The Key To the Kingdom (28 page)

“Gosh, pal! You’re doing terrific. Now we have to travel through time. When you find the fort at the monument, you’ll know where to go.”

Rocking, Hawk opened his cell phone and called Shep to describe the events of the past hour so they could decipher the next clue.

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY

Day Six Late Afternoon

T
HE AFTERNOON SUN FELL
from the Florida sky as evening began to settle over the Magic Kingdom. Hawk had reluctantly given up his rocking chair when he and Shep had concluded that to
travel through time
must mean a trip to Tomorrowland. However, the monument and fort portion of the clue left them both puzzled. Shep decided to keep working on the clue and Hawk would do some legwork to see what he could discover. Staying on the move, Hawk had concluded, was the best plan since he never knew when another specially created transponder would activate his personal Pal Mickey. He moved from the Central Plaza hub across the bridge into Tomorrowland toward the Astro Orbiters. The height of this ride had made it the one of the landmarks drawing guests to come deeper into Tomorrowland. Walking, he wondered if one of the landmarks might be the monument he was looking for. Both he and Shep had decided the best strategy was to unravel the clue in parts. The first part was to travel through time. The most obvious way to travel on a journey through time was to experience Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress.

Moving underneath the elevated transportation marvel known as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, he moved up the ramp to get in line for the Carousel attraction. Via a television monitor, Walt introduced the attraction. The Carousel of Progress was the centerpiece of an exhibit Disney designed for General Electric at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. The attraction showcased Disney’s love for nostalgia with his own personal vision for a brighter future that was ushered in with breakthroughs in technology and innovation. The rotating theatre now stopped and the automated doors opened. The crowd walked in and visitors began to seat themselves throughout the theatre. The size of the rotating auditorium allowed the sparse crowd to spread out filling up only half the seats. Hawk found himself sitting on the end of an aisle with ten seats between him and the family seated to his right.

Lights dimmed and the introduction began. Not certain what he was looking for, Hawk perched himself on the edge of his seat. This was a show that he was very familiar with and in his mind was the attraction that best captured what he believed to be the touch of Walt Disney. The audience would literally move around sets featuring four different generations of an American family as they shared the wonderful changes they had experienced in their lifetimes.

Through each scene Hawk tried to notice any detail that might be important. As the carousel continued to move, he arrived at the final scene and remembered the stories of how difficult it was for the Imagineers to keep updating the attraction to represent the family of the future. Eventually they had ceased trying as hard to keep up, because the future advanced faster than they could upgrade the attraction and it was beyond their ability to predict the changes. Even Hawk was amazed at how quickly things changed in the world around him. The last six days had blown past him with the force of a hurricane and there was no end to the wind in sight. As he sat in the theatre with the lights turned down, gently rotating around some very familiar scenes, the exhaustion of the mental and physical strains of the past few days enveloped him.

The future finale disappeared and the rotating theatre moved into the unloading scene. He had traveled through time and had not seen a monument, a fort, or anything else that helped him. He remained in his seat as the rest of the crowd got up and moved toward the exit. Realizing he needed to leave, he eased forward to get out of his seat.

Two hands grasped his shoulders and jerked him back down. He slammed backward, the shock leaving him unable to offer any resistance. Once he hit the back of the chair he quickly gathered his wits about him and once again moved forward to get out of the seat. With a click the automatic doors shut and the theatre began to move once again. The hands were still on his shoulders, but this time Hawk was ready. The grasp was not strong enough to keep him in place as he wrenched himself free and stood to face his assailant.

Standing as the theatre rotated back into the opening sequence Hawk had seen moments before, he was surprised as he stared into the face of Sandy, Kiran’s friend from the Studios.

“Hello, Dr. Hawkes.” Sandy spoke without expression.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Hawk angrily spit back at him.

“Have a seat, Dr. Hawkes.” Sandy made a sweeping gesture to the row of seats between them.

“I’ll stand.”

“Suit yourself.”

“I said, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Actually, that is what I want to ask you.” Sandy jutted his chin forward.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but I’m certain I don’t owe you an explanation for anything.”

Sandy shook his head. “You do owe me an explanation.”

Hawk studied him for a moment. The attraction played through the first scene and Sandy rose to stand facing Hawk with the barrier of chairs between them. Distracted by the events confronting him he hadn’t noticed before that the attraction had not stopped to load in another group of guests. Suddenly Sandy reached out and grabbed Hawk by the shirt, jerking him toward the seats. Momentarily off balance, Hawk fell forward. He drove his palms into Sandy’s chest. The thrust broke Sandy’s grip and he started to fall backward. Hawk, stronger and now thinking more clearly, grabbed two fistfuls of Sandy’s shirt and dragged him across the row of seats. He glowered at the cast member.

“I don’t appreciate the way you kept me on this ride.” Hawk breathed deeply, trying to regain a bit of composure.

“It is not a ride, you idiot! It is an attraction, a classic experience. Don’t minimize it by calling it a ride!” Sandy was glaring back at Hawk with eyes wide.

“Do you have something you wanted to tell me?” Hawk had now regained control of his emotions. The shock of unexpectedly being grabbed and trapped now melted as he felt less threatened and more in control.

“Yes, I want you to stay away from Kiran!”

