Compounding it all was Maybeck’s discovery of the propane tank rigged to the bug-killing black tubing. Philby claimed that from what he’d heard it hardly added up to a bomb—“the tubing is porous, after all, like soaker hose”—and that its remote location, on the far side of the abandoned runway, meant it wasn’t a threat to passengers or Cast Members. In fact, he wondered if it wasn’t meant as a distraction or diversion, a line of bursting flame to turn the heads of passengers at a particular moment.
“Another attack on us during the welcome?” Finn had said in their brief meeting outside the Cove coffee shop. It seemed similar to the effort by Jack Sparrow during the Sail-Away.
“It feels like it, doesn’t it?” Philby said.
“I wish they’d stop trying to kill us,” Maybeck said. The boys couldn’t tell if it was meant as a joke or not.
“So here’s what we do,” Finn said. “First, we’re going to be in our DHI costumes, so I don’t see how you’re going to get backstage.” He said this to Maybeck.
“Leave that to me. I can put the coveralls over my DHI look. Why?”
“If the diversion wasn’t meant for us—and how could it be, given that when the propane was hooked to the tubing there was no Beach Blanket Barbecue planned?—then I’m thinking it was supposed to distract the island Cast Members long enough for someone to get backstage and do something in the Cast Member area.”
Philby said, “Because on a typical day they’d be the only ones on the island at that point.”
“Exactly.”
“So you want me,” Maybeck said, “to get backstage at the same time I’m supposed to be onstage? How’s that going to work?”
“We don’t know when the propane was supposed to go off. Not at seven o’clock, that’s for sure. It’s still daytime. It had to be planned for dark.”
“So after nine thirty-two,” Philby said.
Maybeck and Finn gave him a look.
“What?” Philby said defensively. “It’s what I do!”
“Second,” Finn said, “we need to stake out the cabanas.”
“You can handle that the minute the welcoming stuff is over,” Philby said to Finn. “We’re all on Wave Phones. We can text or call. Anything else?”
“What about you?” Finn asked.
“I need to get back aboard the ship after the welcome and check the server. The OTKs came after me as holograms. What if the girls have been projected without us knowing it?”
“The Syndrome?” Maybeck gasped.
“All I’m saying is, it’s possible.”
Finn said, “At least one of us is going to have to stay behind on the island until the final all-aboard is called to try to counter whatever the propane was supposed to do. Remember, whoever planted that probably doesn’t know it’s not going to work.”
“That would be me,” Maybeck said. “Backstage, like you said.”
“You can’t miss the ship,” Philby warned. “They won’t wait for you.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“And the girls?” Philby speculated.
“We tell them the girls are on their way,” Finn said. “You know girls and getting ready. Sound good?”
“Sounds real,” Philby said. All three boys laughed. It was the first laugh for Finn in some time.
“If they miss it completely, we mock them. And remember, Philby’s keeping an eye out for the DHIs that attacked him, and we’re all looking for Luowski.”
“We need to find that server,” the Professor said. “We take out the server, we take out their DHIs, and maybe put them into the Syndrome at the same time.”
“I like that idea,” Maybeck said.
Now they were on the pier alongside the Dream in a stream of passengers and Cast Members headed to the beach. A lone seagull glided along the shore far in the distance, then flew lower and landed out of sight. They were dressed in the same shorts and shirts as their in-park DHIs. They nodded politely to passengers who recognized them. Kids waved hello, and they waved back.
“Has it occurred to either of you that now that 2.0’s in beta, the Imagineers will be looking for new models?”
Finn stumbled and recovered. “What?”
“We’re high schoolers,” Philby reminded. “Our DHIs have been in the Magic Kingdom for a long time now. We barely look like our DHIs anymore. We haven’t recorded any new lines in over a year, so our DHIs are saying the same old stuff as they always have. That’s gonna change.”
“And you wait until now to bring this up?” Finn said as they walked along among hundreds of cruise passengers. “Wayne would have told me.”