"Oh no, son. The Bureau of Educational Maintenance ain"t crazy." Slick smiled. "It"s genius."
"Did you say something about a genius?" A new voice came from the doorway.
Slick leapt in surprise and spun around, dropping the extension cord in his haste.
Min stood a few feet away, holding a feather duster in his hand like a sword. Slick gave an embarra.s.sed chuckle when he saw who had frightened him. Then the greasy janitor reached toward a pushbroom against the wall.
"I suggest you don"t move another inch," Min said, his face like stone.
Chapter 35.
"Do you understand?"
Slick paused. "Ain"t never seen a Glopified duster like that, kid. You can"t scare me."
Min held up the feather duster. "This is a new product, sent to me straight from the Rebel Underground. It hasn"t yet been tested on a human." Min c.o.c.ked his head. "Walter didn"t want me to, but I"d be happy to make you the beta trial."
"You Academy brats are all the same," Slick said. "Think you"re so smart."
Min put both hands on the thin handle of the duster. Sighting down the shaft, he closed one eye and took aim at the janitor"s face. "A simple twist of this handle will send every feather from this duster into your respiratory system. Entering through any available orifice, they will then lodge themselves in your trachea and bronchus. Pulmonary failure will be imminent. Do you understand?" Min tightened his grip on the feather duster. "Or would you like me to get technical?"
Slick glanced one last time at the pushbroom, but Min clucked his tongue disapprovingly. The janitor lifted his hands in the air and retreated slowly to the back wall. Spencer rose from the chair, testing the strength of his legs, preparing to run if necessary. But Min, ever calm and composed, drove Slick back with the feather duster. The janitor stepped onto a wooden pallet, stumbling in his heavy black boots.
"You ..." Slick threatened. "You ain"t seen the last of me." A chain, extending from the ceiling, was bolted securely into the wooden pallet. Slick"s hand darted out. Catching the chain, he gave a hard downward tug. Instantly, the wooden pallet under him plummeted down a dark shaft, carrying Slick out of sight.
Min twisted the handle of the feather duster, but the only movement in the room came as a new pallet fell from the ceiling, clanking down the chain until it fit snugly over the dark shaft.
"What happened?" Spencer shouted. Slick was gone in the blink of an eye. Spencer turned to Min. "The duster ... why didn"t it work?"
"I"m sure it works fine," Min said, tossing the item to the floor, "for dusting shelves."
"But, it"s Glopified ... right? Where did you get it?"
"I found the feather duster upstairs, in the closet where I rescued Daisy and Dez. It seemed improbable, but I tried threatening Dez with it first. He seemed to be genuinely frightened, so I wagered the janitor would be also." Min made a belittling smile. "I find it truly absurd that the man believed I could harm him with a duster."
"What now?" Spencer said. "Is Walter here?"
"Actually," Min said, "I have no idea who Walter is."
"But you said-"
"All part of a carefully calculated fabrication. I used terms and references that I had read in your e-mail to give validation to my threats."
"So you"re not really part of the Rebel Underground?" Spencer said.
"Never heard of it until I read your e-mail."
"And the duster?" Spencer pointed to the item on the floor. "What does it really do?"
Min gave a blank stare. "It removes dust."
"Right," Spencer said, realizing that Min still didn"t believe that janitorial supplies could be Glopified. Regardless, Spencer was amazed by the boy"s ability to come up with such a convincing lie.
"You had the misfortune of not following my advice," Min said.
"What do you mean?" Spencer asked.
"You left the safety of the team again. I saw you and Daisy exit the cafeteria during dinner. When you never returned, I became concerned. Slick told Director Garcia that you had all taken ill and he"d driven you to the hospital in Denver. Having read your e-mail, I knew that you had concerns about your safety at the Academy, particularly in regard to Slick. I put two and two together, took the square root of the sum, and decided that you had been kidnapped."
"How did you know to find me here?" Spencer asked.
"I saw Slick taking lunch trays from the cafeteria. He led me right to you."
"There was more on that tray than lunch," Spencer said, remembering Meredith"s mashed-potato message. "Where are Daisy and Dez? We"ve got to get out of here."
"I sent Daisy and Dez to the recreation center to join the other recruits," Min said.
