Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn

by Ridley Pearson

  to hurry, and they moved down the hal way with an eye out for someplace to hide. Thankful y, most

  of the doors had glass panels, al owing them to see inside. They passed an examination room,

  and another, fil ed with medical equipment. There was one door marked PRIVATE, and another with

  stickers and cartoon clippings taped to it. It was this door Finn tried first. Inside was a single table and some vending machines—an employee lounge. It was empty. They ducked inside, both wide-eyed and slightly out of breath due to the excitement.

  “I’m terrified,” Amanda said.

  “Me too,” Finn admitted.

  “We have no idea what we’re looking for.”

  “No. But she must have dreamed about that tattoo. That has to mean something.”

  “But what?”

  “The tattoos are given out to kids who take the private tours. Maybe there’s something on the

  tour we’re supposed to see?”

  Amanda’s blue eyes brightened. “That’s got to be it! You’re a genius.”

  Finn felt his face warm. “Hardly,” he mumbled under his breath, wondering how a guy like Maybeck could carry himself so confidently.

  There was noise in the hal way, and both of them instinctively looked for a place to hide. But

  the employee lounge offered them nothing: a few lockers, al padlocked.

  A text message appeared on both their DSs

  angelface13: the green one just left the ice palace.

  “Maleficent just left the ice truck,” Finn whispered.

  “Yeah…I saw that. But what’s it mean?”

  “No idea. But it can’t be good.” Amanda looked terrified. “Okay, here’s the thing: try to look

  like you belong here,” he advised, bracing himself for whoever was out there to come through the

  door.

  Instead, he saw a woman dressed in green nursing scrubs leading two adults and a string of

  four or five kids down the hal way. A tour!

  “I’ve got an idea,” Finn said.

  A moment later, he and Amanda were in the hal way trailing only a few feet behind the family.

  For anyone seeing them they would appear to be a group. The nurse, busy with her explanations,

  a memorized tour she probably did too often, seemed to pay little attention to those at the back of the pack.

  The guide pointed out the purpose of several of the rooms, explaining in some detail about

  the care and attention lavished on the animals in the Park. This facility was so advanced it was

  used not only for Disney-owned animals, but for al sorts of wild animals rescued throughout the

  state. Finn found himself getting caught up in the tour as Amanda tugged on his shirt. They stopped, and the tour went along without them.

  On the wal was a corkboard. Pinned to it were photographs of some of the recovered animals—including a gorilla with a broken leg. There were maps and brochures tacked to the board as wel .

  “The tattoo!” Amanda said.

  She was right: the similarity of the subjects was unmistakable. A photo of a goril a with a broken leg and a tattoo sketch of the same thing.

  “But how does it help us?”

  “I don’t know,” Amanda said, “but we’re in the right place.”

  Finn studied the rest of the stuff thumbtacked to the corkboard. One of the items was a very

  large satel ite photo of the entire Animal Kingdom. Finn spent a good deal of time—probably too

  much, according to his mother—on Google Earth. He loved everything about satel ite photos.

  Using the image, it took him only seconds to establish where they were: in a complex of buildings

  near the top right of the photo at the end of a loop that was obviously the train line.

  And then he saw them: an M near the bottom, and a C near the top.

  For a moment his breath caught; it felt as if a bone were stuck in his throat. His hands were

  moving before he knew exactly what he was doing. He pul ed the thumbtacks from the four corners

  of the satel ite photo.

  “How stupid could we be?” he muttered.

  “Finn? What’s going on?” Amanda asked, the concern apparent in her voice.

  “Hey!” came a man’s voice. “You can’t do that! Put that back!”

  Finn glanced to his right. The man was a long way off, at the end of the hal way.

  “Finn?” Amanda said heatedly.

  “They’re both here: the M she wrote in her diary, and ‘Under the Sea’!” Finn answered. He pointed to the satel ite photo, which he had turned counterclockwise.

