Hollow World (12 page)

13

Charlie glanced at his watch but his vision was so blurred that he could no longer read the roman numerals just a few inches from his face. After rubbing his eyes, he learned that it was just before eight in the morning. He’d not slept for an instant. He thought about the torturously long night he’d had.

For an hour or so after Holloway had left, Charlie had gone to the window every few minutes and cracked the blinds just wide enough to see outside. He searched everything in his field of vision, but he couldn’t spot the agents of his enemy—or any signs of life at all, for that matter. He had no reason
not
to believe that there were men hidden outside, or cameras, or sensors, or
something
that would alert Holloway if he exited, though he could spot nothing with his naked eye. Perhaps the old man had people in adjacent rooms—hell, he could’ve even had men hiding in the landscaping. It was possible that Holloway could have been bluffing, but Charlie refused to take the risk. Besides, where would he have gone? To the pool for a brisk swim? To the Banana Cabana Pool Bar to drown himself in watered-down whiskey?

No, there wasn’t any
reason
for Charlie to leave his room. He had no course of action—no plan, no way to begin his search—until Holloway contacted him. Charlie knew that he had no hope for sleep: a man whose family has been taken hostage cannot possibly be expected to simply relax and doze off. He’d begun to wonder if this was part of Holloway’s plan. If Holloway was trying to gain an advantage then sleep deprivation was definitely a good place to start.

Charlie had spent a large portion of his night sitting on the edge of his bed, trying to clear his mind and stop his heart from beating so fast. He worried intensely about his family. The fact that he had no control over their safety increased his anxiety exponentially. Knowledge was power, and Charlie Walker had made it his life’s work to gain as much as possible. Having no knowledge as to the whereabouts of his family chipped away at his composure like a hot icepick.

At one point, boredom had led him to the wall safe where he removed his Walther. He stripped the weapon and spent a few minutes checking every component to make sure everything was in order, even though he already knew the gun was in perfect shape before putting it back together. He disassembled the pistol and then reassembled it again for no reason. Just for good measure, he ran through the process a few more times. After the fourth time, he began to time himself to see how quickly he could fieldstrip and reassemble the weapon. Checking his watch, he was dismayed to learn that he had only wasted twenty minutes. Sighing, he returned the weapon to the wall safe and resumed his place on the edge of the bed.

At another point in the night, Charlie had turned on the TV. No matter what you had been watching before shutting it off, Disney’s in-room TVs always returned to the channel running
Must Do Disney
. Charlie leaned back against the headboard of the bed and watched the familiar fifteen-minute loop over and over again. Aside from a few minor changes, it was the same program as the previous few years, and many times he had watched it over and over again while waiting for the girls to get ready, but it never really got old.

The host, a woman named Stacey, generally got on his nerves, but nonetheless he couldn’t stop watching. He still cringed every time he heard the hideous and awkward shriek she let out every time the Expedition Everest segment came on. That scene was so horrible and memorable that Charlie had once even had a nightmare in which she chased him screaming, “Yeti! Ahhh!” continuously until he had run off a cliff and died, mercifully waking himself up. The thought had made him laugh aloud.

For hours, he watched the loop on endless repeat, until he had seen it so many times that he had nearly every line memorized. Glancing toward the window, he noticed the sun starting to peek in through the gaps in the blinds; he sat up, finally shutting off the TV.

It had been a terrible, tedious night.

Snapping himself out of the memory of the previous night, Charlie checked his watch once more, just to make sure he’d read the time right, and decided to go to the bathroom and clean himself up. Setting the Blackberry on the sink counter, he changed clothes and washed up, waiting for some form of communication from Holloway.

When the time neared nine o’clock and he still hadn’t heard from Holloway, Charlie once more became restless. He rhythmically began pacing the room, hoping for a sign—
anything
that would let him take action instead of waiting and worrying.

At precisely nine o’clock, there was a firm knock on the door. Quietly, Charlie made his way to the peephole and looked outside. Bathed in the golden light of the Florida morning sun stood a pretty girl in her twenties, decked out in the unflattering floral shirt and khaki shorts of a Cast Member at the Caribbean Beach Resort. In her hands she held what seemed to be a cellophane-wrapped gift basket. Intrigued, Charlie opened the door to greet her.

“Good morning,” she said. “Delivery for a Charlie Walker?”

“That’s me,” he declared casually.

“Awesome! If you could just sign right here for me.” She handed him a clipboard and pen. “And if I could also see your ID, that would be perfect.”

Charlie obliged and as he traded the clipboard and ID for the gift basket, he asked her, “Do you have any idea who this is from?”

“No, sir,” she stated, handing him his ID. “The only information attached was the delivery info. It’s not uncommon. We deliver a lot of anonymous gifts.”

