PART SEVEN

Security Control Room, 3:30

A fraught Lee ran his hand through his hair nervously as he spoke into the phone. "But I've looked everywhere, Billy, and I've checked the security cameras, too…yeah…I'm in the Security Chief's office right now. She was there, on the camera, and then she wasn't. The place is so vast she could be anywhere….I know something's happened to her, Billy. She knows well enough not to miss her check-in…Bannon's doing all he can, he has men out searching the sector where she was last seen, but nothing yet….Right.…With Francine? …I'll see you then."

Bannon was a little amused at Stetson's obvious discomfort, however he made sure he maintained a neutral countenance. Hiding the closed circuit television tapes had been easy. In plain sight he'd figured. That was the safest place for them, no one would look for them right there on his desk, in full view of everyone. When he'd seen Mrs. King a couple of hours ago, following Cadiz, he'd watched her progress through the park. That's how he'd known she was nearby during his meeting. There had been few hiding places for her so he knew she'd be easy to find, and catch. Or so he'd thought until she pulled that trick with the toner. He hadn't expected that. He'd underestimated her and would not do that again.

Just before his associate had left, he'd been able to quietly warn him of the King woman's presence and told him to wait outside, just in case. Good job too. Well, she's unconscious now. She was being held in a cleaning supplies storeroom in the basement of the very building where they were now standing. As the home of security headquarters, no one would think to look for her there. That's what he'd figured anyway.

He listened to Lee as he'd completed his call. "About three hours then, Billy…yeah, come straight here and ask for Security Chief Bannon, yeah…the guy who Francine briefed yesterday… It's his operation. Bye."

Little did Stetson know just how much it was his operation, Bannon mused.

"I'm going for another look around," Lee said.

"Yeah," replied Bannon. "I'll coordinate things from here. Let me know if you need anything."

"Yeah, thanks." Lee left the control room.

Happy hunting. Bannon smiled to himself once the door had closed behind the federal agent. Stetson would be gone for a while so now would be a good time to have a little chat with Amanda King. Turning to his Deputy he said, "Hank, hold the fort, will ya? I'm gonna do a little digging of my own."

"Okay, boss."

~

Storeroom, 3:45

As Bannon entered the storage area, he surveyed the scene. There were shelves full of cleaning supplies, solvents, mops, cans of paint and all kinds of janitorial supplies. In the middle of the room, Amanda was sat in a chair with her hands cuffed to it, behind her back. Her head was slumped forward over her chest, obviously still knocked out by the chloroform. Bannon walked over to a faucet in the corner and filled up a Styrofoam cup. He walked over to Amanda and unceremoniously threw it into her face.

"Wake up, Mrs. King!" he yelled at her.

Groggily, Amanda grunted, "Huh?" as she slightly raised her head. Then it fell back onto her chest, feeling like a lead weight.

"Come on!" Bannon shouted, placing both of his hands on her shoulders and shaking her. "Now!"

Still all that Amanda could do was to roll her head a little. Although extremely foggy, she was beginning to become more aware of her surroundings. She tried to move her arms, but she couldn't, and she was feeling very uncomfortable.

"Now, ordinarily," began Bannon with a sinister sneer, "I'd think twice about hitting a woman. But after that thing you pulled at the copier, I'm prepared to make an exception." With that he slapped the side of her face. That got her attention and she looked up, a hand-shaped welt appearing on her left cheek.

By now, Amanda could see the Security Chief standing in front of her, she could feel pain in her face, but she still wasn't sure where she was, or why. She shook her head to try to clear the fog that still shrouded her mind. The copier, the gun, the big burly guy she'd been following who had caught her. As her mind cleared and brought back these memories, Bannon could see Amanda's perceptions returning.

"There you are," he mocked.

"What's going on?" asked Amanda, still a little confused. "I thought you were helping us?"

Bannon smiled. "Well, I can see why somebody would make that assumption, but they'd be wrong."

"But, why?"

"I really don't think you're in any position to ask questions, Mrs. King. But, for the money of course, what else is there? Anyway, now, it's my turn. What do you know? And, how did you find out?"

"I don't know anything, I'm just a civilian assistant." She thought playing her cover was her only option. Not convinced she was telling the truth, he slapped her face again. Her eyes became steely at this. Now she really wasn't going to say anything. "They don't tell me anything I don't need to know," she said quietly.

"Really? Then maybe that makes you expendable."

