Chapter 12

As we entered Hall Three for the third time, we received another towelling suit and towel. Then, in the hall itself, an announcement informed us that if we threw our old suit and towel into the hatches in the curved metal wall, another suit and towel would come down the ramp above the hatch. It was only announced once, when only a few dozen of us had entered the hall. Everyone else had to find out by watching or being told.

Neither Will nor I ever got to see beyond the lights, but talking with Ken we did manage to work out a bit about what he’d seen. The ‘beam’ he’d been sitting on seemed to have been a curved track with a little trolley carrying a winch that could pull the hawser. We guessed that there was another winch – which didn’t need a track, but which might rotate a quarter turn in a horizontal plane – to pull the other hawser, but Ken couldn’t see that past all the lights. Will was fairly sure that his idea about cleaning apparatus must be correct.

Ken had seen that the lights hung from gantries several feet higher, and that there were catwalks higher still. The walls all continued straight up for a considerable distance, and he couldn’t see a ceiling at all, just blackness beyond the catwalks – themselves so dark he could only see them after letting his eyes get accustomed to the darkness, shielding them from the lighted scene below.

We decided to stay back to watch the cleaning process, and saved a bit of food to keep us going; but it wasn’t to be. A couple of days later, we ignored the fifteen minute warning that the turnstiles would close. Then there was a ten minute warning. By this time there were just four of us left: Will, me and two big, burly blokes whom we’d seen around but never taken any notice of. Finally, there was a different warning at five minutes, ‘Turnstiles will close in five minutes. Do not attempt to remain in this hall during cleaning. Danger of death.’

We decided it wasn’t worth the risk. The two strangers were the last out of the hall. They never spoke a word.

Will and I wondered whether they were self-appointed guardians of our group, or whether they were plain clothes officers, but didn’t talk about it until later. We decided that they must be official. Would anyone else have stayed back and heard that warning, and then decided to protect everyone else from themselves? And wouldn’t self-appointed guardians have said something?

We decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to try to talk to them later, ask them about their role: we’d already drawn more attention to ourselves than we liked.

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