Kingdom Keepers VI (9781423179214) Read online

  Philby ignored him, always the best tactic in the face of Maybeck’s cynicism. “Caribbean?”

  “The Mayans were highly civilized,” Willa said. “They had a written language, a lot of which still hasn’t been translated.”

  The others stared at her. Even Philby.

  “What? I suppose none of you gets National Geographic Channel?”

  “I get it,” Maybeck said, “but I don’t watch it!”

  “What if we combine the Jess cave thing,” Charlene said, “with the steps and the symbols?”

  “There are famous caves on Aruba,” Storey said. “One of the Dream excursions goes there.”

  “Our next port of call. As in, tomorrow morning. So maybe the symbols are in one of the caves,” Finn said. “Maybe we still have time to figure this out!”

  “Yeah, and maybe they lead to buried treasure, too.” A jaded Maybeck wasn’t buying any of it. But when he picked up the page with the symbols, his tone changed. “Hey, is this how they look? I mean, arranged like this?”

  “Yes. As close as we could get it,” Philby said.

  “Then there’s something missing. See? The blank space between the four corners? It’s like they were framing something.” The artist in Maybeck was adamant. “But whatever was there isn’t there now.”

  “More interesting,” Philby said, as if about to vote on it.

  “The OTs have it,” Charlene said. “Whatever it is!”

  “We don’t know that,” Philby said. “Maybe they do, maybe they don’t.”

  “We need to figure out what the glyphs mean,” Storey said.

  “The computers on Deck Two,” Willa said. “We can search the Web.”

  “A good place to start.”

  “Trouble is,” Storey said, “there are something like ten thousand characters in the Mayan language.”

  “My nana presses flowers,” Charlene said, pointing at the page with the symbols. “The thing in the middle of the frame? It could have been a pressed leaf or a flower or something like that.”

  “Nice!” said Maybeck. “That makes so much sense.”

  No one commented on the fact that lately Maybeck liked anything Charlene said.

  “But wait a second!” he continued, his frustration revealing itself as a tightening of his fists and lips. “Are we insane? How could some journal entry written in Florida fifty years ago have anything to do with a Caribbean cruise that wasn’t even around back then?”

  “It doesn’t,” Philby said. “It can’t. Obviously. So it has to do with something else, something Walt Disney and his animators were working on: Fantasia. Chernabog.”

  Mention of the monster sobered the group.

  “He’s half Minotaur, half bat god,” Finn said. Wayne’s words echoed in his ears, and he shivered. “The most evil villain Walt Disney ever created. There are descriptions of him being the ‘embodiment’ of evil.”

  “The Minotaur was no picnic,” Willa said.

  Again, the group turned to her.

  “History Channel,” she said. “What? I watch a lot of TV! In Greek mythology—and I’m not talking Percy Jackson—the Minotaur ate people.”

  “Lovely.” Maybeck pretended not to be interested, but he clearly was.

  “He was horrible and did horrible things. You know how stuff found in one culture is often found in others?” Willa’s eyes were wide. “Let’s assume the old Imagineers found references to a Minotaur-like demon, like a Caribbean Bigfoot. You know? Including some lore, some pictographs or whatever, that supposedly told you—”

  “How to wake it up,” Philby said.

  “Not good.” Charlene sounded panicked.

  Maybeck moaned.

  “That would interest the Overtakers,” Storey Ming said. She used the term with familiarity, Finn noted.

  “See?” Philby said. “We’re much better at this when we do it together. I think we’re getting somewhere.”

  “Charlene’s hummingbird!” Willa said suddenly, sitting up straighter.

  “The Animal Channel, I suppose?” said Maybeck.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact. Torpor.” Willa spotted several blank expressions and sighed. “You guys are such duds. Wayne explained it to Finn, who told us all about it. Anyone remember?” She waited. Sighed again. “Hummingbirds have this insane metabolism. Like drinking-six-lattes-an-hour kind of thing. So they don’t actually sleep; they enter a state called torpor. It’s like hibernating, but for a matter of minutes or an hour. Some bats use torpor as well.”

  “Bats. As in bat gods,” Philby said.

