CHAPTER 6
They made their way back through the castle. On the way back Ro noticed that they'd missed several of the displays, but they didn't have time to look at them. While an hour seemed like plenty of time, her plan wouldn't work if something came up and they ended up missing their deadline.
Rather than seeing where the exit for this attraction was, Zee had felt that it would be best if they exited out the way they came in rather than finding out if the exit for the attraction was right outside a well populated area, or if it was also conveniently concealed behind a vending cart.
Once they got to the door Zee opened it a crack and used his finger camera to check out the area. As they'd been hiding for some time, it also meant that Bennet could have had his agents go into hiding in the area as well. He'd do a careful scan of everyone in the area to make sure that there weren't any agents in hiding before he and Ro emerged from the safety of the castle. And such a scan would take a couple minutes as he wouldn't be able to tell immediately if someone was purposely standing around because they were waiting for someone to meet them there or for them to get off the ride, or if they were standing around because they'd been told to use that position for a stake out.
It was a few minutes, as Zee had said it would take him, before he declared that there were still several agents in the area.
"You think if we waited a little longer they'd go away?"
"No, they look pretty settled in. Bennet's not giving up. He still thinks we're in the park."
"And he'd be right…" Ro conceded unhappily. "So where are they?" she asked.
"A pair of them are over by the flying elephant ride, and the other are pretending to be shopping at the storybook gift store."
"So we should sneak around the side of the castle to not be seen then."
"If there aren't any agents around the side of the castle then that would be fine. But, I can't see if there are any because my vision's blocked by the walls of the entryway."
"Let's hope that there isn't then," Ro said pulling the door open a little further. With that Zee placed his arm on Ro's shoulder and they opened the door the rest of the way, and walked out of it, dressed as park personnel. Zee quickly closed and locked the door behind them then began to hurry with Ro around the side of the castle.
"No agents," Zee declared, sounding a little surprised.
"Pity, and I'd really been looking forward to diving off into the moat to swim away for our escape," Ro said, intentional sarcasm dripping from every word.
The princesses that were usually grouped around the front of the castle were gone. It wouldn't do well to have them out while the parade was in progress. Some child might start to wonder how the princesses could be in two places at once, or how they'd managed to run and change into their parade costumes so quickly. This only affected her plan in that they didn't have an extra large swarm of people as crowd coverage. Instead they'd just have to deal with a large swarm of people who were already lining up for the parade.
They stepped out onto the main street of people and joined the large throng of people who were heading up the street. Ro spotted a balloon vendor bot.
"There's one!"
Zee went up to the bot with his cred card out and ready. "Hi, we'd like to buy all of your balloons," he informed the bot politely.
"All of them?" the bot repeated. This would be the first time anyone had ever asked to buy the entire set of balloons, and more strangely, why was an employee asking to purchase the balloons?
"Yes, all of them."
As the bot wasn't sure how many balloons it currently had in its inventory, or that were tied around its arm, it began counting them out loud, naming the total price after each balloon.
As Ro nervously looked around at the people who were now attracted to the bot that seemed to be broken as it was randomly counting out dollar amounts, Ro tugged on Zee's arm. "We're making a scene. Just pay him and let's go."
Zee counted the strings tied around the bot's arm in a single glance. "Thirty nine balloons." He reached out and picked up the bot's cred counter and swiped his card through. After handing back the bot's cred counter, her reached out and took hold of the entire bunch of balloon strings with one hand. With his other hand, he made a scissor like motion with his fingers, which cut through the strings, detaching the balloons.
"Thanks," Ro said quickly, then grabbed half of the balloons out of Zee's hand and began to hurry down the street with him. Out of inventory, the bot hurried off to go and get more balloons, after all before the parades were a prime time for sales.
Using the floating balloons as facial cover they began to make their way up the street again. As they couldn't see where they were going with the balloons in front of their faces she'd have to watch the ground closely to make sure that they didn't accidentally walk into the person in front of them while Zee continued to scout for agents.
"Excuse me…" someone approached them. Ro's blood turned cold. They were caught! "…can I get a balloon?" the father asked her.
Ro turned to look at the man then down at his daughter who was holding his hand tightly, looking rather shy. She smiled at the girl then at her father, relieved that they weren't agents, "Of course."
"What do I owe you?"
She looked over at Zee. She nor Zee had either of their cred acceptors on them, so there wasn't any real way that they could take the man's money. "For you, it's free," she winked at the little girl, then surrendered one of the balloons. "Enjoy the parade!"
Having taken care of that situation they walked a little faster down the street to deter anyone else from wanting to buy a balloon from them. The street led them around the large snow covered slopes of the abominable snowman's mountain and past the underwater submarine, "Search for Atlantis" ride.
Then, everything around them turned to clear or white plastic with outrageous metallic shaded highlights or iridescent streaks running through them. They were back in the future area. "Looks like we made it here okay," Ro sighed.
"What should we do with the balloons?" Zee asked.
"Give them away."
When word got out that the balloons were free, Ro found that she didn't have to worry about handing them out. People started coming up to her and grabbing them out of her hands! "How rude!" Ro breathed heavily to Zee once all of their balloons had been taken.
Zee actually had to agree with her on that one. But, if anyone of those people hadn't been grabby and had been passive then they wouldn't have gotten a balloon at all as there was such a high demand for the free item.
"There's the gate, and a security officer."
Zee stared at the man, who was standing in front of the partially concealed large gates. "He's just a parade dispatcher," he corrected her, "but he'll still call us in if he recognizes us."
"There has to be another way in."
