Kingdom Keepers VI(106)

A flicker of life returned to Finn’s dull eyes. “You think? But how? When?”

“Soon,” Philby said. “But if she’s released, we need the team full-strength.”

Maybeck said, “We need to relax. We need a cruise!”

They laughed together, all shaking their heads at once.

“We need a couple of days in Disneyland,” Finn said.

No one contradicted him.

“I love Disneyland,” Charlene whispered.

Down the length of Deck 11, a crewman was spraying the ship’s deck with a garden hose, working the runoff into a channel drain than ran beneath the railing. He politely moved the five Keepers aside with his spray.

“Hey, there!” an adult voice called from outside the terminal. The kids looked eleven stories down, each spotting a parent, or in Maybeck’s case, his aunt Jelly. Finn saw his mother next to Philby’s. She was waving frantically, her face filled with joy and excitement, her eyes blue in the bright sun.

Finn covered his face, not wanting the others to see his tears.

The blimp turned toward the ship and sailed closer.

“Let’s get out of here,” Philby said.

“Not just yet,” said the crewman, twisting the nozzle shut. The voice was old, but steady. Eerily familiar to all of them.

Wispy white hair escaped the ship’s cap he wore. As he lifted his head, the cap gave way to the face beneath its brim, and an all-knowing, white-toothed smile.

In unison, the Keepers gasped.