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“There’s only one guy I know who can answer that. And he’s also the guy who holds the button. The remote control that can cross them back over.”
“Wayne!”
“If I can get that remote from him, and we can get close to those cages, we can release the sleeping Willa and Philby—wherever they are. And I happen to think I know where they are.”
Maybeck didn’t dignify that with a question, but he also couldn’t wipe the curiosity off his face.
“Animal Kingdom Lodge,” Fi
“I’ve got to admit: it does make sense,” Maybeck said. “When exactly did you figure all this out?”
“Back there,” Fi
“And now we’re headed to find Wayne.”
“Yeah. There’s the terminal in Camp Mi
“I thought Philby never came back from that terminal.”
“Which is why we’re doing this together,” Fi
They started walking again.
“But what if we’re wrong about the cages?” Maybeck asked.
“We’re not,” answered Fi
* * *
Fi
Knowing it would not print, he typed WAYNE into his dialogue box. Sure enough, it turned red in the text frame and wouldn’t print.
Players’ avatars entered the plaza, pausing below the billboards or circulating while waiting to meet each other. Fi
He led Fi
[ ]: we’re safe here.
Fi
[ ]: I spoke to philby not long ago. right here.
Fi
[ ]: this is most disturbing.
Fi
[ ]: yes. of course, though i’ll have to use a messenger…. may i suggest the talking recycling bin. a few minutes from now, near the ticket gates, the remote will be taped inside the recycling bin. reach in and feel along the top.
Fi
[ ]: if she’s trying to protect the second server, then I fear the worst: she will either turn herself into a DHI to fool us or do harm, or she will compromise the animal DHIs created for Animal Kingdom and use them to her advantage, this is a grave situation, in the magic kingdom she recruited Overtakers from within the attractions, most notably the pirates and the small-world dolls, in animal kingdom there are few, if any, such characters she can recruit for her army, it is our fear she has corrupted the animals themselves, five more orangutans have escaped, along with a half dozen gibbons, several snakes ca
Fi
He stopped typing as Maybeck shouted: “Mayday, dude! Mayday! Mayday!”
40
MAYBECK KEPT WATCH from the side of a popcorn cart, where a multicolored umbrella was angled to throw shade onto the Cast Member behind the cart. The tilted umbrella offered Maybeck a screen from behind which he peered, spying on Fi
Because of his personal experiences, Maybeck also kept an eye on the sky, alert for any birds. But it was a lizard, not a bird, that caught and held his attention.
Small lizards inhabited most of Florida. He’d grown so accustomed to seeing them zip up trees, across sidewalks, and down the walls of buildings that he almost didn’t notice them at all. His aunt Jelly, who was as close to a mother as Maybeck would ever get, called them “little dragons” and considered them close relatives to the cockroach and mouse. She wasn’t beyond trying to beat them with a broom as she shooed them from the house. He’d been catching them since he was five; if you grabbed one by the tail, the tail came off. For a while he’d kept the tails—he’d had about twenty—but Jelly had found them and thrown them out, never saying a thing about it, then lying to him when he asked.
But the lizard he saw wasn’t like other lizards. For one thing it was fairly big—five or six inches, instead of the typical three or four. It was also some kind of chameleon, quickly changing from the brown of the wood chips in the jungle to the grayish black of the paved path as the reptile emerged into sunlight. But more than anything, it was the way the lizard headed straight into trouble that won Maybeck’s interest. Despite dozens of ru
…the Disney Vacation Web terminal.
Maybeck looked back toward the jungle from where the lizard had emerged. From there, in the shaded darkness held in place by tangled vines and leaves the size of te
Monkeys…he thought at first. But the eyes were too widely set for a gibbon, and too far off the ground. Orangutans!
It was then that he saw the chameleon stitch its way back through the slalom course of legs and slither into the jungle, heading directly for the green flash of eyes.
As much as he resisted the idea that any of this was actually happening, he sorted it out quickly: the lizard was some kind of messenger; the monkeys were on a mission; Fi
A moment passed, and he realized he’d almost had it right.
Almost, but not quite. That’s when he saw a lion slink out of the jungle. He fumbled with the DS, but it was going to take too long.
“Mayday, dude! Mayday!” he shouted.
The Park visitors saw the lion as well. A man screamed as a woman grabbed her children by the hands and started to run. The crowd scattered.
Fi
Maybeck again glanced to his left—the gardener. He knew what to do.
41
FINN SPUN AROUND to see a lion strolling toward him. A big lion. A lion with a thick collar of fur, a huge head, beady eyes, and glistening white teeth. He instantly knew this was not a case of bad luck: the lion was coming for him just as the bats had come for Maybeck.
The lion lumbered toward him, now only a few yards away. The guests had scattered but now encircled an area about twenty yards across, with the beast at its center.