"There is one way to find out for sure," Walter said. "The Aurans use bronze objects to locate the three warlocks. Something about the metal makes a conduit for their visions."
"But I don"t even have anything made of bronze," Spencer said.
"Think back to the times it happened," Walter said. "In the princ.i.p.al"s office, for example. Did you touch something that could have been bronze?"
"No," Spencer said. "I was just trying to pick up some papers ..." He suddenly remembered the elephant paperweight. Could it have been bronze?
"But what about when I shook Penny"s hand?" asked Spencer. He was desperate to prove this theory wrong.
Penny held up her hand and pointed to a ring on her finger. "I wasn"t sure what kind of metal it was at first, so Walter took it in to a jeweler to ask." She nodded. "Bronze."
And the fancy doork.n.o.b on New Forest Academy"s library must have also been bronze ...
Walter reached into the cargo pocket of his pants and withdrew Ninfa, his bronze warlock hammer.
"Take hold of this." Walter extended the handle of the hammer. "This is pure bronze. There shouldn"t be a better conduit."
Spencer"s mind was swimming. He"d never gone into these visions knowingly. They were disorienting and uncomfortable. It was one thing to stumble into them, but Spencer didn"t know if he had the courage to willingly grasp the hammer.
"A true Auran should have the ability to see all three warlocks," Walter said.
"I can"t hold on that long," said Spencer. "I"ll pa.s.s out again."
"You must try, Spencer." Walter was serious. "If you succeed, this moment could provide the greatest advantage that the Rebels have had since the BEM defected."
"What do you mean?" There was a bitter taste in Spencer"s mouth.
"The ident.i.ty of the warlocks has always been kept secret, known only to those in the innermost circle of the Bureau," Walter explained. "When I discovered one of the warlocks, it didn"t take me long to steal Ninfa and replace him. But in so doing, I revealed myself as the new warlock. The BEM has held that information over the Rebels since day one. If you truly have the power of the Aurans, Spencer, you will be able to level the playing field. You will be able to uncover the ident.i.ty of the other two warlocks and tell us where they"re hiding."
"What if I can"t?" Spencer said. "What if I can only see through you?" But Spencer knew that wasn"t true. He"d already had visions through more eyes than Walter"s.
"Penny, Daisy," said Walter, "give him some support from behind." They moved around Spencer and took him by the arms. Walter stared at the boy with intense eyes. "Once you grab on, I"m going to hold your hand around the hammer so you don"t slip off, okay?"
Spencer nodded, and a shiver ran down his spine. He reached out a hand and wrapped his fingers around the bronze handle of Ninfa.
Chapter 44.
"We have to test him."
It started as p.r.i.c.ks of bright light, like stars that outshone the sun. In less than a heartbeat, the brilliance had escalated to an intolerable level. Spencer closed his eyes as the familiar harsh whiteness clawed its way into his vision.
He was standing in the parking lot of a truck stop, nineteen miles northeast of Boulder, Colorado, staring at ... himself! The experience was so disorienting that Spencer almost couldn"t make sense of it. Then he remembered-he was seeing the scene through Walter Jamison"s eyes.
"Hold him!" Walter said, wrapping his hand over Spencer"s to keep it in contact with the hammer. Spencer saw himself go limp. Daisy and Penny supported him under the arms.
"Is he all right?" Daisy asked.
Penny reached up and pressed a hand to Spencer"s neck. "I"ll watch his pulse," she said. "First sign of trouble and we let him go."
"We have to test him," Spencer said. But it wasn"t Spencer speaking, it was Walter. "We have to know if he"s capable of finding the other warlocks."
Ahh! It was so confusing. Spencer felt his mind stretching to its limit. Couldn"t they just take his hand off the hammer and let him relax? But Walter was determined to push Spencer to the brink of his newfound power.
Spencer tried to relax his brain and focus on the bronze. If the metal was the conduit for these visions, then it must hold the key to seeing the other warlocks.
It began again, pinpoints of light that rushed together into a ma.s.s of whiteness. Then it faded and Spencer found himself in Washington, D.C. The time zone difference meant that night had already dropped around the government building, leaving dark windows.
He was in that office again, the one with the neutral paint job and the framed crest of the BEM hanging on the wall. A woman stood in front of him, wearing dirty janitor coveralls.
His hands pounded on the gla.s.s countertop of the desk and the woman flinched. "The whole operation was a failure, in my opinion!" The man"s voice was deep and laced with anger. "If the kid really doesn"t know anything about the package, then they should have disposed of him!"
"Yes, sir," the woman said.