If they could find a computer that was connected to the park system then he'd be able to find out if there was another way in. But, if they did find a computer connected to the park system, the wouldn't have to worry about finding a way in as they'd then be able to carry out "plan B" instead.
They moved away from the gate so that it didn't seem like they were suspiciously loitering by it. Zee quickly scanned the area, taking careful note of where the park employees were. He saw two employees walking off together from behind the Space Grill Center. "Follow me," Zee instructed Ro.
With his hand still on her shoulder they walked over toward the space grill. Sure enough behind the side of the grill there was a long hallway from the exit lines of one of the rides. At the very end of the hallway was a door labeled, "Cast Members Only." They'd found the entrance to the employee break room.
"Excellent," Ro grinned, and together they walked into the restricted room.
No one seemed to take any note of their entrance as they were all burned out from smiling and acting like working at this place for minimum wage was the greatest thing that had ever happened to them. There were a couple of vending machines, and while the prices were half of what they'd have to pay for a soft drink in the park, she couldn't believe that they didn't just give these poor workers the drinks for free. Heck, if someone were to buy a soft drink and a snack it would practically be one third of an hour of work! And if they were to buy lunch from the small cafeteria on the corner of the room, it would be a complete hour's pay. Hopefully these people were smart enough to bring their own lunch, which meant that there had to be lockers somewhere for them to keep their food in.
Or, why go to raid the locker room when she could see out the tinted window of the break room that there was a large building labeled "Costume Department" just across the way? With the parade in less than half an hour surely there was going to be so much activity going on that no one would notice if there were two more costumed characters walking down the street in the parade with them?
"Hey, Zee, I'm getting another idea… Rather than riding on the underside of one of the parade floats how about marching in the parade?"
"That does sound more favorable, but the agents would see us, remember?"
"Not if we have on the right disguises," Ro hinted, nodding her head for him to look out the window.
"Convenient," he agreed.
"Dress up time!" Ro chimed in a childish voice, tugging on his arm as she led him out of the break room to the costume room.
She wasn't sure how her plan was going to work out in its entirety, but she knew that the parade started at the far end of the park and ended near the entrance of the park. It would only make sense that there would be an employee entrance located somewhere near the parade float storage area or near the front end of the park. Who else could possibly have taken all of the prime parking spots just off to the side of the entrance before the park had even opened? Sneaking out the employee entrance seemed a lot easier than trying to obviously go out the way that they'd come in. Also, it seemed to her that disguising themselves as cast characters would be surprisingly be a lot more discreet to walk around in than leather adventure jackets.
As they got closer to the building Ro noticed that there was a greeter at the door who just happened to be checking IDs. Since there didn't appear to be any real station for the greeter to be checking IDs from Ro guessed that he was just there because of the high security alert as a result of their presence in the park.
"Figures," she muttered.
"Won't be a problem," Zee smiled, "Just hold my hand."
Those were his usual code words meaning that he was planning to get them past the greeter by using one of his regular holomorphic tricks. But, she couldn't help but take him literally and reach out to squeeze his hand rather than just casually touching his elbow or some other form of physical contact that he'd actually been implying by his comment. When someone was feeling as anxious as she was, it was so much more reassuring to have someone's firm hand to hold onto.
The greeter at the door looked rather comfortable as he leaned up against, balancing on two legs of his borrowed office-waiting-room chair. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and his head lowered so that it almost looked like he was taking a nap. It seemed like they were going to be able to walk right past him but right as they walked in front of him, he uncrossed his arms and leaned forward causing the chair legs to slam against the ground.
"Can I see your IDs?" he asked, uncrossing his arms and standing up, straightening his shirt as he did so.
"IDs…" Ro stuttered. She looked to Zee for a suggestion of how to get out of the situation. She was surprised to see that he still looked the same as before they'd held hands. She quickly looked at the clothes she was wearing. She was also still dressed in the park uniform! So, if he wasn't going to change their disguises, then why had he told her to hold hands? Did he forget to change their hologram? No, he wouldn't have forgotten something like that. She was sure that he'd put a disguise over them somehow, it just wasn't the disguise that she'd been expecting.
She'd been expecting him to have turned her into a character and himself into the character greeter that always accompanied the character. Surely with a disguise that generic, the greeter wouldn't have bothered to ask them to see their IDs… Their costumes would have been like an ID by itself.
Or maybe Zee had done the right thing in not making her a character? With the parade starting so soon they may have recalled all of the characters already as they had the princesses, so it would have been strange to see the same character come in twice. Or, depending on how smart this greeter really was, he might have clued in that a character and its greeter might be the perfect disguise for the fugitives that the NSA was looking for?
As she looked to Zee for any ideas on what she was supposed to do now that the guard had asked them for an ID, she noticed that he was holding one of the park IDs in his right hand--complete with his picture on it. On top of that, he was looking at her with an expression that seemed to mock her for not having her ID out as he did. "… I think I've misplaced mine…" Ro stammered. It was fine that he had a perfect ID, but what was she supposed to do?
"Didn't you put it in your pocket?" Zee casually hinted to her.
Ro reached behind herself with her free hand, and as she pulled it back in front of her, she had a park ID in her hand, complete with her picture on it. The ID was weightless, which made the fact that it looked completely real hard to believe as she knew that it didn't exist but was just a holographic projection.
"You're right, I did," Ro said, holding it out for the greeter to glimpse at it but not touch it.
As the IDs looked like park IDs, and from a brief glance the pictures looked like the people who were showing him the IDs, he didn't bother to question them any further but casually waived them by with a flick of his hand. He then sat down again and leaned his chair back up against the wall. Man, this job was boring.
