Chapter 16 Sixteen, silver knife

Lyra put her head back in an instant, hid it in the wolverine hood, and shuffled through the two doors with the other children.When she and Mrs. Coulter face to face, what should she say, she still has enough time to worry about this problem, and now she has another problem to solve first, which is how to hide her fur coat You don't need their permission to use it. Fortunately, the house was also very chaotic, and the adults wanted the children to get through as soon as possible to make way for the passengers in the Zeppelin, so no one paid much attention to them.Lyra quietly took off her coat, her leggings, and her boots, bundled them into the smallest bundle possible, and stormed through the crowd to her dormitory.

She quickly dragged a small cabinet to a corner, stood on it, and pushed up the ceiling with her hands.Like Roger said, the slats were lifted.She pushed the boots and leggings in hard.At this time, she suddenly remembered the alethiometer, took it out of the bag, hid it in the innermost pocket of the coat, and then stuffed the coat in it. She jumped off the cabinet, pushed it back to its original position, and whispered to Pantalaimon, "We must play dumb until she finds us. When she finds us, we say we were kidnapped." , especially nothing can be said about the gypsies and Iorek Bernison."

If Lyra hadn't realized it before, she was now aware that all the fear in her bones came from Mrs. Coulter, just like the needle on a compass pointed to the poles because of the magnetic field there.Anything else she'd ever seen, even a horribly brutal cutting, she could handle because she was strong enough; but even the mere thought of that sweet face, that soft voice, that naughty image of a golden monkey was enough to make her Lyra felt discouraged, terrified, sick. Still, the gypsies are coming.Think about this, think about Iorek Bernison again, don't give up—— she thought as she wandered back to the dining room.There was a great commotion from there.

Children are queuing up for hot drinks, some in coal wool coats.All they talked about was the Zeppelin and its passengers. "That's her—there's the monkey spirit—" "Did you get it from her too?" "She said she was going to write to my mum and dad, and I'm pretty sure she never did..." "She never said anything about the child being killed, not at all." "That monkey, he was the worst - he grabbed my Caroza and nearly killed her - and I didn't think I had any strength left at the time..." Like Lyra, they were terribly frightened.Lila found Annie and the others and sat down.

"Listen," she said, "can you keep it a secret?" "can!" All three faces turned to her, with obvious anticipation. "We've got an escape plan in mind," Lyra whispered. "Somebody's coming to our rescue, yes. They'll be here in about a day, maybe sooner. Everything we need to do Just be ready, put on your winter attire and run out at the first signal. Don't wait, all you have to do is run. Except if you don't wear a winter attire and boots and stuff like that, you're going to freeze to death." "What signal?" Annie asked.

"Fire alarms—like this afternoon. It's got to be organized and known to all the kids and not to any grown-ups, least of all her." Their eyes sparkled with hope and anticipation.Then, the news spread throughout the restaurant.Lyra could feel the atmosphere changing around her.When the children were outside, they were all energetic and eager to play; when they saw Mrs. Coulter later they were filled with extreme, repressed terror; but now there was a restraint in their speech. , a goal.Lyra was amazed that hope could do so much. She was watching the open door, but very carefully, ready to hide her head, for the voices of grown-ups were coming from there.Then Mrs. Coulter appeared, but only briefly.She looked into the dining room and smiled at the delighted children - children drinking hot drinks and eating cakes, well fed and warmly dressed.Almost at the same time, there was a shudder in the entire restaurant, and all the children stopped running, stopped talking, and stared at her intently.

Mrs. Coulter smiled and walked over without saying a word.Little by little the children began to chat again. Lyra asked, "Where did they talk?" "Probably in the conference room," Annie said. "They took us there once," she added, referring to her and her elf. "There were twenty or so grown-ups there, and one of them was giving a speech. I had to stand there and do what he told me to do, like see how far my Clearion would get away from me, and then he hypnotized me. , and a few other things...the room is huge, with lots of chairs and tables, and a small podium. This conference room is just behind the front office. Hey, I'm sure they're going to pretend The fire drill went well, they must be afraid of her, as we are..."

