[Janitors 04] Strike of the Sweepers (11 page)

“The crane has been reinforced,” said Agnes. “The force field is sealed around it. The only opening is that gate.”

She took a deep breath through her nose. “This is where I leave you,” Agnes whispered. She handed her Glopified squeegee to Alan, who clipped it into his janitorial belt.

“Sure you don’t want to join us?” Bernard asked. “I bet there’s plenty of room in the john.”

Agnes didn’t even crack a smile. She clasped Walter firmly on the shoulder, gave him a businesslike nod, and retreated into the darkness.

“What now?” Daisy asked. Spencer could tell she was a bit shaken by the fact that Agnes had revealed the dangers of the Glopified fence and then left.

“Looks like those two Sweeper guards have Glopified walkie-talkies,” Penny said. “We’ll need to take them out fast, before they can radio in for help.”

“You guys handle those two,” Dez said, pointing down to the gate. “I’ll take out the third one.”

Spencer looked at him, annoyed by the fact that he wasn’t even crouching down. “Third one?”

“Yeah.” Dez pointed. “There’s a Rubbish Sweeper perched on top of the crane.”

The tip of the crane was high above the construction site and well out of the glow of the floodlights. Spencer squinted, but he couldn’t make out a figure anywhere.

“You’re lying,” Spencer said. “You’re just looking for an excuse to test your wings.”

“I don’t see anything either,” Daisy said.

“Duh,” said Dez. “That’s ’cause I have eagle eyes. I can see pretty good in the dark now. When I turned into a Sweeper, my eyesight got entranced.”

“
Enhanced,
” Spencer corrected.

“Whatever,” said Dez. “There’s a Sweeper lady up there.” He squinted. “I think she’s got a walkie-talkie too.”

“If Dez’s Rubbish eyes can see her,” Walter said, “then her Rubbish eyes will spot us long before we make it to the fence.”

“Let me take her out!” Dez insisted.

Spencer rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. You’ve been a Sweeper for
maybe
twenty minutes. She’ll eat you alive.”

“She’ll never see me coming.”

“Dez has a point,” Walter said. Spencer threw his hands up in the air. Why did they continue to side with Dez? He always got them into trouble!

“That crane is too high for even the strongest broom to carry someone up,” Walter continued. “That Rubbish Sweeper probably feels quite secure up there.”

“An aerial attack would give us the benefit of surprise,” Penny said. “But I don’t think Dez should handle this alone.”

“What are you saying?” Dez asked.

“I’m saying that you’re going to fly me up there and drop me right down on top of that Sweeper lady,” answered Penny. “I’ll hit her with the green spray and she won’t remember a thing about it when she wakes up.”

“Why not take her out completely?” Bernard asked.

“Mr. Clean can’t be far behind us,” she said. “If he shows up and all of his guards are blind and de-Glopified, he’ll know we beat him here.”

“Green spray erases only recent memories,” Walter said. “That means you’ll have only a minute or two from the time she spots you. Anything beyond that might not get erased and she’ll wake up with a memory of the fight.”

“I’ll be faster alone,” Dez said.

“Absolutely not,” replied Walter. “You’re flying Penny up there.”

Dez was shaking his head. “No can do. Penny’s too big. I don’t think I can carry her that high.”

“Are you calling me fat?” Penny glared, hands on hips.

“Use a plunger,” said Bernard. “She’ll be weightless.”

Dez shrugged. “I don’t have one.”

“Here,” Daisy said. She unclipped a Glopified toilet plunger and tossed it to him. Dez’s taloned hand closed around the handle, but it slipped through his grasp and landed on the dirt road. He bent over, his awkward hands making several attempts to grasp the wooden handle. At last he got it, but when he turned to face the Rebels, the plunger slipped through his fingers again.

Penny raised an eyebrow. “I’m not flying anywhere with Butterfingers.”

“It’s not my fault you weigh so much,” Dez said. He didn’t bother trying to pick up the plunger again. “I’ll just have to go alone.”

