Just as he passed out of sight, Dez made eye contact with Spencer. It was hard to see through his anger, but Spencer thought there might have been a glimmer of regret. But no matter what he’d seen in the bully’s eyes, it was too late now.
The deal was done.
Slick passed the bronze hammer to another worker, giving her instructions to take it somewhere safe. Then he casually strode toward the cornered Rebels.
“Father and son,” the Academy janitor said. “What a happy little family reunion! Maybe now you can put your heads together and tell me just what exactly was in that package?”
“Don’t answer, son,” Alan said. He put a comforting hand on Spencer’s shoulder.
But Spencer couldn’t have answered, not even to save their lives. Spencer glared at Slick, with his oily hair and dirty glasses. The janitor was wicked—a brutal henchman in the BEM’s ruthless plan to overgrow Toxites and turn kids’ brains to mush.
Spencer’s hand dropped to his tool belt. Maybe it was time for Slick to experience the terror of his own creations.
Spencer reached into the pouch where he’d once kept vacuum dust. Now his hand closed around something cold and slimy. Jerking it out by the tail, Spencer flung the gigantic Grime directly at Slick.
The janitor shrieked and lifted his hands. Several of the other BEM workers tried to strike, but the creature’s momentum was too great. The long tongue lashed out, coiling tightly around Slick’s neck. The dark mouth opened, drawing him in like a toad catching a fly in slow motion.
The Grime didn’t bite or chew. It took Slick whole. Its long, yellow body shuddered, neck expanding to accommodate the meal. Slick thrashed, and Spencer could see him punching and kicking all the way down.
Then the creature convulsed once, seeming to gag on something. The tongue flicked out as the Grime regurgitated one of the janitor’s steel-toed boots. The gooey mess landed with a thud on the floor of the locker room.
The scene was horrifying. The other BEM workers fell back, crowding at the doorway. Only a delicate thread of loyalty kept them from deserting. The Toxite’s throat expanded, filling with greenish slime. Then the giant Grime spewed a stream of viscous poison toward the doorway.
Without another moment’s hesitation, the BEM workers ran, their thundering footfalls and cries of alarm fading down the hallway. They didn’t want to find out who would be the Toxite’s next meal.
The huge Grime sprang onto the bank of metal lockers, forked tongue dancing out again. Alan drew back defensively. But Spencer had a theory.
Spencer had returned the relocated Toxite to its desirable habitat. It had taken a moment for the monster to realize it—a fatal moment for Slick. But now that the Grime was inside New Forest Academy, it clung calmly to the lockers and enjoyed the residual student brain waves.
Spencer gave a huge sigh of relief. The Grime’s head swiveled around. Suddenly noticing the father and son against the back wall, it gave a frightened swish of its broad tail and scuttled out the door to hide.
Alan looked at his son. The man’s mouth opened and closed a few times, unable to find words. He pointed at Spencer’s belt pouch, then gestured to the lockers where the Grime had been. When Alan spoke at last, he couldn’t complete his sentence. “That thing was ...”
“I know.” Spencer wiped his hand against his jeans. “Slimy.”
“Huge!” Alan squinted at his son’s tool belt. “What else have you got in there?”
Spencer scanned the locker room. “We’ve got to get out of here, Dad.” Alan nodded in agreement. “But what about the bronze hammer?” It was hard to leave empty-handed, especially since they had been so close to stealing the warlock tool. Slick had passed the hammer off to another BEM worker, but maybe it was still nearby.
Alan shook his head. “Forget it. The hammer’s long gone by now.” He ran a hand through his beard. “Just like we should be.”
Alan steered his son out of the locker room and into the empty hallway. A moment later, they burst out the door and onto the rec center steps.
“You guys all right?” Penny asked. “A dozen BEM workers just came out the front door with their tails between their legs. I was ready to fight, but they weren’t interested in sticking around. What happened in there?”
“Trap,” said Alan.
Daisy looked from Spencer to his dad. “Where’s Dez?”
For the second time, Spencer had to break the news. “Dez isn’t coming.”
