Adrian paced around in circles on the bridge over Splash Mountain's big drop, waiting for the Teegers to get off the ride. He wasn't alone—and not just because the crowds were everywhere. Barry, a large hulking guard who'd been assigned by Disney to make sure nothing happened to him, stood nearby with his arms folded across his chest. Adrian didn't like the way the man was staring at him so expressionlessly, but he considered Barry's presence a necessary evil.

"So, you been here long?" he asked the guard tentatively. Barry stared straight ahead, without even making an acknowledgement that he'd been addressed. Adrian shrugged and took a sip of Sierra Springs. "I guess you didn't know my wife, Trudy Ellison?" he pressed onward, "Most people here don't seem to. Funny, it wasn't that long ago that she was last here."

There was still no response from Barry. The sound of loud cheers caught Adrian's attention now. His gaze turned to the north. "Ah, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad," he remarked at the sight of the roller coaster, "Now that was Trudy's favorite ride. She'd go on it at least three times whenever she came here. Sometimes when she wasn't riding, she'd sit on one of the rocks there and just watch…"

He stopped abruptly. His eyes lit up. "You don't suppose…?" he remarked with just a tinge of excitement, "Maybe she left it…"

Before he could finish, however, there was a loud splash behind him as one of the log flumes fell down the drop. The next thing the detective knew, a cascade of water came splashing down on him. He yelped in discomfort and frantically started digging through briefcase number six for more paper towels.

"Mr. Monk, what's going on?" Natalie had appeared out of the crowd.

"Got to dry off!" Adrian whimpered out loud, wiping away at his suit with an entire roll of paper towels (it didn't matter, as he still had at least seven more backup rolls in the briefcase). Bystanders laughed at him, causing him to hunch over the railing.

"Mr. Monk, it's OK," Natalie took the roll out of his hands, "I'm sure the sun can get it dried."

"I'd like to make sure though," Adrian responded.

"Miss," Barry spoke for the first time, "I'll be standing watch for the rest of the day with you to ensure nothing goes wrong. Mr. Disney's orders."

"He speaks?" Adrian stared at him in wonder.

"Does that mean no more rides?" Julie looked disappointed.

"No, but we'll have to check to make sure they haven't been tampered with beforehand," Barry informed her.

"Better safe than sorry, he figures; Natalie, this way," Adrian weaved his way through the crowds toward big Thunder Mountain Railroad. "What, you want to go on THAT?" Natalie stared at the roller coaster in shock, "Forgive me, Mr. Monk, but have you been drinking?"

"No, and I couldn't be; they don't serve alcohol here; now which one was it?" Adrian was climbing up on the rocks surrounding the outermost track. "One of these was Trudy's rock," he told his surprised onlookers, "I wonder if she might have slipped the paper underneath one of them during….hello, what's this?"

Something inorganic was barely visible underneath one of the rocks. It looked very much like a faded piece of paper. Adrian scratched at the dirt around it with his claw until it was more visible. "Barry, a hand please?" he asked the guard.

"Why?" Barry asked in a monotone, uninterested voice.

"Because it's been in the ground for a long time, in the dirt, and I'm, well, me," the detective informed him. Barry shrugged and pulled it out from under the rock. He unfolded it and held it up. "Ah, the boss has been looking for this for a while," he remarked slowly.

Adrian stared at the paper with eagerness—that quickly faded. For he'd found little more than faded ride blueprints. "We can put this in the museum's exhibit of ride designs," the guard went on, "this'll enhance the display."

Adrian shook his head and trudged off in the general direction of Fantasyland. "So what, Mr. Monk," Natalie caught up to him, "I'm sure it's still…"

"Why bother?" he boss said slowly, "It's probably been destroyed by nature already. It's like climbing the Matterhorn—no offense," he pointed to the peak in the distance, "So where do we go now?"

"I don't want to wear them!" Molly protested.

"But this is a dangerous, wild ride, and I think we'd all like to be safe," Adrian told her.

"We drive a car around a track!" Josh pointed up at the Autopia sign now directly above them in line, "What could be dangerous about that?"

"Loads of things, believe me."