“Thank you,” he said, nodding graciously as he closed the door.

Charlie placed the item on the table and sat down to investigate it. He noticed that the gift basket was pirate-themed. Upon closer inspection, he found that it contained several different types of beer, along with a bag of tortilla chips, a small pirate hat, an eye-patch and a collapsible cooler. Tearing away the cellophane, he removed the items one by one. Beneath all of the items was a piece of heavyweight cardstock. Disregarding the other items, he read the short message printed on the card:
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Charlie recognized the quote but it didn’t make much sense to him. What did it have to do with his current situation? Clearly the gift basket and its contents pointed toward Pirates of the Caribbean, but he’d been on the ride several times this trip—what more was there for him to see? Turning the card over, he noticed a smaller message printed on the back, near the bottom.
You seek treasure, detective. This should be an easy beginning.

If Holloway had wanted Charlie to simply ride the attraction, he would have sent the note alone. The fact that it was buried beneath all of these items in the gift basket told the detective something crucial. It wasn’t merely a random assortment of items—it was a message. The items pointed toward something specific—a goal or a location. Very quickly, Charlie came to the conclusion that Holloway had intended for him to go to the gift shop at the exit of Pirates of the Caribbean, and not the attraction itself. He almost kicked himself for not realizing it at first sight—this random assortment of novelty
gift
items had made his path all too clear. Finally, he had a starting point. He didn’t know what he would find when he arrived, but he knew there was something in that store that was meant for him. But why the shop? After all of Holloway’s drama, it seemed as if the attraction itself would have been his destination—instead, the strange old man had chosen the gift shop.

Not concerning himself with more fruitless speculation, Charlie stood, prepared to leave, when the quote on the front of the card popped up in his head, nagging at him. While it seemed playful and harmless at first glance—a joke like the beer and the other gifts—there was something sinister about that quote; some hidden meaning that Charlie
should
have known, but couldn’t quite put his finger on.
An easy beginning. Abandon all hope.
The two lines bounced around in his head before finally clicking into place. Their meaning appeared from the foggy recesses of his mind.

Hell.

The quote was from Dante’s
Inferno
and was the final line of the inscription on the gates of Hell. Charlie knew that there must be something more to it, but he couldn’t remember the full inscription, so he quickly located Meghan’s iPad and brought up the Internet app. Typing the line into the search engine, the second link brought him to the original quote, translated in its entirety. He read the terrible text over and over again:

Through me you pass into the city of woe:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric mov’d:

To rear me was the task of Power divine,

Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love.

Before me things create were none, save things

Eternal, and eternal I endure.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

“Son of a bitch,” he breathed, not believing his eyes. The impact of those grim lines of poetry hit Charlie like a truck, and sent his mind reeling. He’d read the
Divine Comedy
years ago and recalled that this inscription over the gates of Hell was meant to inform the doomed souls that passed through of what awaited inside. The ghostly guide, Virgil, informed Dante that this did not apply to him, for he was not yet damned. Charlie took a deep breath, trying to understand what Holloway had meant by this. Was he to be Dante? Would he experience Hell and escape to be reunited with his beloved? Or was he destined to burn, without hope, like the countless damned souls that had read this inscription on their way to oblivion?

One thing was certain: he wouldn’t find his answer sitting in this room worrying about a centuries-old quote. Something waited for him in that shop, but how would he know what it was? He figured his time would be better spent trying to answer that question in the shop itself. He stood and retrieved the Blackberry from the sink counter. A message awaited him.

Better get moving, detective. Time is wasting.

Pocketing the device, he glanced at the wall safe and considered taking his Walther with him. Deciding against it, he left the room and headed for the bus stop. For the second time this trip, a journey was to begin at Pirates of the Caribbean. Would he truly be entering Hell?

Only time would tell—and Charlie Walker had yet to abandon hope.

14

Charlie arrived outside Pirates of the Caribbean a few minutes after ten. Adventureland was swarming with people—people like himself—who began their Magic Kingdom day by heading for the leftmost spoke and working their way clockwise around the park.

He slowly but steadily made his way through the crowds and finally reached the entrance to the gift shop. The Plaza del Sol Caribe Bazaar was modeled after a sixteenth-century Spanish fort; the shop itself open to the elements in the center, as if in an old courtyard. Many people milled around inside, yet it wasn’t as claustrophobic as it would surely be in a few hours’ time.

Charlie leaned against a pillar, pondering where he should begin his search. He didn’t have much to go on; all he knew was something was in this store that required his attention and would allow him to further progress in this cruel game. He decided to meander through the store and hope that some fortunate cosmic magnetism would eventually take him where he needed to be.

