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ALSO BY RIDLEY PEARSON
Kingdom Keepers— Disney After Dark
Steel Trapp— The Challenge
WITH DAVE BARRY
Blood Tide
Cave of the Dark Wind
Escape from the Carnivale
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon
Peter and the Shadow Thieves
Peter and the Starcatchers
Science Fair
www.ridleypearson.com
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Winnie the Pooh characters based on the “Winnie the Pooh” works by A. A. Milne and E. H.
Shepard
Copyright © 2008 Page One, Inc.
Il ustration on page vi by Greg Cal
Al rights reserved. Published by Disney • Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No
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Printed in the United States of America
First Disney • Hyperion paperback edition, 2009
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file.
eISBN 978-1-4231-0708-8
ISBN 978-1-4231-0708-8
This book is dedicated to all those readers who,
by e-mail, demanded it be written.
You see?
Someone’s listening….
CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT PAGE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59
CHAPTER 60
CHAPTER 61
CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63
CHAPTER 64
CHAPTER 65
CHAPTER 66
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1
LIGHTNING FLASHED ON THE HORIZON. A breeze swirled around the Cast Members. The air tasted
dusty, almost bitter, with electrical charge.
Finn Whitman, one of five kids on top of the final parade float, pointed to the far gate where
the Magic Kingdom’s DHI-Day parade was to pass through, where five identical kids, wearing identical clothing to theirs, stood waiting.
DHI stood for Disney Host Interactive or Daylight Hologram Imaging—depending on whom
you asked—a recent addition to the Magic Kingdom that offered the holograms of five teenage
kids as Park hosts. The five kids who had auditioned for those roles were typical y forbidden to
enter the Magic Kingdom. But tonight was special: it was a DHI celebration.
Finn sensed trouble coming, wondering if it had to do with the electronic il usions waiting by
the gate.
“How weird is that?” he said, seeing himself as a hologram not thirty yards away. The Finn
Whitman standing by the gate looked no different from himself, except for a slight sparkle, a glow, when viewed from a certain angle.
“It gives me the weebies,” said Charlene, regarding her identical, though electronical y projected, twin. She too wore a cheerleader’s outfit; she too had her blond hair pul ed back severely into a ponytail, not a hair out of place; she too looked slightly embarrassed to have the body of a young woman, instead of a girl. Charlene was an athlete and champion gymnast and
had clearly been recruited as a Disney Host for her clean, cheerleader looks and her uncanny physical ability. She was good with people and could make friends with anyone. Most kids at school were jealous of her—but the other DHIs appreciated the skil s and abilities she brought to
the team.
The hologram of Charlene stood next to the hologram of Finn, but the software had al five
holograms in PAUSE, making them look more like glowing mannequins than kids. They awaited the
start of the parade with the patience of the robots they were.
“We’ve been here before as them,” said Wil a, “but never with them.”
“I was, once,” corrected Finn. “Only the one time, and I was being chased by Security. I have
to admit, it was plenty strange to see myself guiding some guests while I was also running for my
life.”
“What’s that?” asked Philby, pointing up at the rise behind the tal boundary fence inside the
Magic Kingdom.
“Cinderel a Castle,” answered Charlene.
“No, the gray bal oon,” Philby said. “It’s massive.”
“Looks like a weather bal oon,” said Terry Maybeck, who seemed to stand more than a head
tal er than al of them. An African American, Maybeck currently wore his hair in dreads, making him look older than the others.
The swarming clouds suddenly swal owed the large bal oon.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Philby. “You don’t release a weather bal oon in an
electrical storm unless you’re Ben Franklin.”
“Not our problem,” said Maybeck. “Al we’ve got to do is ride the float and wave to the guests.
Let’s stick with the program.”
At that moment, music started and the first float moved toward the open gate. The five holograms came to life, as if a switch had been thrown. They formed a line at the front of the parade, waving to the bushes, as if guests were waving back.
“Sometimes our DHIs look so stupid,” Wil a said.
“Sometimes?” Philby said sarcastical y.
“They paid us wel ,” Maybeck reminded them, “and we got Gold Fastpasses for our families.
We’ve got nothing to complain about.”
“And they’re having a parade to celebrate our DHIs returning to the Kingdom,” Finn said, “and
we get to be part of it. Things could be worse.”
“Who here doesn’t miss the way it used to be? Before they patched the source code?”
Maybeck met eyes with each of them.
Finn had been the first to “cross over” during his sleep: to wake up as his own hologram in the
Magic Kingdom. Initial y it had seemed impossible, but encounters with pirates and witches had
made him reconsider what was real and what was make-believe. Soon, al five kids had come to
the same realization: when they went to sleep at night they awoke inside the Magic Kingdom as their DHI holograms. In reality, it had not been a corruption in the software’s source code but the ingenious work of a veteran Disney Imagineer named Wayne, who had needed their help. But no
one at Disney knew this other than them, so recently programmers had inserted a software patch
to correct “the problem.”
None of them knew if Wayne could, or would, undo it, al owing them to return to the Magic
Kingdom as nighttime holograms. But al of them secretly hoped he would.
“Here we go!” said Finn. “Hang on!”
Their float jerked and climbed up the sloping asphalt just behind another float carrying Aladdin and Jasmine. With al the floats strung out in a line, the kids had lost sight of their matching holograms out in front, leading the way.