"Like?"

"Well, I don't have the entire list with me—left it at home by accident—but trust me, there's a lot that can go wrong," Adrian informed him. He reached into one of his briefcases and withdrew several crash helmets and shoulder pads. He put on a set of his own—to much derision by other people in line near him, who started laughing—and then extended several other pairs to the children (he'd been entrusted to take them on the Autopia while the other adults had gone to get a drink, although Natalie had her reservations). They recoiled away from his safety equipment. "Mr. Monk, we're not four years old," Julie told him firmly.

"Neither am I, but I'm not complaining," Adrian said in what passed for authoritativeness with him, "How, how about I give you each a hundred dollars if you put them on?"

"Just this once?" Molly raised her eyebrows.

"Cross my heart."

"Give us your address, then," Josh pulled out his autograph book and pen and pushed it into the detective's hands, "Just to make sure you follow through."

"Oh, don't you worry, I always follow through," Adrian said, filling out his address and phone number. The children—still reluctantly—put on his safety equipment. Within minutes they'd reached the front of the line. "Not, not quite yet, I still have take care of a few things before we launch," Adrian informed the person in line. He dug some more wipes out of a briefcase and proceeded to cleanse the steering wheel and accelerator. It took him four minutes, during which time the people behind him in line started grumbling loud enough to be heard, until he was completely satisfied it was germ-free. He climbed behind the wheel and tapped the pedal about a lightly as a person could. "Here, here we go," he remarked as they drove off onto the track—at about two miles an hour, "now this, this is what I call fun."

"Um, you may want to consider going just a little faster, Mr. Monk?" Julie pressed him, looking rather embarrassed at their slow pace.

"I guess I could, but that would be reckless endangerment," Adrian remarked. He was gripping wheels tight enough to crush it with both hands, "I wish they put airbags on these things, we're just asking for…"

"Hey buddy, you think you're going fast enough?" yelled the driver of the car directly behind him, who was right against the detective's rear bumper.

"Move it pal!" yelled another woman further back. A growing line of cars was forming behind Adrian's car, and the angry shouts were multiplying. "Keep your pants on!" Adrian yelled back at all of them, "This is not Daytona, people! We're trying to stay safe here!"

He eased his way carefully—perhaps too carefully—around a turn. "So I'm wondering," he asked the children, "What do you think Chalmers meant when he wrote the number 1,787 on the paper? I think that's the key to this whole mystery."

"How am I supposed to know?" Molly had her hand over her face.

"Don't, don't be too scared," Adrian misinterpreted her, "I'll slow up for you."

"If you slow up we'll be stopped!" Josh pointed out, but that didn't stop Adrian from practically taking his foot off the accelerator completely. Their car eased to a near stop in the middle of the track. At least eighteen cars that were now backed up behind him braked to a stop themselves. More angry shouts from the people driving them rose into the air. "Honestly, have you all got death wishes?" Adrian demanded at them, "I'll only go as fast as I safely can!"

And thus, it was an incredible twenty-five minutes later that the detective finally eased the car back into the station. Loud cheers rose up from the people behind him when he got out of the car. A rather impatient-looking Natalie was waiting for him by the exit. "So, do you think you were safe enough driving that car, Mr. Monk?" she had to ask him.

"I did good, I think I did good," Adrian naively remarked, fiddling with his collar for no apparent reason, "We all came back in one piece, that's all that matters. Boy, that's really a wild ride."

"At least there was no way I could lose you like that," Barry remarked, looking quite surprised himself that Adrian had driven that slowly.

"I'll expect you to pay up still," Josh informed the detective, "I'm keeping your address with me until I get the money."

"Right, right," Adrian remarked, "So, where to now?"

"Anywhere as long as you don't get to control the ride," Julie informed him. Seeing this made the detective's face sag, she qquickly added, "I don't mean that the wrong way, Mr. Monk, it's just…"

"I know, I know," his expression remained downtrodden, "I'm no fun to be around, I know."

"Now I wouldn't say that, Mr. Monk," Natalie tried to cheer him up.

"Well, what would you say?"

