Disney at Dawn

More obnoxious bird noises overhead.

He looked up.

Four trees. Hundreds of birds.

What the…?

18

PHILBY SWIPED THE ID through the card reader at the door to the AK Maintenance facility. A small red light turned green, and Philby pulled on the door. It opened, and no alarms sounded.

Fi

“I’m not sure she’d want me doing this,” Amanda said, still keeping one hand on the diary, unwilling to fully let it go.

“I promise, only the pages we talked about,” Fi

“We don’t know that they have anything to do with this,” Amanda protested.

“You’re the one who said she could dream the future.”

“Sometimes, sure. But this is personal stuff.”

“You said she wrote in it each morning after waking up.

“It’s true. She did,” Amanda confirmed.

“Then maybe, without knowing, she left us clues how to find her. She drew lightning striking a castle. There are drawings of monkeys in there.” He tugged gently on the journal, but Amanda would not let it go.

“Please,” Fi

For a moment the journal co

“You’re standing guard for us,” Fi

He held up his DS. “Send us a text if you see anyone coming.”

“Okay,” she said, her eyes filled with concern.

“All we’re going to do is make copies,” Fi

“And what about bats?” she asked.

“We’ll be careful. I promise,” Fi

He followed Philby inside to a reception area, where a well-organized desk held a telephone and computer. Some Disney cartoons were taped to the computer monitor, and there were framed pictures of three kids. The few lights that had been left on cast murky shadows and offered a dimly lit corridor ru

“Cool,” Philby said, turning right. “I’ve got to see this.”

The animation training lab was a garagelike workshop that reminded Fi

“Whoa…” Philby said, taking a look around. Both boys spoke in whispers, as if the “body” parts might overhear them.

“Somehow I don’t think we’ll find a copier in here,” Fi

“Oh, I bet you’re wrong. Give me a minute.” Philby walked the lines of workbenches. He muttered words like “impressive” and “interesting” and “incredible.” Then he addressed Fi

“What about a copier?” Fi

“Yeah, okay,” Philby said. “But I could stay here for hours.”

“Let’s save the extra-credit work for another time.”

Philby’s curiosity carried him to the far end of the room, where the lab opened out into a large space that appeared to be used for assembly. Most of the robotic dummies stood on their own here—cables and wires ru

“Check it out,” he said, approaching the area somewhat cautiously and with great respect. “Remember this?” he asked.

The three walls at the end of the room were covered in jungle-green paper, as was the floor. There were stage lights and tripods and cameras and a dozen computers on rolling stands.

“I do,” said Fi

“Animals,” Philby said, immediately understanding the setup. “They motion-modeled animals here to create DHIs.”

“Wayne told me they were doing that,” Fi

“Check it out,” Philby said again, this time directing Fi

“Got it!” Fi

Philby laid Jez’s diary on the sca

panda: 2 guys out front!!!

“Visitors!” Fi

Fi

The lab’s only door was a long way away. There was one EMERGENCY ONLY door to the right of the green-screen area, but it had an alarm, and Fi

“We can hide!” Philby said in a harsh whisper. He pointed to an area where dozens of parts and partial bodies of the Audio-Animatronics figures had been heaped into a kind of junk pile. Many of the human robots had faces that looked phenomenally real.

Fi

Two men entered the room, both wearing dark blue coveralls. Neither seemed surprised to find the lights turned on—something Philby had done upon entering.

“It’s always something,” the thi

The men scrounged around on the workbenches, apparently looking for parts.

“Finding the break in the wire, if there is one, is going to be a bear,” said the heavier man.

“Don’t mention bears,” said the other one. He pointed to an Audio-Animatronics figure of a standing bear cub designed for the Country Bear Jamboree. “This one will get jealous.”

Both men laughed—harder than the joke deserved.

The thin one suddenly turned and headed directly for the junk pile where the boys were hidden. “Didn’t we loan these guys our acoustic coupler?”

“It’s the tester we’re looking for. Forget the coupler.”

The thin man picked up a piece of one of the robots. He was about two feet away from Fi

“You know what?” the thin man said, looking right at Fi