"And tell those blundering idiots at the Academy that if they"re not man enough to do the job, then I"ll do it myself ... the Clean way."
"Yes, sir." The woman started to back out of the room.
"One more thing," the man said. But Spencer couldn"t keep the focus. Inadvertently, his mind had returned to the bronze hammer in his real hand. It seemed like the only thing rooting him to reality, but the shift of attention caused the scene to dissolve into blinding brilliance. He had one more stop to make.
This time he was standing in a dim, multilevel parking garage, 117 feet below ground. It was quiet and secure, surrounded on all sides by thick concrete. The only sounds came from a humming fluorescent bulb overhead and the click of the man"s hard shoes as Spencer sensed himself walking forward.
A large object came into view, tucked against the back wall of the underground garage. As the man strode forward, Spencer saw it clearly. It was a metal dumpster with a line of silvery duct tape around the black lid!
The man approached the dumpster, grasped the edge of the tape, and jerked it violently away. He pushed up the dumpster"s black lid and a bit of fluorescent light found its way inside, illuminating the face of a man.
It was the dumpster prisoner.
He crouched in the darkness, looking thin and frail. Snarly brown hair fell to his shoulders and a thick beard and mustache concealed his face. But two blue eyes peered up through the hair in defiance.
Then the warlock, with a shred of duct tape still stuck to his hand, shouted a single angry sentence. His voice carried the hint of a Spanish accent, and Spencer knew exactly who it was. But the shock didn"t come from knowing that Director Carlos Garcia was the third warlock. The shock came from what he said to the dumpster prisoner.
"Your son has ruined everything!"
Chapter 45.
"You"re sure about this?"
Spencer opened his eyes-his real eyes. He looked all around, testing to make sure that he had total control over his body. Walter stood in front of him, Ninfa in hand. Daisy and Penny still held him under the arms. Long shadows, cast from skeletal leafless trees, slanted across the truck stop parking lot.
"We have to go back!" Spencer blurted.
"Back where?" Walter asked, forcing eye contact with the boy.
"New Forest Academy," Spencer said. "There"s a parking garage, bottom level, 117 feet below the main building." He knew the location without the slightest doubt. "My dad"s down there!"
The last sentence was hard to get out. He finally knew where his dad was! Not dead, as he had so often feared, but trapped in a Glopified dumpster sealed with indestructible, fingerprint-sensitive duct tape.
"He"s been there all week!" Spencer said. "My dad is the dumpster prisoner!"
It was difficult to believe that Spencer had carried on an entire conversation with him in the parking lot that first night. Why hadn"t his dad told him who he was? Why hadn"t Spencer recognized that voice? The memory of their brief and ominous meeting was maddening.
"But I thought they moved the dumpster prisoner," Daisy said.
"They moved him into the parking garage beneath campus." Spencer gritted his teeth in regret. "I should have stayed and watched instead of running back to the dorm." The clues were falling into place. "A truck picked up the dumpster, and I thought they were taking him far away. But do you remember how the gate mysteriously opened that night while we were climbing over it? They must have opened it to let the truck and dumpster inside."
"But how did they get it so far underground?" Daisy asked.
Spencer already had the answer. "When we first got to the Academy, there was a deep construction pit that Director Garcia told us led into the underground garage. They filled in the pit the very next day, once the dumpster prisoner-Dad-was lowered down!"
"You"re sure about this?" Walter cut in. "The Aurans only have the ability to see the three warlocks. How could you have seen your father?"
"I saw him through the eyes of Director Garcia," Spencer said. "Garcia is a warlock!"
"And the other one?" Penny asked.
"Someone in Washington ... I didn"t learn his name."
"That"s the BEM headquarters," Penny said.
Walter nodded. "They"ve divided their power. One warlock to rule over the BEM janitors, the other to govern New Forest Academy."
"We have to go back," Spencer said.
"Yes," Walter answered. "I will begin a.s.sembling a team. We"ll have to be heavily armed. We should be able to mount a raid in a couple of days."
A couple of days? Spencer felt his excitement rush away, and an old feeling returned-that familiar feeling of despair that threatened to overtake him whenever he thought about his dad.
"No, Uncle." All eyes turned to Penny. "We have to go now."
Walter shook his head. "It"s too dangerous for the children. We"ll drop them off and return with a team of experienced janitors-"
"They," Penny pointed at Spencer and Daisy, "are experienced janitors. And they know their way around New Forest Academy"s campus." Penny turned to Spencer. "Do you know any way we could get into the underground garage?"
