Storming the Kingdom (15 page)

He crashed against a solid display and identified the sound of framed photographs shattering against the floor. Taking the force of the blow along his spine, he slumped to the floor, stunned. Whoever had pulled him through the door grabbed him again and this time wrenched his arm behind his back. The searing pain that raced up his arm to his shoulder brought Hawk back to alertness, and he swung his body, trying to relieve some of the stress on his right arm.

He threw his free elbow toward an unseen target behind him. The elbow blast connected, and whoever it was released the grip on the arm. Relief and pain spiked up and down the length of Hawk’s arm as he felt his way behind the display piece he had crashed into moments ago. He needed to be able to see who he was fighting.

The pain subsided in his arm, as the flicker of a plan emerged in his brain. Hawk once again reached into his pocket and found his phone. He turned the flashlight app back on and then slid the phone like a hockey puck across the floor. The light allowed him to see that his attacker was moving toward him again. The man, dressed completely in black, wore a mask. He was once again on Hawk.

Before he could take hold, Hawk dropped and barrel rolled out of the way. He felt a sting of pain in the shoulder that had just been twisted, but he was successful in giving himself space and got to his feet. The light from the phone cast slivers of illumination all around them as it reflected off of the various displays. Hawk charged toward his foe. He speared him and they both hurtled backward into a wall adjacent to the doors of the attraction. The man grabbed Hawk as they hit and once again was able to get a grip on his right arm. In a move that came faster than Hawk could react to, the man again twisted his arm and drew it up behind the CCA. Turning again to find some relief from the angle his arm was torqued into, he realized this time his attacker anticipated the move.

Hawk felt his arm being bent more radically and for a brief instant he thought it would snap. He felt the MagicBand being torn from his wrist and there was nothing he could do to stop it…it was gone. Driving Hawk downward, the attacker viciously twisted his arm once more then released him. The man in the black mask stepped toward the phone that was still lighting the room, and stamped on it. With a crunch, the light was extinguished, and the room plunged into darkness.

Grabbing his shoulder, Hawk was relieved to find it had not been torn out of its socket. Refocusing, he heard footsteps moving away from him, disappearing in the distance. He scrambled to his feet and gave slow pursuit, necessitated by the lack of light. As he stumbled through the attraction, he heard a soft hum as the lights began to come back on behind him. Each section of the attraction was illuminated in a matter of seconds; to his dismay, he found himself running alone through the attraction. Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream had become a nightmare.

He slowed, then stopped, and rubbed his wrist where the MagicBand had once been. It was gone. The thief was gone. And he was alone, standing outside the glass next to Walt’s office where he had been minutes before. He heard no footsteps, he didn’t hear the opening or closing of a door, it was if the person had simply vanished.

How would this enemy know about the MagicBand? As he thought about this, he didn’t like what his brain told him. Ignoring it for a moment, he moved to the next burning question. Why was it important to him? Other than using it at the Emporium, Hawk had no clue what else he might need to use it for. With a sigh, he knew those questions had no answer…yet. He glanced inside Walt’s office through the glass and noticed the stack of papers on its surface, slightly askew. He had done that. Just before he left the office, while it was completely dark, he had slid his electronic tablet beneath the paper pile to hide it. Now he was glad he had. Although the MagicBand had been taken, he still had the tablet; and up to this point, it was still his most valuable connection to whatever Farren Rales had him searching for.

He made his way back toward the backstage area to retrieve it and allowed his mind to start working the new clue he was given moments before the attraction fell into darkness.

CHAPTER TWENTY - FOUR

Three Days Ago
Early Morning

A
fter retrieving both his busted phone and the electronic tablet, Hawk now stood in front of the Great Movie Ride in Hollywood Studios. He allowed the clue to replay in his brain:

Once Walt created Mickey, nothing was ever the same. Travel through time in Hollywood until you get to the end. When you’ve seen Mickey grow, you’ll find something you must know.

And there was something else Rales had said. It was almost a throwaway statement, but the more Hawk pondered it, the more he believed it was part of the clue. It was the famous line from the Mickey Mouse Club closing song:

See ya real soon
.

