“You’re going to jump?” Beth couldn’t believe her ears. “In the Pirate ride?”

Lance walked over to the window, leaving the computer for the first time in hours. “I think we all need to go. “ He turned to face them. “If this is it, we all need to be there. And be ready for whatever happens next.”

Adam thought about it and agreed. “This is a lot different than hiding in a dark tunnel. Boats go by there all the time loaded with people. We have to think of the boats….”

“….and the security cameras,” Beth finished for him. “There are cameras all through the ride. We need to know where they are and find a way to avoid them.”

Lance looked unseeing out the window. “I can find out about the cameras. I know someone.”

“What’s her name?” Adam hoped to get some kind of familiar rise out of him.

“Patty,” was all he answered.

After waiting a moment for some clarification, Adam rolled his eyes. “Fine. Check with your Patty. I assume she works on the ride?” Still no explanation. “See if you can pull a favor.”

Thinking ahead to what they might possibly need, Beth opened the closet where Lance said Adam had stashed his cast member costume collection. She pulled out a one-piece blue Monorail costume. There was also a complete Jungle Cruise outfit. She slowly took out an olive-colored shirt—a very familiar olive-colored shirt. “You dirty…,” she broke off, holding it out in front of her. “This is MY Keel Boat shirt! You had it all along?”

“Oops.” Adam just now realized where she was. “I was going to tell you…someday. Really!” She looked like she was ready to kill him. “You…uh, left it in the River when they pulled you out and took you backstage. I was going to give it back to you but then I didn’t see you….” He just stopped talking. The hole he was digging for himself was getting deeper.

She took the shirt and threw it next to her purse. “We’ll talk about this later.”

“I’m sure we will,” Adam mumbled to himself, edging over to the amused Lance. “Thanks for telling her about the closet, Brentwood. That helps a lot.”

Lance just shrugged. “You should have told her yourself.”

Taking a minute to calm down, Beth returned to his closet. “Don’t you have anything from Pirates?”

“Nope. Just a Star Tours jacket in the back. Why?”

“It might be a good idea for us to be dressed sort of like a cast member working the ride. Some kind of shirt that would blend in. Do you have that ugly brown vest from when you played in the band?”

Adam made a face. “That vest wasn’t ugly. And, no, I don’t have it any more. I think my mother burned it.”

“Margaret always did have good taste.” Beth smiled at the look on his face. “Well, we need some kind of puffy shirt and a nametag for each of us. I stole some extra ones when I was there if you don’t have any.”

Lance could see where she was heading. “That’s a good idea. Just like Adam wore all black to jump off the train and then took off the jacket when he ran for it. We could have the costume on under our jackets until we need to jump. If we had some pirate hats, we might not get too much attention from the other people in the boat. Act like we’re doing quality control or something. That’s good, Beth. Real good.” Lance was more animated than he had been in days.

Adam frowned. “Well, I hate to rain on your parade, but whether we look the part or not, three people jumping off a moving boat will be noticed by the other guests.”

“How about if we distract them?”

“Well, Lance, let’s assume we find a good place to jump before we get to the scene.” Filled with nervous energy, Adam began to pace his living room. “There are the waterfalls first, then the sandy beach thing with the two skeletons, and after that, the bar. All those things are on the right side of the boat. The Captain’s Quarters are on the left, around the corner just after the bar. We need to make sure the other people are all still looking over to the right when we get off.”

“Agreed, but how?”

Adam shook his head. “Not sure. Let’s work on that problem, find some clothes, and Lance can meet with his Patty. How long do you need, Lance?”

Lance gave a ghost of a smile. Patty was always happy to see him. He would have the information by tonight. “Let’s say two, three days? That enough for you, Beth?”

She was lost in thought. “I can’t believe we’re going to jump off Pirates. This won’t be easy.”

“Hey, you stole a canoe, remember?”

“Yeah, but that was after dark and nobody else was using the River. There’s a BIG difference.”

“We have to do it, Beth. There’s no other way.”

“I know.”

