was working, her eyes tracked invisible words across the middledistance. No doubt she was penning yet another breathless missive aboutthe magic of working in the Mansion. "Hey, there," I said. "Have you gota minute to meet with me?"
She held up a single finger, then, a moment later, gave me a brightsmile.
"Hi, Julius!" she said. "Sure!"
"Why don't you change into civvies, we'll take a walk through the Parkand talk?"
Kim wore her costume every chance she got. I'd been quite firm about herturning it in to the laundry every night instead of wearing it home.
Reluctantly, she stepped into a change-room and switched into her cowl.We took the utilidor to the Fantasyland exit and walked through thelate-afternoon rush of children and their adults, queued deep and thickfor Snow White, Dumbo and Peter Pan.
"How're you liking it here?" I asked.
Kim gave a little bounce. "Oh, Julius, it's the best time of my life,really! A dream come true. I'm meeting so many interesting people, andI'm really feeling creative. I can't wait to try out the telepresencerigs, too."
"Well, I'm really pleased with what you and your friends are up to here.You're working hard, putting on a good show. I like the songs you'vebeen working up, too."
She did one of those double-kneed shuffles that was the basis of anynumber of action vids those days and she was suddenly standing in frontof me, hand on my shoulder, looking into my eyes. She looked serious.
"Is there a problem, Julius? If there is, I'd rather we just talkedabout it, instead of making chitchat."
I smiled and took her hand off my shoulder. "How old are you, Kim?"
"Nineteen," she said. "What's the problem?"
Nineteen! Jesus, no wonder she was so volatile. _What's my excuse,then?_
"It's not a problem, Kim, it's just something I wanted to discuss withyou. The people you-all have been bringing down to work for me, they'reall really great castmembers."
"But?"
"But we have limited resources around here. Not enough hours in the dayfor me to stay on top of the new folks, the rehab, everything. Not tomention that until we open the new Mansion, there's a limited number ofextras we can use out front. I'm concerned that we're going to putsomeone on stage without proper training, or that we're going to run outof uniforms; I'm also concerned about people coming all the way here anddiscovering that there aren't any shifts for them to take."
She gave me a relieved look. "Is _that_ all? Don't worry about it. I'vebeen talking to Debra, over at the Hall of Presidents, and she says shecan pick up any people who can't be used at the Mansion -- we could evenrotate back and forth!" She was clearly proud of her foresight.
My ears buzzed. Debra, one step ahead of me all along the way. Sheprobably suggested that Kim do some extra recruiting in the first place.She'd take in the people who came down to work the Mansion, convincethem they'd been hard done by the Liberty Square crew, and rope theminto her little Whuffie ranch, the better to seize the Mansion, thePark, the whole of Walt Disney World.
"Oh, I don't think it'll come to that," I said, carefully. "I'm sure wecan find a use for them all at the Mansion. More the merrier."
Kim cocked quizzical, but let it go. I bit my tongue. The pain broughtme back to reality, and I started planning costume production, trainingrosters, bunking. God, if only Suneep would finish the robots!
#
"What do you mean, 'no'?" I said, hotly.
Lil folded her arms and glared. "No, Julius. It won't fly. The group isalready upset that all the glory is going to the new people, they'llnever let us bring more in. They also won't stop working on the rehab totrain them, costume them, feed them and mother them. They're losingWhuffie every day that the Mansion's shut up, and they don't want anymore delays. Dave's already joined up with Debra, and I'm sure he's notthe last one."
Dave -- the jerk who'd pissed all over the rehab in the meeting. Ofcourse he'd gone over. Lil and Dan stood side by side on the porch ofthe house where I'd lived. I'd driven out that night to convince Lil tosell the ad-hocs on bringing in more recruits, but it wasn't goingaccording to plan. They wouldn't even let me in the house.
"So what do I tell Kim?"
