Kingdom Keepers: The Syndrome (22 page)

“On Disney property?” I challenged. “Where would you start looking if you were them?”

Wanda looked the same color as the pancake batter.

“If Jess and I leave and if we make sure they know we’ve left—Joe, Brad, Barracks 14—the pressure’s off. Luowski might still be out there; he might even try to
follow one of you. But as long as you’re careful not to let that happen, the Keepers are safe.”

“But you three are not.” Wanda was having nothing to do with my suggestion. “At that point you’re homeless, vulnerable, and prone to capture.”

“On our own, yeah, that’s probably true.” I waited, drinking in the aroma of the food being prepared. I was tempted to eat off of Wanda’s chopping board. “But since
when are we ever alone? We’ve got Mickey on our side.”

LUOWSKI

It all started when Mr. Philby dialed 911. I knew I had to get out. While everyone was busy in the house, I jumped into the empty ambulance and turned the key in the ignition.
The engine revved and I floored it out of the Philby’s neighborhood faster than I’d ever driven in my life.

On the highway, traffic slowed my getaway considerably. Where should I go? I hadn’t really thought that far. Where could I go?

I passed a minivan with two young kids in the backseat. The little girl’s eyes bugged out, and the boy looked frightened. I scowled at them, causing them to duck down beneath the window,
out of sight. Focusing my attention back on the road, I grinned. People were afraid of Greg Luowski. Terrified.

Forget being a high school bully, I was an unstoppable tank!

I was feeling pretty darn good about myself when the sudden sound of a siren twisted my gut. I glanced in the rearview mirror. No police in sight. I shook my head. I must have imagined
it—but there it was again!

I re-checked. Nothing. Swallowing, I hunched lower over the steering wheel.

A kid in the car ahead of me turned back. He had glowing green eyes and an evil grin. I blinked. No, the boy’s eyes were brown; he stared blankly at me.

A second later, I nearly hit my head on the ceiling of the ambulance when I saw a billboard for the DVD of the new Maleficent movie. Every sound I could hear was an Overtaker laughing, a cop
car’s siren.

“Get out of my head!” I roared, jerking the steering wheel to the left.

Cars honked and drivers shouted angrily.

The church! That rat hole where the freaks had stayed. They weren’t there now, and it’d be a convenient place to hide.

Hide from what, Greg? The cops? The Overtakers? Their orders?

An uncharacteristically cold wind for Orlando in summertime prickled the hairs on the back of my neck and arms. I glanced back at the mirrors, even stuck my head out the window to make sure I
wasn’t being followed. In my mind’s eye, I could see it as though it were happening right now. All of them crowded around the fire, burning bones and other unrecognizable substances,
cackling, planning. I needed to get the information, or I’d be in for it. They’d kill me.

Driving down the off-ramp and into the older suburban area, my heart thumped so hard inside my chest that I was sure it would bore its way out. I drove around to the back of the church and
parked, out of sight of the main road.

I must have fallen asleep. I had no idea for how long. Using the impending darkness as a cover, I ran through the parking lot and took the church stairs three at a time, delivering fisted blows
to the air and wall on my way up. As though it were responsible for my problems.

In the creaking hallway that led to the rooms above the church, I heard muffled voices. Some sort of meeting seemed to be going on below me.

The first unlocked room was empty, except for a few milk crates and sofa cushions. Curtains were drawn over a window on the right wall. Good. I had multiple ways out.

As I paced the little room, my shoes kicked up the dust that had settled in the Freaks’ absence. I felt ready to breathe fire. I’d nearly had my hands on Philby for the second time.
But then his stupid dad had to call the police.

The floorboards whined
we—eak we—eak
.

“I am NOT weak!” I roared, and with the last syllable I punched a hole through the wall. The old drywall crumbled away; it was no match for my inhuman strength. I glared at it
furiously, wishing I could burn a hole through the wall with my eyes.

“I just don’t want to be their puppet anymore,” I whispered.

I sat down on one of the overturned milk crates with a thud. My weight almost broke it.