"I suppose," Amanda replied, looking down at the floor. She was really scared but she was determined she wasn't going to show him just how scared she was. She kept her eyes averted from his as she looked up again. "So, why haven't you killed me?"

"It rarely pays to get rid of your assets without attempting to use them to your advantage."

"Asset?"

"Well, while your friends are looking for you, they're not looking for me and that can only be good. It's distracting."

"My friends?"

"Yeah. Stetson's called for reinforcements to help him to look for you. If only he looked in plain sight!" He laughed. "While he's out searching the park for you, he's ignoring the obvious - that you're right here under his feet! Oh well, you never know. If you cooperate, I may even let you live!" He paused then, raising his hand to his face, touching where the toner had hit him. "Or maybe not. No one's due here until tomorrow morning. The building's been locked down for the night." He checked the handcuffs he'd used to attach Amanda to the chair and made sure they were secure. "See you later, Mrs. King." He turned to leave the storeroom, but as he pulled open the door, he came face to face with Hank.

~

Security Control Room, 4:00

With Lee out looking for Amanda, and Bannon off doing his thing, Hank had decided to see if he could help out. He'd only been working at DisneyWorld for a couple of months and thought that if he could find something on the tapes, any trace of the King woman, he'd get a few brownie points with his boss. So he'd picked up one of the tapes on Bannon's desk and placed it in the office VCR, scanning the pictures on fast forward.

He'd found nothing they didn't already know about until he got to the third tape, found under some papers on Bannon's desk. It was the tape from the camera covering the area known as 'Backstage #3', the administration building which included, at the extreme far end, the Security Control Room. At first, there was nothing unusual on the tape, but then a dark haired, heavy set man had stepped into shot and walked over to the building. In itself, this was not unusual, but then Amanda King had appeared and seemed to be following him. Now Hank was puzzled. Bannon had said there was no trace of Mrs. King other than in the 'on stage' public areas but this tape indicated otherwise. What's going on? He sat back in his chair and watched Amanda's actions.

After a few minutes, the same man came back out of the building and stood against the wall, apparently waiting for someone. The door swung open and Mrs. King ran out, straight into the arms of the hiding man. As Hank saw her captured, he pressed freeze frame on the video. This was the breakthrough he'd been looking for, but why hadn't Bannon found it? He didn't understand but decided he should go and track down Bannon to tell him what he had found. Before setting off, he sent a message to one of his guards to contact Mrs. King's associate and tell him to come back to the Security Office. Perhaps there'll be a raise in it for me.

Hank had seen Bannon on the monitors earlier, heading down to storage room #4 in the building's basement. He hadn't seen him emerge since and that was almost half an hour ago so he followed Bannon's path to the storeroom. Just as he put his hand on the door handle, it opened. Hank came face to face with Bannon, but he could also see Amanda in the background, handcuffed to the chair.

"Hey, Hank," said Bannon, with an insincere cheeriness. "How's it going?"

Hank was confused. "Mr. Bannon? What's going on?"

Bannon reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun. Pointing it at Hank, Bannon said, "Perhaps you'd better come inside." Hank nodded and stepped into the storeroom. As he passed Bannon, the Security Chief pistol-whipped him and he fell to the floor unconscious. "It never rains but it pours," Bannon said aloud, to no one in particular.

~

Meanwhile

Lee ran into the Security Office. One of the Disney guards had just come up to him in the park and told him to return to the Control Room immediately. Yet when he had arrived there, the room was empty. He knew the guards were assisting in the search, or carrying out standard duties, but where was the Security Chief, or his deputy – Hank, was it? Instead, no one was there. Lee looked at the monitor stack, already recognizing the various camera positions throughout the park and inside various buildings. He continued to watch for a few minutes as the images changed in their perpetual 10-second cycle.

As he turned away from the monitors which were telling him nothing, he saw the frozen image on the monitor screen on Bannon's desk. As his eyes took in the picture, his hand swept automatically through his hair. He immediately recognized his wife, in the arms of the large, swarthy man that he recognized from their surveillance operation. The man had his hand over Amanda's mouth.

Lee sat heavily into Bannon's chair, then leaned forwards. Pressing the rewind button on the VCR, he watched as nothing happened for a while, then Amanda came backwards out of the building until she disappeared back into the park and out of sight of the camera. Then he pressed play and what he saw did not help with his anger management. Lee saw Amanda walk over to what he now recognized as the administrative building. He watched as Cadiz eventually came out and stood just outside the door, then Amanda came running out of the building to be instantaneously captured by Cadiz. As he watched, a second man came out of the building and approached the first. He placed a cloth over Amanda's mouth and again, Lee ran his hand through his already sticking up hair. Suddenly he froze as he recognized the second man who had emerged from the building. "Bannon!" he exclaimed.