Spencer thought for a moment. Besides the construction pit, which was now filled in, Spencer had never seen a way for a car to drive underneath the school. But maybe the garage wasn"t really meant for cars. Maybe it was just a hidden s.p.a.ce for the Academy to store important things like the dumpster prisoner. Like the secret tunnel that connected the rec center to Slick"s main office. Spencer tried to remember if he had seen any other secretive pa.s.sageways. Then it hit him.
"There"s a wooden pallet in Slick"s janitorial office. It lowered into the ground like a kind of elevator."
Penny looked at Walter. "These two know what they"re doing, Uncle. If they guide us into the Academy tonight, it will be a quick job. In and out."
"We can"t wait a few days," Daisy said. "What if they move the dumpster again?"
It was three against one. Walter shifted uneasily for a moment, but Penny"s arguments were infallible. At last, the warlock turned to Spencer. "Do not mention this to your mother."
Spencer grinned. If they succeeded in rescuing his dad, Spencer wagered his mom would be so happy she"d never even ask how they had done it.
"I need to meet up with Meredith," Walter said. "Hopefully she"s not far out of town yet. I"m going to give her the hammer and nail, just in case we don"t ..." the warlock janitor trailed off. Pulling a cell phone from his pocket, he strode away from the others.
"You heard my uncle," Penny said. "We"ll have to be heavily armed to break into New Forest Academy." She waved the two kids toward the van. "Let me show you what Uncle Walter"s been working on lately."
Penny reached into the back of the vehicle and pulled out a thick canvas tool belt. There was a large buckle on the front and many clips, pouches, and straps along the sides.
"Janitors use tool belts any time they have a major project in the school, so Walter figured it would be safe enough to experiment with one. Good idea, too. I"m sure you two have noticed by now that it gets pretty c.u.mbersome carrying all that Glopified gear everywhere you go."
Daisy and Spencer nodded. It was hard to hold more than two objects, especially while trying to use them.
"This should fix the problem," Penny said. She held up the belt and pointed to the pouches on one side. "These are quick-access pouches. Great for storing vac dust or chalkboard erasers. The pouches are actually a lot bigger than they look. You"ll be surprised what will fit into them, as long as it"s small enough to go through the opening. Spill-proof, too. Nothing comes out unless you pull it out."
Penny pointed to some metal tool clips on the belt. "On the other side you"ve got these U clips. You can put anything with a handle into these clips and the belt will hold it tight. But it"s even cooler than that."
Penny held up a finger to pause. She reached into the back of the van and grabbed a pushbroom with a long handle. Penny snapped the handle into one of the U-shaped clips, like a type of holster. As soon as the U clip gripped the wooden handle, the whole bottom half of the pushbroom disappeared. Only a few inches of the handle were visible above the metal clip. For emphasis, Penny ran her hand below the belt. Where the rest of the pushbroom should have been hanging, nothing was tangible.
"So the whole belt is Glopified?" Daisy asked.
"Yup," Penny said. "Practically weightless, too."
"That"s awesome," said Daisy. "Why hasn"t Walter pa.s.sed these out to the Rebels?"
Penny glanced over to where the warlock stood, talking on his phone. "Well ..." She scratched her head. "This isn"t actually the final product." She pointed at two more belts in the back of the van. "These are just his early attempts. Uncle Walter has been working on the Glop formula for quite a while." She strapped the tool belt around her thin waist. "These are the closest he"s gotten, but there are still a few hiccups he"s trying to work out."
"Like what?" asked Spencer.
"Sometimes the supplies get a little stuck. Let"s see ..." She reached across with her right hand and grasped the handle of the pushbroom. As she drew it from the tool belt like a sword, the weapon snapped out of the U clip and the whole thing suddenly became visible. "Oh, good. Worked that time." She leaned the pushbroom against the van. "Sometimes you really have to tug."
"That"s not so bad," Daisy said.
"Well, that"s not actually the only problem ..." Penny hesitated. "Sometimes the supplies actually backfire when you unclip them. But that"s about it." Penny unbuckled the tool belt and put it back into the van by the other two. "I think we should take the belts. But I can tell you right now, Uncle Walter"s not going to like that idea."
"Actually," Walter said, coming up behind his niece as she reached in the van, "I think we might as well wear them." Penny raised her eyebrows, so Walter explained. "We can charge in there with just a mop in each hand. Or we can take some backup supplies in the belt. In either case, we still have a mop in each hand, even if the belt malfunctions." Walter smiled. "Don"t look so surprised, Penny. We"re going to need everything we"ve got to break into the Academy. Four against ... how many?"
"We can take "em." Penny picked up the pushbroom that had been leaning against the van. "Let"s lock and load."