Noise drifted through one of the rec center windows. Penny lifted her double mops defensively. “Let’s move.”
Without Dez, the group ran swiftly across the lawn. The campus was silent. That meant that either Walter had succeeded in escaping into the forest ... or he had been captured. Spencer wanted to find him—rescue him if necessary. But meeting up with Walter wasn’t part of the plan. The warlock was on his own.
The group sprinted down the road, the broken gate coming into view. One by one, they tapped their brooms and floated over the brick wall and the wreckage of the outer parking lot.
New Forest Academy was finally behind them. They raced down the road, the mountain surroundings still and peaceful. Their heavy breaths came out in frosty, moonlit plumes. The calmness of the night offset Spencer’s thumping heart as he ran through the cold air, side by side ... with his dad!
They paused anxiously at the side of the road as Penny ran into the trees to plunge the janitorial van from its hiding spot.
Spencer’s mind didn’t stop. It rolled over and over, imagining the joyous expressions his family would make when he walked into the house with his dad. It was a moment he had dreamed about so often. It was finally real!
“Son.” Alan’s voice cut through his thoughts. Spencer turned to face his father, standing beside him. Alan tried to tuck a strand of gnarled hair behind his ear, but it fell to shadow his face once more.
“They questioned you,” Alan said. “Didn’t they?”
Spencer nodded.
“What did you tell them about the package I sent?”
“Nothing, Dad.” Spencer felt a twinge of worry. “Everyone keeps talking about it, but ...” He swallowed. “I never got a package from you.”
Alan closed his eyes and ran a hand through his long beard. “Everything I worked for ...” He muttered the words like a eulogy.
“What was in the package, Dad?” Did he dare ask that question?
“I don’t know.” Alan opened his eyes. “I never looked. If I had opened the package, the BEM would have pried the information out of me. I couldn’t take the risk, so I sent it to you without looking inside.”
Daisy shook her head in disbelief. “So, the BEM locked you up for something you didn’t know anything about?”
Spencer looked at his father, eyes silently begging for an explanation. Penny suddenly emerged from the trees, the large van dangling weightlessly from the toilet plunger in her hands. She trudged up the slope and set the van onto the road.
“Come on,” Penny interrupted. “We’re not out of the woods yet.” The escapees quickly piled into the van, the cranking engine cutting through the darkness.
At last they were away, Penny driving them swiftly down the canyon. “Anyone behind us?” she asked.
“Nobody,” Daisy said, glancing out the back window. “I think we’re all safe.”
Penny exhaled a sigh of relief. “We’re not all safe.”
“Walter,” Spencer whispered.
He wondered again about the warlock janitor. Walter had sacrificed himself as a distraction. How long until they heard from him? What if Walter didn’t make it away? Would they ever know what happened?
“I need you to find him, Spencer,” Penny said, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Make sure he got out.”
Spencer’s heartbeat heightened and he glanced around the van for an excuse. “But I can’t ... I don’t know ...” He saw his dad, a puzzled look on his shadowy face.
“Here.” Penny slipped a ring from her finger and reache
d to the backseat. “It’s bronze. And it worked before.”
“Bronze?” Alan muttered.
Spencer took a deep breath. He felt Daisy steady his shoulders, preparing for a blackout. Penny dropped the ring into Spencer’s palm. His fingers closed around it, and the van exploded into a vision of white.
Chapter 56
“It’s time.”
The first vision took him back to New Forest Academy’s underground parking garage. It lasted only a moment through the eyes of Director Garcia. The warlock was silent in the chill darkness of the dumpster prison. Spencer was suddenly overcome by a wave of horrible claustrophobia. For a moment he almost lost track of his true location. Was he inside the dumpster prison, pressing hopelessly against the Glopified lid? Or was he in the back of Walter’s janitorial van, speeding away from New Forest Academy?
The claustrophobic feeling lasted only until Spencer realized that this was merely a vision. He forced himself to focus on the bronze ring in his hand, using it as an anchor to reality. But as the panicked feeling of confinement faded, Spencer considered the countless months his father had been prisoner. It wrenched at his heart, knowing what the BEM had done to Alan—the way they had mistreated him!
