“Maybeck to the rescue,” Charlene said.
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Maybeck said.
“Tonight?” Finn asked. He slowly looked around the room, from face to face. He realized how these six people had become his closest friends. He didn’t see that much of Dillard, a neighborhood pal, anymore. These six and their mission to stop the Overtakers consumed him. He could use his being a Kingdom Keeper as a convenient excuse with his other friends. The role required him to record vocal tracks and occasionally model a new move or two for the hologram Imagineers. But more than any excuses, he wanted to be with the Kingdom Keepers; he wanted to find Wayne and take on Maleficent and Chernabog and get them locked up again. To voice that aloud would get him an appointment with a psychiatrist, but these six others understood; they had been there.
“Tonight,” Maybeck said. “Tomorrow is Saturday. We can sleep it off.”
“What time?” Amanda asked. “We’re kind of new at this.”
“It’s late already,” Finn said. “If we all try to get to bed by quarter of eleven, we should cross over about a half hour later.”
“We left the fob at the Studios,” Philby reminded him.
“I’ll pick up the fob,” Finn said. “Fantasmic! Friday will mean there are buses running late.”
“Won’t you be spotted?” Jess asked.
“My projection will die somewhere outside the Studios. I can get on a bus without being seen. If I happen to pop on and off a couple of times, it’ll only convince the other guests that I’m my DHI. That’s all that matters.”
“So,” Philby said, “eleven-fifteen, the bathrooms on the way to Test Track.”
Each of them nodded.
“We wait for everyone,” he said. “I’ll use the back-door in the software to send us all. I’ll turn the Studios on for you, Finn.” Finn nodded. “Once Finn is there with the fob, we’ll wait until eleven-thirty and then head for the Wonders pavilion. If you’re late, you can catch up to us there.”
“The lounge,” Finn said, “is on the second floor.”
“What if the Overtakers are using Wonders as a kind of base?” Charlene asked.
“We’re not going to just barge in there, if that’s what you’re asking,” Philby answered.
“We should go to bed wearing dark clothing and running shoes,” Finn advised.
“I’ll bring some rope,” Charlene said.
“Bring your phones with you,” Philby told them.
An anonymous benefactor—Wayne?—had sent all five Kingdom Keepers free phones as a reward for their efforts in the Animal Kingdom. The phones, which could connect to the Internet as well as send texts, had a direct-connect feature—like an intercom—just between the five of them. “And flashlights,” Finn said. “And, Jess, make sure you have paper and pencil, in case you have one of your…you know….”
“Trances?” Jess said.
“Whatever it is you have,” Finn said.
“Anyone up for s’mores?” Mrs. Whitman shouted down into the basement.
“Quick!” Finn said, “get out of here before you don’t fit through the doors!”
22
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” Everything had gone smoothly for Finn. He’d made it into the Studios, had retrieved the fob, and had been about to board the last bus back to the Transportation Ticket Center, when he realized he’d be stranded there. He’d gone invisible shortly after leaving the Studios’ gate and had been standing near the bus loading area wondering what to do when he’d overheard a conversation behind him.
“Catch a ride back to Epcot with you?” Printed in large yellow letters across a windbreaker Finn read: ORDNANCE CREW CHIEF.
“Sure, climb in! Don’t know what we’d have done without you, Pete,” the driver of the pickup said. Pete climbed in. A Mickey Mouse bobblehead nodded at the two men from the dashboard. “Would have been a disaster without those pyro effects.”
“Without problems,” said Pete, “I wouldn’t have a job. Happy to help out. I just wish we weren’t doing the run-through of Fantasmic! at five again tomorrow.”
“Every morning this week.”
“Don’t remind me. I can hear my alarm ringing already.”
As Pete pulled himself up into the cab, the invisible Finn stepped onto the bumper and pulled himself into the truck bed.
The problem came as the pickup truck was passing through Security backstage at Epcot, for, as it turned out, the Epcot DHI projectors could reach all the way out to the checkpoint. Finn’s DHI began flashing and flickering on and off in the truck bed, only seconds before the pickup pulled to a stop at the Security blockade. There was no tarp to hide under. No empty cardboard box. So he rolled to the side of the truck bed nearest the guard station and hid as best he could. Hiding his projected image was one thing—his effort accomplished that. But there was nothing to stop his pulsing glow from illuminating the back of the truck. He feared either the guard, or Pete, from the passenger seat, would pick up on his blinking glow and discover him. He was like a neon sign going on and off. He tried to think of how to talk his way out of this if spotted, but couldn’t come up with any decent excuses.