Open Sesame
- Reynie and Sticky share what they've learned with the girls at lunch, adding that if Mr. Curtain knew they were talking about the Whisperer at all, they'd lose their Messenger status.
- Constance asks them if sitting in that stupid chair is really all it's cracked up to be, and Reynie and Sticky avoid answering. "Neither wished to admit how overcome he'd been by the Whisperer. In fact, Reynie had struggled not to sound excited—and even fond—when he described it to the girls" (27.6).
- Constance makes a strange face and the boys and Kate realize she's reacting to a message being transmitted. They can feel it too, just not as intensely as Constance, and this one really seems to be bugging her.
- Another Messenger comes to invite Reynie and Sticky to sit at the Messenger table, but Reynie says they have a stomach flu that they wouldn't want the other Messengers to catch.
- Sticky plays along with the excuse, and it works, but he's secretly disappointed. He kind of wanted to go sit with the Messengers—and that disappoints him, too. He's surprised by how easily influenced he is by his desire to be wanted.
- With the other Messenger gone, the kids find out why this particular message transmission has been so aggravating for Constance: it was Reynie's voice.
- But wait—Reynie's at the table. How could he also be sending a message?
- The kids realize Mr. Curtain has figured out how to record sessions—this must be one of his new modifications, and the reason he won't be needing Messengers in the future.
- Which, Constance adds, means he'll be able to broadcast messages around the clock instead of just a few times a day.
- Reynie wonders what will happen to Constance and people like her when that happens and the signal is boosted to full strength.
- He keeps this thought to himself, seeing how upset Constance already is. She has her eyes pressed closed, and when she opens them, Reynie is reminded of Mr. Benedict's last message.
- He thinks he knows what Mr. B meant.
- Mr. B wants them to figure out the way into an important secret building, the one that contains the Waiting Room and the Whispering Gallery, but with eyes open now.
- Reynie knows this is what the message meant because they were blindfolded when they were led to the Whispering Gallery, and they had to exit one building in order to enter another. Also, it's in a place where one of them has been before.
- Clever Reynie realizes this must have been the end of the message, because Sticky was blindfolded when he was lead to the Waiting Room, and it was shortly after that that they received the message. He also realizes that there would be no need to blindfold someone on the way to the Waiting Room unless there was something important nearby, because no one would willingly go to the Waiting Room, so there's no need to keep it secret. Get it?
- The kids go out to the spot where Sticky and Reynie were blindfolded, and Sticky and Reynie do their best to remember how many steps they took in what direction as well as what other things they noticed or heard.
- The kids find the secret entrance to the Whispering Gallery, and it's—where else?—hidden by one of the drapeweed traps.
- They move down a passageway and unravel another riddle to figure out the secret code to open a locked door, and then they immediately duck inside because they hear the last thing they want to hear: the sound of Mr. Curtain's wheelchair approaching.