Power Play (6 page)

“Listen, there’s one other thing before she gets here,” Finn said.

“Charlene,” Philby said, naming the only girl not there yet.

“Yeah. I know this doesn’t make any sense, but she designed our ride. She gave us the card.”

“Do you know what you’re saying?”

“Yes. Of course I do. And look, was it her alone? No. But that’s even more disturbing. And today, she just materialized at school. Said she’d ridden over with the Evans soccer team. She’s been asking all these crazy questions.”

“This is Charlene we’re talking about!”

“I know!” Finn said. “That’s what got me! Since when does she ask a dozen questions in a row?”

“Since never.”

“But she did today. She was like Sherlock Holmes or something.”

“You can’t accuse her. Not without evidence. It isn’t fair. We just don’t do that.”

“I know,” Finn said. “I get that. But I wanted you to know. Only you.”

“So I should keep an eye on Charlene.”

“That’s all I’m saying, yeah.” Finn added reluctantly, “Not that I like it.”

“No. It’s ugly.”

“Speaking of ugly…” He told Philby about his seeing Cruella De Vil on the phone outside Disney Quest and how out of place it seemed.

“This is beginning to feel like a parallel universe,” Philby said.

“Right?” Finn said.

Philby reached out and touched Finn’s shoulder. “Just making sure we’re not holograms,” he said. Both boys laughed.

A father and son entered. The son was carrying a Kim Possible cell phone. The Kim Possible quest was an interactive mystery hunt where the participant joined a popular cartoon character’s pursuit of bad guys. The phones gave clues and could lead you all over the Park.

The boy searched the church and apparently found the answer in a display description that his father helped him to read. The boy squealed and pushed a button on the device. The phone gave him his next location. The two left without having paid any attention to the five kids.

Maybeck arrived out of breath. He looked around the small area, making sure they were alone. He said hello, and then, “Did any of you see the CTDs out there? There was a pair trying to follow me. I lost them, but they were zoned in on me.”

Appraising Maybeck, Finn said, “Not the best disguise I’ve seen.” Maybeck liked the fan attention—loved it, was more accurate—and rarely changed his appearance. He wanted to be recognized. He wanted to be mobbed.

“I’m kind of hard to miss,” he said.

“You reap what you sow,” Willa told him.

“Where’s Charlene?” Amanda asked, looking past him.

Philby and Finn exchanged a curious look.

Maybeck said, “She stopped to get us some food. I’m starving.”

“It’s eight o’clock,” Philby said.

“So what? I can’t be hungry at eight o’clock? I’m hungry all the time! I have a big appetite.”

“I wouldn’t mind something,” Jess said. “That dinner tonight…” she said to Amanda.

“Mrs. Nash’s tamale pie is basically microwaved dog food with boxed gravy and Doritos on top,” agreed Amanda.

“Gross!” Willa said.

“You should be in the same room with it,” said Amanda.

Maybeck said, “I don’t think we should hang here too long. Not only are there cameras all over this Park—right, Philby?—but I wouldn’t be surprised if those CTDs circle back and come looking for me. We’d actually be safer out there with the mob lining up for the fireworks.”

“I love the fireworks,” Amanda said.

Willa said, “So, why are we here, anyway? What’s going on? Do we even know why Wayne wanted us here?”

“Not yet, we don’t,” Finn answered. “What we know is that the OTs are active again.” He told them about the jail visit with Wanda.

Philby tried to explain what Wanda might have been doing hacking the servers. “Disney has an elaborate set of firewalls in place. Think of it as one of those European fort walls around all of Disney World’s data lines. One you can’t climb. One with gates too strong to bust through—”

On cue, the door banged open. Charlene entered, struggling to balance a stack of small plastic plates, all holding food. Everyone hurried over to help her. Shortly thereafter, lips were smacking loudly.

“So,” Finn said to Philby, “you were saying?”

“The point is, the firewalls log any ‘events’—that is, attempts to breach them. There are subnet masks, ISP numbers, all sorts of data that can be traced and used to track down where the attack came from and who was behind it. If I’m Wanda, that’s what I’m looking for: the person behind the data bursts.”

“And if you’re the OTs?” Charlene asked.

“If I’m the OTs and I’m attacking firewalls,” Philby said, “then I’m either looking for a way in or a way out. A way in would give me access to other Disney data—”

“Like the location of where Disney might lock up certain other Overtakers,” Maybeck proposed.

“Like that, yes. Or, you remember how we used the changes in temperature inside pavilions to try to track Maleficent? That kind of record would tell them everything they want to know.”

“Energy use,” Willa said.

Philby smiled. He loved the way her mind worked. “Absolutely. Disney has to keep Maleficent cold. They’re not going to mistreat her, and she needs cold to survive. That would require more energy. That’s a number, something easy enough to uncover. Those kind of records could be hacked.”

“They’re going to bust Maleficent and Chernabog out,” Maybeck said, speculating. “It’s a jailbreak.”

Silence.

Philby began nodding. “Nicely done, Terry.”

“Could it be?” Charlene asked.

“It makes total sense,” Willa said. “They’re trying to gather enough data to locate where Maleficent and Chernabog are being held. At the same time, they know that’s going to attract our attention—Wayne, Philby, Wanda…someone. When that happens, they have a backup plan to lure Wayne out into the open and kidnap him. Maybe they want information from him, maybe they want to trade him for Maleficent and Chernabog, but it’s all directed at the same goal.”

“Freeing the boss,” Maybeck said.

“And with Wayne in hiding and Wanda out of the way—” Willa said.

“It’s up to us,” said Finn, prompting another heavy silence.

