Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn

by Ridley Pearson

  was hunting. If not Finn, any one of the monkeys would make a worthwhile snack.

  The monkeys saw the cat as wel , their hackles raised in alarm.

  Finn was facing the wal of monkeys as the second cat climbed up and out of the tunnel. He

  glanced over his shoulder: the other two cats would arrive at any moment.

  He’d done a fine job of pul ing attention away from Jez, but his own situation was far more

  tentative. If he didn’t think of something quickly, his lone stick was not going to be enough to defend himself.

  He held the stick high overhead and cried out loudly in a war cry.

  “Go ahead, try it!” he shouted, watching Jez continue her progress. But the monkeys grew daring, tightening the circle around Finn.

  Preparing to strike.

  57

  PHILBY’S AND WAYNE’S AVATARS ran along a catwalk of steel mesh, folowing the few remaining

  cables like train tracks toward an unconfirmed destination. But everything pointed toward the Dino Institute. Final y, the first wal of the institute appeared, and then the identification on the schematics.

  The trick for Philby was to juggle back and forth between the DS and the computer terminal. It

  wasn’t easy.

  philitup: it’s definitely dino-institute.

  mybest: we’re almost there.

  He studied the wires ahead of him. The purple wires turned right just inside the doors of the

  institute.

  The virtual blueprint spread out before him and Wayne. As they neared the entrance, the plan

  shifted from two to three dimensions. He and Wayne moved inside the guest entrance. Philby stayed alert for any other ways to get in.

  Wayne’s avatar stopped at the edge of the doorway.

  Philby typed a message to Wayne.

  philitup: what’s wrong?

  [ ]: i sense a trap.

  philitup: why?

  [ ]: we should have met more resistance, i am familiar with their tactics, this is unlike them.

  philitup: maybe they’ve changed.

  [ ]: not likely, the overtakers never rest, they are cunning and clever and they possess many spells.

  i would suggest we look for another access point.

  philitup: there’s no time, besides, the cables are right here.

  [ ]: have you considered the cables themselves may be part of a trap?

  Philby had not given it any thought. The data flow had convinced him he was fol owing the right cables. If it was a trap, then Maybeck and Wil a were also walking right into it.

  [ ]: please…another door, it’s safer for all of us.

  Philby hesitated, incredibly tempted to fol ow the cables. But Wayne had gotten him this far.

  He had to trust him. He backed his avatar out of the entrance, took his hands off the controls, and texted a message to Maybeck’s DS

  philitup: if u can get backstage @ dino institute, u r looking 4 a rack of servers, there wil b

  thick blue or gray ethernet cables clipped into the back of each server, there may be a hub—

  a box with flashing lights.

  As his avatar stepped out of the structure, the schematics returned to two dimensions. He studied the ful schematics. The biggest backstage areas were to the right.

  philitup: workshops are @ end of ride, must destroy server.

  He waited to make sure Maybeck had received the messages.

  mybest: got it. . i hope.

  58

  THE APES AND MONKEYS ENCIRCLED FINN, closing around him like a net. How simple to cross over

  briefly into his DHI and just walk right through that hairy line, but it was not to be: he was terrified.

  He wasn’t going to cross over on his own.

  He spun, looking for the weak link in the circle. He considered charging some of the smal er

  monkeys, breaking the line there and running for it. But they al were ferociously fast on their feet and, at the moment, baring their teeth in a display of aggression and anger.

  He caught sight of Jez as she reached Charlene. Excitedly, the two girls worked it out to where Charlene was leaning her back against the wal , and the nimble Jez now climbed up the

  stilts—using them as a ladder—toward Charlene’s waiting hand. Finn looked away as the fingers

  of the two met, confident that Charlene would get Jez up and over to the other side.

  “Over here!” a high-pitched voice cal ed out.

  Finn heard guests shout: “Check it out!” “Look at this!” “There are kids in with the tigers!”

  Where had she come from? Finn wondered. It was Amanda. She was inside the tiger yard, the huge, prowling cat to her left, the circle of monkeys directly in front of her.

  Disney Security would be on them in minutes. They had to get Jez—and themselves—out

  before they were either eaten by the tigers or caught by Security.

  The other two cats arrived at the same time. They, too, began to circle, along with the tiger

  that escaped the hatch—a wider circle than the monkeys, one that included Amanda.

  The escaped tiger stil confused Finn: how had it gotten into the tunnel in the first place?

  Was the lower yard hatch open? If so, who had opened it?

  Only the prowling tigress that had emerged from the shadows remained on her own,

  majestical y moving with long, confident strides, restlessly back and forth. She seemed to be agitated, studying the commotion in her yard, calculating a strike.

  Several of the monkeys spun around, distracted by Amanda, and broke their chain. Finn took

  advantage of the distraction and shot for the opening.

  The two charging tigers turned at the last minute, now aiming for Amanda.

  Finn took two steps toward her, intending to defend her, but then witnessed her leaving the

  ground. She levitated, floating higher and higher. The monkeys, carried by their own momentum,

  ran right through the space she had occupied. The two charging tigers leaped into the air, reaching their claws toward her. One caught the leg of her jeans, but there was no sound of tearing fabric. No scream.