Tuesday, the three were back at Adam’s apartment. Beth handed Adam and Lance white puffy-sleeved shirts that laced up the front. Both guys eyed them with disdain. “Hey, you agreed it was a good idea,” Beth defended herself. “I found them at that costume place on the 5. Just be glad I didn’t get you the eye patches.” Beth next handed them cast member nametags that read Brian for Adam and Mark for Lance. The nametag she had for her shirt was Catie.

The guys looked at each other, both thinking the same thing: The eye patches would have been cool.

Lance, with a sigh of resignation, told them what he had found. “Beth was right, of course. There are cameras throughout the ride, but most of them shoot from behind the boats for a short distance. There’s some kind of reddish light above or below each lens which provides the infrared illumination needed for the cameras to see in the darkened interior of the ride. There’s a bank of monitors in the dispatch tower above the place where the boats first enter the bayou from the loading dock. You can see the monitors if you look back after the boat passes under the tower. There’s a Dispatch Operator in charge of looking over the monitors between the loadings of the boats. That person, I’m told, makes sure the boats are properly loaded and everyone is seated properly. After that, he—or she—dispatches the boats. He wouldn’t be watching the cameras unless he happened to notice something wrong—like someone taking pictures or standing up.”

“Or jumping out of a boat,” Beth added, as Lance nodded in agreement.

“So we’re already screwed with the cameras.”

“No, Adam, not necessarily.” Lance gave them the information Patty had told him. “The cameras in that part of the ride shoot boats from the side as they exit the last waterfall and don’t watch them again until they reach the Captain’s Quarters. The next camera is about halfway past the scene. There seems to be a good sized dead zone.”

Beth nodded. “Okay, so we now have to worry about the other people in the boat with us.”

Adam took over here. “I was thinking about that and came up with a possible solution. It might be more of a problem; however, I’m not sure.” He went to his desk and pulled two little firecrackers out of the top drawer.

“Aren’t those illegal?” Beth asked with narrowed eyes.

“That’s what I meant about a problem if we get caught with them.” He held up one for them to see. “They’re called Ladyfingers and have a waterproof fuse. I went to the store and got a cigarette lighter, too. The usual lighters make too loud of a click when you light them. Then I found this butane lighter.” Adam pulled a thin plastic lighter from the drawer. “When adjusted down, the flame is really low. I think we can light it down by our feet without anyone being the wiser.” He demonstrated, showing the flame was barely visible and there was only a nominal sound as the wheel was turned. “If we need a distraction, we can toss one of these babies onto the beach scene or the bar or in front of the boat in the water. Since there isn’t much noise there, it should draw their attention…enough at least for us to jump out from the back of the boat.”

“Won’t the people in the boat wonder what happened?”

“I don’t intend to blow anything up, Beth. I think the noise will be enough. People will probably discuss it as something new on the ride they didn’t see before.”

“Let’s hope so.” Beth was getting really nervous about all this. “No other way?”

“Not that I can come up with. Lance?”

“Just make sure the cameras don’t pick up the flame,” Lance cautiously warned. “Any flame will light up the monitor like a 1000 watt light bulb…. Being infrared, those cameras pick up heat signals from any size flame and magnify it like a flash bulb going off. However, that part of the ride should be a dead zone. We should be okay with it. I think it will work.”

The three were quiet for a moment. Lance spoke first. “This is Tuesday. It’s always the slowest day at the Park. Who knows? We could have a boat all to ourselves.”

“That would be nice. Oh, we do need to sit in the back row of the second boat. There won’t be anyone behind us for a while.”

Lance agreed with her. “That row only seats three, max. We could ensure the row by requesting it at the loading dock.”

“Right. Okay, anything else?” Adam looked from Lance to Beth. “You ready to do this?”

Beth nodded. Lance gave a ghost of a smile. “Okay. Then let’s do it.”

When Lance said he forgot his jacket, they stopped by his place on the way to the Park. Telling them to wait in the truck, Lance would only be a minute. They thought he took an awful lot of time just to pick up a jacket. But Lance’s demeanor on his return prohibited any kidding around. Once he slid back in the cab of the Silverado, he fairly ordered Adam to “drive on.”

