The Mouse in the Culvert
- Kate easily makes it back into the building that contains the Whispering Gallery, the Waiting Room, and Mr. Curtain's press room, but from there she's not sure where to go.
- She knows the Whispering Gallery is at the top of the tower and that the computers that run it are supposed to be in the room below.
- So… she creates a diversion by using a slingshot to shoot a marble to one end of the corridor while she sneaks into the elevator at the other end, shimmies up through an escape hatch, and scales the wall to the top of the elevator shaft. Which is exactly what we would have done—if we had a bucket with a slingshot and marbles and even half of Kate's agility. But anyway…
- At the level of the computer room, Kate is unable to pry open the elevator doors or find any way in, and a vent at the top of the shaft is too small for her to fit through. She does, however, hear that S.Q. and Martina will be meeting with Mr. Curtain shortly, so she retreats back down the elevator shaft to find a place where she can listen in on their conversation.
- Kate learns a few things through her eavesdropping. First, brainsweeping doesn't fully erase memories—that's impossible—but what it does do is hide the memories from their owners, sweeping them "under a mental rug" (31.41), so to speak.
- Second, the Whisperer deals with people's fears by "sending extremely high-power messages that deny" (31.54) the fears. And according to Mr. C, once the Improvement takes place, and everyone's been appropriately brainswept and Whispered to, everyone will be much happier. Third, the thousands of Whisperer knock-offs that have been shipped all over the world to help with the brainsweeping and retraining are far less powerful than the one-true-Whisperer, and that only Mr. C's "Whisperer can bring about the Improvement" (31.68).
- Unfortunately, at this point Mr. Curtain, S.Q., and Martina hear a noise (Kate), and S.Q. makes mention of all the mouse trouble they seem to be having lately. Everyone's been hearing mice—in the ceiling, in the hallways, etc.
- This makes Mr. C suspicious, and he pours hot water down the drainpipe through which Kate's been listening and then writes S.Q. a note telling him to grab Jackson and go investigate the culvert opening on the south shore.
- This, we find out, is exactly where Kate has been listening from, but Kate is far too quick for S.Q. and Jackson. She runs out of the culvert and down the shore and swims out into the bay. She's pretty sure she wasn't seen, but her troubles aren't over yet.
- Kate sees a shark fin in the water (yikes), which turns out to be a jagged rock (phew).
- Unfortunately the bay is full of these jagged rocks (yikes), and Kate's going to have to navigate her way through them to get back to the shore. Of course Kate's an excellent swimmer (phew), but some of the rocks seem to be moving (yikes)—which means they might be sharks after all (yikes and yikes and yikes).
- If you like cliffhangers, you're in luck, because that's where the chapter ends.