Unlocking the Kingdom Read online

  “Of course. What is the outbreak we have going on around here?” Hawk said to her. “What about Shep?”

  “I’m on the line,” Shep informed him over the phone line.

  “Thank you, Nancy,” Hawk said, and he heard Nancy leave the conversation with a click.

  “You doing alright, boss?” Shep asked.

  “Good, had a busy night.”

  “What did you figure out?” Shep’s voice grew excited.

  Hawk debriefed Shep on the night’s activities from the time they’d left his apartment. Shep was silent as Hawk filled him in on the details. The use of the QR codes gave Shep reason to ask many more questions. After they had all been answered, Shep reported back to Hawk the discoveries he had made about the Western River Expedition. Apparently, in Disney circles, this was a topic that was both loved and hated. Considered to be the greatest attraction that was never built, this was going to be, at least in its original design, spectacular. From the boat ride, to the shopping areas, to the runaway mine train, this was a place one could imagine being the greatest thing Disney ever would have built.

  Shep went on to explain that the disappearance of the original model had been a huge scandal. Most believed it had been removed as a revolt by Imagineers who were upset that the project had been kicked to the curb as it had been. The complete model, of which Hawk now had two pieces, had in its original creation comprised over one hundred figurines. It was massive, and the last time anything had been seen of the model was a few years ago when some of the figures showed up in an auction. They sold for a fortune, and some hoped more pieces would emerge. They had not, until Hawk found the cowboys.

  Thirty minutes later, they concluded the two-person conference call with Hawk going over his thoughts about the last clue with Shep. He promised Hawk he would call if he had any more thoughts on it but agreed with what Hawk was thinking. It then dawned on Hawk that he still didn’t have a cell phone, so Shep couldn’t call him. That realization came after they had ended the call.

  Hawk left his office and headed downstairs, where Nancy sat at her desk with a phone next to her ear. Seeing her boss, she excused herself from the conversation and ended the call.

  “Nancy, did Juliette drop by a cell phone for me anywhere?”

  “No, she may have not had the chance, dealing with her sick family,” Nancy reminded him.

  “She said she was tracking one down for me, but if she’s busy, how about you finding me one?”

  “Happy to do it, sir.” Nancy grabbed a notepad and scribbled a note.

  “Leave it for me in my office, please. I’ll grab it later.”

  “Yes, sir. Are you leaving?”

  “Off to Epcot . . . be back later.”

  “Very well, sir.”

  In a heartbeat, Hawk was out the door and moving across the walkway to the main building of the Contemporary. He decided to take the monorail to Epcot. It would take time and slow down his travel, but it also would keep him in and around people. That might offer him two things: The chance to disappear in a crowd if he needed to, and the protection a crowd could offer if things got a little dicey.

  He took the escalator to the monorail station and jumped on board a monorail. The front was one of his favorite places to ride and allowed him to avoid being caught up in the rush of people getting on and off. Guests were not allowed to do this, but his request was granted immediately by the cast member who recognized him at the gate. As the doors closed and the monorail started to move, Hawk looked down into the lobby.

  From his vantage point, he could see into the dining area below. Seated at a table in the corner of Chef Mickey’s was Farren Rales, talking with Kate Young. Kate was laughing aloud as Farren regaled her with what Hawk presumed was the legend of how Grayson Hawkes had come to be the CCA of the Disney Company. He trusted Farren, but he wished he knew what and how much he was telling her.

  The monorail streaked out of the Contemporary Resort into the bright Florida morning.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  * * *

  IT HAD TAKEN HAWK LONGER THAN HE THOUGHT to get into Epcot and make his way back toward the World Showcase. Walt Disney had believed and managed to instill into those who worked with him that the more we understand about one another, whether it be similarities or differences, the better equipped we are to find mutual ground with each other and to move into the future with less difficulty. That idea—or, as some viewed it, a dream—was the focus when the World Showcase of Epcot was created. The World Showcase drew its inspiration from the early world’s fairs, which had featured participation from many nations in a bygone era when that somehow was easier to accomplish. Epcot, in many ways, is two distinct theme parks in one. The World Showcase offers guests a trip around the world, and Future World is loaded with attractions and innovations of a bright and shining future of the world as it could be.

  Although far from the vision that Walt had when he talked about his Florida Project, Epcot was still visionary in its approach and design and inspired people of all ages with the experiences that could be found on any given day in the park. On this day, the crowds were heavy early, and people recognized Hawk, stopping him to ask for pictures, autographs, and to talk about Disney. Hawk did his best to accommodate each request. His accessibility was one of the things that set him apart from his predecessors. He had also made headlines when it was announced how little he made in salary.

  For Hawk, the perks of his job were well worth it. Instead of the inflated salaries that were so often criticized when made public, Hawk had chosen to steer away from that controversy. He believed the high-powered executives were probably worth what they were paid. But he remembered where he had come from, trusted God for what he needed, and was blessed to be living a very comfortable life with more than he needed. Most were stunned to find out that he was not the highest paid executive within the company. This, too, had given him a connection with many of the guests, who saw him as someone very much like them—an average person, albeit in a very big job.

