white, and blue sometimes.” He smiled and realized he felt the same. The American Adventure as an attraction was a place that allowed him to revisit history and remember the foundations the country had been built upon.
The crowds touring the nations were growing but were not overwhelming at this time of the morning. With room to move, Hawk walked quickly with his head down and without making eye contact with anyone. This was not his norm, but he was trying to get somewhere fast and didn’t want to be sidetracked by cast members or guests who might steal his attention. Before he realized it, his pace was nearly a jog and probably was drawing more attention than usual on a morning when he was trying to avoid it. He slowed himself down and purposed his pace to be more even. He moved through Japan and emerged into the USA Pavilion.
Nearing the entrance of the American Adventure, he was greeted by two cast members dressed in colonial-style costumes who informed him the first showing was not for another forty-five minutes. He assured them he was just there to look around for a project he was doing some work on. They held the door open for him. Hawk paused as he entered, and asked the two cast members if they could please keep everyone else outside for about ten minutes, even cast members. With puzzled faces, they confirmed they could; with a reassuring smile and a thanks for both of them, he moved inside.
The USA Pavilion’s rotunda was beautiful and contained many treasures that most guests would never slow down to notice. The rotunda was adorned with a marble-and-gold floor and encircled by high columns. It was a masterpiece of design and detail . . . and the details once again were the reason he was there. Hawk had easily clicked on the first part of the clue, but his memory was a little cloudy as to what the next part might mean. Now inside, he was forced to put his memory to the test. When you are followed by the airplane as far as you can go, then you will find a lesson for the future.
Hawk stepped toward the center of the room to get his bearings. He thought he remembered a picture of an airplane hanging in the room. He revolved slowly, focusing, then he saw it. Rushing toward it, he inspected it closely. One of the original paintings created for the attraction depicted a moment in history from World War II when the B-17 bomber was being constructed. The picture was of a factory where the planes were in various stages of assembly. Not all the mechanics shown working were men, because at that time the men were gone to war, and the women picked up the factory work. The primary focus of the painting was the larger of the planes to the left-hand side of the picture.
Moving parallel to the painting and staring at the nose of the B-17, he walked the length of the picture, then back again. Slowly his eyes began to focus, and he saw the unique effect almost leap out of the picture. This Imagineering masterpiece was created by R. Tom Gilleon, who had painted the image of the plane in such a way that the aircraft seemed to turn and follow you wherever you walked. The bomber always faced you. When you are followed by the airplane go as far as you can go, then you will find a lesson for the future.
The picture of the plane was on the left side of the rotunda. The plane following him fit the clue; he was moving, and the plane was, in essence, following him. So now he had to find the lesson for the future. He moved along, looking carefully at each piece of art he passed. Arriving at the back of the rotunda along the left-hand wall, he spotted a painting featuring a teacher sitting under a tree, teaching her class of students. In the background was a one-room schoolhouse. She had a book open in her lap and was reading to the students and telling them a story.
Hawk flashed back to formative moments in his life when he r
emembered teachers reading to him. It was where he first developed his fascination with books and the art of telling a story. That ember of interest had been fanned into flame as the years passed. He realized that he liked this painting yet had never noticed it before. Perhaps because it was at the back of the rotunda. To find it, he had gone as far as you can go . . . then you will find a lesson for the future . . . and in the picture, the teacher was teaching a lesson to the future generation of young learners. This must be what George was referring to. But in a quick glance, there was no figurine tucked away in the corner, no package, no pin to be seen . . . just a painting. He looked closer.
A huge grin broke across his face, and he lightly smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. He had missed the obvious. The plaque at the bottom of the portrait offered the title of the picture: Lesson for the Future. Now he went back to replaying the clue in his brain. Listen to the teacher . . . her story is your story . . . and where you will find a word . . . Leaning in, he inspected the picture more closely. His vision came to rest on the book in the teacher’s lap. Getting as close to the picture as possible, he tried to focus. Then he pulled back and moved toward it again, looking for the perfect distance to see with the most clarity. He could barely make it out; he read it and then rubbed his eyes. Now he looked again to make sure he got it right. Her story is your story . . . the story she was reading was The Swiss Family Robinson. And if that was where he was going to find a word then he had to go back to the one place that connected to this particular story. The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse in the Magic Kingdom.
Straightening up, he glanced around to make sure he had not missed anything. He shook his head in disgust, as he had almost missed the most obvious part of the clue, the title of the painting. He moved back toward the front door and glanced back at the B-17 bomber. Sure enough, the closer he got, the more aware he was that the image followed him as he walked. It really was a masterpiece.
As he reached the doors, rechecking to make sure he still had his shopping bag securely tucked under his arm, he looked through the windows. Something outside caught his eye. The oversized hat and sunglasses peered at him from in front of the American Gardens Theatre, directly across from the attraction. Hawk made a decision to find out if the person was really watching him, and he pushed through the doors to rush toward him. As he emerged, the cast members who had been there when he entered stepped in his way.
“Did you see what you were looking for?” the female cast member asked.
“We told our cast to wait until you were done to enter the attraction,” the male cast member added.
“Yes, thanks,” Hawk said, looking past them. “You did great.” He saw the man in the hat start to run. “I’ve got to get moving.”
Instantly, Grayson Hawkes was in a dead sprint. Legs churning, he shifted the package to the crook of his arm like a football. His eyes traced the tops of the heads in the crowd in front of him. The hat bobbed up and down as the man wearing it moved away from him. Hawk chased him and momentarily lost him. Moving quickly through Italy and into Germany, Hawk skidded to a stop and leaped onto a bench to get a better view of the crowd. People were staring, and some pointed at him in recognition. He scoured the crowd, then picked up the moving hat once again.