The church door pushed open. A girl and her parents entered. They were also on the Kim Possible quest. The Keepers scattered, pretending to be interested in the various displays.

The mother and father looked on as the girl read a plaque, looking for the same clue the boy had earlier. Her father complimented her as she identified the king in question.

“Check the
A
box,” he said.

“I
know
, Dad,” the girl complained, a little snotty. “Are you going to let me do it, or not?”

He stepped back and the girl worked the phone. Then she stopped and looked across the room, her curious eyes finally settling on Finn.

She tentatively crossed toward him, her father keeping an eye on her.

“I’ve played this game, like, six times,” she said, addressing Finn shyly, her parents now nearby. “But this is the coolest yet.” She handed Finn the Kim Possible phone. He accepted it reluctantly. She hung her head slightly, embarrassed. “I recognized all but those two,” she said, pointing to Amanda and Jess, “when we came in.” Her parents looked around, not having a clue who the kids were. “I didn’t want to bug you.”

“I…we…all of us appreciate that,” Finn said.

“Is this a friend of yours, dear?” the mother asked skeptically.

“Oh, Mom…come on! These are the Kingdom Keepers. You know…? This is, like, the most awesome Kim Possible ever!”

Philby said, “We’re not actually part of—OWW!” Finn had elbowed him.

The girl pointed to the phone in Finn’s hand. “Read it!”

Finn read the message on the phone’s small screen:

Hand your phone to the nearest Kingdom Keeper! Press “OK” to continue.

Finn reread the message twice. Wayne’s reach inside the Parks never failed to amaze him.

Maybeck came over and read the screen. “What if when you push OK it sends our location to our other
friends
?”

“I kinda need my phone back,” the girl said.

Finn pushed
OK
. The screen changed.

Go to the KP cart in Norway. Tell them you’re my friend.—W

Press “OK” to continue.

Finn pressed
OK
.

Hand the phone back to the guest.

Press “OK” to continue.

Finn pushed
OK
and returned the girl’s phone to her. Before leaving she asked everyone to sign her Epcot map. Bounding with excitement, she left with her parents.

When they were alone again, Finn said, “We have to trust it. This is why we’re here.”

“It could just as easily be a trap,” Maybeck warned. “Wayne gave us all phones,” he reminded. “If he wanted to contact us, wouldn’t he just call us or text us? Am I missing something? Why bother with the Kim Possible thing?”

Charlene said, “We won’t know until we try.”

Willa said, “He is always paranoid about the OTs eavesdropping. When he puts us on a quest, it’s to tell us something that no one else could figure out.”

“I volunteer,” Charlene said, raising her hand. “I’ll do it.”

“Amanda and I could do it,” Jess said. “We aren’t Kingdom Keepers. We wouldn’t raise any suspicions.”

“She’s right,” Philby said.

“And if it’s a trap,” Finn said, “then they catch the wrong people and who knows what that means?”

Charlene said, “I thought you were the one trusting it?”

Busted
.

“I said, ‘I volunteer,’ ” Charlene reminded.

“I’ll go with you,” Finn said.

“But if they catch you…We can’t let them catch
you
,” Amanda said.

Some suppressed smirks. It was the Amanda-and-Finn show. For all to see. Including Charlene, who looked away.

“Finn’s the only one of us that can all-clear with any consistency,” said Charlene.

“I know,” Amanda said. “I’ve seen him do it.”

With Greg Luowski, Finn recalled. He’d suckered Luowski into taking a swing at him, while Finn was briefly transformed into his hologram. No one had explained the science behind how Finn was able to briefly transform himself into pure light—what he and the others called
all clear
; he supposed it made him part Fairlie like Jess and Amanda.

He supposed that
all clear
was a state where mystical, metaphysical elements met the physical sciences. It worked two ways: Finn, as a mortal boy, could on occasion concentrate to where he suddenly turned into a hologram. It only lasted a short amount of time—his record was eighteen seconds—but in that state he could walk through walls or take a punch, because technically he didn’t exist as anything but light. The second way was more difficult for parents and even Wayne to understand: a hologram was nothing but light. When projected or crossed over into the Parks as DHIs, the kids were technically nothing but light. But fear removed their state of purity. If, as a DHI, one of them became afraid, that hologram lost a percentage of data, depending on the level of fear. That resulted in a DHI that was part mortal, part teenager, part hologram, and therefore vulnerable to being wounded or captured. Finn had perfected a kind of visualization—a train coming at him from down a dark tunnel—that helped him achieve
all clear
, pushed him into that state of invulnerable light. It was a useful, even necessary tool, and one he’d been coaching the others to learn how to do.

“And while you two are out playing games, what are we supposed to do?” Maybeck asked, clearly complaining. “I’m not hanging here. I’m not big on churches.”

“You’ll divide into groups—split up between Norway and Mexico on either side of us,” said Finn. “You watch for crash-test dummies. Text me if you see any. Charlene and I will do the Kim Possible quest and let you know what we find out. Amanda and Jess, stay with us to make us a bigger group. That way it’s less likely we get spotted as Keepers.”

Maybeck said, “You look so stupid, Whitman.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“At least he tried for some kind of disguise,” Willa said.

Philby said, “It’s a good plan. Let’s get going.”

Philby and Willa headed for China. After more discussion, Maybeck went by himself into Mexico.

An announcement filled the loud speakers: the fireworks were set to begin.

* * *

A wooden cart sat tucked into a dark corner of the terraced path between Norway and Mexico, pushed against an island of trees and bushes. The Cast Member attending the unmarked cart wore a Kim Possible Adventure T-shirt. Finn, Charlene, and the sisters approached the overweight man, waiting for a small boy and his father to return their Kim Possible phone.