Before leaving Bannon's office, Lee hit the fast forward button on the tape to see if Amanda had re-emerged, but after fifteen minutes of lapsed time on the tape, there was still no sign of her. Leaving a message with Joanne for Billy and Francine to wait for him in the Control Room, he headed off to the last place he had seen Amanda.

~

Storeroom, 4:45

Amanda was now the only conscious person in the room. Bannon had left and locked the door behind him leaving a motionless Hank, lying where he had fallen. Amanda knew she had to escape so she weighed up her options. "Hank!" she called to her unconscious companion. "Hank!!" she called again but there was no response. Although her hands were cuffed behind her, through the back of the chair, her feet were relatively free so she thought that, if she could get a foot to Hank, maybe she could awaken him. It was worth a try. Shuffling, she was able to maneuver herself by leaning onto her feet and dragging the chair behind her, a few inches at a time, gradually moving closer to Hank's prone body. "Pity there's no Ming vase to break or ropes to cut through." She was making slow progress. And no Lee Stetson to help me either.

By now Lee would be worried sick about her. Bannon had told her he'd sent for Billy and Francine, so that was good, but she was determined to escape from her situation on her own. She knew that she could. By now, she had moved the chair alongside Hank's head. "Hank," she said loudly. There was still no response. "Hank!" She yelled this time and accompanied it by a forceful nudge of her foot on his shoulder. She tried again. "Come on, Hank!" Hank made the slightest of groans, which was an improvement, but he still didn't move. "Looks like it's down to me then! Amanda King to the rescue." She laughed to herself. "If only mother could see me now!" she mused. Her voice was helping to calm her nerves as her thoughts returned to her training procedures.

"Right, Leatherneck. Let's see how you did with that lockpick." She knew he'd installed one in the left cuff of her blouse. Unlike one of Lee's shirts, the collar was too soft for it not to look odd, so instead he'd inserted it in her cuff, the pick laying parallel with her arm. All she had to do was reach it. She reached up with her left hand but she couldn't make it. The handcuff was preventing her access to it. Not to be defeated, she continued to try until her wrist began to chafe from the continued pressure. It was also starting to cramp.

"Okay, maybe I can reach it with my other hand. What do you think Hank?" She didn't expect an answer. At first her left and right hands refused to meet but then she found, if she slouched into the chair, the smallest amount of slack occurred. She smiled to herself as she thought of her mother reprimanding her for not sitting correctly as a child. Suddenly, her right hand was able to touch the cuff of her left sleeve. "That's more like it."

She was gaining in confidence and increasing in determination, clenching her teeth. As she made one more reach for the left cuff, the chair wobbled precariously from the shift in her center of gravity. As her fingers touched the edge of the pick, she grabbed it and extracted it. Clutching it in her right hand, she cried out, "Yes!" Hank didn't seem to be impressed.

As she maneuvered the pick in her right hand to enable her to tackle the lock, it caught on her finger and fell from her hand onto the floor. "Rats! Let's not make it too easy for the rookie, huh?" she muttered to herself. She shuffled again on her chair until she could see the pick lying on the floor to her right hand side. Bracing herself, and with a sense of déjà vu, she forced herself to tip the chair over so that she was lying on the floor with her cheek to the linoleum. She felt around with her hand to where she thought the pick had fallen and successfully retrieved it.

~

Backstage Gate #3, 5:15

After a few minutes, Lee arrived at gate #3. He was already on the 'backstage' side and stood just inside the gate beneath the security camera. Following Amanda's route, he stepped across to the building and entered through the door near where Amanda had been taken. Almost immediately, he came upon the photocopier alcove to his right. Stepping inside, he saw a spray of black dust on the wall and there was more on the floor. As he crouched down to examine the black patch, he scanned around the room and spotted the camera Amanda had been carrying. He picked it up and slung it over his shoulder. Where is she?

He decided the only option available to him, since he hadn't seen Amanda leave the building, was to search it. He'd only gone about thirty yards when he came across a stairwell. Stepping through the doorway and looking over the banister he thought that the quieter lower floor would have given better cover for a man, or men, carrying an unconscious woman. He headed down the stairs and found himself in a long corridor with doors running off on either side. He started methodically working his way through each of the rooms, however most of the rooms he checked were empty. It was now after six and many of the daytime workers had left. It wasn't completely empty though, as the park would remain open until midnight. He checked into storerooms, seminar rooms and two big rehearsal rooms with mirrors lining one of the walls.