  “Tia Dalma,” Willa said.

  It was like just the two of them in the room now.

  “A witch doctor.”

  “They smuggled some hummingbirds onto the ship so she can practice her magic. She puts the birds into torpor. She wakes them up. One of them escapes—”

  “—and tries to spear me,” Charlene said.

  “Whoa!” Finn said.

  “No kidding.” Maybeck was suddenly a convert. “This is making way too much sense.”

  “They’re missing something,” Philby said, “or they’d have taken Chernabog out of torpor and taken over the ship already.”

  “Something from a cave,” Finn said.

  “Something the glyphs describe,” Storey added.

  A tattooed arm reached over Finn’s shoulder and dropped a folded piece of paper on the table.

  Finn spun around, trying to see whoever it was, but Cabanas was mobbed. Dozens of people were milling around the food and drink stations. Another dozen stood with trays, looking for open tables.

  He searched for an arm with a tattoo—a thin arm, a girl’s arm, he thought. In his random search, he caught a flash of red-streaked hair.

  Her again? A girl with similar hair had helped them in the past few days, showing up exactly when needed. Philby would discount the coincidence, but Finn had little doubt it was the same girl. Had to be!

  “Did anyone get a look at her?” Finn asked.

  “Who?” Maybeck asked.

  “No one?”

  Blank looks.

  Finn unfolded the note and read:

  k’an pet ch’en

  Instead of reading it aloud—he had no idea of its significance, and with the OTs, you could never be too careful—Finn passed it around. It moved hand to hand across the table.

  “So? What’s that about?” Maybeck said, breaking the unbearable silence.

  “We have friends working for us,” Storey proposed.

  “Or enemies trying to trick us,” Finn said.

  Professor Philby said, “Deceit typically involves subtlety. Dropping a note on a table is not terribly subtle.”

  “So let’s be positive,” said the cheerleader, “and figure out what we do with everything.” Charlene cleared her throat. “I saw the hummingbird on Deck Four forward. The hyena was killed up there, too.”

  “Interesting,” Maybeck said.

  Charlene smiled widely.

  Willa said, “Storey and I can Google the pictographs and the words on the mystery note.”

  Finn lowered his voice. “The thing is, if she’s leaving us a clue, she’s got to be on our side. So why not just talk to us?”

  Maybeck said, “Because we’re radioactive, Whitman. We’re nothing but trouble. She wants to help, but not get involved.”

  “But if she’s helping us, then Wayne sent her.”

  “Most likely,” Philby said. His face tightened. “Which is odd.”

  “Odd that we weren’t told,” Finn said. “Maybe she’s part of the 2.0 upgrade. Maybe it isn’t rumor.”

  “Maybe she was a hologram,” Willa said, silencing the group.

  The rumor about 2.0, begun by Finn’s making assumptions about things said by Storey Ming, was that the Keepers might be facing early retirement. It seemed possible that, unbeknown to them, Wayne and the Imagineers were testing out the beta phase of 2.0 before fixing bugs and installing it onto a new set of DHIs—bigger, faster, stron
ger.

  “That’s hardly critical thinking, Willa,” cautioned Philby. “There’s nowhere near enough empirical evidence to bring us to any kind of conclusion. It’s pure speculation. Speculation can be dangerous.”

  Willa looked crushed. He’d blurted it out in typical Philby fashion; now he looked as if he wished he could take it back.

  “Whatever,” Finn said. “We need to make plans to spy on the OTs.”

  “Say, what?” Charlene said.

  “We have to follow them,” Maybeck said. “We have to know what they’re doing. Same with the OTKs. If they leave the ship in Aruba, we need to leave the ship. If they stay on board, we stay on board.”

  “How can we follow them if we don’t know where they are in the first place?” Charlene said.

  Philby said, “I have access to all the shipboard camera feeds now. We’re not without assets.”

  “Speak English,” said Willa, irritated.

  “Let’s assume Jess’s sketch of the cave is accurate,” Maybeck said. “We know there are caves on Aruba. In her dream, there were women in the cave. Women—as in witches and dark fairies, maybe.”

