“You did not do this. Tell me you did not do this! Where are you? Come back! Please, God, come back!”
Then she fell to her knees and wailed.
31
IT TOOK PHILBY THREE TRIES to find the right door, but finally he got himself, Amanda, and Finn into the back of the Mayan Temple and up its long staircase. They reached a glassed-in booth at the top. It was high enough and well disguised enough so that it couldn’t be seen by park guests from within Epcot. Finn used all-clear to enter the control room and unlock the door.
Inside it looked like a miniature version of something NASA would build. There was a wraparound console with two computers, several dials and switches, and two phones.
“IllumiNations,” Philby said, studying some of the switches up close. “This is where they run the music and the lasers for the show. Maybe even the fireworks—I can’t tell, but if I had to guess—”
“So you’re saying don’t touch anything,” Finn said.
“Amanda,” Philby said in his Professor Philby voice, “the idea is that by being here maybe you can see the Overtakers move around. Tell us what’s going on. You touch any of these buttons, or mess with the computers, and you’ll announce to the whole park that something is way wrong. You’ll also tell them exactly where you are, and they’ll come after you. So whatever you do—”
“I’ve got it,” she said.
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Together, the three tested different locations, discovering that there was a projection shadow beneath the main console: if you tucked yourself under the console on hands and knees, you disappeared. Knowing that invisibility could prove critically important to her survival, Amanda took a seat in the center chair behind a console. The boys left her there, Charlene’s cell phone in hand, Amanda’s DHI glowing just enough to allow her to see the console panel clearly.
In its center there was a single word on a plaque: DANGER.
* * *
“They could have tried to make it girl–boy,” Willa said. “You know, like every girl had to have a boy with her to keep her safe? Personally, I’m glad we were teamed up the way we are.”
“I’ve never done anything like this. Not exactly like this,” Jess said.
“It’s a lot to get used to, I know. Being crossed over is not exactly what you’d call normal, is it?”
“Definitely not.”
“The important thing,” Willa said, “is for you and me to stick together. Safety in numbers and all that.”
“And if we’re…I don’t know…attacked?”
“Overtakers? We try to avoid them. If we can’t then we run, and if we have to, we split up and meet at the rendezvous when it’s safe. And when you can, you want to practice going all-clear. Finn got it really early. Maybeck managed it once. Philby, too. If you can pull that off you can do things like walk through walls, and if someone tries to grab you, they can’t. Not that I’d know. But with your…powers…or whatever you call what it is you do—”
“Dreams.”
“Yeah…your dreams…maybe you can figure it out quicker than the rest of us. Finn says it’s all about relaxation, about not thinking about anything.”
“Not so easy for me,” Jess said. “I tend to think about the present and the future. I’m not so sure I can just turn that off.”
“Good point,” Willa said. “For now we just stick close and try to figure out if there’s anything different about Soarin’. Any clue Wayne might be wanting us to get. The first time we did this, we had to solve the Stonecutter’s Quill and the clues were pretty obvious. Last time—”
“I was the one giving the clues.”
“Exactly.”
“So do we know what kind of clue Wayne might leave us?”
“Something weird. Wayne is definitely weird. And it won’t be obvious. He never makes it easy.”
“That doesn’t exactly narrow things.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“So it could be anything,” Jess said.
“Hopefully we’ll know it when—if—we see it. But we should try to remember everything we see and hear. Maybe it won’t make sense until later.”
“I love Soarin’,” Jess said.
“Me, too. But if the Overtakers are in control of it, maybe not so much.”
“Like Small World.”
“Exactly. You never know what to expect.”
“I’m kinda scared,” Jess said. They’d been sneaking along the edge of the path and were now only fifty yards from the entrance to Soarin’.