Secrets Of New Forest Academy Part 21

"Or maybe he found out what's wrong with you," said Daisy. "You know, your fainting problem."

Or, Spencer thought, maybe he's discovered something about my dad.

No sooner had the hopeful thought taken root in his mind than a brown van appeared down the road, kicking up a wake of autumn leaves. Spencer felt the anxiety build as the van drew up and came to a stop in front of them.

Penny leapt out of the pa.s.senger seat, red hair s.h.i.+mmering in the sunlight. Her usual letter jacket was flung over one shoulder so the gymnastics patch hung upside down. She went to the back of the large van and opened the rear doors. "Jump in," Penny said.

Spencer and Daisy climbed into the back of the cluttered, strange-smelling van. Walter looked over his shoulder from the driver's seat and greeted them.

"Where are we going?" Daisy asked as the van rolled away.

"Somewhere we can talk," said Walter. "Penny and I have learned a lot in the last week."

"About what?" Spencer probed.

"About New Forest Academy." Walter looked at Spencer through the rearview mirror. "About you."

Chapter 42.

"Why's this so important?"

They bounced off the dirt road and into the residential neighborhood. Walter merged onto a freeway, heading in what seemed like the direction of home. Penny pa.s.sed some food to the kids as they drove: apples, granola bars, and some salty potato chips. Spencer was glad to have something to snack on. It kept his mouth from asking questions-questions that Walter refused to answer until they got safely away.

Spencer was looking for a place to dispose of his apple core when he saw a familiar object nestled on one of the van's dusty shelves.

His apple core forgotten, Spencer reached forward, gently touching the papery material. It was the Vortex vacuum bag. In the side of the bag he saw the tear. It was only a small hole, torn by a sharp pencil in Welcher Elementary School. It seemed so long ago that he had ripped the Vortex and unleashed the overcharged magic.

Last time he had seen the bag, he'd been overwhelmed by grief at Marv's loss. But something was different this time. Marv was still alive in there. And from what they'd heard from that brief recording on Penny's phone, the big janitor might be bowling!

Spencer leaned closer to the shelf. There was a stack of papers under the vacuum bag. They looked like pages torn from a notebook. Nothing out of the ordinary, but the heading on the first page, scrawled in Walter's steady hand, instantly caught Spencer's attention.

Operation Vortex Spencer slid the vacuum bag aside to see the full page. There was a list in the top corner-an a.s.sortment of ingredients. Some items had been crossed out, others circled.

Glop formula: 1 cup raw Glop Sprig of dried oak Lung of Filth Mini marshmallows And the list went on, but Spencer didn't read it all. He pulled aside the paper to look at the next one. The second page was covered with a pencil sketch diagram. The black-and-white artwork depicted a small motor with a handle. Extending from the motor was a long plastic tube.

Spencer instantly recognized it. He'd seen plenty of neighbors using such a device, especially this time of year when the trees dropped their leaves. The sketch was labeled.

Operation Vortex: Leaf Blower This was Walter's plan to rescue Marv! It seemed perfectly logical. If the Vortex had strong suction power, pulling everything inward, then they would need something with the opposite power in order to reverse the effect. Walter was going to Glopify a leaf blower and blast his way into the Vortex!

"Operation Vortex," Spencer said, his hand resting on the shelf with the papers. He wanted to see Walter's reaction, but the old warlock simply glanced at him in the rearview mirror.

"Wait a minute," Daisy said. "Who's having surgery?"

Spencer shook his head. "Not that kind of operation." He grabbed the papers from the van shelf. "Operation Vortex. It's a plan. It's Walter's plan to get Marv out of the vacuum bag! It totally makes sense. He's going to Glopify a leaf blower and-"

"Slow down, Spencer." There was an edge to Walter's voice that cut off Spencer's excitement about rescuing Marv. "Operation Vortex isn't a plan. It's only a hypothesis-a theory. And even if I get a leaf blower Glopified and running, there's still no way of knowing what effect it will have against the Vortex."

Spencer clutched the papers between both hands. He stared at the hand-drawn diagram of the leaf blower. "How long till we can try?" he asked. "How long till you have this thing Glopified?"

Walter sighed. "A couple of months at best."

"Months?" The plan on the papers looked close to completion. Spencer was expecting days, maybe weeks. But months? "Marv's alive in there," he said. "We've got to save him!"

"Save him?" Daisy said. "I thought he was bowling!"

"We don't know that," Spencer said. "That's just what we heard on the recording. Anything could have happened since then!"

"You're right!" Daisy agreed. "I bet he finished his game by now. Do you think he used b.u.mpers? I'm no good without b.u.mpers."

Walter pulled off the freeway and parked the van at a truck stop. He turned around to face Spencer and Daisy. "I know it seems important, but Operation Vortex is going to have to wait. For right now, we have other things to discuss. Things that cannot wait."