In one room he caused something of a stir by kicking open a door which, he hadn't noticed, was adorned by a Minnie Mouse silhouette. It was a women's dressing room and there were a number of half dressed foam rubber animals and people preparing for that evening's parade. Quickly, he had hidden the gun under his jacket, apologized and retreated from the room. He continued his pursuit.

~

Storeroom, 6:10

Amanda finally had the lockpick in her hand and worked to get it in place. "Now, all I have to do … is … twist the lockpick, insert it into the key hole, and … Drat!" She'd dropped it again. "Get a grip, Amanda." She tried again. "Slide the pick into the lock …a-ha." She held her breath as she attempted to twist and turn the lock. Suddenly she heard a click. "Got it!"

A flush of relief swept over her as she extricated her right wrist from the handcuff and pulled her arm around onto the floor in front of her. Now she was getting somewhere. Pushing herself up onto her hands and knees, although still basically sitting in the chair, she twisted herself around to gain access to the cuff on her left wrist. At least this one should be easier, she thought. Within seconds she'd managed to unpick her second lock of the day.

Finally free of her confinement, she sat for a few moments, just massaging her wrists and shoulders. She was feeling really stiff after her ordeal. As the circulation returned around her body, she stood up and leaned over Hank. She put her hands on his shoulder and shook him. "Hank!" There was no response. She tried harder. "Hank!" She really shook him this time. Hank groaned. "Come on. We've got to get out of here."

Remembering her little run in with Bannon, she stepped over to the sink and poured some water into a cup. As she returned to Hank, she contemplated throwing the water into his face. It had certainly worked on her, but she thought better of it. She placed the cup on the floor and turned Hank over onto his back. Then, she pushed and dragged at him until his upper body was upright, albeit leaning against a wall. By now, Hank's eyes were open, although they were still a little vacant.

She offered him the cup. "Here, drink this."

Shakily, he reached out his hand to take the cup from her, and she helped him guide it to his mouth. "What happened?" He reached up to the side of his head and flinched as his hand connected with the lump that had appeared there. "Bannon," he said, as he suddenly remembered the cause of his headache.

Amanda nodded. "Now, why don't you lean here for a moment? I'll see if I can get us out of here." She stepped over to the storeroom door. As she reached out to try the handle, it moved. Amanda looked to the shelves for something she could use as a weapon but the best she could come up with was a large, metal can of blue paint. She took the can in her hand and waited behind the door.

As the door clicked, indicating it was now unlocked, Amanda raised the can above her head. She saw the nose of a gun as it preceded its owner into the room. As the man took another step forward, Amanda started to bring down the can towards his head. Within inches of making contact, Amanda suddenly changed the cans angle of descent and it glanced off the shoulder of the man standing in front of her. It fell to the floor. As the gunman swirled around on the spot, he came face to face with his attacker. Their eyes met. "Lee!"

She threw her arms around his neck, and he hugged her to him. For several minutes they just stood there, arms encircling each other, relieved they were together again. Amanda could hear Lee's rapidly beating heart as her head rested against his chest. Eventually, they leaned away to look at each other, although neither was ready to let go completely.

"Are you okay?" Lee asked.

She could see the mixed emotions of worry and love in his eyes as he looked at her. Involuntarily, her hand touched the side of her face where Bannon had slapped her, but she decided he didn't need to know about that. She smiled up at her husband and said, "I am now."

Lee nodded at the spilled contents of the paint can near their feet. "That was pretty close."

"I thought maybe Bannon was back and I knew you'd be worried so I was determined to get out of here. And Hank, too."

Until she mentioned him, Lee had barely noticed there was someone else in the room. He'd only had eyes for Amanda. Releasing her arms, but taking her hand in his, he said, "Come on, we'd better get out of here." They turned to Hank.

"So, do you think you can make it?" Amanda asked.

Reaching for the lump on the side of his head again, Hank replied, "Well it's not like I have a choice is it?" He struggled to his feet. "Let's go."

As they had so many times before, Lee led Amanda by the hand out of the room, his gun drawn in his left hand. On finding the corridor clear, the party stepped out into it.

"The Security Office is that way." Hank pointed to the left.

"Then let's go," Lee replied.

"So, how'd you find me anyway?" Amanda asked her husband.

~