‘No,’ Charles Wallace said.
‘Once one is one. Once two is two. Once three is three.’
‘Mary had a little lamb!’ Charles Wallace shouted. ‘Its fleece was white as snow!’
‘Once four is four. Once five is five. Once six is six.’
‘And everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go!’
‘Once seven is seven. Once eight is eight. Once nine is nine.’
‘Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn’t keep her –’
‘Once ten is ten. Once eleven is eleven. Once twelve is twelve.’
The number words pounded insistently against Meg’s brain. They seemed to be boring their way into her skull.
‘Twice one is two. Twice two is four. Twice three is six.’
Calvin’s voice came out in an angry shout, ‘Four-score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.’
‘Twice four is eight. Twice five is ten. Twice six is twelve.’
‘Father!’ Meg screamed. ‘Father!’ The scream, half involuntary, jerked her mind back out of darkness.
The words of the multiplication table seemed to break up into laughter. ‘Splendid! Splendid! You have passed your preliminary tests with flying colours.’
‘You didn’t think we were as easy as all that, falling for that old stuff, did you?’ Charles Wallace demanded.
‘Ah, I hoped not. I most sincerely hoped not. But after all you are very young and very impressionable, and the younger the better, my little man. The younger the better.’
Meg looked up at the fiery eyes, at the light pulsing above them, and then away. She tried looking at the mouth, at the thin, almost colourless lips, and this was more possible, even though she had to look obliquely, so that she was not sure exactly what the face really looked like, whether it was young or old, cruel or kind, human or alien.
‘If you please,’ she said, trying to sound calm and brave. ‘The only reason we are here is because we think our father is here. Can you tell us where to find him?’
‘Ah, your father!’ There seemed to be a great chortling of delight. ‘Ah, yes, your father! It is not can I, you know, young lady, but will I?’
‘Will you, then?’
‘That depends on a number of things. Why do you want your father?’
‘Didn’t you ever have a father yourself?’ Meg demanded. ‘You don’t want him for a reason. You want him because he’s your father.’
‘Ah, but he hasn’t been acting very like a father lately, has he? Abandoning his wife and his four little children to go gallivanting off on wild adventures of his own.’
‘He was working for the government. He’d never have left us otherwise. And we want to see him, please. Right now.’
‘My, but the little miss is impatient! Patience, patience, young lady.’
Meg did not tell the man on the chair that patience was not one of her virtues.
‘And by the way, my children,’ he continued blandly, ‘you don’t need to vocalize verbally with me, you know. I can understand you quite as well as you can understand me.’
Charles Wallace put his hands on his hips defiantly. ‘The spoken word is one of the triumphs of man,’ he proclaimed, ‘and I intend to continue using it, particularly with people I don’t trust.’ But his voice was shaking. Charles Wallace, who even as an infant had seldom cried, was near tears.
‘And you don’t trust me?’
‘What reason have you given us to trust you?’
‘What cause have I given you for distrust?’ The thin lips curled slightly.
Suddenly Charles Wallace darted forward and hit the man as hard as he could, which was fairly hard, as he had had a good deal of coaching from the twins.
‘Charles!’ Meg screamed.
The men in dark smocks moved smoothly but with swiftness to Charles. The man in the chair casually raised one finger, and the men dropped back.
‘Hold it –’ Calvin whispered, and together he and Meg darted forward and grabbed Charles Wallace, pulling him back from the platform.
The man gave a wince and the thought of his voice was a little breathless, as though Charles Wallace’s punch had succeeded in winding him. ‘May I ask why you did that?’
‘Because you aren’t you,’ Charles Wallace said. ‘I’m not sure what you are, but you’ – he pointed to the man on the chair – ‘aren’t what’s talking to us. I’m sorry if I hurt you. I didn’t think you were real. I thought perhaps you were a robot, because I don’t feel anything coming directly from you. I’m not sure where it’s coming from, but it’s coming through you. It isn’t you.’
‘Pretty smart, aren’t you?’ the thought asked, and Meg had an uncomfortable feeling that she detected a snarl.
‘It’s not that I’m smart,’ Charles Wallace said, and again Meg could feel the palm of his hand sweating inside hers.
‘Try to find out who I am, then,’ the thought probed.
‘I have been trying,’ Charles Wallace said, his voice high and troubled.
‘Look into my eyes. Look deep within them and I will tell you.’
Charles Wallace looked quickly at Meg and Calvin, then said, as though to himself, ‘I have to,’ and focused his dear blue eyes on the red ones of the man in the chair. Meg looked not at the man but at her brother. After a moment it seemed that his eyes were no longer focusing. The pupils grew smaller and smaller, as though he were looking into an intensely bright light, until they seemed to close entirely, until his eyes were nothing but an opaque blue. He slipped his hands out of Meg’s and Calvin’s and started walking slowly towards the man on the chair.
‘No!’ Meg screamed. ‘No!’
But Charles Wallace continued his slow walk forward, and she knew that he had not heard her.
‘No!’ she screamed again, and ran after him. With her inefficient flying tackle she landed on him. She was so much larger than he that he fell sprawling, hitting his head a sharp crack against the marble floor. She knelt by him, sobbing. After a moment of lying there as though he had been knocked out by the blow, he opened his eyes, shook his head, and sat up. Slowly the pupils of his eyes dilated until they were back to normal, and the blood came back to his white cheeks.
The man on the chair spoke directly into Meg’s mind, and now there was a distinct menace to the words. ‘I am not pleased,’ he said to her. ‘I could very easily lose patience with you, and that, for your information, young lady, would not be good for your father. If you have the slightest desire to see your father again, you had better cooperate.’
Meg reacted as she sometimes reacted to Mr Jenkins at school. She scowled down at the ground in sullen fury. ‘It might help if you gave us something to eat,’ she complained. ‘We’re all starved. If you’re going to be horrible to us you might as well give us full stomachs first.’