  The man picked up his pace, heading toward them. “Hey there!” he cal ed out.

  “It wasn’t ‘Under the S-e-a,'” Finn spel ed. “But, under the letter C!” Turning the photo, he traced the prominent shape at the top of Asia. It was very clearly a big bold letter C, formed by an arched bridge. “She’s here. Jez…is under the C on the map.”

  “Oh…my…gosh!” Amanda squealed with excitement. “You found her!”

  “It’s the tiger yards,” Finn said, recognizing the route of the Jungle Trek. “Maybeck and I walked right by there.”

  The man was nearly upon them.

  Finn kept hold of the satel ite photo, already folding it as he turned to Amanda and shouted

  harshly, “I think it’s time we…RUN!”

  49

  AMANDA AND FINN turned the corner. At the far end of the halway glowed a red EXIT sign. Finn was

  already in the process of texting a D-Gamer message.

  Finn: chernabog!

  The green fairy rounded the far corner, coming between Finn and the EXIT sign. She held a

  black kitty in her arms.

  She set the cat down, waved her hand over it, and it stretched and grew to the size of a panther. The man pursuing Amanda and Finn skidded to a stop.

  “Sil y, sil y boy,” Maleficent said, aiming her finger at him. “Won’t you ever learn to mind your

  own business?”

  “Who are you?” the man shouted from wel behind Finn.

  “Pest!” she cal ed out, waving her finger at the man. The panther took off—running right past

  Amanda and Finn—and chased the man around the corner.

  Finn pushed the fear from his thoughts and drove away his anger. He whispered,

  “Examination room,” and pointed subtly with his left hand, holding it behind his back. “Get the others. We’l meet up at the trek.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Amanda informed him. “Not without Jez.”

  He couldn’t al ow her defiance to ruffle him. Above al , he had to clear his mind of any frustration, resentment, or il wil toward others. As he did, he felt the familiar tingling sensation in his toes and fingers, and he knew it was starting. Knew, without looking, that he was crossing over.

  In the past, he had only been able to sustain his waking-DHI form for a matter of a minute or

  two. Somehow he knew it would have to be longer this time—that this was to be a test of his strength.

  He suspected that by becoming his DHI, he risked the Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. This was

  uncharted territory, but he had to do something to counter Maleficent’s power.

  “Go!” he cal ed out to Amanda.

  “No. I’m staying.”

  Maleficent drew her scrawny hands toward her face, her fingers twitching, her lips bubbling

  with an incantation. Finn could sense a spel coming, but he would not al ow himself to fear it. Even his frustration with Amanda for not listening had to be ignored. He would be no help to her if Maleficent’s spel affected him as wel .

  “You have a powerful master,” Finn cal ed down the hal . He watched as Maleficent’s face became rubbery with surprise and wrinkled with concern.

  “You know nothing of my master,” came the reply.

  “More than you think. Is it control over
the Animal Kingdom that Chernabog wants?”

  Maleficent cringed at mention of the name; it was as if Finn had spoken a sacred secret. She

  curled her hands into a tight bal , and Finn could feel it coming.

  “Look out!” he shouted at Amanda. He turned to warn her.

  Amanda was gone. Vanished. No longer by his side.

  Maleficent hurled a blinding bal of energy down the hal . About the size of a softbal , it spun

  through the air, throwing off sparks like a tiny, blazing sun, and looked as if it would burn up anything in its path.

  “Duck!” said Amanda’s voice.

  Finn glanced up to see her floating horizontal y near the ceiling.

  “DUCK!” she repeated.

  But it was too late for Finn to duck. The burning bal arrived and passed right through him. It

  exploded at the end of the hal , hitting a tile wal and erupting into a cloud of black smoke that rose to the ceiling. The smoke crept toward a blinking sensor mounted in the ceiling.

  “But how…?” he muttered.

  Amanda, stil floating, said, “I told you Jez and I had unusual abilities.”

  “You can fly?”

