Walter handed the ink remover to Spencer, who studied the little bottle. It was pretty amazing what Glop could do. "Any questions?" Walter asked. The boy shook his head. "Let"s move on, then."
Penny turned back to the box on the coffee table. "Now comes the fun stuff. New supplies!"
Chapter 10.
"What about Dez"s stomach?"
We"ve got some fresh gear for you to take to the Academy," Penny explained. "We"re not expecting any trouble up there, but you might as well have something to fall back on."
"We didn"t bring the larger equipment inside," Walter said. "But we"ve got the usual for you out in the van. Standard broom, mop, pushbroom."
"And I know you"re familiar with this." Penny"s hand disappeared into the box and appeared with a few Ziploc bags of vac dust. "Freshly charged. Got it out of the vacuum cleaner earlier today."
She set the clear bags on the coffee table and reached back into the box. "A few more familiar friends," she said, tossing a handful of latex gloves onto the table. The first time Spencer had used such a glove, he had been stealing the magic warlock hammer from Walter Jamison. The wearer of the glove would be able to slip through anyone"s fingers without getting held down.
"Uncle Walter"s been pretty busy working on some new stuff, too." Penny tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. "You explain it, Uncle. I don"t want to steal your thunder." She handed him a chalkboard eraser.
"This isn"t new anymore," Walter said. "Like I explained, throw this against a wall and it explodes into a cloud of paralyzing chalk dust." He set it on the coffee table, and Penny added two more. "You have to be extremely cautious with the erasers. They work well in a room full of Toxites, or to escape from the BEM. But," Walter glanced at Dez, "anyone can get caught in the explosion." He turned to Spencer and Daisy. "Don"t use them unless absolutely necessary. The erasers should always be your last resort."
Penny withdrew another object from the box and handed it to Walter. He grinned as he held it up. It had a short handle and a red suction cup at the end.
Spencer raised an eyebrow. "A toilet plunger?"
"This little beauty should come in handy." Walter swung it around like a knight testing a new sword. "The handle is short enough to give you good maneuverability. A direct hit from the rubber end will kill most Toxites. But that"s not what makes the plunger special."
Walter crossed the room; Alice stepped away as he neared the couch. "What"s a Toxite"s natural reaction to being detected?"
"Run and hide," said Daisy.
"Exactly," Walter answered. "So let"s say you"re hunting Toxites in the teachers" lounge. A Filth knows it"s been seen, so it scurries under the couch." Walter thrust the toilet plunger, and the red cup suctioned onto the side of the leather couch. "No problem," he said. "Just move the couch."
With no apparent effort, Walter lifted the toilet plunger. The attached couch came off the floor, Dez and all. The bully let out a yelp and fell sideways onto the cushions. Walter took a few steps and set the couch down in the hallway. With a twist of the handle, the toilet plunger released from the couch. Walter smiled.
"Is this your idea of feng shui?" Alice asked. "I hope you"re going to put that back."
The warlock pulled a face like he"d been caught stealing cookies. With one movement, he latched the plunger to the couch and returned the furniture to its original arrangement.
"I don"t think I"m strong enough to do that," Daisy said.
"That"s the great thing about these plungers. They adjust the weight and balance of whatever you latch on to. A toddler could pick up this couch."
"What about a house?" Daisy asked. "Could you pick up a house?"
"The plunger has its limits," said Penny. "It can only clamp onto something that has a flat spot big enough for the suction cup. It will clamp onto a wall as tight as you"d like, but you won"t be able to lift it. The plunger can only pick up freestanding objects."
"What about a fridge?" Daisy asked.
Penny nodded.
"A bed?"
"Yep."
"A piano?"
"Yep."
"A grand piano?"
Penny held up her hands. "Do you know what freestanding means?"
"Sure." Daisy nodded. "It means it"s not hooked onto anything. What about a guinea pig?"
"No."
"But it"s freestanding."
Penny sighed. "It doesn"t have a flat spot big enough for the suction cup to take hold."
"What about Dez"s stomach? It"s pretty big," Daisy observed.
"Hey!" Dez"s arm jerked out in a spasm. His elbow buckled and his fist returned to punch himself in the mouth.
"We"re making these toilet plungers standard issue for the Rebels," Walter said. "You kids should have them too." Walter offered the plunger to Spencer. The boy eyed the red suction cup nervously.
"Has it been ... used?" Spencer asked.
"Oh, that"s another great feature," Penny said. "That thing will knock out the worst clogs."
Spencer stepped away. He could get by just fine without a toilet plunger.
"She"s joking," Walter said. "It"s brand-new. I took it straight from the store to my van, touched it to the Glop formula, and brought it here." Still somewhat reluctant, Spencer took the plunger by the wooden handle. He held it for only a moment, to prove that he could, before setting it on the table.
"That"s all for new supplies," Walter said. "We"ll give you a few mops and brooms for backup." He dusted his hands together. "That takes care of everything."
Spencer paused. A couple of mops and brooms along with the new cleaning supplies did not take care of everything. Walter was avoiding the most important thing. Spencer had been patient, but now it seemed that Walter was planning to leave without mentioning it.
"What about the Vortex?" Spencer asked. The room fell quiet. Penny lifted her eyebrows toward Walter. "What about Marv?" Spencer pressed. "You said he might be alive in there."
The old warlock ran a hand over his bald head. "I know what I said," Walter muttered. "And I believe it. More so now than ever."
