Disney at Dawn Read Online Free Page B

came back to replace the DHI.
    He stepped out of the way as he heard footsteps approaching. The man arrived at the platform. Finn hid behind him. The man was big, with thick, heavy legs and broad shoulders. He looked a little foolish in his red-and-white-striped jacket and straw hat. He studied the checkerboard floor like a person trying to remember the code, bringing his thick hand to his scrabbly chin in contemplation.
    “White or black? Odds or evens?” Finn said, startling the man.
    The man spun around, his face a knot of anger. “You’re not allowed here,” he said in a deep, dry voice. Incredibly quickly for his size, he jumped toward Finn and swiped at him, his hands passing right through the DHI, at which point he stood up in astonishment, looking at his own hands as if they’d betrayed him.
    “One wrong step, and you fall,” Finn said, darting past the man and out onto the checkerboard floor. He concentrated on the idea of light— pure light. A DHI weighed nothing, and only weight triggered the tiles in the floor. But he knew he couldn’t maintain this pure state for very long. He had to lure the man out onto the floor quickly. There wasn’t much time.
    He tried another tack. “I’m a Cast Member,” Finn said, “like you.”
    “I don’t care. You’re not allowed up there,” he said. By saying this he confirmed he knew about the penthouse—Walt Disney’s former apartment—the secret room Wayne had offered the DHIs as a place to hide.
    An Overtaker ? Finn wondered. The group loyal to Maleficent, dedicated to changing the balance of power in the Parks.
    “I said you’re not allowed up there,” the man said.
    “White or black?” Finn said, his DHI standing on one of each.
    The pleasant warmth of the DHI gave way to a slight chill, and Finn knew the internal light was giving way to flesh and blood. He wished he understood how to control this transformation better, but that was for another time. He took advantage of his brief weightlessness and crossed the checkerboard floor to a platform that presented another three ascending staircases. He had one last trick left.
    The man stepped out onto the checkerboard, keeping his eyes on the squares. It was a long fall below—thirty feet or more, though the floor had been painted in perspective, which made it appear more like three hundred: a bottomless, rocky cavern. He took that in, and then, as he looked across at Finn, his face turned scarlet with anger.
    “You won’t talk your way out of this, son.” He stepped onto a black tile. Then another. He knew the pattern ! Making sure he avoided any two black squares in the same horizontal line, he progressed cautiously but quickly across the floor.
    Finn felt the DHI fading. He’d managed to maintain it for a minute or more, but he suspected he weighed something now. Would he trip the sensors that opened the floor, or could he make it across?
    His plan was to run right through the man. He believed if he concentrated, he could summon his pure DHI for the fraction of a second it would take to pass through him. In doing so, he was certain to cause the intruder to misstep, which would send him plummeting. But Finn would have to move quickly to avoid being on the floor when it fell out and gave way.
    He stepped out onto two black squares. He could feel his weight on his feet. He was about equal parts boy and DHI. How much longer ?
    The Dapper Dan stopped halfway, his face a scowl. Then something occurred to him, and he belched out a laugh. “Going to wrestle me, are you?” He grinned mischievously. “I’ll save you the trouble.” His right foot reached out for a white square.
    Finn had not considered that the fastest way for the man to catch Finn was to make Finn fall with him.
    Finn ran forward on the black tiles, simultaneously letting go of all fear. He felt the warmth return like a blast from a furnace. But well before he reached the other side—in fact, before he even reached his adversary—the