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No one paid them the slightest bit of attention.
“We’re invisible,” Fi
“I hear you,” Maybeck agreed.
Fi
“Any ideas?” Maybeck asked.
“We can’t exactly ask someone if they’ve seen a boy and a girl,” Fi
“No.”
“If I could get on to VMK, Wayne might be able to look up what rooms have been checked into in the past few hours, but there would be too many to count.”
“Yup.”
“Not much help.”
“Nope.”
“So, do you have any bright ideas?” Fi
“We can’t exactly go knocking on every door,” Maybeck said.
“You think?” Fi
“I’ve got nothing,” Maybeck said.
“I noticed.”
“We could divide and conquer,” Maybeck suggested. “I could take the upstairs or the other side of the hotel.”
The lodge was fashioned in a giant Y, with the lobby in the stem, and the rooms stretching out into both wings of the V at the top of the stem. The V stuck out into a sava
“We could stay in touch by DS,” Maybeck continued.
Fi
“It is?”
“The DSs,” Fi
“So?”
“So…if we keep texting, and if one of us is near the door to their room when it beeps, then we’ll hear it and know which room they’re in.”
“Sweet,” said Maybeck.
“But what if they’re being guarded? The guards will just turn off the DS.”
“They weren’t guarding you that time at Space Mountain.”
“True.”
“Why guard someone who’s asleep and can’t wake up? Kind of a waste, don’t you think?” Fi
“Okay! Makes sense,” Maybeck said. “Then we start with rooms that have DO NOT DISTURB signs on the doors. At four o’clock in the afternoon, how many rooms can that be?”
“Not many,” Fi
“Start sending messages while I find the rooms with the DO NOT DISTURB signs.”
“If they’re here,” Maybeck said, “we’re going to find them.”
* * *
Fi
Fi
A minute later Maybeck came down the hallway toward him.
“This is their room,” Fi
Maybeck smiled and pulled away from the door. “Bull’s-eye!”
“You’re a better liar than I am,” Fi
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Charming. I meant to say you’re more charming than I am. You’re better with the ladies.”
“That goes without saying,” Maybeck said.
“There’s a room being cleaned, back toward the elevator.”
“I passed it,” Maybeck confirmed.
“I think you left your family’s Park Hoppers in this room, and your father’s in here asleep with a headache, which explains the DO NOT DISTURB sign.”
“I think you’re brilliant,” Maybeck said.
“Goes without saying. Can you pull it off?”
“This is me we’re talking about!” Maybeck boasted.
“Same question.”
“You’ll need to get yourself gone,” Maybeck said.
“I’ll hang at the next set of windows.”
“I’ll text you once I’m inside,” Maybeck said.
* * *
Less than five minutes later, Fi
The room held a big bed and a pair of bunks. Philby was drooling onto the pillow of the big bed. Willa slept peacefully on the lower bunk. They shook both kids, but to no avail: perma-sleep—Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.
“The one thing I remember,” said Maybeck, who yawned all of a sudden, “is how much I dreamed when they had me in this state. I dreamed of being locked up. I think I was dreaming what my DHI was seeing.”
Fi
“A nap wouldn’t hurt,” Maybeck said, eyeing the bunk. “We could take turns. Ten minutes.”
“Do not go there.”
“I’m tired.”
“That’s the point. Hang on.” Fi
Fi
angelface13: all set.
Both Maybeck and Fi
Maybeck hurried over and cracked the curtains. “Apes!” he hissed. He held up two fingers.
Two apes, Fi
Maybeck pointed to his own chest and then the closet. Seeing this signal, Fi
A message from Charlene appeared on Fi
angelface13: i’m in position, will push remote in 3, 2, 1…
The bathroom door was flung open. Fi
Four hairy fingers appeared at the edge of the shower curtain. Fi
The shower curtain was jerked open.
Fi
Fi
The second ape appeared at the doorway. Fi
This provoked the ape. It spun around to challenge Maybeck, giving Fi
Fi