As they entered into the main costume dressing room it became clear as to why the greeter had chosen to stop them rather than letting them go by unchecked. None of the people in this building were actually wearing cast uniforms! In fact, several of the people in this room seemed to be wearing nothing at all! Her innocence was scarred… There were several girls walking around in nothing but their stringy underwear, dances tights, shoes, and strapless bras. Several of the guys were only wearing their tights, which in this case, didn't strike Ro as a "turn on". It looked like they were all out to audition for the main role in "The Emperor's New Clothes." These were the face characters, the people who didn't have to dress up like barnyard animals. There were several more of them still in make-up. They weren't getting their nails done in their underwear though, but in button up shirts and jeans.
It suddenly made sense to Ro. The last thing these performers did was put on their costumes. Why risk getting make-up or wig spray all over their nice costumes from getting dressed before going through make-up? And the reason they were all wearing button up tops was so that they could remove their shirts without ruining their hair from pulling their shirt off over their heads.
The make-up artists and hair dressers were the lucky ones who got to wear anything they wanted to work. However, they had their IDs hanging from their necks to make up for their casual appearance.
The other half of the people in the room were the non face characters. Several of them could be seen hurrying around just in the bottom half of their character costume with their mascot head tucked under one arm. The last group of people were the ones who had just finished with their required stretch workout session and were still getting into their non-face costumes. These people were all wearing gray t-shirts that had little screen printed barcodes on the upper chest area. Apparently the park kept very close track of its costumes if it was even bothering to keep track of the t-shirts that the cast wore underneath their costumes.
"Okay, so my plan to just take some costumes that are lying around isn't going to work out very well seeing as that they even issue out work-out t-shirts. We might have to go back to plan A."
"No we won't," he replied. Making up an ID to get someone to loan them out a costume was child's work for a government infiltration unit as advanced as himself. "We need to find the costume room."
"We're in it, Zee, just look around."
"I mean the room where they actually keep the costumes," he explained.
"Oh, beats me."
"Come on, let's find it."
They started to make their way towards the back of the large room where it looked like someone was handing out the gray t-shirts, which also might mean that they were also handing out the costumes, but someone suddenly reached out and grabbed Ro's arm. "There you are Rachel! You were supposed to check into make-up ten minutes ago!"
"Who, me?" Ro asked, turning around to see who it was that had stopped her.
But, she never got a chance to see who it was that had stopped her as she was then pushed into the make-up chair then surrounded by a swarm of make-up artists. It was impossible to tell which one, if any of them, had been the one who'd stopped her. As she began protesting that they had her confused with someone else she was simply told to, "stop talking," by the person who was finding it hard to apply lipstick to someone who was continually talking.
In less than ten minutes, Ro found herself the victim of a complete make-over. She guessed that when someone did this several times a day 7 days a week that it was easy to become so good at it that they could do it in just ten minutes. "They're waiting for you at costumes," one of the women said to her as they lowered the chair so she could hurry over there.
"What just happened?" Ro asked Zee as soon as she escaped from the women.
"You just had your make-up and hair done by a professional team of dressers."
"But they wouldn't even give me a chance to tell them that I'm not this Rachel girl!"
"Too late now. Just be grateful that during that whole time you were sitting in front of them not one of them looked like they recognized you."
"You have a point."
"Help me get this wig off and then we can…"
"Rachel!" she was interrupted. It was someone across the room calling to her.
"What do I do?" she asked Zee.
But, his idea for her to run was thwarted as a group of dressers from the wardrobe department suddenly ran to Ro's side to guide her away from Zee and over to the costume side of the room. "Zee?" she called out, looking behind her. "Zee?" Where had he gone? He'd been right behind her a second ago! "Zee?"
"I'm right here," someone whispered into her ear.
She glanced at the person who was holding her elbow, gently guiding her over to the wardrobe department along with the other dressers around her. She recognized the dark haired woman with the deep blue eyes immediately. "Zee?"
"Shhh," he whispered to her. With so much activity going on it had been all too easy to change his hologram to be one of the dressers. This way he was in a better disguise and he could stay close to her as they dragged her off to different parts of the costume room.
"Rachel, so glad that you finally made it. I've got your costume right here… " the person holding her costume began to explain, but despite all of the make-up she was wearing and the long blonde wig he realized a second after looking at her up close, that she wasn't actually Rachel. "Wait…did you trade shifts with Rachel?"
"She's the back up. Rachel called saying there was an accident on the freeway and that everything's totally blocked so she wasn't sure if she'd make it on time for the 5:30," one of the dressers explained, but, it wasn't Zee.
"Well since there's no time to call and find out where she's at, we'll go with it," the guy said, then handed Ro the costume.
Ro looked horrified for a moment as she realized what costume she was holding. No way was she going into this parade dressed as Princess Lina! "…I…" she began to stammer.
"I'll help you get undressed," Zee offered, guiding her off to a private corner in the room where there was a single partition set up for someone to change behind.
Ro was actually very thankful because if he hadn't those other dressers might just have started ripping her clothes off of her! "Zee, I can't do this!"
"You're going to have to Ro. "
"What! You did NOT just say that you're encouraging this!"
"If we let them know that you're not really the back up they're going to know something's not right. Besides, they won't be able to call in another back up and get her dressed in time for the parade. If this parade starts and there are only eleven dancing princesses, someone definitely is going to realize something is wrong," he explained quickly.
"But I don't know the routine! And it's their fault! They just attacked me! They violated me!"
