“So we’re homeless?” Duncan asked.
“What about the elementary school?” Ruby asked. “Can’t we go back to that one?”
The principal shook his head. “Directive 86 shuts down the middle school, the elementary school, and the high school all at the same time.”
“So that’s it? That’s the end?” Matilda said.
“No, it’s not the end,” the principal replied. “We’re just moving to the backup facility.”
“What backup facility?” Flinch said.
That was the last thing Heathcliff heard before he lost consciousness.
TOP SECRET DOSSIER
CODE NAME: SICKBED
REAL NAME: MARVIN TAYLOR
YEARS ACTIVE: 1981–83
CURRENT OCCUPATION: PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL TEST SUBJECT
HISTORY: MARVIN SPENT MOST OF
HIS YOUNG LIFE IN BED, SICK WITH
A COLD, FEVER, FLU, SORE THROAT,
MIGRAINE HEADACHE, OR CHICKEN
POX. IF ANYONE WAS SICK WITHIN
A FIFTY-MILE RADIUS, IT WAS
ALMOST GUARANTEED THAT AGENT
SICKBED WOULD CATCH IT. HE WAS
THE ONLY AGENT IN NERDS HISTORY
WHO ASKED TO BE PAID IN KLEENEX.
HE WAS ALSO THE ONLY AGENT
OFFICIALLY EXEMPT FROM
FILING REPORTS; THE TEAM’S
DIRECTOR SAID HE COULDN’T
READ WHAT MARVIN WROTE DUE
TO THE SNOT AND BOOGERS ON EVERY PAGE.
UPGRADE: SICKBED COULD GIVE
AN ENEMY GERMS AND VIRUSES AT
WILL, CAUSING THEM TO FALL ILL
WITHIN SECONDS, ALL FROM
A SINGLE COUGH.
Tessa’s father had been arrested and it was her fault. Unlike that morning, when her anger at him was something bitter in her mouth she wanted to spit onto the floor, she felt nothing but despair. She’d gone too far. She just wanted him to lose the election, not wind up in prison. What if he went to jail for the rest of his life? How would she live with herself?
“So are you going to step aside or not?” Funk demanded.
“Huh?” Tessa said, startled by his anger.
The rest of the BULLIES surrounded her.
“You’re not smart enough or tough enough to lead this team!” Snot Rocket shouted. “Plus, your upgrade is L-A-M-E. If anyone should be running this group, it’s me. I have the most experience. I’ve spent the last three years in in-school suspension. I’ve been in twenty fistfights this month, and eighty percent were with teachers.”
“Unfortunately, you didn’t win any of them,” Funk snarled, then turned his rage on Tessa. “I should be in charge. I’m the coolest one under pressure. When that kid was pouring that sticky gunk on me, I didn’t even flinch.”
“Which is why you’re still completely trapped in it,” Loudmouth cried. “A leader has to command respect, and no one can command like me. I don’t want to lead this team, but to be honest, I don’t see any other solution.”
Thor grunted. No one could understand a word he said, but Tessa knew what he meant. He wanted to be in charge, too.
Normally, Tessa would have bristled at a challenge to her dominance. At Sugarland, no one would have dared to get in her face, but after the day’s events she didn’t care anymore. Any one of them could be the leader of this stupid team. “Fine. I quit.”
“Tessa!” Miss Information called when she entered the room. She had her straw boyfriend in her arms and madness in her eyes, and she was waving her finger back and forth in a don’t even think about it gesture.
Tessa had a sudden vision of her future, and it involved tigers with overstuffed bellies licking their greasy chops. At that moment she would’ve been happy to have bugs splattering on her face if it meant she could fly away and escape.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Miss Information continued.
Tessa shook her head. “This isn’t what I signed up for. I didn’t think my dad would be arrested.”
“Really? You pretended to be him and then trashed the home of the most powerful person on the planet. What did you think was going to happen?”
“I just wanted him to lose the election so he would have more time for me.”
“Tessa, that’s what will happen! When you go see him during the prison’s visiting hours, you’ll have his undivided attention. It will be through a Plexiglass window—but he will be all yours.”
“I’m going to turn myself in to the police. I can’t let him be imprisoned for something I did.”
“Oh, honey, you know I can’t let you do that,” her boss said with more than a hint of menace. “You kids are so spoiled these days. I just don’t know what will make you happy. I suppose I have to fix your problem again.”
“Fix it? How? Do you mean break him out of jail?”
Miss Information sighed. “We could, but then you and your family would live like fugitives, sleeping in abandoned buildings and eating rats and discarded banana peels. I’m sure you’d give me the boo-boo face for that, too.”
“Then what are you talking about?”
“We have to make it so that today never happened at all.”
As Tessa searched the room for exits, a copper-skinned woman with eyeglasses and a white lab coat stepped into the command center. She looked exhausted, hungry, and in desperate need of a shower. She trembled when Miss Information turned to her.
“Ma’am, I have some very good news,” she said, her voice squeaking. “We cracked the problem with your latest design. We’re testing it as we speak.”
“See! I told you if you just followed my drawings it would be easy to build,” Miss Information said proudly.
“Ma’am, you drew a picture of an old DeLorean sports car with the words Time Machine at the bottom,” the scientist said.
Miss Information turned to her scarecrow boyfriend. “Isn’t this just grand, darling! It’s the final piece of my master plan. Oh, yes, you’re right. There is a lot of work to do, and not a minute to spare. Well, actually, now that we have a time machine, we have all the minutes we want. But I’m eager to get started.”
She gave the scarecrow a passionate kiss on his painted mouth.
The BULLIES pretended not to notice.
“Where’s my Benjy?” she asked.
The little silver orb floated into the room. “I am here.”
“Benjy, have you studied the footage of our attack on the White House?”
“I have.”
“So you noticed the five children who gave the BULLIES a resounding kick in the pants?”
“I did. I saw the pants-kicking.”
“I want you to find as much information as you can about them and their families, going back several generations.”