Read The Key To the Kingdom Online
Authors: Jeff Dixon
The Key To the Kingdom (45 page)
G
RAYSON
H
AWKES SAT
in the quietness of Tony’s Town Square Restaurant. The muffled noises from Main Street shoved their way through the windows only to fade into the background of his thoughts, which were very far away. The numbness that he felt had enveloped him as Reginald had closed the door to leave. The six of them had all converged on this place. Sandy had proven to be ally instead of an enemy. Reginald Cambridge was simply a man who took his job seriously and carried it out with pride. He wasn’t an enemy either. Jim had proven to be an adversary who was willing to stop at nothing to get what he wanted. He had been willing to kidnap Juliette, he had been willing to attack, and been willing to deceive the preacher. Then, of course, there was Kiran. Hawk knew she was the real source of his pain. He had been suspicious of her but had convinced himself he was wrong. It was his lapse in judgment that opened the door for her to get too close. He should have known better, he did know better, he had just hoped for better.
Time was running out. He forced himself to rise from the chair and get moving. The end of this quest had to be near. He had never considered what would happen if he couldn’t solve the puzzle. Slowly leaving Tony’s, he stepped back into Exposition Hall and walked to his left. This carried him to an area where guests could meet and greet Mickey Mouse. After Mickey’s Toontown Fair had been removed, this area was created for guests to meet their favorite character. Mickey, according to Roy Disney, became the closet thing anyone had left of Walt. Here, where people could always meet Mickey, the preacher was trying to find something that Walt wanted him to find.
Open daily in the Magic Kingdom, this attraction did not open for another hour. Moving through the various greeting areas he noticed a curtain toward the middle of the attraction creating a barrier. Pulling it aside he slid behind it. Certainly off-stage; he observed boxes, clutter, and other things stored away from the sight of guests. It was boringly plain and nothing caught his interest—until he saw an unmarked wooden doorway.
He moved toward it. Opening it he found another place to store things, too big to be called merely a closet, but not large enough to be a room. This area housed stacks of boxes, each with a tag indicating what was inside. The storage closet was much better organized than the open backstage area. Closing the door, he looked to the opposite side and saw another door, identical to the one he had just entered. He guessed he would find another storage area, but since he was trying to find anything that might be helpful, he decided to take a look. Grabbing the handle and turning it, he was surprised to find it was locked. He bent down to look at the doorknob and noticed a keyhole beneath the knob.
Every locked door holds something behind it.
Hawk stood, remembering all the doors that had magically opened as he used his key to the kingdom. Once again, like so many times before, he took out the old key and attempted to place it inside a lock that to an observer would not be a good fit. Feeling resistance he almost stopped trying; then the key slid into the lock with a soft click. Turning the key to the left, he felt the lock mechanism open, and the knob was released to turn freely in his hand. Behind the door was a stairwell, its steps descending away from him. Hawk stepped forward to see where the steps were going. As he did the door shut behind him, plunging him into darkness. Retreating to the door he reopened it, allowing light to fill the stairwell. There was no light switch to be seen on the wall. Scoping out the area visually, he saw no light fixtures. He didn’t want to take the time to go a buy a flashlight and wasn’t sure which gift shop would have one. Time was running out; if he were going to go down the stairs, it would be in the dark.
E
ACH STEP DROVE HIM DEEPER
into the stifling blackness, blindly spiraling downward, and the steep descent felt as if it were taking much longer than it should have. He tried to judge how far down he might be going and guessed he must have descended at least three stories if not more. Each tread dropped him down another foot deeper, then another, and yet another.
His journey abruptly halted when his foot hit a solid mass in the blackness and his face pushed up against a cool surface. Placing both hands on the unyielding barrier he blindly searched for a doorknob. His hand traced what felt like a lever. Gripping it tightly he pushed it down. It did not move. He muscled up on it and shoved it down with more force and felt it slowly slide downward. A muffled click echoed up through the stairway as the latch released. Without releasing the handle he pushed against the heavy bulk of the door.
The hinges creaked as the massive door cracked open, flooding Hawk with blinding light. Blinking away the sudden brightness he reoriented himself. The stairs dead-ended into this door with the width of a step serving as the landing facing the doorway. Whoever had designed this stairwell had not designed it to meet the code of any inspector. It was clearly a private passage that very few ever traveled. The door opened into a small space, leaving enough room for the door to open and for a person to step inside. Directly opposite him was another door. The preacher stepped completely into the space and allowed the stairway door to close behind him. Facing the next door he was able to inspect it closely as his eyes continued to adjust to the light.
