Disney at Dawn

“White or black? Odds or evens?” Fi

The man spun around, his face a knot of anger. “You’re not allowed here,” he said in a deep, dry voice. Incredibly quickly for his size, he jumped toward Fi

“One wrong step, and you fall,” Fi

He tried another tack. “I’m a Cast Member,” Fi

“I don’t care. You’re not allowed up there,” he said. By saying this he confirmed he knew about the penthouse—Walt Disney’s former apartment—the secret room Wayne had offered the DHIs as a place to hide.

An Overtaker? Fi

“I said you’re not allowed up there,” the man said.

“White or black?” Fi

The pleasant warmth of the DHI gave way to a slight chill, and Fi

The man stepped out onto the checkerboard, keeping his eyes on the squares. It was a long fall below—thirty feet or more, though the floor had been painted in perspective, which made it appear more like three hundred: a bottomless, rocky cavern. He took that in, and then, as he looked across at Fi

“You won’t talk your way out of this, son.” He stepped onto a black tile. Then another. He knew the pattern! Making sure he avoided any two black squares in the same horizontal line, he progressed cautiously but quickly across the floor.

Fi

His plan was to run right through the man. He believed if he concentrated, he could summon his pure DHI for the fraction of a second it would take to pass through him. In doing so, he was certain to cause the intruder to misstep, which would send him plummeting. But Fi

He stepped out onto two black squares. He could feel his weight on his feet. He was about equal parts boy and DHI. How much longer?

The Dapper Dan stopped halfway, his face a scowl. Then something occurred to him, and he belched out a laugh. “Going to wrestle me, are you?” He gri

Fi

Fi

The man fell, letting out a short scream as he was fu

Fi

He felt the chill returning. He managed three steps toward the edge of the open pit and then fell. His fingers caught the lip of the hinged flooring, and his body smacked into the hanging trapdoor. Normally not good at pull-ups, he must have been partially DHI, because he managed to lift himself, hook a leg, and pull himself up. Seconds later, the trapdoor snapped back into position. He stayed on the black squares and recrossed.

Middle staircase. Red door. He remembered this section well.

He heard the Dapper Dan hit bottom and, seconds later, the sound of him climbing stairs again. Faster now. Ever more determined to apprehend Fi

Fi

He ran smack into Philby.

“There’s no elevator,” Philby said.

“What?”

“No elevator. It’s not here.”

“It has to be here,” Fi

“No such luck, Sherlock.”

“But that means—”

“Somebody’s up there,” Philby said. “Already in the apartment. And what do you want to bet it’s not Wayne?”

“There’s got to be another way up,” Fi

“In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s pitch black. You don’t happen to have a flashlight on you, I suppose?”

“Turn your back to me,” Fi

“Oh, man! How cool is that?” Philby said excitedly. “Hold on to my shirt, lightning bug. I saw some stairs over here.”

Fi

“Going up,” said Philby.

They started climbing the spiral stairs. Higher and higher.

From below them came the heavy breathing of the man pursuing them.

He’d already caught back up. He sounded incredibly close.

7

MAYBECK PROVED HIMSELF the faster ru

Amanda, soaking wet, was on her knees, crying. Jez just stood there, the rain passing through her. It took Maybeck and the girls a few seconds to realize what Amanda already knew.

“Oh, man,” said Maybeck. “How long ago did this happen?”

Willa and Charlene helped Amanda to her feet. Everyone but Jez was now drenched. Charlene held her hands over her hair, as if that would do any good.

“She didn’t keep up,” Amanda said. “I thought she was probably fiddling with her iPod—trying to protect it from the rain. She won’t stop messing with that thing. So I looked back, and …she was there.” She pointed to the DHI of her sister.

“But how is that possible?” Willa asked. “Jez isn’t a DHI.”

“She is now,” said Maybeck, contradicting. He ran his hand right through Jez’s body and out the other side.

Some kids cheered and called out from the crowded area in front of Peter Pan’s Flight, where they stood protected from the rain.

“Somebody did this,” Amanda said. “They programmed a DHI for her. But it’s not much of a program. She’s just…standing there.”

“But why?” Maybeck said.

“Who?” Willa said. “The Imagineers wouldn’t do this without Wayne telling us.”

More kids called out from the line, this time wanting autographs.

“We can’t stay here,” said Maybeck.

“I have to find her,” Amanda said. “The real her.”

“We need Fi

Hunched over and miserable in the rain, Charlene added, “Could we maybe move this meeting somewhere dry?”

Maybeck said, “We saw you two not five minutes ago. If they grabbed her…if they made a switch…it had to have happened between then and now. Somewhere really close to here.”