Its owner was at the boat launch, boarding a boat that would take a guest across the World Showcase Lagoon. There was no way Hawk could get to the boat before it left, but he wondered if he could beat it to the other side of the lagoon. He jumped down from the bench and began to sprint through the edge of the Germany Pavilion into a fairly open and largely undeveloped area of the World Showcase. The boat had pulled away from the dock and was making its way across the lagoon. The boats were a great way to get around the showcase if you knew where you wanted to go. They were not extremely fast but much quicker than taking a leisurely stroll. Hawk was banking on getting to the other side quicker.
Hawk knew that from Canada, at one end of the World Showcase, to Mexico, at the other side, was one and a quarter miles. He was a half mile away and intent on getting there first. He raced along back into another pavilion. The sounds of China echoed up toward him as he weaved, skipped, and ducked through the crowd. A pocket of tourists slowed his progress, and he tried to find a better path to take. A display was just releasing the attendees from the area, and the slow-going bumper-to-bumper traffic of strollers began to clog the pathway.
No longer able to run due to the log jam, Hawk tried to keep some kind of pace and moved to his far left to find the boat. He spotted it, but was still stymied by the influx of people along the path in front of him. The crowd seemed to be bottlenecking, and there was nothing he could do make them move any quicker. Again he looked back toward the boat and realized if he didn’t get moving, he would not get there first. The thought occurred to him that even if the boat beat him, it always took a few minutes to secure the boat and disembark. He could still get there in time. He felt a sharp pain in his shin, as he stumbled into a stroller.
“Come on, mister, get to the right-hand side.” The frustrated woman pushing the stroller used it as a miniature battering ram to navigate the crowds. “You’re going against the flow, come on and move it.”
She shoved the stroller into his shin a second time.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
* * *
THE MAN IN THE OVERSIZED HAT looked out from his seat along the rail of the boat, as it skipped across the waters of the World Showcase Lagoon. He had hoped his ridiculous disguise would allow him to blend into the crowd, but he had become too careless and too curious. He knew that Hawkes began his excursion by shopping at the Toy Soldier; he had seen the bag when he left the store. Somehow he couldn’t imagine the CCA of the Disney Company just dropping into a store to pick up a few things.
Watching Grayson Hawkes enter the Rose and Crown Pub and Dining Room had caused him to make his first error. Trying to get a glimpse of what he was carrying in the shopping bag, he managed to find a good place to see where Hawkes was seated. The problem was that Hawkes had caught him staring. He tried to fool the chief creative architect into thinking he might be looking at something else, and when the waitress came to the table, he managed to disappear.
He did not see what Hawkes had in the package. Instead, he waited across the street, looking aimlessly in the shopping areas of the pavilion until Hawkes came out of the restaurant. He was able to stay out of sight by looking through the window of a shop as Hawkes went past. From there, it had been fairly easy. Hawkes seemed to be in a hurry, moving quickly through the crowd with his head down.
He could have walked directly behind him if had chosen to, but he hadn’t. He was content to keep a view from a distance. Following him to the American Adventure was easy, but after Hawkes had moved inside, once again, he could not see what he was doing. Deciding to wait across the walkway at the theater allowed him a clear view of the door. That was when he made his second error. He didn’t plan on Hawkes’s still being alert and looking for him.
That’s when he decided to run. He did not have great confidence that he could outrun Hawkes, so he hurriedly tried to come up with another plan. Then he noticed the water taxi boarding just outside of the Germany Pavilion. He lowered his head and tried to zigzag through the crowds until the last possible moment before boarding the boat. His timing was perfect. He was going to get away.
Then Hawkes did the unexpected—he gave pursuit; he actually thought he could outrun the boat to the other side of the lagoon. For a moment, the man in the hat and glasses believed Hawkes would be able to—until the unfortunate run-in with the stroller in China.
The memory of that caused the man in the hat to smile, as the boat bounced up against the dock. From behind his sunglasses, he watched the people get off in front of him, and he glanced along the shoreline to confirm that Hawkes had not done the impossible and managed to beat the boat. He was not there, and the man smiled again, imagining him still pushing his way through the people trying to get to th
e boat. He left the boat and moved back across a bridge toward a building called Odyssey Center. By the time Hawkes reached the boat, he would be long gone, and very soon, he would be out of the theme park completely.
Crossing in front of the building, he followed a small group of people as they made their way along the sidewalk. A roar burst from the building in front of them. Looking up, he saw Test Track, as a car raced on a track above his head on the outside the building. Moving past it and picking up his pace, he entered an area where people were waiting to board a ride called Mission: SPACE. He finally relaxed, as he moved down the pathway and under the covered path that carried him past the Electric Umbrella, a restaurant that was filling up for lunch time.
His hat jerked to the side and then pulled him backward, as if he were caught on something. Twisting his head, he pulled back against whatever had him caught. The wide brim of his hat slid down over his eyes, effectively blinding him. Then it was lifted away, and hands gripped him firmly, spinning him a hundred and eighty degrees. As he fumbled to readjust his sunglasses, he saw he was standing nose to nose with Grayson Hawkes.
Hawkes didn’t look happy.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
* * *
“YOU ARE FAST.” The man in the sunglasses glared up at Hawk. His breath whistled in his throat as he spoke.
Hawk reached out and took the glasses from the man’s face, folded them up and placed them inside the hat, then shoved them at the now recognizable Pete Brady, the executive producer of Total Access. Without a word, Hawk steered him to an open table and pushed him into a seat. Taking the seat opposite him, Hawk leaned forward.
“You forget, you are running around in my theme parks. You don’t have to be fast.” Hawk shrugged. “You just have to know where to go. Now, let’s cut to it. Why are you following me?”