"Lina was the youngest princess. You'll be in the back. You can just follow the people in front of you."
"But I'll still have to dance with another guy!"
"Ro, we don't have time to discuss this. Now, I'm sorry, but…"
"Zee!" she hissed as he suddenly made a quick cut up the back of her shirt with a pair of scissors he'd unnoticing picked out one of the dresser's aprons while they were crowded around Ro.
No one could see it as the hologram of the park shirt was still covering her skin, but from the draft she could feel flow around her skin she knew her back was exposed.
"Zee! That was my favorite shirt!" she cried over dramatically.
"I'll get you another one on the way out of town. It's only been a day since we bought it so I'm sure there'll still be another one left."
"You're not being very sympathetic here," she calmed down. So he'd called her bluff as that it really wasn't her favorite shirt, and they had just bought it, but still. She'd imagined them just walking around wearing a large bulky costumes, just waving at all of the people and giving high-fives to the people with their arms sticking out. She hadn't been planning on stealing a role this large!
"There wasn't enough time to try and pull it over your head without ruining your hair. Now, pull your arms through your bra straps," he said, a small hint of embarrassment in his voice.
Her bra was instantly converted to a strapless bra. Zee took the dress from her and slid it on over her head. The remnants of her shirt fell onto the ground, which Zee quickly picked up before anyone could see them. He'd have to find her a new shirt to wear for when they got to the end of the parade and she'd have to take the costume off.
"I'm surprised it fits," Ro commented in reference to the dress as she began to pull her jeans off before someone came along to cut them off.
"Hand me the bracelet," he instructed her next, ignoring her comment. He was just as bad as the real dressers!
She removed it quickly and handed it to him. "You'll have to let the dressers finish, I need to take care of these," he said, then left her.
"Zee… "Ro pouted. Now that Zee had left other dressers rushed over to her to finish up the job as she stepped out from behind the partition.
She just stood there with her arms out as the dressers began lacing up the back of the dress as well as tying the line of bows down her sleeves. This may well be the first time in her life that someone else was dressing her. And after she initially got over the feeling of being harassed, it actually was nice to not have to do anything to get dressed.
Zee wrapped up the slashed t-shirt inside of the jeans as well as bracelet so that no one could see them. He was looking for a potential disguise that he could use himself when the sound of a group of confused people trying to make some sense out of their discussion caught his attention.
"I told you, we already took care of Lina, several minutes ago," one of the make-up artists was trying to explain to a young woman.
"Are you sure? Because I was called in because someone told me that
you were going to need a back up to do Lina."
An alarm went of in Zee's mind. This was the real back up. He'd have to think of something to save Ro's cover. But, on a side note, he had to admit now, that upon seeing the back up, he could tell why they'd mistaken Ro for Lina's character. Both Ro and this woman had short blonde hair. Both had similar face shapes, cheek bone placement, small noses, nice almond shaped eyes, and a small body structure.
"..and I got in my car as soon as they called, and I would have been here earlier but there was some guy with Brandon—said he was in the national guard or something, and he was giving everyone, including me, a hard time getting through checkpoint!" the woman continued with her story.
National guard? Or National Security Agency? They'd have to be on the watch for agents, as if they weren't already watchful enough. Zee read the girl's name on her ID tag. "Alicia?" he called her attention.
She turned to him. She didn't recognize him but there were so many dressers and depending on what day of the week that she came on or what she was being dressed for it would be hard to get to know more than a handful of them. "Are you the one who called me in?" she asked almost accusatively. She sounded very frustrated and confused. Not to mention if the parade was starting in less than fifteen minutes she was going to need the entire costume department's staff to get her ready in time.
"No, but everything's fine now. You were called in because they thought that Rachel wasn't going to make it on time, but she did make it. She's nearly finished being dressed in costuming now. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you'd like you can go rest in the break room and tell them I said to give you a free lunch or something, okay?"
His story was believable, but she still looked upset at having been called in only to find out that she wasn't needed. Luckily, as she'd done this parade so many times before it wasn't like she was going to be disappointed at not getting to be in it. Besides, as labor laws stated, if she went straight back home now they'd still be required to pay her for four hours pay just for the inconvenience.
"Thank you for clearing this mess up," she said, then turned to leave.
Everything would be fine now or at least until the real Rachel showed up… Hopefully she really was going to be late because of the traffic or that the security guard at the gate would give her a hard time too.
With Alicia gone he set off to find something to do with Ro's clothes. While he was considering stashing them somewhere in the building that wouldn't be very helpful if they weren't planning on coming back here with the rest of the parade staff but were going to sneak out once they got to the front end of the parade. The other thing he had to consider now was how was he going to get into the parade?
He began to hurry back towards the costume room. A hologram wouldn't do as the agents would be able to see through it with their holoviewers. He'd just have to follow through with Ro's secondary plan. Her original plan had been fairly complicated and was too late to execute now.
Originally her idea had been to convince a group of people that they were special volunteers to be background actors for a promotional theatrical trailer of the new space movie that would be coming out. The movie featured a star command group (the agents) that were looking for the metallic space invader (him) which had taken a victim hostage which it was planning to abduct and take back to its home planet. The story line was all too familiar.
