Kingdom Keepers: Next Generation

Chapter 5: Spy Time

Sofia Whitman

A few hours later, with everyone gone and my younger siblings already in bed, my parents were taking advantage of the time to resume their earlier conversation. And I was listening, crouched just outside their door.

Lucas' plan started out simply. Find out everything we can about our parents' connection to Disney. The difference between this situation and our past efforts was that our parents were so on edge that they barely noticed our suspicion. At least, it seemed they didn't.

"Finn, I want to find him as much as you do," my mom said, "But it's just hard to believe they're back. It's been so long."

"I know." Dad said, "But after everything he's done for us, we owe him this, and Wanda too."

Him. It was a man.

"We were just barely 18 when this ended. After all of these years, this shouldn't be happening."

"I think we all know by now, anything is possible."

Mom was silent for a few moments. For a second, I thought I was busted. But she spoke again.

"What are we going to tell the kids?"

Dad sighed, obviously not having thought about this. "Oliver will watch them,"

"Oliver hasn't watched them since the last issue. They are going to get suspicious."

"They, or just Sofia and Lucas?"

"Charlene says Eli is getting suspicious. She found a box of books under his bed."

"Eli? Books?"

There was a thumping sound. I think my mom hit my dad with a pillow.

"Come on, Amanda," Dad said stifling a laugh, "He's just like Maybeck. Remember when he didn't do Philby's assigned reading before the cruise?"

"That's not the point, Finn," my mom said, "Our kids could be hiding things from us."

"They're teenagers. Of course they are hiding things from us. As we are them."

"We're hiding this to keep them safe, they are doing it for personal gain,"

"Don't get so mad about it, Mandy," Dad said, in an attempt to calm her down, "We don't even know for sure if they are. Let's just focus on trying to find Wayne and remodeling tomorrow."

At this point, I decided it would be better to go to Lucas with this than risk getting caught. Mom was already worked up, and her finding me here would be hard to explain.

Lucas's room was right next to mine. It used to have a door connecting it, but my mom closed it up when we were ten, for privacy.

I don't think I could get any more confused with this new information. At least now we had a name: Wayne. And something happening tomorrow night. It was a start.

I opened the door to Lucas's room quietly. He was on his computer, scrolling through an old article. In fact, he had several tabs open, all articles with a similar theme: The Kingdom Keepers.

"Hey,"

Lucas flinched so hard I thought he was going to fall off of his chair.

"God, Sof, you can't do that to me!"

"Sorry," I said, "I thought you heard me come in."

He shook his head, his eyes back on the computer.

"What are you reading?"

"Did you know Mom also was rumored to help out the 'Kingdom Keepers'? And Aunt Jess?"