“How’s that going to work if you can’t hold the green spray?” Bernard pointed out.

Alan shook his head. “We’ll find another way.”

“What about me?” Spencer said. “I’m probably the smallest in the group.” Technically, Daisy was, but Spencer wasn’t about to suggest that Dez take flight with her. He looked at Dez. “Can you carry me?” He said it like a challenge, knowing that would push the bully into agreeing faster.

Dez scoffed. “Easy!” Before anyone could react, Dez threw his arms around Spencer and leapt into the air.

Chapter 19

“Let’s just see what happens.”

Dez’s Rubbish wings unfurled, bearing Spencer through the thinnest branches of the nearest tree and straight into the starry sky.

When they were well above the treetops, Dez began attempting some aerial acrobatics. He started with a tight barrel roll, causing Spencer’s stomach to heave uncomfortably. Then he cut a wide loop-de-loop, soaring out over the construction site.

“I’m the baddest person who ever lived!” Dez called.

Spencer’s mouth was clamped shut in fear, but he managed to work out a sentence. “Shouldn’t we be more sneaky?”

“Relax, dude.” Dez had leveled out now, and Spencer saw that they were high above the tip of the crane. “I had my eyes on that Rubbish lady the whole time. She was looking the other way.”

Spencer hated knowing that, in this very moment, Dez Rylie was solely in charge of his fate. All the Sweeper kid had to do was open his arms and Spencer would plummet to his certain death. The thought of it caused Spencer’s hand to stray to his janitorial belt. He didn’t know what would save him in a fall, but it felt a little better just to touch a broom handle.

Dez was gliding now, making a big circle above the crane like a vulture over carrion. Spencer could finally see the Rubbish Sweeper. She was a fat woman squatting at the very tip of the long, angled crane arm. She looked odd, balancing there with her wings tucked back. Spencer half expected her to topple at any moment.

“How close can you get me before she spots us?” Spencer whispered. He wasn’t sure if his voice had carried in the wind until Dez responded.

“You worry too much about the details.” Dez looked down at Spencer, a horrible look of mischief in his bloodshot eyes. “Let’s just see what happens.”

Dez’s wings folded back and he went into a steep dive. The rushing air stole Spencer’s breath as they zoomed down behind the unsuspecting Sweeper.

When they were still some distance away, Dez pulled up hard, his wings snapping out and catching the wind like sails. “I’ll handle this one,” Dez said. Then his arms opened, and Spencer fell hard onto the angled arm of the crane.

It should have knocked the wind out of him, but Spencer’s Glopified jumpsuit absorbed the impact and he felt no pain. Still, he let out a cry of fear and surprise. There was really no way to hold it in at such a terrifying height. Spencer clung to the metal crane arm as he tipped his head to see the Sweeper above him. She leapt to her feet with surprising agility for a woman of her size. Her wings curled outward to steady her as pink eyes honed on Spencer, who was clinging helplessly a few feet down.

The Sweeper’s taloned hand reached for the walkie-talkie at her side. No sooner had she unclipped it from her belt than Dez Rylie struck like a diving falcon. His force knocked her from the tip of the crane, and she reeled in the air for a moment before her own wings caught her fall.

Her walkie-talkie clattered down the crane arm. Spencer reached out, but it bounced over the edge, spiraling toward the construction site below. Spencer watched the little black device fall, illuminated by the floodlights.

When the walkie-talkie was about twelve feet from the ground, it struck the invisible force field that spanned the top of the chain-link fence. Magic rippled like water disturbed by a thrown stone. It sent an audible hum across the entire construction site, lighting up the whole force field for one brief second. Then the walkie-talkie exploded into unrecognizable fragments.

Spencer’s eyes were wide. Agnes wasn’t joking about the Glopified fence. His grip around the crane arm tightened as he realized that a fall would completely obliterate him.

The exploding walkie-talkie would have surely alerted the two Sweeper guards at the gate. But Spencer couldn’t worry about them at the moment. The Sweeper was flapping her wings. She didn’t look very graceful or experienced, but that didn’t stop her from rising toward Spencer’s precarious position on the crane.