If they bribed them with free park t-shits or "costumes" for the show she was sure that they could get anyone to go running up to the agents that they pointed out and start dragging them off to one area of the park saying that they'd seen the space invader that they were looking for. And, if the people told the agents what they wanted to hear--that they'd seen a metal man with a young girl with blonde hair—she was certain they'd be able to draw the agents away onto one half of the park. Then, they'd find one of the park phones and would tap into the line and would plant a false message pretending to be one of the park members saying that they'd seen (themselves) in line for another ride again. Then, Ro had said that once all of the agents were on one half of the park they'd make a break for the exit. That way, if someone did see them as the parade was going through, the agents would have a hard time getting across the street to even follow them!
Now that he thought about their plan, it didn't sound so plausible anymore. Maybe it was just the excitement of hearing it for the first time or maybe it was because they had a better plan now, but whatever the reason, thinking that Bennet would have allowed all of his agents to gather on one area of the park didn't sound so wise anymore. No matter, they were going with this plan and so he shouldn't dwell on it.
As he entered the costume room for the second time he was surprised to see that it was fairly emptied. He didn't see Ro so he would assume that she was with the other princesses and parade staff. No, he wasn't assuming-- he was praying, praying that that's where she was and that she hadn't been taken by the agents the moment he let her out of his sight.
It was going to be hard to forgive himself for making her go through this parade, without knowing anything about the dance routine… he didn't know if he'd ever be able to forgive himself if she ever was captured. And, he actually did feel bad about cutting her shirt up.
The cast member who was checking out costumes looked rather tired, but as he did this every day, it was just something that someone got used to with time. The other cast member in the back was busy preparing the room for when the parade would be over in less than a half hour and they'd have to re hang and check in all of the costumes again.
Zee looked around quickly. No one was looking. He quickly holomorphed into one of the parade dispatchers. He then hurried over to the guy who'd been handing out costumes. "What character costumes do you have back there that aren't usually n this parade?" he asked quickly.
The cast member glanced behind him then asked then began to list the costumes. It was a nice list, but it needed refinement. "Any of those non-face characters?" he asked quickly.
Sensing that something wasn't right anymore, the cast member asked, "Is something wrong?"
Zee thought of one of the characters he'd seen wandering around, then quickly scanned the inventory of costumes behind the counter. He had to pick a costume that there only appeared to be one of. He also had to pick a costume from a float near the end of the parade as he'd need time to change into it. It also had to be a costume that didn't sound too important or noticeable. "It was a complete accident, but someone accidentally backed up a cart on the crocodile's tail and not realizing that he was tied down he started walking and ripped the tail completely off!" Zee began to weave the sad tale.
The cast member looked completely horrified. He was doing a good job then. "They were trying to tape it back on, but it's just not covering."
"It's a foam rubber costume, of course tape isn't going to work." Zee knew that, but being a parade dispatcher it wasn't his job to know how to fix costumes.
"Do you have another costume?"
"Not another crocodile," the cast member replied, knowing from memory that there was only one costume, thus making the tale even more tragic. And knowing that the crocodile played a minor part in the parade he was tempted to just tell the dispatcher to tell the guy to bring the costume back, but he couldn't' verify if it really was an important part or not so he'd just have to suggest the next best alternative, "I have a lizard costume…" the cast member said, checking behind him to see if it was sill there. "It' a 5'9"-6;-2" range costume which was what the crocodile was…"
"Perfect, just hurry," Zee increased the tension of the situation.
"Cindy, get the lizard costume!" he called to the back.
He then handed the costume over to Zee without even bothering to ask for an ID or anything. With the parade supposedly having started already, there wasn't any time to second guess. He'd just have to make a second entry that one of the parade dispatchers came and got the lizard costume. He'd also have to start filling out the paperwork for the damaged crocodile costume. What a day.
Zee took the costume and ran with it until he found a place where no one would see him put it on. He would use Ro's clothes as padding around the belly area once he got in. He quickly unzipped the back and stepped into it. He actually had to shrink his body a few inches to fit inside of it comfortably. Then, after he put the head on he found that it was near impossible to see out of it. He extended his neck a few centimeter until his eye line was lined up with the eye holes. He then ran out of the costume building and to the open area just behind the gate where the parade floats were lined up, ready to go. The floats just seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Far down near the entrance to the park he could see a large warehouse-type building. Rather than having the floats housed near the beginning of the parade they housed them at the end of the parade so that they could make sure everything was working properly in a mini-test run up to the front of the parade.
Most of the characters from the costume building had already taken their places on their corresponding floats, but there were still some chracters who were not riding on any of the floats. Zee walked over to join a small group of characters that were just filler between floats.
This was where he was supposed to be with Ro. But, she was up ahead in the line up. He could even see her rehearsing some small dance moves with her partner. Maybe they'd realized that she didn't know what she was doing and that it was too late to get someone else dressed up. Or maybe she'd just asked if he'd go through it with her because she knew she didn't know what she was doing? If only they'd had more time… He would have practiced the dance steps with her until she started stepping on his feet to tell him that she'd had enough…
"Good luck Ro," he whispered inside his lizard head. He wished he could take it off so she could see that he was right behind her and that he hadn't left her entirely, because even from afar, he could see she was looking for him. Her eyes kept on wandering around, even though she knew that if he were in disguise she'd never recognize him.
He was almost jealous that he couldn't be Michael. He was sure she'd be a lot more comfortable if he was guiding her through the parade rather than leaving her off on her own.
"Think you got it now?" her partner asked her.
"Yeah thanks. It's just that I don't usually do Lina's character… My nervousness is making me forget the steps."
"What characters do you usually do then?"
"Costume characters," Ro said quickly.
"Really? So when did you decide to audition for a face character?"
"When I got tired of being scanned like a household item at the superstore," Ro said, referring to how the gray t-shirts were scanned out.