  The leaping tiger flew through the air and landed with a rol .

  The slinking tigress sat back on her haunches and sprang for the charging tiger. It looked as

  if the tigress were trying to defend Amanda. The two tigers growled at the tigress and the three

  cats began to circle each other.

  Ignored, Amanda lowered herself to the grass.

  “The wal !” Finn cal ed out to Amanda as he raised his stick toward the remaining two monkeys.

  Amanda sprinted toward Charlene.

  Finn turned his back in their direction, battling most of the monkeys, who darted about him

  trying to sink their teeth into his legs. He knocked them back with his stick, but apparently they barely felt it.

  Looking over the heads of the monkeys, Finn saw the tigress swiping her huge claws at the

  other two grand cats. It looked as if the cats made contact, but none of them reeled with pain—

  they held their ground.

  Charlene let out a squeal as Amanda climbed up her stilts; her hand had become caught between a stilt and the wal .

  With that squeal, al three cats turned. One minute fighting each other; the next, acting like curious cats. They clearly saw the monkeys, then Finn, and final y the girl in the distance clambering up a wal .

  They charged.

  Finn had his hands ful with the monkeys. He had not an ounce of strength nor a second of

  time to deal with three enormous cats barreling down toward him.

  This is it, he thought. It was too late to turn and run. Too late to escape.

  The cats were lightning fast. They seemed to pul the earth, and Finn with it, dragging him toward them. Without looking, the monkeys knew. They darted to their left, removing themselves

  from the tigers�
� line of sight.

  Finn readied his pathetic stick; it was al the defense he had. He was going to be eaten alive.

  The two smal er tigers leaped into the air when just five yards away, perfectly calculating the

  distance. They would land on Finn, crushing him, then snap his neck with their powerful jaws and

  start the feast.

  Finn braced for the end.

  59

  PHILBY’S AND WAYNE’S AVATARS HAD , only five minutes earlier, moved around the right wal of the

  Dino Institute, as it appeared on the virtual schematics.

  philitup: if you helped create the place, how about a little hint of how to reach that room?

  Near the south wal of the institute, the purple cables terminated. The blueprint showed a series of wal s around them, but no door. So was the server in a closet? A workspace? The ceiling? The hiding place in the floor?

  [ ]: computers came way after my time. I have no idea where that is.

  philitup: none? are you sure? they don’t need much space, but it has to be a cool room, and they require a lot of cabling, so they would be over a tunnel or sewer, or—

  [ ]: storm sewers.

  Wayne’s avatar lifted its arm to point.

  [ ]: I remember a meeting, years ago, where routing data lines over the storm sewer pipes was discussed, storm sewers carry the rainwater out of the park, the sewer lines are in maintenance conduits throughout the park.

  philitup: but this is a server they want to hide, that they don’t want anyone to find.

  [ ]: the employee bathroom in the Dino Institute is way too cold, and every bathroom has drains, right? some drains feed the storm sewers.

  Philby grabbed hold of the DS. It was worth a try.

  philitup: dhi server is in an employee bathroom close 2 the south wal .

  mybest: on our way.

  philitup: wayne and i wil try 2 cut the cables, u try 2 find server.

  Philby looked back at the VMK screen and, as he did, the screen popped and sparkled. It

  occurred to him that someone could be monitoring them. The Overtakers could know that he and

  Wayne were online. Could they trace their locations? If so, both he and Wayne were at great risk.

  philitup: hurry up! we have to cut the cables.

  Wayne’s avatar rushed to keep up with Philby. It forced Wayne to keep his hands on the mouse and off the keyboard: he couldn’t type a message as long as Philby kept him moving.

  They traveled around the corner of the institute and back to the catwalk that carried the data

  cables. Philby struck the purple cables with his sword. Once…twice…three times. Al the cables

  were cut. They immediately turned gray—the data stream was dead.

  Why wasn’t Wayne helping? Philby turned his avatar to look.

  Wayne’s avatar wasn’t moving.

  philitup: come on! hurry!

  The white-haired avatar just stood there not doing anything.

  Philby wished he could scream at Wayne, instead of just typing. Why wasn’t the old guy fol owing him?

  Then the impossible happened: Wayne’s avatar dissolved.

  60

  MAYBECK AND WILLA occupied the backseat of one of the exploration vehicles inside the Dino

  Institute. The front seat stood empty, and given the size of the crowd lined up for the ride, this should have told them something; but they’d been too preoccupied with Philby’s instructions to pay much attention to anything beyond looking for doors offering employees backstage access.

  The ride was dark and very cold, with stunningly real dinosaurs appearing at every turn.

  Asteroids fel to Earth in a shower of fiber optics. The vehicle rounded a long turn. The prehistoric creatures looked up and turned toward the truck.

  “How are we going to do this?” Wil a asked Maybeck in a whisper. “We can’t jump from the

  car without setting off the alarms.”

  “We’l find a way backstage,” Maybeck promised. “The trick is to know where we’re going.”