Adam let it go. There were more important things to worry about right now. Now all they had to do was find the perfect place to jump.

Sitting in the rear seat, their boat was propelled forward and settled into the dark bayou after leaving the loading dock. Lance turned to check the dispatch tower and saw the woman inside was busy with the next two boats loading. He faced forward and the three rode silently through the water and down the waterfalls. At the bottom of the second fall when everyone was looking at the sandy beach, they excitedly pointed at an obvious pathway through the rocky walls illuminated by a soft blue light. It was just past an overhead waterfall and a little pool that contained remains of a wrecked boat. The pathway was opposite the beach scene on the right side of the boat. It drew no attention from the other guests in the boat who were busy pointing out things on the beach—including a wayward crab whose claws opened and closed and a few seagulls among the two not-so-lucky pirate skeletons that were propped up against a rock with swords poking through their rib cages. The blue path went straight for a few feet and then disappeared behind the white rocks. They tried to trace an imaginary path to the Captain’s Quarters. Looking backwards as they sailed past the bedroom, on the left side they saw the opening of a tunnel. Blocked by a large sea chest, it wasn’t very high and they’d have to crawl, but a passageway was there. Just a few feet beyond the tunnel were the ornate bed and its grisly remains.

They saw no openings in the Treasure Room, but they did see an opening in the dark long tunnel. This opening, though, looked more like a dead end. Then they spotted an illuminated green Exit sign indicating that it was probably a place for cast members to enter the ride or, more likely, an emergency exit for guests if something happened inside the cavern.

Still silent, the three looked at each other and nodded in agreement. The blue tunnel was the place.

Back at the loading dock for their second trip, the cast member on load named Leslie was happy to seat Lance anywhere he asked. It was late afternoon and people were going to dinner or lining up for the big parade down Main Street. They practically walked onto their boat.

“Hope this slim crowd keeps up.” Beth kept her voice at a whisper as she leaned across Adam in the last row. She was on the left side of the nearly empty boat. It was agreed that she would jump first, then Adam, and Lance would follow. If there was a problem or if Lance felt he couldn’t make it without detection, he would wait and make another trip around. They hoped that wouldn’t be necessary because Beth and Adam would be stuck in an unfamiliar area of the ride for possibly twenty minutes, the time it would take Lance to finish the ride and get back in another boat.

They didn’t see Lance signal the Dispatch Operator as they floated away. There were only seven other people in their boat—two in the front seat, three in the second seat, and two people in row three. No one had been seated in front of them. Lance had taken care of that. Patty always came through for him. He would pay her back when all of this was over, thinking he could afford to buy her something then.

Not knowing they had some extra time now that the following boats were being delayed, Beth found her mouth dry and her palms sweaty. They hadn’t needed to take off their jackets. Nobody on the boat gave them a second look.

“Get ready,” Adam whispered as they neared the second waterfall. “Remember, just step up and walk quickly into the tunnel. Try not to make too much sound. I’ll be right behind you.” The three had decided the best way to exit the boat was not to jump but to simply step from the boat onto the adjacent path that ran parallel with the boat. Jumping might make it rock and draw unwanted attention from the other riders or their foot might slip even though the side was layered with non-slip, textured adhesive.

After the waterfall, she edged over in her wet seat. Left hand on the head rail behind her and her right hand gripping the rail in front of them, Beth brought her feet up and was in a low crouch.

“Now!” Adam stood and helped Beth up and out of the boat by holding her at the waist until she was safely on the concrete path.

When Beth’s feet were secure, she took off toward the blue passageway. It narrowed as it headed back, but there was still enough room. She could hear Adam and then Lance behind her. They moved through the passage until it forked off in two directions. The left path led directly to a black door, probably backstage where the employees would be. The right path led to the small hole in the wall they had seen earlier.

Breathing hard, they paused and took some deep breaths. “Did you hear anything behind us?” Beth looked behind the two men.