Picking his way to the rear of the store, he started searching for anything that seemed out of the ordinary, but nothing caught his eye. He waded through racks upon racks of clothing, toy weaponry, plastic treasure and books about pirates—historical and fictional—still nothing jumped out at him. After what seemed like an eternity of aimless wandering, Charlie had begun to think he’d misinterpreted the morning’s delivery and had come to the wrong place.

Charlie was heading for the exit, planning to go back to the hotel to see if there were any details from the gift basket that he could have missed, when something caught his eye. A flash of blonde to his left made him stop dead in his tracks. When he turned to look, he saw nothing but a shelf of decorative pieces, but atop it sat an item he was sure he’d never seen in the store in any of his past trips—or even just a couple of days earlier. It was a digital picture frame. Generic photos of Disney vacationers would be displayed and then change every ten seconds or so and one of them had been the source of the blonde that had caught Charlie’s eye, but the image had disappeared before he’d had a chance to see it clearly. Determined to be sure that it was just a coincidence and that he’d simply glimpsed a random picture of a blonde woman, Charlie waited, staring intently at the screen as the images changed.

After a couple of minutes, he’d still not seen a picture of anyone with blonde hair. He watched more meaningless pictures scroll by and began to get discouraged. He rested his hands on the shelf and waited, not taking his eyes off the screen. Sensing a presence to his right, Charlie glanced over to see a Cast Member standing a few feet away from him, politely trying to see if there was anything she could assist with. He smiled and nodded, returning his attention to the screen.

“Is there anything I can help you with, sir?” the young girl asked, apparently not satisfied with Charlie’s polite, yet dismissive nod.

“No, thank you. I’m just checking out this cool picture frame. I’ve never seen one of these here…”

Charlie’s words cut off mid-sentence as an image of Violet appeared on the screen. It was a picture that Charlie had taken with his own phone just the day before of Violet standing in front of Spaceship Earth, her arms reaching up to give the illusion that she was holding the massive geodesic sphere. This was the object he had come to find.

“Is something wrong, sir?” the Cast Member asked, concerned with Charlie’s abrupt silence.

Knowing he could not let the woman learn the truth, he turned away from the picture to face her. He placed himself in front of the digital frame to prevent her from seeing any images—images he may be in.

“No, no. Everything’s fine,” he promised. “How much is this digital frame? I’d like to take it with me.”

“Unfortunately, that one is a display model that we just got in this morning. The frame itself is a prototype display and the actual for-sale units won’t be in until next week. We
are
taking preorders though, if you’d like to have one shipped to your house.”

This was not good. Charlie knew that this frame contained information he desperately needed to know.

“That’s too bad,” he said. “Oh well, I’ll just have to hope you guys have it on my next trip. Thanks for your help.”

He slowly wandered away from the Cast Member and the picture frame, keeping his eye on both of them. Charlie knew he needed to get that frame out of the store. If he couldn’t buy it, then he would have to steal it. Being an officer of the law, stealing was against every principal that he held but, if he didn’t take this frame, his family was as good as dead. Charlie knew that Holloway had done this on purpose—he knew it would entertain the old man to see the valiant police officer break the law to save his family. He was sure that there was a camera nearby trained on him. He imagined Holloway watching, probably sipping his expensive water and laughing as Charlie worked up the nerve to steal a hundred-dollar digital frame.

Charlie dismissed the thought and turned his mind toward the current situation. If he were caught stealing the frame, he would certainly be arrested by Disney Security—
actual
Disney Security—and detained, condemning his girls to death. On the other hand, he was confident that it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to get the frame out of the store.

Standing fifteen feet away, Charlie feigned interest in a book about Blackbeard while surveying the area that the frame was in. The Cast Member that he’d spoken to was currently assisting a mother and young son in picking out a hat, but she was still too close to the area for him to make his move. Charlie was thankful that no security lock had been placed on the device; it would be easy enough to secret away the frame when the area was clear.

Finally, the boy had chosen a hat and the Cast Member had moved away to go on break. Charlie set down the book and began slowly making his way toward the frame. Halfway to his destination, he had to stop and quickly pretend to be deeply interested in a barrel of plastic cannonballs as the woman with the little boy found the picture frame and were apparently mesmerized by it.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,
Charlie thought.
What are the odds these two would head straight for the frame?

“Look at the magic picture frame, Jimmy!” the mother said to her son.

“I can’t see! Too high!” the boy exclaimed.

The mother lifted her son and both watched as pictures appeared and were replaced by others. Irritated, Charlie tapped his foot, counting the seconds that these people stood between him and his only means of rescuing his family. He knew that they were just vacationers, and that they were simply enjoying their time in the park, but he couldn’t help the frustration that bubbled up within him.