Hawk reasoned that if he was going to travel through time in Hollywood, the next clue was hidden somewhere here in the Studios. After all, the Studios attraction was patterned after the Hollywood dream era of the late 1930s and early ’40s. Although Hollywood, as it was portrayed in film and even recreated here in the theme park, never really existed, it was an era when most believed that Hollywood was a place to chase and make dreams come true. This idea always made him smile. He remembered what Walt Disney himself had said when asked if he could share the secret of what it took to make dreams come true. Walt had said, “People often ask me if I know the secret of success and if I could tell others how to make their dreams come true. My answer is, you do it by working.” Hard work was the essential ingredient in making dreams come true and finding success. Farren Rales had repeated that to Hawk more times than he could count, and that was one of the reasons these quests were the way the Imagineers had chosen to share their secrets with him. It was the way Walt put this original plan into place so many years ago. Now Hawk was the one working to untangle the complex puzzle and find the answers.

If this last clue was in the Studios, then the added line,
see ya real soon
, made him believe that next clue was close. So where could he travel through time and watch Mickey grow? It had to be a place close by…but where? He moved slowly down Hollywood Boulevard, looking at the lighted signs of the shops surrounding him. It was well after midnight, the third shift had moved in, and there was the usual light nighttime activity happening around him. He had grown accustomed to seeing it and visited the parks so often after hours that many didn’t even notice him, although it did seem he was getting a few more second glances than usual.

He traveled down the street toward the park entrance and looked at the sign on the shop to his right. Mickey’s face was at the top of the sign and red neon letters spelled out
Mickey’s of Hollywood
. An image suddenly appeared in Hawk’s mind of something he’d thought had been forgotten. If this was the place he was thinking about, the answer could be right inside. He moved to the entrance. It was locked, of course…as it should have been this time of night—or in this case, the morning. He peered in the window and saw a maintenance crew working on some overhead lighting. Tapping on the glass, he got one of the men’s attention and they came over to the door. Opening it, they were surprised to see the CCA of the company. After some brief moments of chitchat, during which Hawk convinced them he was there just to look around and get some ideas, they went back to work…and so did he.

There it was, just as he had remembered it. A statue of Mickey Mouse as he appeared in
Steamboat Willie
in 1928. Glancing down the length of the store, he could see other statues as well. He had indeed remembered correctly. Like so many other places in the world of Disney, this was created in such a way as to tell a story. The detail was hidden in plain sight, and the bulk of the guests who moved through the shop each day never slowed down to see it. Mickey’s of Hollywood, which runs along Disney’s Hollywood Studios Hollywood Blvd. and includes Disney & Co. Fashion Extras and Pluto’s Palace, features one of the most unique views of Mickey available anywhere on property. It had been built so that if you started at the front of the store, near the park entrance, where Hawk was now, you could move through the store and see Mickey’s career and the progression of his animation. Or, as the clue had suggested, you could see Mickey grow.

As Hawk paced toward the middle of the shop, he once again powered up the electronic tablet. As he reached the middle, the next Mickey statue was the character as he had been in
The Band Concert
, which was produced in 1935. Traveling through time from 1928 to 1935, Mickey had grown and changed from a black-and-white animated character to a full-color character. The statue was a reminder that
The Band Concert
was the first full-color cartoon Mickey appeared in. Hawk looked ahead and kept moving toward the far end of the shop, where Mickey Mouse appeared as the sorcerer’s apprentice in
Fantasia
, a film released in 1940. This Mickey looked much more like the Mickey Mouse of today. Reaching the end of the store meant that Hawk had now traveled through time, and Mickey’s timeline put him in the golden age of Hollywood that permeates the park.

Glancing down at the electronic tablet, Hawk watched as the key icon appeared, and with a soft chime, he was notified there was an update waiting. Setting the tablet down on the display case, he aligned the real kingdom key and placed it on top of the icon. The icon flashed, the screen went dark, and another window opened, indicating there was a new video to play. When Hawk tapped the play button, a new message from Farren began. This time he was standing outside in a heavily wooded area; he was smiling as usual, and with a laugh, he began speaking.

