Chapter 100

Whoa Chapter 100 and WHAT A DOOZY!!!

We're back at the present time in the hotel room with China & Hugo. We learn that Glending wants China to see what the current status of Hugo's investigation is, and keep him off the streets for a few days. So I guess that's why he's chained up, but I wonder why they want him off the streets. I guess just to stay out of the way while the real people work their magic or something. Anyways there's a knock and some big huge woman walks in. Friend of China's, we don't learn her name (probably the author's mistake) but there's intimations that they might be lesbians together or something. She brings a recorded message for them to lesson to. It's a message that was sent to Glending from someone who purports to be working with Margaret Ball. The deal is that she wants all her sister stenographers released unharmed or else she will spread copies of the paper far and wide.

1) So Margaret had the document the whole time and Hugo has been on a wild goose chase! Figures.

2) And furthermore Hugo recognizes the voice of the woman on the recording as his sister! Allison! I was like Whoa, wah?!?

So that's the end of part 1. Which is kind of scary, there's probably at least 100 or 200 more chapters, that means. This is definitely the longest thing I have ever read. Too bad I'm not getting a school credit or something.

Chapter 99

The names of the girls are: ANABEL, CHANDRA, KAREN, LILY, MAIA, MARGARET, PENNY, and they will each be in charge of taking notes on a certain subject. They learn the ropes and basically the system works perfectly, just like Glenending had hoped. But because the girls are isolated from the rest of the world, they sort of have some weird ideas about how the world works. They develop this idea of a person named ROSA, who they think of as their mom, out in the world, someone who cares about them. Sort of like their God or Mary in a way, I guess. (Just interpreting.)

So the girls grow up, and along the way Anabel commits suicide, and then the girls start developing The Plan. We don't know what that is yet.

(I tried rearranging the girl's first initials into an anagram of some kind, but it did not work out as anything in English. I figure this book must have some secret codes in it somewhere, but I don't know.)

Chapter 98

So the girls go through training and learn what they're going to do. They're given very fancy digs in the building, told they can never leave, but can basically have anything else they'd ever want. Two girls decide to leave, but the rest stay. If you remember that glassed-in fancy room with the tree that was mentioned earlier, their rooms are below that.

Also we learn that the girls will each get a penpal out in the regular office with whom they can correspond. Hogwild is one of the girl's penpals at some point.

It occurs to me that an easy way to summarize these chapters is to just read the first paragraph, skim for anything in blockquotes, and then read the last paragraph and boom there you go. But I am reading the whole thing.

Chapter 97

China is stressed about where she's going to find these stenographer chippies. Two paragraphs later she's figured it out and is rounding them up. She brings in 18 girls to interview with Glendenining and DR. ELEANOR MATHIAS, the staff psychologist. They do some tests, teach the girls the code they'll be writing in. The code is taught to them by someone named JERRY. A couple of the girls steal away during the night but the ones who are left the following morning are ready for work.

Chapter 96

We now travel back in time. To a place when Glendenning has a meeting that goes horribly wrong. He's all embarrassed. The secretary suggests and he agrees that he should have a paperless office. Everything he says will be automatically recorded and transcribed, so he never has to remember anything or search through papers to find something ever again.

So they set up a bunch of microphones, but then he wasn't sure who to entrust with the recording of everything. So an employee named SEAN BITTMAN recommended he talk to China Sweet. Apparently she had procured underage girls for the company in the past? Um hello creepy. But basically the idea is to staff the recording booth with young underpriveledged girls, a completely child labor kind of situation.

Hugo, what kind of nonsense are you mixed up in, I wonder!

Also we learn that China Sweet's real name is MAXINE ESTRA. Which is semi-confusing, because we already met a character named Estra Maxie. Coincidence I think not? Or did the author just forget and is running out of ideas. I don't know.

Chapter 95

So then China & Hugo are at a old sea-side hotel called The Ballast. Hugo is chained to the radiator, I'm not sure why. China washes her face (sorry, I have no clue what is important and what isn't, and what will be important later, so I'll just mention the random details) but Hugo does not see her face, and then she talks about how she was hired to find Margaret Ball. If you remember she was the window-paper-dropper. China has been looking for Margaret for longer than Hugo has been on the scene. And it seems that China originally introduced Margaret to Glendenig, or got her hired, or something. I don't know.

Chapter 94

Great, I'm officially behind. Curse the day ere I ridiculed Leona! Ha. I'm from jolly old london. ANyways.

in Chapter 94 China Sweet is driving Hugo somewhere. They talk about fate, which Hugo calls "ghostfamily." And they talk about whether or not we each have ONE significant thing that we have to to do during our life. It's basically a philosophical debate that I think China wins, Hugo never really has much of an opinion on anything.

We find out that China got the message that Hugo had sent to Mr Glendenning. She works for him too. She was worried that Hugo was going to spill secrets to the Rustic people with the spider, so she ran off to save him. Of course I'm not sure Hugo has any actual secrets to spill, but whatev.

Chapter 93

This is a very short chapter in which China Sweet briefly comforts Hugo and then orders him into her truck. She takes him somewhere and then has him handcuff himself to the radiator. You have to read it a few times before you're sure that's what really happened.