"Well…I don't know, but it wouldn't be in those exact words," she said, "How about Pirates of the Caribbean next? That should be fairly tame."

"I don't know," Adrian's face scrunched, "I, I don't do good with drops, I know it has drops."

"Something's not right here," the directive was fretting in the Pirates of the Caribbean line about an hour later. The ride had been shut down for "maintenance," since they'd gotten in line, but several park employees in costume had reassured everyone ahead of them that things would be moving against very shortly.

"Are you always paranoid about these things?" Sandy was starting to look worn-out by Adrian's mannerisms by now, "You haven't let up since we got in line."

"It's the drops, I can't just ignore the drops!" he half-screamed, "I get nervous just thinking about drops! And there's something that just doesn't fit here. And I can't figure out what 1,787 means. That's the key to…"

"We know, we know," everyone muttered out loud, "It's the key to this whole mystery!"

"Good, you're all catching on," Adrian remarked, apparently not noticing everyone rolling their eyes. It was at this moment that the CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE sign at the front of the line was removed to cheering by patrons. Slowly it inched forward until Adrian's party was at the front. Immediately the detective held up his hand to the man at the launch. He produced more paper towels and wiped down the seats of the ride boat. The man stared at him in wonder. "Wait, wait, don't get in like that!" he protested as the Kopeckis got into the boat, "You're not even like that!"

"What?" Paul stared at him in wonder.

"It should be short front, tall back, that would be even," Adrian pointed out. Sighing, the children got in the front seat. Adrian sat down with the other adults in the back. For all of five seconds. "Wait, wait, this, this still isn't right," he started to say, "We'd better switch back…"

The man at the dock, looking quite frustrated, abruptly pushed his lap bar down into the locked position, leaving him stuck in the back seat. "Or maybe not,' he said quickly. He turned around briefly to wave goodbye to Barry at the dock, then gripped onto the lap bar for all it was worth. "We're not going down the drop yet," Sandy informed him, more weariness showing through her voice.

"I'd, I'd like to be prepared for when we do reach it," Adrian told her. He felt guilty when he saw the fed-up look on her face. Indeed, everyone in his party looked fed-up. He lowered his head in shame. If there was one thing he hated, it was hurting the people close to him—or the people they cared for.

"I'll just not say anything anymore," he thought to himself, "I'll try and hold any more complaints in and try and be as close to normal as I can."

Thus, when the first drop came upon them, as much as he felt like screaming in terror, he strained hard and managed to keep his composure. "Well, that was quite fun," he remarked out loud, "That's, that's really--normal."

"It's what?" Natalie stared at him in wonder, "Are you sure you haven't been drinking, Mr. Monk?"

"Oh sure, this is, this is good, this is great, I've never had so much fun before in my life," Adrian continued, apparently not realizing his voice sounded completely phony, "I mean look at those skeletons over there," he pointed across the attention at the bony figure piloting a ship, "Isn't watching death great. I can't wait for the next drop, it'll be fun."

Natalie put a hand to his forehead. "Maybe it's a sunstroke without heat," she mused out loud as they plummeted down the second drop and found themselves going underneath the "cannon fire" bombarding the fort, "Maybe you're…"

Suddenly all the lights went out in the building, and the ride lurched to a sudden stop. "Now what?" Sandy groaned out loud, "Didn't they fix the ride?"

"Ow, who's squeezing my hand?" Paul demanded.

"Me," Adrian said softly in spite of his feelings. He wanted to add that he wanted Paul to hold him, but he had a gut feeling that would be asking for too much at the moment.

And then it hit him. "Natalie?" he asked through the darkness.

"Yes?"

"Before we launched, I saw Roger Chalmers walking out a door on the side of the building. He had a dark smile on his face."

It was at that exact moment that an unmistakably real cannon shot burst out from one of the ship's cannons into the fort, which to the horror of everyone present burst into flames. Within seconds the entire section of the building around them was a massive fireball. While Natalie and Kopeckis frantically smothered their children from the flames, Adrian sat back in his seat blankly. He didn't know what Chalmers had done to try and kill them, but at least in heaven he couldn't bother anyone…