For the rest of the day, Laila stayed with the other girls, just observing and talking very little, keeping herself from being noticed.They work out, take sewing lessons, have dinner, and play in the lounge.The lounge is a large, run-down room with chess pieces, a few tattered books, and a ping-pong table.Later, Laila and the others became aware that there seemed to be some sort of pent-up emergency around them, as the adults hurried to and fro, and some stood together, chatting eagerly, looking anxious.Lyra guessed that they had discovered that the elves had fled, but they couldn't figure out how this could happen.

But she didn't see Mrs. Coulter, which made her relieved.It was bedtime, and Laila knew she had to show other girls that she was confident. "Listen," she said, "are they going to come around and see if we're asleep?" "They only came in once," Bella said, "just to shine a light on it, and not to look carefully." "That's good, because I'm going to go out and look around. The boy showed me that the ceiling can be passed through..." She went into detail.Before she finished speaking, Annie said, "I want to go with you!"

"No, you'd better not go, because if there's only one person missing, it's easier to explain. You can all say you're asleep and don't know where I'm going." "But if I follow you—" "Then we're more likely to get caught," Laila said. At this time, their two elves stared at each other, Pantalaimon turned into a wild cat, Anne's Crillion turned into a fox, the bodies of the two elves trembled slightly.Pantalaimon uttered the lowest, softest hiss, and bared his teeth; Clearyon stepped aside and began grooming himself indifferently.