Spencer swallowed his questions about the leaf blower as Penny opened the vehicle's back door. Soon, all four of them were headed toward a picnic bench at the edge of the parking lot. The bench was dappled in late afternoon shadow from a tall evergreen tree. Spencer sat down and s.h.i.+vered, though he wasn't sure if it was from the cold or from his anxiety over hearing Walter's report. Daisy zipped her coat up to her neck.

"First off," Walter said, removing his cap, "my apologies. New Forest Academy was nothing but a trap." Walter shook his head. "Penny and I were already on our way when I got your e-mail. We'd heard the news about Roger Munroe, but we were too far out to help, so I sent Meredith. It took her a day to work into the kitchen. By then, that BEM janitor already had you."

"What really happened to Roger?" Daisy asked.

Walter grimaced. "The Bureau ... disposed of him. Since the BEM founded the Academy, it was a simple effort to get rid of Roger and hire Slick just in time for your arrival."

"But I don't get it," said Spencer. "If the Academy is run by the BEM, why would they have hired a Rebel Janitor in the first place?"

"They were using our resources against us," said Penny. "Hiring Roger to clean the Academy accomplished two things. First, it got Roger away from helping other Rebel schools. And second, it made us think the Academy was part of the Underground. We never suspected that fighting Toxites in New Forest Academy was exactly what the BEM wanted."

Penny shook her head. "It took the news of Roger's death for us to realize that the Academy and the BEM were united. Now the Bureau's motives are finally beginning to make sense. The BEM is letting all the other schools in the nation suffer from Toxites while they raise up a clean Academy full of handpicked students."

"But why?" Daisy asked.

"In order to understand the BEM's motives, you have to think long-term," Walter said. "Imagine life in thirty or forty years. All schools will have crumbled. The next generation of American citizens won't even know simple math or science. The only people who will be capable of doing anything intellectual will be the Academy students. They will become the next doctors, scientists, and politicians. The BEM is handpicking them to suit their needs. And who knows what other devious lessons they will teach at the Academy?"

"Long-term," Penny said, leaning forward, "we're looking at the BEM taking over the entire nation."

"It won't work," Spencer said. "Even if they did take over, the country would just be full of uneducated people. They couldn't get anything done."

"But maybe that's exactly what the BEM wants," Walter said. "It's a plan as old as the devil. Uneducated people are easier to control. The uneducated simply believe what they are told, since they don't know anything else. The history of the world shows many sad examples of an elite upper cla.s.s ruling the uneducated ma.s.ses."

It was hard to digest. The janitors were trying to take over the nation. No one would ever expect it!

"So, what's your plan?" Spencer asked. "Are we going to infest the Academy with Toxites?" He remembered Slick dumping an Agitation Bucket on the front steps of that public school. It would feel good to return that gesture at the Academy.

But Walter shook his head. "We'll continue fighting Toxites, just as we have been."

"But we have to stop the Academy!" Spencer said. He thought of Dez and the ruthless brown team becoming the only educated people in America. Now that Spencer understood the BEM's motives, he was desperate to take action. "We have to bring them down!"

"Then what?" Walter said. "Then no one would be educated." He sighed deeply. "If we focus on bringing down the Academy, it will destroy us all. We must do everything to save education, not destroy it. We must focus on bringing up the Rebel forces."

"How?" Spencer asked.

Penny leaned forward. "We might have a secret weapon to help predict the BEM's moves."

"What is it?" Daisy asked.

Walter turned to Spencer. "How long has it been since you've cut your hair?"

The question was so far off topic that Spencer couldn't even think of an answer.

"Spencer's hair is the secret weapon?" said Daisy.

Penny couldn't suppress a grin. "No," she said. "But we need to know how long since he's cut it."

Realizing that they were serious about the question, Spencer thought back ... and back. "I don't remember," he said. "Probably two months, maybe more." He ran a hand through his hair, surprised that it was still so short.

"And your fingernails?" Walter asked. "How long since you've trimmed them?"

Spencer looked defensively at his nails. He always kept them short and clean, just as they were now. But Spencer couldn't remember the last time he'd used nail clippers.

"Not for a long time," he mumbled. Before Penny and Walter could ask any more uncomfortable questions about his hygiene, Spencer cut in. "Why's this so important?"

"You're not growing, Spencer."

"What do you mean, I'm not growing?" He jumped up from the picnic bench.

"You've been suspended in time," Walter said. "Your body has stopped growing. It's too early to judge by height, but your hair and fingernails are the final clue we were looking for. Your body's being preserved in its current state."

"What?" Spencer looked around for someone to explain the joke. Penny and Walter looked deadly serious. Daisy was staring dumbfounded. "For how long?" His voice was tightening.

