Mystics 3-Book Collection (37 page)

Zoey forced the images of flying cows from
her mind and let anger replace her sorrow for the poor beasts.

“So,” she began, squinting through the dust
and debris, “Tornados are really thousands of dust devils?”

“Precisely,” said Agent Lee. His black
trench coat billowed behind him in the fierce winds like a
superhero’s cape. Zoey could see the
glee
in his eyes behind
his sunglasses.

What was wrong with these two?
It was
as clear as rain they were enjoying themselves.

“Well, most of the time,” said Agent
Lee.

He turned to Agent Barnes. “These winds are
totally killing my hair. I say we nail these suckers and get out
before I look like I gave myself a 1980s perm.”

Zoey frowned. She had no idea what he meant
by that.

The mystic tornado roared like a thousand
angry bears.

“So how do we stop it — stop
them
I
mean? This thing is huge,” said Zoey.

The tornado was really close. Her jacket
flapped, her hair slapped her face, and she felt herself being
pulled into the vortex.

Agent Barnes wet his index finger and held
it in the air, as if to test the wind direction.

“The key here is to shatter it and separate
them. A single dust devil is easy enough to contain, but they
hardly ever stay by themselves. They’re attracted to each other
like magnets. And the more they gather, the more deadly and massive
they become. We’ve got to stop this bad boy now, before this area
becomes a total loss.”

“So how do we split them apart?” Zoey spit
the dirt from her mouth and reached for her boomerang. But she knew
it wouldn’t make any difference. It would probably get swallowed
up, and she’d never see it again. She’d probably get swallowed,
too. Not a very good prospect. She left her precious boomerang safe
around her wrist.

“
Dust devil tornados
depend on a host of complex, interrelated forces,” answered Agent
Barnes.

“The basic anti-dust devil combo strategy is
to take the smallest of these factors, the one most amenable to
change, and to change it. It’s like throwing a wrench into the
smallest cog of a machine, in hopes that disrupting one part of the
system will cause the entire assembly to shut down.”

Zoey strained against the force of its pull.
“So if we disturb the flow, then it shuts down. Like a stick in a
wheel?”

“That’s right,” shouted Agent Lee over the
winds. “They’ll be disoriented for a bit, not knowing what hit
them. Then they’ll split apart, fall, and turn to dust.”

“Which gives us a few minutes to sweep them
up before they get back together,” interjected Agent Barnes, “And
by the looks of it, we better get started.”

He rummaged through his duffel bag and
pulled out what looked to Zoey like hand-held cordless vacuum
cleaners. He threw one to Agent Lee who held it like a gun and
aimed it up at the roaring dust devil. He made blasting sounds with
his mouth and pretended to shoot at it.

“We sweep them up with this.” Agent Barnes
handed her a pink hand-held cordless vacuum cleaner.

Zoey took the contraption and wrapped her
fingers around the plastic handle. She was right. It
was
a
hand-held vacuum cleaner. It weighed about the same as a
medium-sized cooking pot. The label on the front read:

Dust Devil Buster - Flexi Vacuum

Cyclonic Action, holds 75% more dust
devils!

Perfect for dust devils, sand imps and
more.

7-year guarantee!

Caution—too many dust devils may result in
the loss of suction.

Zoey snorted and then looked at the two
other dust devil busters. “Why is mine pink?”

Agent Barnes’ face fell. “Why? You don’t
like it? I thought you’d like pink.”

“Why? Because I’m a girl?”

“Well…yes.”

Zoey shook her head. “My life just gets
weirder and weirder.”

Zoey strained to keep her balance. The
stench was toxic, and the tornado was so close that she could see
the dust devils clearly through the flying debris. They were
running around in circles like giant hamsters sprinting around
their hamster wheels. Their red eyes gleamed in delight.

“We don’t have much time left!” yelled Agent
Barnes.

Zoey could see that he held a small black
sphere in his right hand.

He grinned. “This baby is a fire-bomb. Think
of it as our wrench. After I throw it, it will explode and cause
the tornado to collapse. Be ready to sweep up as many disoriented
dust devils as you can before they reform. Trust me - you don’t
want to be around when they wake up - so it’s real important that
you sweep
all
the dust. You can’t leave any remains.”

