Trying to avoid a collision with the ramp, Finn skidded and tucked his legs under him as if sliding into home plate. He braced himself to be crushed into the side of the stage, only to fly through the fabric skirt that surrounded it and find himself under the movable stage platform and the giant trampoline at its center. He crawled toward the other side, looking back to see two orangutans right behind him.
He glanced overhead. The trampoline’s fabric stretched toward the concrete floor as the acrobatic show continued above him. Whenever anyone hit the trampoline, the fabric stretched so low that Finn had to lie flat; he couldn’t squat without the risk of being crushed. Watching the orangutans approach, he suddenly saw his situation not as a threat but an opportunity: he could use the trampoline to his advantage.
Doubting that he and Maybeck could outrun the two apes, Finn turned and took a stand. The apes were faster and stronger than he, but Finn had the edge in intelligence. He remained directly under the pulsating trampoline, now turning to face the two apes, who immediately slowed with this challenge.
Finn egged on the apes, drawing them toward him, while keeping an eye on the pattern of the stretched trampoline fabric. There were currently four performers on the trampoline. The pattern of jumps was: the four corners; the center; the four corners.
Finn belly-crawled to the right. The nearest ape took the bait, turning to intercept him. The trampoline suddenly caved in over the ape’s head, stretching toward the ground. The ape, caught between the trampoline and the concrete, was crushed by the weight of the acrobat. The ape was flattened. It cried out sharply, rolled away, and took off at a run in the opposite direction.
The trampoline came down immediately in front of the other ape, and that proved enough motivation. This one took off as well, following his buddy. Finn rolled and crawled out the other side and then sprinted for the sunlight outside the pavilion.
Maybeck had waited for him. Maybeck, who never thought of anyone but himself.
They took off running before either said a word, but as they reached full stride, Finn, the slower of the two, managed to pull even with Maybeck, though only briefly.
“Thanks,” Finn called out to Maybeck. “I think we now know what happened to Philby!”
“The water shot right through the lion,” Maybeck said. “It was a DHL”
“Maleficent’s building an army,” Finn told him. “An army of animals,” he added. Maybeck flashed him a suspicious and disbelieving look. “Wayne told me,” Finn said.
Finn turned and led Maybeck toward the Park entrance, still at a full run.
“Where are you going?” Maybeck huffed.
“The button,” Finn said. “The remote control. We can’t free Willa and Philby without the button.”
43
HAVING WITNESSED THE ENCOUNTER with the, Amanda kept a close eye on Finn and Maybeck as they headed toward the Park entrance. She had a good understanding of the camera system by now, enabling her to guide the boys and check the area both in front and behind for any sign of Overtakers.
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.
Finn and Maybeck slowed and approached the recycling bin cautiously, not wanting to draw attention to themselves.
“Find a newspaper,” Finn said to Maybeck.
“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,” Finn said, taking hold of the bottle.
Suddenly, the bin turned sharply toward Finn. The younger kids jumped back, followed by a volley of laughter.
“FEEEEEED MEEEEEE,” the can repeated, now aiming directly at Finn.
Finn had no doubt that Wayne had arranged this somehow.
“Eleven o’clock,” Maybeck whispered at Finn.
Finn carefully looked slightly to his left and identified a casually dressed man wearing sunglasses and a pair of headphones. He carried what looked like a radio in his hands, but Finn recognized it as the remote control device that was steering the box. This man was also listening and speaking through the moving box. His sunglasses prevented Finn from knowing where he was looking, but Finn believed the man was very much aware of the task at hand.