Disney at Dawn

“The hatches both closed at the same time, and I was trapped. At first I realized how lucky I was, because the Overtakers would never think to look in such a place, but then as time went on, it occurred to me that no one would look down here. That I was not just hidden, I was trapped. And that’s when I realized that a dream I’d had—of a landscape, but from above, like from a plane—made all the more sense. I was in the tu

“It was a satellite photo,” Fi

“And that’s when I realized the song on my iPod might help you find me. I used my earbud wire to co

“We need to get out of here. Amanda and Charlene are up there waiting for us. Philby is on VMK with Wayne—”

“But VMK is closed!”

“Wayne fixed that. The two of them are monitoring network traffic and also trying to see if they can control the hatches in the tiger yards.” Fi

No signal. He tried the BlackBerry: no bars, no signal.

“To get down here,” Fi

“You can still get out.”

“That’s not going to happen. I’m not leaving without you.”

“You don’t happen to have a hamburger and fries in your back pocket, do you?”

“I’m going to try the DS again, closer to the hatches.”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

She disco

“It’s exactly the same on the other end,” Jez said.

Fi

“Yes. Of course. It doesn’t open.”

“What if two of us pushed?”

“It’s not that it’s heavy. It’s latched shut. Tigers are much stronger than either of us. I’m sure it’s constructed to stop a curious tiger from opening it.” She paused a moment. “Why do you keep checking your watch? It’s only a few minutes later than when you first looked.”

Fi

“What is it?” she asked.

“The Park closes at six.”

“So Amanda and the others will have to leave. That’s not the most awful thing.”

“It isn’t just that,” he said. “They move the animals—all the animals—out of the Park at closing.”

“Including the tigers.” Jez made it a statement.

“I’m afraid so.”

“And if we’re down here when they move them Her voice trailed off.

Fi

The DS beeped, indicating a co

philitup: Fi

Fi

Messages started to compete, but Philby cut everyone off with an a

philitup: found the virtual switch, i think i can open the hatches, want me 2 try?

Fi

“Do we have a choice? I’d rather get eaten ru

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

angelface13: ten apes just entered the tiger yards, looks like someone knows what we know.

Fi

“There are monkeys out there?” Jez asked, unable to keep the tension out of her voice.

“Mean monkeys,” Fi

“Well, that’s certainly reassuring. And we’re going out there?”

“I’m not sure we have any choice.”

53

MAYBECK AND WILLA stood guard at the Dream Vacation kiosk in Camp Mi

Philby had his hands full. While he was negotiating an intricate set of networking cables, represented on-screen by a rainbow of wires that spidered out from various network hubs to the myriad attractions, security cameras, and cash registers throughout Animal Kingdom, Wayne had worked his way through the virtual schematics to find a switch he believed responsible for the tiger-yard hatches. Philby had double-checked Wayne’s work and, agreeing with him, had called Fi

philitup: changed a timer, in 5 minutes the tu

“Five minutes,” Fi

philitup: will try to knockout any dhis. not sure if possible.

With Charlene’s a

These were the lines that interested Philby, for as life-size graphic images, holograms consisted of phenomenal amounts of data. His avatar hurried, staying with the same purple data line through a half dozen screens, making sure he never confused one purple line for another. (By simply rolling the cursor over the purple line a corresponding number appeared—like an ID tag. He followed number 518912.) The data was passed from one network hub to another, the largest and most complicated being a hub marked Discovery Island Hub.

From here, the purple lines traveled southeast across a bridge. Just before the bridge, a network line led to a structure marked Flame Tree Barbecue. Philby’s avatar reached the far side of the bridge and turned to follow the purple cables as Wayne’s white-haired avatar popped up from below the bridge. Wayne’s avatar held two silver swords cradled in his arms.

[ ]: here, one is for you. i fear we may meet resistance, and remember: although only a virtual world, if your avatar is killed or captured, it’s Game Over, i won’t be able to reconstruct you and reinsert you into VMK for at least an hour or two, and I fear by then it will be too late, if you’re to accomplish your mission you must stay in the game.