‘If we needed passports or papers Mrs Whatsit would have told us so,’ Charles Wallace said.
Calvin put his hands on his hips and looked down at Charles Wallace. ‘Now look here, old sport. I love those three old girls just as much as you do, but I’m not sure they know everything.’
‘They know a lot more than we do.’
‘Granted. But you know Mrs Whatsit talked about having been a star. I wouldn’t think that being a star would give her much practice in knowing about people. When she tried to be a person she came pretty close to goofing it up. There was never anybody on land or sea like Mrs Whatsit the way she got herself up.’
‘She was just having fun,’ Charles said. ‘If she’d wanted to look like you or Meg I’m sure she could have.’
Calvin shook his head. ‘I’m not so sure. And these people seem to be people, if you know what I mean. They aren’t like us, I grant you that, there’s something very off-beat about them. But they’re lots more like ordinary people than the ones on Uriel.’
‘Do you suppose they’re robots?’ Meg suggested.
Charles Wallace shook his head. ‘No. That boy who dropped the ball wasn’t any robot. And I don’t think the rest of them are, either. Let me listen for a minute.’
They stood very still, side by side, in the shadow of one of the big office buildings. Six large doors kept swinging open, shut, open, shut, as people went in and out, in and out, looking straight ahead, straight ahead, paying no attention to the children whatsoever, whatsoever. Charles wore his listening, probing look. ‘They’re not robots,’ he said suddenly and definitely. ‘I’m not sure what they are, but they’re not robots. I can feel minds there. I can’t get at them at all, but I can feel them pulsing. Let me try a minute more.’
The three of them stood there very quietly. The doors kept opening and shutting, opening and shutting, and the stiff people hurried in and out, in and out, walking jerkily like figures in an old silent film. Then, abruptly, the stream of movement thinned. There were only a few people and these moved more rapidly, as if the film had been speeded up. One white-faced man in a dark suit looked directly at the children, said, ‘Oh, dear, I shall be late,’ and flickered into the building.
‘He’s like the White Rabbit,’ Meg giggled nervously.
‘I’m scared,’ Charles said. ‘I can’t reach them at all. I’m completely shut out.’
‘We have to find father –’ Meg started again.
‘Meg –’ Charles Wallace’s eyes were wide and frightened, ‘I’m not sure I’ll even know father. It’s been so long, and I was only a baby –’
Meg’s reassurance came quickly. ‘You’ll know him! Of course you’ll know him! The way you’d know me even without looking because I’m always there for you, you can always reach in –’
‘Yes.’ Charles punched one small fist into an open palm with a gesture of great decision. ‘Let’s go to CENTRAL Central Intelligence.’
Calvin reached out and caught both Charles and Meg by the arm. ‘You remember when we met, you asked me why I was there? And I told you it was because I had a compulsion, a feeling I just had to come to that particular place at that particular moment?’
‘Yes, sure.’
‘I’ve got another feeling. Not the same kind, a different one, a feeling that if we go into that building we’re going into terrible danger.’
7. The Man With Red Eyes
‘WE KNEW we were going to be in danger,’ Charles Wallace said. ‘Mrs Whatsit told us that.’
‘Yes, and she told us that it was going to be worse for you than for Meg and me, and that you must be careful. You stay right here with Meg, old sport, and let me go in and then report to you.’
‘No,’ Charles Wallace said firmly. ‘She told us to stay together. She told us not to go off by ourselves.’
‘She told you not to go off by yourself. I’m the oldest and I should go in first.’
‘No,’ Meg’s voice was flat. ‘Charles is right, Cal. We have to stay together. Suppose you didn’t come out and we had to go in after you? Unh-unh. Come on.’
They crossed the square. The huge CENTRAL Central Intelligence Building had only one door, but it was an enormous one, at least two storeys high and wider than a room, made of a dull, bronzelike material.
‘Do we just knock?’ Meg giggled.
Calvin studied the door. ‘There isn’t any handle or knob or latch or anything. Maybe there’s another way to get in.’
‘Let’s try knocking anyhow,’ Charles said. He raised his hand, but before he touched the door it slid up from the top and to each side, splitting into three sections that had been completely invisible a moment before. The startled children looked into a great entrance hall of dull, greeny marble. Marble benches lined three of the walls. People were sitting there like statues. The green of the marble reflecting on their faces made them look bilious. They turned their heads as the door opened, saw the children, looked away again.
‘Come on,’ Charles said, and, still holding hands, they stepped in. As they crossed the threshold the door shut silently behind them. Meg looked at Calvin and Charles and they, like the waiting people, were a sickly green.
The children went up to the blank fourth wall. It seemed insubstantial, as though one might almost be able to walk through it. Charles put out his hand. ‘It’s solid, and icy cold.’
Calvin touched it, too. ‘Ugh.’
Meg’s left hand was held by Charles, her right by Calvin, and she had no desire to let go of either of them to touch the wall.
‘Let’s ask somebody something.’ Charles led them over to one of the benches. ‘Er, could you tell us what’s the procedure around here?’ he asked one of the men. The men all wore nondescript business suits, and though their features were as different one from the other as the features of men on Earth, there was also a sameness to them.
Like the sameness of people riding in the Underground, Meg thought. – Only on the Underground every once in a while there’s somebody different and here there isn’t.
The man looked at the children warily. ‘The procedure for what?’
‘How do we see whoever’s in authority?’ Charles asked.
‘You present your papers to the A machine. You ought to know that,’ the man said severely.
‘Where is the A machine?’ Calvin asked.
The man pointed to the blank wall.
‘But there isn’t a door or anything,’ Calvin said. ‘How do we get in?’
‘You put your S papers in the B slot,’ the man said. ‘Why are you asking me these stupid questions? Do you think I don’t know the answers? You’d better not play any games around here or you’ll have to go through the Process machine again and you don’t want to do that.’
‘We’re strangers here,’ Calvin said. ‘That’s why we don’t know about things. Please tell us, sir, who you are and what you do.’
‘I run a number-one spelling machine on the second-grade level.’
‘But what are you doing here now?’ Charles Wallace asked.