Derick laughed. He'd introduced himself as they hadn't performed together before. "I used to do the characters with the small legs, like any of the bug or monkey costumes until I grew out of the height range. Now I do any of the gargoyles or the evil vizier…"
"Is there a character that you liked being best?"
"King John, because he's just a head and a robe. Never got overheated when I was him, which was what made me decide I wanted to be a face character. Our costumes are so much more comfortable and less hot…" Derick then started going off on which costumes the other cast members liked most and why and which ones they liked least.
She couldn't help but think of Zee. Where was he? She was sure he was close by, but it bothered her that she just didn't know how close by he really was. She'd just have to hope that he found her by the time they got to the end of the parade.
The recorded announcer started speaking. This was it, the parade was starting!!! The floats ahead of them were moving so slowly! It was killing her to be stuck waiting. She just wanted to get this over with! Part of the reason things were taking so long to get moving was that they had to leave a large space in front of them so that they wouldn't run over the dancers in front of them if they had any pauses in their routine.
"Good luck everyone!" one of the parade dispatchers said as they were exiting through the gate. Was it Zee? No, if it was Zee he'd have winked at her or something as she walked by.
While a few of the princesses in front of her seemed to laugh at the idea of needing luck as they did this nearly every single day, Ro was grateful for it. She needed it.
By the second time the princesses started their routine over again she'd caught onto it decently enough that she actually did look like she knew what she was doing. And as long as she smiled, everyone else would believe that she knew that she was doing. Heck, it didn't matter if she just walked down the street. Everyone adored her because of her hair color and her wonderful dress. She was Princess Lina, and that's all that mattered.
The crowd was convinced that she was a princess, and so were the agents! Ro saw several of them with their holoviewers out, watching the parade, but none of them seemed to pay any particular notice to her. And why would they? They'd be expecting them to be wearing holographic costumes rather than the park's costumes. Or, they'd be expecting to see her somewhere other than as one of the main characters in the parade. It still worried her though that she didn't know where Zee was. Up until the parade had stepped off she'd been hoping that he would suddenly come up with some excuse for him to take Derick's place, but upon seeing the agents with their holoviewers, there wouldn't have been any way for him to not be discovered unless he was fully covered.
She'd figured it out now. He had to be wearing one of the character costumes. She felt a little better, but still not as good as if she'd actually seen him put it on. It just made smiling a little easier.
She even began to wave with her free hand when she had the free moment. It was amazing how all of these little girls adored her. She, the one who wasn't the real hero the fairy tale--or, was she? Originally she'd seen Michael to be the hero because of his humble, unselfish heart, but while that was true and while those qualities were definitely admirable, wasn't Michael the one who was willing to carelessly throw his life away because he wasn't willing to take someone else out of their comfort zone? Maybe it was Lina who was the hero of the tale? It was Lina who decided that there was something more important to life than just dancing all night long and getting new shoes every day. Lina was the only princess who saw that they were in an endless cycle where they were never able to truly love their dancing partners because of the enchantment and that the only way to move on was to give up something important in order to gain something more important… Michael loved Lina, but rather than acting on his love he was actually willing to give it up for what would have been a false love, for how could the princesses ever love someone whom they felt content to leave captive in an enchanted castle? When Lina realized that she loved Michael in return she realized that she'd have to do more than just admit her love. She'd have to give up their precious secret. But, she knew that in the end, it would be worth it. And, she was right.
Having been so lost in her thoughts it shocked Ro to find that they were at the end of the parade and were heading back into the gate. She looked to see if anyone was unsuspectingly loitering around the area for no apparent reason, but no one appeared to just be waiting for her to be finished. Zee had to be behind her.
Safely out of guest viewing area, she could glance backwards over her shoulder. There was a group of characters walking around between two of the floats a couple of floats down. There… He was in the group, the tall lizard. Its movements were so rehearsed, so obviously practiced and mimicked. It didn't have the sporadic nature of the other characters. That was Zee alright. She could breathe again. She let out a long sigh of relief.
"You did well. You missed a couple of steps at the beginning, but after that you did much better."
"Thanks." She really meant it. It was nice to hear that she hadn't completely ruined things.
There were people up ahead handing out water bottles. Ro couldn't believe it. They'd been walking for what, fifteen minutes tops? And they were handing out free water for that? Oh well. These people deserve it. After going through all of this prep work for such a short performance they deserved to have some free water.
Everyone began to disperse; most of the people were still heading back towards the costume building, except for those people who were still on their floats and had to have their safety hooks detached. They'd have to catch up with later. Rather than heading back with the other characters she'd just wait here for Zee. Derick didn't bother to wait for her but began walking back to the costume room to return his costume. It so, was not worth the trouble to do this every two hours in her opinion.
There was Ro. She was thankfully waiting off to the side for him. "You have a fun time?" she asked, as he was still approaching her.
"You knew it was me?" he asked, removing the head.
"When you've been with someone as long as we've been together, it becomes easy to spot the other, no matter what they look like. But anyway, we gotta get these things off and get out of here!" Ro said, suddenly noticing a group of people off in the distance quickly coming towards them. Two of the people in the group had shining blonde hair which easily caught the sun's light, and her attention. Apparently the Rachel and the real back-up met each other in the break room and had alerted someone to this matter.
"Over there," Zee said pointing towards a large dumpster they could quickly change behind.
"You got a new shirt for me?" she asked as she began to undo the lacings that would release her from her costume.
"I do indeed," he replied. He unzipped his costume and pulled out her jeans, the bracelet, her ripped shirt, and one of the gray work-out shirts.
