by Jeff Dixon
Making his way to the front, Hawk eased along the plush carpet flooring and took his seat front row center. The soft chair welcomed him, and he slouched into it, allowing himself the chance to relax. He didn’t know how long he would have to wait and had no idea what was about to happen. But he was confident that this plan was going to work.
The silence of the theater swallowed him, and he again looked to the stage and saw Clint still seated there. He glanced toward the curtain, where he knew he would see nothing but also knew Chuck was back there, listening. He ran the clues George had given him over in his head, then focused his mind on the final clue to see if he could determine where to go to find the answers in Epcot.
He did not have the key with him. The key he had in his pocket was a key ring he’d picked up in a Disney gift shop. It looked like an old key with an iconic Mickey Mouse-shaped end, from which the bar of the key extended as a normal key would. If push came to shove, he would offer this key to whomever needed it. The real key was tucked away with the collectible pins in the black box. He had no concept as to what purpose the pins played in finally solving the puzzle but knew they had a place to be sure. The figurines had been moved in the afternoon and were now tucked away in his secret bunker below the theme park. In spite of Farren’s warning, this now seemed like the safest place. These priceless works of art from an unfulfilled vision now were perched on a shelf, safe and secure.
The minutes slowly ticked away, and Hawk became restless. He got up from his seat and paced along the carpeted floor. He stretched, to kill a few seconds. His mind kept drifting back to his friend Jonathan and how he might be something he had not appeared to be. Hawk pushed this aside again, then immediately the suspicion Reginald had presented to him came back again. After he had head-butted his captor in the Hall of Presidents days ago, Jonathan had shown up with a bandaged forehead. After Hawk had escaped the attack in the cemetery by blasting his attacker with an elbow to the side of the head, Jonathan had shown up with a puffed-up eye like he’d been in a fight. The report they had that Jonathan was having congestion issues and trouble breathing after Hawk had slammed his assailant in the door of the Brown Derby fit as well, although the source of the last report was now suspicious herself: Nancy Alport. He wished he could have reached Jonathan and found out what was really going on.
He walked back to his seat and sat down again. This would be the place where it would all unfold. He was ready, he was tense, and he was aching to find out who was behind this. He knew everyone else would be getting as anxious as he was, and he was positive that Reginald was ready to charge the moment anything happened.
A stream of thought trickled across the jumbled rocks of his confusion. Hawk suddenly blinked in the darkness like something had flown into his eye.
Reginald Cambridge’s behavior was just as suspicious as everyone else’s, although earlier in the day, Hawk had dismissed the thought because he had been the one who insisted Reginald go home. Reginald had shown up after the head-butting incident in this attraction, and he’d been complaining of a headache. Hawk had thought there was something familiar about the voice, but it had been muffled by the ridiculous rubber costume mask.
The day after the cemetery clash, Reginald had been complaining about a toothache—but why couldn’t the sore jaw have been caused by the elbow Hawk used to punish his attacker? When he had trapped his pursuer in the slamming door at the Brown Derby, Hawk had known he had done some damage. With his heightened adrenaline and anxiousness, that door had slammed hard enough to break a few ribs. When Hawk had met Reginald the next day, he had wanted to call the medical team to come and have a look, since the complaints had been of chest pain and breathing trouble. Reginald had been insistent on that not happening and then had done the unthinkable . . . he had actually done what Hawk suggested and gone home.
If the medical team had been allowed to check him out, Hawk thought, they would have determined right away that this illness was not a cold, congestion, or worse. It would have been broken ribs. Last night, when Hawk had again hit his attacker with a blow to the chest that sent him into the water, he felt the man crumble easily. He was already injured. Today, Reginald had been far worse and was coughing even more. Broken ribs and an unexpected splashdown in the water could have caused that.
Hawk leaned forward in his chair and took his phone out of his pocket. He quickly went through his call log. He stared at the call from Reginald last night. How had Cambridge known the correct number when everyone else had not? Thinking back over their conversation, he recalled Reginald mentioning to Hawk that it had been Hawk who insisted Reginald go home. He had said the same thing at breakfast this morning when Hawk turned the spotlight of suspicion toward him. Why was Reginald so intent on making sure Hawk owned the responsibility for his absence?
He leaped up and paced lines into the carpet in front of the seats. His mind was whirring with thoughts that were cutting into his conscience and making him disgusted at each thought that sliced through him. Disgusted that he was even thinking it, but more disgusted that it made sense.
Suddenly, one more thought collapsed across his brain, and Hawk stopped. At breakfast, Farren had asked if Hawk had secured everything he had found, and Hawk had replied, “Safe and sound at the top of the world.” Reginald had heard him. Reginald knew where the box of pins and the key were hidden. Spinning around toward the stage, Hawk threw a glance toward Clint that caused him to break character and move.
“Everything alright?” Clint called.
“No, nothing is alright.” Hawk snorted, as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Reginald’s number. The call went directly to voice mail.
“What’s up?” Chuck pulled back the curtain at the sound of the activity on the main floor of the auditorium.
“Nothing. There is nothing happening because there is no one coming.” Hawk ran toward the entrance of the theater.