Eight feet high, four feet wide, and made of stainless steel, the door literally formed the entire wall of this small alcove. The door had no handle and no visible hinges. It had a lock mechanism unlike anything Hawk had seen before. A blinking light was the only reasonable point of interaction with the lock.
Dropping down to one knee he leaned in and carefully inspected the complex locking unit. Like the door it was stainless steel. It had a keypad with an intimidating number of keys. Six rows, each containing six keys, featured a corresponding key for each letter of the alphabet along with ten numeric keys beginning at 0 and ending with 9. Above the keypad was a narrow display screen. Below the keypad were two rows of slots each measuring one inch wide. Two slots in each of these rows surrounded a classic keyhole that sat in the center of the four slots. The entire mechanism was stainless steel like the rest of the door with a red light flashing a steady cadence at the bottom of the shoe-box-sized interface.
Hawk wondered if this was what he had been looking for. Could this be the end of his adventure? He had to know what was behind this door. He immediately reached for his key to the kingdom and placed it in the opening for the standard key. It fit perfectly and the blinking of the red light sped up. He tried to turn the key. It didn’t budge to the right or the left. Pulling the key back, Hawk was consternated when the key refused to be extracted. Applying steady force to make the key release had no effect. It was now securely fastened into this massive lock. The red light continued to blink an accelerated rate, creating a sense of urgency within Hawk that may have been necessary or imagined. He didn’t know what to do, it was the only key he had.
Bending over and inspecting the slots around the key, he noticed something about them that was familiar. Perhaps it was the smooth silver with the red slivers of light reflecting off of it in rhythm with the blinking bulb above. Reaching into his pocket he removed the shiny silver box and reverently opened it. Taking great care he removed the first metallic bar containing a phrase Walt Disney had once uttered.
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
Turning it in his fingers he leveled it out flatly and lined it up on its edge with the opening of the slot up and to the left of his key. Carefully he slid the bar into the slot and felt it click into the mechanism. He tried to reverse what he had just done and just like the key it was now locked in place. He pulled the second bar out of the box.
“All of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Gently he placed the bar into the next opening, and exactly like the first one it slid into place. He discovered this one could not be retrieved either.
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
The words on the third bar disappeared into the slot as Hawk pushed the bar found in the Kepple House into place. The light continued to blink and he quickly grabbed the final bar that had been found at Sir Mickey’s.
“If you can dream it you can do it.”
The final bar slid into place as Hawk realized he had been holding his breath. Exhaling loudly, he was startled as the red light began blinking even more rapidly. The key and all four bars were now in place inside the mysterious lock. There was no lever and no latch. The only apparent way to open the door was to find the right combination for the locking apparatus. The red light served as a steady reminder he had not yet managed to open it.
Hawk turned his attention to the thirty-six-key pad, the only part of the lock he had not yet tackled. He wondered what combination he would have to key in to satisfy this level of security. Randomly he placed his fingers on the keys and typed the letters
D-I-S-N-E-Y
.
Each letter displayed itself on the screen above the keypad as he typed. They flashed on and off, and then disappeared. As the screen went blank the red warning light increased its rate of blinking. Hawk wondered if typing in the wrong code would cause the lock not to open at all. He again glanced down at the key and bars now all resting in their places. Each was a discovery he had made on his travels through Walt Disney World. If each piece of the puzzle was a piece of this lock, then what else had he found that might be the code necessary for the keypad?
The strobe effect of the light cast a quickly bursting crimson glow across his face as his mind replayed his journey of the last few days. His finger brushed across the keypad carefully as not to punch a key in error. Allowing his finger to come to rest on a letter, he pushed it, uttering a quick prayer to be correct. The letter immediately lit up on the display screen.
N
. Moving to the numbers he pressed in 2-3-4. Committed to finishing his hunch he completed the call letters and registration numbers he had been sent to find on Walt Disney’s airplane.
MM
for Mickey Mouse. The entire display glowed back at him once again. N234MM . . . the letters flashed once, twice, and then went blank. This time the red light also disappeared and then in a deafening silence the light turned green.
The green light was accompanied by a metallic click and the door automatically swung open, leaving the locking mechanism attached to what Hawk now saw to be the stainless steel door frame. The door stopped, leaving enough room for Hawk to enter.
The preacher paused and reached down to the lock once more. He grabbed each of the silver bars, which now slid effortlessly back out of their slots into his hands. The Key to the Kingdom came out of the lock as if it had never been held there. Placing all of these back in his pocket, Hawk stepped in and peered around behind the opened door.