“Listen…Finn said, trying to think. “I gotta go,” he told Willa.

“What, just leave us here?” Willa asked, astonished.

“You know anything about the Bible?” he asked Willa.

“A little. Sure.”

“I think I know what’s going on,” he announced to Willa just as Philby and Maybeck showed up.

“I’m glad someone does,” Maybeck said.

Philby had come wearing a white curly wig and big black glasses, calling himself Einstein.

Maybeck had sprayed his hair gray and wore the flag of South Africa on his sleeve.

“Nelson Mandela,” Maybeck told Finn.

“You guys come with me,” Finn instructed as he spotted Jez and the woman again. They were well down Main Street, heading toward the castle.

Amanda sat up suddenly, surprising them all. Willa yelped.

“Don’t!” Amanda gasped, looking directly at Finn. “You have no idea…of their powers.”

She slumped back, in that same lost state again.

“We’ve got to go. Now!” he told the boys.

The three boys hurried down Main Street.

“What about, you know…?” Maybeck asked.

Finn tapped his chest. “I brought the pens.”

“Aren’t we going the wrong way? Shouldn’t we be going to the fire station?”

“Don’t ask me how, but Jez did this to Charlene and Amanda. Made them sick.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Maybeck said, his voice raspy. They were nearly running.

Finn explained, “Jez hooked up with a witch! In costume? Or for real? Super skinny. Long black hair. Sound like anyone we’ve seen lately? And oh, by the way, Jez just happens to be wearing long white gloves.”

“Can I just say, you’ve completely lost it,” Maybeck said. “And by completely, I mean one hundred percent.”

“Gloves. Jez is wearing white gloves tonight. They go to her elbow. Amanda and I saw those same gloves at—”

“The car wash,” Maybeck answered. He’d seen them too.

Finn said, “Jez is a witch. And so’s her mother.” Philby and Maybeck looked stunned. “You want me to prove it, you’ll come with me.”

Following now, Philby said, “What if you happen to be right? In that case, what are we doing chasing a witch and her daughter? I mean, how stupid can we be?”

Maybeck huffed. “I’m going to have you guys institutionalized. Am I the only sane person left?”

“Wait!” Finn said, stopping them. They ducked behind a pillar in front of a Main Street shop.

He pointed. Jez and the woman turned left at the plaza, just before the castle.

“How much do you want to bet they’re heading to Pirates?”

Remembering the conversation on the monorail, Philby said, “Amanda told us Jez disappeared there.”

“A figure of speech,” Maybeck interjected. “That’s all!”

As Finn led them left off the street as well, Maybeck said more seriously, “Listen, I’ve been there: where Charlene and Amanda are right now. Feeling sick like that. You do not want to mess with these people.”

“They aren’t people,” Finn said. “That’s the whole point. If they were people, then Wayne and the others could deal with them. This is up to us, you guys. No one else is going to do this.”

“We’re going in there after them?” Philby said. Jez and the woman arrived at the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean. Sure enough, they headed inside.

“I do not like this,” Maybeck said. “What happened to voting?”

“All in favor?” Finn asked. He and Philby raised their hands.

Maybeck groaned.

They stopped short of the entrance and stared warily at the old Spanish-style building.

“Okay,” Philby said, “now I’m scared.”

30

At night, in the midst of a Haloween costume party, Pirates of the Caribbean took on a more menacing feel, something each boy felt as he entered. Flamenco guitar music echoed from walls that flickered in the light of dim lanterns. And while the mood was festive, the Halloween party was a special event, so the crowds were much smaller than usual. The result was an attraction with deserted hallways and a hollow echo to every sound.

The boys hurried down a stone corridor. Finn had lost sight of Jez and her mother just as he heard the older woman’s raspy voice saying, “Over here.”

This was followed by a slight squeak of metal, a door swinging on hinges, and a resounding clang that reverberated off the walls.

“You hear that?” Maybeck asked.

The trio slowed. As they reached a sharp turn in the hall, Maybeck bent down, pretending to tie his running shoe, to let a group of eager teens race past them. When the hall was empty again, Philby pointed to a short staircase set into the wall, cordoned off by a chain.

To the right of the hall was a pit, a jail cell holding a pair of pirate figures engaged in a game of chess.

Maybeck hurried forward, jumped the chain, and climbed the short stairs. He reported back down to the others, “There’s a pair of cannons and a kind of turret thing. Looks like the top of a fort or something.”

Philby, ever the academic, explained, “It’s a mock-up of a battlement, with twin eight-pound cannons and their shot in woven baskets.” He’d done his homework, as usual.

Finn’s attention remained on the jail cell and the sturdy iron bars mounted into the concrete.

He tested its door, which swung open, making the same eerie squeak they’d heard only moments before.

Excited voices rang from the entrance to the attraction. More people coming.

Maybeck whispered softly, “If we’re going in, we’re going in. We can’t stand around staring at it.”

The boys stepped inside the heavy jail cell door and Finn pulled it shut.

They ducked into shadow as several groups of kids hurried past toward the start of the ride.

Finn then motioned down into the pit and the two pirates playing chess. It was a long way down, and there were no stairs.

Philby found a weighted rope connected to an over-head pulley. “Care to take the elevator?”

He tested the rope, held on tightly, and stepped off. He floated to the bottom of the pit. A moment later the other boys had reached the jail’s floor.

“Okay, this is really weird,” Finn said, “but I know this guy.” He pointed to one of the pirates.

He knew this figure from the laser battle. Looking more carefully, he realized that he recognized both pirates. He dared to reach over and gently poke the arm of the nearest pirate. Thankfully, it was a model, like a mannequin, and he relaxed.

They emerged into a long, straight hallway that lay in shadowy twilight. Jail cells lined both sides.

“It’s a…prison,” Maybeck said.

Finn stopped and examined a shiny piece of metal that hung from one of the doors. It turned out to be a padlock. A sparkling new padlock. Each of the cells was secured with a similar lock, all brand new. On further inspection, many of the hinges to the cell doors had been recently repaired.

Fresh weld marks abounded.

“This has all been fixed up,” Philby said. “And recently. What’s with that?”

“Padlocks,” Finn said. “A hundred padlocks stolen. Remember what Wayne said?” He recalled his father mentioning welding gear being stolen. The Overtakers.

Philby handled one of the padlocks. “You’re not saying—”

“You want to explain it? Go ahead!” Finn said.

Maybeck said, “Listen, this makes sense. These cells are huge. Each cell could hold what, ten, maybe twenty people?”

The boys continued through the gloomy jail.

Philby did the math. “That means you could lock up hundreds of people down here. You realize that?”

Finn said, “Park employees.”

“They’re planning a takeover,” Philby said. “They stole the locks. They fixed up the cells.”

Finn stated, “They obviously plan to use these.”