"Forever."

Chapter 43.

"Just like me."

Spencer took a step back. Hot tears were springing to his eyes, so he turned away. Penny called after him, but he ducked out of sight behind the warlock van. He expected the others to appear around the vehicle's b.u.mper at any moment to see his tears.

Why? Why wasn't he going to grow anymore? He wanted it to be a lie, but Walter always told the truth. There was no mistaking the honest look in the warlock's eyes.

He was an ageless boy. A boy forever. Spencer tried to fathom it. He thought of time rus.h.i.+ng on without him. He thought of little Max growing up, growing taller. His youngest brother would start a family, have children-grandchildren!-and Spencer would see it all through his twelve-year-old eyes. It felt as though Walter's statement had stripped away any hope for a normal future.

Spencer leaned heavily against the cold van, realizing that the others weren't coming after him. They were giving him a moment of contemplation. Walter must have known Spencer would come back on his own. He had to go back if he wanted an explanation of the warlock's ridiculous report.

Spencer took a deep breath, wiping tears from his cheeks. If he was going to be a kid forever, he might as well get over childish crying. He stepped around the van and strode toward his friends, determined to face the news like a hero.

Walter went straight into business, as though Spencer had never left. "This is going to take a bit of explaining," he said. "Did Marv ever tell you about the Aurans?"

Spencer shook his head, still too numb to respond verbally.

Walter rubbed his bald head and continued. "Remember that special dumpster behind Welcher Elementary where we put all the maxed-out Glopified supplies?"

This time, Spencer and Daisy nodded. Marv had taught them that Glopified equipment lost its power after killing fifty Toxites. All Toxite-fighting schools had a special receptacle where they could put used brooms and mops to dispose of them safely.

"When that dumpster fills up," Walter said, "someone has to come along and pick it up. There are thirteen people who serve that purpose. We call them Aurans. They were enlisted by the Founding Witches in the early 1700s."

"What?" Daisy stopped the conversation. "They must be super old!"

"Yes," answered Walter. "The Aurans are hundreds of years old. But their bodies are young, preserved in a perpetual state of childhood."

Spencer swallowed against the lump in his throat. Wasn't that what Walter had just said about him?

"The Aurans pick up the maxed-out Glopified supplies from the schools and take them to a secret landfill. Only the Aurans have the power to extract raw Glop from the cleaning supplies. Most of the raw Glop is destroyed in their facilities, but a small portion is delivered back to the three warlocks so we can use it to Glopify new supplies."

Walter stood up and headed over to the van. Spencer, Daisy, and Penny followed. Walter opened the rear door, crawled inside, and returned with a coffee can. Spencer peered over the lip of the can and saw a grayish mud, gurgling and bubbling like it was alive. It smelled of sulfur and a myriad of unidentifiable scents that caused Spencer to pull back, crinkling his nose.

"About a month ago, this batch of raw Glop was delivered to me by one of the Aurans." Walter set the coffee can back inside the van and closed the door. "So how do you think that Auran knew exactly where to find me?"

Daisy had a perplexed look on her face, but the answer was clear to Spencer. "The Aurans can see the warlocks," he said. "They can see through your eyes and they know exactly where you are." Spencer paused. "Just like me."

Walter wore a grave expression. It was as though Spencer's comment sealed the warlock's deepest suspicions.

"How did this happen to me?" Spencer asked.

Walter took a deep breath. "From the moment you moved to Welcher, Marv and I were watching you. With all the strange things the BEM had been doing, we didn't think it was a coincidence that the son of Alan Zumbro came to our school. We knew we had to keep an eye on you, but we had to keep the School Board safe also, remember? So we decided to put both our eggs in one basket where we could watch them together.

"Marv turned the School Board into a desk and we gave it to you. We could have kept it down in the janitor's closet, but that was the most likely place to get raided by the BEM. We thought the School Board would be safer and less conspicuous if it was out in the open, an everyday part of the school-your desk. What we didn't know was that you would end up saving the School Board and becoming the first child warlock by pounding the nail into the Board."

"But I'm not a warlock," Spencer said. "I gave that power back to you."

"Yes," Walter said. "But nothing changes the fact that, for several hours, you were cloaked in the protective Aura."

Spencer remembered being surrounded by that golden glow. It was a defense feature set into the School Board by the Founding Witches. While Spencer was cloaked in the Aura, no one could stop him from setting up a magical domain.

"The Aura had never before descended upon a child," Walter said. "I thought nothing of it at first. But when you told me of your strange visions last week, I immediately became concerned. Penny and I set off to find an answer. I didn't think it was possible for another child to become an Auran so many years after the original thirteen."

"But Spencer did it?" Daisy asked.