Kingdom Keepers V(105)
He tried to remember her face but couldn’t; she was surprisingly unmemorable. Just the weird patch of red hair—out of place on a Disney cruise, where no one stood out like that.
He checked behind him—still no one following. He forced the stress to leave him, understood the importance of copying and transmitting the journal’s contents immediately—before the Overtakers managed to steal it back!
Was there even a way to photocopy on the ship? He imagined the concierge would do it for him, or the front desk, but he wasn’t about to give the journal over to someone else. A digital camera, he realized. He could photograph the significant pages and email them to Wayne. He tried to think back to what she’d told him, feeling violated for her having known what he’d been thinking.
How was that possible?
* * *
There was an unmarked envelope awaiting him outside his stateroom door. Finn reread the note that had accompanied a key card:
EAT. WON. AN ANGRY DOG.
He stepped inside and closed the door. He locked the journal in his stateroom safe, feeling relief. Back to the note.
The code had to have something to do with the key card—and therefore was a number.
Eat…ate…eight! he thought, celebrating his cleverness. He used a stateroom pen to write it down: 8.
Won…one…easy: 8-1.
An angry dog…mean? Nothing came to him. Slobber? Nothing. Wild? Still nothing. He began to get frustrated. Teeth? Eyes? Drool? German shepherd? Doberman? How hard could this be? An angry dog. Attack? Defend? Sic?
Sic…sics…six!
8-1-6.
Worth a try.
Which was safer, he wondered, leaving the journal locked up inside his stateroom safe, or taking it with him? Someone on the ship had the authority and the means to unlock a stateroom safe—certainly guests forgot their four-digit code from time to time. But such access would be limited to very few: maybe the head of security and the captain. Whoever was after it would first have to get into his stateroom and then unlock his safe.
He emailed Wayne photographs of the journal’s five middle pages—both sides. Ten pages in all. Then he knocked on the connecting door to Philby’s stateroom. Mrs. Philby said, “Come in,” and Finn went inside and asked if it was all right if he left the door open while he was out.
“I locked my passport and some money in my safe, and I don’t want anything to happen to it.”
“No problem,” Mrs. Philby said, and added, “Do you know where Dell is?”
Finn had a couple of hunches.
“He came back from the fireworks, didn’t he?”
“Left his clothes on the floor of the bathroom, so…yes,” she said, grimacing.
“Probably the Vibe,” he said. “I’ll check.”
“Thank you, Finn.”
“No problem.”
A few minutes later and a few decks lower, Finn knocked on the door to 816 and then tried the key card. The door unlocked and he entered. The ship was already under way, and this was his first sensation of it moving as he saw through to the stateroom balcony and the flickering moonlight on the gray water and a girl’s silhouette out there.
“No lights,” the girl called out as his finger was about to hit the switch. He recognized her voice. Storey Ming.
“Nice,” he said, joining her, admiring the view.
“It’s so appealing…being on the water at night. So beautiful. That’s Castaway back there, and over there…I’m not sure. Nassau, maybe.”
“They look so far away.”
“Perspective,” she said. “Distance is so different at sea.”
“Nice code.”
“I thought you’d figure it out.”
“Why am I here?”
Storey Ming lowered her voice, as the neighboring balconies were close. “The GPS transmission device you set up—”
“Philby, my friend, set it up––”
“––pretty much confirms the OT server is aboard the Dream. I received a message that while they can’t prove it absolutely, they are confident it’s here.”
Why would Wayne send a note to her instead of him? Finn wondered.
“So that’s next,” he said.
“It must be destroyed or at least taken off-line if our guys are to have a chance in the battle for the Base.”
“I’d almost forgotten…”
“It has been worse the past few nights. Things are heating up.”
“DHIs?”
“The OTs are using their DHIs as decoys. Our guys rush a bunch of OTs only to realize they’re holograms.”
“Meanwhile the real OTs are on the opposite side of the Base.”
“Something like that,” Storey Ming said.
“Philby set up a connection so we can cross over to the parks. Maybe it’s time.”