Spencer cast his eyes around frantically. “Dez!” he yelled. Stealth was no longer a thought in his mind. “Where are you?”

From somewhere below, Spencer heard the kid’s voice. “Just let go, Doofus! I’ll probably catch you!”

“
Probably?
” Spencer yelled. There was no way he was letting go. The plan was shot and time was ticking away. If they didn’t spray the Sweeper soon, the green solution would be unable to erase the whole skirmish from her mind.

The fat Rubbish woman shrieked below him. Her wings painstakingly bore her plump body up toward Spencer and the crane.

With sweaty hands, Spencer drew his green spray bottle. He figured he’d have one good shot before the Sweeper reached him. If he hit her, she would plummet down and explode in the force field. He didn’t like the idea, but did he have a choice?

Dez suddenly flapped up beside him, feet finding purchase on the tilted crane arm.

“Give me that green spray,” he said. “She’s so slow, I think I can blast her in midflight.”

“I thought your clumsy hands couldn’t hold on to anything,” Spencer said.

Dez shrugged. “That was before.” He reached down and easily plucked the spray bottle from Spencer’s grasp. “I just didn’t feel like carrying Penny.”

Spencer didn’t have time to yell at Dez for lying. In the next moment, the fat Sweeper rose into view, her sharp fingers reaching out for Spencer.

Dez aimed the spray bottle and shot a stream of green solution into the woman’s face. Her pink eyes rolled back as consciousness slipped away from her. Then her leathery wings spasmed, one of them catching Spencer across the shoulder and knocking him back. He slipped from the crane arm and found himself in a gut-wrenching free fall.

The unconscious Sweeper flopped through the air beside him, the two of them falling so close together that Spencer could have reached out and touched her. He scrambled for a broom at his belt, but the fall was petrifying as he rushed toward the force field.

Spencer was bracing himself to be blown to bits when a dark shadow passed overhead. He was jerked around, slamming into the round body of the unconscious Sweeper. Then Spencer was lifted away, dangling upside down by his right foot and pressed uncomfortably close to the large Sweeper woman.

Dez was carrying them both! Spencer could see the bully’s face in the floodlights, and he didn’t even look strained by the effort of bearing two people into the sky.

In a moment, they were back at the top of the crane, where Dez dumped the large Sweeper woman in a heap. Spencer thought she would roll right off, but her wings kept her draped there like a dirty rag on a faucet. He hoped they’d been fast enough for the green spray to work. Assuming it had, the Sweeper would wake up with no memory of the fight, wondering where her walkie-talkie had gone.

“What was that all about?” Spencer yelled. Dez was now holding both of his ankles as they soared back toward the Rebels at the gate.

“Oh, you mean that part where I saved your life?” Dez said.

“No,” said Spencer. “I mean that part where you weren’t strong enough to pick up Penny, but you had no problem holding me and that fat lady!”

Dez made a face. “I told you, I really didn’t want to carry Penny. She wouldn’t have let me try out my flight skills. But I knew you couldn’t stop me.”

Spencer raged silently, upside down, until Dez deposited him at the gate where the other Rebels were waiting. Penny was standing over the Filth Sweeper and the Grime Sweeper. Both of them were unconscious, with droplets of green spray on their faces.

“They shouldn’t remember a thing when they wake up,” Penny said.

Daisy turned to Spencer and Dez. “What happened up there?”

“We got our Sweeper,” Dez reported.

He made it sound so simple. Spencer was about to elaborate when the Filth Sweeper’s walkie-talkie sounded.

“Edwards,” said an unfamiliar crackly voice. “You got action in the construction site?”

The Rebels all stared at one another for a stunned moment.

“Edwards? If you don’t answer, I’m sending someone to your location.”

Spencer didn’t know where the person was calling from. He didn’t know how long it would take to send reinforcements. All he knew was that the Sweeper called Edwards would not be answering the call.

Chapter 20

“A classic American chocolate.”

Edwards!” The voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie sounded irritated.