  “Maybe,” Philby said, emphasizing the word. “We don’t know any of this to be fact.”

  “Shut up a minute. Let’s assume it’s fact. Okay? If so, we need to know what they’re doing in that cave. Right?” Maybeck answered himself: “Right. So… Thanks to Philby’s cameras, we can cover a lot of the ship. The problem is getting off the ship at the exact same time as the OTKs, so we don’t lose them.”

  “Forward following,” Philby said.

  “Say, what?”

  “Now you’re just talking nonsense,” Willa said, her irritation showing again.

  Group meetings had gotten way too complicated, Finn thought. Clearing his throat, he waded in, determined to break the tension.

  “Willa, Philby’s saying that we don’t need to follow the OTs off the ship. There are probably only a couple of caves this could be. We can narrow it down using Jess’s drawing. Then we let them come to us for a change, by getting to whatever cave it is ahead of time. They walk into our trap.”

  “Nice,” Maybeck said.

  “We’ll have to check out the island tourist information for caves. I’ll bet one will match up pretty closely with Jess’s drawing.”

  “I can do that,” Storey said. “Being a Cast Member, I can get a look at all the excursion stuff.”

  “It could be at one of the other stops,” Philby reminded them.

  “Aruba is known for its caves,” Storey said. “Not so sure about Costa Rica and Mexico.”

  Philby took in the faces staring at him. “Fine. Charlene and Maybeck will get off early and, providing Storey’s found a match, go to the cave and hide. I will use my hack of the shipboard security cameras to keep an eye on the various gangways off the ship. If I see Luowski or any OTs leaving, Willa and Finn will follow them.” He added, “I should be able to get us all walkie-talkies.”

  “Meanwhile,” Finn said, “we’re keeping an eye out for the girl with the bright red streaks in her hair.”

  “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Maybeck said.

  “Ha. Ha.” Finn wasn’t amused.

  “But, Finn, if she wants to be anonymous, shouldn’t we let her be?” Charlene said.

  Finn studied the people in the busy breakfast room. “She can help us,” he said. “But most important…the most important mission of all… Before we reach Aruba tomorrow, we need to find Chernabog. If we find him, if security locks him up, then it won’t matter what’s in the journal. We won’t have to do any of this.” He thought back to his communication with Wayne. “We get Chernabog, and we spoil their plans, whatever they are. He’s the key.”

  “It’s not like they can hide him just anywhere,” Maybeck said.

  “Well, he’s no longer in the box under the stage,” Willa said.

  “But how far could he go without being seen?” Finn said. “Something like that? There are passengers, crew, cameras. Someone would have seen him.”

  “So maybe he’s still backstage somewhere. There’s a lot of room there,” Storey said.

  “Tonight, during the orientation, we’ll be backstage.” Philby’s voice rose with excitement. “We’re part of the program.”

  “You remember what happened last time we were in the theater?” Maybeck asked. “As in: chaos?”

  Maleficent had made a video appearance at an evening show that had resulted in thorny roses raining down on the passengers.

  “But that’s the point, isn’t it?” Philby said. “What if the OTs are counting on us being too scared to go backstage?”

  “They’d be right,” Willa said. “It’s a miracle no one was hurt the first time!”

  “We’ll appear in the orientation as scheduled,” Finn declared. “But we’ll arrive backstage twenty minutes early—as a group. That’ll give us extra time. We meet at the stage door, starboard side. They’re not going to make us wait out in the hallway. They’ll let us backstage, and that’s our chance.”

  “I like it,” Philby said.

  As if I care, Finn nearly said. But the truth was: he did care. He not only needed Philby’s support, he wanted it.

  “Willa and I can say we need a place to work on our makeup,” Charlene said. “That’ll get us separated into two groups, once inside. Two are better than one.”

  “Nice,” Philby said.

  “Boys take the backstage area,” Finn said. “Girls: the salon, costumes, and the other rooms downstairs.”

  “There’s no way Security missed him,” Maybeck said. “Has anyone thought about that?”

  “Depends on how well the OTs hid him,” Finn said. “And why.”

  “Meaning?” Charlene said.

