“One Man’s Dream closes at five,” Willa informed them. “We’re okay. We’ll make it.” She turned to Finn. “What if we were ‘accidentally’ inside when it closed for the night?”
Philby shot down her suggestion. “There’s no way five of us will be able to hide out in there and get locked in. Forget it.”
Finn said, “But one of us might be able to.”
Philby said, “There are at least nine security cameras inside One Man’s Dream. If even one of us is seen in there after closing, we’re in big trouble.”
“Maybe not.” A familiar voice came from behind Finn. It was Amanda.
She was sitting in the front part of the train car, her back directly to them, exactly behind Finn. This is anything but coincidence, he thought.
Finn had barely spoken to her since that day at the skate park where it had seemed to him she’d known too much, or was keeping something from him. His intentional avoidance of her hung in the air between them.
Finn introduced her around to those who had not met her.
She told Finn candidly, “You saw me in the park last night. Main Street. Not far behind you.” The four other DHIs looked at Finn as if he’d betrayed them. “That’s because I followed Jez there after school,” Amanda explained.
“Jez?” Maybeck blurted out.
Amanda said, “Jez never left the park at closing. She went into Pirates of the Caribbean and never came out. I hid in the bathrooms behind Pirates and waited for the park to clear. Then I hid in a stairwell and waited.”
“Are we supposed to believe this?” Charlene asked.
“Believe what you want,” Amanda snapped at her. “After closing, it was her turn to hide. She took a place on Main Street. You guys just…arrived all of a sudden. I mean, one minute no one was there on the bench, and then there you were. It was the weirdest thing. And she followed you.”
“And you followed her,” Finn said.
Philby tested her. “She followed us where?”
Amanda answered, “She followed you and Finn to Thunder Mountain, and so did I.”
Maybeck nodded. What he heard made sense. “This is solid, guys. This girl Jez is trouble.”
“Later she went over to Cosmic Ray’s,” Amanda said.
Charlene went pale. “But why?”
“Yeah. Why would Jez follow us?” Philby asked curiously.
Amanda said, “Curiosity killed the cat.”
Finn and Maybeck exchanged glances. Finn asked, “Where is she now?”
“She followed you, Finn, today. After school. I lost her at the Transportation and Ticket Center, but she’s around here someplace.”
Charlene snapped, “Since when did you become our guardian angel?”
“My mother works at MGM,” Amanda said. “In administration, in one of the old bungalows. I’ve been there, like, a zillion times. They know me. The main security office for the park is in that building.” She hesitated a moment and then said, “I know those guys. I can distract them. If I think they’re going to see you on one of their screens, I can draw their attention.”
“I’ll just bet you can,” snarled Charlene.
“I don’t know about that,” Finn said. It sounded complicated to him. Risky.
“I can help you,” she suggested. “I can signal if they’re on to you.” Still Finn hesitated. “You need someone to warn you.”
He’d known for some time that she wanted to be a DHI, wanted to be part of the adventure.
Showing off her knowledge of the area, Amanda told Philby, “Listen, there’s a sound-and-light tower right there at the side door to One Man’s Dream. From up there, one of you would be able to see pretty much all around the park. You’d be able to spot the security patrols way before they reached the attraction.”
Willa suggested, “All in favor of Amanda helping us out?”
Everyone’s hand went up, but Finn’s was noticeably slower than the others. Noting his reluctance, Amanda scrunched her face at him.
“I just don’t want you getting into trouble—or worse!—for something you’re not involved in,” he said. “This can be dangerous, Amanda. You need to know that before you volunteer.”
Amanda’s nostrils flared. She looked angry. “I can take care of myself.”
Willa and Charlene grinned.
Charlene, usually the most reluctant of the five, said, “Okay then, it’s decided.”
Once inside MGM park, they quickly split up to avoid recognition.
Finn and Willa headed up Sunset Boulevard. Amanda split from the group, presumably to reach Security. Philby sought out the sound-and-light tower, with Charlene as his runner, in case he spotted trouble.