“Got it. I’ll be a good housekeeper.”

Zoey grinned with a rush of excitement. She
knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but she was flattered and
honored that the agents had chosen
her
to work with them on
this assignment. This was totally
awesome
.

Agent Barnes lifted the firebomb and
pointed.

“Zoey,” he bellowed, “you take the right
side of the field. Run as fast as you can. Agent Lee will take the
left, and I’ll stay here in the middle. I’m going to count to
ten…at
ten
I’m going to throw the firebomb. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let’s go, people! We’ve got some
cleaning to do!” Agent Barnes clapped his hands together
enthusiastically.

Without another second to waste, Zoey
clutched her pink dust devil buster, trying not to look too
disgustingly happy. She sprinted across the yellow fields, counting
in her head as she went.

One…two…

Her heart hammered against her chest as she
jumped over a tree trunk, careful not to trip, and kept running.
The wheat whipped her legs as she picked up speed.

Three…four…

In her peripheral vision, she could see the
giant dust devil thrashing forward. The mystics roared in pleasure
as they ripped the earth apart.

Five…six…

Her seventh sense prickled her skin as she
pressed on.

Seven…eight…

She gripped her hand-held vacuum tightly as
she thrashed through the tall grass. The dust and grass particles
in the air tasted like bitter tree bark in her mouth.

Nine…ten…

Zoey halted. She whirled around, squinting
against the dust and flying debris. She stood close in the shadow
of the massive mystic tornado. She couldn’t see through it, and for
a horrible moment she thought the Agents had been swallowed whole.
But then the tornado shifted, and over the horrible roars and
grunts from the mystics she heard a loud
pop
.

The tornado stopped spinning suddenly, and
the mystics fell like heavy rain. As soon as their bodies touched
the ground, they burst into gray dust, like ashes from a fire.

She was able to see Agent Barnes as the
cloud of dust parted.

“Sweep them up, Zoey!” he shouted.

He waved his dust devil buster at her
happily, like he was next up to bat at a baseball game.

“This is the best part! Happy cleaning!”

Across from her, Agent Lee was singing a
tune. He hopped around with his free hand behind his back and
stabbed his dust devil buster at the fallen mystics like a
sword.

Zoey sighed cheerfully. There was no place
in the world she’d rather be than scooping up piles of disgusting
little dust devils with Agent Barnes and Agent Lee.

She was positive that Tristan and Simon
would be jealous of her right now, and that made everything a tad
more delightful.

Zoey cringed as she thrust the nozzle toward
the nearest pile of dust devils. She clenched her jaw when she saw
two red eyes blinking angrily above the pyramid of dust. If the
eyes could talk, she was sure they’d be shouting out plenty of
curse words at her. She flicked the power button, and the red eyes
disintegrated and shot up the nozzle like specks of sand.

After the first one, the others went down
like nothing.

“What you lookin’ at?” she laughed, as she
scooped up other sets of mad eyes.

She imagined she was a cleaning lady,
sweeping up dirt. But instead of working in a vast manor, she was
cleaning a farmer’s field of hostile mystics. It was surprisingly
easy after she got over the smell. She was on pile number two
hundred and three when she heard Agent Barnes yell from across the
field.

“You almost done over there, Zoey?”

“Yes, I think so,” she called back to Agent
Barnes.

She looked around carefully. “Just five more
to go. I’ll be done soon.”

“Well hurry up,” he called back. “We’re
almost done over here, and the dust devils are starting to reform.
Be quick about it.”

“Okay.”

Agent Barnes was right. She saw a nearby
pile of gray dust start to spin like a top. The particles stuck
together, and soon a semi-transparent and very angry mystic stood
in front of her. She swung the dust buster at it, and it was sucked
up into the machine before it could take solid form.

“That was close.” Zoey wiped her brow and
hoped the agents didn’t see how close she had come to letting the
dust devil recover.

A twig broke behind her. She turned
around.