  Moving to his right as he reached the start of the World Showcase, he headed through Canada toward the United Kingdom. The journey through the United Kingdom pavilion was designed as a trip through time. The building facades lining the streets gave people who walked through a chance to see England as it might have looked in various eras.

  Hawk had pulled so many possibilities through his mind, he’d lain sleepless during the early morning hours. Finally, an idea settled and he couldn’t let it go. That was what he had to pursue now. Shep had confirmed that he might be on to something; now, he had to know for sure.

  Where toys stand guard, the clue had said. Hawk remembered there was a toy store in the United Kingdom. He had walked through it a number of times but never paid as much attention as he should have. Right now, he was running on a wing and a prayer. The toy store was called the Toy Soldier. Surely that would fit the first part of the clue. The rest of the clue, he would figure out in real time inside the store. Reaching the pavilion, he stepped back into the streets and immediately was swept away to another place. The United Kingdom design always managed to take him into another world, and this showcase, in particular, was loaded with details.

  The Toy Soldier was near the back of the street section. As he made his way to the door, the crowds became lighter. The park tended to fill up from the front to the back, so it took longer for people to get where he was now. The World Showcase also opened later than Future World, so there was always a lull in the way people moved into each area. The shop itself wasn’t scheduled to open until eleven, an hour away.

  Hawk knocked on the window, and a cast member getting ready for the day saw him. Opening the door and seeming very nervous that the boss was there just to look around, the cast member busied himself at a manic speed. The shop was much as Hawk remembered it. Loaded with classic English toys that included wooden trains, castles, toy soldiers, and assorted books and games, it was a great little toy shop.

  The books feat
ured in the shop were the works of P. L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books. Walt Disney had spent years trying to convince Helen Lyndon Goff, who wrote under the pen name Travers, to let him produce the film. It had become a huge success, and now in this shop many of the Poppins stories were available. The other author featured was A. A. Milne, the creator of the Winnie the Pooh stories. The shelves of the shop were lined with the various adventures of the bear always in search of honey.

  It was the Milne collection that had brought him to the store. The Hundred Acre Wood is the fictional land inhabited by Winnie the Pooh and his friends. The clue had mentioned over a hundred acres of woods, and he hoped he might be on the right track. Seeing nothing that stood out to him, he navigated through various gifts from the British music invasion that influenced the culture of the 1960s. He drifted toward the back of the shop and found a library that had been set up on the shelves. The library opened up into the last room of the shop, which was used primarily as an area for guests to meet characters and take pictures.

  Moving through the doorway, Hawk glanced around and then whispered to himself a triumphant yes.

  To the right, he looked through a massive wall of windows into a cartoon forest. The Hundred Acre Wood. Flipping through the pages of his memory notebook for what he knew about the world of Winnie the Pooh, he began remembering facts and trivia. Some of it he tossed to the side, while others items he began piecing together to form a picture. The Hundred Acre Wood was the area where Christopher Robin, the boy in the story, would go out to meet his friends, and together they would have amazing adventures. These adventures were the stories of the books and movies. But Hawk was trying to find something beyond the commonly known facts of the story. He remembered that Milne’s son was named Christopher Robin Milne, and the books and poems were created by the author to be the adventures of his son. Now, as Hawk turned quickly, he knew what the Imagineers had built. They had built Christopher Robin Milne’s bedroom as the last room of this toy shop.

  He scanned the room. There was a boy’s desk, a dressing wardrobe, and toys displayed throughout. Next to the window was a bed, and as he looked up on the shelf above the bed, he saw two toy soldiers standing guard over there the boy would have slept. Where toys stand guard . . . and immediately to the right was the window looking out over the woods . . . over a hundred acres of woods.

  Refocusing, he saw that at the foot of the bed was a giant toy chest with a chess board on top of it. His eyes darted to the toy horse, a riding horse, next to the chest. At first glance, it looked like a rocking horse, but then he noticed it was mounted to a frame with no rockers. It was indeed a riding toy but not a rocking toy. The clue had said, it will almost rock you to sleep. A horse that almost rocks, but doesn’t, at the foot of the bed. Now it made sense.

  Directly behind the horse stood a miniature wooden grandfather clock, a detailed prop that fit perfectly into this bedroom setting. Make the time your time . . . Hawk raced across the room and popped open the front panel of the clock. Inside, there was a shelf with two wrapped packages perched neatly on it. Bound together with a thin rope, the packages looked like they had been shipped together as one unit. The only markings on the paper covering the packages were two words: hurry and rush. Both references to the urgency of time. Make the time your time . . . these had to be what he was looking for.

  Hawk grabbed each of the packages and moved to the cash register, where the cast member struggled to look busy and not look nosy at the same time. With his heartbeat quickening, Hawk asked if he had a pair of scissors. Once he had them in his hand, he cut the rope and unwrapped the first package. The larger of the two contained another figurine from the Western River Expedition collection. This time it was a dancing girl, a cancan dancer with leg extended into the air. When he turned her around, he found a collector pin fastened to her back with adhesive.

  “Do you have a bag back there?” Hawk asked the cast member, who was obviously very curious.