Lance told her no, that nobody even looked back when she and Adam left. “The boat hardly rocked at all when you got out. I didn’t take time to look back to see if anyone noticed us, but I’m sure we’re in the clear…at least for the moment.”

Lance peered through the hole. “I see plenty of room behind the Captain’s bed. Get behind there and wait. We have a little time before the next boat passes.”

“Shouldn’t it have come by now?”

Lance gave a brief smile. “There was a little delay at the dock. Just hurry.” There was always a chance one of the passengers reported the back seat was suddenly empty.

Adam went first and shoved the chest a little further forward so they could get past it. Once at the bed, he crouched out of sight. Listening for the screams from the waterfall, Beth sprinted the short distance after him. Lance had to get on his knees to be completely out of sight. “What did you do at the dock, Lance?”

“We don’t have time to talk. Take off your jackets and put on these bandanas I got from Patty. At least now we look more the part. Remember to freeze in place if we get spotted.”

Standing by the bed’s headboard, Lance was looking over the skeleton’s bony shoulder at the map. “Don’t touch it!” Beth became frantic as Lance ran his fingers over the map’s wording.

They heard a scream from the falls and the familiar whoosh of a boat hitting the water at the bottom. “Get ready to duck back behind the bed!”

They were out of sight when the next two boats slowly passed by. Lance counted the time. “Okay, they’re in the Treasure room. Go!”

The map was actually folded in half. They could see the word Indian—probably Indian Ocean. They tried seeing what was under the fold as the red X didn’t seem to have any specific location. “Duck!” Lance called out in a rushed whisper.

“Already? Sheesh.” Adam was the last to squat down.

“Get off my foot, Lance!” Beth winced.  

“Quit pushing!”

“Shh, Adam! This part of the ride doesn’t have any noise except the harpsichord.”

“Will you two knock it off?” Beth hissed.

They fell silent as Lance counted the moments. “Go.”

“Where’s the Captain pointing? Is that important?” Beth looked at the bony finger that seemed to point at a portion of the map, while the other hand held a large magnifying glass.

“It looks like it’s in the middle of the ocean. What’s that land mass there? Do you think the hand has been moved?” Lance glanced over his shoulder, his ears alert to any noise.

“I’m sure it’s been moved many times by the cleaning crew or maintenance, or during ride rehabs…” Adam’s words were cut off by the next set of screams.

“Duck!”

“This is going to take forever! Why don’t we bring the map back here?”

“Shh. You aren’t going to move anything, Adam!”

“My knees hurt on these rocks.”

“They aren’t real rocks, Lance. Quit complaining,” Adam told him with a grin.

“But they really hurt.”

“I’m going to strangle both of you!”

“Okay. Clear.” Lance peered around the corner of the headboard and could see the last boat was gone. “Go.”

Lance didn’t pay attention to Beth’s warning and moved the bony hand. Adam put his finger on the X on the map. Beth slapped at Adam’s hand when Lance again hissed, “Duck!”

They moved behind the bed as the next two boats came around the bend. Only this time something was different. A panel had slid open beneath the headboard where the mattress would have been if it had been a real bed. The three looked at each other with surprised and excited looks. Adam was first to crawl inside the opening, closely followed by Beth. Lance got his feet inside just as the panel slid shut behind him.

“Okay, who did this?” Beth asked. “What did you touch up there?”

Lance and Adam shrugged in the darkness, neither sure if the passage opened because Lance moved the hand or because Adam pushed something that may have been under the map.

Lance tried to look around. “Where are we?” Only a sliver of light could be seen coming through a thin gap at the bottom of the hidden panel.

Adam had crawled forward as each person followed him in. There was still plenty of room in front of him. “Hold on a second. Don’t push, Beth. Let me get my lighter.”

“Sorry.”

“Okay, let’s get some light in here,” as he pulled the lighter from his pocket.

“Hope there’s no gas down here.”

“Depends on what you had for lunch, Lance.”

“Will you two stop it!?” Nervous, Beth’s heart was beating hard in her chest.

