Disney After Dark (18 page)

Finn followed. They climbed the opposing walland flew up, airborne.

The minibike followed.

Finn rose from his seat, balanced the bike in the air, tipped forward, and dove into the next big concrete basin.

Amanda dropped into the half pipe to the left.

Separated like this, the minibike driver had to choose; it came at Finn.

The other boarders and bikers stopped what they were doing and watched the contest.

Amanda flew down the steep wallof the half pipe, picking up speed and launching into a high jump. Finn, parallel with her now, yanked his front wheel in midair and changed direction upon landing. He joined her, following inside the full pipe.

As the minibike entered the full pipe, Finn found the screeching whine of its motor deafening.

Out the end of the pipe, riding together now, Finn and Amanda raced to the bottom of the third tub, pushed down onto their seats by centrifugal force. As they raced up the opposing side, they lifted, tipped their weight in unison, and reversed their bikes. Aimed back down into the deep basin, the minibike whining toward them, Amanda bravely reached over with her left arm and grabbed Finn by the forearm. Finn returned the grip.

“You ready for this?” she asked.

“On three,” Finn said.

They released their brakes on the count of three, zooming toward the oncoming minibike, their arms extended and ready to clothesline the rider.

The bikes flew down. The minibike wound its way toward them. Amanda and Finn screamed in unison. At the last possible second, the rider dumped the minibike in a flurry of sparks, slipping under their clasped arms and between the two bikes.

The few onlookers let out a wild cheer.

Amanda and Finn stopped at the top of the basin and looked back.

The driver, lying next to the minibike, appeared okay. He (she? it?) stood up, brushed off, and gestured toward the two. Finn felt a pulse of cold fill him. A
familiar
cold.

Amanda shouted something that sounded like a foreign language. She crossed her arms and then threw them forward toward the rider, and the cold stopped abruptly. The leather-clad rider was lifted from the ground and thrown to the concrete.

“Ride!” Amanda hollered at Finn. “Ride, and don’t look back!”

Finn pedaled off, wondering if he’d just seen Amanda do that.

“Who
are
you?” he shouted, as their bikes reached the street.

“We’ve got to split up,” she said. With that, she pedaled furiously away from him.

23

A
t dinner that night, Finn brooded at the table, unable to take his mind off recent events: Maybeck’s sleeping sickness, Amanda’s mysteries, the letters they’d found secretly hidden at both It’s a Small World and Splash Mountain.

Watching him, his mother wore a look of curiosity, while his father, in typical fashion, ate quietly. Finn stabbed at his food and moved it around on his plate, hoping it might appear eaten.

“How was school today?” his mother asked. Every night, the same question. Next would come: did you do anything fun today? What are your friends up to?

“Did you do anything fun today?” she asked brightly. She couldn’t stand it when Finn was quiet like this.

“I don’t know,” Finn answered honestly. “It’s all right, I suppose.”

“You can do better than that,” his father said. His father always thought Finn could do better at everything. He seemed always to be riding Finn about his grades or his performance on the soccer field. He talked about college scholarships like they were some kind of religion.

“I’m good,” Finn said, pushing back his plate. “May I be excused?” Another part of the secret code. He had no chance of leaving the table without these passwords.

“No snacks later, sweetheart. This is dinner.”

“I know,” Finn said. He stood up from the table and grabbed his plate. Suddenly his head went all rubbery, as if all his blood was draining from him at once.

He thought he might pass out.

“Finn?” His mother’s voice, but in the next county.

Then there was her painted mouth moving above him, her voice sounding detached and several octaves lower than normal, like a tape playing at half speed. She’d rushed to his side.

The lights in the room dimmed. A power failure? He saw his father, chewed food in his open mouth, looking…scared.

“Finn, dear?” his mother said.

“I’m…fine,” he replied.

His mother hovered over him. He felt his parents taking him under his arms and leading him upstairs. Finn’s feet flapped and dragged. He felt useless.

They led him toward his bed.

“No! No! I don’t want to go to sleep!” But his eyes felt
so heavy….

He closed his eyes, and it happened again.

24

F
inn awoke on the same park bench where he’d first met Wayne, at the end of Main Street, across from the fire station. It was nighttime, though the park remained open.

He looked down to see his arms and legs faintly glowing: he was his DHI self Some kids saw him, and he knew he was in for trouble if he didn’t get out of there.

A flash of light to his right. Finn strained to see through the thick crowds—always so many people!—and…

Yes, there it was again: another flash of light. For an instant, the crowd parted and he saw Philby waving.

Finn dragged himself heavily across the street, still feeling sluggish, leaving the curious kids behind, and caught up with Philby.

“I thought that was you,” Philby said, pocketing a flashlight.

“You don’t look so hot,” Finn said.

“Have you tried a mirror?”

“Another brownout?” Finn asked.

“I assume so.”

“We’re early,” Finn said.

“Yeah, but if we’re here, chances are, the girls are too. We should check the apartment and the teepee.”

“But let’s do it together,” Finn suggested.

“Maybeck?” Philby asked.

“I went to his house,” Finn answered. “He’s asleep in bed and they can’t wake him up.

Tomorrow morning they’re going to take him to the hospital and start running tests. We’ve got to find him before that. Who knows what they’d do to him?”

“Maybeck was caught,” Philby said. “And it wasn’t security. It was the Overtakers. It has to be.

