Chapter 40 Section thirty-ninth

The door of the laboratory slammed open, then slowly closed.Margo looked up and saw Flock backing in with a creaking wheelchair.She got up immediately and pushed Flock to the computer terminal.She noticed that Flock had changed into evening dress, with the customary Gucci handkerchief in the breast pocket.Maybe it was changed before work, she thought. "I really don't understand why the laboratory is always placed in such a remote place," he complained. "Tell me, Margot, what big secret have you discovered? Why must I come down to listen to you? Tonight's stupid reception will see It's about to start, and I'm going to have to be on the podium. Of course, the honor is only for show, and it's all because I can write a bestseller. Ian Cuthbert said it very well in my office this morning. Clear." His voice was bitter, as if he had resigned himself to fate.

Margot explained in a few words how she had analyzed the plant fibers that filled the crates, and showed Flock the stone discs carved with harvest scenes.She described how they found Whitsey's journals and letters, recounted their contents, and what Jorgensen had confided to them.Also, when the deranged old woman in Whitsey's journal warned scientists to beware of Mbawang, he was definitely not referring to the statue. Flock listened to her carefully, while carefully handling the stone saucer. "It's an interesting story," he said at last, "but why worry? Your sample may just be contaminated. For all we know, the old woman is probably a lunatic, or Whitsey misremembered the sequence." .”

"That's what I really thought, but look at this:" Margo said, handing the printout to Flock. Flock glanced quickly. "Interesting," he said, "but I don't think it's..." His chubby fingers moved down the column of protein, and his voice died down. "Margot," he looked up, "I'm jumping to conclusions. There are all kinds of pollutants here, but none of them came from humans." "What do you mean?" Margo asked. "See this hexagonal shape that looks like the amyloid reovirus protein? This protein comes from the capsid of a virus that infects both animals and plants. See how much of the sample matches it? And the reverse transcriptase, This enzyme is almost always present where there is a virus."

"I don't seem to understand." Flock turned to her impatiently: "The plants you're analyzing are heavily infected with viruses. DNA sequencers have mixed up plant and virus genes. Many plants carry similar viruses. Protein capsids contain tiny amounts of DNA or RNA. The virus infects the plant, takes over some of the cells, and injects genetic material into the plant's genes. The plant's genes then don't do what they're supposed to do, but make more viruses. Have you seen the brown balls on oak leaves? That's Quercus A masterpiece of Galla virus, but harmless. The nodules on maple and pine are also from viruses. Viruses are as common in plants as in animals."

"I know that, Dr. Flock, but—" "But there's one thing I don't understand," Flock put down the typescript. "A virus usually only encodes other viruses, why would it encode these human and animal proteins? You see, most of them are hormones. Why in plants? What about human hormones?" "That's what I wanted to tell you," Margo said. "I looked up a few of these hormones. Most of them seem to come from the human hypothalamus." Flock's head jerked up, as if slapped. "Hypothalamus?" His eyes were suddenly full of life.

"That's right." "The monster that roams the museum eats the hypothalamus of its victims! It must need these hormones—maybe even be addicted to them!" Flock yelled, "Think about it, there are only two sources of hormones: Those plants, this unique virus is likely to saturate the plants with hormones; the other is the human hypothalamus. Monsters can't eat plant fibers, so they have to eat human brains!" "My God, it's terrible," Margot whispered. "It's hard to believe, but it fully explains the motives of these horrific murders. With this discovery, we can piece together the truth: monsters roam the museum, kill people, open the skull, remove the brain, and eat the hormonally concentrated thalamus area."

He looked at Margo, his hands trembling slightly: "Cusbert said that he found the batch of crates to take out the Mbawang statue, but found that one of the crates was broken and the fibers were scattered all over the place. Now looking back carefully Think, a larger crate was nearly emptied of fiber. So the animal must have been eating fiber for a while. Maxwell used the same fiber to fill the crate. The animal didn't need much, The concentration of hormones that accumulate in the plant must be high, but it obviously needs to be taken regularly." Flock leaned back in his wheelchair. "Ten days ago, the crates were moved into safe storage. Three days ago, two boys were killed. The next day, the guard was killed. What happened? Simple: the beasts couldn't eat the fiber, So people eat the thalamus to satisfy its cravings. But the thalamus can only provide very small amounts of these hormones, which are only poor substitutes for plant fibers. According to the concentration described on the printout, I would venture to estimate that half an ounce of plant fibers is worth the hormones. Fifty human brains."