He busted through the doors with such force that the doors themselves sounded like a cannon shot when they hit the doorstops. Juliette, Shep, and Kate met Hawk as he burst into the lobby.
“What happened?” Kate anxiously looked around, then glanced back into the theater.
“Nothing. There’s no one coming.”
“How do you know?” Juliette fell in step with Hawk as he hurried through the lobby.
“Because we have been set up!” Hawk turned to face them. “All of us.”
“What do you mean all of us?” Shep shook his head. “By who?”
“Reginald.” The name boomed from his mouth, shattering their expressions the way a bomb’s explosion destroys a landscape. “He tried to convince me that each of you was trying to steal the key, but in reality, the one in charge of this conspiracy to steal the kingdom is him.”
“Where are you going?” Juliette asked, as they reached the exit doors.
“To get Cambridge. He knows where I hid the pins and the key. Shep, go across to Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe, just to be sure he isn’t there anymore. I’m guessing he left as soon as we went inside.”
Shep raced across the street, while Hawk continued to unleash the things that had clicked in his mind. “Juliette, find Jonathan. Do whatever it takes. Reginald created a very convincing argument that Jonathan was trying to steal the key. Find him.”
“He’s gone,” Shep yelled from across the street.
“I knew it.”
“How does he know where the black box is?” Kate’s voice was calm but intense, like she was on the verge of uncovering a mind-numbing news story.
“I told him.” Hawk sneered. “Not on purpose, but I know he figured it out.”
“I’m going with you.” Kate stepped closer, as tense as a boxer just before the bell rings.
Juliette pulled out her phone as they crossed the bridge back into the Central Plaza Hub. “I’m going to call Al Gann and tell him what you just said. Do you know where Reginald is?”
“Spaceship Earth at Epcot.” Hawk broke into a run, with Kate close behind
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CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
* * *
HAWK CLAMPED HIS JAW, his gaze drilling into the darkness as he nailed the accelerator of his car. The Mustang streaked between the attendant booths and through the parking gates of Epcot so fast Kate recoiled in the passenger seat. Kate looked toward him but said nothing. Swinging the car through the turns into the parking areas, Hawk was heading right toward the main gate. Looming in front of them were the monorail station, the ticket booths, and Spaceship Earth.
“You probably need to slow down,” Kate suggested, gripping the dashboard.
Still silent, he continued to race toward the end of the road. In moments, they would be crashing over the sidewalk into the guest areas where each day, thousands entered the amazing theme park. Stomping on the brake, he cut the wheel to the side. Drawing on the skills he’d learned from the Richard Petty Driving Experience, he kept a steady calm in vehicular chaos.
Smoke trailed from the tires, and the squeal of rubber on asphalt split the night air as Hawk guided the car’s controlled skid, then slid to a stop and threw open the doors. The interior dome light burst the darkness, and Hawk jumped out onto the sidewalk. Kate followed suit, chasing him as he sailed over a turnstile. When he’d landed on the other side, he turned back toward her, helped her over, then snapped his attention back toward Spaceship Earth.
They ran toward the massive geodesic dome. The iconic structure is just as recognizable as Cinderella Castle and instantly known by people all over the planet; 11,324 individual triangular panels made of an aluminum alloy, each one custom fit, form the outer sphere. The attraction inside takes guests through the passageway of time, eventually ending up at the top of the domed roof, where the ride vehicles spin and passengers make their descent back to the ground by traveling backward. The ride is not thrilling, but its use of technology, audio-animatronics, music, and great narrative storytelling make it a classic in the truest sense of the word.
“We get in through the side door.” Hawk pointed to a door, as they ran to the left side of the massive ball.
“How do you know Cambridge is here?” Kate asked, as Hawk opened the door.
“I inadvertently told him. He heard me tell Farren I had hidden what we had found at the top of the world.”
“Nice move.”
They stepped inside, then through another door, and began traveling up a flight of steps. Those steps ended at a landing that gave them the choice of moving off in one of two directions. Hawk paused at the top and thought about which path to use.
“This backstage network of hidden corridors is tricky. The shape of the building makes it impossible to figure out, if you aren’t used to it. Sometimes cast members will draw along the walls with pencil, leaving a trail so they don’t get lost.” He pointed to a random pattern of hand-drawn lines along the wall.
“Isn’t the top of the world what they call the top floor of the Bay Lake Towers?” Kate waited as he spoke.
“It is, and it used to be what we called the ‘restaurant at the top of the Contemporary,’ but we always refer to Spaceship Earth as the world when we talk. On the other side of the world, to the right-hand side of the world, and stuff like that. When the attraction breaks down, we say the world has stopped moving, or if you want to get out of the rain, you go stand under the world . . . . ”
Hawk chose to go right. “So Cambridge knows it’s hidden at the top of the world.”
“When you say the top of the world, do you really mean at the top of the world?”
Hawk glanced back at her and nodded, then continued his winding, confusing, and steady ascent around the perplexing backstage corridors of Spaceship Earth.
Kate raised her fingers to trace the lines on the wall. “Like trails of bread crumbs,” she said, drawing closer to him as she followed.