  The bag was produced, and Hawk placed the figure inside. Now opening the second package, he found a black box. The box was simple yet sturdy, and when he opened it, Hawk knew immediately what it was for. It was box to hold collectible pins. About an inch thick and four inches square, it was nearly the same size as the silver-plated box that contained the discoveries from his first quest into the world of Disney. Counting quickly, he spotted places to put five pins. He had just found his second pin, and he was willing to wager it had another QR code on its back. Stuffing the box into the bag, he said good-bye to the cast member, who continued to stand there looking shocked that the CCA had just come and opened up what was thought to have been a decoration. Hawk pushed the door open and returned to the streets of England.

  Now the crowds had begun to arrive in the World Showcase. Squinting into the morning sun, Hawk sought out a place to inspect the pin he had just discovered. Stepping across the main pathway, he looked over at the Rose and Crown Pub and Dining Room. It was too early for them to be serving guests yet; but inside, the cast members would be getting ready to open. He glanced up at the motto of the establishment posted above the doorway: Otium Cum Dignitate. People always wondered what the phrase meant, and when they found out it translated to leisure with dignity, they were impressed. He smiled to himself because he knew that at the time the phrase was actually coined, most people could not afford the luxury of leisure activity. In that era, they defined the word dignity as being worthy; as a result, members of the upper class thought they should live a life of dignity because they were worthy.

  Sometimes what something says and what it actually means are entirely different. That is what Hawk always tried to remember in dealing with people, and immediately he thought of Kate. He tried to once again figure out the details and intricacies that were hidden in plain sight all around him. As he often told people, details matter. Right now, they mattered a great deal.

  The door to the restaurant was locked, and he tapped on it, catching the attention of a young lady moving through one of the dining areas. She looked toward the door and waved him away, mouthing that they were not yet open. Another woman inside noticed what was happening and stepped past the younger woman to make her way to the door. This must be one of the managers, Hawk thought, and she recognizes me. The door unlocked, and she opened it. Hawk noticed her nametag read Amy and her hometown was London, England.

  “Good morning, Amy.” Hawk greeted her before she had a chance to speak. “I am—”

  “I know who you are, sir,” Amy said in a Cockney accent that would make Eliza Doolittle proud. “I am Amy, one of the managers at the Rose and Crown. How can I help you today?”

  “If you wouldn’t mind, I need a place to hide out for a few minutes. I was thinking somewhere I could be out of your way, maybe by the water?” Hawk enjoyed eating a meal here, sitting in the outdoor doing area overlooking World Showcase Lagoon.

  “Why of course, sir, follow me.”

  Amy led Hawk through the Rose and Crown, and the cast members getting ready for the day all paused as their special guest entered. He smiled and waved. Each one returned the wave and quickly went back to work trying to look busy. His unexpected visits to attractions and places throughout the resort were common knowledge, but the resort was so big that most never really expected him to drop in on them. Amy guided him outside and offered him the table right along the wall by the water’s edge.

  “Can I get you anything this morning?”

  “Ah, yes.” Hawk suddenly remembered something he needed. “Do you have a cell phone I could use for a few minutes, preferably a smart phone?”

  “Well, sir . . .” Amy hesitated. She would know that the use of such items was not allowed in guest areas when you were on the clock. Her reluctance was an indicator to Hawk that she took her job seriously. On any other day he would be pleased, but today was not that day.

  “Amy, I know it’s against the rules for you to use one. I promise you this is not some kind of test.” He tried to reassure he
r. “But I imagine someone has a phone back there I can borrow. I would consider it a personal favor if I could.”

  “I suppose.” Amy turned her head and twisted her mouth slightly. “You can use mine. I’ll go get it.”

  “Thank you. Trust me, it’s going to be just fine.” Hawk patted her arm as she turned to go.

  Seated along the water, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His mind was cluttered. He had to clear his head to think about what he was doing. There was this crazy treasure hunt he was on again, there was an unknown group of people trying to stop him, there was a new Imagineer who had emerged as a ghost from the fog, and the people he was closest to all of a sudden were unavailable to help, with the exception of Shep. He was very concerned about Reginald and how bad he looked—Hawk feared something might be seriously wrong with him. And then there were Total Access and Kate. He wondered how her breakfast with Farren had gone and how much he had actually told her.

  Opening his eyes, he looked back toward the people moving past the entrance to the Rose and Crown. His gaze stopped on a man wearing an oversized hat and dark glasses. The look was not unusual, as tourists would wear an amazing variety of garb into the theme parks. Fashion was not foremost on most of their guests’ minds. What caught his attention was that this man seemed to be staring right at him. He couldn’t be sure because they were not close enough in proximity. As Hawk looked at the man, he did not turn his head away or move a muscle. He was just standing, looking in Hawk’s direction. He might be looking at something else or lost in some deep thought, Hawk reasoned. But still he did not move, and now the prolonged statuesque pose began to make Hawk uncomfortable. The man was too far away for the CCA to distinguish any features; he was nothing but an oversized hat and shades.

  “Here you go, sir.” Amy returned, tentatively offering her cell phone to him.

  “Amy, you are awesome. Thank you.” Hawk took the phone.