  “Not exactly. I can levitate.” She sank then, and returned to her feet.

  Finn knew this discussion would have to wait until later.

  Maleficent twisted her ugly fingers. A cage of blue-white lines surrounded Finn and Amanda.

  Finn wasn’t scared of the laser cage. His DHI stepped right through it, coming closer to Maleficent. Amanda floated off her feet and swam through the air, slipping through a gap between

  the electric bars. She sank back to the floor.

  “Or is it the other way around?” Finn cal ed out to Maleficent. “Is it that the Animal Kingdom

  controls him, and you’re going to ‘save’ Chernabog? To free him! His powers are limited here. Is

  that it?”

  Maleficent took a step back, away from Finn. It was the first time he’d ever sensed an ounce

  of retreat in her. He savored the moment.

  By gloating, he briefly lost his DHI.

  “My master’s powers are anything but limited,” she said. “Just you wait!”

  She threw an arrow of flame at Finn. His cherishing Maleficent’s retreat had cost him more

  than half his DHI. He was now half kid, half light. And as he turned his back against the oncoming arrow, he unknowingly offered her his mortal half Seeing this, Amanda leaped in front of him.

  The arrow struck her in the chest and was total y absorbed. Her arms and legs glowed as she

  sank to the floor.

  Maleficent grinned an evil grin.

  “Looks like your girlfriend shouldn’t play with fire,” Maleficent said.

  Amanda lay unconscious on the floor at Finn’s feet, a burn mark on her shirt. His fear removed him from his DHI state and exposed him to Maleficent’s powers.

  But something else overcame him—a wild, pent-up anger that he could no longer control. He

  charged the witch.

  A wide-eyed Maleficent seemed to sense her situation. As her lips muttered another

  incantation, she was too late.

  Finn hit her with a body block, his momentum slamming her against the wal and pinning her

  there. He brought his hands to her throat.

  Her skin was ice cold.

  He said, “Release her this instant. You bring her back…or so help me…” He tightened his

  grip. Her cold skin was like nothing he’d ever felt.

  Maleficent’s sickly green skin turned yel ow. He was choking the life from her. She had no voice. No incantations.

  “RELEASE AMANDA!!” Finn shouted, holding the wild panther at bay with his voice. He

  tightened his grip. Maleficent’s eyes bulged. She waved her hand.

  Amanda coughed and sat up, coming back to consciousness.

  “Are you al right?” Finn asked.

  Amanda coughed hard but nodded.

  Finn squeezed even tighter. “Tel Chernabog it’s over,” he said. “He wil never regain his power. The Overtakers are through.”

  He threw her to the floor, turned, and ran, grabbing Amanda by the hand just as the smoke

  reached the smoke alarm.

  “You saved my life,” Amanda said, clinging to his arm. “Maleficent was scared of you!”

  “I was…mad,” Finn said.

  “I didn’t know you cared,” Amanda teased him, just as they opened an emergency door and

  sprinted outside.

  “Who says I do?” he said to her, his voice breaking.

  “Boys…” she muttered.

  50

  THE KINGDOM KEEPERS and Amanda stood watching the AnimalCam, with Philby at the controls.

  Al but Charlene, who kept vigil at the bat enclosure, her DS in hand. Philby, being Philby, had quickly located two cameras that served the tiger yards and a third that looked back toward the

  arched bridge that separated the two enclosures. It was this bridge that caused the C on the satel ite photo.

  “They keep tigers on either side of the bridge,” he explained. “Both sides have water and some trees for shade. From the bridge you have a good view of either yard.”

  “But if she’s under the C, she’s under the bridge,” Finn said.

  “I don’t know that that’s possible,” Philby said, switching camera views.

  “Zoom back!” Wil a said in an excited voice.

  Philby did as she asked.

  Amanda stepped forward, her finger pointing to the screen. “The window! That’s from the diary.”

  “Yes,” Finn said. “You showed us that before, when Maybeck and I were over there.”

