Kingdom Keepers V Read online

  A restaurant worker in uniform and hat went about wiping down some tables in the far corner. Finn motioned for the others to lower their voices. He did so as well.

  “What about the home invasions?” Maybeck asked in a whisper. “I say we take out the OTKs right now.”

  “I agree. It’s time,” Finn said.

  Eyes bulged. Finn had been the voice of calm and reason for so long no one could believe he would advocate an attack on other kids.

  “Finn?” Amanda asked, as if he had to be an impostor.

  She and her sister, Jess, changed their looks all the time: hair color, length, makeup, the way they dressed; some believed they were just trying to be cool, but Finn knew that back in Maryland, the girls had been part of a group called the Fairlies—kids with “unusual or paranormal skills.” Maybe part of their constant switching of looks had something to do with that.

  “I was attacked in bed and nearly poisoned having just returned from crossing over,” Finn said. “Maybeck was attacked at home. By Tasers! His aunt was injured.” The group muttered among themselves. “It’s become too dangerous for us. All of us! Enough is enough.”

  The murmur grew to a low roar.

  “So what do we do?” Amanda asked. Any mention in the press of kids attacking kids might leave a trail to follow to her and her sister. Fairlies were often at the heart of such stories because of their unusual powers.

  “I don’t know. I’m open to suggestions,” Finn said. “But since they’re willing to send OTKs after us in our homes, we know how badly the OTs must want us out of the picture. And that must mean that we’re doing something right.”

  “Maybe they’re getting close to the end of the Siege,” Maybeck suggested.

  “Either through withdrawal or a full-scale attack on Base,” said Willa.

  “I wouldn’t be too hasty.” It was a man’s low, gravelly voice. It belonged to the worker in the corner.

  Finn was immediately alarmed that a Cast Member had overheard them. Worse, the old guy—ancient, by the look and sound of him—dared to butt his way into their discussion.

  “Wayne?” Willa had a musician’s ear. She’d picked out the man’s voice instantly.

  The Cast Member’s tam lifted slightly, and trans-lucent blue eyes appeared beneath a shock of white hair. It was a weathered face from years in sunny Florida, creased with worry lines. Etched with experience.

  A sly grin swept over the man’s face.

  “Present and accounted for,” Wayne said.

  A collective gasp filled the room as the Keepers and volunteers identified the stranger. Being in a room with Wayne Kresky was like having a meeting with Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney—rare air.

  Finn rushed over and hugged the man, experiencing a sense of guilt about his feelings the night before. Suddenly feeling very awkward, he let go of Wayne and returned to his perch facing the others. Wayne smiled at him, but the usual twinkle in the man’s eyes was not there. Finn felt the pit return to his stomach.

  “Haste makes waste,” Wayne said. He introduced himself to the newcomers as “a friend of the parks.” But they all knew who he was, if not by recognition, then by reputation.

  “These are difficult times, no question. But if I heard right, for you to act against those you refer to as OTKs would be a mistake. This will only incite and inflame and allow your enemies to raise even more volunteers. That is something to avoid at all costs.”

  “But my aunt!” Maybeck said. “That’s not happening again.”

  “Tasers!” Finn said.

  “Yes. Problematic, and worthy of redress. But we must be wise. The smarter the army, the fewer the battles.”

  “So we just wait for the next attack?” Willa said.

  “No. Not hardly,” Wayne answered. “We must not be moved off our primary objective: undoing the Overtakers. Reducing their power base. Eliminating them as a viable threat to the Kingdom. I won’t, for a moment, pretend we don’t all have our individual grudges and causes. But for the moment, we must put these aside in favor of a higher calling.”

  “And that is?” someone said.

  “First, defending the Base. You realize any effort, any energy you put into these OTK attacks is energy drained from the more critical battle.”

  “That’s the point of them, isn’t it?” Willa said.

  “Of course,” he answered. “Distraction is critical to any success in battle. That is why we must meet them head-on. We mount an offensive. It is unexpected. The timing is perfect.”