  “Maybe the OTs don’t want Chernabog found because they haven’t figured out how to wake him out of this torpor thing yet. Maybe Tia Dalma isn’t doing so well with waking up her hummingbirds. Who knows? Maybe they’re worried about how they’ll control him.”

  “The stuff in the journal,” Willa said, her voice a whisper.

  “What if it’s more like an owner’s manual?” Finn said.

  “You have to do it right. And then whoever wakes him…” Philby said, speculating.

  “Yes!” Finn said. “Whoever decodes the journal properly and applies it to Chernabog as he comes out of torpor ends up in control of him.”

  Maybeck coughed. “Us? Control Chernabog?”

  “I like the sound of that,” Professor Philby said.

  WILLA HAD DONE HER HOMEWORK and was eager to share what she’d found. The first to arrive in the unremarkable companionway outside the starboard stage door to the Walt Disney Theatre, she waited for the others. Impatiently. Overcome by the hallway’s dullness. Drab walls. No artwork. Several unmarked doors. At the end, the backstage entrance: CAST MEMBERS ONLY PLEASE.

  In all likelihood, a monster lurked on the other side of that door. Where else would the OTs have hidden something Chernabog’s size? The engine deck seemed like the only other decent possibility, but something that huge making it down there without being seen? Impossible.

  Wayne’s concerns about the balance of power were warranted. The OTs were dangerous enough, strong enough, without such a force on their side. With Chernabog, they’d be unstoppable.

  Chernabog was the worst, Willa thought, feeling her gut twist. Evil incarnate. Both the Minotaur and the Mayan bat god, Camazotz, were said to have devoured their prey. Alive.

  Finn was next to arrive. Willa fought to keep the disappointment from her face.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “You were hoping for Philby,” Finn said.

  She shrugged. “We’re not exactly seeing eye to eye.”

  “I don’t think you have to worry about him and Storey.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it, Finn. Okay? Besides, he’s not coming with us anyway. He’s watching the cameras.” Willa waved at a hemispheric plastic globe in the ceiling, but i
t was a churlish gesture. “So, Finn. News alert: I may have deciphered the code.”

  “Seriously? Already? Did Storey help you?”

  “No,” Willa said tersely. “I had some extra time at the computers. Ka’n is ‘gold.’ It’s also the symbol in the upper left. Pet is ‘island,’ upper right.”

  “Gold island?”

  “Patience! Ch’en is ‘cave.’ Lower left. I haven’t figured out the fourth one yet.”

  “That’s huge!” Finn said. “So maybe it is a treasure map. Gold. Maybeck will love this.”

  “Whatever it is, it’s buried in a cave on an island.”

  “And the only island remaining on the cruise is Aruba. Tomorrow morning.”

  “We’d be stupid not to follow the OTs, not to do everything we can to find out where they’re going and why.”

  “That’s genius work!”

  “That’s Google,” Willa said.

  “You never let anyone compliment you,” Finn said. “What’s that about?”

  “Thank you for the compliment,” Willa said, effectively ending the discussion.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “What’s with you and Amanda, anyway? Or is it you and Storey, too?”

  “Me and Maleficent is more like it.”

  “Who do you think is more powerful? Maleficent or the Evil Queen?”

  “I put Tia Dalma above them both.”

  “Seriously? Because?”

  “She’s a witch doctor. She practices black magic. And she’s more in this world—our world—than any of the others. She doesn’t wear a costume. She doesn’t play a role. She throws bones and stabs dolls with pins, and who knows what else?” Finn’s eyes were haunted.

  He’s remembering his mom, Willa thought. She didn’t know what else to say.

  Next, Maybeck, then Charlene arrived to join them. Willa caught them up quickly on what she’d learned.

  “So as promising as that is,” Maybeck said, “we’re still hoping to find Chernabog and end this before it starts, right? Trouble is, no one ever said what we do when we find him.”

  “We call Security,” Finn said. “Wayne said we can trust Uncle Bob.”

  “As if,” Maybeck said. He had issues with authority and didn’t trust anyone in a uniform.

  “We pretend we didn’t see anything and call Security. No heroics. Got it?”