Free Storming the Kingdom by Jeff Dixon Page A

she will be wishing she had been a part of.” He leaned back toward the doors he had just entered through. “Are you coming or not?”
    The group moved past the crowd-control barriers and followed Hawk toward the door of the Mickey Mouse greeting area. Opening it, they all stepped through. They slowly made their way through a second door and down a hallway lined with stage doors through which guests would normally pass to spend some time with famous characters. Hawk silently led them to the end of the hallway. He inserted an old skeleton key into the lock of the last door and opened it. As they passed through, they all took a glance at the key in his hand. It was the kingdom key that he had been given by Farren Rales. Still saying nothing, Hawk closed the door behind them and again motioned for them to follow him through a storage area. At the back wall of the storage area, there was a closet; again Hawk used the kingdom key to open the door, and they all stepped inside. As he closed the door behind them, they were plunged into darkness.
    He produced a flashlight that chased away the darkness with a yellow glow. They stood at the top of a staircase.
    “I found this place three years ago. It’s a long story to explain how I found it, but considering all that’s going on, I felt like it was time for you to see something. There are three stories down to the bottom, no lights but the one I have, and no other doors except the one we entered and the one we are going to now. Ready?”
    The friends nodded silently, and he could sense their intrigue and excitement. Hawk had told them many of the details of his journey to become the CCA of the Company, many of the clues and secrets Farren Rales had shown him and given him along the way, but there were some things…perhaps many chapters of this saga he had yet to unveil for them. Steadily they made their way to the bottom of the stairwell. The end of their path was an oversized door. It contained a lever instead of a knob. Hawk grabbed the lever and with a bit of muscle leaned on it. A muffled click echoed in the stairway and he swung the heavy door on its hinges.
    They stepped through into a very tight landing. Once they were all inside, the huge door closed behind them. The next barrier in front of them was a stainless steel door. Eight feet high and four feet wide, it caught the flashlight beam and sent splinters of light dancing around them. The door had no handle, only a shoe box–sized locking mechanism unlike anything the group had ever seen. Hawk gave them a moment to study it. Like the door itself, this mechanism was stainless steel. It featured a keypad with six rows of six keys: one for each letter of the alphabet along with numeric keys from 0 to 9. Above the keypad was a narrow display screen. Below the keypad were two rows of slots measuring an inch wide. Two slots in each of those rows surrounded a more classic keyhole nestled in the center of the four slots. A red light blinked at the base of the mechanism.
    Shep whistled. “That is what I would call some kind of lock.”
    Hawk placed the kingdom key in the keyhole. “Everything I found three years ago brought me to this place, to this lock, just like we are now.” The blinking light sped up its cadence. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a shiny silver box. He opened it to reveal four silver bars. Measuring four inches long and one inch in width, each bar had been discovered and collected on the treasure hunt designed by Farren. Each bar bore a quote from Walt Disney himself.
    The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing
    Having read the quote and let his friends see it briefly, he then turned the bar sideways and inserted it into opening of the upper left slot.
    All of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them
    This second metallic bar was turned on its side and placed into the opening on the right side, opposite the first silver bar. They heard a sharp click as it locked