Power Play (23 page)

Charlene: “Did you check—”

Willa: “The Lost and Found? Yes. Not there. Gone. It’s got to be why they crossed you, Charlene. Finn and Philby come into the Park and the three of you lead them to the fob. You Returned and they stole it. None of us saw that coming.”

Maybeck: “Whoa.”

Charlene: “They stole it, because…?”

Maybeck: “We become stuck in the Syndrome, for one thing.”

Philby: “First the server, then the fob. If we hadn’t managed to hack back into the server last night, Willa would still be stuck there.”

Finn: “I guess I can see how that helps them break out Maleficent—I mean, it takes us out of the picture—but it’s sure a lot of planning, a lot of work, if you ask me.”

Philby: “Which means we’re missing something. The bigger picture.”

He then described his fight with Hugo.

Philby: “Obviously, they knew I would try to Return you three. They sent Hugo to stop me. Hugo must be the one we can’t see in the photo. I still can’t believe he’d do this to me.”

Maybeck: “To us.”

Charlene: “This just gets creepier and creepier.”

She applied one last stroke of mascara and twisted the tube shut.

Willa: “But the real reason they wanted me was for me to describe Jess’s sketch. The one she showed me at school.”

Finn: “We need to see that up close.”

Philby: “Question—how did the Evil Queen know you’d seen the sketch?”

A general silence.

Finn: “A green-eyes. One of the spies saw Jess show Willa.”

In light of Hugo and Luowski, this seemed like the best explanation.

Charlene: “So we’re not safe at school and we’re not safe crossed over. Anyone feel like a vacation?”

She won some laughter—but not much.

Charlene: “Seriously, any ideas? I’ve got to get downstairs. The bus’ll be here any minute.”

Philby: “Stay here a second longer.”

He waited for everyone’s attention on-screen, especially Charlene’s.

Philby: “What if we missed a major clue? Finn saw Cruella on the telephone at Downtown Disney.”

Maybeck: “We all agreed that was bizarre.”

Philby: “But what if she and the Queen were DHIs at the time?”

Silence.

Philby: “What if the phone call was to request a manual Return? It’s possible DisneyQuest serves as Downtown’s centerpiece. We don’t know.”

Maybeck cursed.

Finn: “Using the phone as the signal to send them back.”

Philby: “Exactly.”

Willa: “That’s why they want the fob so badly. To make it easier for them to Return.”

Philby: “I think so, yes.”

Maybeck shouted, and Finn cupped his ear.

Maybeck: “Hold on! Wait a second.”

Philby: “We know they took control of the server. It was them who locked me out, not the Imagineers. I was never buying that. We got all hung up on it being about us, about controlling us. Locking us in the Syndrome. And sure, that’s probably part of it, but it also may be what they want us to think.”