[Janitors 04] Strike of the Sweepers (26 page)

“What?” Dez objected. “Spencer might deserve it, but not me. I don’t even know who you are!”

“But I know you, Dezmond Rylie,” Garth said. “Though I see you’ve changed.”

Spencer was a little surprised that Garth recognized the boy as a Sweeper. Garth Hadley and Leslie Sharmelle had used Dez to plant some pink soap in the boys’ bathroom for Spencer to use. That little trick had exposed Spencer’s eyes to Toxites and started this whole mess.

Dez flexed his talons and fanned his large wings. “Don’t hate me because I’m awesome,” he said.

Garth Hadley smirked. “I don’t,” he said. “I hate you because you’re with Spencer.”

Hadley turned and took a step closer to Spencer. “Seven months, four days, and eighteen hours,” said the BEM rep. “Assuming my watch still works.”

Spencer knew where this conversation was going. Garth was stating exactly how long he’d been trapped in the Dustbin, a misfortune for which he no doubt blamed Spencer.

“I had no choice,” Spencer said, his memory freshly recalling the details that had led up to his decision to pierce the Vortex. “I had to protect the School Board.”

“Protect it?” Garth scoffed. “The School Board is property of the Bureau of Educational Maintenance. You and your Rebel warlock stole it!”

“We’re not the ones ruining education!” Daisy shouted.

Garth’s gaze flicked over to her. “You should never have been involved,” he snapped. “Shut your mouth.”

Spencer pulled the leaf blower up to his shoulder, aiming it at the man like a bazooka. Just months ago, he’d seen a leaf blower far less powerful than this one blast the jaw off an Extension Filth. Spencer wondered what kind of damage his would do if unleashed on Garth Hadley.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Spencer said. “If you’ve got a problem, settle it with me.”

Garth’s cool nature never cracked. He slowly raised his broad hands in defeat. “Please,” he said. “You are guests in my fortress. I find it rather impolite to threaten your host.”

Marv put a hand on the leaf blower, and Spencer reluctantly lowered the powerful weapon. “Cut the fake manners, Hadley,” Marv said. “We all know you’d rather have watched us get wiped out by the TPs.”

Garth Hadley smiled tightly. “And I know that you’d rather have left me behind if you truly had a way to get back home. So my question is this—why did you come here?”

“Shelter,” Marv said. “Spencer says we can’t use the leaf blower for another hour. Needed shelter from the TPs while we wait.”

“Very well,” Garth said. “I will offer you shelter. But it comes on my terms.” Spencer didn’t like playing by Garth’s rules. But they were in his fortress, at the mercy of his limited hospitality.

“Nobody carries a weapon,” said Garth. To prove that he was obeying his own rule, Garth patted his sides to show that he was defenseless. He pointed to the center of the floor in the lobby. “Put everything down slowly. You can pick it up again when we leave.”

Spencer noticed how Garth said “
we,”
including himself in their departure plans. The very thing Spencer was trying to avoid.

“Not fair,” Dez said. Spencer didn’t know why he was griping. Dez wasn’t even packing a Glopified weapon, and his Sweeper enhancements made him dangerous enough.

“My rules,” Garth repeated, pointing at the floor.

“But it’s not fair,” Dez said again. “You’re probably just waiting until we’re defenseless. Then you’ll imagine something out of the dust and attack us.”

Garth Hadley shook his head. “This is a noncreative zone. There’s no dust in the air inside my building. No one can create anything here.”

Spencer looked to Marv for affirmation. The janitor nodded. “My fortress was the same way,” Marv said. “We had to create a ventilation system that pumps the dust out and keeps the air clean inside. Otherwise those TPs would just re-form right inside our walls.”

“So you see I’m only being honest and fair,” said Garth. Spencer scowled. The man was anything but that.

Garth waited silently until Spencer and Daisy had finished depositing their janitorial belts on the floor. Spencer tried to hold onto the leaf blower, but Garth pointed firmly. Spencer hated leaving their only ticket home lying unprotected on the lobby floor. But it was still within sight, and Garth seemed to have no inclination to steal it.

Spencer backed away from the weapons pile, his eyes on the BEM rep who stood motionless across from the Rebels.

“There,” Garth said. “Now we can speak peaceably. Can I get you something to drink?”

“I’m not thirsty,” Spencer said, surprised to realize that it was true.

