Kingdom Keepers II(24)

Finn rushed the others into the back. They climbed up into a refrigerated area of cardboard boxes filled with fresh fruits and vegetables stacked onto wooden pallets and strapped to the walls. Each stack offered a place to hide behind. The kids doubled up. Charlene and Willa hid behind a tower of raspberry and strawberry flats. Maybeck and Philby ducked behind the lettuce, leaving Finn and Amanda to press into a small space behind six stacked boxes of carrots.

“Okay,” the driver said. “That’s good. Stay like that. All set?”

The door came down hard, with a bang of finality. It was dark as a cave inside. The refrigerator unit up near the cab wheezed loudly as it blew an icy wind, freezing them.

“Dang…” Maybeck said. “This is how I always imagined prison.”

“What if one of us is afraid of the dark?” Charlene asked timidly.

“Then she should hold on to Willa, Charlene,” said Maybeck.

“I didn’t say it was me!” Charlene said.

“Right,” said Maybeck.

The truck grumbled and groaned as it lurched around a series of corners toward the back side of the Animal Kingdom. Pretty soon its brakes squealed to a stop. Finn and the others had been in the same situation before—at the reinforced, militarylike security gates at the back of the Magic Kingdom. He could picture the guards outside. Supplies and merchandise and employees came through these entrances. The driver’s credentials were checked, manifests and work schedules cross-referenced. The kids heard some talking through the shell, though the words were indiscernible. Then a single thump. The Dapper Dan had elbowed the back wall of the cab, trying to warn his passengers.

“I dropped my purse,” Charlene announced in a harsh whisper. “I can’t find it! I can’t find my purse.”

Finn knew that if Security saw a purse, they would probably climb up into the back of the truck to retrieve it. And if so, then they’d spot the kids.

“I can’t see!” she hissed again.

Sounds of the door hardware rattled at the back of the truck. The back door was definitely about to be lifted.

“My purse…” Charlene moaned.

Finn stepped out from behind the stack of carrots. Amanda reached out to stop him, but she was too late.

He felt around the floor. Nothing. Then he remembered his father’s BlackBerry. He pulled it out of his pocket and hit a button on the keypad, and the screen came to life like a flashlight.

Charlene’s arm shot out from behind a stack of boxes, and she grabbed hold of her purse. It vanished.

The door rolled open a crack. Finn shoved the BlackBerry into his pocket, snuffing its light. His knees didn’t flex. He didn’t move. He just stood there. Light flooded into the back of the truck. He turned, but it was too late. The door continued up.

In an instant everything changed: he was suddenly pasted to the ceiling—floating—hidden by the rolling door, which was carried on tracks like a garage door.

“Clear,” one of the Security guys announced.

Finn sank toward the truck bed. From the light of the BlackBerry he saw Amanda facing him, her arm extended. As her arm fell, so did Finn.

The back door clattered shut and the clunk of hardware confirmed they were locked inside again.

“You did that!” he said, accusing Amanda.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” she whispered.

“You saved us,” he said.

“That was way cool, Finn,” said Maybeck. “You mind telling me how you did that?”

Amanda whispered warmly into Finn’s ear. “No…not yet.”

Finn said into the dark: “Ah…I could show you, but I’d have to kill you.”

Maybeck chuckled.

“I want some, too,” added Philby.

“Later, dudes,” said Finn.

Again, he felt Amanda’s breath warm against his neck as she whispered softly, “Thank you.”

He wanted to say something, but his voice had gone dry, and he couldn’t get a word out.





15


A MOMENT AFTER the truck finally pulled to a stop, the Dapper Dan climbed up inside and then lowered the garagelike door behind himself, leaving it open just enough to admit some light from the nearby light poles.

“This is as far as I go with the truck. Finn gave each of you an assignment, as I understand it.”

“I’ve got a pretty good handle on the tech side of the Park,” Philby said. “There are cameras all over the place, some for Security, some for the Park visitors. Basically, we won’t be alone wherever we go. But there’s a very cool element to this I think we should consider.” He glanced around at the group. Charlene was trying to wipe a smudge off her clothes, but everyone else was paying strict attention to him. “Out at Conservation Station—which everyone in the Park calls ‘CS,’ by the way—is a bank of camera monitors that are interactive. Visitors can actually move and zoom the cameras, searching for animals and that kind of thing. But I think they give us a real good opportunity to monitor what’s going on.”