Something hard hit her, and she was thrown
twenty feet in the air. Her dust buster flew out of her hand, and
she landed on the ground hard and rolled. The grasses had cushioned
her fall somewhat, but she felt a stabbing pain in her lower back.
She scrambled to her feet, disoriented, and turned.

Her breath died in her throat. A giant dust
devil was right behind her, enraged and snarling.

T
he creature was
solid. Muscles rippled under its coat of thick gray fur. It was
about the size of a small black bear — a very
angry
black
bear. Its face was even uglier up close, as though it hadn’t
decided if it was going to be monkey or wolf. Zoey gagged as its
smell burned her eyes and throat, like she had swallowed a bucket
of raw onions. Long black talons gleamed at the end of its twisted
fingers. Its wet red eyes looked angry, frustrated, and hungry all
at the same time.

The mystic crouched, and then it leaped at
her.

Zoey jumped out of the way, and the mystic’s
teeth just grazed her jacket.

She ran straight toward the beast, charging
it with her shoulder, but the creature stepped aside, and she
missed it. Then she felt cold talons around her neck, and she was
flung to the ground again. She pushed herself up and launched
herself at it again. This time she hit the beast’s head with her
fist.

“AH!” Her hand seared with pain. It was like
hitting a brick wall. She drove a kick angrily into its chest, and
the creature staggered.

And then something unexpected happened.

The mystic opened its large maw and spewed
out a waterfall of dust that formed into two miniature
twisters.

“Great, baby tornados, that’s just what I
needed.”

The dust devil smiled at Zoey’s surprise.
Its stench was right up close and personal, like a public
toilet.

“Kill you, Agent,” growled the dust devil,
with a voice that sounded like a blender on high speed. “Eat your
flesh.”

“It speaks English!” said Zoey, astonished.
“How about a nice vacation back home, eh? Doesn’t that sound good?
Free of charge. It’s on us. What do you say?”

“Die, Agent,” snarled the mystic, yellow
drool, like thick mustard, dripping from the corners of its
mouth.

“Thought so.”

Zoey unfastened her boomerang, her eyes
never leaving the dust devil.

The mystic scooped up its mini-twisters,
which it held hovering above its palms for a moment as if it were
taunting her. And then, with a growl that meant business, it
hurtled them at her. The tiny twisters flew at her like angry
wasps.

Zoey threw her golden boomerang with a flick
of her wrist.

It spiraled in the air, emitting tiny bursts
of reflected light, flying gracefully like a falcon. She held her
breath as it sliced through both twisters, which dissipated like
the smoke of a dying fire.

She caught her returning boomerang easily,
and for a moment she felt victorious. But then then the dust devil
opened its mouth again and vomited two more tiny twisters. It
smiled a toothy grin at her.

“Why do these things always happen to me?”
Zoey waited for a second attack.

The mystic howled and launched his two
twisters like cannonballs.

Zoey evaporated them with her boomerang, but
before it had returned the mystic threw yet another set of twisters
at her.

They slammed into her with a force that blew
her off her feet. She cried out in excruciating pain as they ate
away at her clothes and cut into her flesh like hot blades. She
felt blood seep from her shoulder and could see blood trickling
from a giant hole that had been ripped in her jeans.

Her boomerang had landed beside her, and she
reached out and clasped it.

She blinked through her tears and could see
the same horrifying smile on the dust devil’s face.

“Die, Agent. I kill you now. I will eat you
later.”

Zoey lowered her eyes. “I’m not an
agent…well, not
yet
anyway. And I’m nobody’s lunch.”

The creature vomited four more twisters and
blasted them towards her.

She whacked at the first one, using the
boomerang like a sword, and the twister disintegrated immediately.
She ignored the stinging pain in her thigh and chest, and parried
the three remaining twisters with her boomerang. They dissipated
and floated in the wind.

But the creature just vomited up more little
twisters.

She knew she couldn’t keep fighting like
this. She was already feeling the strain in her arms. The dust
devil would just keep spewing more and more mini-devils until she
tired, and ultimately they would kill her.