  “She dreamed about this place,” Amanda said. “No question about it.”

  Wil a pushed her way to a closer view of the screen.

  Maybeck said, “Are we just going to watch TV al day? Let’s do something.”

  Wil a pointed. “Zoom in on this.”

  “On what?” Philby said.

  “Just do it,” Wil a persisted.

  Philby used the AnimalCam’s joystick to aim the camera where she pointed: a section where

  the wal met the dirt.

  “Zoom in,” she directed.

  It wasn’t dirt, as it turned out. Slowly a geometric shape became apparent: a wooden hatch

  with grass growing around its edges.

  “That couldn’t be what I think it is,” Maybeck said.

  “It’s a trapdoor!” Amanda declared.

  “A trapdoor in a tiger yard,” Maybeck said. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

  “She’s in there,” Amanda said. She looked to Finn for support. “Don’t ask me how I know, but

  she’s in there.”

  “Philby?” Finn asked. “What’s a trapdoor doing there?”

  “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

  “Try me,” Finn said.

  “Let’s say you’re the person running the tigers. How are you going to get any tigers into this

  lower yard?” He switched camera views. It showed a slowly rising hil of grass.

  “How ‘bout trying the gate?” Maybeck asked.

  “There is no gate. Not in the lower yard, only in the upper yard. We know from what Wayne

  told us that al the animals are accounted for each evening. They’re kept in barns and pens backstage. I’m thinking they probably move a couple tigers into this upper yard in the morning—

  then they open the hatch. It leads to a short tunnel that connects to the lower yard. Tigers are cats, so they’re smart. They learn fast.” He zoomed the camera to where a second hatch could be seen,

  this time in the lower yard. “Once the first tigers are in the lower yard, they close the hatches and put two more tigers into the upper yard. Tigers are territorial, so this system keeps them apart.”

  “Bril iant,” said Wil a.

  “I don’t mean to play devil’s adv
ocate,” said Maybeck, who thrived on playing devil’s advocate, “but if they let them in in the morning, then don’t they let them out in the evening? So if Jez is down there, which personal y I don’t believe, doesn’t that mean…?” He didn’t finish his thought.

  “That if she’s stil down there at closing, then the tiger gets her for dinner,” Philby said.

  Wil a gasped.

  “How could she have gotten down there in the first place?” Maybeck questioned.

  “She could have crossed the savannah,” Wil a proposed, “after escaping the tree trunk.

  Jumped a wal , or entered an open gate, only to find herself facing tigers. Maybe the hatch was

  already open; maybe she opened it herself. We won’t know until we find her.”

  “One thing,” Philby said, “supporting this theory…if I were rigging the sound for the Park, the

  wires would fol ow the path. It might make sense to have a junction box down in the tunnel connecting the yards. Workers would have a place to check the wires that’s out of the view of the

  guests and safely away from the tigers.”

  “No matter what,” Finn said, “I think we talked ourselves into checking out that tunnel.”

  “A tunnel we don’t even know exists,” Maybeck reminded them.

  “But there’s something else to think about,” Finn said. “The M on the satel ite photo is a match with the M in the diary.”

  “So she could just as easily be hiding someplace on the M,” Maybeck said, pleased to have

  some evidence to support his view.

  Amanda shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. She played that song over and over. She has

  to be under the C.”

  “Then what’s the M about?” Maybeck asked.

  “Wel , for one thing,” Wil a said, “it’s your initial.”

  Maybeck looked as if he might stick his tongue out at her, but he resisted.

  “In the diary there’s a blob of ink on the lower right stem of the M,” Philby pointed out. “That could be a mistake, or it could mean something. And I might add that everything in the diary so far has meant something.”

  “Agreed?” Finn said.

  “So look where it is,” Philby said.

  “Dinoland.” Philby looked around at the others. “Do any of you ever come to this Park?” he

  inquired sarcastical y. “Dinoland is ridiculously boring except for one attraction.”