Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary

Lyra moves a panel in the ceiling, and hides her outdoor clothing, including the alethiometer. While in the canteen, Lyra tells the other children to prepare for an escape, and that once the fire alarm goes off, they should dress in warm clothes and run from the compound. In the evening, Lyra climbs into the hiding place in the ceiling, and then crawls to an area above the conference room, where Mrs. Coulter and three men are discussing the escaped daemons.

Mrs. Coulter determines that the escape was not due to the ineptness of the staff, but to the intervention of an outside force. The alarm, which should have sounded when the door to the cage area was sprung, was not heard because of the fire alarm. The conversation soon turns to a new separating machine, which uses a manganese and...