Kingdom Keepers IV(87)

Pluto moved to the bushes and was barking.

Finn and Amanda sat down on the stone wall, out of breath.

“So where’d those alligators come from?” she asked.

He looked over at her gravely. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”

“It was my question,” she said.

“And the pirate that Minnie took out, and Stitch, back when Maybeck and I were here last year. I mean: it just doesn’t add up. All that for Tom Sawyer Island? Why?”

Amanda sucked her finger, and shrugged. “That’s what I’m saying.”

“If all this security was for Cinderella Castle or Space Mountain or Splash Mountain, I think we would think that the OTs were protecting something valuable to them. I don’t know what. But this island? Off by itself. Hard to get to. Nothing here once you do get here…”

“Isolated,” she said. “And with a fort on one end.” Her eyes met Finn’s relaying a fierce intensity. “You told me that you guys talked about the OTs needing somewhere to sleep while they’re DHIs—the way we all sleep in our beds. What better place than someplace like this?”

“We have at least an hour to get back to the hub,” Finn said. “We might as well…try.”

“We might want to speed it up,” she said, pointing.

Pluto had pulled back. The alligators had returned.

* * *

“This place is very big,” Maybeck said to Charlene.

They had made their way down the facility’s main floor, passing more offices, conference rooms, and a coffee lounge. They’d also passed a half-dozen security cameras. The underlying roar of the place grew progressively louder.

“You think Security has spotted us by now?” she asked.

“Honestly? I’m wondering why no one’s come after us. In a weird way, I don’t think that’s the best sign.”

“The OTs got them?”

“It might explain why no one has bothered with us.”

“That’s depressing.”

Maybeck stopped at the end of the hall.

“You do realize,” Charlene said, studying her DHI’s somewhat shaky blue outline, “that our best defense is being one-hundred-percent hologram?”

“As if that’s going to happen.”

“So you’re scared, too?”

“I don’t get scared,” he claimed. “I get…aware. But I’m very aware at the moment. Yes.” He paused, his hand on the door. “Here we go.”

He opened the door and waved her through. They stepped out onto a steel catwalk that surrounded a central space. Three stories below two huge turbines whined. From the turbines ran a tangle of pipes and wires. The walls were decorated with signs warning of high voltage! death on contact! Nice calming stuff.

Just barely audible was a woman’s complaining voice.

The Queen? they both wondered.

Maybeck raised his voice just loud enough to be heard. “Check it out!”

A blue uniform hung from the railing. Perched alongside of it was a blue jay frantically flapping its wings. Charlene looked first to the uniform, then to the blue jay, then back to the uniform.

Maybeck said, “I think we know what happened to the security guards.” He indicated the blue jay. “I’d say someone spelled them.”

“The Evil Queen did that?” Charlene said.

“Well, it wasn’t Bambi.”

“Whose side are they on?” she asked.

“If someone did that to me, I know whose side I’d be on. But with a twisted sister like her, who knows?”

“So, what now?” she said.

“We split up, and we head down toward those voices. If one of us is caught, maybe the other can do something about it.”

“And?”

“We listen to whatever’s being said.” He studied their surroundings. “I’m taking the stairs on this side,” he declared.

Charlene took in the interconnected pipes, the railing, and the catwalks on each level.

“I can climb down there,” she said.

“FYI: There are stairs on the other side. Might be easier.”

“And more obvious. They could be watching them. I’m going to climb it,” she declared.

“Whatever,” Maybeck said. “Just don’t make me have to rescue you.”

“Other way around,” she said.

“Not likely.”

“We’ll see.”

The blue jay cawed loudly, startling them both.

The faint voices below paused with the cry of the bird.

Maybeck whispered: “See you down there.” He tiptoed off toward an exit sign.

Charlene stayed well clear of the blue jay and climbed over the metal rail, one foot placed carefully after the other. She possessed a climber’s eye, able to look up at a climbing wall and quickly plot and remember an exact route. Descending was altogether different; it was much more difficult to climb down than up. For her, plotting a descending route was twice the challenge.