Wayne said Maybeck’s our computer guy. We know he’s been poking around. The Overtakers don’t want him messing with the DHI server. The brownouts—our feeling lousy like this. That’s the server doing that. The Overtakers are trying to—”

“Kill us?” Finn said.

“Slow us down. Scare us away.” He didn’t sound convinced.

“Then I’d say it’s working,” Finn said.

“So where do we start? The apartment or the teepee?”

Finn looked past Philby at the glowing windows above the fire station. “Neither,” Finn said.

“Follow me.”

* * *

Finn climbed the stairs on the side of the firehouse two at a time.

“I should have thought of this before. He told me he lived here.”

“Who?”

Finn knocked on the door.

Wayne answered.

Philby and Finn were welcomed inside. It was a cozy room, all wood and brass, that felt like something from a ship.

Wayne wore a heavy wool sweater, khaki pants, and Mickey-and-Minnie slippers. There were books everywhere, and no television or even a radio. The bed was up in a loft in the very peak of the roof.

“Wow!” Philby said, looking around. There were Disney toys scattered around, antiques that went back decades. A fabric wallhanging showed off over a thousand Disney pins.

“I wondered how long it would take you to look me up,” Wayne said. It seemed almost as if he’d been expecting them. There were three teacups by the stove and three chairs set out facing one another.

Wayne poured them some tea and gestured for the two boys to sit down.

“Can you help us find Maybeck?” Finn asked.

“Was it Maleficent?” Philby asked.

Wayne’s eyebrows arched. He did not answer Philby directly. “What do you know about her?”

He had owl-like circles beneath his ice-blue eyes. He looked ominous and menacing now instead of like the silly old guy Finn had first thought him to be. He smiled thinly and said, “Amazing things happen when we put our minds to it. There is a saying that seeing is believing. But believing is seeing, as well. And touching. And hearing. Connecting.”

“The witch, Maleficent, has something to do with this,” Finn said. He told Wayne everything that had happened recently.

“Apparently she has
everything
to do with this,” Wayne agreed.

“The Overtakers,” Finn tested. “There are other Overtakers besides Maleficent.”

“Too many to count.”

“Like the pirates.”

“Worker bees, is all. The pirates don’t matter much. But you must underestimate nothing, no one. Conviction is the better part of intent. Few battles are won by strength alone. Cunning and knowing your resources can help you overpower the most powerful.”

“How do we stop Maleficent?” Philby asked anxiously. He sipped the tea, liked it, and drank some more.

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves,” Wayne said.

“Maybeck,” Finn said.

“They won’t want anyone to see him. Nor to hear him, should he call out,” Philby continued.

“Someplace dark and noisy,” Finn said.

“One of the attractions!” Philby said. “Like Pirates of the Caribbean! The pirates took him!”

“It’s not dark enough,” Finn said. “And where would they hide him?”

“On the boat, maybe,” Philby said.

“Possibly,” Wayne said, though his tone of voice suggested that he didn’t give the idea much credence.

“Well, listen, Obi-Wan,” Philby said sarcastically. “Why don’t you tell me and Luke here where to find him, and we’ll make for hyperspace.”

“Warmer,” Wayne said to Philby, though he engaged Finn with his eyes.

“Space Mountain,” Finn said. “Pitch-black and superloud.”

Philby sat forward excitedly. “Is he right? Is that where they’ve got him? Brilliant!”

Wayne sipped his tea, looking over the cup. “I have no idea where your friend is being kept.

It’s a big park. Very big.”

Finn thought for a moment and then said, “More important, it might be like the teepee inside there. A DHI shadow. That would make Maybeck invisible—easy to hide, to say the least.”

If Wayne knew any answers, his face revealed nothing.

“It’s a place to start,” Finn said. “We have to start somewhere.”

Wayne said, “They’re keeping you from solving the fable. You see that, don’t you? Distracting you.”

“And if we solve it?” Philby asked.

“
When
we solve it,” Finn said, looking right at Wayne.

“Rescue your friend. Solve the fable. Only then will we know what’s expected of you.”

Finn and Philby wouldn’t be entering Space Mountain through the front door. Wayne told them of a trap door that existed in the very top of the pointed dome roof. The roof hatch was used by Maintenance, and to his knowledge had never been locked.

If the boys could climb to the first level of the dome—about fifteen feet up—they’d reach a metal ladder that ran up the back of the dome to the pinnacle. From there, they could enter the ride’s interior.

At Wayne’s suggestion, the boys borrowed some ropes from the firehouse. They then snuck through shadows, carrying the heavy ropes over their shoulders, and reached the backside of the attraction.

Crouching in some bushes, looking at the steepness of the roof and the smal metal ladder that led to the top, Finn said, “The Overtakers have got to assume we’ll come for Maybeck.”

“But to them we’re kids, don’t forget.”

“They’ll have patrols. Cameras, maybe.”

“So when we do this, we do it quickly.”

The roof was shaped something like a magician’s hat, with a wide brim and a conical peaked crown. There were antennae on top.

Philby proved his climbing skills by tossing one of the ropes over a metal railing on the brim part of the roof. He tied it off. “We’re set,” he announced, waving Finn over.

Finn, who was not big on heights, shinnied up the rope. In short order he reached the brim of the roof. He threw a leg over and pulled himself up.

Philby followed silently and without incident.