  “Tonight?” Finn asked.

  “Haste…” Wayne said. “Need I remind you? We will act just as soon as we can organize an effective strategy. These things are not to be entered into lightly. There is much at stake.”

  “How ’bout our survival?” Maybeck asked. “I’m telling you, I am not putting my aunt through that again. I’d rather break some heads than sit around waiting for some dumb plan. No offense.”

  “The question we must ask ourselves is not how we defeat a particular enemy, but evil itself. Yes? For that’s the real battle at hand. Don’t be blinded by the powers of someone like Maleficent. Believe me, she is but a puppet. There are far higher powers at work here. Chernabog, for one.”

  That silenced Wayne’s small audience. As far as the Keepers were concerned, things didn’t get much scarier and dangerous than Maleficent. The idea she was someone’s puppet did not bode well. Wayne had warned about the powers of Chernabog before, but they’d witnessed none of the beast’s powers. Like the Yeti he’d once inhabited, he seemed more the puppet—a big, furry nothing. Only once, in a performance of Fantasmic! when Chernabog had transfigured into a dragon, had he presented a real threat. And that had seemed like Maleficent’s doing, not his own.

  Finn spoke first. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying we need to present a unified strategy and realize the worst is yet to come.”

  “Worse than having your aunt Tasered?” Maybeck said.

  “Worse,” Wayne answered. “I believe an attempt will be made to kill one or more of you.”

  “You mean the Syndrome, don’t you?” Willa said. “To put us in the Syndrome?”

  “No. I mean what I said.” Wayne settled in, sitting next to Finn on the windowsill. He looked ridiculous in the costume. “For months our technicians have been attempting to pin down the location of the Overtakers’ DHI server. This is nothing terribly new, unfortunately. We’ve been through this before.”

  Philby nodded. He and Wayne had once entered the parks’ Virtual Maintenance Network as gaming avatars in an attempt to defeat the Overtakers. He liked the man and Wayne liked him. He cradled his phone in the pocket of his shorts, happy to have gotten it back after Mr. E.’s imposed study hall; he hated being without it.

  “We possess highly sophisticated equipment for such efforts,” Wayne continued, “and yet the Overtakers continue to elude us. The Internet protocol address continues to move from place to place. We send in a strike team: no server. We’ve repeated this pattern, well…repeatedly. The only consistency in the pattern is that the IP address holds to coastal cities like Boca and Miami. That brings us to the more urgent topic at hand.” He surveyed the faces gazing up at him. So young, he thought, recalling his own youth and the heady days leading up to his career with Disney. “The upcoming cruise has been well publicized, as has your participation in it.”

  The Keepers had connected a comment Maleficent had recently made to one of Jess’s drawings of a uniformed officer. At the time, it had seemed as if Maleficent intended to steal the Magic––a Disney cruise ship. Now, the reminder of the upcoming cruise made Finn wonder if they’d gotten the ship wrong. Was it the Dream? Was it the cruise they were all about to take?

  Finn interrupted. “But you told me the cruise was no big deal!”

  “Things change, Finn.”

  Finn shuddered. Wayne had said it so condescendingly. Like he wanted to humiliate Finn in front of the others.

  “Security on
the Dream, as with all our cruise ships, is the best in the business,” Wayne continued. “Better than any other line. But I put nothing past the Overtakers. Disappearance is the most convenient form of murder.”

  Amanda whispered to Jess, and they both looked over at Wayne.

  “I don’t love the sound of that,” Maybeck said.

  “A man overboard is a body never found,” Wayne said. “It has never happened on a Disney cruise ship, but it has on others.”

  “That guy who threw his wife over the rail,” Jess said.

  “Among several others,” Wayne said. “Yes. Should the Overtakers find a way to get aboard, or send their agents…”

  “OTKs,” Philby said.

  “It would make for an easy way for them to do away with at least a few of you.”

  “Lousy Luowski is not a murderer,” Finn said. “A tool, yes. But not a murderer.”

