The doorknob turned.

Maleficent stood in the doorway. She had not fully recovered from Finn’s zapping her the night before. She looked older, slightly yellow in the cheeks. Behind her, on a stack of more computers, Finn saw the scroll of plans she had stolen from him at One Man’s Dream.

Finn and Maybeck backed up a step. Philby was nowhere to be seen.

“Which server?” Finn asked.

“And we need whatever back-up server they have, as well,” Maybeck said. “Once we’re gone, we don’t want them able to bring us back.”

Maleficent glared at them with her eyelids lowered menacingly. She was either half dead or ready to kill.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” Finn said. “I didn’t know.” Finn realized he’d zapped a good deal of the power from her. He’d drained her. She was like a battery running out of juice.

She said nothing, just stood there blinking, looking devilish. She gathered her strength and said, “Jez likes you, or I would have hurt you last night when I had the chance.”

“That’s comforting to know,” Finn said. “I’ll put down the pens. You can have it. But first you’ll show us the right server.”

“First the pens,” she said. “You think I’d trust you like that?”

“And why should I trust you?”

“This is your idea, not mine. Besides, once I have the pen, what threat are you?”

Finn concealed his smirk as he shrugged. “Have it your way,” he said.

He withdrew the group of pens and pencils from his pocket and placed them on the ground.

Maleficent approached them like a kid nearing a Christmas tree. She seemed to have more energy. Her eyes flared open in expectation.

Finn took several more steps backward, Maybeck right next to him.

But behind Maleficent, the door to the back room swung slowly away from the wall, and there stood Philby. In his right hand Philby clutched a fistful of pens and pencils tightly.

Maleficent bent toward the pens on the floor, clearly cautious. But as she drew closer she saw modern brand names on the pens. She looked up through fiery eyes.

“Now!” Finn shouted.

Philby charged from behind and did just as Finn had told him: holding the pens extended, he drove his fist into the witch.

At that same moment, she turned around.

A blinding flash erupted as the pens made contact. Maleficent rose from the floor and was thrown violently past Finn and Maybeck and into the heavy black shelves.

Maybeck sprinted forward into the back room, grabbed the roll of plans, and headed for the main door. Philby, stunned by what he’d done, passed the pens to Finn, leaving behind on the floor the pens the boys had collected from a desk at the front of the control room.

Philby was next out the door.

“What’s going on here?” A big man blocked Finn’s exit.

Just then a shower of sparks and spurts of flame rose from where Maleficent lay pinned to the computer shelves, impaled onto a stack of electrical outlets and surge suppressors. As the electricity flowed through her body, beneath the smoke and spitting sparks, Finn saw her skin color return to a rich green. The electricity fed her.

“What—is—that—?” asked the office manager.

Maleficent’s bloodshot eyes flashed open and locked onto Finn. He’d never seen eyes so angry, so mean and vicious. So powerful. And they were aimed at him. Only at him.

The office manager staggered toward a fire extinguisher hanging from the wall.

Finn made for the door.

Maleficent pulled herself loose from the metal shelving as a shower of sparks cascaded overhead and cried, “Aaaah! I needed that!”

She flew out the door. Literally.

The office manager fainted.

33

Finn hit the tunnel running. Behind him raced a blur of green and black as Maleficent sped through the air, her arm pointing in front of her and leading the way.

Closing the distance.

The boys ran side by side now, Maleficent behind them, and closing fast. Like a shell game, the boys passed the plans back and forth between them, then switched positions as they ran and passed the plans again. For someone behind them, where Maleficent now followed, it grew impossible to determine which boy had the plans.

Then, just as Maleficent was nearly upon them, the boys split up, running in three different directions.

Maybeck mumbled, perhaps a little too loudly for his own good, “I’ve got them! Don’t worry.

Just run!”

Finn took an exit door to his left. He raced up the stairs at a furious speed, glancing behind.

No Maleficent. She’d followed Maybeck.

Finn broke into blinding daylight. He checked the tube of papers tucked into his waist, thrilled the plan had worked. Fresh air. Park music. For a moment Finn couldn’t figure out where he was.

A cast member door led out into Tomorrowland. That was wrong! He was out of position. Finn fled through the door and out onto a busy concourse.

At midday, the area bustled with activity, a steady stream of guests in a chaotic mass of Tshirts, shorts, and the sweet smell of suntan lotion.

How long would it take for Maleficent to discover their trickery?

The plan had been to rendezvous with Amanda on the bridge between Tomorrowland and the Central Plaza. But which way? Finn had left the Utilidor via the wrong exit.

He heard the crowd scream to his right. He was familiar with all sorts of sounds in the Magic Kingdom, but this particular roar sounded out of place.

A second later, Maybeck came out of the same CAST MEMBERS ONLY door. He was out of breath and sweating.

“She’s after Philby,” he told Finn.

Another scream broke from the distance.

Some little kids shouted, “Aladdin! Aladdin!” and cut through the thick crowds to reach Maybeck, who they mistook for the character. Maybeck tried to get away from them. Parents called after their kids to be polite. A line formed behind Maybeck as he and Finn set out walking.

Maybeck said under his breath, “We should have lost the wardrobe.”

“I don’t know,” Finn said, “maybe we can use this.”

He handed Maybeck one of the pens.

“You’re kidding me!”

The children caught up and surrounded them both, their autograph notebooks out and ready.

“Sign some autographs, Aladdin,” Finn said encouragingly.

With clenched teeth, Maybeck asked in a whisper, “How do you spell Aladdin?”

Finn spelled it for him as yet another excited scream pealed from the crowd—this time much closer. A sea of park guests parted to his right. A green witch. Maleficent. She walked quickly and deliberately and was just scary enough looking to hold her admirers at bay.

“Head down!” Finn called out.

Maybeck ducked, continuing to scribble out autographs furiously.

The green-faced witch and her following sea of fans passed them by.

Finn backed away from the clot of eager children.

“That’s all!” Finn said, though to little effect.

Maybeck was suddenly hooked on this autograph writing. He made no attempt to stop.

“Aladdin!” Philby called out. “You’re going to be late!”

Maybeck finally gave it up. He made his apologies, and he and Finn moved on.

The crowd up ahead, the group following Maleficent, stopped, colliding into one another. This, because the witch had stopped and turned. But why?

Finn moved in the other direction. He came face-to-face with Jez.

“Give us the pen and the plans, and we won’t hurt you,” she said.

Several things happened at once. First, Finn spotted a group of four or five seagulls clustered atop a high white fence. Then he saw Amanda. She stood inside the same white fence, the gulls perched overhead. She signaled Finn to join her. Third, Jez reached for the plans—and stole them from him.