They heard a muffled click and could see Adam adjusting the flame. More light appeared. In front of them their secret tunnel widened and kept going. Within twenty feet they came to a handrail. His light held in front of him, Adam found a set of steps carved into the rock, sloping downwards. “Careful. There’s stairs here. Hold the handrail.”

As they slowly descended, they noticed the sounds of the ride didn’t reach them. The way the stairs angled to the left, they figured they must be under the Treasure Room.

“Any light switch?” Lance wanted to know as he brought up the rear.

“Don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Still in front, Adam answered. “We don’t know how close we are to a door or an exit. It might show.”

Beth was awed. “We did it. We found the secret hiding place. He hid it right under the Treasure Room. All those years, all those people riding by it, and the treasure was right there!”

“Well, we haven’t found anything yet. Keep going, Adam.” Lance nodded ahead and resisted giving Adam a push.

In the limited light, Adam walked forward and came to a dead end. When he lowered the light, he then noticed that there was something in the wall. ‘”I found something! I think…yes, it’s a handle!”

Lance took the lighter from him. “Let me see.” He held the flame up and outlined the wall around the tunnel walls. “Yes, it’s a door. And, it’s locked. Look.”

They crowded around him to see a heavy door made to resemble the rock surrounding it. The handle was a black lever-like bar that stuck out of a small hole in the heavy metal plate mounted low. Lance knocked on the door, not to be heard, but to feel how the door was constructed. There was almost no sound as the door was obviously extremely thick. He pushed on the handle. It didn’t move.

“Looks like this door isn’t going anywhere.” Understanding Lance’s movements, Adam still looked around for himself. “See down there?”

At his point, Lance who lowered the flame to where the handle protruded. “Looks like a hole for some kind of skeleton key.” Lance looked closely at the little opening, hoping to see if he could see what might lie beyond the locked door. “Can’t see anything.” Lance stood up and faced them. “But I think I have the key.” Adam’s and Beth’s surprise could be seen in the dancing light of the flame.

“What do you mean?” Beth asked.

Lance reached inside his coat.

“He’s got a gun!” Beth gasped when she saw the barrel of what looked like a .38 caliber hand gun.

He chuckled. “Right on time, Captain Obvious. You would’ve disappointed me.” Beth’s face changed from confusion to fear as Lance’s tone morphed into hateful sarcasm.

Adam moved to stand in front of Beth. “What are you doing, man? What’s with the gun?”

“I’m not going to shoot you...well, not yet, anyway. Just the lock.”

“That’s not funny, Lance,” Adam spat out nervously, his hands balled into fists.

“I’m not laughing.”

Beth was close to tears. “What’s the matter with you, Lance? You can’t do this. It’s us. We’re your best friends.”

“Quit looking at me like that, Beth! This is hard enough as it is.”

“You fire that gun and you’ll have Security on us.” She just threw that out there, hoping in some way that he would put the gun down, give his charming smile, and tell them he was just joking.

But Lance wasn’t joking. And he didn’t flash his usual smile. Instead, Lance chuckled. It was an awful sound filled with anger, desperation and irony. “I am Security.”

“What?” Beth whispered.

Now that their eyes were adjusting to the half-light, they could see that Lance looked angry. “Are you more surprised that I have a gun or that I have a job?” Disgusted, he shook his head. “How did you think I knew so many people here? When we first came back from Missouri I was already planning ahead. You seemed happy to fly by the seat of your pants, Adam. I…I knew there was more at stake here than some paper stocks and nostalgic pins. And I needed a back-up plan.”

“You mean ‘we’ needed a back-up plan, right, buddy?”

“You’re welcome to keep what we found so far, Adam. But this,” he waved the gun towards the door, “I’m afraid I need it more than you do.”

“You’re rich, Lance! You’ve always had money. What about your new car?”

“You mean the car my father had repossessed? He hasn’t been very happy with my expenditures or my life. I was told my townhouse was next. He gave me a choice in Boston—work for him or get cut off.”

