Disney at Dawn

A family waited behind Amanda to use her AnimalCam. Among them was an obnoxious boy who heckled her. She wondered what would happen if she were forced to surrender her viewing station, when the person to use it next realized they had access to every security camera in the Park. Again, the boy raised his voice.

“You don’t own it, you know! Give it a rest.”

The outburst won the attention of a Cast Member, who then headed toward her. Amanda quickly reset the viewing menu to match what was offered by the three other AnimalCam stations, but if the next user happened to scroll down…

The little boy jeered at Amanda as he stepped up to the station, which worked in her favor: his mother took away his “privilege” of using the AnimalCam, allowing Amanda to retake her place.

She caught his reflection in the Plexiglas that protected the AnimalCam’s television monitor.

She spun around sharply, getting a better look at the boy’s arm.

The boy snapped at her, “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

“Your…tattoo…” Amanda muttered.

“What about it?” the boy asked.

“May I?” She took a tentative step closer.

The boy tried to step away and deny her, but his mother blocked him, suddenly Amanda’s ally.

Amanda reached into her back pocket and withdrew the photocopied page from Jez’s diary.

Amanda held the photocopy up to the light and peered through the paper to reverse the image.

It was a match, a near-perfect sketch of the tattoo: a gorilla on crutches with a yellow bandage on its right foot. On the boy’s arm, “Help Care for Wildlife” was written across the top and “Disney’s Animal Kingdom” at the bottom. But Jez’s version offered only the image, not the words. Amanda had mistaken the figure in the sketch for a man.

“Where’d you get this?” she asked.

The mother answered, not the boy. “Here,” she said, pointing toward the large windows at the far end of the area that looked in on a veterinarian suite and several laboratories where animals were housed or cared for. “They give them out if you take the private tour. The keepers.”

This won an overwrought reaction from Amanda, who was thinking: Kingdom Keepers.

“The animal keepers,” the woman clarified.

“Ohhh…”

“My husband is a consultant to Disney. They gave Preston and me a private tour, earlier. Really incredible, if you can arrange it.”

“It was awesome,” said Preston, his mood suddenly pleasant.

Boys!

“At the end of the tour, the tattoo was one of the keepsakes they gave him,” the mother explained.

“Backstage,” Amanda mumbled, her mind whirring as she calculated how to get herself a private tour. Jez had been back there in her dreams. She felt certain of it.

Then she reconsidered her situation: she had an Animal Kingdom Cast Member pass in her pocket.

What was to stop her from going back there?

44

INSIDE THE ANIMAL KINGDOM’S main entrance, in the large central courtyard where Park guests gathered, stood a talking recycling bin. A metal box standing about four feet high, it looked like a U.S. Postal Service box painted green. It was currently surrounded by several small boys and a pair of curious girls, amazed that when they asked it a question, the box could answer them.

Fi

“Find a newspaper,” Fi

“What?”

“Split up. We’ve got to find something recyclable. The trash cans make the most sense.”

“You want to Dumpster-dive the trash cans for something recyclable?”

“Exactly. A newspaper. Soda can. Plastic water bottle. Doesn’t matter. I need an excuse to open the flap and put my hand inside. I hadn’t figured on it being so popular.”

“FEEEEEED MEEEEEE,” the can was saying to the giggling children. “Do you recycle at home?”

The kids were getting a kick out of the talking can, their amused parents standing back and watching.

The boys split up, and shortly thereafter, Maybeck returned with an empty water bottle.

“Perfect,” Fi

Suddenly, the bin turned sharply toward Fi

“FEEEEEED MEEEEEE,” the can repeated, now aiming directly at Fi

Fi

“Eleven o’clock,” Maybeck whispered at Fi

Fi

Fi

The box said, “Did you know that recycled water bottles are made into Park benches, picnic tables, and car parts?”

“I did not,” Fi

“Are you going to feed me or not?” the box asked.

“Feed it!” one of the little kids said boldly.

“Do it!” chimed in another.

Fi

“Yum, yum!” said the recycle bin. “More! I want more!”

“I’m afraid that’s all,” said Fi

He glanced over at the man secretly controlling the bin and thought he saw a slight nod of acknowledgment.

His DS beeped and he checked the chat room.

angelface13: they’re almost through the moving ice.

Fi

45

HAVING HANDED OFF THE REMOTE control device Charlene, who stood watch outside the bat enclosure, Fi

Charlene would, once again, use her stilts and camouflage to approach the backstage area behind the enclosure. This time, she would circle around, rather than enter the enclosure, avoiding the scrutiny of the Park visitors. Once she established herself atop the wall near the two cages and the ice truck, she would notify Fi

The boys had to discover where the real Willa and Philby were being kept and be on hand to get them out of the hotel once they awakened. Charlene was to trigger the remote, canceling their DHI state.

They entered the Animal Kingdom Lodge lobby, and both boys gasped. Fi

Upon seeing all of this, Maybeck hissed a bad word.

There were people everywhere. Some occupied the sumptuous furniture; others milled about, heading this way or that. The clatter and hum of people eating and talking wafted up from a lower level to the right. A few people waited in line at the registration desk to the left. But all around, there was a feeling of excitement and mystery as families and staff came and went. Into this walked two boys, one in a Park worker’s coveralls, the other in shorts and a T-shirt.