Chapter 53 Section fifty-two

They waded through the water, the faint beams of their flashlights sweeping across the low ceilings ahead and behind them.There was air in the tunnel, blowing gently on their faces continuously.D'Agosta raised his guard.The smell of the monster was blown to the rear, and it might launch a surprise attack from behind at any time. He stopped and waited for Bailey to catch up. "Vice-captain," the mayor said while panting, "are you sure you can get out this way?" "I'm just following Agent Pendergast's instructions, sir. He has the blueprints for the building. But one thing I'm sure of, there's no turning back."

D'Agosta and the others moved on.Dark, greasy drops dripped from the vaulted herringbone brick ceiling.There was thick limescale on the walls.Everyone was quiet except for one woman who was sobbing softly. "Excuse me, vice-captain, can I bother you?" A voice came from the tall and thin young man.Smith Burke. "What's wrong?" "There is something I want to ask you about." "Say it." "How does it feel to hold forty lives, including the mayor of New York?" "What?" Dago paused, turned his head and glared at him, "Don't tell me we have reporters accompanying us!"

"Well, I—" Smithback said. "Call the Municipal Bureau and arrange a time to visit me at the headquarters." D'Agosta directed the light beam forward, and found that the tunnel came to a fork. He followed Pendergast's instructions and chose the right passage.This road was a small downhill, and the current was getting faster and faster, pulling his trouser legs, rushing into the darkness ahead.The wound on the hand was stinging.When everyone turned this corner, D'Agosta noticed that the breeze was no longer blowing head-on, and he felt relieved. A swollen dead cat drifted by, bouncing lazily between the legs of the crowd like an oversized billiard ball.Someone groaned and tried to kick the dead cat away, but at least no one complained.

"Berry!" D'Agosta called back. "What's up?" "See anything?" "If you see something, I promise to notify you first." "Understood. I'm going to call upstairs to see if they can restore the power." He grabbed the walkie-talkie. "Coffey?" "Got it. Pendergast just cut me off. Where are you?" "Lower basement. Pendergast has the blueprints and is showing us the way on the walkie-talkie. Has the lighting come back?" "D'Agosta, don't be a fool. He's going to kill you all. It seems difficult to restore the power as soon as possible. Go back to the sky hall and wait for rescue. A SWAT team will cross the roof and enter the museum in a few minutes."

"Let me tell you, Wright, Cuthbert, and the PR director are upstairs somewhere, probably on the fourth floor. The only other exit from this stairwell is on the fourth floor." "What did you say? You didn't take them with you?" "They wouldn't go with me. Wright ran away by himself, and the other two followed him." "It sounds like they have more brains than you. Is the mayor okay? Let me speak to the mayor." D'Agosta handed the mayor the walkie-talkie. "Sir, are you all right?" Coffey asked eagerly. "With the deputy captain taking care of me, I feel at ease."

"Sir, I strongly recommend that you return to the Sky Hall and await help there. The SWAT team is on its way to rescue you." "I have complete trust in Vice-Captain D'Agosta. You should too." "Okay, sir, of course. Sir, I assure you, I will get you out of the museum safely." "Coffey?" "gentlemen?" "There are thirty or so people around me. Don't forget that." "I just wanted to tell you, sir, that we're especially—" "Coffey! You don't seem to understand what I mean. Every life here is worth saving."

"Yes, sir." The mayor handed the walkie-talkie back to D'Agosta and muttered, "Am I mistaken, or is this guy Coffey really a jerk?" D'Agosta put away the walkie-talkie and continued down the passage.He stopped suddenly, using his flashlight to shine on something looming in the darkness ahead: a closed iron door.The lower half of the iron door is a grille, the steel bars are very thick, and greasy water flows through the grille.He stepped forward.The door was much like the one at the bottom of the stairwell: very thick, plated on both sides, fastened with rusty rivets.An old, rusted lock hangs from a sturdy D-ring clasp by the door.D'Agosta grabbed the brass lock and yanked it, but it didn't budge.

"Pendergast?" D'Agosta pulled out the walkie-talkie again. "receive." "We walked through the first fork, but came across an iron gate, and it was locked." "A locked iron gate? Between the first and second fork?" "right." "You took the road on the right at the first fork, didn't you?" "right." "Wait a moment." There was a rustling voice from the intercom, "Vincent, go back to the fork and take the road on the left. Hurry up." D'Agosta turned around on the spot. "Berry. Go back to the fork just now. Everyone move. Quicken the pace!"

Everyone turned around wearily, complained softly, and walked back in the dark running water. "Wait a minute!" Bailey's voice came from the front of the crowd, "God, vice-captain, did you hear that?" No sooner had D'Agosta said "no" than the horrible stench surrounded him, and he yelled, "Damn it! Berri, we gotta stop it! I'm coming. Shoot that son of a bitch!" Cuthbert sat on the workbench, absently tapping the eraser on the end of a pencil on the battered surface.Wright sat motionless on the other side of the workbench, holding his head.Standing on tiptoe in front of the small window, Rickman stuck his flashlight through the iron railing in front of the glass, turning it on and off with a manicured finger.

Lightning briefly outlined her thin outline, and then the muffled thunder rumbled across the room. "It was raining heavily," she said, "and I couldn't see anything." "Nobody can see you," Cuthbert said wearily. "You're just wasting the battery. We'll need a flashlight later." Rickman let out a long sigh, turned off the flashlight, and the laboratory fell into darkness again. "I don't know where Montagu's body went," Wright said inarticulately, "was it eaten?" His manic laughter came from the darkness. Cuthbert continued to tap his pencil on the countertop.

