Guess I didn’t need the ductwork. Art and Chuckie were being kind enough to take me straight to Mason. Academy training, don’t fail me now!
I slipped silently from the boiler room and trailed Rubric and Chuckie. As they approached the chemistry lab, Mason joined them. I disappeared into a doorway.
“Mase, dude, halls are secure,” Chuckie said. “Cash is flowing. Let’s celebrate. I’m starving.”
“You’re always starving,” Mason said. “Stupid people have a fast metabolism.”
“Dude,” Chuckie said. “That’s harsh.”
“Truth hurts, buddy. Go eat. I gotta make a phone call.”
“The Big Chalupa?” Chuckie asked.
“He’d kill you if he heard you call him that.” Mason shook his head. “I got something lined up for tonight. I’ll catch up.” He turned and ambled away.
How convenient. Mason might be calling Scallion. His Friday night nice guy points had just dipped way below zero. A little eavesdropping should quickly tell me what Mason was up to. I let him round the corner, then started to follow. Rubric and Chuckie were ahead of me, yakking about their exciting new source of income, walking too slowly. I needed to get around them without being seen. Fortunately, Psi Fighters train for just this sort of thing.
I stepped silently, carefully positioning myself behind Rubric as he walked. It was a tricky move, but I had practiced it for years with Andy. He called it the art of invisibility. I called it being sneaky. I could sneak past anybody at the Academy, and they were trained to have heightened awareness.
Silent as a shadow, I moved and weaved and ducked my way around the Duncely Duo, very pleased with my mad ninja skills. I was so close I could have slapped them, and they didn’t have a clue. A few more seconds, and I would be on my way to eavesdrop on Mason. Getting around these oblivious bozoids was easy sailing.
Suddenly, my neck tickled. I reached back to scratch, and pulled a prickly something off my collar. When I looked to see what it was, a monstrous spider crawled across my palm, at which time I let out the most impressive scream of my career. It echoed down the hall and into the next galaxy. I spun and shook my hand and jumped up and down until I bounced right off of Rubric and onto my butt. Anchors away.
“What have we here?” Rubric smiled down at me. “An empty hall, a very loud bleach blond, and a new source of cash.”
“It’s not bleached,” I mumbled, pulling myself to my feet. A shudder shot down my spine as the spider disappeared under a doorway. I was never going in that boiler room again.
“Pay the toll to the troll, Peroxide.”
I didn’t have time for this. On one hand, I could easily clobber these two bozoids and escape to follow Mason. On the other hand, clobbering said bozoids would look very suspicious and would draw mundo attention. That would be mundo bad. Then a brilliant plan popped into my mind.
Run.
“TTFN,” I said, and sprinted after Mason, ignoring Rubric’s calls for me to stop and pay my bills. As I rounded the bend, I caught a glimpse of Mason ducking into the last place I would have ever dreamed of spying on him. Now I was faced with another dilemma, this one much more interesting than the last.
…
“You followed him into the boy’s locker room?” Kathryn squealed when we met up at the end of the day. “You are absolutely my hero! I want to be a Psi Fighter. Where’s the application?”
I grinned. The school library was empty, as usual, and Kathryn and I were back at our table in the study room with Andy’s map unrolled. “Okay, I didn’t actually walk in after him. I used the ductwork.”
“The front door would have been a ton easier.”
“True. But I’m pretty sure a girl walking into the boy’s locker room would be noticed.”
“Details,” Kathryn demanded. “I need details. What was it like? Wait, let me guess. Boys are gross. It smelled like butt fumes and old gym socks.”
“Actually, it smelled like the girl’s locker room.”
“Like I said, butt fumes and old gym socks. Okay, so you’re hanging out in the boy’s locker room. And?”
“Well, I could see everything from the main ventilator shaft opening, but I couldn’t hear much. I think I broke the earbud when I bounced off Rubric.”
“I assume by see everything you mean see everything. That would have been good enough for me.”
“Yeah, except that I wanted to hear Mason’s phone call. Anyway, I peeked out and saw him standing alone. He whipped out his cell and headed into a toilet stall. So I backed away from the opening and followed the ductwork to the stalls.”
“You had to pass over the showers,” Kathryn said, pointing to the map. “Speak to me.”
“Umm, yeah, well…”
“Did you see any—”
“They were empty.”