"Tell her whatever you want," Lil said. "You brought her in -- youmanage her. Take some goddamn responsibility for once in your life."
It wasn't going to get any better. Dan gave me an apologetic look. Lilglared a moment longer, then went into the house.
"Debra's doing real well," he said. "The net's all over her. Biggestthing ever. Flash-baking is taking off in nightclubs, dance mixes withthe DJ's backup being shoved in bursts into the dancers."
"God," I said. "I fucked up, Dan. I fucked it all up."
He didn't say anything, and that was the same as agreeing.
Driving back to the hotel, I decided I needed to talk to Kim. She was aproblem I didn't need, and maybe a problem I could solve. I pulled ascreeching U-turn and drove the little runabout to her place, a tinycondo in a crumbling complex that had once been a gated seniors'village, pre-Bitchun.
Her place was easy to spot. All the lights were burning, faintconversation audible through the screen door. I jogged up the steps twoat a time, and was about to knock when a familiar voice drifted throughthe screen.
Debra, saying: "Oh yes, oh yes! Terrific idea! I'd never really thoughtabout using streetmosphere players to liven up the queue area, butyou're making a lot of sense. You people have just been doing the _best_work over at the Mansion -- find me more like you and I'll take them forthe Hall any day!"
I heard Kim and her young friends chatting excitedly, proudly. The angerand fear suffused me from tip to toe, and I felt suddenly light and cooland ready to do something terrible.
I padded silently down the steps and got into my runabout.
#
Some people never learn. I'm one of them, apparently.
I almost chortled over the foolproof simplicity of my plan as I slippedin through the cast entrance using the ID card I'd scored when mysystems went offline and I was no longer able to squirt my authorizationat the door.
I changed clothes in a bathroom on Main Street, switching into a blackcowl that completely obscured my features, then slunk through theshadows along the storefronts until I came to the moat aroundCinderella's castle. Keeping low, I stepped over the fence and duck-walked down the embankment, then slipped into the water and sloshedacross to the Adventureland side.
Slipping along to the Liberty Square gateway, I flattened myself indoorways whenever I heard maintenance crews passing in the distance,until I reached the Hall of Presidents, and in a twinkling I was insidethe theater itself.
Humming the Small World theme, I produced a short wrecking bar from mycowl's tabbed pocket and set to work.
The primary broadcast units were hidden behind a painted scrim over thestage, and they were surprisingly well built for a first generationtech. I really worked up a sweat smashing them, but I kept at it untilnot a single component remained recognizable. The work was slow and loudin the silent Park, but it lulled me into a sleepy reverie, anautohypnotic swing-bang-swing-bang timeless time. To be on the safeside, I grabbed the storage units and slipped them into the cowl.
Locating their backup units was a little trickier, but years of hangingout at the Hall of Presidents while Lil tinkered with the animatronicshelped me. I methodically investigated every nook, cranny and storagearea until I located them, in what had been a break-room closet. By now,I had the rhythm of the thing, and I made short work of them.
I did one more pass, wrecking anything that looked like it might be aprototype for the next generation or notes that would help themreconstruct the units I'd smashed.
I had no illusions about Debra's preparedness -- she'd have somethingoffsite that she could get up and running in a few days. I wasn't doinganything permanent, I was just buying myself a day or two.
I made my way clean out of the Park without being spotted, and sloshedmy way into my runabout, shoes leaking water from the moat.
<
br /> For the first time in weeks, I slept like a baby.
#
Of course, I got caught. I don't really have the temperament forMachiavellian shenanigans, and I left a trail a mile wide, from themuddy footprints in the Contemporary's lobby to the wrecking barthoughtlessly left behind, with my cowl and the storage units from theHall, forgotten on the back seat of my runabout.
I whistled my personal jazzy uptempo version of "Grim Grinning Ghosts"as I made my way from Costuming, through the utilidor, out to LibertySquare, half an hour before the Park opened.
Standing in front of me were Lil and