The music swel ed, and a man’s voice dramatical y announced, “Welcome to DHI-Day at
Magic Kingdom!” The sound of applause rose above the lush jungle landscaping.
“Keep your smiles on,” said Maybeck, “and hang on tight.”
But at that moment, al five kids lost their balance and stumbled into each other. Jasmine and
Aladdin also slipped off their pil ows as their float accelerated to close a sudden gap that had appeared in the parade line.
It took Finn a moment to spot the problem: one of the floats—the vil ains float—had been pul ed out of the line and off to the side. The Aladdin float, and the one carrying the DHIs, had sped up to close the gap.
“What’s with that?” said Maybeck. “Broken down?”
“No,” said Philby. “It’s empty.”
He was right: the float’s platform lacked a character or Cast Member. It was just an empty
wooden rectangle. Below it, the Cast Members responsible for preparing the floats scurried around frantical y, hurrying to get the empty float out of the way and to fil the void created by its absence.
“What happened?” Finn cal ed down to one of the Cast Members just before reaching the gate and the adoring guests.
The man didn’t answer immediately. But his face gave away his concern. “He was right there
a minute ago,” he mumbled, nearly drowned out by the music. “I swear he was!”
“Who?” cal ed Finn. “Which character?”
He and the others had long since learned to take nothing for granted. Not when there were
Overtakers in the Park, who wanted to gain control of the Magic Kingdom. There were no accidents here: everything happened for a reason, even if the other Cast Members didn’t recognize it.
“That float should have Chernabog on it!” said Philby shouting to be heard above the music.
“Only he’s not there.” He turned and looked back at the empty float as they passed ful y through the gate and into the Park. Finn had turned around as wel . So had Maybeck.
“Who’s Chernabog?” grumbled Maybeck.
Philby answered, “Only the most powerful vil ain Walt Disney ever created.”
Finn’s voice was overpowered by the joyous music and the crush of applause. “And he’s gone missing? That can’t be good.”
2
FINN FELT THE QUICKENING BREEZE of the lightning storm bearing down on the Park. He hoped the
weather would hold off at least until the parade finished. It was an evening parade with fireworks to fol ow. He didn’t want it canceled. It wasn’t every day he was asked to ride a float in Disney World.
He kept checking the sky as the line of floats reached a view of Tom Sawyer Island. He noted
that the water looked oddly green and mysterious. His four friends waved and smiled at the crowds—big crowds. Al but Maybeck, who nodded with his whole body but never actual y waved,
his head bopping and moving to the parade music.
As their float moved through Frontierland, Finn caught sight of a girl among the crowd. She
was like a beam of light or a bright star in the night sky, the way she stood out. Amid the hundreds of guests—thousands?—she had appeared almost magical y. Nut-colored skin, thanks to an
Asian mother and African American father; a tangle of dark hair bouncing as, running now, she
kept up with the steady movement of the parade. She seemed almost to float above the ground.
Immediately behind her fol owed Jezebel. And though they claimed to be sisters, it had to be by
adoption. Amanda’s skin was a rich caramel, her hair so dark brown it was mistaken for black.
Jez had once had jet black hair as wel , though it was no longer so. But her pale, translucent skin set her apart, not just from Amanda, but from every girl Finn had ever met; it had depth, as if you could see into and through the first layer to some part of her that lay beyond.
“Amanda!” Finn shouted, breaking a strict rule that required silence of any Cast Members on
a float.
The other kids hurried over and waved enthusiastical y at both girls.
Amanda and Jez waved back, glad to have been spotted. Amanda gave Finn an enthusiastic
thumbs-up—or at least he thought she’d intended it for him. He hadn’t seen or heard from her in
weeks. She hadn’t been in school. She’d disappeared the same day her sister had somehow been transformed by Finn—an event he stil didn’t ful y understand. Jez had gone from evil twin to a sweet, even angelic, girl, al in less than a minute. Only then had Amanda dropped the bomb that Jezebel was her sister, an explanation that had never been ful y clarified.
“Where did they come from?” Charlene asked. Even now Finn heard a tinge of jealousy in her
voice. Or was that suspicion? There was a lot unanswered about Jez and Amanda. “And check
out that hair color. Since when is she a strawberry blonde? Last time we saw her she had hair like my granny’s.”
“What the heck are they doing here?” Philby cal ed out. He didn’t mean the sisters.
Two big monkeys were moving in the bushes, swinging and keeping perfect pace with… was
it possible?… the float. Their float.
“Since when are there monkeys in the Magic Kingdom?” Maybeck said.
“Are they wild?” Charlene asked, having noticed them as wel .
Finn saw something his friends apparently didn’t: the monkeys weren’t fol owing the float; they
were fol owing Jez and Amanda, keeping perfect pace with their movements.
“There aren’t any primates in the wild in northern Florida,” Philby said, ever the expert. Philby
was a walking encyclopedia—he knew everything, and what he
didn’t know he knew how to research. His red hair and rock-climbing, thril -seeking mind-set played against the geek he real y was. A favorite of the girls at school, he wanted nothing to do with them. He spent his weekends
with a climbing wal and a laptop.
The parade turned just then, making a graceful arc past the Hal of Presidents. The crowds