Chapter 29

“In charge of the barge.”

Spencer tried to keep his hopes from sinking. The BEM was destroying all the belongings they’d stolen from the Rebels. But Bernard had been taken only two days ago. There might be time to stop the BEM before they got to Bookworm’s lunchbox. “How long have you been here?” he asked.

“They locked us up on Monday evening,” answered the garbologist. “They drove us through a portal to cut down travel time.”

“What about the stuff?” Spencer asked. “Where did they take it?”

“They dumped the whole truckload into a set of dumpsters once we got here,” Bernard said.

The news definitely could have been worse. At least the load was nearby. “We can find it,” Spencer said, trying to recall if they’d passed any dumpsters on the way in.

“I’m afraid not,” Bernard said. “The BEM just came to take out the trash.”

“What do you mean?” Daisy asked.

“About a half hour before you got here, I heard some unmistakable sounds,” said Bernard. “A garbage barge came in off the south side of the island. The Sweepers loaded the dumpsters onboard, and it made its way back out to sea.”

“A garbage barge?” Dez asked.

“A big ship,” Bernard explained. “The BEM is dumping all the Rebel belongings into the ocean.”

“Well, I hope the fish enjoy my fish tank,” muttered Daisy.

“That’s dumb,” Dez said. “The whole ocean is their fish tank.”

“Forget about the fish,” Spencer said. “What about Bookworm’s lunchbox?”

Daisy paled at the thought of her pet Thingamajunk going to a watery grave.

“I’ll catch them,” Dez said, cracking his knuckles. “Which way did they go?”

Bernard shrugged. “It’s only been thirty minutes since pickup. A big ship like that doesn’t travel fast.” He held up a finger for silence as a ship’s horn sounded in the distance. “They haven’t gotten far.”

Dez spread his wings, but Spencer caught his muscled arm. “The fence,” he said. “You’ll get zapped if you try to fly over.” The only two safe exits off the island were through the gate by the bridge or through the squeegee portal to the landfill.

Dez backed down, clearly having forgotten about the Glopified fence. “Do your thing,” Dez suggested.

“My thing?” Spencer asked.

“You know,” Dez continued. “The magic spit thing.”

Spencer hadn’t used his spit sponge on the fence earlier because he didn’t want to ruin their element of surprise. But of course it was clear to General Clean and the Sweepers that the Rebels were escaping. By now, the Windex would have worn off on the soapsuds, so the Witches were probably watching from their dirty lair.

Spencer nodded, pulling his spit sponge from a side pouch on his belt. The others followed him past the final row of storage units until they stood at the Glopified electric fence. There was a gap in the vegetation here, and Spencer could see the beach and ocean on the other side.

He squeezed the sponge, a bit of saliva dripping onto his hand. He shuddered and tried not to think about how gross his superpower was.

Rubbing his hands together activated the Glop in his spit and a second later, Spencer’s hands were glowing gold.

Reaching out, Spencer paused for a brief second. He was confident in the magic of his spit. But if his left hand failed to de-Glopify the BEM fence for some reason, Spencer had no doubt he’d be blasted to smithereens by the power racing through the chain link.

Taking a deep breath, he quickly grabbed on, the fingers of his left hand wrapping through the links of fencing. Immediately, there was a loud crack! His hand was like a pebble thrown into a still pond. Magic rippled away, powering down the entire electric fence.

Spencer let go of the broken fence. “That might have attracted some attention,” he pointed out. “We should hurry.”

Dez instantly reached out, scooping up Spencer in one arm and Daisy in the other. His wings unfolded and he jumped into the air.

“Hey!” Bernard shouted. “What about me?”

“Two hands!” Dez answered. Spencer had the sneaking suspicion that Dez could have carried a third passenger if he’d wanted to. But Spencer knew from experience that the Sweeper kid didn’t like bringing adults along. With only Spencer and Daisy for companions, Dez could do whatever he wanted without worrying about consequences.

They lifted over the BEM fence and soared above the beach, racing along the back side of the island. According to the soapsud surveillance, the buoys roped off a section of water all the way around. Spencer wondered how the dumpsters could have been delivered to the garbage barge without triggering the monster Grime that patrolled the water.

Then, adjusting himself in Dez’s grip, Spencer saw that one section of buoys had been moved to create a safe runway out to sea. Rubbish Sweepers must have plunged the dumpsters and flown them out to the barge. By the time the ship was loaded, the island was under attack. Luckily, they hadn’t taken the time to replace the buoys. Now, as long as Dez didn’t fly outside the lines, they should be able to make a quiet escape to the ocean.

“There!” Daisy pointed out to sea. Dez picked up the pace as Spencer spotted the garbage barge. Bernard was right, the ship was slow and hadn’t gone far. It was chugging black smoke as it rode the swells no more than a half mile beyond the usual perimeter of buoys.

The large vessel was wide and flat. The deck was littered with piles of debris, spilling over the many dumpsters that had been loaded onboard. It was more stuff than the Gateses had in their house, and Spencer was sure that the belongings of several Rebel households were on their way to get dumped.

The only raised portion on the deck was a wheelhouse at the rear. The boxy room had windows on all sides, allowing the captain to see well enough to safely steer the ship.

Even at this distance, Spencer could see movement on the flat deck. “Sweepers,” he said. “It isn’t going to be easy to sift through all that garbage and find Bookworm’s lunchbox.”

“I see four Sweepers on the deck,” Dez said. Spencer secretly envied the boy’s super eyesight. “I’ll deal with the bad guys. You two find the stupid lunchbox.”

“No,” Spencer said. “We should take out the captain first. We’ll never get anything done with somebody watching us from that cabin. Besides, if we remove the captain, then we’re in charge of the barge.”

Daisy snickered. “In charge of the barge,” she repeated quietly.

Spencer ignored the unintentional rhyme. “If we take over the captain’s room, we can stop the ship, lock doors . . . do whatever we have to do until we can find Bookworm’s head on the deck.”

Commandeering the garbage barge was a bold plan, and Spencer knew it would take some smart flying from Dez. The Sweeper boy responded instantly, dropping so quickly toward the water that Spencer felt his stomach heave.

Dez pulled up just before the three of them hit the ocean. They skimmed over the tops of the waves, Spencer feeling a warm spray in his face as they drew nearer to the barge.

They were close enough to see details now. The ship had a name printed in bold lettering across the sides.

Queen Anne’s Debris

Dez zoomed toward the hull of the barge. Just when Spencer thought they might slam into the side, the Sweeper boy angled upward, rising straight into the air. Dez landed on top of the wheelhouse a little less quietly than Spencer had hoped. The moment his feet hit the roof, he dumped Spencer and Daisy and folded in his wings.

Spencer held still for a moment, waiting for someone to react to their arrival. But the crew of the garbage barge weren’t expecting any trouble, and Spencer guessed that their attention was lax.

“What now?” Daisy asked.

Spencer crept forward on his stomach. Gripping the edge of the wheelhouse, he leaned as far as he dared, peering through the windows to the room where the captain steered.

He saw a long panel of controls covered in buttons and switches, the ship’s wheel rising in the center. There was only one person in the wheelhouse, but the sight of him made Spencer draw back suddenly.

He looked at his friends in surprise. “The captain is Dustin DeFleur!”