Chapter 26

“There are no cookies.”

Marv plucked a shiny key from his belt pouch. It was a copy of General Clean’s master key, forged from Bernard’s gum mold. He drew a bottle of bleach and handed it to Spencer. Then, with the key in one hand and a bottle of Windex in the other, Marv gestured for Spencer to begin.

It was done in a moment. The last things to vanish were Marv’s rubber boots. After the big janitor was completely bleached, Spencer could see only the impression of his feet in the sand.

“Only got about fifteen minutes,” Marv’s voice floated from nowhere. “Don’t follow until Rho gives the word.”

Spencer nodded to show he understood, wishing that he and the others could turn invisible too. But since they had already used the bleach once, Spencer knew that a second spray would make it so they would never be seen again. They would have to rely on Marv’s invisibility and hope his distraction would provide enough cover that the rest of them could slip in unnoticed.

Marv grunted invisibly, and Spencer saw his footprints move up the beach toward the gate.

“Let’s go,” Dez said the moment they were alone.

Spencer caught his muscled arm. “Give him a minute.”

They waited in silence until Rho’s voice whispered through the Glopified walkie-talkie. “Marv found the next soapsud. He turned it to glass and I never saw him. You’re clear until you reach the storage units.”

Spencer nodded to his companions and peered out from under the bridge. He was anxious to get away from the slumbering Grime under the causeway. The gate that spanned the road was open just a crack, the lock dangling ajar from when the invisible Marv had used the master key.

The three kids raced up the beach. Spencer kept glancing at the gate tower. All the enemy had to do was look out the window and they would see the intruding Rebels. But Spencer was counting on Marv to sufficiently distract the Sweepers.

They reached the gate without detection. It seemed strange to be breaking into a BEM prison in broad daylight. Spencer might have felt more comfortable sneaking around under the cover of darkness, but if all went according to plan, it wouldn’t matter. The Rebels would be free before the BEM Sweepers could stop them.

“Marv didn’t leave the key,” Dez said, pointing at the vacant keyhole in the open gate lock.

“It’s there,” Spencer said. “It’s just bleached.” He reached over to the lock, felt the end of the invisible key, and slipped it out of the heavy lock.

“Let me carry it,” Dez said, swiping for the item in Spencer’s grasp. He tried to pull his hand away, but the Sweeper kid’s taloned fingers caught his wrist. With the momentum of his arm, Spencer felt the master key fly out of his grasp, landing invisibly in the brush by the roadside.

“Way to go,” Spencer muttered. “You made me drop it!” He and Daisy peered into the bush, but it was a hopeless search.

“Big deal,” Dez said. “I thought you had a different plan to open the locks on the storage units. What about the magnet thingy?”

“I know,” Spencer said, “but it wouldn’t hurt to keep the master key as a backup plan in case the magnet doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to.”

“Look.” Daisy pointed toward the guard tower. Spencer abandoned his search for the master key, ducking into the bushes when he saw half a dozen Sweepers exiting the tower. He knew Marv’s plan was working when they hastily turned away from the road and moved out of sight.

Spencer led his companions past the gate, pausing at the corner of the guard tower, waiting for Rho to tell them it was safe to continue. Daisy was breathing nervously at his side, but Dez just kept sniffing the air through his beaklike nose.

“Mmmmm,” he muttered. “Do you guys smell that? I think somebody’s baking cookies.”

“All I smell is the ocean,” Daisy said.

“Oh, no,” Spencer groaned, realizing what was happening. He pulled off his dust mask and tossed it to Dez. “Put this on, quick.”

Dez didn’t bother to catch the mask; it bounced off his chest and fell to the ground. “No way. I don’t want to look dorky like you two. Besides, Toxite breath doesn’t affect me.”

“It’s not the Toxite breath,” Spencer explained. “That smell you’re picking up is Marv’s toilet-bowl cleaner!”

“The toilet-bowl cleaner smells like baking cookies?” Daisy asked.

“It does to him,” Spencer said. “Marv spread the powdered cleaner on the electric fence to draw the Sweepers away.” He pointed to the exodus of Sweepers making their way hungrily to the far fence. Spencer and Daisy couldn’t smell anything, but the vintage Toxite attractant worked surprisingly well on the Sweepers.

“I’ve got to have some!” Dez said. “Before those other guys eat it all!” He spread his wings and leapt into the air. He didn’t get far, as Daisy’s Palm Blast of vacuum dust dropped him to the ground.

Spencer maneuvered around the bully and strapped his dust mask over the boy’s face. It barely fit over his beak of a nose. “There are no cookies,” Spencer said.

Rho’s voice came through the walkie-talkie. “You’re clear to enter the first two rows of units. Marv’s still searching for the other suds. I’ll let you know when they’re glass.”

Spencer peeked around the corner to make sure that the Sweepers were still facing away. Then he led a sprint to the first row of storage units. The three kids stopped with their backs to a cinder-block wall.

“Let’s open the first squeegee,” Spencer said. “Rho’s ready for us.”

Dez misted the wall, but the magic Windex seemed to fizzle out, unable to transform the cinder block to glass. “Not working,” he muttered.

Spencer had assumed this might happen. “The units are Glopified. They don’t want us turning the walls to glass.”

“Then how do we make the portal?” Daisy asked, waving her squeegee uselessly.

Spencer removed the spit sponge from his belt. This part was nasty. It didn’t matter how many times he’d done it, the task was gross. As he squeezed the sponge, a dribble of his spit leaked out into his left hand. He replaced the sponge and clapped his hands together, rubbing them briskly to activate the Glop that lingered in his bodily fluids.

In a moment, both hands were glowing with a golden Aura. His right had the power to Glopify, but Spencer’s left hand was the one needed for this task.

He reached out and pressed his left palm against the wall. He felt the Glop leak out of the cinder blocks, and he knew he’d succeeded as the Aura faded from his hands.

“Try it now,” Spencer said.

“Why don’t you just de-Glopify all the units?” Dez asked. “Then we could turn the doors to glass and break them.”

“Spitting on every door would take way too long,” Spencer said. “I’d have to use the sponge between each one. Then we’d have to follow up with the Windex, and the moment we shattered one door, the Sweepers would be on to us.” He shook his head. “We have to open all the units at the same time. Stick to the original plan.”

“Gee,” Dez said. “Sorry I had an idea.” He turned his bottle of Windex back to the cinder block and gave a few sprays. As the de-Glopfied wall turned to glass, the storage unit beyond appeared to be vacant.

Daisy followed up with a swipe of her squeegee. The portal opened, connecting the cinder-block wall to the conference room at the landfill.

Spencer stared at Rho, standing states away. “The entire facility is clear,” she said. “The rest of the suds are glass, so the Witches will have no idea we’re here.” Rho glanced at a clock on the wall of the conference room. “Marv has only about four minutes of invisibility left. Not long after that, the suds will become active again. He’ll try to keep the Sweepers distracted, but you have to hurry.”

Rho pushed a pair of cleaning carts through the portal. They rolled through the cinder-block wall and came to a stop at Spencer’s feet.

“Whatever happens,” Spencer said, turning to Dez, “do not let this portal close. In a couple of minutes there are going to be a lot of defenseless prisoners on the loose. We have to give them somewhere safe to go.”

Daisy gave her squeegee to the Sweeper boy in case he needed to swipe again.

There was a rippling shock wave of magic that raced along the electric fence. “Looks like one Sweeper got too close,” Spencer said. The vintage toilet-bowl cleaner was doing its job. But the powdery stuff was really old. There was no telling how long the attractant would last.

It was time to put a few new Glopified supplies to the test.