"Very well then," said Annie.She gave up. It is not uncommon for children to have their elves settle fights in such a way that one side recognizes the other's superiority.In general, people accepted the result without complaint, so Lyra knew that Anne would do what she said. They all pulled out some laundry and made a bulge on Laila's bed, making it look like she was still there.They swore that they would know nothing at that time.Then Lyra leaned over the door and listened to make sure no one was coming, then jumped on the cabinet, pushed up the slats above the ceiling, and climbed inside. "Don't say anything," she whispered to the faces of the three people looking down at her. Then she gently put the slats back in place and looked around. Now she was curled up in a narrow metal passageway supported by a framework of beams and struts.The slats on the ceiling are slightly translucent, so that some light comes through from below.By the dim light, Laila discovered that the narrow space (only about two feet high) opening in all directions around her was crowded with metal pipes and conduits, and it was easy to get lost in it, but if she kept following the metal She should be able to walk from one end of the station to the other without touching the slats and making no noise. "Pan, this is exactly what it looked like when I went to see the lounge at Jordan College," she whispered. "If you hadn't peeked in the lounge, none of this would have happened," he whispered back. "So it's up to me to settle these things, isn't it?" Lyra figured out her position, made out the general direction of the meeting room, and then set off.This section of the road is really not easy to walk, you can only climb on your hands and knees, because the space is too small to squat down.From time to time, she also had to squeeze under a large square pipe, or climb over several heating pipes.The few metal passages she climbed were built into the top of the inner wall, Lyra thought, because as long as she was there, she felt the support beneath her was solid and reassuring; but the passages were very narrow. , with such sharp edges that it cut her knuckles and knees.It didn't take long for Laila to feel pain all over her body, cramping muscles, and dust all over her body. But she knew roughly where she was, and she could also see the dark mass of her leather jacket tucked above her dormitory, pointing her in the direction to come back. She could tell which room was empty because no light came through the slats.Now and then she heard voices from below, and she stopped to listen, but it was just the cooks in the kitchen, or the nurses talking in their common room--so Lyra thought, in the characteristic Jordan way. .What they said didn't make any sense, so she kept crawling on. Finally, she came to a place.She reckoned that there should be a meeting room below.Indeed, there was an area where there were no plumbing at all, the air-conditioning and heating ducts were on one side, and there was a wide rectangular space through which all the slats were evenly lit.She pressed her ear to the slats, and heard the low voice of a grown man.She knew she was in the right place. She listened carefully, moving her body little by little, getting as close to the speaker as possible.Then, she lay down all over the metal tunnel, pricked up her ears and listened carefully. There was the occasional clink of cutlery below, and the clang of glass on glass as drinks were poured into glasses—it meant they were talking over dinner.Four voices seemed to Lyra, including Mrs. Coulter, and the other three were men.They seemed to be discussing runaway elves. "But who's in charge of that part?" asked Mrs. Coulter in a soft, melodious voice. "It's a research student named McKay," said one of the men, "but we've got automatic alarms to keep things like that from happening—" "But these devices are not very useful," she said. "With all due respect, Mrs. Coulter, these devices still work. McKay made it clear to us that when he left the house at eleven o'clock this morning, he had all the covers locked. Of course, No matter what happens, the outer door will not be opened, because he enters and exits from the inner door, which is usually the case. The controller of the door lock also needs to enter a password, and every time he enters the password, There is a record in the memory on the controller. Unless the password is entered correctly, the alarm will go off." "But the alarm didn't go off," she said. "It went off, but unfortunately, when the siren went off, everyone was outside, participating in a fire drill." "But, when you get back indoors—" "Unfortunately, the two sirens are using the same circuit. This is a design flaw and should be corrected. This means that when the fire drill is over and the fire alarm is turned off, the alarm in the laboratory is also turned off But, even at this time, it is possible to check out, as is the standard procedure after every disruption to the normal schedule; but, Mrs. Coulter, at this time, you unexpectedly Arrived. Recall that you explicitly requested to meet with the laboratory staff in your room. In this way, no one returned to the laboratory until some time later." "I see," Mrs. Coulter said coldly. "If that's the case, then those elves were released during a fire drill. In this way, the suspects include all the adults in the experimental station." People. Did you think of that?" "Did it ever occur to you that maybe a child did it?" said another. She did not speak, and the man continued: "Every adult has their own tasks, and each task requires their full attention, and each task is also completed; that door cannot be opened by the staff here, there is no way. Possibly. Therefore, either someone from outside came in with such a purpose, or a certain child here touched there, opened the door and the cover, and then returned to the front of the main building." "So