Storming the Kingdom (8 page)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Six Days Ago
Night

I
don’t care what you say, that is not Walt Disney.” Shep’s voice cut through the chilly air swirling around them.

“You’re right, it is definitely not Walt.” Hawk leaned closer to the cryo-coffin. Tilting his head to the side and pursing his lips, he rubbed his chin, trying to understand what he was seeing.

The inner chamber that normally would have held a body in cryo-suspension was a hollow shell. Nestled inside it was a small square box swaddled in thermal wrapping. Hawk took his hand and moved it toward the package.

“Wait,” Jonathan cautioned. “Shouldn’t you be wearing a pair of gloves or something? It’s cold, really cold right? You could get cryo-bite or frostbite.”

“No, it should be fine.” Hawk hesitated. “According to my research, once the inner chamber is open, the temperature to the touch is safe, whatever is frozen remains fine for a short period of time. I think I can touch it.”

“I hope those are the cold hard facts.” Shep offered a sly grin. “If not, you are going to regret what you’re about to do.”

Hawk reached in and with a tug pulled the box away from its resting place and held it in front of him for closer inspection.

“Most of the reports when Walt Disney died were that he was cremated and put to rest in a small family ceremony at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in California. If I remember, it was very quick, and Walt’s remains were put there almost before anyone knew he had passed away.” Juliette cleared her throat. “Maybe those are the remains of Walt Disney.”

Hawk stared at the box he was holding in front of him and gently turned it over to look at it from all angles. His gaze went from the container to each of his friends then back to the cube he held in his hands. The coolness of the room didn’t dull the heat of his brain boiling over every possibility and theory he could create as to what had happened and what he might be holding.

“Farren told me that Walt Disney was here.” Hawk shook his head. “I’m not disappointed or anything like that, just stunned. Farren was so emphatic about giving me the responsibility to care for him. I never once for a minute thought he was not telling me the truth.”

“So, could Juliette be right?” Shep piped in. “Could you be holding the cremated remains of Walt Disney?”

“Could Juliette be right?” Juliette rolled her eyes as she took the box from Hawk. “Of course I could be right. We won’t know until you open it.”

“But why would the cremated remains be frozen in the cryo-chamber?” Jonathan asked. “That makes no sense.”

“When does anything surrounding our world make sense anymore?” Juliette finished her inspection of the box and handed it back to Hawk.

Moving over to a counter in the bunker, he rustled through a container loaded with pens, highlighter markers, and a single pair of scissors. Swinging them open and using one of the sharpened edges like a knife, Hawk cut into the soft thermal wrapping, creating a line all the way around the four sides of the box. Returning the scissors, he gently peeled back the thermal layers, revealing a Styrofoam storage box. Whatever was inside had been protected from the temperature by the box itself and the thermal cover. The box pulled opened, and for the second time in a matter of minutes the four were surprised by what they saw. Hawk reached inside the container and retrieved the item, then held it up for all to see.

“Seriously?” Juliette pointed toward it with her index finger. “That is what was inside this massive cryogenic cylinder?”

“A little underwhelming isn’t it, boss?” Shep agreed.

Jonathan tilted his head. “You know, I learned a few years ago not to be surprised at what happens to you or us anymore. But this is not really what I would have guessed.”

Hawk still held his hand up in front of them, clasping the item he had taken from the box. It was a tablet. An electronic device with a touch screen, similar to the style of wireless tablets that many used each day. This tablet had no distinctive markings and did not even have a manufacturer brand emblazoned on it. He turned it over in his hand so they could all take in the plainness of the electronic device.

“Farren froze an
icepad
.” Shep burst into a smile at his play on words.

“An icepad?” Jonathan rolled his eyes.

“I thought it was funny.” Shep looked at Hawk and Juliette for approval.

Hawk shook his head, and Juliette exhaled in exasperation.

Shep, undaunted, continued. “After Farren put this little chunk of technology on ice, he locked it up and gave you the key.”

The frosty fog in the room continued to dissipate as Hawk slumped back into one of the overstuffed office chairs scattered about in the command center. The fog of confusion that had settled across his mind was not breaking apart as quickly.

“Farren gets shot and desperately wants me to open the cylinder. A few years ago he unpacks this elaborate story about Walt’s body being preserved here, in this room, and that I needed to have wisdom to know if the need was ever so critical that we needed to bring Walt back.” Hawk exhaled. “So the cylinder opens and all that is inside is a tablet that has been locked up in one of the most secret, most secure places on the planet…that only a handful of people know even exists. Let’s find out what kind of wireless coverage we get down here.”

Hawk pressed the power button. A slight delay was followed by single point of light on the screen, and then it opened up into an array of colors as the device began to boot up.

Shep, Jonathan, and Juliette all settled into seats of their own as they waited to see what might happen next. As they did, Jonathan noticed that one of the television monitors in the room was tuned to the network feed where Kate Young was on the air. Shep noticed at the same time and swung his chair around to see if he could find a volume control for the video feed.

Juliette had staged all the media that had descended on the resort in the Epcot parking area. This provided them a backdrop of the iconic giant geodesic dome also known as Spaceship Earth. Hawk’s announcement the day before about the creation of a fifth theme park at Walt Disney World had gotten global news coverage. The assassination in Downtown Orlando and the incident last night in the Magic Kingdom had caused a migration of all the media outlets that were already in Central Florida to make their way into the resort area.