I hated the Keepers, especially Finn, and I didn’t mind doing the dirty work if it meant getting rid of them, but I hated Disney more. The most. That hate was engrained in my mind; it
flowed through my veins, and yet, it felt like it didn’t belong to me. Like a virus taking me over, making it hard to think straight…

I turned my head at the sounds of footsteps crunching on gravel in the parking lot below.

Something snapped inside of me. Fear. Hatred. Revenge.

We-eak! We-eak!
People coming up the stairs.

I braced myself for them.

The door swung open.

Oh, this was getting good.

MATTIE

There were no AA people in the basement meeting room, only an ambulance parked out back. No explanation as to why it was there. Not knowing how to drive, having no keys, and not
wanting to steal an ambulance, it didn’t help me. Neither did my new phone, which was locked and basically useless.

Desperate, I searched around a found a landline that the AA group meeting room that they must keep for emergencies. I called the number on the AA sign. The man on the line gave me Joyce’s
info. She answered the phone in a groggy voice. I explained my predicament, leaving out the part about being abducted by impostor agents who ran a fake boarding school on an abandoned military base
outside of Baltimore. No sense getting too cozy with a relative stranger.

Joyce responded as if we were sisters who’d been separated at birth. We were in the middle of making plans for me when I happened to make a snide remark about the ambulance out back.

“Yeah, that showed up as we were leaving,” she said.

“You mean someone just parked it there?”

“I guess. I thought he was a friend of yours. He must have used your entrance.”

“Which one? The window or your door?”

“The window. One of our girls was outside catching some air, she said—she meant having a cigarette, but she doesn’t want to talk about things like that with me—and caught
a look. She was all hot and bothered because he was a big, boyish guy with red hair and stunning eyes.”

“Green eyes?” I said dryly.

“No idea. Why? You know him?”

I looked up at the ceiling involuntarily, imagining who was up there. Knowing who was up there.

“Actually,” I said, “I’m not so sure you need to come over, but I sure appreciate the offer. Do you think it might be possible for you to send a Pictogram message to a
friend of mine with this phone number? I don’t have Internet.”

She agreed without asking a single question. “But you call me right back if you need anything, okay? I’m here for you.”

My throat knotted. That wasn’t something I was accustomed to hearing. I tried to thank her, but my voice cracked.

When Amanda finally called, I cried. So did she, though she said they were happy tears over my escape. She caught me up on everything that had happened, told me to keep an eye on the ambulance
and sit tight.

She had a plan.

AMANDA

Arguing with one of the lead Imagineers as an eighteen-year-old girl who’d already benefited immensely from his kindness and generosity proved far easier than I’d
expected.

“It’s too dangerous,” Joe said.

“Trusting you is dangerous,” I said. “Bringing Jess with you seemed like such a nice thing to do…until it occurred to me that it made catching the three of us in one
place that much easier.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

“I know that now. But it took Mattie reading about a dozen Imagineers for us to realize that you’re still on our side.”

“Of course I am! We are!”

“Then why aren’t you telling me about finding the burned bones with DNA that tested as reptile?”

Joe’s attempts to keep the shock off his face were very good, but not good enough. I’d hit the bull’s-eye, and I had Wanda to thank for the theory. Throw a bunch of women
together in a small cabin and watch what happens. Wayne’s daughter was able to connect the DNA testing Jess had heard the Imagineers discussing in the airport terminal with the other bits and
scraps of information we’d collected. I’d thrown the idea at Joe, not knowing what might happen—and here I was, celebrating.

“We will talk about that another time. Don’t go jumping to any conclusions.”

“The OTKs are coming after the Keepers. The Barracks 14 guys are coming after us. We can change all that tonight if you just agree to help us.”

“We’d need agreements with the parents.”

“I don’t think you’ll encounter any resistance. They, we, all of us, are exhausted. And scared. It’s time we come together as a team.”

Joe thought so long and hard that for a moment I was sure he’d dozed off with his eyes open. I’d seen a cat in Baltimore that could do that.

Then he snapped out of it, and he looked straight at me. “Your plan is not for the faint of heart. You girls will need to show a great deal of courage.”

I took that as agreement.

Not long after my meeting with Joe, Jess, Mattie, and I celebrated our reunion with a quick group hug. Then we found ourselves tiptoeing up the church stairway in the bluish
light of night, whispering nervously about our plans.

