‘Tremendous, Mr President!’ they all exclaimed. ‘Fantastic! A stroke of genius!’
‘I wish to order one hundred thousand for the Army immediately,’ said the Chief of the Army.
‘Thank you,’ said the President, making a careful note of the order.
‘I repeat,’ said the frantic voice of Shuckworth over the loudspeaker. ‘They’ve gone on board and taken the bomb with them!’
‘Stay well clear of them, Shuckworth,’ ordered the President. ‘There’s no point in getting your boys blown up as well.’
And now, all over the world, the millions of watchers waited more tensely than ever in front of their television sets. The picture on their screens, in vivid colour, showed the sinister little glass box securely linked up to the underbelly of the gigantic Space Hotel. It looked like some tiny baby animal clinging to its mother. And when the camera zoomed closer, it was clear for all to see that the glass box was completely empty. All eight of the desperadoes had climbed into the Space Hotel and they had taken their bomb with them.
5
Men from Mars
There was no floating inside the Space Hotel. The gravity-making machine saw to that. So once the docking had been triumphantly achieved, Mr Wonka, Charlie, Grandpa Joe and Mr and Mrs Bucket were able to walk out of the Great Glass Elevator into the lobby of the Hotel. As for Grandpa George, Grandma Georgina and Grandma Josephine, none of them had had their feet on the ground for over twenty years and they certainly weren’t going to change their habits now. So when the floating stopped, they all three plopped right back into bed again and insisted that the bed, with them in it, be pushed into the Space Hotel.
Charlie gazed around the huge lobby. On the floor there was a thick green carpet. Twenty tremendous chandeliers hung shimmering from the ceiling. The walls were covered with valuable pictures and there were big soft armchairs all over the place. At the far end of the room there were the doors of five lifts. The group stared in silence at all this luxury. Nobody dared speak. Mr Wonka had warned them that every word they uttered would be picked up by Space Control in Houston, so they had better be careful. A faint humming noise came from somewhere below the floor, but that only made the silence more spooky. Charlie took hold of Grandpa Joe’s hand and held it tight. He wasn’t sure he liked this very much. They had broken into the greatest machine ever built by man, the property of the United States Government, and if they were discovered and captured as they surely must be in the end, what would happen to them then? Jail for life? Yes, or something worse.
Mr Wonka was writing on a little pad. He held up the pad. It said: ANYBODY HUNGRY?
The three old ones in the bed began waving their arms and nodding and opening and shutting their mouths. Mr Wonka turned the paper over. On the other side it said: THE KITCHENS OF THIS HOTEL ARE LOADED WITH LUSCIOUS FOOD, LOBSTERS, STEAKS, ICE-CREAM. WE SHALL HAVE A FEAST TO END ALL FEASTS.
Suddenly, a tremendous booming voice came out of a loudspeaker hidden somewhere in the room. ‘ATTENTION!’ boomed the voice and Charlie jumped. So did Grandpa Joe. Everybody jumped, even Mr Wonka. ‘ATTENTION THE EIGHT FOREIGN ASTRONAUTS! THIS IS SPACE CONTROL IN HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A.! YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON AMERICAN PROPERTY! YOU ARE ORDERED TO IDENTIFY YOURSELVES IMMEDIATELY! SPEAK NOW!’
‘Ssshhh!’ whispered Mr Wonka, finger to lips.
There followed a few seconds of awful silence. Nobody moved except Mr Wonka who kept saying ‘Ssshhh! Ssshhh!’
‘WHO . . . ARE . . . YOU?’ boomed the voice from Houston, and the whole world heard it. ‘I REPEAT . . . WHO . . . ARE . . . YOU?’ shouted the urgent angry voice, and five hundred million people crouched in front of their television sets waiting for an answer to come from the mysterious strangers inside the Space Hotel. The television was not able to show a picture of these mysterious strangers. There was no camera in there to record the scene. Only the words came through. The TV watchers saw nothing but the outside of the giant hotel in orbit, photographed of course by Shuckworth, Shanks and Showler who were following behind. For half a minute the world waited for a reply.