They reached another fork in the passageways, and this time, without hesitation, Hawk plunged to the left.
“When we get to the top, near the tunnel where the ride cars travel, you’ll see a scissor lift platform. It’s real old and has been here ever since Epcot was built. It’s just beyond the edge of the central core of the sphere. It was used years ago in a commercial to get Mickey Mouse up on the top of the sphere. It’s very unstable, but it wasn’t practical to move it, and no one is ever up near it.”
He pointed, and they changed their angle and kept going up. They were nearing the top of the dome. “I made sure it was working. Spaceship earth is really two spheres. There’s an inner sphere that’s covered in a thick rubber blanket for protection. Then there’s a small gap of a couple of feet between that and the outer aluminum sphere.”
“OK, all of that is good to know . . . and why do I need to know it?”
“Because there’s a hatch at the very top of this structure, big enough for a person to crawl through—like the hatch on a submarine. You open it, then a few feet later, there’s another hatch you open and you are literally on top of Spaceship Earth.”
“Like outside on top?”
“Yes.” Hawk stopped. “I hid the box of pins and the key on the very top of the sphere. I knew it was the safest place. No one would ever look there, and most people couldn’t figure out how to get there if they knew.”
“And you think Cambridge knows how to get up here?” Kate asked, breathing more heavily as the angle of the walkway steepened.
“I know so.” Hawk paused and pointed, as they rounded the curve past a tunnel where the guests would ride in the vehicles.
The scissor lift was extended up, its platform sitting empty below an open hatch. The sight was terrifying, even for Hawk. The old lift was not mechanized, and from the platform he would have to use the hand crank to raise and lower it. The extensions off each leg had been deployed to steady it, but even at that, it looked very fragile stretched up into the top of the dome.
Hawk grabbed the metal bar at the base of the lift and pulled himself into the zigzagged cross pieces of the lift mechanism.
“What are you doing? Are you going to climb it?” Kate sounded stunned.
“Yep, you wait down here. I’ll toss the pins down to you.”
“No, no, no. Wait for Cambridge to find the pins. He has to come back down the lift. We’ll get them from him when he gets back down.”
“No, he won’t come down with them.” Hawk pulled up to the next cross piece. “If I know Reginald—” Hawk grew solemn. “—and I thought I did. But I’m guessing he has some kind of backup plan in place. Stay alert, and if you see anyone, and I mean anyone, hide—and stay hid until you see me.”
She didn’t look happy about being left behind, but she found a vantage point near the back of a set piece and gave him a thumbs-up.
Hawk placed one foot against the crosspiece and pushed himself up, carefully wrapping his arms around the next one. He could feel the lift shimmy as he got higher and his body weight climbed into the upper reaches of the mechanism. Finally he made it to the top, where he was going to have to reach out and swing on the platform and pull himself upward. Then he could slide on the platform to get to the hatch. Glancing down, he fought off a wave of dizziness at the height.
Beads of sweat rolled down the side of his face. Refocusing his attention on his target, he battled to ignore the gravity of his situation along with the gravity threatening to gobble him up if he missed. He leaped toward the edge of the lift platform and grabbed it. His legs swung below him like a pendulum, causing the extended piece of machinery to shudder violently.
The racket of the scissor lift shaking gave him reason to think he might have knocked it over when he had jumped. He looked down toward the noise below him, while holding on tenaciously to his precious handhold. Kate stepped away from it, then moved underneath Hawk as if she might be able to break his fall if he lost his grip.
With a groan, Hawk pulled himself up to the edge, then threw a leg over the side. This foothold allowed him to hoist himself over the platform. He rolled over, lay there on his back, and realized what he was se
eing. He was looking up through the hatch of Spaceship Earth at the nighttime Florida sky. He had made this trip up in the daytime when the attraction was closed, but he had never seen this view at night. Getting to his knees, he stood up.
His head rose above the inner sphere and beyond it, until he was looking over the edge of the aluminum sphere. On the lip of the edge of the hatch opening, two industrial climbing hooks were attached. Reginald had been smart. He had brought anchors to make sure he would not fall. Hawk pulled himself through the opening.
Hawk heard a cough and turned toward the sound. There, crouched on the top of Spaceship Earth, with the black box in a gloved hand, was Reginald Cambridge.
“You shouldn’t have followed me up here my friend,” Reginald spoke with what was almost a smile. “But somehow, knowing your propensity to get into trouble, I knew you would.”
Hawk now saw that Reginald was wearing a climbing harness and had secured himself to the climbing hooks with a sturdy rope. There was little room to move on the top of this dome. It stretched 180 feet above the ground. Due to its massive size, you could navigate a short distance on top, but you could not traverse far or the angle would be too steep and you would fall.
Hawk had hidden the box in a container he attached to the top of the sphere. When he hid it earlier in the day, he had opened the hatch, laid on his stomach, stretched out at far as he could reach, and affixed the container to the dome with a clip that hooked the edge of one of the panels. Inside the container, he had placed the black box containing the pins and the key. Reginald was positioned over the place where the now-empty container was attached.
“Care to tell me what the pins are for?” Reginald asked. “Or have you not figured that out yet?”
“What do you think?”