"I think I know a shortcut to get there," said Spencer. He crossed Slick"s office until he came to a panel of cupboards. Remembering which one opened to the tunnel, he reached out and grabbed the little handle.
Whiteness. Blinding flashes that overtook his vision.
He was riding in a sw.a.n.ky elevator with wooden paneling and carpeted floor. His sense told him immediately that he was moving upward, pa.s.sing the sixth floor of the building. The elevator chimed and the shiny doors parted. Spencer stepped onto the seventh floor, moving with purpose down a wide hallway. He encountered several people, but they all cowered in his large shadow. They looked down respectfully, not daring to speak. At the end of the hallway, a white light grew, flooding the pa.s.sageway and overtaking his vision again.
Spencer blinked against the whiteness, felt Min helping him back to his feet. Ahead of him, the cupboard door swung on its hinges to reveal the secret pa.s.sageway.
Spencer shook his head, trying to forget about the sudden vision. He couldn"t allow anything to distract him from the immediate task ahead. Meredith was waiting for them in the parking lot, but they had to get out before Slick showed up again.
"This should lead to the rec center," Spencer said. Together, the two boys stepped through the opening.
Chapter 36.
"We can"t go."
Spencer and Min kicked open the cupboard door and stumbled into the rec center janitorial closet. Everything was still powdered in white chalk dust. Spencer and Min left new footprints as they maneuvered past boxes and shelves, emerging at last into the hallway beyond. If Daisy and Dez were with the other recruits, then they must be in one of the gyms because Spencer didn"t see anyone in the hall.
The boys checked a few empty gyms before Spencer reached a racquetball court at the end of the hall. He tested the small door, but it didn"t budge. Either it was locked or something heavy was blocking it from the inside.
"They could be in here," Spencer called to Min.
"Spencer?" Daisy"s voice drifted down a nearby stairwell. In a second, she appeared at the top of the stairs.
"There you are!" Spencer said. "Come on! Meredith"s waiting for us in the parking lot!"
But Daisy"s eyes were wide and filling with tears. "We can"t go," she said.
"What are you talking about?" Spencer ran up the stairs, Min close behind. Dez was at the top of the hallway with Daisy, leaning against the wall.
Daisy pointed to an observation window that overlooked the racquetball court. "We have to get them out." Her voice was choked with emotion.
Spencer stepped forward. When he reached the window and looked into the racquetball court below, his stomach churned, threatening to push out the food he"d just eaten.
There were probably thirty recruits below, wearing handkerchiefs of blue, red, and green. They were crowded into the racquetball court, frazzled expressions on their faces. Some showed signs of crying; others were curled up on the floor.
Thick, orange extension cords littered the floor like wet spaghetti noodles, maybe half a dozen. One end of each cord was plugged into a power strip along the wall of the court. But the other end made a gruesome connection with the flesh of a Toxite.
Filths, Grimes, Rubbishes ... the monsters hunched invisibly, drinking in the brain waves of the Academy recruits and hissing out breaths of grogginess, distraction, and apathy. Electricity flowed through the Glopified extension cords, fueling unnatural growth in pulsating waves.
Chapter 37.
"I love breaking things."
Spencer backed away from the racquetball court"s observation window, horrified by the scene below. The students were trapped down there! Growing Toxites sapped away their brain waves, and Spencer remembered what Slick had said about long-term exposure to the Toxite breath. If the students didn"t get out of the court soon, their brains could turn to mush!
Then Spencer saw something that made the whole situation painfully real.
Jenna was down there!
She sat in the corner, shoulders slumped like she didn"t care about anything in the world. She had the most awfully bored look on her face, and Spencer could see tears staining her cheeks. Behind her, a Rubbish pulsed and glowed. Having already expanded to the size of an eagle, the monster had to be spewing terribly potent breath.
A figure suddenly appeared on the stairway. The kids turned to see Director Carlos Garcia striding toward them, his hands casually tucked in the pockets of his slacks.
"You were absent when we pa.s.sed out the envelopes," Garcia said as he crested the stairs. "It was a tough decision, but the winning team really came forward at the end." He rubbed his chin. "The brown team has been accepted to New Forest Academy."
"What?" Daisy shrieked. "The brown team won? Like, Dez"s brown team?"
But the bully didn"t look like a winner. He was unusually quiet and pressed against the wall, far from the observation window.