“Hopefully it didn’t take you long to figure this clue out. That is why I said I’d see ya real soon. I wish I could help you more. But the reason we are doing this is because the situation you are in has gotten much worse. There are those that want to destroy what Walt worked so hard to build and protect. You know that, but you don’t really have any idea what that means.

“Hawk, you are a great storyteller. These clues I have been giving you, the places you have been going, the things you have found and will find, are as much about the life and history of Walt Disney as they are about trivia. Anybody can memorize trivia. But the trivia is just trivial if you don’t figure out what it means. There are lessons to be learned and lessons that can change your life forever. Hawk, you have to learn those lessons. They are lessons that Walt wanted me . . .”
He hesitated.
“Those are lessons Walt wanted us to teach you.”

Hawk immediately thought of not only Farren but George Colmes as well. It was easy for him to forget there was a third Imagineer in the master plan that Walt and Roy Disney had created for him. An Imagineer he had yet to meet. That Imag-ineer must be a member of the
us
Farren was talking about.

“I want you to go to our favorite inglenook. Sadly, I can’t be there to sit with you and swap stories this time. Keep going and take the fair weather route. Walt spent a lot of time here in Holmby Hills. You can’t wait until the cows come home, but you can see where they’ve been and you’ll know where to roam.
” Farren took a deep breath. He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. Hawk leaned in closer to the screen. He couldn’t tell if Rales was in pain but thought his eyes looked misty. The look on his face was one of regret. “
I wasn’t kidding when I said how much I would like to be helping you. This is the best I can do and the best way I know to do it. Be careful.
” He lowered his head as the screen went to black.

As usual, the choice was offered to “play again” or “delete.” Hawk felt the urge to listen again. The sadness on Farren’s face had caused him an unexpected moment in which his own vision had blurred, tearing up at seeing his old friend struggle as he spoke. He knew Farren would have created this and sent Hawk on this journey only if it had to be done. He also was certain that if it were possible, Farren would have told him these things in another way. Clearly now it was not. Sniffing, Hawk pushed the button that deleted the video. The screen returned to the icon of the key, and Hawk powered it down.

Hawk already knew where he was going—or at least, where he was going to start. An inglenook was a corner or nook by a fireplace. Farren had taught him the word. On several occasions after sharing a meal, Farren would want to tell stories about Walt, about the creation of the company, about details of the theme parks. If there was a fireplace nearby in whatever resort they happened to be in, that was the place Farren wanted to go and talk. There were times as he spoke when he would just stare at the fire and let the flames ignite his memories into wonderful stories coming from the warm hearth of the past. Although Hawk had never visited those fireplaces without Rales, he knew where Farren’s favorite one was located. That is where the clue would begin. But first, Hawk would need to make a detour.

His concern and desire to keep his friends safe was very real, but since his phone had been busted earlier, he needed to get another so he could stay in contact. A broken phone was not a new incident for Hawk. Juliette made sure he always had a spare available, since when he didn’t, things always seemed to go badly. She had said it was for his safety and for Kate, Shep, Jonathan, and herself to have peace of mind. It was in his office in the Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary Resort. Sensing he might be closing in or that the clues might become a bit more difficult, he wanted a way to be in contact with his friends if he got himself into more trouble than usual.

He exited Mickey’s of Hollywood and headed for the parking lot to retrieve his cast member car. Next stop was his office, then it was off to the inglenook. As he neared the exit gate, he slowed as a number of cast members were working near Oscar’s Super Service, the area that contained stroller rentals and a gift shop. The cast members saw him and waved. He returned their greeting and noticed that one woman had not waved. Not only had she not waved, but she had disappeared inside the storage room. It seemed odd to Hawk, since every other cast member had reacted to him except her. She had turned away and had busied herself working.

He stopped and thought about going over to see who it was, then changed his mind. Although she looked familiar, he was always meeting cast members, so what seemed like odd behavior to him might have been nervousness, a desire to impress the boss, or just an action that seemed out of place compared to everyone else. He caught himself momentarily unsure whether to go and investigate further. He shook his head. Hawk told himself he was being a bit paranoid. It was understandable, but these were cast members hard at work. He had walked past them; they had not been following him; it was nothing. He headed out the exit to find his car.