We passed a window. I unlocked it and opened it quietly.

“How am I supposed to read Luowski for what happened in the past?” Mattie asked.

“You’re the expert,” I said.

“That’s not very nice, Mandy,” Jess said, chastising me. “Mattie’s asking what she should focus on in order to get a clear read.”

“Greg’s the only one we know who’s connected to all of this. I don’t think you read him for the past, I think you read him to find out who’s pulling the strings.
Essentially: who is he working for? If we’re going to fight an enemy, we have to be able to see him.”

“Or her,” Jess said.

“Jess and I are here for the sake of numbers. Three against one, if we’re lucky.”

“But if the girl’s here with him?”

“We’ve still got them three to two. Jess and I will distract the girl while you get a read on Luowski. Whatever it takes. Jess’ll get a hand on him, too, and maybe she dreams
something about it or because of it. He’s all we’ve got.”

We stopped on the upper landing, looking at each other in the strange light, and we felt something collegial pass between us. I nearly giggled, I felt so giddy. Or maybe it was nerves.

“Ready?” I whispered.

Jess and Mattie nodded, though with something less than outright enthusiasm.

Holding hands, we entered our old apartment.

A brooding, evil-spirited Luowski sat unmoving on an inverted plastic milk crate with a pillow on top. Dressed in an EMT medic’s uniform shirt, he looked
official—entirely different from the bull-headed ape I knew he was.

“Bad timing,” he said, making no effort to stand. “I need a private moment.”

Mattie’s eyes quickly searched the few places the girl might have been able to hide. Then she returned her gaze to us, shaking her head. He was here alone.

“We heard about it,” I said.

“Shut up.”

“You could have hurt them, overpowered his parents to get to Philby, but you didn’t.”

“I said shut up!”

“You made a choice. The right choice.”

“They called 911, you idiot.”

Jess spoke up. “You had time. The thing is, Greg—if Greg Luowski is anywhere in the boy I’m talking to—you’re not a kid who hurts the innocent. You pick on kids,
sure, but that’s different.”

“What do you know about it?” Luowski’s face was beet red.

Jess said, “I know you’re in trouble now—with them. You’re scared, like we are.”

“You three have more to be scared about than I do. They have plans for you.”

They
, I noted. But I said nothing.

“That may be true,” Jess said. “But I bet failure’s not tolerated very well by the Overtakers. You had your chance. You know it. We know it. You’re here because you
wanted a place to think it out. What’s next, Greg? What did you figure out?”

“Shut up and get out of here.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I said. “We’re going to the Central Plaza in the Magic Kingdom. The Imagineers are going to help us. You can join us, Greg.
They’ll help you, too.”

The sound of slamming car doors won our attention. All of us, including Luowski, turned slightly toward the windows.

Mattie worked her way toward the window, toward Luowski’s side.

“Keep your hands off me,” Luowski said.

No effort to attack us. I wondered if he might actually be afraid of me. It gave me a little rush of adrenaline: Greg Luowski, afraid of me, afraid of another pair of scissors at this
throat.

“Three guys,” Mattie said, looking out. “Suits. Someone must have called them.”

“No way!” I said. “We’d better hurry. It’s Central Plaza for us, Greg, ASAP.”

“Who are we talking about?” Luowski asked. “Who’s out there?”

“Our former jailers,” I said, “from a long time ago.”

“Return of the Living Dead,” Mattie said.

“Your doing?” I asked him, keeping my gaze steady.

“Yeah,” he said sarcastically, “My best friends. Didn’t you know?”

“You could have taken a plea bargain. Maybe you want to turn us in, exchange us for leniency.”

“So I magically attracted you here,” Luowski said. “I mean you came to me—or am I missing something?”

“A bug,” Jess said. “He could be wearing a recorder.”

“Take off your shirt,” I instructed him, “or Mattie’s going to do it for you.”

“Nice try,” Greg said. “That girl is not touching me.” Then he added, “Nice job with the Imagineers in the Studios, by the way.”

Mattie snarled at him.

“Those three guys are coming up here,” Jess said.