Chapter 51 Section fifty

The second shot echoed in the hallway, and Margo jumped up in fright. "What happened?" she called, feeling Flock's hand tighten in the dark.There was the sound of running footsteps outside, and the yellow light of a flashlight flashed under the door frame. "The smell is off," she whispered. "Do you think it's gone?" "Margot," Flock replied in a low voice, "you saved my life. You risked your life to save my life." Someone knocked lightly on the door.Flock asked in a steady voice, "Who is it?" "Pendergast," replied the man outside, and Margot rushed to open the door.FBI agents stood outside the door, a large revolver in one hand and crumpled blueprints in the other.The new, well-tailored black suit contrasted sharply with the streaks of dust on his face.He turned and closed the door.

"I'm very glad to see you both well." He held up his flashlight and shone it first on Margot and then on Flock. "Surely not half as happy as we are!" cried Flock. "We came down to find you. Did you shoot?" "Yes," replied Pendergast, "it must have been you who called me by my name?" "You heard me calling you!" said Flock, "and that's why you came here to find us." Pendergast shook his head: "No." He handed the flashlight to Margo, unfolding the crumpled blueprint.Margot notices handwritten notes all over the blueprint.

"The library of the New York Historical Association would be very angry if it saw me treat the collection like this," the agent quipped dryly. "Pendergast," said Flock, through gritted teeth, "Margot and I have discovered what the killer is. You must listen to me. It is not human, nor is it any animal we know. Please, let me explain." .” Pendergast looked up: "Dr. Flock, I don't need you to convince me." Flock was taken aback: "No need? Really? Are you willing to help us suspend the opening reception upstairs and evacuate all the crowd?"

"It was too late," Pendergast replied. "I got Lieutenant D'Agosta and the others on the police radio. The power outage affected not only the basement, but the entire museum. The security system was down, All emergency doors have been lowered." "You mean—" Margo hesitated. "I mean the museum is divided into five isolated compartments. We're in number two. The guys in Sky Hall are in number two. And the monster." "What happened?" Flock asked. "Before the power was cut off and the safety gate was lowered, the crowd exploded. There was a dead body at the exhibition site, which was the body of a police officer. Most of the guests escaped, but thirty or forty people were trapped in the Sky Hall," he said. Smiling regretfully, "I myself went to the exhibition a few hours ago and wanted to see the Mbawang statue you mentioned. If I had gone through the back door instead of the front door, I might have found the body and avoided all These things. I did, however, take a good look at the statue, Dr. Flock. It is well drawn. Believe me, for I know very well."

Flock was stunned, and managed to squeeze out a few words: "Did you see it?" "Yes. That's what I shot at. Just round the corner of this storage room, I heard you calling me. Then I noticed a terrible smell, and I quickly hid in a room and looked at it. Passed by. After it passed, I came out and fired a shot, but the bullet bounced off the skull of the thing. Then the light went out. I followed it around the corner and saw it grabbing the handle of this door, smelling Smell it." Pendergast opened the revolver's magazine and replaced the two empty shells, "so I know you must be in there."

"My God," said Margot. Pendergast put away his gun: "I fired a second shot at it, but I had trouble aiming, so I missed it. I ran to look for it, but it was gone. Must have gone into the stairwell at the end of the corridor. It's a dead end, there's no other way out." "Mr. Pendergast," said Flock eagerly, "please tell me what it looks like?" "I only caught a glimpse of it twice," Pendergast said slowly. "It lay low and looked very powerful. It walked on four legs, but could stand upright on its hind legs. Part of its body was covered with hair." He clenched his eyes. Lips, nodded, "The corridor is very dark. But I have to say, the person who carved the statue of the god really knew what he was depicting."

In the light of the flashlight, Margo could see Flock's expressions of fear, pleasure, and joy.At this time, a series of muffled explosions came from above, echoing in the building for a long time.After a moment of silence, more gunshots followed, harsh and loud, and coming from somewhere nearby. Pendergast looked up and listened. "D'Agosta!" he said, drawing his pistol, dropping the blueprint, and rushing down the corridor. Margo ran to the door and lit the corridor with a flashlight.In the narrow beam she could see Pendergast fiddling with the stairwell door.Pendergast knelt down to check the door lock, stood up, and kicked the door viciously several times.

"Stuck," he said, turning around. "We heard shotgun fire, like it was coming from the stairwell. A few shots bent the door frame and broke the lock. The door is jammed." He put away the gun and pulled out the walkie-talkie. "Deputy Captain D'Agosta! Vincent, can you hear me?" He waited for a moment, shook his head, and put the walkie-talkie back in his jacket pocket. "Are we stuck here?" Margot asked. Pendergast shook his head: "I don't think so. I've been poking around in these warehouses and tunnels this afternoon, trying to figure out how the monster escaped our search. These blueprints were drawn in the last century, Complicated and contradictory, but there seems to be a way out of the museum through the lower basement. Everything else is sealed off and we have no other access. From this area of ​​the museum, there are several routes to the lower basement .”

"So we can join up with the people upstairs and escape together!" said Margo. Pendergast looked at her sullenly. "But it also means that the monster has a way to get back to the lower basement. If you ask me, I think these emergency doors only stop the rescuers, but not so much to stop the monster. I think it lived here for a long time, I am already familiar with the way, and I can come and go anywhere in the museum, at least the bottom few floors are no problem." Margot nodded: "We think it has lived in the museum for several years, so we should know how and why it came here."

Pendergast looked at Margot carefully for a while: "Please tell Dr. Flock as quickly as possible about the situation of this animal in as much detail as possible." They turned and went into the storage room, and Margot heard a distant knocking sound like muffled thunder.She stopped and listened.The thunder had content: whether it was crying or shouting, she couldn't tell. "What's that?" she whispered. "That's the people running for their lives in the stairwell," Pendergast replied quietly.