Kingdom Keepers IV(104)

Finn was able to open the door from the inside. The guard outside hurried in.

Finn said, “Two guards. Two uniforms. The shift change!” He ran down the corridor, Wayne surprisingly close on his heels.

The lockdown was in full effect. They were blocked from leaving at the first station they encountered. Wayne shouted back and forth with a guard on the other side, making demands that were not accepted.

“Wayne!” Finn shouted, pointing through the thick glass to a flat-panel display rotating between security views.

He pointed to the frame showing the facility’s final door—the door to the outside. To freedom.

“Check out that guard’s neck. The collar.”

“Green skin…” Wayne muttered. He sounded sad, defeated. Maleficent in a guard’s uniform.

“Chernabog was too big,” Finn said. “She must have transfigured him into a man. He’s the one at her side.”

On the video, the door shut, and the two figures were gone.

* * *

Attempts were made to stop the two. Radio calls shut down the Park’s Security exits by road. Dog teams searched the Park for scents prior to opening, but perhaps because of the abundance of wild-animal odors, failed at their task. The Park opening was delayed seventy minutes, visitors standing at the gates waiting in the heat. They were told a computer malfunction was to blame.

At last the Park was opened, and tens of thousands of guests streamed inside.

Maleficent and Chernabog were not seen again.

Despite repeated efforts to trap the Overtakers on Tom Sawyer Island, the fort went unused by them. If it had once been a hideout, as Finn and Amanda continued to claim, it was no longer.





SEVEN DHIs—THE KEEPERS, along with Amanda and Jess—sat along the catwalk surrounding the water tower in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Their DHIs shimmered slightly against the night sky, but even from several feet away they looked perfectly real. The technology improved with every software upgrade.

“What now?” Charlene asked.

The mood was not good. Despite the Keepers’ control of the fob and their preventing a takeover of the power plant, the Evil Queen had engineered Maleficent and Chernabog’s escape. Right under their noses.

“We find them,” Finn said. “And we find wherever they’ve moved their hideout to.”

“We can help,” Ariel said. “But we need a leader.”

All eyes shot down the metal railing at Finn. “We want to help,” Finn said to her. “But I can’t see the characters following one of us.”

Ariel laughed. “One of you? Oh, no!” She covered her laugh. “I’m sorry! I don’t mean it to sound like that. But we have a long and storied history.” She giggled, self-amused. “Our leader. There’s only one leader.”

Finn thought back to Shan-Yu’s comments about emperors and leadership.

“Mickey,” he said.

Ariel’s face sagged. “Yes.”

“Where is he?” Willa asked.

“Minnie is so sad. No one knows for sure. He might be in hiding. He might be…We just have no way of knowing. They’ve taken down his house, you know? Minnie’s, too. ‘Updating,’ they call it. Don’t believe it. It’s all because of ‘the Night.’ ”

None of the Keepers had ever heard of a particular night or event. As a group, they looked at her curiously.

“We heard noises from his house on that night,” Ariel continued, oblivious to their confusion. “A struggle of some kind. He’s not been seen since. The family will listen to him. Our family. What you call the characters. He can bring us together. We thought…You see, we understood…We believed you were sent here to find him for us.”

“Us?” Philby said. “But we never knew he was missing!”

“We’ve guarded the secret. Not even the white-hair knows.” She meant Wayne.

“But why?”

“He’s too important. He is the magic. The Green One knows. She understands his power.”

“Maleficent,” Charlene muttered.

Amanda squeezed Finn’s hand unseen. He squeezed hers back. For a very long time, no one spoke. The crickets and night animals made a buzz that filled the air. A breeze blew. Somewhere down there was Frollo. The Green Army. There was much to learn, Finn thought.

“What frosts me,” Philby said, “is that three weeks later and still there’s been no kind of discipline or investigation into Luowski and Hugo.”

“They stopped wearing the contacts,” Amanda said. “There’s no proof of any of it.”

“They’re building an army,” Maybeck warned. “Just as we thought. We’d be wise to do the same.”