[ ]: i see.

philitup: finn thought you could help me get the plans, i thought about that maintenance place you showed us, but how can i get past the workers?

[ ]: you won’t need to. besides, this time of day it’s too risky, there’s a better way. once we leave this room, we’re no longer encrypted, i won’t answer any questions out there, so i’ll explain everything now. once we leave here, you’re on your own, although i’ll show you the way. i’ll get you inside.

philitup: inside where?

[ ]: patience, my boy.

Wayne’s avatar moved back to the door. He typed in a code that showed only as asterisks in his speech bubble. The door opened. The avatar stepped out into the hall, looked in both directions, and returned to the room, again shutting and code-locking the door.

[ ]: can never be too careful, it would appear we’re all alone, which is good. VMK was not always a game, originally, the imagineers wanted to create a virtual control room for the various parks, essentially, they were lazy, they wanted a way to fix small mechanical problems, or study the schematics from remote locations—their homes, or while they were traveling, the more employees, the more sets of plans were needed, and the paper plans were constantly changing and needing updating as systems were improved or modified, a guy named alex wright came up with the idea of putting it all online, they would encrypt access for security reasons, and each Imagineer or employee would have his or her own avatar—a mock human being with hands and feet that could not only study the schematics online but could carry out some minimal maintenance or switching procedures: open boxes, pull switches, the area they created was termed the virtual magic kingdom—vmk—and in their spare time they began to create games with each other, they built rooms and attractions in their virtual world, it was only much later it occurred to someone to allow the public inside, at that time, they sealed off what they call the mechanicals, hiding them behind encrypted firewalls, last year it became apparent the Overtakers were trying to compromise VMK. the site was closed to the public, i can get you access to the mechanicals if that’s what you want?

philitup: does that include the music system?

[ ]: i would imagine, follow me. and don’t write anything until I tell you to do so. it is not beyond consideration that the overtakers are monitoring vmk. they should never be underestimated, they are devious and powerful, and it’s apparent they will stop at nothing to control the kingdoms, we must be vigilant.

Philby didn’t type anything. He guided his avatar toward the door and waited as instructed.

Wayne approached. Asterisks appeared in his speech bubble. The door swung open.

Philby’s avatar followed the white-headed figure out into the hallway. Wayne knew his way around VMK, taking Philby to places he’d rarely visited. They entered a private room that didn’t look particularly interesting. Philby realized this was a trick: the less interesting it looked, the less interested anyone would be in spending time in there. Wayne coded the door shut and then approached the far wall. Again, asterisks filled his speech bubble. A door swung open, and the landscape changed considerably. The walls and floors were silver and black. Dark blue signs with white lettering acted as trail guides:

They turned left, following the signs to the Animal Kingdom.

Access through the door marked AK CONTROL required yet another code from Wayne. The door opened, revealing a room with a flow chart projected on a large wall. It reminded Philby of a war room, like he’d seen in movies. The flow chart showed: MECHANICALS, SECURITY, STRUCTURES, ATTRACTIONS, GATES/ACCESS, BACKSTAGE. Under some of these were smaller tides like ASIA, AFRICA, CAMP MM, DINO L. It looked like a giant outline or family tree, with branches connecting a main tide to its smaller subtitles.

Wayne’s avatar climbed into a cage on the end of a long mechanical arm. It reminded Philby of the cherry pickers road crews used to trim trees or repair phone poles. Wayne pulled the door to the cage shut, and Philby watched as he pushed levers and the cage rose to pass in front of the titles on the flow chart.

He maneuvered them to stop at MECHANICALS. Wayne reached out and pushed against the screen. Immediately, the projection on the wall changed. Now MECHANICALS was listed at the top, and there were dozens of subcategories, including—Philby noticed—PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM.

Wayne reached out and tapped the title.

The lettering folded back, opening an entrance like a window in the wall. Wayne opened the cage door and led them through this new opening in the wall and into a massively complex room. Philby gasped. He heard his own voice and only then was reminded of where he was: standing in a small hut, in Camp Minnie-Mickey. For the past few minutes he had almost become his avatar. He’d been transported. He hadn’t remembered where he was. Now, glancing behind him, he looked out through the open doorway into Camp Minnie-Mickey and reminded himself to remain alert; the Overtakers were not to be underestimated.

He then looked to the screen; Wayne was waiting for him.

[ ]: we’re safe now.

Philby moved his avatar forward. He faced a large sound-mixer projected on the floor in front of him. He studied it, realizing this was a photographic image, probably of the actual soundboard somewhere in the Animal Kingdom’s control room. And, like the real thing, the virtual soundboard would not only allow him to change volume or inputs throughout the Park, it also displayed cables to switching stations and the hundreds of speakers placed throughout the Animal Kingdom. With a click of a button, he could then overlay either a satellite image or a map of the Park, making it easy to identify the exact location of the various sound-system elements. Wayne was right: it offered an easy method for troubleshooting problems or identifying problem spots without being in the Park.

Slowly, he got the hang of the technology.

philitup: whoa…

[ ]: no one ever accused the imagineers of being stupid.

philitup: this is incredible, i can follow any wire anywhere.

[ ]: and perform tests on it i should think that was the purpose after all: long-distance testing and repair.

philitup: how much time do i have?

[ ]: no one will bother us here, take as long as you like, since i’ve gone into hiding, i have nothing but time.

Philby’s main interest was the separation of the Park’s background music, divided into the five sound areas. Each area had its own output, volume, and tone controls. He located the output wires on the back of the mixer—virtual speaker wires leading out into the Park.

philitup: what are the chances the Overtakers have jez locked up in the sound control room? she could input her iPod into this mixer pretty easily.

[ ]: i would doubt that but i can go check if you like.

philitup: check, how?

[ ]: all the security cameras are on the screen out there, where we just were: the main screen, i can go into the security control room and view any camera in the park.

Philby had an idea. He wondered…

philitup: some of those cameras connect to the Conservation Station, the TVs that visitors can control.

[ ]: the AnimalCams. yes.

philitup: could i reroute all the security cameras to one of the AnimalCams?

[ ]: if you know what you’re doing, i suspect you could.

philitup: I do all the cable TV stuff at our house, i can probably figure it out.