Kingdom Keepers: The Return Book Two: Legacy of Secrets (24 page)

If only the ghosts would help me again, Finn thought, recalling his last visit. He repeated the thought several times, believing he’d communicated in this way on his first visit. Nothing. No voice in his ears. No help.

Please!
he thought. Still nothing.

He tried a door to his left. Locked. The next door opened, though no one had oiled its hinges in far too long. It sang like a choir. Finn stepped inside a dusty, cobwebbed room, swatting away sticky silk, which stuck to his face and clothes. He wanted to scream.

No one arrived. He’d been all set to spring out into the hall, scaring and tackling his pursuer. He felt tremendously let down. The adrenaline in his system had no release. It sickened him like a poison, making lead of his arms and legs and sending his brain into three-mocha overdrive. He eased out into the hall and continued toward the Jess-Amanda room.

“Boo.”

Finn jumped a foot off the floor.

Charlene was pressed back into a doorway.

“What the—?”

“I followed you. Not last night. I had things to do. But tonight I was worried. Two nights in a row, leaving like that? Off on your own? You know the rule. You, of all people.”

The rule was for them to always partner with another Keeper; too much trouble came when they did not. Charlene was right: Finn was typically the one reminding everyone else.

“You followed me inside?”

“Yeah. A little creepy for me. I almost turned back. But hey, I’m better now.” She stepped quite close to him. Charlene was beyond cute; she dwelt more in the realm of adorable. More infectious than her cheerleader good looks was a kind of light that surrounded her. A presence. She touched Finn on the arm.

“It’s nice not always being DHIs, isn’t it?”

“What’s going on, Charlie?”

“I can’t be worried about you? I worry about you all the time, Finn. I’m
constantly
thinking of you. You know that.”

“You’re constantly thinking of Maybeck.” Finn was feeling nervous and out of control of the situation. “I like Amanda. You know that.”

“I like Terry. I do. Very much.”

Finn wondered if it was the hotel, the place, that was getting to her. Ghosts. Strangers in rooms. Charlene acting weird.

“Well, I appreciate the company. I do. But there’s two things you need to know: I’m pretty sure I spoke to ghosts last night, no kidding. And there are a bunch of guys—Cast Members, I think—living on the fourth floor.”

“Living here?”

“I know, it’s gross. But, yeah, they’re down there. I thought you were one of them. My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that they aren’t real Cast Members. They’re the imposters we’ve been chasing around the park.”

“I’ve been worried about you, ever since Dillard, Finn. You have been so…I don’t know…driven. I felt so bad about that, Finn. We all did. But you’ve got to put it behind you.”

Finn didn’t appreciate thinking about his friend’s death, a death he had caused. Even if the others didn’t see it that way, he did.

Finn stopped in front of the door. “Behold,” he said, his voice and manner intentionally dramatic. “The room where Amanda and Jess will live sixty years from now.”

Charlene was awestruck. “Seriously?”

“This is it.”

“This is why you’re here?”

“I’m trying to help us return, Charlie.”

“Are you going to tell me this has nothing to do with Amanda?”

He smiled. “Maybe just a little. And, listen, Amanda and Jess happen to be the only two people in the present we can work with.”

“True.”

“Why were you flirting with me just now?”

“Was I?”

“As if you don’t know.”

“No, I do know, and I’m sorry. It’s embarrassing. Not that I don’t like you, I do. But I want Terry to notice me more.”

“Maybeck doesn’t notice anyone other than himself.”

She looked sad.

“I’m joking!”

“But you’re right.”

“Well, come on. Cheer up. This is a big moment.” Finn led the way into the gloomy room. Charlene followed, mindful of the dust balls on the floor that looked an awful lot like mice. At the window, she examined the wood and scrunched up her nose.

“Aww, you carved both your initials. How sweet.”

“I carved this to let them know we were here. I had seriously thought…I could have sworn…the reason I came back tonight is that I was sure one of them would have carved something back.”

“But how could that possibly work?” Charlene said. “I understand if you change their room now, in 1955, that maybe there’s some chance it’ll show up sixty years from now. But if they do something, how is it supposed to go backward?”

“None of us knows how any of this time travel stuff works, I was hoping…that’s all.”

“So maybe she has seen it,” she said. “And if she sees it, then what’s she going to do?” Charlene asked rhetorically. “She’s going to try to find a way to get a message back to you.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Think about it. What would you do?” Charlene pressed, continuing to stand too close to Finn for his comfort. “You’re always thinking up the best solutions.”

He wanted to contradict her, felt the need to contradict her, but she was tired or something, not acting like herself. Her leg touched his. “Joe, I suppose. Maybe the Crypts. I’d try to figure out where the five of us were last seen together. How we crossed over.”

“Exactly. I totally agree! Meaning, we should be checking the same place every night.”

“Jingles.”

“Jingles,” she said, nodding.

Disappointed, feeling stupid, Finn headed out of the room, Charlene close on his heels.

“Finn,” she whispered.

He turned around.

She pecked him on the cheek. The kiss puzzled him briefly. “That’s for putting up with stupid me,” she said. “I hope you know I respect you and Amanda. I still want to sting Terry, but this isn’t the way.” She hesitated, obviously thinking something. “Still, it might just work.”

“We should get out of here,” he said.

“Agreed. It’s spooky and disgusting in here. But what about the Cast Members downstairs? Don’t you want to know more about them?”

“I suppose, sure.”

“So why don’t we go have a look?”

“Because there are more of them than us?” he said. “Because they know this building much better than we do? We can’t just walk up to them and ask them what they’re doing here.”