“Of course you’re not,” Garth said. “In this world of dust, we have no need for food, drink, or sleep. The particles in the atmosphere rejuvenate our cells. I believe I could live forever down here.”

Spencer didn’t mention that he’d already beaten Garth to the whole
immortal
thing. His Auran powers kept him suspended in a state of perpetual youth.

“In fact,” Garth said, stepping over to Marv, “it seems that my abilities to form the dust have improved. I suppose I should thank you. As it turns out, I’m stronger on my own than I ever was with you.”

Spencer turned to Marv, a look of betrayal on his face. “You two worked together?”

Chapter 41

“Where are your companions?”

Spencer couldn’t imagine that Marv would work with Garth Hadley, but the janitor slowly nodded his shaggy head.

“Had to stay alive,” said Marv.

“How could you?” Spencer went on. “He’s a bad guy! He works for the BEM!”

“There is no BEM down here, kid,” said Marv. “Just a whole bunch of toilet-paper mummies that want to wipe the skin off your bones. Didn’t really matter who was Rebel and who was BEM. Had to stay alive.”

Spencer glanced around the lobby. He remembered more BEM workers getting sucked into the Vortex that night in September. At least half a dozen people. “Where are the others?” he asked, suddenly expecting an ambush.

“Tell him, Hadley,” Marv said. “Where are your companions?”

The smug look faded from Garth’s face for a moment. “Dead.” He spat out the word. “The TPs were onto us within minutes of our arrival. Porter and Barlow were dead before we realized what was happening. The rest of us ran blindly through the dust, but there was no refuge. Every way we turned, the devils were forming out of thin air.”

Hadley clasped his hands behind him. “In our desperation, we discovered the power of the dust. It took nothing more than a perfect imagination—the things we needed would form before our eyes. But it wasn’t easy. It required immense amounts of mental focus. Our weapons were weak and our structures flawed,” Garth said. “So we banded together and built a shelter against the mummies. There were five of us. We worked together to perfect our shelter. We honed our minds, and the longer we remained in this dust world, the more complex our imaginings began to be. Soon we had created an impenetrable fortress.”

“And the others would still be alive if we’d stopped there!” Marv cut in. His glare toward Garth Hadley was full of disgust. “We were living peacefully.”

“We were prisoners in our own fortress!” Garth shouted back. “And while you might have been content with your silly bowling alley, the rest of us were seeking real freedom.”

“That’s a lie, and you know it,” Marv said. “Your BEM coworkers didn’t care about finding the Instigators. They were just following your orders.”

“You tried to find the Instigators?” Spencer said. That was precisely what Olin’s note had said not to do.

“There’s someone else down here,” Garth said. “Another fortress out in the dust.”

“You’ve seen it?” Daisy asked.

He nodded. “Whoever is over there has tremendous power with the dust. They’ve created countless TPs in a nonstop effort to destroy us. Marv wasn’t interested in finding the Instigators. He thought that if we sat long enough in our fortress, the Rebels would send help. But as the weeks ticked by, I wasn’t convinced.”

Garth Hadley took a deep breath, as if steadying himself for the next part of the story. “I decided to find the Instigators and destroy them. It was the only way to achieve peace down here. I sent Deakin to investigate. He found the enemy fortress and sent a message, but the TPs wiped him out before he could return.”

“And you waited three whole days before you sent the next poor fellow to his death,” Marv said.

“Bryson knew the odds,” Garth said. “He was loyal to the Bureau. And that can’t be said of all my workers.”

“She was afraid of you,” Marv said. “You were a mad man. Obsessed! You’d just sent the others to their deaths, and she knew she was next.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Garth said. “I went out there with her to see the Instigators’ fortress for myself.”

“But that’s as far as you went,” continued Marv. “And as soon as you ordered the girl to go inside, she turned against you.”

“And I dealt with her the same way I’d deal with any traitor to the Bureau,” Garth said.

“I’m guessing you didn’t give her a high five,” Daisy said.

“I gave her to the TPs.” Garth said it without a trace of regret in his voice.

“And after all that,” Marv said, “you expected me to welcome you back into our fortress?”

