فصل 28

CHAPTER 28

FINDING BEN

THEY MADE THEIR WAY TO FANTASYLAND, walking separately, staying just close enough that they could keep track of each other in the dense crowd. When they reached Peter Pan’s Flight, they remained apart for a minute, scanning the area. Seeing no security people, they joined up and entered the Peter Pan building arcade, joining a line that snaked back and forth in the crowd-control maze.

“The sign said it’s a forty-five-minute wait,” said Aidan.

“This is not a bad place for us to be,” said J.D., keeping his voice low. “We’re out of the sun, and out of sight of anybody walking past out there.”

“So what do we do when we get on the ride?” said Sarah.

“Well, obviously we look at Big Ben,” said J.D. “And we look for a bird. Beyond that, I guess we mainly just try to observe as much as we can.”

“What about the…the secret ingredient?” said Sarah, pointing to her backpack. “When do we use that?”

“We’ll have to figure that out once we get inside,” said J.D.

They inched forward, speaking little, wondering what lay ahead, barely aware of the horde of chattering tourists around them. Finally, they reached the front of the line, where a costumed ride attendant guided them onto a moving walkway running parallel to the line of “sailing ships” suspended from an overhead track.

It was a tight fit, but the three of them squeezed into one ship together, with Sarah in the middle, holding the backpack on her lap. The safety bar came down and the ship made a left turn into the ride, then angled upward.

Suddenly, they were in the nursery of the Darling house in London, looking down on Wendy, Michael, and John Darling. They heard music, an orchestra playing “You Can Fly!” They flew out the window and passed over Nana, the dog, who barked forlornly up at them. Now the ship was flying through the darkness above an elaborately detailed miniature replica of nighttime London—the Thames, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, buildings, even streets with moving cars, their headlights lit.

“There’s Big Ben,” said Sarah, pointing ahead. All three of them leaned forward, eyes focused on the approaching clock tower.

Aidan made it out first. “It says 9:07,” he said.

“Do the clock hands move?” said J.D., squinting.

“Doesn’t look like it,” said Aidan.

“I think they’re painted on,” agreed Sarah.

“Do you see a bird?” said J.D.

Aidan and Sarah leaned out, looking down as their ship swept over Big Ben.

“I don’t see a bird,” said Sarah.

“Me either,” said Aidan. “But it’s pretty dark.”

“Okay, keep looking.”

They flew past the moon, upon which were silhouettes of Peter Pan flying with Wendy, John, and Michael Darling. Then the ship rounded a turn and they were flying over Never Land island, being fired at by a cannon on Captain Hook’s ship far below. They flew over a volcano, then mermaids, then Indians. Colorful illumination came from the scenes passing below; the ship was flying through darkness.

“I still haven’t seen a bird,” said Aidan.

“Yeah,” said Sarah. “It’s so dark in here.”

Ahead they could see a much larger version of the pirate ship, with Wendy, prodded by a gang of nasty-looking pirates, about to walk the plank.

They heard a harsh noise over the music.

“Did you hear that?” said Sarah.

They heard it again, a high-pitched Caw! Caw!

Suddenly, there it was, appearing out of the gloom just before the pirate ship: Skull Rock, a ghostly, pale skeleton face of stone with gaping empty holes for its eyes and nose. But one of the holes wasn’t completely empty. “There!” cried Aidan, pointing at the skull’s right eye socket. Perched in the opening, staring at them, was a bird.

It was a Disney Audio-Animatronic creature with bugged-out eyeballs behind a bright yellow beak and a wide wingspan. It cawed again; the ship veered sharply left. The skull was gone.

They were passing the pirate ship now, but all three of them were looking back.

“Okay,” said Sarah. “That was definitely a bird.”

“Aidan,” said J.D. “Would you have been able to reach the bird from where you’re sitting?”

“I don’t think so,” said Aidan. “It was too far away.”

Now they were flying over Captain Hook, who was trying desperately—as he had been since the ride opened decades earlier—to escape from the jaws of the hungry crocodile, while Smee perpetually rowed to his captain’s rescue. Then the ship rounded another corner, and daylight appeared ahead; the ride was over.

“We need to ride again,” said J.D., as the safety bar lifted and they stepped onto the moving walkway.

“Right now?” said Aidan.

“Yup,” said J.D. “We know the time Ben says, and we found the bird. We can assume that what we’re supposed to feed the bird is starstuff; that’s what powers the bridge. But how do we feed the bird if we can’t reach it?”

“Could we hide somewhere and wait until the Magic Kingdom closes?” said Sarah. “Then we could sneak in and feed it.”

J.D. shook his head. “Won’t work. We have to feed it when Ben says—that’s 9:07 p.m. I’m pretty sure the park is still open then.”

“So we have to feed it while the ride is moving?” said Sarah. “How’re we supposed to do that?”

“Okay,” said J.D., “we need to look at the bird really carefully this time. We also need to time the ride exactly, down to the second.”

“Why?” said Aidan.

“So we can know exactly how long it takes to get to the bird. We also need to know the exact time of day. That way we can get on the ride at the right time to reach the bird at exactly 9:07 p.m.”

“How do you know it’s p.m.?” said Sarah. “Couldn’t it be a.m.?”

“Nope,” said J.D. “It’s nighttime in the London scene. The time Ben says has to be p.m.”

They were walking back to the line again. J.D. pointed to the waiting-time sign, which now said fifty minutes. “That’s another thing we have to factor in,” he said. “The wait time.”

“This is getting really complicated,” said Aidan.

“And we still don’t know how we’re gonna feed the bird,” said Sarah.

“Well, we’d better figure it out fast,” said J.D., looking at his watch. “It’s 6:30 p.m., which means we have less than three hours left.”

“And we’re going to use up nearly an hour of that taking the ride again,” said Sarah, looking at the line snaking ahead.

“Other than that,” said Aidan. “We’re doing great.”

Armstrong knew Disney was very good at finding missing children in the parks; the company was famed for its efficiency and professionalism in such matters. So rather than try to compete with the experts, Armstrong chose a different tactic: cheating.

He walked slowly along the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street, looking for a Disney security guard. He’d seen the Disney security team at the main entrance, searching handbags; their uniforms consisted of a white, neatly-pressed, collared shirt, dark pants, and black shoes. They wouldn’t be hard to spot amid all the T-shirts and tank tops.

Cinderella Castle loomed into the sky in front of him. He passed a crowd gathered to hear a brass band play Dixieland music. Just ahead, outside the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor, he spotted a security man old enough to be his grandfather.

He was eating an ice-cream cone and listening to the band, his foot tapping to the music.

Armstrong moved in. He came from slightly behind and to the side, bumping hard into the guard’s left shoulder. The top scoop of ice cream—mint chip, Armstrong noted—went airborne, and the security guard instinctively threw out his right hand to catch it.

In that instant Armstrong expertly slipped the black radio off the man’s belt, apologizing profusely at the same time.

“I’m so, so sorry! I’ll buy you another!” Armstrong said, slipping the radio into his back pocket.

“Don’t be silly! Just an accident.”

“You sure?” Armstrong said.

“Absolutely! Forget it! Really!” said the guard. Armstrong suspected that the reason the guard was being so insistent was that he was not supposed to be eating on duty.

Mumbling one more apology, Armstrong backed into the crowd and disappeared.

After walking twenty yards, he fished the radio out of his pocket and pressed it to his ear—security dispatch was directing guards around the park; other guards were checking in and reporting their positions.

Armstrong was hearing it all.