Kingdom Keepers V(28)

Stitch’s right arm waved. It took Finn a moment to realize the gesture was meant for him, that Stitch was telling him to get out of there. Finn slipped to the side and took off running.

Behind him, he heard a shriek that had to be Stitch. Frantic drumming that had to be the dummies. Then more growling and guttural sounds. Something flew through the air, landing on the path in front of him. It was part of an arm—a torn dummy arm, bite mark apparent. More disgusting sounds behind him, and the drumming suddenly stopped.

Finn ran hard and fast, skidding to a stop in front of the Boatworks cabin.

He faced a good-looking girl wearing Typhoon Lagoon Cast Member shorts and shirt.

“I’m Melanie.” She was older than he was. She had dark blue eyes and a pretty face. In school she would have been considered hot.

“Finn.”

“Yes. Can I just say that you and your friends are doing the greatest thing ever.”

He wondered if she knew CPR. He thought his heart had stopped.

“Ah…thanks.” Real suave of him. Hard to think up such a smooth response.

“We’ll do anything, anytime, to help you. Seriously, anything.”

“Thanks,” he said. On a real roll.

“You and I could text if you want. So you could contact me.”

“That’d be good. I’d like that.”

“Only if you want.”

“I do!” Way too enthusiastic.

“There are a lot of us willing to help. No way we want Maleficent as our boss.”

“Overtakers,” Finn said. “We call them Overtakers.”

“You can text me anytime.” She pulled out her iPhone, reciting her number. Finn pulled out his phone, but it was dripping water.

“Maybe another time,” he said.

She giggled.

“Lilo asked me to give you this,” she said, indicating a surfboard. “All you have to do is paddle. But you’ll need a rash jacket, and I have a full wet suit for you if you’d rather.”

“I’m going surfing?” Finn asked.

She glanced toward the Surf Pool and then at Finn as if he had to be mental.

“Ah…yeah. Listen, I don’t know what’s going on. Only that Lilo wanted me to give you this stuff and make sure you get in the water. Then I’m supposed to clear out. Crush ’n’ Gusher is shutting down for the night right now.”

“I’m going to be in here alone?” If he had tried to sound like a six-year-old he couldn’t have done a better job of it.

“That seems like the plan.”

“No problem,” he said, trying to correct the situation.

“Here, let me help you.” She held out the neoprene rash jacket.

Finn undressed down to his swim trunks. She just stood there watching him, holding the jacket. She helped him into the vest.

“Lie flat on the board, your feet hanging off the back. Paddle with both hands. You can kick, too. Normally we would have you approach the wall and turn around and paddle out about ten yards—that’s where the waves come from. But for whatever reason, I was told to tell you to paddle into the middle, facing the wall, and just hang out. If a wave should come, you’ll just bob up over it.”

“Thanks, Melanie.”

“No worries.”

Not for you, Finn was thinking.

“Down the stairs. Careful because they can be slippery. I’ll toss your board in.” She lifted the long board like it was nothing, walked to the rail, and lowered it, dropping it into the water.

“Okay, then,” Finn said.

“Nice meeting you. And I mean it. There are a bunch of us that think what you’re doing is awesome. We’d love to help. Or just hang out. Or whatever.”

“Sure,” he said, returning to his non-sentences. A thought occurred to him a moment too late: what if the Overtakers had replaced his contact at the Boatworks with an OTK? Could anyone be as nice as Melanie to a total stranger?

He made his way down the stairs and jumped into the water. In the distance, he saw a Cast Member escorting the partying kids from Crush ’n’ Gusher out of the park.

Once in the water, he looked back up the steps.

Melanie was gone.





While Philby remained locked in his room with a towel across the base of his door to block any light from giving him away, Willa, Maybeck, and Charlene were riding in the back of a Pargo toward the Base in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Each carried a large water gun—filled with ammonia—capable of shooting thirty feet. The air was thick with humidity and smelled of burning rubber, the remains of a late rehearsal at the stunt show. The park’s backstage area was like a warehouse district—nondescript, steel-sided one- and two-story buildings, bland and boring. But the three holograms hidden behind a bench seat on the Pargo could feel their hearts pounding, another unexpected result of the upgrade to 2.0.