“I thought you were a trust fund brat.” Adam called Lance by a name Beth had labeled him years ago.

“Was,” Lance corrected. “Yes, I was. Seems the old man can do whatever he wants with Grandfather’s money. It turns out that as the three of us were flying off to Tobago, my father changed the wording of the Trust. As the guardian of our family’s estate and holdings, he said he can’t support my indolent lifestyle, saying this action was for my own good.” Lance paced the floor as the bitter words spat out of his mouth. “I’m broke. Except for my salary here, of course...which, Beth can attest, isn’t going to make anyone rich by any means.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Beth was heartbroken. “We would have helped you…somehow.”

Lance looked away from her hurt-filled eyes. He now wished she hadn’t come, wished she wasn’t mixed up in this. “What can I say? Embarrassment? Pride? Anger? Humiliation? Take your pick.” He waved the gun in the air as he ranted and Beth flinched. He then looked down at the door. “Enough of this sentimental drivel. Once I find what’s in here, and get it out, I have a feeling I’ll be well taken care of.” Lance seemed smug when he added, “And I won’t need any stupid trust fund.”

Adam had to edge in front of Beth again. She wouldn’t stay put. “Are you going to kill us, Lance?”

“I didn’t plan on it, no. But things change from one awful day to the next. Stand back, down the tunnel a ways. But don’t try to go anywhere.”

Adam and Beth moved back a few steps. Adam crouched over Beth and shielded her as Lance aimed at the handle and fired. Beth, holding her hands tightly over her ears, gave a small, terrified shriek that was absorbed into Adam’s chest. With his arms tight around her, he could feel Beth shaking like a leaf. The muffled gunshot hit straight on, making a bright momentary spark off the metal plate, only to ricochet away. The slug buried itself into the rock wall of the tunnel a few feet in front of Adam. He looked at the mark in the wall and pulled Beth back a few more feet.

“Blasted door.” Lance kept mumbling to himself as he fired another shot which again had no effect. This time the slug angled down to the floor where it skipped and flew past Adam and Beth. “This always worked in the movies.”

Still protecting Beth, Adam snapped. “This ain’t a movie, Lance. That door isn’t going to be opened by bullets. That’s a real gun you’re holding,” Adam pointed out. “And we’re your real friends.”

“If this was a movie, I’d have gotten the girl and the money by now,” was the disgusted reply. Lance looked down at the metal plate. “Wait, what’s this?” Looking at the marks on the metal plate, he lowered the light below the plate. There he saw for the first time words etched in the metal along the bottom border of the plate. Adam and Beth inched closer. Lance stood up and pointed the gun at the pair. “Don’t get any ideas.” He felt no satisfaction when they cowered away from the barrel aimed at them.

“Don’t worry, Lance,” Adam bit at him. “We aren’t going to try anything. You’re the one holding the gun.” Adam held up his empty hand while keeping Beth slightly behind him with his other hand. “What’s on the plate?”

Keeping the gun on Adam, Lance lowered the lighter once again. He ran his other hand over the letters, his fingers feeling the indentations formed by the letters, probably punched out one by one using some sort of chisel and hammer. The letters were not evenly spaced and some not as deeply punched as others. But, the letters formed four unmistakable words:

Sunnee holds the key

Adam looked at Beth who barely moved her head back and forth. She was still shaking, but she motioned for Adam to keep quiet. She had an idea and desperately hoped it would work.

“What the heck does that mean?” The gun now dangled in Lance’s hand as he looked at the door and the carving, seemingly transfixed by the words. At that moment, he had forgotten Beth and Adam were even in the cavern with him.

Giving Adam another warning glance, Beth took a step towards the door. Getting no opposition from Lance, she knelt down next to the door and ran her fingers over the words. Hoping she sounded mesmerized, she whispered, “This is Indian. It has to be.” She then spoke louder as she turned to look at Adam. “Remember, Adam? Lillian was raised in Nez Perce country. It must be a chief or someone like that.”

Lance spun to her, the gun pointed downward as if he didn’t realize he still held it. “You sure?”

