Chapter Twenty-Two
Jasper Reveals His Secret
As soon as Jasper delivered his defiant response, an acorn was thrown from above his head. It bounced off of his noggin with a very audible thwock! This was accompanied by much squirrelly laughter in the limbs and leaves. Lefty, Jack, and Nibbler all giggled… they simply couldn’t help it, despite Jasper’s very serious demeanor. In Nibbler’s case, of course, it was more of a chuffing, snorting sound.
As the acorn struck him, Jasper grimaced, squinted his eye, and grumbled beneath his breath, “Devilish little critters!”
“I told you his head was hard,” Lefty whispered to the boy and dog. “No harm done!”
“Not funny, Lefty!” Jasper said, shaking his broom.
“Aw, come on, Jasper,” Lefty replied, as he stifled his giggles. “I had them cut you down, didn’t I? There’s no reason we can’t be friends, is there? Just like old times?”
Just like old times, Jack thought to himself. What did it mean? How and why had Jasper and Uncle Lefty been friends?
“There are plenty of reasons why we can no longer be friends!” Jasper argued, as he bent down to retrieve his corncob pipe, which he had lost when he had been hanging upside down. His eye narrowed, and he sneered. “Least of all, your impish squirrel clan having such fun at ol’ Jasper’s expense… But you’re right about one thing. I have been at this an awfully long time, haven’t I? Ever since the disbandment of our research unit, I’ve been trying to infiltrate your laboratory, to see what you’ve been up to. To see if you continued the research that we all began so long ago. And to see how that research has… progressed.”
Research unit? Jack exchanged a curious glance with Nibbler, who also appeared to be following the conversation closely. The dog’s eyes moved from one speaker to the next, his snout quivering about in concentration. He obviously could not understand the vast majority of the words being exchanged, but he was very perceptive to human moods and emotions.
“You’ve been trying, Jasper. But without much success, I must point out,” Lefty said.
“So it would seem, wouldn’t it?” Jasper drew himself to his entire, formidable height. Despite having been foiled by the squirrels (and not for the first time, evidently), he seemed rather pleased with himself. “But all that has changed… thanks to a little help from young Jack, and his father.”
“What in the name of Isaac Newton have you been up to, Jasper?” Lefty asked. He held his torch in one hand, and he smoothed his bushy mustache with the other, eying Jasper with suspicion.
The janitor pointed a thick finger at Jack. “You’re an unruly, disobedient punk, always scuffing up my floors! You think you’re pretty clever, don’t you?”
“Um, no, not particularly,” Jack muttered in his own defense.
“But you didn’t notice what I left in your backpack, did you, Mr. Smarty Pants?” Jasper sneered.
“My backpack?” Jack whispered.
His mind raced back to the moment, earlier in the day, when Jasper had harassed the Beans in the hallway. The janitor had begun pawing through Jack’s backpack, and dumping its contents upon the floor. At least, until Neil had been able to snatch the bag from Jasper, and the Beans had escaped.
“Told you I was looking for contraband, didn’t I? Bah! You think I’m worried about firecrackers and such? Hardly! You should have known better,” Jasper chuckled. “You’ve guessed it by now, haven’t you? I wasn’t looking to take anything out of your backpack. My goal was to put something in your backpack.”
“What are you talking about?” Jack demanded.
“A tiny surveillance device, capable of transmitting both audio and video to my remote location. Something like this,” Jasper explained, as he removed what appeared to be a normal, pink eraser from the pocket of his overalls.
But as Jack watched with amazement, Jasper manipulated the rectangular eraser in his hands, swiveling it open to reveal what looked like high-tech hardware within. A single, green light blinked inside of the eraser.
Lefty took a step closer, to get a better look at the thing, his scientific mind having been hooked. “You know, that’s actually quite clever! Did you design that, Jasper? It looks… familiar. It reminds me of… someone…”
“Oh, I can’t take the credit for this,” Jasper said. “This is the handiwork of an old colleague of ours.”
Lefty’s brow furrowed, and he tapped at his chin in thought, as if trying to remember where he had seen similar work in the past.
Jasper grinned, displaying his every tooth. “I couldn’t have planned it any better if I’d tried… You took it right into the belly of the beast for me, Jack! Right into the heart of Lefty’s laboratory, the very place I was attempting to infiltrate and conduct espionage upon. Why, you were even kind enough to let your backpack spill open, and leave some harmless ‘supplies’ behind on the floor! The intelligence I gathered from your folly was more than enough to convince me that the time to strike has come. I knew that the research was nearing completion, and I just needed confirmation, before I revealed the extent of our plans… and you were the one who handed me that confirmation!”
Jack slapped an open palm against his forehead in astonishment. He was utterly flabbergasted. It had never even occurred to him that Jasper might be sharp enough to do such a thing. Of course, there had also been no reason for him to suspect that his uncle was conducting research that anybody might want to spy upon, least of all his school janitor.
Fortunately, Lefty did not appear particularly concerned by this turn of events. “By Einstein’s glorious mustaches, you have learned a thing or two about spying, after all!” he exclaimed. “Maybe there’s hope for you yet, Jasper!”
“Bah! I’m perhaps a bit more resourceful than you give me credit for. And you know I was never one to leave things to chance, Lefty.” Jasper paused and narrowed his gray-blue eye at Jack. “Did you think it was mere chance, boy? Your father, being sent to prison? And your placement in the home of your uncle, a man who had been estranged from your family for so long?”
Jack felt his blood run cold at the words. “What do you mean?”
Jasper chuckled. “My surveillance was running into a dead end, what with all these cursed squirrels and booby traps lying about. I needed eyes on the inside. And the way to achieve that was through you.”
“No!” Jack whispered. He felt Nibbler lean his furry weight against his leg, lending him support.
“Yes!” Jasper assured him. “It was a simple feat for me. I did my damage at that blasted sneaker factory, and set up your father to take the fall. Didn’t you find it odd, how quickly your father was removed from the picture, once I’d framed him? My government contacts ensured that he wouldn’t be freed on bond, while awaiting trial. Then, they leaned on the state authorities, in order to accelerate your placement with Lefty, your newly found guardian. Of course, those same contacts and handlers have ensured that I have an outstanding defense team, to handle my recent… legal predicaments. But I suspect I won’t ever have to step foot in a prison… your father should serve enough time for the both of us!”
“You scoundrel!” Jack shouted. Nibbler barked in agreement. “You did all that, just to advance your stupid plans?”
“That was a really lousy thing to do, Jasper,” Lefty said, shaking his head. He sighed with disappointment. “I had hoped you were finally learning the error of your ways.”
Jasper threw back his head with sinister laughter. He seemed quite pleased with himself and the development of his dastardly plans. He might have gone on laughing for quite some time, and congratulating himself, if not for the music that began to dance through the night air, drifting toward them. At the sound of it, Jasper immediately hushed, and turned his attention to the sky.
“What’s that music?” Lefty asked. He tilted his ear, as it became clearer and louder. “No… it can’t be!”
Following his uncle’s lead, Jack turned his ear to the sky, and strained to hear. It was clas
sical music, still faint, yet growing stronger as he listened. It was a powerful piece, radiating a sense of majesty.
“What is it, Uncle Lefty?” asked Jack.
With his ear still tilted, Lefty studied the skies above, peering through the canopy of leaves and tree limbs. “Gears and sprockets,” he whispered. “It’s Ride of the Valkyries.”