Inside CENTRAL Central Intelligence, the children find a sickly green room full of waiting people. They ask one man how they see whoever’s in charge. The man gets fearful and suspicious that they don’t know. The man reports them with the advice not to resist so things “will all be much easier for you” (118).

A wall disappears, revealing an enormous room full of machines. Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace cross the room and come face-to-face with a red-eyed man. Charles Wallace feels the man trying to get into his mind and struggles to resist. Atop his head, the man wears a light, “pulsing, throbbing, in steady rhythm” (120).

When the man speaks, his words go straight into their minds, and Charles Wallace realizes the man is not speaking—rather, being spoken through by IT. Mr. Murry is indeed on Camazotz, but if the children want any hope of finding him, Charles Wallace must turn himself over to IT. Feeling like there’s no other way, Charles Wallace complies and becomes a loyal servant of IT. Meg ends the chapter with the fearful realization that “Charles is gone” (132).