Chapter 29 Chapter 29 Goal: $500,000

At ten o'clock the next morning, Tracy was standing in the long line at the entrance to the Prado Museum. After opening the door, a guard in uniform manipulated the rotating revolving rod, and every time it turned a grid, a visitor was allowed in. After buying a ticket, Tracy walked slowly towards the rotunda with the crowd of visitors. Daniel Cooper and Detectives Parrera trailed at a distance behind her, and he felt a surge of excitement pass through him.He decided that Tracy Whitney's visit was no ordinary visit.No matter what kind of plan she has, now is the beginning. Tracy wandered in various exhibition rooms, admiring the masterpieces of Rubens, Titian, Tintoretto, Bauches and other masters, and came to the paintings of Domenicos Theotokopoulos, this person As famous as El Greco.Goya's paintings are displayed in a special room on the ground floor.

At the entrance to each gallery, Tracy noticed, was a uniformed guard with alarm buttons at their elbows.She knew that as long as the alarm sounded, all the entrances and exits of the museum would be sealed, and there was no escape. She rests on a stool in the center of the Room of the Muses, where works by the Flemish masters of the 18th century are displayed.Her eyes swept casually to the floor, and found a circular hole device on each side of the threshold.This could be an infrared anti-theft system activated at night.At other museums Tracy had visited, the guards were lethargic and ignored the chattering tourists, but here the guards were on high alert.Now, art works have been deliberately destroyed by fanatics in museums all over the world. Of course, the Prado Museum has to take strict precautions.

In more than a dozen exhibition rooms, some artists set up their easels and concentrated on copying the masterpieces of painting masters.This is allowed by the museum.But Tracy discovered that even the copyists were being watched closely by the guards. After seeing the paintings in each exhibition room on the first floor one by one, Tracy went downstairs to the ground floor to visit the Francisco de Goya painting exhibition. Detective Parrera said to Cooper, "Look, she's done nothing but look at pictures. She..." "You're wrong." Cooper trotted down the stairs.

Tracy felt that the security guards in Goya's gallery seemed to be tighter than other galleries, which of course it should be.Wall after wall of paintings was a display of eternal beauty, and Tracy walked from one painting to another, completely mesmerized by the master's artistic genius.Goya's "Self-Portrait" painted himself like a middle-aged faun...the "Charles IV Family" with particularly fine colors... There are also "Girl in Dress" and the famous "Nude". Ah, there it is, next to "The Witch's Rest" is "The Port", Tracy stopped and looked at this picture for a long time, her heart pounding.In the foreground of the picture, there are more than a dozen richly dressed men and women standing in front of a stone wall, while in the background part through a thin layer of mist, you can see the ships moored in the harbor and the lighthouse in the distance, Goya's signature is in the lower left corner of the painting.

That's the goal.half a million dollars. Tracy looked back.A guard stands at the entrance.Going further, there are many guards in the corridors leading to the exhibition rooms.She stood there, savoring the "Port".Just as I was about to leave, a group of tourists came down the stairs.It was in this group that she caught sight of Jeff Stevens.Tracy quickly turned her head to the other side and left by the side door before he could see it. A contest has begun, Mr. Stevens, and I must win. "She is planning to steal a famous painting from the Prado Museum." Director Remiro looked at Daniel Cooper suspiciously. "Nonsense! It is impossible for anyone to steal Tibetan paintings from Prado."

Cooper is still sticking to his guns. "She's been there all morning." "There has never been a theft from the Prado and there never will be. Do you know why? Because it's impossible." "She will not use the usual method. You must secure all the vents in the museum to prevent poisonous gas. If the guards drink coffee or the like during working hours, be careful, otherwise there will be narcotics in it. Drink water Also have to check..." Director Lai Miluo finally couldn't bear it anymore.In the past week, he has spent a lot of precious human and financial resources by putting up with this rude and obnoxious American, watching Tracy Whitney 24 hours a day, while the national security The administration of the Police Department was already very tight; and now that this little fellow in front of him had the audacity to gossip and dictate how his Police Department should be run, he could bear it no longer.

"As far as I can tell, this woman is on vacation in Madrid. I will immediately remove her from surveillance." Cooper was dumbfounded, confused. "No! You can't do that. Tracy Whitney is a..." Ramiro stood up abruptly. "Will you be kind enough to stop telling me what to do, sir! Well, if you have nothing to say, I must attend to my own business." Cooper stood there, disappointed and frustrated. "Then I have no choice but to continue to follow up alone." The Superintendent of Police smiled. "Relieve this woman from being a huge threat to the Prado Museum? Of course, that's good, Mr. Cooper, and I can sit back and relax from now on."