“Is that it?”

“Yes, stay away from her or I won’t be responsible for what might happen.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No, you moron! I am warning you.” Sandy’s eyes narrowed and anger flashed even though Hawk held a distinct advantage in this encounter. “You have no idea what you are doing. Stay away from her or else.”

Disgusted, Hawk shoved Sandy backward. He landed awkwardly in one of the seats and gave Hawk a look that was a blend of pity and frustration. He slid down the empty row of seats and walked to the front of theatre, which was now moving between scenes. Leaping on the front of the stage as it rotated he placed a hand on the wall separating the seating areas of each theatre.

“Remember what I told you,” Sandy yelled defiantly as he slipped around into the next theatre. The dangerous maneuver paid off as the theatre stopped in front of the next scene, guaranteeing that Hawk would not be able to pursue him.

Hawk now stood alone in the empty theatre as the scene played. With Sandy gone he reviewed the confrontation. Hawk had been surprised, startled, frustrated, embarrassed, and angry in a matter of moments. Kiran had been right about Sandy; her fellow cast member was jealous. But this jealousy was more unhinged than Kiran had indicated. Now with nothing to do and no place to go, Hawk sat back down and once again watched the Carousel of Progress play out in front of him. As each scene played out, although he was sure he was alone, he kept glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one else had snuck into the theatre to grab him from behind again.

Twenty minutes later the carousel rotated into the area where Hawk was to disembark. This time there were no surprises and the door opened uneventfully. Hawk walked out of the theatre alone. The cast member watched as he exited and then looked in to see if any more guests were coming out behind him. When none did, the cast member’s face registered a look of surprise.

“Small crowd this time around,” Hawk said with a smile.

He moved down the exit ramp of the attraction as twilight began to unfold in layers over the Magic Kingdom. The dazzling twinkling of lights illuminated the buildings in Tomorrowland as Hawk realized that his efforts had not produced any new direction. Pausing with a glance back toward the Carousel of Progress, he wondered how Sandy knew where he was. Had Sandy followed him? Where had Sandy followed him from? If Sandy worked at the Studios, how had he managed to find him here in the Magic Kingdom? Only now after the adrenaline began to dissipate within his system was Hawk able to clearly wonder about this string of questions.

The questions dissolved as his cell phone went off. Rapidly searching for it he opened the unit without looking at the caller ID.

“This is Hawk.”

“Hawk,” came the familiar voice of Jonathan, “we’ve got a problem.”

In his years of ministry Hawk had heard this phrase many times before. Within him it ignited a desire to solve and tackle the problem with swiftness and effectiveness. “What’s wrong?”

“I just got a call from Tim Keaton. Juliette hasn’t gotten home yet and he hasn’t heard from her. He called to see what everyone had been doing today and when was the last time we saw her.”

Hawk’s chest tightened.

“She isn’t answering her cell phone?”

“No, I told him what was going on and he tried to reach you on your cell, but it kicked him straight to voice mail.”

“I was in the Carousel of Progress, probably didn’t get a signal. Did you call Shep and find out where he last saw her?

“Sure did. He left her at the escalator in the Contemporary. She was heading up to catch a monorail.”

Earlier in the day he had strongly felt the need to avoid any law enforcement involvement. Within him was a glimmer of hope that the disappearance of Farren Rales was part of an elaborate puzzle that Farren had created for him to solve. Now with the disappearance of Juliette he knew that neither could be an accident. Perhaps trying to put off contacting the sheriff’s office had been a bad decision. If it was, then it was now time to correct it.

“Jonathan, call the sheriff’s department and tell them everything that has been going on.”

“Everything?”

“Yes, everything. Start by calling Al Gann and bring him up to speed. He’ll know what to do and who to call.”

Al Gann, a captain in the sheriff’s office, had recently joined the church and had repeatedly extended an invitation for the pastor to call if he ever needed anything. This situation definitely qualified as need.

“I’m on it, boss!” Jonathan ended the connection.

Hawk had wandered absently while on the phone with Shep, and was now walking in front of the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. He noticed a familiar figure in the distance. Immediately halting his walk he allowed the people walking past him to create a thickening human barrier between him and the person headed in his direction. The easily identifiable frame of Reginald was moving toward him. If Reginald had spotted the preacher he had given no indication, and this gave Hawk a moment in which to decide what to do next. Casually turning so as not to draw attention to himself, he leisurely strolled with the people around him. Now he was in front of Reginald, moving in the same direction. Not daring to look back over his shoulder, he kept pace with the quickest moving people near him. Walking outside the gift shop he veered around the corner to a path that would take him back across the bridge from Tomorrowland toward Central Plaza in front of Cinderella Castle. His heart pounded as he kept pace with tourists as they laughed, looked, and absorbed the sights and sounds surrounding them. He exited the world of tomorrow and continued toward the hub of the park. Drifting to the right he followed the street as it circled toward the castle. Once he walked past the castle he followed the street back around toward the bridge leading to Liberty Square. This gave him a chance to look back across the plaza toward Tomorrowland. The quick glance revealed what he had been hoping not to see. Reginald was in Central Plaza and making his way toward Liberty Square as well. Reginald was not looking directly at Hawk and there was more distance between the two of them. Still he was back there and moving in the same direction.