"How resourceful…" she said, disgustedly looking at the shirt. Who knew how many people had sweat in it before?
"Actually, someone had just left it lying around on the floor…"
She was undressed then dressed again in under a minute. Getting the wig off had been the hardest part because there were so many bobby pins holding it on. She was sure that they didn't even get half of the bobby pins out of her hair, but the wig was off, and that was all that mattered.
"We should return these," he commented.
"Just stuff it in the lizard head, then hand it to one of those guys," Ro said, pointing to a line of people who were accepting mascot heads and costume props. He did just that. And before the person could comment on why the head was so heavy or why they were handing them entire costumes they'd disappeared into the crowd, and were on their way over to the employee exit.
"Hold up," Zee cautioned Ro as they approached the exit. He could see the security checkpoint that Alicia had mentioned. The checkpoint was a large wooden gate that could be opened to let a vehicle through, in addition to a small side gate for pedestrian access. Standing outside of the shack were two guys. One was dressed as a park employee, the other as an agent. Coincidentally the park employee's name was Brandon. And while the other agent didn't have a name tag, Zee and Ro both immediately recognized him to be West by his red-orange hair, and clueless expression. "This is going to work out really nicely," Zee smiled. "You're going to need the bracelet," he informed her then looked for a private area to change his hologram.
"Hold it right there!" West pointed his stunner at the young blonde woman who was coming out of the gate.
"Oh come on, not this again!" Alicia complained. "Didn't you give me enough trouble on the way in?"
"It's for your own safety," West began to insist, slowing bringing his holoviewers out of his jacket pocket.
Alicia's face turned sour. She took a bold step toward West, pointing her finger daringly in his face. "You pull that X-ray crud on me again, pervert, and I'm taking this harassment straight to your superior!"
Her forcefulness caused West to take a step back, but Alicia continued to scold him. "And when I get done talking with him, you're not even going to be allowed to look through a home-made toilet paper tube-kaleidoscope!"
West bit his lower lip nervously. Technically he wasn't even supposed to be patrolling at this checkpoint. He'd just gotten bored and had made up the idea himself that it would be beneficial if he were to help this guard out in watching the exit. Things might not go over to well with Agent Bennet if this girl were to tell someone that he harassing her again… especially after making her prove on the way in that she wasn't Zeta's accomplice on the way in.
"Sorry… I guess I didn't recognize you again." It would be best if he did just let her go through and not bother her again.
"Didn't recognize me! I just came through here! With an attention span like that, how did you ever manage to get out of the third grade?!"
"Sorry for the trouble, go ahead," Brandon apologized on behalf of the agent, as the agent didn't appear to be able to get himself out of the mess he'd gotten himself into. Bradon could see that if he didn't intervene, Alicia would just continue to grill the helpless agent-- like a weenie for a fourth of July barbeque.
He buzzed Alicia through the gate so she could go home.
"Thanks, you have a good evening," Alicia said politely, but shortly to Brandon, then stormed off toward the parking lot.
It was only a couple seconds later that a tall agent came rushing out of the exit gate crying, "Which way did she go?"
"Who?" West asked.
"The synthoid!"
West's face went pale. "That washim?"
"Alicia just came through here," Brandon provided, though he wasn't sure if it was what the agent wanted to hear.
"Just great!" the agent muttered.
"I'll find him!" West shouted, eager to redeem himself. He'd catch Zeta, and he'd find a way to show him for making a fool of himself!
"No!" the agent stopped him. "They've got the girl, and they need your help!"
"What should I do?" Brandon asked nervously. The whole thought of a real terrorist threat made him anxious, and the though that he might actually have to do something that might endanger his life did generate a little fear.
"Stay here at the gate. Don't let ANYONE pass through until I come back!"
Unfortunately for anyone else who was getting off of work at this time, they were going to have to wait until someone explained to Brandon that he'd been tricked, and that the agent who'd told him not to open the gate for anyone, was never coming back.
"Psst!" Zee heard someone hiss from behind one of the vehicles in the parking lot.
"Good to see you made it out fine," she smiled at the agent.
"You ready to go?" he asked her.
"Yeah, but we need to get another car."
"Are the agents watching it?"
"No, but even though I remembered the general area that we parked it in, I have no clue where it is."
While he did know exactly where their car was parked, Bennet also probably had found where it was parked by now and had tagged it or marked it somehow.
"We can take a cab." he suggested, then joked sarcastically by trying to sound disappointed, "even though I know that how much it bothers you to pay 25 cents every three seconds to take a cab…"
"Someone's got to keep them in business," Ro smiled, and removed the bracelet. Riding in taxi's was something that she grew to like after getting over the expensive fee.
"Where did you get those?" someone asked coldly. The person holding the lizard head was surprised by the strange uniform of the agent who was addressing her and was almost about to reply with some sarcastic comment, such as that it was her job to collect costumes, but the agent's sour face deterred her from doing so.
"Someone just handed it all to me," she answered.
"Who did? Where are they?" the head of the costume department asked. She was the one who had realized to call in the agents when she'd been approached by Rachel and Alicia as they were confused about the mixed messages that they'd been receiving as to who the stranger was playing Lina in the parade was.
"They went off…" the girl started speaking, but as she looked around, she didn't see either of them. "… I don't see them…" she tried to explain.
"What did they look like?" the agent asked.
"It was a blonde girl, and one of the dressers…"
"Can you tell me which direction you think they were heading?"
"No, I'm sorry, I can't," the girl apologized.
