Ridley Pearson - Power Play

“So? How do we find her?” Maybeck said.

Finn looked around. Epcot began at the golf ball- shaped Spaceship Earth; two huge areas ran off to both sides, with a half dozen attraction pavilions in both directions. The plaza fountain gave way to the lake surrounded by replica World Showcase countries, with Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, and other world landmarks.

“Mexico,” Finn said. “We start with Philby’s plan.”

For close to an hour, Willa had huddled behind a rock in the Primitive Man display inside Spaceship Earth. Earlier, she’d heard two men speaking French-cathedral guards-as they’d passed on the ride. She’d made herself as small as possible, and held her breath to make no noise. One of the guards had apparently jumped out of the car he was riding, but by doing so he tripped a sensor and shut down the ride, at which point there had been a flurry of discussion.

Realizing his mistake, he and the other guards had left quickly. One of the advantages of being a hologram-Willa had not tripped the system.

Assuming Disney maintenance men, and possibly Security personnel, would follow up on the ride’s emergency shutdown, Willa had relocated to a display that included a Roman guard.

Things had been quiet for some time now, and so she ventured out, determined to search for the Return. Determined to get home.

She would start with Lost and Found. If a Cast Member discovered what looked like a garage door opener, he or she would turn it in. Because the Keepers had lost the fob once before, Willa knew exactly where to look.

She took her time, careful to advance and pause, advance and pause. After determining an area was clear, she would move a little bit farther. Thankfully, the Lost and Found wasn’t far: in the back office of a small building tucked away near the entrance gate turnstiles.

She reached the building, concentrating on her thin blue outline to make sure her hologram was all clear , and then walked through the back door.

She arrived into a tiny office with event posters covering the walls. There were two desks, one cluttered, one neat. Two computer terminals. Two phones.

The phones presented her with an opportunity she had not, until now, considered. She could call Finn or Philby and…except, she didn’t know their numbers. They were on her phone as speed dials, but her phone was back home. She knew Charlene’s number by heart; Charlene could relay a message. She would need to lose her DHI state at least slightly in order to be material enough to pick up and handle a telephone, but at this point being afraid wouldn’t take any effort.

First, she checked the metal cabinet marked Lost and Found. Unlike when Finn had to go into the cabinet months earlier, it wasn’t locked now. Inside, she found over a dozen cell phones, clothing, wallets, jewelry, driver’s licenses, credit cards, and four sets of car keys-all with black fobs. But not the Return.

Her conclusion was that the OTs had stolen it, as she’d suspected. She eyed the phones and the computers. Did she dare start down the road of fear in order to become material enough to work the devices? Once begun it was hard to turn back. Fear fed on fear.

But what choice was there? She thought of her mother trying to wake her while in the Syndrome. Her fingers, knees, and toes tingled. She picked up the phone and dialed.

Charlene answered.

“It’s me!”

“Willa?”

“I’m in the Syndrome.”

“We know that. But how-”

“I’m in Epcot. I’m pretty sure the OTs have the Return. You have to tell the boys not to come after me. It’s obviously a trap!”

“I…ah…I think it’s too late. The plan’s for Finn and Maybeck to cross tonight.”

“But they can’t. They… we …can’t Return.”

“Philby got back into the server. It’s going to be all right.”

“No, it’s not. Not anywhere close.”

“Finn and Maybeck should be there by now.”

“I need Philby’s number,” Willa said. “I keep it on speed dial, but-”

“Yeah. Okay. Hang on.”

As Willa waited, she looked down at the phone to see a line light lit. By using the phone, she’d given herself away. She hung up immediately. She had to get out of there!

She tried walking through the door, but bounced against it. Her fear had gotten the better of her. It was a sickening, downward spiral. She tentatively opened the door and slipped outside, pulling it shut quietly behind her.

When she turned around, a shape appeared around the corner of a building and quickly ducked back.

“Finn?” She spoke his name aloud, though only in a whisper. She glanced around haltingly, ensuring she was alone.

“ Pssst! ”

He reappeared.

She waved, so happy to see him! Finn stepped out into the open, and she realized he’d come in disguise-he was wearing the same stupid costume, shorts and a T-shirt, that his DHI wore in the Magic Kingdom. She hurried toward him, a combination of relief and anxiety overcoming her: relief they’d found each other; anxiety over the thought of telling him there was no way to Return.

“Oh, my gosh, Finn! It is so good to-”

He evaporated into a wisp of smoke that reformed into something darker and larger…until she found herself facing the Evil Queen.

She screamed. Her hologram outline dimmed.

“You…witch!” she uttered angrily.

“You are correct. This small girl, impossible to lose; she now finds no way to move .” The Evil Queen waved her index finger in a tight circle.

Willa tried to run. She could hardly lift her legs. She was quickly surrounded by cathedral guards. Behind them, on the points of the compass, four crash-test dummies on Segways.

Cruella De Vil stepped out from behind the Queen.

“Well, well. I have to compliment you, dearest,” she said to the Evil Queen. “You’re quite the little Venus flytrap.”

The Queen ignored her. “The judge asked you a question, little girl,” the Queen said to Willa, her eyes squinting. “I fear you were rude to him. Let me explain that being rude to me will have far more…devastating results. Hmmm? Do I make myself clear?” The Evil Queen stepped forward. Willa found her beauty bewitching and powerful.

She nodded against her will. The sensation in her limbs slowly returned. Her legs no longer felt like they weighed a ton.

“Then out with it,” the Queen ordered. “Or suffer!” Another flick of her hand and Willa bent over in a convulsion, like she had been punched in the stomach. This despite her being in her state of partial DHI. She hated to think how that would hurt when flesh and blood.

The Queen waved her hands again and her lips trembled as she chanted some kind of incantation.

Spiders appeared out of cracks in the pavement. Hundreds, thousands of them. Small ones. Red ones. Black ones. HUGE ones. They swarmed at Willa’s feet, leaving her in the center of an oozing circle of hairy spiders. If she moved even slightly…

She was terrified, which dampened her DHI, making her more vulnerable. She was outmatched. The Queen got what the Queen wanted.

“WHAT DID JEZEBEL DRAW?”

“A face! A man,” Willa volunteered, still bent over, her stomach in a knot. The spiders encroached.

The witch cackled with laughter that sounded like breaking ice. “Who? What man? And be careful you don’t lie, little thing.” She began to sing. “‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider…’”

The ring of spiders tightened at Willa’s feet.

“A man…in uniform.”

Finn’s DHI climbed the stone steps running up the center of the Mexico pavilion, a Mayan temple with balconies of flowers on either side of the center staircase. He’d taken this same route with Philby; he knew what he was doing. Maybeck’s DHI had already reached the top, climbing as effortlessly as a cat.