Kate had entered all of their lives like a force of nature. Her arrival to do an investigative report on the meteoric rise to power of a relative unknown named Grayson Hawkes had placed her in the middle of a mystery she had helped to unravel. The end result had been that she became a part of Hawk’s trusted inner circle; and their relationship had become the stories of fan magazines, celebrity websites, and had created a few complicated moments for the couple. None as complicated as Kate trying to cover a story where she knew much more than she would ever be allowed to say on the air or make known to anyone publically.

Shep found the volume control, and as the tablet continued to power up, their attention turned toward the television screen. Kate stood with Spaceship Earth gleaming brilliantly against the dark sky behind her.

“There are still many more questions than there are answers at this point. The Orlando police are investigating the attack on the limousine of Disney Chief Creative Officer Grayson Hawkes. Hawk and passenger Juliette Keaton escaped with minor injuries. However, Disney Imagineering legend Farren Rales was killed in the shooting.

“According to a police spokesperson, they are in the process of following up on a number of leads as well as viewing footage from security cameras taken from buildings in the downtown area. The information we have about the shooting of a second Disney legend, Imagineer George Colmes, is very sketchy at this point of the evening. What we do know is that the shooting occurred within the Magic Kingdom theme park sometime during the late evening hours. Grayson Hawkes was with Colmes at the time of the second attack, and according to eyewitness reports in the Magic Kingdom today, the investigation was centered around a steam train just outside of the Tomorrowland area. The Orange County Sheriff ’s Department has offered no additional information.

“The speculation is running high that the killings of these two Disney legends is linked to an effort to also kill Grayson Hawkes. Neither law enforcement agency is offering any comments on that theory at this time. However, as many of our viewers know, I am a close friend of Dr. Hawkes. I can assure our viewers that he is safe, he has not been harmed, he did indeed suffer some very minor injuries in the limousine attack, and that he is resting and is under the tightest of security at this time.”

Kate’s newscast was interrupted by a soft chime. The ding came from the tablet, which had now completely powered up. Shep turned the volume back down, and the rest of what Kate was saying disappeared into silence as they waited for Hawk to do something with the electronic gadget. The touch screen of the tablet now displayed a single oversized icon, a golden key, that was shaped just like the kingdom key Rales had given Hawk. A small red dot glowed on the edge of the icon. In the world of technology, smart phones, personal computing devices and tablets had become commonplace. On this unmarked and unbranded tablet, it seemed as if the only app on it was waiting to be started by Hawk touching the key on the screen. Hawk assumed the small red dot meant there was an update or something that would happen once he touched the icon. He tapped his finger against the screen. Nothing happened. He tapped it again and still nothing occurred.

“Maybe the cold messed it up,” Shep offered.

“Farren would have thought of that.” Hawk absently tapped the icon again. “Right?”

“I would think so.” Juliette reached over and traced the tip of her finger along the lighted key. “Hawk, this looks like the exact size and shape of the kingdom key Farren gave you.”

Hawk freed the old skeleton key from his pocket and placed it on the touch screen. The glowing key on the screen was an exact copy of his key. Instantly when he placed the real key on the electronic key on the screen, it began to flash.

“You need the kingdom key to make this key work,” Jonathan breathed.

The view screen went to black, then flickered, then a video window opened on the screen. Hawk reached down and tapped the “play” arrow to activate the video. In a moment, a high-definition video began to play. The image on the screen was of Cinderella Castle sitting at the end of Main Street, U.S.A., lighted against a nighttime sky. Instantly Hawk knew the angle meant the footage had been taken from the train station porch that gave guests an amazing view of people moving, exploring, and discovering the treasures of Walt Disney World. However, in this video shot, there were no people. The deserted theme park was a view most guests never had the chance to see. The video had been shot while the park was closed. Hawk’s curiosity caused his breath to become more rapid as he anticipated what he was about to see. As he and his friends crowded in to see what was on the screen, the image of Farren Rales stepped in front of the camera and stood against the backdrop of the twinkling lights of the street and the castle.

Smiling, Farren began to speak.

“Hello, Hawk. Since you have opened the cylinder and are watching this, I realize that something has gone horribly wrong. Of course, I don’t know exactly what it might be…but it must be bad because, well…here we are.

“First, you must be surprised at what you found inside the cryo-tube. I don’t blame you. You have been faithful to protect Walt Disney, and you’ve done exactly what I asked you to do. I told you that you would have to use your judgment and decide how to handle the secret of what was inside the cylinder, and that is just as true today as when I told you the first time.

“Beyond the films, beyond the theme parks, beyond the entertainment empire, beyond the legend of Walt Disney is someone much more important…Walt Disney the man. And now, in this moment, it is time for you to protect him.

“Your journey so far was just the start to bring you to this crossroad. You had to be entrusted with the things Walt created before you could be entrusted with the secrets of Walt himself. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense to you…yet. But trust me, it will.

“I suppose that since you are watching this, the situation must be tense, bleak, and perhaps dangerous. I have no way of knowing what is going on, but I am confident that you can handle it, my friend.”

Farren Rales on the screen leaned back against the porch railing, looked back over his shoulder toward the castle, then turned his attention back toward the camera. Once again he was looking right at them as he spoke. “
This tablet you are watching was created especially for you. It takes the technology I used in your Pal Mickey a few years ago to a whole other level. I’d love to give you the details, but I fear we may not have time.

“I know you are probably dreading the thought of unraveling another mystery. You probably are wondering why I just don’t come right out and tell you what you need to know instead of making you figure it out.”