Not lying completely, Beth answered, “Yes, I’m sure. She was born in Idaho. There’s a reservation there. I can’t remember what it’s called, but we can find out.” Beth slowly backed toward Adam.

As he stared unseeing at her, Lance came to a decision and snapped to life. “Okay, we’re going to get out of here. Beth, you go first. Go back up through the passage and get behind the bed and stay there. There has to be a latch on the inside to open the panel. Feel around for it. Once through, after the second boat passes, go through the little cave and wait in the passage out of sight. If you try anything, Adam will find out if he’s allergic to lead administered in small doses at a high rate of speed.”

“You’re breaking my heart, Lance.” Beth wasn’t aware of the tears running down her face.

“I’m sure you’ll get over it. And probably a lot sooner than you should, if I remember your quote correctly, Runt.”

The use of one of her old nicknames only made her tears fall faster. Adam watched helplessly as she disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel, followed closely by Lance. He could hear her fumbling to find some kind of latch that would open the secret door. When Lance moved forward, Adam knew she had found it and he silently followed them out of the quiet cavern. He hated the feeling of helplessness that hung over him.

At the fork where they had come in, Lance had them turn the opposite direction and took them backstage into the employee-only area under Pirates and New Orleans Square. Lance had ordered them to carry their jackets and leave on the fake nametags. He wanted them to look like cast members going through the tunnel so there would be less questions at this point. He transferred his real nametag and I.D. to the outside of his jacket, keeping his pirate shirt covered. The gun hidden inside his jacket pocket, he had Adam and Beth walk in front of him through the sterile white passage that snaked through the underground and served as maintenance and service corridors.

“How are we going to get back up to the surface?”

Adam’s question seemed to confuse Lance, whose mind was already in turmoil. “What do you mean?”

Adam wanted to keep Lance talking, hoping something would jar him back to normalcy. “The waterfalls dropped us what—forty feet underground? I just wondered how we get back up to the surface.”

“Seems you don’t know as much about Disneyland as you thought you did,” Lance jibed. “No wonder you couldn’t figure out the simple fact that the rides in Fantasyland had moved.”

Don’t provoke him, Adam’s mind warned. Let him talk. “You couldn’t figure it out either.” Rats.

Lance didn’t seem to mind the retort. “We aren’t underground, genius. If you’d remember the hundreds of times we had to go to New Orleans Square, you would remember we had to walk uphill to get there. The Square is thirty feet above the level of the main entrance. Once we went down the two waterfalls, we were back at street level.”

They walked silently through the empty corridor. Signs posted on occasional doors told which attraction or shop or restaurant was on the other side. Beth used this time to remember the corridors she hadn’t been in for five years. She formulated an idea and hoped it was a good one. First she needed to know where Lance was taking them.

“What are you holding?” Beth looked back over her shoulder to see Lance’s position.

“A little souvenir I caught the two of you stealing after I saw you jump off the boat. I’m going to turn you in to Security.” He chuckled at his own cleverness. “That ought to keep you ‘tied up’ for quite some time. I can probably convince them to hand you over to the local police. By that time I’ll be well on my way.” Lance tossed the book he had grabbed in the air and caught it. It had been one of the dusty props on the dresser in the Captain’s Quarters. His mood had lightened considerably. Beth had stupidly told him where to find the key to the treasure. And now he was about to rid himself of two partners he no longer needed.

“No fingerprints,” Beth mumbled as if she were trying to tell Adam something.

“What did you say?” Lance demanded.

“Security won’t hold us. There are only your fingerprints on that book.”

“That won’t matter. It’ll just take them longer to figure out who did what.” At her negative shake of the head, Lance wondered if he might be mistaken. After all, she had already had dealings with Security. Perhaps he did need some more definite proof. Nobody else had seen them jump. He smiled as he came up with a brilliant solution.

Lance suddenly gave a yell. “Look out!” As Adam and Beth spun around to see what happened, Lance hurled the book at her face. Beth caught it automatically before it smacked into her. Lance smirked. “Now it has your fingerprints.”

