“What?”
“Buttons. Monitors. That’s Mission Space.” Willa glanced up at the exit sign. “I think you’re on the wrong ride…” she said.
* * *
At nearly the same moment Jess and Willa had entered Soarin’, Finn and Philby had been poised outside the Test Track pavilion.
“What do you think?” Finn asked quietly. Tucked behind a FASTPASS kiosk to the right of the entrance, the boys were keeping an eye out for trouble.
“I’m thinking about those crash-test dummies.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“And how this is where they live.”
“I’m with you.”
“And that we’re basically asking for it.”
“I hear you.”
“But we’re going in there, aren’t we?”
“We are,” Finn said.
“I suppose if we can all-clear, we’re okay.”
“It’s hard to do when everything’s coming at you at once.”
“It’s hard to do, period. You’re the all-clear expert. I’m a newbie.”
“I don’t know that I could do it with a pair of crash-test dummies coming at me.”
“But it’s because of the crash-test dummies that we have to go in there,” Philby said. “Or am I missing something?”
“That, and the flying thing.” Finn looked down at the sword in his hand. “I feel totally stupid carrying this around with me.”
“Live with it. I think Wayne wants us to have it.”
“Besides which, it’s heavy. Have you ever lugged a sword around? It’s like carrying a tuba.”
“You play tuba?”
“I did for two weeks in fifth grade. Then I got wise and switched to trumpet.”
“I’m clarinet,” Philby said. It sounded like a confession. “And I sing in our church’s youth choir, but if you tell anyone I’ll have to kill you.”
“If the crash-test dummies don’t do it for you.”
“Don’t kid around like that.”
“Like what?” Finn asked. “You think I’m kidding? If those things get hold of us.…It’s not like they have brains or something…. They’re obviously being controlled by someone or something else, and we both know who that is.”
“Programmed is more like it,” Professor Philby said, correcting him. “My guess is that at some point the Imagineers toyed with the idea of Audio-Animatronic crash-test dummies. There were probably a couple of those things lying around in a room somewhere, and the Overtakers got hold of them and ‘enlisted’ them by updating their software. That’s the thing about this place: the Imagineers are like human wizards. They think up all this stuff, half of which none of us ever sees. But someone knows it exists. Right? And in the wrong hands…well, the thing is, there’s probably a lot more stuff like the dummies, stuff we’ve never even thought of before that can be used against us.”
“Are you trying to give me a pep talk?” Finn asked. “Because it isn’t working.”
“I’m just saying, we—all of us—should keep our eyes open. And we shouldn’t trust anything we see. And we should be looking for stuff we don’t see. We know Maleficent can transfigure herself into various animals. Who knows what Chernabog can do? Who knows what the two of them can do together? All I’m saying is: if crash-test dummies are out patrolling on Segways, and trolls are coming alive in Maelstrom, and jesters are attacking the girls in France, then this place is lit up by Overtakers. You know what I mean? They are like: volume on ten. They are working it. And we need to be ready for them because we’re who they’re after. In their world, we’re the bad guys. And we know what happens to the bad guys.”
“You are really depressing me here.”
“Reality check. That’s all.”
“Can we go inside now? You’ve got me totally paranoid.”
“If something happens, you go all-clear and get gone,” Philby said. “Don’t worry about me. If one of us gets out of this, it’s way better than if we’re both caught. Right? I know you’ll come back for me. So no heroics. Just get out and figure something out and come back. I’m good with that.”
“Not going to happen.”
“No heroics,” Philby repeated.
“I’ve got your back,” Finn said, holding his ground. “Now let’s take a ride.”
* * *
Mission: Space was basically a bunch of pods on a giant turntable. Maybeck held an arm out to keep Charlene from going any farther into the room. She was a little too cheerleader for him, a little too gung ho. It worried him that she might be more athletic than he was, might show him up in some way. He didn’t want her making him look bad.