"Just great," the agent muttered, turning on his radio to give Bennet the bad news. "Bennet, this is James. They're gone."
"Which way did they go?" Bennet's angry, and disappointed voice replied.
"No one knows."
Bennet sighed. "Look around you and tell me if you see anywhere that you think they might have gone to next or where they might be hiding."
The agent looked around him, "I think I see where they went," he spoke into his receiver. "I'll go and check it out."
But, he found that as he turned around he didn't have to go anywhere. West had found him and had just the information that they needed. He didn't need to ask West why he'd left his post from the van, but figured things out well enough when he started accusing Alicia of being a fraud.
Bennet had only heard the beginning of the conversation and already he knew that the mission had failed. He clenched his receiver tightly, but rather than throwing it on the floor in his anger her shoved it into Rush's hands and began to make his way out of the park and back to the security office. "Team, move out," he sighed. Zeta had gotten away, again. He had some agents stationed in the parking lot, but he didn't have that many as he'd placed most of his team members inside the park.
It was just too difficult, it was too hard. The park was just too big. Even with the extra help from the park's staff it was too much to find two people among the swarming masses. He didn't blame himself for this failure, and for once, he didn't blame West. His team had done everything he'd asked but it wasn't enough. He'd have to report to Lemack that even with all of the extra help they'd still been unsuccessful. It had been a long day, but it was going to be an even longer evening. The same report to be filed, the same admit of defeat. Just once, couldn't something go his way?
He could spend the rest of the day thinking about all the things that went wrong, or all the things that they could have done better. Such thoughts would cause him to remain awake all night long, and to even never sleep again! But such thoughts were unhealthy. They led to obsession which would only quicker lead to him going crazy or an untimely demise caused by stress. Still, he couldn't help but think about the possibilities. His mind kept dancing around the issue, but it always came down to one thing. If they were going to catch Zeta, they needed him to come to them. While Zeta was running, playing defensively, he always seemed to come out ahead. They needed to get him on their territory where they were stronger and had the advantage. Offensive tactics weren't working. They'd need to lure Zeta with bait. They'd need to set a trap for him. If they could get him to a place where they knew where all the hiding spots were, where they had the upper hand, then maybe they'd come out ahead for once.
However, plotting "traps" was scoundrel's work—not the work of a respectable government employee, or could it be? He'd have to think about the idea for a night or so and decide whether he wanted to hire out for such a strategic conniver, or whether his team could come up with something. Or… with his past history with the synthoid and with his extensive understanding of protocol, maybe he really could think of something himself…
"You know, Zee, I've been thinking," Ro commented, pulling her hair out of her mouth as it whipped around her face as Zee sped down the mag-way.
"Yes?" he asked.
"You know what you said—about finding those other scientists."
"The ones from the design team?" he clarified.
"I dunno, but I've been thinking… maybe it's not such a bad idea after all. I mean, we can't know for sure that they'd automatically turn you over to the feds or anything. Maybe some of them are closet pacifists and don't want to be making killer robots either? Even if they weren't, maybe one of them would just be sympathetic?"
"Ro, I think you were right the first time. I can't imagine any of them wanting to get involved with this."
"But they wouldn't have to do anything dangerous or illegal. Maybe they could do something as simple as just say that it is possible to build a conscience module, and that it's possible that Selig could have slipped it in during your construction."
"Ro, I appreciate the way you're…"
"Don't finish that sentence!" Ro stopped him. "If you never try, then you'll never know."
"But…"
"And don't finish that one either!"
He paused for a second to think things over. "So, where should we start?" he asked.
"You know, wasn't there a garden convention in town? You want to go and check it out? I think you'd make a really handsome gardener…"
"Maybe not this time. I don't think it's a good idea to hang around the area."
"Then you're probably not going to like my next suggestion either…"
"And what's that?"
"Did you know that there's an even bigger one of these things in Florida?"
Episode 6 Author's notes:
For the record: I have read several reasons as to why Sleeping Beauty's castle was actually closed. Some say it's because terrorists might see it as potential target icon, others say its because there was no video cameras inside the castle for security reasons. It is a possibility that they closed it because it wasn't handicap accessible. (A store in my area closed off its second floor because they didn't have an elevator that would make it handicap accessible. So now if you want something from the second floor you have to ask an associate to go look for you... ) The reason I'm leaning toward, was that they're too cheap to maintain it as they didn't think it was a very popular attraction. Over the years I've watched from when her foot was attached to when it had broken off and was glued back on, to when they finally left her a cripple rather than trying to fix the problem when it broke off again.
The castle was originally closed for "refurbishment" around Sept/Oct 2001, but when asked why it was taking so many years to reopen an official spokesperson danced around the topic saying it was "indefinite" as to when/if the castle would ever reopen. On a fairly trustworthy website I read that the castle would reopen in Oct of 2005 (which would only seem believable because it's the park's 100th anniversary), but I'm skeptical.
And, the thing about the toilet seat covers in the public restroom—it's true. I used to work as a day porter at Target, and was given the whole story from my manger. Keep in mind, the people who sued never asked for someone to lower the dispenser, but took it straight to court… We also had a restaurant in the surrounding area (Roy's Drive Thru) close because a disabled guest felt that they were discriminated against because some areas weren't handicap accessible. Since the restaurant couldn't afford to pay the large daily settlement fee each day that it was open without remodeling its grounds to be handicap accessible, and because it couldn't afford to do the remodeling, it closed. The person involved with the restaurant case is rumored to make his living from touring the country, looking for such lawsuits… Sickening, isn't it?