With his focus directed away from Garcia and the dumpster, the scene filtered into brightness. When the light dimmed, Spencer found himself running through dense foliage, his footfalls crunching on fallen leaves. He could see a puff of white vapor billowing from his mouth with every gasp of breath. Spencer’s Auran sense kicked in and he immediately knew that this was Walter cutting through the forest, one and a half miles southeast of New Forest Academy’s campus.
Walter slowed to a halt, and Spencer felt him lean against a tree. Glancing back through the trees, the old warlock squinted. Shouts cut through the forest, angry Academy teachers and BEM workers following Walter’s trail. The warlock janitor dropped to a crouch behind a bush, and the first woman passed him unnoticing. A man came into view, paused, and then darted off through the trees.
Walter let out the breath he’d been holding. Lifting himself from the bush, he cut up the hill, backtracking toward the Academy. The enemy was still after him, but at least for the moment, Walter Jamison was free.
A blinding whiteness pierced the forest. For a moment, Spencer wondered if the sun was rising. But it was much too soon for dawn, and the light spread until it claimed his whole spectrum of sight.
“They’ve escaped, sir.” Spencer heard the speaker’s voice before his sight returned. As the scene came into focus, he found himself in that familiar D.C. office, facing a janitor in tan coveralls. “No word from Slick yet, but reports from the Academy are coming in on every phone line downstairs.”
Spencer felt himself lean across the table. His voice was low, an attempt to suppress his obvious anger. “What about Garcia?”
The janitor shook his head, indicating that the Academy director was still unaccounted for.
The speaker inhaled sharply and righted himself. Spencer knew he was tall by the way the other janitor cowered.
“It’s time,” he said. The tone was unwavering and authoritative. Spencer felt the big man move around the glass-topped desk and head for the door. He didn’t rush, but his gait seemed measured and unstoppable.
“What word should I send to the Academy, sir?” asked the janitor. “Our men are tracking the warlock Jamison into the forest. Should they kill or capture?”
The big man stopped by the door. “Fah, Jamison! A perfect decoy! Those Academy fools played right into Jamison’s hands. It’s not the warlock they should be tracking.”
“I’ll tell them to pull back, to follow the others ...”
Spencer felt the tall warlock shake his head. “No more mistakes. I’ll deal with Zumbro.” His strong hand pulled open the door. “Ready the helicopter. We fly to Salem tonight.”
The other janitor’s face paled and he swallowed hard. “Not to the Academy?”
“Not yet,” the big man said. “Garcia has failed me. He will expect punishment. But I am still in need of his services. We will rescue Garcia from this miserable failure. Let him think he has escaped my wrath.”
Spencer’s vision began to fade into bleary light. He tried to hold on to the scene as the warlock’s final phrase left his lips.
“No one escapes the wrath of Mr. Clean.”
Acknowledgments
There are countless people to thank for helping this series take off. The ranks of Rebel Janitors are growing, so keep spreading the word!
Thanks to you, reader, for picking up this sequel. Thanks for meeting me at book signings and school assemblies. Your enthusiasm for the story inspires me. I hope you’ve had fun reading this, and I can promise lots of exciting surprises for the rest of the series.
Thanks to all the librarians, teachers, and bookstore associates who have helped share the story. I’ve been able to meet some of you and I appreciate your dedication to learning and literature.
I can’t say thanks enough to the amazing team at Shadow Mountain. You have honestly made my dreams come true. Thanks to Chris Schoebinger for making this all happen. To Heidi Taylor for helping me every step of the way. To Emily Watts for changing all my “affects” to “effects.” To Lois Blackburn and Roberta Stout for the intense amount of effort you put into my book tours and events.
Brandon Dorman, you did it again! Your fantastic cover art and illustrations are truly captivating. I know many readers who picked up the book off the shelf solely because of the artwork.