what are you going to investigate?" she asked. "No, I've thought about it again. You don't have to tell me. Dr. Cooper, please understand that I don't criticize you with malice. We must be extremely careful. Let the two Two alarms sharing a circuit is a very serious error and must be corrected immediately. Perhaps the Tatar officer in charge of the guards can help you investigate? I'm just raising this as a possibility. By the way, the fire drill Meanwhile, where are the Tartars? I suppose you haven't figured that out yet?" "No, we figured it out," the man said weakly. "The Sentinels—all of them—are patrolling as hard as they can, and they won't miss anything." "I'm sure you've done your best," she said. "Well, it's a real pity that this has happened, but that's all for now. Tell me about this new cutter." Lyra shuddered with terror.This sentence can only have one meaning. "Oh," said the doctor, relieved to find that their conversation had moved on to another issue, "we've really come a long way. With the original model, we'll never be able to completely eliminate the risk of a patient dying from shock. , but we’ve now made a big improvement.” "Skrelin Ugly does better with his hands," began a man who had been silent all this time. "That's because of hundreds of years of practice," said another. "But for a while, the only thing to do was to simply tear it apart," said the person in charge of the interview. "And yet it caused a lot of pain for the adults who did the surgery. You remember, we had to fire a lot of people because It's the stress that makes them anxious. But the first big breakthrough was anesthesia combined with the Maycity electric scalpel, so that we could reduce the death rate from surgical scares to less than 5 percent." "And this new tool?" asked Mrs. Coulter. Lyra shuddered, and the blood rushed from her body to her head.Pantalaimon—he had turned into a marten now—clung to her side and whispered, "Hush, Lyla. They won't do it—we won't let them do it." of--" "Yes, it was Lord Asriel's own strange discovery that allowed us to find the key to this new method. He discovered that manganese-titanium alloy has the property of isolating the human body from the spirit. By the way, Ah How is Lord Sirier now?" "You may not have heard," said Mrs. Coulter, "that Lord Asriel's death sentence is suspended. One of the conditions of his exile to Svalbard was that he renounce his natural sciences altogether. work. Unfortunately, he managed to get books and materials, and his heresy studies had reached the point where it would certainly be dangerous to keep him alive. Anyway, the Vatican Council seems to have decided on the death penalty. The question opens up the debate, the possibility of an execution. Or back to your new tool, doctor, how is it?" "Ah - yes - you mean a death sentence? Good God...sorry - about the new tool. We are looking at what happens when the patient is awake and doing the cutting. Of course, this May City progress is impossible, so we developed what you might call a guillotine, the blade is made of manganese-titanium alloy, and the child is placed in a compartment made of alloy mesh, like A small compartment, and the spirit was placed in another similar compartment connected to it. Of course, when connected, the connection between man and spirit remained. Then the blade fell between the two, Sever that link so that they become two separate entities." "I'd love to see it," she said, "and hopefully it won't take long. But now that I'm tired, I think I'll have to go to bed. I'm going to see all the kids tomorrow, and we're going to find out who opened it." through that door." Then there was the sound of a chair being pushed back, a polite farewell, and the door closed.Then Laila heard the others sit down again and continue talking, but in much quieter voices. "What kind of research is Lord Asriel doing?" "I think that is the point of the matter that he had an entirely different view of the nature of dust. You see, his view is fundamentally heresy, and the ecclesiastical courts cannot admit any doctrine other than the sanctioned interpretation. In addition , he wanted to experiment—" "Experiment? With dust?" "Shh! Don't be so loud..." "Do you think she's going to come up with a report against us?" "No, no, I think you handled her well." "Her attitude worries me..." "You mean it's not that scientific attitude?" "Exactly. It's out of personal interest. I don't want to use that word, but she's bordering on cruel." "It's a bit harsh." "But do you remember the first experiment? When she was so eager to see them tear—" Unable to control herself, Lyra gave a soft cry, and at the same time she tensed and trembled, and her foot touched a pillar. "what sound?" "On the ceiling—" "quick!" Then there was the sound of chairs being thrown aside, someone running, someone dragging a table across the floor.Lyra tried to crawl away, but there was so little space around her that before she could move a few yards, the ceiling slats next to her flew up, and she saw the face of a panicked man.She was so close that she could see every strand of the man's beard.The man was as horrified as Lyra, but with more leeway than she.He thrust his hand in and grabbed Lyra's arm. "It's a child!" "Don't let her get away—" Lyra bit down on the man's large, speckled hand.The man yelled, but he didn't let go, not even letting go of blood from the bite.Pantalaimon snarled and spat, but to no avail, the man had much more strength than Laila, and he kept tugging at her.Finally, Laila had to let go of her other hand, which was desperately holding on to the pillar, and half of her body had already entered the room. But Lyra remained silent.She hooked her legs on the sharp metal edge, struggled with her head down, angrily grabbed, bit, punched, and spat.The men panted and groaned from the pain or the strain, but they kept pulling Laila down. Suddenly, Lyra