Power Play

He ducked out and was gone.

* * *

They met at five pm in the back room of Crazy Glaze. Maybeck’s aunt left them alone, wearing a worried face; she knew better than to ask what was going on.

Philby’s time was limited. His mother was waiting in the car outside; she expected him out no later than six. Charlene had Willa on speakerphone, which sat on the table next to a dozen glazed, but unfired, coffee mugs.

The collective mood was anxious. Maybeck was not tossing out his usual jokes.

Finn started off by confessing to them about the video chat where Wayne had transfigured into the Evil Queen, his going all clear, and her attempt to put him under a spell, which he recited word for word. He told them about the second encounter with Luowski in the boys’ room, and about his kissing Amanda, and her collapse.

No one openly criticized him, but their disappointment in him was obvious. The Keepers were a team, and by not telling them earlier, he’d effectively gone solo. He didn’t need to be reminded where that had now gotten them.

“First Charlene, then Willa. Now Amanda,” he said. “But it was supposed to be Jess.”

“So the Evil Queen got you with the spell,” Willa said. “And then the mirror in the bathroom. The Evil Queen is all about ‘mirror, mirror.’ Maybe Luowski reinforced the spell or something.”

“The question is,” Philby said, ever the practical one, “how do we break this particular spell? If a kiss started it, a kiss is not going to end it.” He glanced over at Charlene, remembering their kiss.

“‘Reverse the curse,’” Maybeck said. “Maybe she told us without meaning to. In Amanda’s case, the kiss made her into Sleeping Beauty instead of waking her up from a nap. Right? So, someone remind me how Sleeping Beauty got cursed in the first place?”

“She pricks her finger on a spindle that Maleficent creates,” Willa said over the speakerphone.

“Maleficent? Seriously? Now there’s a surprise! So we find a spindle-a Disney spindle, a Park spindle-and we give Amanda a splinter from it, and we see what we see,” Maybeck said. “What?” he said, when he found himself facing skeptical looks. “Does someone have a better idea? She reversed the curse, so why shouldn’t we?”

“It does make sense in a weird, Maybeck kind of way,” Charlene said. “There have got to be spindles in the Parks. We could at least try it, right? It’s better than doing nothing!”

“Can we come back to it?” Philby said. He pushed his laptop to Charlene, asking her to Google “Disney spindle.” “I don’t have much time, and there’s stuff about the log I absolutely have to tell you about.”

Charlene went to work, typing furiously.

“Go ahead,” Finn said. “But make it quick.” Philby could be a talker, and Finn had no patience for that. He wanted Amanda back, right now! He couldn’t remember ever feeling this on-edge, this… guilty.

“Finn and I hacked the MK server last night, as you guys know, and I downloaded the activity log. I’ll skip the details, since getting Amanda back is way more important, but still, this could affect everything. Basically, the OTs have made themselves into DHIs. I have the proof. Empirical data. They first appeared on the Animal Kingdom server, a week ago. But get this: four ID numbers. So the Evil Queen and Cruella have company-and we don’t know who. Other OTs? If so, they’re probably ones we haven’t met yet, which is kind of freaky. Let’s hope it’s not Luowski or Sally Ringwald, or some other kids-but that’s my first guess. Sally warned Amanda and Charlene that there were more of them than we could imagine. Maybe she meant DHIs. That’s what I’d do if I were looking to defeat us: create other DHIs to take on ours. Level the playing field. Make it equal ground.”

“Good Godfrey,” said Maybeck.

“What’s more important-much more important-is that after a lot of crossing over and Returning in AK, their data tags make a handshake with a router at DisneyQuest on the night of the school thing.”

“The night we saw them,” Willa said over the phone.

“Yeah,” Philby said.

“But that’s not possible,” Willa said. Only she and Philby understood the technical side and therefore spoke the same language. “The firewalls-”

“Had to have been breached,” he said.

“They jumped?”

“They jumped,” he confirmed. “Further evidenced by data cloning onto the DHI servers in MK, the Studios, and Epcot.”

Finn raised his hand like a student in class. But Philby was focused on the phone and Willa.

“So they can go anywhere we can go,” Willa said. “And places we can’t go,” she added.

“English is spoken here,” Maybeck said.

Philby said, “Here’s the four-one-one: Disney’s careful-super careful-about protecting their data. Each Park has only two data pipes leading in and out. One is for backup. The other is the one typically used. They have major-and when I say major, I mean major-firewalls to keep data in and hackers out. That’s part of what DHI shadow is all about-it’s not just projectors. When we physically walk outside of the Parks and outside of those firewalls, we’re lost by the system. When we reenter another Park, our IDs are picked back up and we project.”

Maybeck said, “Keep it moving.”

“Anyway, there’s a DHI server for each Park for a reason: our data can’t flow through those fire-walls.”

“But theirs can?” Willa asked.

“The OTs have pulled it off somehow,” Philby said. “It’s called jumping. They jumped from Animal Kingdom to DisneyQuest and back. They then propagated-spread,” he said, directing the translation to Maybeck, who made a cruel face back at him, “their data packs to each of the Park servers. The only way to do that was to breach the firewalls. It’s radical stuff. Big-time stuff. And I’m sorry, but I don’t see them pulling it off without the help of an Imagineer, and not just any Imagineer, but someone high up-someone with detailed knowledge of the firewalls.”

“Wayne’s warning,” Finn said. “It had to do with the servers, and about a friend turning his back.”

“That was me,” Charlene said.

“Maybe not just you,” Finn said. “Maybe the Queen’s got an Imagineer under a spell, or there’s an all-out traitor among them.”

“And not to get too Conspiracy Theory, or anything,” Philby said, “but what if that’s how Wanda got caught? What if an insider sold her out to the cops? You want to know why we haven’t heard from her since your mother bailed her out?” he asked Finn. “It’s because she’s convinced it will only put us in danger-that her every move is being monitored, that she’s contagious, and doesn’t want us catching her cold.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

Finn said, “Jess’s sketches.” He passed them around the table counterclockwise, starting with Maybeck. Both were photocopies. Finn described them for Willa. One of a military guy; the other, the kiss in front a massive building.

“They don’t do anything for me,” Maybeck said, passing them on.

“But it’s what the Queen wanted from me,” Willa said. “The most recent one: the military guy.”

“So just to clarify,” Charlene said, “you were supposed to kiss Jess so she couldn’t draw any more of these? Couldn’t see the future? Do I have that right?”

“I wish we knew,” Finn said. “But, yeah. I think so.”

“I thought you said you kissed Amanda at Mrs. Nash’s,” Philby said. “So what’s with the multiplex behind you two?”

“No clue,” said Finn. “You know how her ‘visions’ mix stuff up. I thought it might be school. But you’re right-it could be a movie theater or an outlet mall or something.”

“So,” Willa said over the phone, “we have two sketches that don’t necessarily help us, but are apparently of huge importance and interest to the Queen. Amanda’s in a coma because of them. We think there’s a possible jailbreak attempt but we don’t know where or when, and the woman who might be able to help us is probably under police surveillance. What am I missing?”