  He indicated the part of the ride to their right. “This section is al interior to the track. Philby said a workshop or bathroom. Those rooms are going to be in spaces between the ride and the exterior

  wal s—or currently to our left.”

  “Are you sure about that?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure about anything,” he conceded.

  The next scene showed a tyrannosaurus eating a lizard.

  “It’s creepy the way their eyes move,” Wil a hissed. “It feels like they’re looking right at—”

  But her words were cut off as the dinosaur’s giant tail swiped over the engine of the open-

  topped vehicle. Maybeck reached out and pul ed Wil a down onto him a fraction of a second before the massive tail nearly beheaded her. The tail broke some equipment off the vehicle, and it tumbled to the track.

  Maybeck dared to sneak a look and pushed Wil a back up.

  “Was that…supposed to happen?” she gasped.

  Maybeck pul ed at a lap belt at his waist; then he tried Wil a’s. The belts wouldn’t release—

  they were locked shut. The kids couldn’t jump out of the vehicle even if they’d wanted to.

  “I don’t think so. No,” Maybeck answered. “I think that was intended for us. Heads up!”

  He glanced back. No vehicles in sight in either direction.

  The ride was designed so that no car ever saw another. There was no use cal ing out for help.

  “You remember Smal World?” he asked her.

  “I was on Winnie the Pooh with Charlene,” Wil a answered. “We nearly drowned, don’t forget.”

  “I haven’t forgotten. My point is: I think this is like that.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  If they could have jumped from the car, the sensors would have stopped the ride, but the locked seat belts prevented their escape.

  Suddenly, a pterodactyl shot down at them from out of the pitch-black ceiling. It was dark and

  angular, with a wingspan of over six feet. With its sharp talons extended, it descended too quickly for Maybeck to react, catching him by the wrist as he shielded his face from the attack. At the moment the talon grabbed hold of him, his seat belt released, the timing too perfect to be coincidental. The bird locked on to his forearm and dragged him up and out of the vehicle.

  Wil a screamed, spun, and grabbed him by the boots. Maybeck was now stretched between

  the overhead bird and Wil a, stil locked in her seat. Neither was wil ing to let go. He groaned in agony—it felt like every joint was separating simultaneously.

  He twisted his forearm to the left then quickly to the right, breaking the bird’s grip on him. The pterdoactyl’s long beak bent back to peck at Maybeck, but too late. Maybeck reached out and snapped the bird’s leg at the knee. The creature cried out, flapped its wings, and was absorbed

  into the darkness of the ceiling.

  Was it alive?

  Wil a pul ed him down into the backseat, but he avoided the seat belt.

  The pterodcactyl’s broken leg in hand, Maybeck studied it. An electrical wire extended from

  the broken knee.

  “You’re bleeding,” she said.

  He studied the three holes in his skin. “It doesn’t hurt much. I’m fine.”

  “It got you.”

  “Dang right it did.” Only Maybeck didn’t say ‘dang.’

  “This ride is trying to hurt us!”

  “You think?” he snapped sarcastical y. “You’re not surprised by that, are you? There are sensors on every ride. Probably cameras, too. Throw in a little artificial intel igence, and how hard can it be to program a server to defend itself?”

  “You think the server is doing this?”

  “I think it knows we mean business. It has every right to be scared. I’m going to fry its innards

  if— no, when!—we find it.”

  “But how—?” Wil a began
. She cut herself off as Maybeck stood up in the seat, grabbed a

  light, and turned it to show them something of the track in front of them.

  Back behind the jungle plants, he il uminated a black door and a disguised device protruding

  from beside it.

  “Ten-to-one that’s a card reader,” Maybeck said. “That’s our way in.”

  “But I’m stuck,” Wil a reminded him, indicating the locked seat belt. She pul ed and squirmed,

  but there wasn’t any way she was going to slip out of its grip.

  Maybeck glanced around sharply. The car had already moved them past the black door. They

  were rounding a turn toward the end of the ride. They would be caught and—at a minimum—

  thrown out of the Park. If the Overtakers got hold of them, then things were about to get a lot worse.

  “There has to be an emergency release,” Maybeck said, trying to think like Philby. What would Philby do?

  “If a car stops,” she said. “Like a fire or something…”

  “The belts would release!” Maybeck nearly shouted, agreeing with her.

  “We’re going to have to move fast,” he said. A rhinoceroslike dinosaur stepped out of the scene up ahead and lowered its head. It was going to head-butt them.

  Maybeck jumped from the vehicle.

  Nothing happened.

  He’d expected flashing lights and sirens and for the vehicle to stop. But the car continued forward, aimed directly at the armor-clad beast with its head lowered.

  Maybeck tore loose a branch from a tree. He hurried to the front of the research vehicle and

  swung the branch repeatedly at the vehicle’s bumper and gril e.

  “Terry!” Wil a shouted, cal ing Maybeck by his first name.

  “There has to be…” Maybeck muttered to himself as he continued to bash the vehicle while

  he backed up toward the waiting dinosaur. His pants belt snagged on something on the front gril e.

  If the beast charged now, it would crush him against the car.

  Again, he smacked the front of the car.

  It stopped.

  He’d knocked out a front sensor.