“I can,” she said emphatically. “Of course I can. I’ll tell them I’m looking for a hobo named Alfonzo. I heard he was sleeping here. I’m pretty, Finn. Not that you’ve noticed. Other boys notice that. While I have their attention, you’ll get into one of the rooms and look for a name, a piece of mail, a wallet. Anything you can find.”

“They could hurt you.”

“So you do care!”

“Of course I care. It’s something like one a.m. What if they don’t like surprises late at night?”

“They’ll like me,” she said. “And I promise you, I can run faster than any of them. You know it’s true.”

“You’re different, Charlie. What’s going on, anyway?”

“No idea. You and Philby got us here, and now no one seems to have any clue how to get us back. Our projections are horrible and are going to get us in trouble. Our only ally is a guy who’s going to be a Disney Legend someday, but isn’t close to even being an Imagineer at this point. He’s barely an intern. We can’t find the pen we came to find. Without it being in One Man’s Dream, we’ll never find it. That’s bad for everyone. We have to find that pen. We don’t seem any closer.”

“That’s why I tried to make contact with Jess and Amanda. We definitely need help.”

“Jingles,” she said.

“You distract them. I’ll search the rooms,” he said.

Charlene smiled wistfully. She gently touched his cheek using her whole hand. “Yeah, let’s get on with this.”

F
INN AND
C
HARLENE
returned to Disneyland at 2:30 a.m., an iron-on laundry name tag in hand. Finn had pulled it from the collar of a dirty shirt he’d found in a heap of clothes on the floor of one of the dorm rooms.

The name on the tag, Declan Little, meant nothing to either of them, but they hoped that by sometime tomorrow that would change: the Keepers were good at research.

They entered the wood shop behind the Opera House quietly, expecting everyone to be asleep. Instead, four anxious faces greeted them, including Wayne’s.

“Where have you two been?” asked Maybeck, his voice rising accusingly. “We’ve been trying to brainstorm on Esmeralda’s fortune. We could have used some help!”

“I discovered a cell of—”

He caught himself; Wayne wouldn’t understand what he was about to say. He explained the idea of Overtaker Kids, OTKs, to him—kids recruited as spies by the villains. The Keepers had previously confronted such kids—and not always come out on top. “There are guys living in the old hotel. They have Cast Member clothing. I think they’re some of the guys who were at the studio.”

Philby looked the most shocked. “How did you find them?”

“Chance,” Charlene said. “He left a message for Amanda, carved his initials into the room they will occupy in sixty years.”

“Interesting idea,” Philby said.

“It was worth a shot,” Finn said. “No evidence it actually worked.”

“I was his backup,” Charlene said.

“The hotel?” Philby said. “The Tower of Terror?”

“That doesn’t sound promising,” Wayne said.

“It’s actually a cool ride,” said Willa. “Very fun. But it won’t be around for a long time.”

Finn said, “I’m not giving up. And I did speak with a ghost….Plus I got the name of one of the squatters.”

“A ghost?” Willa said.

“I think she’s one of the people who died in the Tower of Terror elevator crash.”

“No…way!” said Willa.

“Yeah, she helped me. She spooked those guys and basically saved me.”

“We have news, too.” Wayne turned to Philby. “Are you going to tell everyone? I could use some shut-eye.”

“Tell us what?” Finn said.

“We’ve been waiting to hear,” Maybeck complained. “Waiting for
you two
.” He placed heavy emphasis on the last bit.

“Okay! First, using the names Finn and I dug up at the Golden Horseshoe—Hollingsworth’s handlers, his posse—Wayne looked up three of them.”

“They all work for him,” Wayne said. “One used to be an animator at Warner Bros. The woman is a well-known psychic, the daughter of a man who correctly predicted the Lindbergh kidnapping.”

“That doesn’t sound great,” Willa said. “Especially considering his speech about wrecking Disneyland.”

“The other thing,” Philby said, “is a lot better. Wayne and I—mostly Wayne—have generated our first three-dimensional projections.” Philby was not known for his modesty, nor for sharing tribute, so the Keepers quickly paid attention. “We used the circuitry from my laser pointers, ‘borrowed’ some equipment, reengineered it, and set up a second transmission. We had to cannibalize Willa’s phone—”

“I didn’t mind!”

“—and one of the network television cameras here for opening day will need a repair, but the end result is pretty spectacular. As convincing a 3-D as we’re going to get in 1955.” Philby smiled widely. “I have a feeling holography is about to take a giant step forward. The first decent laser is still five years away from discovery, in 1960. But we’re using laser technology in 1955. In about ten years or so, some major discoveries are going to be made. No one may ever know that Wayne Kresky, the Keepers, and Disney were behind them!”

“Nor will anyone care,” Wayne said. “Enough of that beeswax! What’s important is that, thanks to Philby’s laser pointers, you’ll all be able to move more freely about the park. No more of the bother. They’re still going to shut off the radio towers after closing, but during park hours, you’re going to be just dandy!”

“One thing about Finn’s attempt,” Charlene said. “He and I were thinking what would
we do
if we were in Amanda and Jess’s position? What if Finn’s initials suddenly appeared in the window like that?”

“They might try to retrace our steps. They’ll talk to Joe or Brad. They’ll look for us on park security footage. They’ll see us enter Walt’s apartment, see us running to King Arthur Carrousel. They’ll see that we never get off.”

“Jingles,” Charlene said. “If they leave a message for us, it’s going to arrive on Jingles. It’s going to be sometime during the night. We have to post a watch. Take turns.”

“There are a couple of boys on our night patrol I like a lot,” said Wayne. “Trustworthy. I could ask them to keep an eye out.”

“Sure, as long as you’ve known them a long time,” Finn said. “But we know now what we’re looking for. As for the guys in the hotel, I think we should get to know them better, starting with this.” He held up the laundry tag belonging to Declan Little.