  “But if under a spell?” Wayne asked. “Can we be so certain these kids are acting of their own accord when they are attempting such heinous acts as poisoning and Tasering?”

  “They’re under spells?” Finn said.

  “Do you have a more suitable explanation?” Wayne asked. “Finn, you watched that silly recruitment video. You think that explains how Maleficent has been able to enlist so many students so quickly? By some counts they have dozens.”

  A unison gasp filled the room. This was new information to all, including the Keepers.

  “Then what?” Finn said.

  “I have no proof,” Wayne said.

  “But you suspect something.”

  “I suspect it’s not a video, but a spell. I suspect she ‘owns’ them.”

  For a moment only the joyful sounds of the park could be heard.

  “I have no proof,” Wayne repeated quickly.

  “The green eyes are proof,” Finn said. “They aren’t contact lenses. I got close enough to one of them to see.”

  Another group gasp.

  “Wait a second! Are you saying any kid aboard the Dream could be a potential murderer?” Willa asked.

  “The desire to reduce your numbers, your effectiveness, cannot be ignored,” Wayne said. “We are considering all options.”

  “DHIs,” Philby said. “Version 2.0. If they throw our DHIs overboard, all we have to do is return. No harm. No foul.”

  Looking squarely at Finn, as if warning him, Wayne spoke. “There’s always one in every crowd.” For years that “one” had been Finn; he’d nearly always been the first to understand a given situation. Was Wayne cautioning him that his standing as the leader of the Keepers was not to be taken for granted? Philby always had the jump on technical stuff. His jumping to such a conclusion was to be expected! Wasn’t it?

  “With 2.0,” Philby continued, “there’s no way to tell the difference. No more blue line. We can allow ourselves to touch, or be touched. What if we just go aboard as DHIs?”

  “A nice solution if your DHIs weren’t already part of the plan, part of the canal inaugural.”

  “What inaugural? What’s going on?” a volunteer asked.

  “A fair question,” Wayne said. “A new, larger set of locks on the Panama Canal is to be opened to commercial traffic. Many companies bid for the right to be the first ship through the locks—a terrific publicity opportunity, and one for the history books. Disney was awarded the prize, most likely because of our representing family and family values. And,”—he winked—“because we bid more than the others.” Everyone laughed. “The Dream, the first of a new class of Disney Cruise Line ships, is to make the inaugural voyage, Cape Canaveral to Los Angeles. At the same time, the DHI next-generation entertainment is to be rolled out on all the cruise ships. The company has combined the two events: the debut of Disney Hosts Interactive on the cruise line with the first ship to pass through the new locks. More bang for the buck.”

  “Let’s hope not,” Willa said.

  A nervous chuckle rippled through the room.

  “Wanda is working on Taser-proof undergarments.” Another rush of snickering. Wanda Alcott, Wayne’s daughter, had come to their aid before. “Kind of like a space-age chain mail. A grounding device that dissipates the electrical charge. Necessary for you because your DHIs will be on board the ship at the same time you are.”

  “But if at night we could find safe places to sleep…when our DHIs were thought to be down,” Philby said, unwilling to take no for an answer. “We could be out there and relatively safe from attack.”

  “No question,” Wayne said. “The protection is critical, however. While you are asleep you will be at your most vulnerable.”

  “I can work on that,” Philby said.

  “Can I ask a question?” A volunteer had his hand raised. Kenny Carlson, a freckled redhead who, at six feet one, could have used twenty pounds. Ninth grade was an unfair time of life.

  Wayne nodded.

  “Exactly where do we fit into all this?” Kenny asked. He indicated the other volunteers.

  “I’m glad you asked that, Mr. Carlson,” Wayne said.

  Kenny looked like he’d been slapped. Wayne knew his name. Wayne had done his homework. Clearly, a volunteer wasn’t allowed into the Keepers without a background check.

