Ridley Pearson - Power Play

They weren’t in a state of pure DHI, which made them vulnerable to attack.

Philby and Charlene ducked behind the small rocks.

Eight trolls-knee-high old men with beards, whiskers, and huge eyes-appeared across the water. They carried kitchen pot lids as shields, steak knives as swords, carpentry hammers, and the homemade bows and arrows. They jumped across the water and charged.

The kids stayed behind the rocks. The trolls split up.

Philby took an arrow in the arm and screamed as he pulled it out. “That thing hurts!” he cried.

A troll came at Finn, his steak knife glinting. Finn swung the sword and knocked the knife out of the troll’s hand. Philby stood and pressed his back to Finn’s so they could defend in two directions. Charlene, on her knees, battled ax against hammer.

One of the old men surprised Finn from the right, stabbing him, but his sword passed right through Finn’s hologram. The guy fell, off-balance. Philby kicked him across the water into the scenery.

“Soccer!” Philby shouted to Charlene.

She stood and kicked out at the trolls, sending them flying.

“Goal!” Philby cried, as one of the trolls flew though the door of the cottage.

“That’s it!” Finn said. “We get them all into the cottage and trap them!”

Philby kicked one of the trolls, passing him to Charlene like a soccer ball. She expertly sent him through the cottage door. Finn battled with his sword. He heard Philby counting them down.

“Four…Five!”

Finn’s blade clanked against the steak knife of a competent swordsman. Philby came to his aid, toe-kicking the troll toward the cottage, where Charlene finished him off by sending him inside.

“Six!”

“I sent one across the water,” Finn said. “So that’s seven.”

The final troll dropped his hammer and threw up his arms in surrender. Philby grabbed his hands, threw him into the cottage, and Charlene shut the door. She used her ax handle to prop it shut.

The kids, out of breath, looked around for more trouble, but saw none.

“That was…weird,” Philby said.

“You okay?” Charlene asked.

Philby approached her and kissed her on the lips before she knew what he was doing. The kiss went on longer than Finn would have expected.

Charlene and Philby pulled themselves apart breathlessly.

“What…was…that?” Charlene asked, not a twinge of complaint in her voice.

“How do you feel?” Finn asked.

“That’s a stupid question,” she said. “Besides, that’s for Philby to ask, not you.”

Philby looked tranquilized. “I…that was…it was…”

“He had to do it,” Finn said.

“Excuse me?” Charlene said.

How would they know if she’d been put under a spell? Worse, how would they know if she’d come out of it?

“Do you remember going into the girls’ room at DisneyQuest?” Finn asked.

“What kind of a question is that?”

“One that needs answering.” He wished Philby would say something, but he remained stunned and unable to speak. He was staring at Charlene like he’d gotten religion.

“It’s none of your business. Eww.”

Philby finally managed to speak. “It is our business. Do you remember who followed you inside the girls’ room?”

She looked frightened. Her hologram’s blue outline faded. “What are you two talking about?” She blinked furiously, as if about to cry.

“Do you remember going into the bathroom at DisneyQuest?” Philby asked, repeating Finn’s question.

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“Do you remember anyone else in there with you?”

“Like who? Amanda? Willa? Who do you mean? We were all there that night.”

“Anyone else?” Philby asked.

The trolls were pounding on the door to the cottage to get out. Finn could barely hear himself think.

“How could you possibly know about this?” Charlene asked.

“Know about what?” Finn said.

“About…When I was in there, I kind of lost track of time.”

“What do you mean?” Philby asked.

“I mean I lost track of time. I spaced out or something. This girl was standing behind me asking if I was all right.”

“Because?”

“Because, according to her, I was just standing there staring into the mirror. Not moving or anything. She said it was…‘awkward,’ was her exact word. But how could you possibly know that?”

“And the girl,” Philby said, “the one in the bathroom. Had you thought about her before just now? Before we started asking questions?”

Charlene shook her head. “What’s going on?”

“We can explain later,” Finn said.

“You’ll explain now,” she demanded.

“Later,” Finn repeated.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.” She crossed her arms tightly.

Philby was not pleased. He said, “We think the Evil Queen may have enchanted you…”

“To spy on us-the Keepers,” Finn said.

“That she crossed you over tonight-because I definitely did not,” Philby added.

“That the CTDs are out there looking for you,” Finn said.

“That we’ve got to get to the Return and get you out of here.”

Stunned, Charlene took a moment to process everything. “You’ll explain it all later.”

“Yes,” Finn said.

“I kissed you to break the spell,” Philby explained. “It apparently worked. You remember stuff you didn’t remember before.”

“Why?” Charlene gasped. “Why me? What does she want?”

“If we’re right about them trying to break Maleficent out of jail, then who knows what they want? Who knows what they think we have? But we can’t get caught. We’re not going to let her get you again.”

“I want to go home,” Charlene said.

“Makes three of us,” said Finn.

“We can’t take the axes with us,” Philby said. “They won’t Return with us. And to leave them lying around the plaza would just tell somebody that we’d been here. We don’t need to leave clues like that.”

“How about leaving seven trolls locked up in the cottage?”

“That’s their problem,” Philby said.

They leaned Philby’s ax and Finn’s sword against the rock as they’d found them. Then they hurried to the cave entrance and climbed down the dry waterfall. They stayed in shadow, using trash cans, kiosks, trees, and anything else available to hide behind. They passed Mexico and followed a perimeter route that took them near Test Track. A hundred yards from the plaza fountain, Philby stopped.

“Slower now,” Philby said, taking a moment to catch his breath. “Extra careful.”

They circled around the fountain, finally reaching the pin-trading station. A small, circular, one-story building, it held a large display screen that, when operating, informed guests of wait times for the various attractions. There was only one Return, one black fob capable of wirelessly connecting to the server and canceling the DHI projection. Finn had once asked Wayne for more of the devices-one for each Park-but Wayne had steadfastly refused, explaining that the act of Returning was the most dangerous part of the program. If two Returns were engaged within a few seconds of each other, they would theoretically cancel each other out, and the Imagineers had no idea where that would leave the DHIs-nor the kids who lay asleep in bed. If trapped between the two “worlds,” the results could be devastating. The system would tolerate only one fob, one Return.

The Keepers were currently hiding the all-important fob in Epcot, in an intersection of purple pipes that supported the roof of the pin-trading post on the plaza. The pipes came together about head height, connecting with a single support column that rose up from the plaza. Where the pipes joined was a hidden space just big enough for the Return.