"We"ve been running tests on the Vortex," Penny said, "trying to understand the way it works. The more we understand, the better chance we"ll have of finding Marv."
"Here"s what we"ve discovered," said Walter. "The Vortex is still highly charged and dangerous. It didn"t appear to lose its potency, even after you pierced it. The magic sealed around the hole you made. There"s still a rip, but it"s stable enough not to suck everything inside."
"So we decided to crack that seal," Penny said. "This time in a controlled environment."
"A couple of weeks ago, we set up a temporary lab at a Rebel middle school in Nebraska. A bare concrete room in the bas.e.m.e.nt. I knew I could pierce the bag and not get sucked in, as long as I held tightly. So I tried to pry open the Vortex and drain it, to get a glimpse inside. My efforts failed. The Vortex was too strong, and every attempt broke down the walls of the lab until it was unsafe to continue. But on our last attempt, we decided to let something get sucked in."
Penny nodded smugly and mouthed the words, "My idea!"
"I entered the experiment room with my cell phone and called Penny," said Walter. "She has one of those fancy new smart phones, so she started recording our conversation. Once the recording had started, I pierced the Vortex and let the magic happen. I saw the phone swirl above my head and fly into the bag."
"That"s when things got interesting," Penny cut in. "It got really noisy. From what I could hear on the phone, it was like a hundred TV channels playing at the same time. Then the phone went dead and I lost the call." Penny smiled. "But thanks to my new favorite app, I got the whole thing recorded."
"But we couldn"t make sense of it," Walter said, "no matter how many times we listened to the recording. There was just too much noise to filter without help. So we went to see a friend of mine. Guy by the name of Kenny-an audio genius. He filtered the recording layer by layer, isolating sound bytes and playing them for us one after another until we heard something we recognized." Walter nodded for Penny to take over.
The warlock"s niece reached into her pocket and withdrew her cell phone. She pressed a few b.u.t.tons, changed the setting to speakerphone, and held out the device. "Listen to this," she whispered.
Penny pressed "play" and the whole room seemed to freeze. Spencer and his mom were tilting forward with antic.i.p.ation. Dez was picking his nose, and Daisy"s big eyes refused to blink.
The recording was a mess of static. It hissed and fuzzed obnoxiously, Spencer counting the seconds as they rolled by.
"I can"t ..." he squinted. "All I hear is white noise."
Daisy squinted too. "How can you tell what color the noise is?"
There was a sudden break in the static wave. The hiss of nothingness fell away to reveal a deep, gruff voice in perfect clarity. "Hahaha! Gutter ball!"
Click.
The recording ended. It was silent in the Zumbro living room. Then Spencer, Daisy, and Alice started talking at once.
"Was that Marv?"
"He"s alive!"
"What did he say?"
Walter held out his hands. "Gutter ball." Walter repeated the recorded message and followed it up with a quick explanation. "It"s a bowling term. Marv loves bowling."
"So he"s alive in there!" Spencer said. Speaking it with conviction helped to melt away some of the guilt that lingered from Spencer"s decision to pierce the vacuum bag.
"That"s our Marv." Penny grinned. "No doubt about it."
"So ..." Daisy said. "Why is Marv bowling in the Vortex?"
Walter threw his hands in the air and gave a clueless chuckle. "All I know is what you heard. Marv is alive ... and seems to think he"s bowling."
"So what are we waiting for?" Spencer said. "If we know Marv can survive in there, then why don"t we send someone in to look for him?"
Walter scratched his head as he shook it from side to side. "Too risky," he muttered. "But I"m working on a plan. It"s going to take time, but I think-"
A popping sound interrupted Walter"s plan. Everyone turned their attention across the room as Dez began to laugh. Somehow, the bully had recovered the use of his legs, and while Walter and Penny explained their progress with the Vortex, Dez had quietly taken a second plunger from the box. Now he stood in the corner of the room, one hand on the toilet plunger as he balanced Aunt Avril"s antique grandfather clock above his head.
Chapter 11.
"Only in an emergency."
Put down that clock right now, young man!" Alice threatened.
"Chill out!" Dez set the grandfather clock back in its place.
Alice shook her head. "I will not be "chilled out." That is a priceless piece."
"I wasn"t going to drop it." Dez detached the toilet plunger with a twist of the handle. "I"m good."
Daisy rolled her eyes. "I don"t think you even try to be good."
"Why bother?" Dez spun the plunger in his hands. "Bad is the new good."
"That doesn"t even make sense," said Daisy.
Dez shrugged. "I heard it on a TV show." He set the plunger back into the box.
Walter and Penny traded a glance. "We"ve got to get him home," Penny said.
"Yeah." Dez looked out the window. "Where are we, anyway?"
"Hillside Estates," said Daisy.
Dez turned to Spencer. "I didn"t know you were a rich boy!" He rubbed his hands together. "Why haven"t I been taking your lunch money?"
"Penny," Walter said, "why don"t you take Dez out to the van? I"ll join you in a moment."
Penny crossed the room and put a hand on Dez"s shoulder.
"Maybe you could drop a few mops and brooms into the garage," Walter added.
"I"ll open the garage door." Alice walked out of the room.
Dez leaned over the Glopified objects on the coffee table, but Penny pulled him away. "Hey! I want my share of the stuff!" He reached for a chalkboard eraser, but Walter blocked his grasp. "Don"t you guys believe in sharing? Some of it"s mine ..."