Min looked crushed, his hopes and aspirations for the Academy coming to a fast close. He must have been rescuing Spencer when the announcement was made. Lucky thing, too, or he would be trapped down in the racquetball court with the rest of the Academy rejects.
"Fine," Spencer said. "I don"t really care who won. But there"s something bad going on down there." He pointed to the window. "We"ve got to get them out. Now!"
"These others," Garcia gestured to the window, "did not meet our qualifications to study here." His tone was somber, like that of a parent telling a child that the family dog must be put down. "And now we must let the old forest burn."
Spencer turned to him, cruel realization dawning at last. "You know ... ? You know what"s happening!"
"You"ve been working with Slick all along!" Daisy accused. "You"ve been helping the BEM take over the school!"
Director Garcia shook his head. "The BEM has no need to take over New Forest Academy." He paused. "They founded it."
Spencer felt a tingle pa.s.s through his body. What was Director Garcia saying? The BEM was the founder of New Forest Academy?
Garcia looked back to the observation window. "With its left hand, the BEM destroys every shred of compet.i.tion. It lets Toxites run wild, polluting every traditional school and rotting the brains of anyone who opposes it. Then, with its right hand, the Bureau raises up a safe school, a clean school-an exclusive Academy where only the strongest can attend."
Spencer pointed into the racquetball court. "But they are the strongest. They are the smartest!"
"Unfortunately, brilliance is not the only criteria," Garcia said. He closed his eyes. "Their personalities are not right. They"re ... too loyal, too honest. They don"t have what it takes to fight their way to success. They"re too afraid to step on their friends to get to the top."
So that was why the cutthroat brown team had won! The Academy was sifting through everyone, looking for the most self-serving, aggressive, manipulative students. That was who the Academy was choosing to educate while everyone else fell by the wayside, rotted out by Toxite breath. Spencer turned back to the students trapped below.
"Who cares if they didn"t make it into your Academy!" Spencer shouted. "They"re innocent! Just let them go home!"
"I can"t do that." Garcia stepped away from the observation window. "Those kids down there represent the greatest threat to the BEM"s plan. If they go home, they"ll continue to learn and develop, doing all they can to resist the Toxite breath. We can"t let that happen." Director Garcia put a hand on Spencer"s shoulder. "In order for the new forest to rise, the old forest must burn."
"They"re not trees!" Spencer jerked away from Garcia. "They"re human beings, with thoughts and hopes!"
"Calmate," Garcia held out his hands. "They won"t die down there, Spencer. We"re just helping them find their place in society"s future. They will simply be followers. They will still be able to lead normal lives. But they will never be ... great."
"How can you say that?" shouted Spencer. "How can you decide their future?"
"I have been chosen to judge them," Garcia said. "It is a difficult task. I do not enjoy it, but it is necessary to ensure the BEM"s success. The Bureau takes no risks. Everything must burn in order to establish New Forest Academy"s dominion over education."
Spencer didn"t want to know what other diabolical plans the BEM might have. It was enough to know that they had founded an elitist school to educate a select few while the brains of thousands of kids across the nation were rotting from Toxite breath.
Director Garcia was saying something else, but Spencer couldn"t stand to listen. No one heard the soft snap as the Ziploc bag opened in Spencer"s coat pocket. No one noticed as he pinched a bit of vac dust between his fingers.
Spencer leapt forward, hurling the puff of dust toward Director Garcia"s face. At the last second, the man turned aside and the dust went past. Garcia lunged, shoving Spencer to the floor. On his way down, Spencer pulled the Ziploc bag from his coat and tossed it to Daisy. Garcia whirled around, but the girl was too fast. The suction from Daisy"s palm blast caught Garcia and pulled him instantly to the floor.
"All right." Spencer picked himself up and faced his three comrades. Min"s eyes were a little wider than usual as he stared at the suctioned director. "We"re going to have to split up if we want to get everyone to the parking lot."
Spencer turned to Daisy. "Take Min to the stash. Gather everything we"ve got. Once you"ve got it, do what it takes to get that front gate open."
"What about me?" Dez said, still standing with his back to the wall. It was the first thing Dez had uttered, and Spencer wondered at his silence.
"You"re staying with me," Spencer said. "I"ll need your help to break into the racquetball court and rescue the recruits."