“Later,” Finn repeated.
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.” She crossed her arms tightly.
Philby was not pleased. He said, “We think the Evil Queen may have enchanted you…”
“To spy on us—the Keepers,” Finn said.
“That she crossed you over tonight—because I definitely did not,” Philby added.
“That the CTDs are out there looking for you,” Finn said.
“That we’ve got to get to the Return and get you out of here.”
Stunned, Charlene took a moment to process everything. “You’ll explain it all later.”
“Yes,” Finn said.
“I kissed you to break the spell,” Philby explained. “It apparently worked. You remember stuff you didn’t remember before.”
“Why?” Charlene gasped. “Why me? What does she want?”
“If we’re right about them trying to break Maleficent out of jail, then who knows what they want? Who knows what they think we have? But we can’t get caught. We’re not going to let her get you again.”
“I want to go home,” Charlene said.
“Makes three of us,” said Finn.
“We can’t take the axes with us,” Philby said. “They won’t Return with us. And to leave them lying around the plaza would just tell somebody that we’d been here. We don’t need to leave clues like that.”
“How about leaving seven trolls locked up in the cottage?”
“That’s their problem,” Philby said.
They leaned Philby’s ax and Finn’s sword against the rock as they’d found them. Then they hurried to the cave entrance and climbed down the dry waterfall. They stayed in shadow, using trash cans, kiosks, trees, and anything else available to hide behind. They passed Mexico and followed a perimeter route that took them near Test Track. A hundred yards from the plaza fountain, Philby stopped.
“Slower now,” Philby said, taking a moment to catch his breath. “Extra careful.”
They circled around the fountain, finally reaching the pin-trading station. A small, circular, one-story building, it held a large display screen that, when operating, informed guests of wait times for the various attractions. There was only one Return, one black fob capable of wirelessly connecting to the server and canceling the DHI projection. Finn had once asked Wayne for more of the devices—one for each Park—but Wayne had steadfastly refused, explaining that the act of Returning was the most dangerous part of the program. If two Returns were engaged within a few seconds of each other, they would theoretically cancel each other out, and the Imagineers had no idea where that would leave the DHIs—nor the kids who lay asleep in bed. If trapped between the two “worlds,” the results could be devastating. The system would tolerate only one fob, one Return.
The Keepers were currently hiding the all-important fob in Epcot, in an intersection of purple pipes that supported the roof of the pin-trading post on the plaza. The pipes came together about head height, connecting with a single support column that rose up from the plaza. Where the pipes joined was a hidden space just big enough for the Return.
Finn reached up, his fingers searching blindly, and came down with it—a black rubber remote like a car door opener.
“Ready?” he asked.
Charlene nodded and reached for Finn’s hand. Philby took her other hand, connecting them all. For the Return to work effectively, they had to stand near each other. Physical contact—like holding hands—worked even better.
“We’ll text in the morning,” Philby said, “and figure all this stuff out. Like what to do next. Like if there’s some way to stop them from crossing us over.”
“Like, why they chose me,” Charlene said.
Finn stretched on his tiptoes holding the Return over the junction of pipes. As they crossed back, the Return would fall from his fingers, lodging in its hiding place. They would need to know where to find it the next time they crossed over.
With the three of them all holding hands, Finn counted down, “Three…two…”
He pushed the button.
BEING BACK AT SCHOOL was a major letdown. A regular part of almost every day, it was still the forgettable part; his time as a Keeper dominated Finn’s thoughts. The one bright spot in the school day was, of all things, lunch. Not that the food was edible. It was not. But lunchtime was Finn’s chance to hang with Amanda.
He stopped in the boys’ room to make sure he didn’t have something stuck in his teeth, or a booger lodged up his nose.
When his eyes shifted focus in the mirror, he saw Greg Luowski standing behind him.