Read The Key To the Kingdom Online
Authors: Jeff Dixon
The Key To the Kingdom (20 page)
“What were you doing here, Hawk?”
“What does anyone do at Disney World?”
“You’ve already proven you don’t do what other people do at Disney World. Last night you broke into an attraction after the Studios was closed. Tonight you endangered guests and cast members chasing someone who stole a stuffed animal you found in the attraction you broke into the night before. Now here we are, with me escorting you out of another theme park after it has closed.” Her summary did put the situation into a different perspective. “I would venture to say that over the last two days no one has ever done what you have at Disney World.”
Her face was expressionless except for her penetrating eyes staring into his, waiting for a response. She stopped and they stood in front of the
Partners
statue. Hawk continued for an extra couple of steps before he realized she had no intention of going any further without an answer.
“You know you are supposed to escort me out of the park?”
“You also were told to follow my instructions. So I am instructing you to tell me what you were doing in the park.” She still did not move.
“Come on, Kiran. You know what I was doing.” He walked back to where she was standing.
“No, I honestly don’t know what you are doing. Last night you were going to leave whatever you were trying to do alone. Obviously you’re up to something.” Irritation crept back into her voice.
“You told me to leave it alone,” Hawk corrected her. “I never said I would.”
“So what exactly are you doing?”
“I’ve figured out a few more things since last night.” He decided he was going to be a little slower to tell her as much as he had the night before. “I discovered that this is some sort of puzzle or scavenger hunt.”
“Stop, let me get this straight. Farren Rales, the most recognized Imagineer in the Walt Disney Company, gives you a key that is the first clue of a scavenger hunt?”
“Yes.”
“Yes? Just yes? So you think that gives you license to ramble around Disney property creating mayhem in your wake?” Kiran crossed her arms.
“I don’t think I have license to do anything.” Hawk turned and began to walk back toward Main Street. “But I am going to solve the puzzle.”
Kiran trotted after him. “What did you just say?”
“I said I’m going to solve the puzzle.”
“And just what do you think you’re going to find?”
“I won’t know that until I solve it.”
“Have you found something else?”
“For someone who told me to let it go and that there was nothing to figure out, you sure do ask a lot of questions,” he said.
His statement caused her to be at a loss for words as they continued to walk. As they passed the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor, a street cleaner was washing down the street. They waited for him to finish the area he was working on. Looking up and seeing them, he nodded and turned the pressurized nozzle in the other direction so they could pass unsplashed.
“So you really chased down the guy who stole your Pal Mickey from Tomorrowland to Fantasyland in an all-out sprint?” Kiran changed the subject.
“That’s another question,” Hawk pointed out. “But yes, I did.”
“He was significantly younger than you.”
“And significantly slower.”
“Apparently.” A slight smile laced her lips for the first time during their conversation. “I’m impressed.”
“You know, for a minute I was impressed with myself as well,” he said with a smirk. “Then I got up after sitting in the holding room in Fantasyland. I can barely move; my impressiveness is the real fantasy.”
His statement drew a soft laugh. Hawk smiled back at her. They continued their walk down Main Street in an awkward silence, passing the Market House on their left.
“Ha-ha!”
The sound was followed by the distinctive vibration as the stuffed hip hugger sprang to life. Hawk stopped in his tracks, as did Kiran. She looked down to the mouse at his side.
Hesitantly Hawk unfastened Mickey from his side and held him out between them. Kiran studied the little mouse intently as the pastor applied pressure to his middle.
“You are doing great, pal . . . Now remember to keep your head up, Hawk. But let’s be frank, we have to do something he never did . . . please don’t drop me! That would be awful!”
“The stuffed animal called you by name again,” Kiran said with the same expression she had shown the night before.
“I’ve kind of gotten used to it.”
“Mickey talks to you a lot . . . by name?”
“Not always by name. He calls me pal a lot.” He realized how silly that sounded.
“But it has been saying things . . . recorded just for you?”
“Uh-huh. Earlier tonight he said, ‘We have a mountain to climb . . . and together we can scale any summit,’ and now this.” His mental gears were grinding. “I need to keep my head up.”
Hawk was standing in the middle of Main Street looking up. He looked at lights, buildings, and windows. If there was something to see, he didn’t want to miss it. A few minutes ago he was content to leave the park and go home; now he was trying to figure out the latest nugget of information and the one from earlier tonight. Kiran shook off her amazement at the personalized greeting from the mouse and was looking upward as well. Catching Hawk’s eye she pointed skyward. He moved next to her, following the imaginary line stretched out from the end of her fingertip.
“What?” His eyes were darting across the third story of the building in front of them.