“When did you become so devious?”

“About two minutes after I became desperate.”

Soon they emerged into a larger tunnel, one that appeared to be used for large trucks. Around a corner where the large corridor opened up into the back-lot area of the Park came three girls dressed for the Haunted Mansion, heading for their evening shift. When they saw Lance, they all squealed and clustered around him, forcing him to stop. They seemed delighted to have him all to themselves. His hand dropped into his gun pocket, but he smiled at them and called them each by name. Calling for his friends to hold up and wait, he frowned when he realized Adam and Beth weren’t obeying. But the three girls weren’t that easy to dissuade. The tallest got in front of him, smiling as she asked when he got off work.

Using the distraction, Adam and Beth kept walking slowly ahead. They looked as if they had just finished their shift and were heading back to their lockers to change. Only Beth was frantically whispering the whole time. “Adam, we have to get away. We can’t let him take us to Security. They’ll remember me and it won’t be pretty. Listen. We’re near the end of the Jungle Cruise, near the African Veldt. Up ahead the road branches off in three directions. You take the left branch. Look for a sign that says Emporium, the store closest to the entrance of the Park. You’ll find the door into the back of the store. Just put on your jacket and walk normally, like you know where you’re going. I’ll go to the right. It comes out between the tour guide garden and City Hall. We have to get to your truck and get out of here.”

“Can’t he have Security stop us?”

“No. He isn’t going by the book.”

“I don’t think he cares at this point.”

The girls were going to be late to their shift and were saying good-bye to Lance. They seemed intent on getting him to promise to call. Beth and Adam were about out of time. They could see the corridor branching ahead of them and Lance was starting to catch up.

“Take the book, Adam. Throw it down that middle corridor as far as you can. Then start running and look for that door. He’ll have to go get the book. He has to have some proof, and I probably can’t outrun him without the head start.”

Taking another couple of steps, Adam heaved the book. It hit the pavement and skidded away from them. They took off running as fast as they could, hearing Lance curse as he went after the book. He had to retrieve it. Lance knew that much. But her tactic didn’t gain them much time as she would have liked. They also didn’t know who Lance would go after once he got the prop. Knowing Adam’s weakness, Lance went after Beth. However, he had to slow up when two Jungle Cruise skippers walked past saying hello.

Not looking back and expecting Lance to grab her at any second, a breathless Beth flung herself through the Cast Member Only door. It banged open and she excused herself as she bumped into one of the tour guides. “Sorry, I’m late again!” She ran toward the souvenir stand. The guide, startled for a moment, finished her last-minute instructions to her group of guests and led them away to start their tour. Still not daring to look back, Beth hurried through the people under the entry arch and sprinted for the exit.

Lance burst through the door moments later only to find an empty courtyard. The guide who had taken her last group into the Park was gone. Beth was out of sight. He ran out into the Town Square and looked all around for Beth among the hundreds of people milling about the area. He went through the arch and ran toward the main entrance, looking out past the exit turnstiles. But Lance didn’t see her anywhere. Drawing a deep breath, he cursed loudly. He then took the book still grasped in his hand and, with an angry yell, threw it like a discus over the Newsstand souvenir booth into the trees beyond. One startled mother passing by took notice of his nametag and turned toward City Hall. Language like that had to be reported.

Red-faced, sweating, and uncaring of the sight he was presenting, Lance ran back through the entry and began a hectic search in the Town Square for Adam.

But, by this time, Adam had already crossed from the Emporium to the Disney Clothiers, Ltd. shop on the opposite side of Main Street. Walking quickly through its side door, he made his way through a large crowd getting their pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie in front of the Mad Hatter Shop. Following the general movement of people, he stayed in the middle of them past the Opera House and the Bank of Main Street. Blending in with a huge family heading for the exit, he bypassed the hand stamp and headed toward the parking lot tram—and more importantly, to find Beth.

Now the race was really on. Not only did they have to find the meaning of the clue, they also had to outwit a frustrated and dangerous Lance.