"Dr. Flock," said Margot, "I think the Kosoga Tribe cultivated the plant. Whitsey collected the specimen in a herbarium clip, and the stone discs were carved with images of harvesting plants. I believe the fibers came from the discs. The plant depicted, the floating-leaf plant in the herbarium, was the crushed stem. It is now clear that the old woman was referring to this plant when she shouted 'Mbawang'. Mbawang, son of the devil: that's the name of the plant!" She quickly took out the strange plants in the specimen folder.The plants are dark brown, dry and curled, with black veined veins.The leaves are thick and tough, and the black stems are as hard as dry roots.Margot cautiously went up to smell it: there was a musky smell.

Flock's eyes were half terror, half fascination. "Margot, you are amazing," he said, "the Corsoga must have built a whole ritual around the plant itself, harvesting and preparation, no doubt to appease that animal. It is no doubt that the statue depicts animal. But how and why did it come to the museum?" "I can probably guess the reason," Margo's thoughts turned quickly, "Yesterday, the friend who helped me search the crates told me that he heard that a series of similar murders happened in New Orleans a few years ago. It happened as soon as Len's ship docked. My friend found the shipping records for the crates and found them to be on that ship."

"So the animal was following the crates," Flock said. "Pendergast from the FBI came to New York from Louisiana for this," Margo replied. Flock turned around, his eyes burning, "God. We brought a terrible beast to the museum in the center of New York. It's the revenge of the Callisto Effect: Cruel Predator, this time bringing us Destroyed. God bless, hope there's only one." "But what kind of animal would that be?" asked Margo. "I don't know," Flock replied. "It lives on the top of the mesa and eats that plant. It must belong to some strange species, perhaps only a few survived from the age of the dinosaurs, or it is a grotesque product of wrong evolution. You know, that mesa is a very fragile ecosystem, a biological island in the middle of the rainforest, occupied by extraordinary species, where plants and animals can develop strange affinities, strange symbiosis Relationship. Shared pool of DNA—think about it! And—”

Flock fell silent. "And then!" he yelled, slapping the armrest of his wheelchair, "then the government found gold and platinum on the mesas! Is that what Jorgensen told you? Shortly after the expedition disbanded, the government burned the mesas and built the road, Heavy mining equipment was brought in, destroying the entire ecosystem on the mesa, and the Kosoga tribe disappeared. They polluted the river and swamp with mercury and cyanide." Margo nodded vigorously: "The fire burned for weeks, Totally out of control. The kind of plants that the animals had to eat went extinct." "So the animal went on a journey, after the crate and the kind of food it couldn't get away from." Flock fell silent, his head drooping on his chest. "Dr. Flock," Margot whispered, "how did he know the crate was going to Beren?" Flock looked at her, thinking desperately. "I don't know," he said finally. "It's weird, isn't it?" Flock suddenly grabbed the side of the wheelchair and propped himself up excitedly. "Margot!" he said, "we can figure out what animal it is. The method is right in front of us. Extrapolator! We also have its DNA, feed it to the program and get a description." Margot hesitated, "You mean the claw?" "That's right!" He pushed the wheelchair around to the workstation in the laboratory, and his fingers started flying on the keyboard. "I've scanned into the computer the printout Pendergast left us with," he said, "and this will load the data into Gregory's program. Help me, please?" Margo sat down in front of the terminal.Not long after, a message appeared on the screen: Estimated end time: 55, 30.00 min Hey Margo, this mission looks complicated.You might as well call for pizza.The best pizza in town is at Antonio's.I recommend the green peppers with the spicy sausage.Need to place an order by fax? It is a quarter past five.