Disney after Dark

“But we can touch and hold things when we’re crossed over. I can get those plans back.”

“You can’t do that where I’m sending you,” Wayne countered. “You’ll have to be yourself. The others as well. And you’ll need disguises, or you’ll get caught.” Wayne paused, thinking hard.

“Cast-member costumes, you understand? Employees. Each of you. I can help there as well.”

“But why? Where are you sending us?”

“You showed me,” Wayne said. “I might have never figured this out by myself.”

“Showed you what?”

“Where’s the one place that a weakened Maleficent can hide without being questioned?”

“Here in the park.”

“I mean, where in the park?”

“Whatever ride, whatever attraction she’s part of.”

“But that’s the point. She isn’t part of one,” Wayne answered. “Her role is over at the studios.

She’s in Fantasmics. That’s all she does here—that one show. She turns herself into the dragon.

Maybe in real life as well.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m an old man talking to himself, that’s all. Back to the important question: where can she hide in the Magic Kingdom?”

“Out in the open?” Fi

“Precisely. And if I were her, if I’d stolen these plans and then led boys down to my secret lair, I would need someplace new to lay low. The boys might tell people about the dungeons. They could be searched. I could be caught. I need a place no one can find me.”

“But where?” Fi

“We’ll need all five of you to dress as cast members. You’ll meet me at the Transportation and Ticket Center, bus stop number five, at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. Can you make that?”

“Tomorrow’s Sunday. Probably. I suppose so.”

“Make sure you do,” he advised.

“What did you mean by ‘two birds with one stone’?”

“We’re going to use her own tactics against her. If you manage to get the plans, she’ll come after you. She’ll want to stop you from getting them to me, especially now that she knows you have the pen.”

“So?”

“You’re going to lead her into a trap.” His old eyes brightened.

“You’re going to use us as bait?”

Wayne looked at Fi

“I need your help—yours and the others’—in catching Maleficent. It is a task not without risk, but one I assure you well worth the effort, if you’re game. This is, I believe, what Walt had intended all along—the capture of an Overtaker, the begi

At nine the next morning, Fi

A large bus pulled up. The door swung open, and from behind the wheel Wayne motioned them inside. “Well?” the old guy said, “Hurry it up!”

The kids piled on, and Wayne shut the door and drove off. They were all alone in the otherwise empty bus.

“There isn’t time,” Wayne said. “There’s a bag for each of you.”

Fi

“Put it on,” Wayne instructed. “Ladies to the back.”

Some blankets had been strung across the rear seats to provide the girls privacy.

“Gentlemen up front.”

Wayne turned the bus at the next corner, and the boys, all in various degrees of undress, had to hold on to keep their balance.

Wayne picked up the microphone and a

“Tu

“After that, it’s up to the five of you, I’m afraid.”

When the boys were dressed, Charlene and Willa came forward. Willa wore an old-fashioned blue-striped dress and a puffy-sleeved blouse printed with pastel flowers, the uniform of food-service workers in Frontierland. Charlene wore a skirt and top of a deckhand on the paddle wheel steamboat that circled Tom Sawyer Island.

“Listen, all of you! There’s a schedule in place we must keep to in order for this to work.”

Wayne was one of the worst drivers Fi

“Okay, we’re listening,” Fi

Philby was dressed as a boatman on the Jungle Cruise. Fi

Wayne pulled the bus over and threw open the door. Amanda boarded.

“She is necessary to our plans,” Wayne a

Amanda looked Fi

Wayne explained, “Amanda has the run of the place. She’s not on the DHI watch list. She’ll act as sentry and guide when you need her.”

Now inside the Magic Kingdom, Wayne slowed the bus next to a large white building that, according to its sign, had something to do with waste disposal. A wide metal tube, co

Wayne spun to face them, still behind the wheel. He nervously checked his wristwatch. “You’ll wear these ID tags around your necks at all times. But turn them so they face in, so the ID picture doesn’t show.” Wayne had borrowed some ID tags for them.

“What’s this building?” Maybeck asked. Dressed as Ali Baba, or whoever he was, Fi

Wayne answered. “This is important to you, Fi

All five shook their heads.

“This building is why. All the park’s trash travels underground through a series of steel tubes.

Those tubes terminate here, where the trash is compacted, and then shipped off to a dump. The process is automated. I’ve briefed Amanda.”

She remained in the back, silent and studious. Briefed Amanda about the trash? Fi

“Once I get you inside,” Wayne instructed, “you’re on your own. The Utilidor here—that’s what the park tu

“What about Maleficent?” Fi

“Terrence,” Wayne said to Maybeck, “what’s likely the coldest room in an office building?”

“The computer room,” Maybeck answered. “The server center.”

“So where’s the safest, most comfortable place for someone who likes the cold to spend time?”

“A refrigerator?” Charlene answered, not paying enough attention.

“One possibility, yes, and one that you and Willa will pursue. There’s an entire section of the Utilidor devoted to cold food storage.”

“The computer center,” Maybeck said, answering Wayne’s question.

“The servers are housed at the back of what we call the Control Room. That’s for you and the boys.” Wayne warned them, “Stay alert for a sudden drop in temperature. That’s what you’re looking for. The missing plans won’t be far away. We need those plans.” Wayne looked troubled and concerned. “The point is, from what Fi

He also made it impossible for her to remain below Pirates of the Caribbean. I believe she’s taken to the Utilidor, where, looking like a cast member, no one would question or detain her. Your job is to get those plans from her and to flush her out. To draw her out. We will handle the rest.”