Garth faced Spencer. “See what kind of man your Rebel janitor is? Uncaring and unforgiving. By the time I fought my way back to our shelter, Marv had redesigned it. My walls were broken down and patched over with shoddy fragments of old school buildings. I was begging for mercy at his doorstep with an army of TPs behind me. Marv turned his back and left me to die out there. But I am resilient. From the shapeless particles around me, I formed this.” He gestured grandly at his tall office building, as though it were some finely wrought piece of architecture.

“What about the Instigators?” Spencer asked. “Have you seen them?”

Marv shook his head. “They never come out of their fortress. It’s just wave after wave of TPs, determined to kill. Guess they’re not keen on having neighbors.”

Spencer couldn’t spend any more time thinking about the Instigators. Olin had said to find Marv and get out as soon as possible. So that was exactly what he intended to do.

Spencer glanced at his watch. Less than an hour remained until Bookworm had the Vortex in position. That didn’t leave them much time to ditch Garth Hadley. Especially now that they were in his building.

“How much time left?” Marv asked when he saw Spencer checking. “I’m ready to get home. See the old boss.”

“It might not be that simple,” Spencer said. “Walter’s been captured by Mr. Clean.”

“By
who?
” Marv asked.

“Not the bald guy with the earring that you see on cleaning supplies,” Daisy said. “This guy is way scarier. He’s just using Mr. Clean as a fake name. Confusing. I know.”

“We have a plan to rescue Walter and the others.” Spencer glanced distrustingly at Garth Hadley, then back at Marv. “A lot has happened since you’ve been gone. We should go somewhere we can talk about it.”

“You’ll talk about it here,” Garth said. “Or I open the doors and let the TPs join our conversation.”

Daisy looked the way Spencer felt—nervous about revealing their plan and bringing Garth Hadley up to speed. Marv just shrugged, as if they didn’t have another alternative. Dez didn’t appear to be paying attention to the conversation at all anymore.

“Start with the School Board,” Garth Hadley said. “Did Leslie Sharmelle manage to take it from the Rebels?”

Spencer resisted the urge to blurt out that Leslie Sharmelle was dead, shattered into tiny fragments at the Auran landfill. That part of the story would come later. For now, he needed to pick up where Marv had left off—the moment before Spencer had pounded the nail into the School Board and turned himself into an Auran.

There was indeed a lot to say.

Chapter 42

“Just flip the switch!”

By the time the story was finished, Marv, Spencer, and Daisy were seated on the lobby floor. Dez was doing aerial tricks around the spacious room, and Garth stood beside the weapons pile. Spencer didn’t like the way the BEM rep eyed the leaf blower, now that Hadley was convinced of its potential to get them out of the Dustbin.

“How much time left?” Marv asked.

Spencer checked his watch for the hundredth time. “Almost there,” he said. “Bookworm should have the Vortex in position within the next fifteen minutes.”

Marv looked over his shoulder. “What about you, Hadley? You coming with us?”

Spencer couldn’t believe the janitor was asking that question. All the while he’d been talking, Spencer had been trying to think of a way to ditch the BEM rep.

“Your plan will never succeed,” Garth Hadley said. “Your enemy has a reputation for cruelty. I know Reginald McClean. You can be sure that your Rebel friends are already dead.”

“Clean promised not to hurt them if I stayed away,” Spencer said.

Garth chuckled. “And he knew you wouldn’t stay away. He’s playing you, Spencer.”

The BEM rep closed his eyes and seemed to think about something else for a moment. It was unnerving, and Spencer tried to shake it by saying, “It doesn’t matter,” even though he could think of nothing that mattered more. “We’re coming out of the Vortex inside the Port-a-Potty, and we’re going down to the laboratory. If it’s too late for my dad and the others, then we’ll still have a shot at stealing Belzora and the nail.”

Of course, Spencer hadn’t told Marv and Garth about the
Manualis Custodem.
He had simply explained the Rebels’ need to collect all three warlock hammers. Mr. Clean’s tool was the last one. After that, Spencer really didn’t know what to do. If Walter didn’t make it, hopefully Min would finish his translation and give them some guidance.

Dez suddenly veered downward and landed beside Spencer. “Umm, are the ceiling vents supposed to hang open like that?” He pointed upward with one hooked finger.

Spencer and the others turned their gaze toward the ceiling, and what they saw was absolutely terrible.

The vents were dangling open, and toilet-paper mummies were climbing silently through. Already TPs covered the lobby ceiling, clinging upside down like white spiders. At every breached point, dust billowed into Garth’s fortress.