Chapter 38

“Into the school!”

Wait a minute,” Spencer muttered. It took a second to process what Walter just said. His desk? It seemed so ordinary. “My desk is the School Board?”

“Part of it, anyway,” said Walter. “About a square foot. In an attempt to disguise the magic wood, we inlaid the School Board into your desktop.”

Spencer tried to imagine his battered desk, wondering which part was the crucial magical wood. Was it the part with that funny message about Mrs. Natcher smelling like cabbage?

The station wagon rounded the last corner and Alice gunned it down the straight road into Welcher Elementary School. As he craned his neck to see out the windshield, Spencer’s heart sank.

The blue Toyota Garth had once driven was parked askew, the doors wide open.

“Couldn’t be,” Spencer whispered. “Garth was in that silver car with Leslie.”

“More BEM workers,” Marv guessed. “Preparing the way so Garth will have an easy entry once he arrives.”

They didn’t see the worst part until Alice swung the station wagon into the parking lot and its single headlight flashed across the school. The double doors that led into the middle hallway were smashed open. Glass lay in glinting shards, leaving a jagged, dark opening into the school.

“Drop us here.” Walter’s voice was an urgent whisper. Alice screeched to a stop.

“We’re unarmed,” Marv said from the backseat.

“Thanks for mentioning that.” Walter gripped the car door, ready to spring out.

“Take this.” Daisy swung Spencer’s backpack over to Marv. “It’s got vac dust.”

“We’ll need it.”

“Let’s go!” Marv flung open the door and shouldered the backpack. Spencer watched the two janitors cautiously approach the broken school door.

Headlights suddenly flooded the parking lot. Spencer and Daisy whirled around to see a big vehicle speeding toward the station wagon. Squinting against the lights, Spencer saw what it was.

The white BEM van.

Alice threw the car in gear and slammed on the gas. But the acceleration on the old station wagon made a tortoise look fast. Before the tires had made a complete revolution, the BEM van slammed into the side of the Zumbro station wagon.

Metal folded and glass crunched. Airbags deployed in the front, slamming Alice against the seat. Daisy flew into Spencer and he knocked his head against the window.

“Mom!” Spencer cried. “You okay?” He didn’t have to ask about Daisy. She was clinging to his sleeve, whimpering but unharmed.

“I don’t know who these people think they are!” his mother shouted from the front seat. “But somebody’s going to pay for that!” She was twisting the key in the ignition, but the attempt was futile. The station wagon was parked forever.

“We gotta get out,” Daisy said. Marv and Walter were racing back toward the station wagon.

Spencer tested the door. It was stiff, but with some pressure from his shoulder, it popped open. Daisy followed him out as Alice climbed across the passenger seat. Marv ripped open the door and helped her to her feet.

“Into the school!” Walter cried as the BEM van doors opened and several angry workers leapt out. Daisy led the group through the shattered opening in the door, Marv bringing up the rear.

The first BEM worker tried to follow them in, but Marv was ready for him. A fistful of vac dust struck the enemy, suctioning him onto the shards of broken glass.

“They’re trying to get in!” Daisy pointed down the hallway where two BEM workers knelt at the lock to Mrs. Natcher’s door. One held a flashlight while the other fiddled with slender lock-picking tools.

Walter knocked them both back with a palm blast of vacuum dust. Marv stepped over the pinned bodies and inserted his key into Mrs. Natcher’s doorknob.

“Inside! Quickly!” Walter ushered the others into the classroom. Just as the BEM workers poured into the hallway, the warlock slammed the door and twisted the lock.

Marv started shoving desks against the door for a barricade. Walter retreated to the center of the room. He exhaled a sigh of relief and briefly touched Spencer’s desk. Then he crossed to the window, pulling things along to block it.

Spencer glanced at his mom. She didn’t look so good. It looked as if the evening was turning out to be more than she could digest. As soon as she saw Spencer staring, Alice grabbed a desk and shoved it toward the door.

That was Mom. Strong and independent, if not a little frazzled. She clearly couldn’t let her son see a weakness. Especially not now, when courage was being stretched like taffy.

“What now?” Daisy pushed her own desk and Marv picked it up to make a stack.

“We hold out,” Walter said. “The BEM will have to retreat before school starts in the morning. That should buy us at least eight hours to smuggle the School Board safely away. All we need to do is survive tonight.”

Mrs. Natcher’s room seemed foreign in the darkness of night. Alice reached for the lights, but Walter stopped her. It was better if the enemy couldn’t see them. Spencer strode over to his desk, the object of so much attention. It was funny. He’d been so close to the School Board for weeks.

“Hadley already has Ninfa and the nail. If he gets into this room, all could be lost.” Walter dumped over a table and propped it against the window. “The most important thing is to keep Garth Hadley away from Spencer’s desk.”

“I think we have a problem.” Spencer looked up. “This isn’t my desk.”