It’s a digital picture frame,
he thought.
They’re forty bucks at Target. Get the hell out of the way and pay for your hat.

He mentally kicked himself for his inappropriate thought, but any amount of internal scolding couldn’t solve the very
real
problem that these people were still impeding his progress. The Cast Member that had helped them earlier was gone, but Charlie was sure that her replacement would arrive soon. His only opportunity to get this frame was to get these two out of the way quickly and make his move as soon as possible.

Trying to think of a way to distract the woman and child, Charlie searched his surroundings. Finding nothing that could be of use, he decided to apply some simple trickery. Eagerly, he sidled up to the duo, as if he were as enchanted by the device as the family. After a few seconds, Charlie noticed the hat the boy had chosen.

“Ah, Jack Sparrow,” Charlie said good-naturedly. “He’s my favorite too.”

“Jimmy just can’t get enough of Captain Jack!” the mother stated enthusiastically, taking a breath for what was surely going to be a long-winded speech about her beloved Jimmy. “Isn’t that right, Jimmy? Oh, he’s got all the action figures at home. You should see his bedroom—pirates everywhere!
Last Halloween, he even went trick-or-treating dressed up as Jack Sparrow! My husband Carl got a spare set of keys from his work, and we had our dog carry them around all night. Let me tell you, it was the darndest sight you ever did see! Later on, after he came home…”

Charlie tuned out, disinterested in Jimmy’s adventurous Halloween, searching for an opening in which to unveil his plan.

“There’s this really cool Jack Sparrow show just outside the shop,” he interjected. “It starts in five minutes. Jimmy could probably swordfight with Jack Sparrow if you get there early enough.”

Charlie had no idea if
Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial
was performed this early. Still, he decided to roll the dice.

Lying
and
stealing,
he thought.
This is what I’m reduced to?

“No kidding?” she asked. “You hear that, Jimmy? We’d better pay for your hat and get you over to meet the Captain! Thanks for the tip, sir.”

“No problem at all. You guys have fun,” Charlie smiled, watching them hurry to the counter.

Wasting no time, Charlie grabbed the frame and searched for the power button. Locating it, he shut the frame down—it wouldn’t do to have a bright LCD screen drawing attention to you while trying to escape unnoticed. Charlie made his way to the most remote corner of the shop and quickly scanned his surroundings. There were no guests nearby and all the Cast Members were still at the checkout. Smoothly, Charlie lifted his shirt and tucked the frame into the waistband of his shorts. Satisfied that nobody had seen the move, he made his way toward the front of the store and successfully reached the bathrooms that were just outside without capture or accusation.

Finding an unused stall, Charlie locked the door behind him and withdrew the frame. He sat on the toilet seat and powered up the device. Upon closer inspection, he found other buttons near the power switch—a menu button, a select button and two arrow buttons. Charlie pressed the menu button and a small blue square appeared on the screen displaying various options. He scrolled down to an option labeled ‘Thumbnail View’ and pressed the select button. The screen changed to show small thumbnail previews of all the pictures contained in the frame’s memory. Atop the screen was a counter; the numbers telling him which photo he was viewing and how many there were in total. There were currently one hundred forty-two images on the frame.

The Blackberry vibrated in his pocket and he quickly withdrew it and checked the screen. The text contained only numbers, but their meaning was instantly clear to the detective:

41, 58, 76, 95
.

As fast as he could, he located image forty-one. As he’d suspected, it was the picture of Meghan he’d seen in his peripheral vision in the store. In this image, she was sitting in the airport reading and Charlie had taken the picture without her noticing. She’d never looked more beautiful. Image fifty-eight was the photo of Violet that he’d seen in the store. Seventy-six was a picture of Katie jumping on the bed in their hotel room.

Finally, Charlie made his way to image ninety-five. It took him a few seconds to realize what he was looking at. After focusing, Charlie realized he was looking at a bright green circuit board with a set of batteries at the bottom. In the center of the circuit board sat a silver key.
Why a circuit board?
he thought.

A few more moments of studying the image led him to believe that the picture was actual size. The key and batteries were the same size they would be if he held them in his hand. He needed this key, but where was it?

Flipping to the next image, Charlie saw a stock photo of a random family riding Splash Mountain—not relevant to his quest. He returned to the photo of the key on the circuit board. Something about returning to the image after viewing another had changed his perspective of the picture. For a moment, he forced himself to imagine that the screen was missing and he was viewing the circuitry of the device behind it. There was no doubt in his mind: he was looking at the interior of
this
device.

Prying the device apart using the plastic attachments on either side, he saw the key neatly placed on the board. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that it was soldered into the circuitry at each end. He would have to break the solder joints to free the key and, as a result, render the device inoperable. For a while, he thought about the situation, leaving the key in place.