lost all strength. It was as if a strange hand had just reached out to a place that no other hand could touch, twisting something that was treasured deep inside. As if she had been shocked by electricity, she felt weak, dizzy, nauseous, bored, and powerless. One of the men was holding Pantalaimon. He had caught Lyra's daemon in his hands, and poor Pantalaimon trembled almost mad with fear and loathing.He turned into a feral cat with warning sparks, his fur was dull and limp... He bent over Lyra, and Laila reached for him with both hands... They fell motionless.They got caught. She felt those hands...it's not allowed...it shouldn't be touched...it's not right... A man is looking into the ceiling. "As if she were alone..." "Who is she?" "The new kid." "It was brought by Samoyed hunters—" "yes." "You don't think it's her... those elves..." "It might be her. But surely she's not the only one, is it?" "Should we tell—" "I guess that way the secret won't get out, don't you think?" "I agree. It's best she doesn't hear anything." "But what shall we do now?" "She can't be with other kids anymore." "certainly!" "The way I see it, there's only one thing we can do." "Do it now?" "That's the way it is. We can't wait until tomorrow, because that woman is there to see." "We can do it ourselves, no one needs to be involved." The man who seemed to be in charge didn't grab either Lyra or Pantalaimon, but tapped his teeth lightly with the nail of his thumb, his eyes never idle for a moment, and kept turning rapidly To and fro.Finally, he nodded. "Do it now, right now," he said, "or she'll talk. At least the shock will prevent that. She won't remember who she is, what she saw, what she heard... Hurry up !" Laila, speechless and barely breathless, let them carry her through the test station, down the white empty corridors, past the rooms humming with electric currents, past the children. Sleeping dormitory - their elves sleep next to their pillows and share their dreams.At every moment on the road, Lyra watched Pantalaimon, and he stretched out his hand to pounce on him, never taking their eyes off each other for a moment. Later, they passed through a door that opened on a large wheel, and the air sizzled.They entered a brightly lit room of glaring white tile and stainless steel.Lyra felt a pain, almost a physical pain; a physical pain indeed—and they dragged her and Pantalaimon toward a large, dark, silver-mesh cage suspended from the A dull silver sword that will separate them forever, forever. Lyra finally got her voice back and screamed.The voice echoed loudly over the bright surfaces of the room, but the heavy door had hissed shut; she could scream forever and nothing would come through. Even so, Pantalaimon had in response broken free those hideous hands—he was transformed into a lion, then an eagle; They, and then he was a wolf, a bear, a polecat—to pounce, to snarl, to lash, in such a dizzying continuum of changing forms.He kept jumping, flying, dodging, and letting their clumsy hands scratch and beat the air. Of course, these people also have elves, so it's not two against three, but two against six.The three elves—the Badger, the Owl, and the Baboon—had the same purpose as their master, which was to subdue Pantalaimon.Lyra yelled at them, "Why? Why are you doing this? Help us! You shouldn't be helping them!" She kicked and bit her teeth, madder than ever, and the man who held her let go, gasping for breath—at last Lyra was out of control, and Pantalaimon shot He jumped up and rushed towards her.Laila hugged him tightly, pressing him against her throbbing chest, Pantalaimon's feral claws digging into her flesh, but to Lyla, every sting felt so dear to her. . "Never! Never! Never!" she cried, retreating to the wall, ready to fight to the death to protect him. But, again, they pounced on her.It was three cruel men, and she was only a child, and she was stunned and terrified; they dragged Pantalaimon aside, threw Lyra over the side of the mesh hood, and still struggled Pantalaimon got the other side.There was a web between them, but Pantalaimon was still part of Lyra, and they were still bound together.After another second or two, he was still her dead soul. Lyra heard a humming through the heavy breaths of the men, her own whimpers, and Pantalaimon's shrill, frantic roar.She saw one man (with blood dripping from his nose) flicking several switches while two others looked up.She followed their gazes, and the huge silver blade was slowly rising, shining brightly under the light.The last moment of her complete life was by far the most unfortunate. "What's going on here?" The voice was soft and sweet: it was hers.Everything stopped. "What are you doing? Who is this kid—" She didn't finish the word "who" because at that moment she recognized Lyla.Through tear-blurred eyes, Lyra saw her stagger and grab a stool; her beautiful, stern face soon grew haggard and full of terror. "Laila—" she whispered. The golden monkey swished past her and pulled Pantalaimon out of the mesh cover with force, while Lyra herself staggered out of it.Pantalaimon freed himself from the monkey's concerned paw, and lurched into Lyra's arms. "Never, never," Laila pressed his face against his fur, and he pressed his beating heart against Laila's. Like survivors of a shipwreck, they trembled on the deserted coast, embracing each other tightly.Lyra vaguely heard Mrs. Coulter saying something to the men, but she couldn't even make out the tone of her voice.Then they left the hateful room, Mrs. Coulter half embracing and half supporting her, down a corridor, through a door, into a bedroom.There was a scent in the air in the bedroom, and there was soft lighting inside. Mrs. Coulter put her gently on the bed, and Lyra's whole body trembled with the force of the arm holding Pantalaimon.At this time, a hand patted her head lightly. "My dear boy," said the sweet voice, "how did you get here?"