The Mysterious Benedict Society: Chapter 31 Summary & Analysis

As Reynie is gaining hope, Kate is losing it. She has broken into the Institute Control Building, but the air vents are too small, forcing her to navigate in the open. The corridor is lined with doors, and she is debating which to open when Jackson comes through one. Kate hides and distracts Jackson by launching a marble down the hallway with her slingshot. She goes through the door Jackson left and finds an elevator. Using it would be too conspicuous, so she climbs onto her bucket, unscrews the ceiling maintenance panel, and climbs up into the elevator shaft.

Kate makes the exhausting climb up the elevator cable, but the foyer outside the computer room is too heavily guarded. She is disappointed. She had hoped to destroy all the computers herself, proving that she needs no one’s help. Hiding in a vent, Kate overhears S.Q. Pedalian bringing Martina Crowe to a tutorial meeting with Mr. Curtain. She follows them to eavesdrop on this conversation. In the meeting, Mr. Curtain explains to Martina (and to S.Q., who has forgotten the information) that after the Improvement, brainsweeping will make unhappy people happier and more manageable. He reveals that brainsweeping cannot actually erase memories; instead, it hides memories from their owners. He also explains that the Whisperer works by denying fears, which is why the fears come back later. The only way to truly banish a fear is by confronting it, but no one wants to do that.

S.Q. doesn’t grasp Mr. Curtain’s plan, but he is excited that the whole world will be happy. Mr. Curtain assures him that the Improvement will take place the day after tomorrow. He stations Martina on brainsweeping duty, but S.Q. interrupts to ask if they should be asking people’s permission to meddle with their minds. He has asked this question before but forgotten it, so Mr. Curtain answers with amusement that the happiness is ineffective if they ask for permission. Mr. Curtain is briefly distracted by a sound in the drain, but S.Q. suggests it might be a mouse. The drain dates back to the Institute’s days as a mining colony, and it connects to a culvert. Mr. Curtain muses that the culvert is human-sized. He suspects that the “mouse” might be an eavesdropper and gives S.Q. a note commanding him to investigate the culvert opening.

From her hiding place in the drain, Kate hears Mr. Curtain send S.Q. away. She suspects a trap and hurries out of the culvert. As she emerges, S.Q. and Jackson come racing toward the culvert. Kate has nowhere to hide but the freezing water surrounding the island. She is an excellent swimmer, so she swims down the coastline. Her path is blocked by sharp rocks, and she briefly mistakes them for shark fins. Once she sees them clearly, she navigates around them.