“Look at the window,” she said softly.
The highest window in the merchandise shop was in the center of the building on the corner. It was the custom for the windows along Main Street buildings to contain tributes to the creators of the theme park. This was considered by cast members to be one of the highest honors an individual could ever be given within the company. You could read them like movie credits that rolled from the Train Station and down Main Street, USA. A quick look to either side gave Hawk the reason to conclude that the window they were looking at was the highest window to be found on the street. He read the window silently.
Seven Summits
Expeditions
Frank G. Wells
President
“For those who want to do it all.”
“We have a mountain to climb . . . and together we can scale any summit.” Hawk repeated the message from earlier. “That has to be it, Seven Summits Expeditions. But what does it mean?”
“Remember what we just heard?”
“Uh . . . ‘Let’s be frank, we have to do something he never did . . . please don’t drop me.’”
They both performed mental gymnastics trying to understand the hidden meaning in the window. Frank Wells was the former president and chief operating officer of the company. He was loved and respected throughout the organization. His reputation as an adventurer who loved the thrill of mountain climbing and exploring had made him even more endearing to all who knew him. Tragically he had lost his life in a helicopter crash. The sense of loss had been overwhelming, and in the loss people realized how much heart and soul he’d brought to the company. Hawk knew who Wells was and some of the things that had been written about him. Still, he did not completely understand the secret message the window hid, but he was sure they had found the right window.
“Kiran, what does the window mean?” Hawk hoped she would be able to explain it.
“The window is one of the highest on Main Street, USA. It was an honor that the company wanted Wells to have for his leadership during the resurgence of the company after some of the rougher years. The seven summit reference is one that is familiar to mountain climbers. There are supposedly seven summits that any real mountain climbers will want to scale in their lifetime. Hence the name, Seven Summit Expeditions.”
“Did Frank Wells climb all seven?” Hawk wondered.
“No, he didn’t. He only managed to climb six of the seven. He never successfully scaled the seventh.”
“Let’s be frank . . . we have to do something he never did,” he once again repeated the message. “Which mountain did he fail to climb?”
“Everest. He never was able to scale Mount Everest.”
Instantly Hawk had the next move he was supposed to make.
Kiran studied his face. “What? What is it? You figured something out.”
“We have a
mountain to climb, we can scale any summit
. . . the window clearly indicates seven summits or mountains. The other clue says we have to be
frank
—the reference has to be Frank Wells . . . and
do something he never did
—you just said it. He never climbed Mount Everest.”
“So you have to climb Mount Everest?”
“No, of course not.” He smiled. “I’m going to climb Expedition Everest!”
He turned and moved off quickly toward the exit to the park, listening for a sign the implication had hit Kiran. Moments later he heard her footsteps chasing him down Main Street, USA, and she fell in lockstep with him.
“You are out of your mind!” she whispered in his ear.
E
XPEDITION
E
VEREST HAD BEEN
a monstrous challenge for the Imagineers to create. They had to figure out a way to bring the world’s largest mountain to the state of Florida. Inside of the mountain, which was named Forbidden Mountain, they wove a marvelous maze of roller coaster track. The track would enable guests to ride aboard a steam train in, out, up, and down the mountain. Before the thrilling experience ends there is an upclose-and-personal encounter with one of the largest, fastest-moving robotic creatures in history. A twenty-five-foot-tall, 20,000 pound yeti waits to take a swipe at the riders in an attempt to protect the Forbidden Mountain. The entire attraction plays like a mini-movie for the guests.
Expedition Everest embodied all the elements of storytelling that Farren Rales had been emphasizing to Grayson Hawkes over and over again. As Hawk raced toward Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where the Forbidden Mountain was located, he wasn’t thinking about the details of the attraction; instead his mind was trying to design a plan for getting a closer look at the mountain. Sitting next to him in his car, Kiran was trying to derail or at least slow down the steam train of direction that Hawk was intent on riding.
She had followed him back to his car after they exited the Main Gate of the Magic Kingdom. Their walk beneath the monorail line along the red-bricked path was laced with short bursts of conversation as Kiran peppered him with questions about what he was planning. Arriving at his car, he popped open the trunk and stripped off his shirt. Throwing the remains of the shredded shirt into the vehicle, he pulled on a lightweight jacket, shoved the sleeves up to his elbows, and climbed into his car. Uninvited, Kiran had jumped into the passenger side and now they barreled together past the front of the Ticket and Transportation Center, leaving the Magic Kingdom area.
“Just slow down and think about this for a minute,” she implored.
“I didn’t ask you to come along,” he reminded her as he drove along the roadways connecting the Walt Disney World Resort.