“We’ve got to get her back,” Willa said. “Cross her back over.”
“We need her,” Finn said, without thinking. He looked at her, knowing the kind of pressure they were putting onto her, but not seeing any choice. They had come a long way to reach this moment. “It’s up to you.” They were where they were because of Jess’s original dream, because of her powers as a seer. He believed they needed her to search the pavilion, to confirm that they had the right place. “No one will hold it against you if you go. It’s probably the smart thing to do.”
“They will come from my left side. Two of them. A man with a red beard and a green tunic, and a boy much like him wearing blue. I know that sounds ridiculous, but…”
“Trust me,” Finn said. “Everything we do is ridiculous. No one would believe half of what we’ve seen.”
“Vikings,” Philby whispered. “Norway. There’s a father-and-son display. It’s just about as she has described.”
“What about…cavemen?” Jess asked. “I know that also sounds stupid but—”
“Nothing is stupid,” Finn said. “You know that! Not here. Philby? Cavemen?”
“Spaceship Earth. Another father-and-son team. In the scene, the two are looking at pictographs on cave walls. The guests see them from behind, never see their faces.”
“They’re part of this too,” Jess declared.
“Overtakers,” Willa and Finn said in unison.
“How do we protect her?” Amanda said anxiously.
“We know what to expect now,” Finn said. “Or who to expect.”
“Keep them away from me, and I’m safe,” Jess said.
“We don’t know that what she just saw will happen tonight,” Professor Philby pointed out, raising his index finger perfunctorily. “The future is longer than just the next few minutes.”
“But what she saw could also happen tonight,” a troubled Amanda said.
“If we stopped talking and started looking for Wayne,” Finn said, “tonight would be over a lot sooner.”
Maybeck appeared at the top of the stairs and stopped abruptly. “I thought…” he whispered, seeing them already inside.
“Change of plans,” Finn hissed back.
Maybeck made a series of hand signals that apparently Finn was supposed to understand. He didn’t.
“He and Charlene will stay upstairs,” Philby translated. “No sign of the Overtakers. Should we split up Jess and Amanda?”
“You got all that,” Finn asked, bewildered, “from him pumping his fists a couple times?”
“No. That last part was me. What about Jess upstairs, Amanda with us? If anyone comes after Jess, maybe we can act as decoys, buying Charlene time to get Jess out of here.”
“Works for me,” Finn said. “Jess?”
“Sure. Why not?” She gave a fleeting glance in the direction of Amanda and hurried up the stairs. Finn, Willa, Philby, and Amanda crept forward and moved past groupings of gray machines with bold white numbers on their fronts. Philby explained, a little heavy-handedly, that Wonders had been known for its interactive stations long before interactive was even a word. There were all sorts of games and demonstrations surrounding them that involved participation, but their plugs were pulled and they were stacked randomly together—it looked more like a technology graveyard than a Disney attraction.
A doorway opened into a vast space beneath a dome.
“This reminds me of The Land,” Willa said. “Only different.”
A gray glow from the path lighting outside leaked through the skylights, playing on the contents like moonlight. At the center of the circular space was a theater; there were structures made to look like tents, and seats and tables; the whole pavilion was deserted in a way that suggested that the guests had fled in a hurry.
“Creepy,” Willa said.
“Times ten,” Amanda said.
There was a sign for BODY WARS on the opposite wall in front of a queue with stanchions and chain.
“It was originally all about stuff to do with health,” Philby said. “Body Wars, Cranium Command, The Making of Me. Some of it was really gross.”
“A lot of places to hide a person,” Finn said.
“And totally empty,” Philby said. “It’s pretty weird to see an entire pavilion totally empty.”
“You think?” Willa snapped sarcastically.
A whistle caught their attention. Finn looked behind them to the second floor—an enclosed sunroom that ran fully around the building. Maybeck was waving for them to come up.
Philby gestured in hand signals. Maybeck gestured back.