Kingdom Keepers IV(81)
The other girls in Mrs. Nash’s house were supportive of her effort to keep Amanda’s condition secret. This included their roommate, Jeannie Pucket, who until now had often been a real knucklehead. But Jeannie had come through for Jess, not once but a number of times—holding off the curious Mrs. Nash and buying her unconscious roommate precious time.
It wasn’t going to last much longer, Jess thought. It seemed inevitable that Mrs. Nash would find out. That, in turn, would mean doctors, and a long downward spiral for poor Amanda.
With her diary open to the kiss, a page she had photocopied for Finn, her eyelids drooped and she briefly nodded off. Her diary slipped from her hands, landed on the bed, and fell to the floor. The sound of the book landing shocked her awake, and she looked around the room as if she’d been asleep for hours.
“It’s nothing,” Jeannie said. “You dropped your diary, is all.”
Jeannie leaned down to retrieve it. About to hand it to Jess, she hesitated.
“If you don’t mind,” Jess said, “that’s private.”
Jeannie knew it was private—it was her diary—a source of ongoing tension between the two. Jeannie could allow her curiosity to get the better of her.
“I know. I know.” Still, Jeannie was reluctant to hand it over, her attention fixed on the sketch. Finally, she passed the diary back to Jess. “Have you been there?” she asked. “What’s it like?”
“School?” Jess asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“Winter Park. Where Finn and Amanda go.”
“That’s not Winter Park High,” Jeannie said. “That’s the Lake Buena Vista power plant. I just wrote a paper on it for science class.”
“Science class? Lake what?” Jess said.
Jeannie traced the stair-step profile of the structure in the background of the kiss.
“It’s called the Lake Buena Vista Cogeneration Facility. Hang on. I’ll show you.” Jeannie dug through some papers on her desk, including a bunch of printouts from various Web sites. She singled out three of these and passed them to Jess.
“So?”
Jeannie leaned over Jess’s shoulder, selected the second of the three printouts—a photograph taken at a great distance from the power plant—and traced the stair-stepped roofline of the facility. She then pointed to Jess’s diary and traced the same pattern.
Jess went silent, her eyes dancing between the two images. She knew her dreams often combined locations or activities.
“What exactly does it do?” Jess asked.
“Electricity. It powers Disney World and local businesses.”
“Disney World.” Jess felt light-headed. This was not coincidence.
“Water and sewage treatment, too. Natural gas. Everything. I got an A on my paper,” she announced proudly.
“As in electricity for the Parks?”
“Exactly! Yeah. That’s the Disney part. They wanted to own their own electricity and stuff. You know, so it was more reliable and everything.”
Jess traced the two rooflines again—from the Web site and from her drawing. They weren’t simply similar; they were identical.
“Where exactly is this place?”
“It’s way out on Disney property. As in, the boonies.”
“Disney property? You sure about that?”
“Hello? An A? Did you know that at one point Walt Disney had planned for Epcot to be this futuristic city, with homes all around it? How cool would that have been?”
Jess barely heard her. Her brain was stuck back on Disney generating its own power. She’d drawn a Disney power plant in her diary without knowing it. It had to be hugely significant.
She had to contact Philby. Now!
* * *
Philby had his hands full. He kept one eye on the clock in his computer’s toolbar. The other eye jumped between the dozen webcam views from the Magic Kingdom’s Security server as he tracked Finn through the Park. His cell phone rested on his lap in vibrate mode, the laptop bridging his thighs. He sat on the toilet—lid closed—of what his mother called the “powder room,” a small, windowless bathroom with a corner sink near the front door of the house. He had the bathroom’s door locked: there would be no unexpected intrusions by Hugo or anyone else tonight. He could not afford to leave the Keepers stranded.
The e-mail from Jess caused him to perspire. He Googled “Lake Buena Vista Cogeneration Facility.” He had a fine memory, so when a photograph of the power plant popped up, he immediately matched the similarities with Jess’s diary sketch. From what he read, the power plant supplied all of Walt Disney World with power. If something happened to the Florida electric grid, Disney’s facility promised an uninterrupted flow of electricity to all of its Parks and hotels.