Philby considered the words “behind bars” and thought of Wanda and his first contact from Wayne. His thoughts moved past Wanda to Maleficent and Chernabog and their being locked up somewhere. As so often happened with him, it just struck him like a lightning bolt. The answers to math equations came this same way; science assignments, too. A spark of understanding in his brain.
Philby: “Prison! The reason they need to be DHIs has to do with Maleficent and Chernabog—”
Finn: “So they can break them out.”
Philby: “I think so, yes. It’s their end game. It’s everything they’re about.”
Charlene: “How could that possibly work?”
Philby: “Who knows? But that’s their plan. It adds up.”
The mention of Wanda had Finn wondering about her. They’d gotten her out of jail, but she hadn’t been back in contact with them. Did she fear police surveillance? Or someone worse? She had a hearing scheduled for Monday morning.
Willa: “If they’re asleep, it’s somewhere in the Parks.”
Maybeck: “Out of the way. Someplace no one’s going to bother them.”
Finn: “Or find them.”
Charlene: “Hello? The Parks are ginormous.”
Maybeck: “There can’t be that many places. Cast Members are all over the place all the time. We can figure this out.”
Maybeck didn’t often play cheerleader. None of the others knew quite what to say.
Philby: “Don’t forget, we surprised them last night by having access to the server. They thought they’d locked us out. But if they go DHI, I should be able to detect it. I won’t know exactly where they are, but the ISP, submask, and router data will help narrow it down. That would allow us to have two teams: one, like Maybeck said, to challenge their DHIs and keep them busy, while the second team tries to find where they’re sleeping.”
Maybeck: “Thing is, they’ve got the fob. The minute they figure any of this out, they Return, and then we’re in the deep woods.”
Finn: “We can’t rely on sending signals anymore. That was close last night. I think we should hide one of our cell phones in each of the Parks. We’d all know where to find them. If we need out, we call Philby and he takes us out manually.”
Philby: “Makes total sense.”
Charlene: “You expect me to give up my cell phone? Seriously?”
Willa: “Finn, we need to check with Jess about that drawing.”
Finn: “No problem. And I want to talk to Wanda. We can’t ask her to risk anything since she was arrested. But who knows how she might help us?”
Philby: “If we’re dividing up teams, I vote for Maybeck, Finn, and Charlene to go after the sleepers. Amanda, Willa, and Jess can play cat-and-mouse with the Evil Queen and Cruella. DHI against DHI.”
Willa: “I don’t mean to be a buzzkill, but I am so grounded. It’s like my mother’s got me on suicide watch or something—she wakes me up every couple hours. I mean, I want so badly to be part of whatever we’re doing, but…I just don’t know.”
All the Keepers spoke at once. No one expected anything from Willa. She’d been through enough. She apologized profusely; it was clear she wanted to be included if they crossed over, but if caught by her mother it could threaten them all.
Finn: “Well, the rest of us should dress for action each night. Philby will cross us over when he knows the Overtakers have crossed. The first thing we do when we enter a Park is to find the hidden cell phone in whatever Park we’re in. Got that? That’s our way out of the Park: we call Philby for a Return.”
Philby: “One small problem. When I hit the Return you’ll all Return as long as you’re somewhere near the landing point in whatever Park you’re in. So that makes the girls’ job more complicated. We need to get the fob back. Whichever side has the fob has freedom.”
Maybeck: “Easier said than done.”
Charlene: “Are we forgetting anything?”
Willa: “Probably.”
Finn: “So, we start tonight.”
Willa: “Be careful in school. The green-eyes are out there.”
Moments later, Finn disconnected from the conference call, a pit in his stomach about probably forgetting something.
* * *
Finn arrived at school feeling like an idiot: he’d forgotten it was a “free dress” day. That should have meant professional sports team jerseys for boys and short-shorts for girls—since neither was allowed at Finn’s school—but living in Orlando, it turned into a Disney costume contest for half of the fifteen hundred kids. Worse, a few students came as one or more of the Kingdom Keepers, and Finn didn’t know whether to feel honored or mocked.