Nomansan Island
- Rhonda drives the children to Nomansan Island where they are accepted into the Institute.
- They observe some workers in white uniforms working on "some unseen apparatus" under the water near the bridge. Reynie guesses they must be working on the turbines. They also see more workers loading crates into a truck. It's all very mysterious.
- Two men in suits, much like the men the children saw in the maze, jump into the truck once it's loaded and drive away over the bridge.
- Constance notes that they're wearing those crazy watches (which the children have since learned are capable of emitting powerful electric shocks), and the others shush her. Undercover, Constance. Un-der-cov-er.
- Thankfully no one heard her.
- Two escorts arrive to take the kids to their rooms. They are a boy and a girl dressed identically in "blue pants, snappy white tunics, and blue sashes" (10.34), and their names are Jackson and Jillson. They're Executives at the school, and according to Jackson, they run the show: "A lot of us are former students who did so well as Messengers that Mr. Curtain hired us on" (10.41).
- Jackson suggests that being a Messenger is a great honor and that Messengers enjoy special privileges—special secret privileges.
- Jackson takes the boys to their room while Jillson takes the girls to theirs.
- The rooms feature TVs that are left on all the time, but Reynie and Sticky turn theirs off as soon as Jackson leaves. They're just thinking that they should go find the girls when one of their ceiling panels moves aside and Kate and Constance drop into the room. Kate navigated their way there by going through the heating vent. She's quite a wonder that way.
- The four kids decide to poke around and see what they can find out about the Institute before they have to meet up with the Executives again.
- They follow a well-kept path that goes up a tall hill near the dormitory.
- Kate uses her kaleidoscope (which is a telescope in disguise) to survey the buildings and declares that there must be something very important in the stone tower. According to Kate, "there's always something important behind the highest window" (10.74).
- She suggests lassoing the flagpole and climbing the tower, which would be easy for her to do, but Reynie reminds her that Mr. Benedict wants them to fly under the radar.
- When the kids notice a lush plant that Sticky realizes has been disturbed and replanted, they think it might be hiding something and go to investigate.
- But when Sticky attempts to pluck off one of the younger shoots of the plant, it tries to swallow him.