"Eat it! Maybe with curry and rice! Montague pilaf!" giggled Wright. Cuthbert stood up, reached out and pulled out the .357 pistol from Wright's waist.He checked the bullet, then slipped it into his belt. "Give it back to me immediately!" Wright ordered. Cuthbert said nothing. "You're a bully, Ian. You're a bully, simple-minded, jealous, like a bully. You're fired first thing in the morning. Seriously, you've already been fired." Wright shook Akira stood up: "Fired, did you hear me?" Cuthbert stood by the front door of the lab, listening. "What's wrong?" Rickman asked alertly.Suddenly Cuthbert raised a hand. silence. Finally, Cuthbert turned from the door. "I thought I heard something," he said, then looked down at Rickman. "Lavigne, can you come here?" "What's wrong?" Rickman couldn't even catch his breath. Cuthbert dragged her aside. "Give me the flashlight," he said, "look, I don't want to scare you. But if something happens—" "What do you mean?" she interjected incoherently. "The murderer is still out there somewhere. I'm not sure we're safe here." "But there is a door! Winston says the door is two inches thick—" "I know. Probably nothing will happen, but the door to the exhibition hall is thicker than this one, and I want to take some precautions. Come, help me move the table and block this door." He turned to the curator. Wright looked up at him blankly: "Fired! Clean up the desk before five o'clock on Monday." Cuthbert grabbed Wright and forced him into a nearby chair.With Rickman's help, Cuthbert moved the workbench to the oak door. "At least it can block it for a while," he said, patting the dust off his clothes. "If you are lucky, it will be enough for me to fire a few shots. If there is a bad omen, you can go to the dinosaur hall to hide through the back door. The security doors are closed. Down, there's no other way back to the Skyhall. But at least two doors can be put between you and the thing outside." Cuthbert looked around uneasily: "Now, let's try to break the window. Hope there's someone down there You can hear us yelling for help." Wright laughed and said: "You can't break the window, it's impossible, you can't do it. It's anti-collision glass." Cuthbert looked around the lab, and finally picked up a small piece of angle steel.He fell between the railings, and the angle steel bounced off the glass and flew away. "Damn it," he muttered, rubbing his palms together, "the bullet might go through." He guessed, "No more ammo?" "I won't talk to you anymore." Wright scolded. Cuthbert opened the filing cabinet, rummaged around in the black, and finally said, "No. We can't waste ammo on windows. There's only five rounds in the gun." "No, no, no. Did King Lear say that?" Cuthbert sighed heavily and sat down.Silence enveloped the room again, only the sound of wind and rain and distant thunder. Pendergast put down the walkie-talkie and turned to Margot: "D'Agosta is in trouble. We must get to his aid as soon as possible." "Leave me alone," Flock said quietly, "I'll only be a burden to you." "Very heroic," replied Pendergast, "but we need your wisdom." He walked slowly into the hallway, glanced left and right with the flashlight, and gestured that everything was OK.They made their way down the corridor, Margo pushing Flock's wheelchair as fast as she could. From time to time, Flock pointed softly, and they passed through one corridor after another.At every intersection, Pendergast drew his pistol and stopped to scout.From time to time he stopped suddenly, listened, and sniffed the air.After a few minutes, he took the handle of the wheelchair, and Margot was grateful.Turning a corner, the gate of the safekeeping area appeared in front of you. For the hundredth time Margo silently prayed that her plan would work; otherwise, everyone, including the group trapped in the lower basement, would die horribly. Entering the safekeeping area, Flock shouted: "The third room on the left! Margot, do you remember the password?" She turned the dial, pulled the handle, and the door opened slowly.Pendergast strode forward and knelt before the smaller crate. "Wait a minute," said Margo. Pendergast paused, raising his eyebrows suspiciously. "Don't get that smell," she said, "cover the plant fibers with your top." Pendergast hesitated. "Here," said Flock, "use my handkerchief for you." Pendergast studied it for a moment. "Well," he said sadly, "since the professor is willing to contribute hundreds of dollars a handkerchief, I don't have anything to be reluctant about this jacket." He took out the walkie-talkie and notebook and put them in his waist, and took off his formal jacket. "When did FBI agents start wearing handmade Armani suits?" Margo joked. "When did a graduate student in ethnopharmacology learn to appreciate them?" Pendergast replied, carefully spreading the coat on the ground, gently picking up a few handfuls of plant fibers, and slowly laying them across the unfolded clothes.At last he tucked his handkerchief into the sleeve, folded his coat, and tied the sleeve in a knot. "Draw with a rope," said Margot. "There's a packing rope on that crate in there," Flock said. Pendergast made a harness by tying a rope around his jacket, and dragged the package around. "Looks solid," he said, "but it's a shame it hasn't been swept for some time." He turned to Margot and said, "Would there be enough scent left for that thing to track?" Flock nodded vigorously: "The extrapolator estimates that the thing's sense of smell is infinitely sharper than ours. Please remember, it followed the crate to find this warehouse." "Are you sure the... er... meal it had tonight wasn't enough to satisfy it?" "Mr. Pendergast, human hormones are just substitutes, far inferior to plant fibers. We think monsters are dependent on this plant." Flock nodded again, "As long as it smells the strong smell of plant fibers, it will go all the way track." "Let's begin then," said Pendergast.He picked up the package carefully, "The other road to the lower basement is several hundred yards away. If you're right, we're in danger from now on. We'll be the target of monsters." Margot pushed up the wheelchair and followed the agent into the hallway.Pendergast closed the door, and the three walked quickly along the corridor, returning to the silent old basement.