Finn considered the boy his age that had gone missing from the photograph. To be a hologram you had to be asleep.
“Can you do me a favor?” he asked.
“Of course! I will if I can,” she answered.
“There’s going to be a stateroom with a Do Not Disturb sign out and its telephone blocked from calls. I suppose there could be a lot of them. But I need to know which of them has a boy registered in the room. A boy my age, or maybe a little older. Might have the initials G. L. Might not.”
“Staterooms with kids. Do not disturb.”
“Correct,” he said.
“I’ve got a friend in Reservations. I can do that.”
Finn thanked her.
“What about here on the island?” she asked. “I can help here, too.”
“Okay. Listen, I promise I won’t ask you out on a date, but could I get your Wave Phone number?”
She gave him the number and said, “And who says I’d turn down the date if it was offered?”
Finn blushed. She was way too pretty. Four or five years older than him.
Maybe the island was enchanted.
* * *
Philby found the phones where Finn had said he would. He studied the massage bungalows from a short distance, wondering what was up with Tia Dalma and the account of the previous night. All around him, thousands of cruise line guests were running, sailing, laughing, watersliding, and eating. Always eating. Oblivious to the challenges facing five teenagers, the guests took advantage of their time on their own private island, able to pack a week’s worth of regular beach vacation into a single day.
Mixed in with them were dozens of Cast Members who provided all that fun. Somewhere—likely back on the ship—were an uncounted number of rebellious Overtakers who disapproved of the Disney lifestyle and wanted to instill their own wicked values on the parks and guests. There were times, like now, that Philby felt outnumbered and overwhelmed. It was far easier to hatch a devious plan than to uncover one. Just looking out at all the guests emphasized the futility of the Keepers’ mission. They were looking for a needle in a haystack.
Then, over the heads of the beachgoers, the suntanners, the swimmers, the Frisbee throwers, the snorkelers, the day sailors, the Jet Skiers, and the barbecue dwellers rose the nearly unbelievable vastness of the Dream. Sparkling in the sunshine. Majestic. Almost as if it had been Photoshopped in.
At that same moment a honeybee floated by on the breeze. It too seemed incredibly out of place. Maybe the company set up hives to help pollinate gardens and flowers. He didn’t really care. What interested Philby all of a sudden was that in biology class he’d learned about clearing the hive of the worker bees. He’d learned that when a hive was threatened, a group of bees rushed to surround the queen and protect her. How this very act of communal defense could be used by the beekeeper to locate and identify the queen, to pluck her from the hive, which was sometimes necessary to move the worker bees or establish a new hive.
From the bee to the ship and back to the bee. Something so small. Something so large. All the people swarming the beach. Great ideas didn’t materialize out of thin air. The really great ideas were inspired by something or someone. Even a bee.
Philby wondered if, with all this insanity ashore, he might have just come up with a way to find the hidden queen.
* * *
Finn sat at a table at Cookie’s, getting hungry as everyone walked past with trays of food. Philby had met up with him right at the scheduled time to drop off the various Wave Phones left behind the night before. Finn told him about Storey Ming returning to the ship to look for staterooms where kids might be sleeping—where an OTK might be crossed over.
Philby took note of the information, then said he had something to do and headed for the Dream.
“You think you’re so cool,” Finn said, Philby now well out of earshot. Once to the ship, Philby could report back to Wayne ahead of Finn. He felt tempted to race back himself and beat him to it.
A girl sat down on the far end of the same picnic table bench. Finn glanced over and jumped.
It was Sally Ringwald. It took him only seconds to spot the faint blue line shimmering at her edges.
“No way…” he gasped. His mother’s spy. A DHI for the Overtakers.
She looked straight ahead and spoke softly. “There’s something happening tonight.”
“The party,” Finn said.
“I don’t know about any party.”
“Are you on the ship? How many of you?”
“Yes,” she answered. “And I don’t know. Listen, I promised your mother, and I’m keeping that promise.”
“What’s happening tonight?” he asked.
“All I know is there have been messages. A bunch of us are going to be on the island.”