  “First, we need a team at the Base. We cannot simply abandon that battle. While a possible diversion, the Base’s role in the parks is too critical to be ignored. We are in the process of moving significant equipment during daylight hours to reduce our losses if we should lose the Base—but at the same time, we are aware this might be what they want: for us to spread our servers out and make it easier for them to steal them. It’s a shell game.”

  “And second?” Kenny said.

  “It’s my intention to put as many of you as possible aboard the Dream. This will be more difficult than it sounds and will involve an intense orientation to accomplish. Once on board, you will be a resource for the Keepers to draw upon.”

  “Cool,” Kenny said. “I’m down with that.”

  “Ditto!” said someone else in the group.

  “I wouldn’t get my hopes up,” Wayne said. “Both options come with risk.”

  “I think we knew that going in,” Kenny said.

  “If I could have a few minutes with the Keepers alone,” Wayne said. “Amanda and Jess, please stay as well.”

  “We’ll meet you outside,” Finn said.

  The six volunteers left. Wayne and the Keepers clustered tightly around a table. He kept his voice to a whisper.

  “The cruise is an obligation we can’t get you out of and, as much as it might have once seemed like a dream come true—pun intended—it now appears much the opposite. There is a great deal to accomplish. The volunteers need training. Everything you can do to school them is not just important, but critical at this juncture. Once on the ship you must take every precaution for your safety. Travel in pairs. Enter your staterooms with caution. You are in a contained space on that ship, a finite space, a situation you’ve not faced before. The journal Finn and Willa saw taken by the Overtakers involves, among other subjects, the lore behind Chernabog.”

  Willa and Finn exchanged a knowing glance.

  “And there were hyenas,” Finn said. “Angry hyenas.”

  “Excuse me?” Willa inquired.

  “The chase?”

  “What chase? What are you talking about?” Willa said.

  Wayne fixed his concentration upon her. “You don’t recall being pursued by hyenas?” He checked over with Finn.

  “Of course I do,” Willa said.

  Finn said to Willa, “In the factory? Or whatever?”

  “What factory? Whatever…are you talking about?”

  “But you remember Maleficent. The Evil Queen?”

  “In the library? Dah.”

  “And then we took off through the factory.”

  “No. Then we were backstage at the Studios and we returned.”

  A hushed silence as Finn considered not only what she was telling him, but her conviction. They both had
two very different memories of the same moment.

  Finn met eyes with Wayne. “What’s going on?”

  Wayne shook his head, confused.

  “I dreamed it?” Finn said, still looking directly at Wayne.

  “Well, I didn’t,” Willa said. “The library is backstage at the Studios, after all.”

  “Maybe you had a dream like mine,” Jess said. She, who could dream the future.

  “More likely just a nightmare,” Finn said. “Or a bug in 2.0.” But he wondered if it was possible. Had he dreamed the future, confused the present, imagined something out of thin air?

  “Now you know how it feels,” Jess said. “Unsettling, isn’t it?”

  “Not good,” he said.

  “Not good at all,” she said. “And yet, they call it a gift.”

  “Okay. I get it.” He and the other Keepers were guilty of thinking Jess and Amanda were gifted. The girls had argued “cursed.”

  He continued, “It was just like any other crossing over.”

  “Surprisingly real,” Jess said. “As real as it gets.”

  Wayne appeared troubled by the news. “While I welcome such resources,” the older man said, “this is not a time for personality shifts. We require each of you in full control of your faculties. We cannot have you doubting things.”

  He made it sound like a reprimand.

  “I’m sorry, Finn,” Willa said. “I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything.”

  “Not your problem,” Finn said.

  “Wanda will get the suits to you. Wear them,” Wayne said. “Use them. A Taser would be an effective weapon against you as it would knock you unconscious and render you susceptible to a rogue DHI server. We should have foreseen this. Once asleep, if they regain the ability to cross you over—which they might if they get control of the Base—they could trap your DHI and lock you in the Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.”

  Wayne’s explanation hung over the group like a foul smell.

  “I will speak with Finn for a moment,” Wayne announced. “Then we are done here.”