“I’m so sorry, everyone,” she said, looking sorrowfully first at the children and then at the other adults. “Please make yourself as comfortable as you can. Help yourselves to anything in the kitchen — but remember, don’t speak to a soul unless I’m present. I have to do everything I can to manage this situation.” Rhonda was fighting back tears again. “I have to get them home safely. I have to . . .”
Miss Perumal walked her to the door. “It’s what we all want, Rhonda. Now, don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine.”
“And discreet,” Mrs. Washington added.
No sooner had Rhonda left than the children turned with anxious, pleading faces to the adults, who could hardly refuse them.
“Go,” Miss Perumal said, waving them toward the door. “But stay in the house, and remember what Rhonda told you.”
“And come back soon to eat,” Mrs. Washington said. “It will be a long day, and you’ll need your strength.”
“Those poor children,” said Miss Perumal’s mother. She meant to say it under her breath, but her voice carried after the children as they hurried from the room. “Oh, the poor, poor dears!”
The children sat in a circle on the floor of Constance Contraire’s bedroom. Around them were the piles of Constance’s laundry — some dirty and some clean — that they had shoved aside to make room for themselves. Clothes hung on the back of Constance’s miniature desk chair, too, and blankets and towels were draped haphazardly across her unmade bed. Given the state of her room, it would be no surprise to find her chest of drawers utterly empty; and under different circumstances one of the children would have made a point of checking, just to see. But right now, no one was in the mood to tease Constance about her disorderliness or anything else.
The window shade was drawn; the door was locked. They spoke in hushed tones, and every so often one of them checked the hallway for unwanted listeners. The secrecy of their discussion — and the anxiety and urgency that attended it — lent a strange feeling of familiarity to the scene, for only a year had passed since the Mysterious Benedict Society had held meetings just like this at the Institute. In the middle of their circle lay the sealed envelope. Reynie had put off opening it but hadn’t said why.
“He didn’t tell you anything more?” Reynie asked Constance, who evidently knew as little about Mr. Benedict’s trip as the others.
“Don’t you think I’d have said so if he had?” Constance snapped. “I’ve spent the whole morning crying, Reynie — ever since that stupid bird showed up. If I could think of some important fact, you know I’d tell you.”
“I know,” Reynie said gently. He was used to Constance and had a better way with her than the others did. “Now please don’t be upset, but can you tell me how the pigeon got here?”
Constance sniffled and swiped at her eyes. “There was a knock at the door, and when one of the guards went to open it, that box was on the doorstep. He didn’t see who left it, but one of the upstairs guards was watching through a window. She said it was a man in a suit. He was carrying a briefcase.”
“I knew it,” said Kate, curling her lip, and in a tone that implied considerable loathing she said, “A Ten Man.”
The others looked at her.
“A what?” Sticky asked.
“This was something I was going to tell you about. Do you remember Mr. Curtain’s Recruiters?”
Constance stared at Kate. “Do I remember them?” she said, her face darkening. “Hmm, let me think, Kate. Oh, wait! You mean like the men who tried to kidnap me — the ones who shot wires out of their watches, shocked the wits out of me, and stuffed me into a bag?”
“Exactly,” Kate said. “Those guys. Well, they’re still working for Mr. Curtain, only they aren’t called Recruiters anymore. Milligan and the other agents call them Ten Men.”
“Because they’re heartless?” asked Reynie, thinking of The Wizard of Oz.
“Not Tin Men, Reynie. Ten Men. It’s true they’re heartless, though, and they’ve gotten even more dangerous. The agents call them Ten Men because they have ten different ways of hurting you.”
“Not just the shockwatches?” Sticky asked, cringing as if he didn’t really want to know.
“Apparently they’ve expanded their wardrobe,” Kate said.
Reynie was rubbing his chin. “If a Ten Man delivered the pigeon,” he mused, “then another Ten Man could be waiting at its roost. Mr. Curtain wouldn’t have to be there himself. They could just call him when the reply came. That means Mr. Curtain could be anywhere in the world — and wherever he is, that’s where Mr. Benedict and Number Two are.”
“I have a feeling you’re going somewhere with this,” Kate said.
“Not just me,” Reynie said. “All of us.”
“We’re going somewhere?” Sticky asked, confused.
“Okay, Reynie, why haven’t we opened the envelope yet?” Constance said. “Why have you been stalling?”
“Because I think we need to be resolved,” Reynie said, taking the envelope and staring at it intently. “Whatever Mr. Benedict has written in here could put us on his trail.” He looked up. “And I think we should follow it.”
“You mean actually go on the trip?” Sticky said, his eyes widening.
“By ourselves?” Kate said. She considered for perhaps half a second. “Okay, I’m in.”
Constance looked faintly hopeful. “You think we could actually find them?”
“It’s worth a shot,” Reynie said.
Sticky was polishing his spectacles now. Beads of sweat had appeared on his bald head. “It might be dangerous. You realize it might be dangerous, right?”
“Yes,” Reynie said. “But if we find them — or if we can just get close — we won’t do anything foolish. We’ll contact Rhonda and Milligan, and they can decide what to do.”
“What if we come across a Ten Man?” Constance asked.
“Don’t worry about that,” said Kate, with a dismissive wave of her hand. “We’ll just need to keep an eye out for suits and briefcases — and, you know, be prepared to run for our lives.”
“Thank you,” said Constance with a quaver in her voice. “That’s ever so comforting.”
“A Ten Man probably wouldn’t even notice us,” Reynie said. “Four children don’t exactly look like a rescue team, you know.”
“Well, I suppose that’s true,” Constance said in a somewhat stronger voice, and Reynie smiled encouragingly. He didn’t quite believe what he’d just said — he suspected at least some of Mr. Curtain’s henchmen would have heard about them. But Mr. Curtain, of all people, would hate to admit he’d been outsmarted by children, and it was possible he’d avoided mention of them. At any rate, Reynie thought it best to shore up Constance’s courage, for he could tell she intended to come along regardless.
Kate cracked her knuckles. “If we’re going to do this we need to get started. Four days, the letter said, and we may need every minute.”
“So what’s the plan?” Sticky asked, putting away his polishing cloth and resettling his spectacles.
“If we’re in agreement,” Reynie said, “we’ll go wherever these instructions lead us. Secretly, of course. The adults would never let us go now — not even if Rhonda and Milligan came with us.”
“Of course not,” said Kate. “We’ll have to sneak out.”
“Oh boy,” said Sticky, who hadn’t thought about this yet. “If a Ten Man doesn’t kill me, my parents surely will.”
Reynie grimaced, imagining how Miss Perumal would react when she discovered he’d gone. He quickly forced the image out of his mind (just as, moments before, he had forced away the image of a Ten Man seizing him in some far-off place where no one could protect him).
“Are we agreed, then?” Kate asked.
“Agreed,” said Constance and Reynie.