“I don’t! Wait! Wait!” Philby barked, not wanting to lose to Willa.
“A Disney name?” Maybeck asked. “But then that’s got to be it. What is it, Willa? Tell us what it is!”
“Give up?” she asked Philby, her voice a hoarse whisper. There was something going on between these two. And Maybeck didn’t like it.
“No…No…” Philby pleaded.
“He gives up,” Maybeck said. “WE ALL GIVE UP.”
Willa’s eyes scrunched, as if to convey her disappointment in Philby. But Philby didn’t see her. His eyes were closed, his lips moving as if reading to himself.
“Chernabog!” Philby shouted out.
“And I was about to give up on you,” Willa said, obviously impressed.
“The creature from Fantasia?” Finn asked.
“You ever see that movie?” Maybeck questioned. “He is one mean dude.”
“And guess what?” Willa said. “Chernabog’s not only the most evil of all the Disney villains, he happens to be a demon with bat wings!”
The kids went silent, the air suddenly shattered by the train’s sharp whistle, announcing its arrival at the station.
47
HE’S THE BADDEST OF THE BAD. The most evil Walt Disney ever created.” Philby was in fine form, back to himself, alert from the sleep he’d gotten and able to think more clearly than either Maybeck or Finn. They waited in line for the Park train to the Conservation Station.
Charlene remained behind in the jungle just outside the bat enclosure. She blended in well there and, having found a log to stand on with her stilts, could keep an eye on the activities backstage by peering over the top of the wall. The back doors of the ice truck had been shut, Maleficent inside. As far as Charlene could tell, before entering the back of the truck neither Maleficent nor the monkeys and apes had realized the cages were empty. The tarps used to contain the captive DHIs and to block their projections from showing had also served to fool their captors.
Once the line was moving, Maybeck, Finn, Willa, and Philby separated for the ride out to the Conservation Station. They each took a place on the long benches amid the Park guests, all on different train cars. Summoned by Amanda, they were anxious to rendezvous and find out what had her so overheated.
As the train arrived at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, the kids split up. Park visitors trudged up the long path toward the Conservation Station. They were a team now, protective of one another and concerned for each other’s safety. These kids, who had once been strangers, were now anything but—brought together by a common enemy and the strange manifestations of a technology gone wrong. To remind them of their previous lives would have been foolish, for they could barely remember a time when falling asleep did not mean crossing over into a strange world, and where a white-haired old man had not controlled their shared fate.
Finn, who’d taken up the rear, entered the facility and joined the others in a huddle by the restrooms.
“I’m starving,” said Willa.
“Later,” said Philby.
“What’s so important?” Finn asked Amanda, who had abandoned her viewing station. The crowd had thinned as a veterinary demonstration had begun at the central display window: a snake had eaten a golf ball and was undergoing surgery.
“We have to act while they’re distracted. And I have to get back to the AnimalCam before someone realizes how many cameras that station has access to.”
“Act?” Finn inquired.
“One of the sketches from the diary.” She unfolded the original page of the diary and pointed out the ape on crutches. “It’s a tattoo. A washable tattoo for the children. It’s given to them after the private tours of the vet clinic. I think our passes will get us back there, but I didn’t want to leave my station for too long. And since the veterinary clinic means animals, I thought it was better to get some help and maybe do this as a team.”
“Agreed,” said Finn, attempting to digest everything she’d just told them.
“A tattoo?” Maybeck quipped in complaint. “What about Chernabog? What about the two apes we left spinning donuts back in the lodge? Who cares about some bleeping tattoo?”
“If it’s in the diary,” Philby said, “then it’s part of the puzzle she left us. That makes it significant. Amanda’s right: we have to pursue it.”
“Says the one who just got a couple hours’ sleep,” Maybeck complained.
“I know this may sound foolish,” Amanda said, apologizing to Maybeck, “but I feel it’s important. I really do. I wouldn’t have called you out here otherwise. I know how hard you’re all working to help Jez. How much risk you’re taking. I can’t tell you how I appreciate it. I have no right to ask you to do anything more.”