Thanks to my agent, Rubin Pfeffer, whose coaching keeps me motivated and encouraged. You are a great friend and mentor. I look forward to many more years.
Thanks to Lance, for our numerous discussions over fine cuisine.
To the McDonalds (my in-laws, not fast food). Thanks for your interest in me and everything I do.
I think I have the most supportive family ever! Thanks to Mom and Dad, Jess and Dave, Laura and Martin, Molly and Mike, and C and Hil. Thanks to my nieces and nephews, who are current (and future) fans of the books: Anna, Maren, Kira, Sadie, Quinn, Max, Mae, Grey, and Ruby.
Last, but not least: Thanks, Connie. Your support and love overwhelm me. Thank you for letting me chase my dreams.
Reading Guide
1. Spencer acts impulsively when he pulls the fire alarm at Welcher Elementary. When have you done something impulsive? How did it turn out?
2. Spencer uses jump ropes, a toilet plunger, and a broom to fly the family car away from Hillside Estates. How would you escape from the BEM if they surrounded your house?
3. Walter tells Spencer and Daisy not to go anywhere alone at New Forest Academy. When have you been in situations where there is safety in numbers?
4. Spencer didn’t recognize his dad’s voice when he talked to him in the dumpster. Is there someone you care about that you haven’t heard from in a long time?
5. Glopified duct tape is fingerprint sensitive and indestructible. What would you do with a roll of tape like that?
6. Slick pays each member of the brown team fifty dollars to stay quiet while he attacks Spencer. What could you buy with fifty dollars? What would you do if someone offered you money to do something wrong?
7. Meredith uses mashed potatoes to pass messages to Spencer. What food would you use to hide a message? Who would the message be for? What would it say?
8. Spencer’s Auran powers make it possible for him to see through the eyes of the warlocks. Whose eyes would you like to see through? Why?
9. Grimes cause distraction, Rubbishes cause apathy, and Filths cause sleepiness. Which Toxite would affect you the most?
10. In the end, Dez betrays the Rebels by staying at New Forest Academy. When have you felt betrayed or tricked? What did you do about it?
11. As an Auran, Spencer will no longer age. What’s the benefit of staying young? How would you feel if you stayed young while your friends and family got older? Why?
11. Director Garcia thinks New Forest Academy is superio
r to all other schools. What are three great things about your school?
Janitors 3, Curse of the Broomstaff Sneak Peek!
A secret society of Janitors with wizard-like powers continue their battle, and now, the stakes are even higher.
The Bureau of Educational Maintenance is after Alan Zumbro and this time they mean business—deadly business. Spencer, Daisy, and their little team of rebels must find the source of all magical Glop and destroy it before it can destroy the world as we know it. No small task with the BEM and their monster toxites at their heels. It’s a wild and dangerous ride as they follow the trail of clues all the way to the hiding place of the mysterious aurans: guardians of a secret landfill. What they discover there will change the way Spencer sees himself, not to mention the fate of the rebels.
“The Clean way.”
Mrs. Natcher’s chalk squeaked against the board, and Spencer shuddered at the sound. The teacher stepped away from the chalkboard so the students could see what she’d drawn. It was another story problem. And this time there was a pie chart to go with it.
Why did Mrs. Natcher have to ruin pie by turning it into a math problem?
Spencer sighed and picked up his pencil. He finished the problem quickly and still had time to double-check his work.
Class was different without Dez. Spencer found that it was much easier to finish his assignments without the bully’s grubby hands poking him. Dez’s absence, under any other conditions, would have been a great relief. But Spencer was troubled.
Three months had passed without any word from Dez. Under Slick’s persuasion, the bully had stayed at New Forest Academy. But Slick was long gone, eaten by his own overgrown Grime. So what was keeping Dez from coming home? Had the bully given in to the BEM? Was he truly one of them now?
Glancing around the classroom, Spencer saw that he was practically the first student finished with the pie chart problem. Daisy sat a few desks away, her nose an inch off the math notebook as she scribbled out numbers.
Janitors: Secrets of New Forest Academy Page 24