Chapter 25 25. St. Jean Waterfall

a bright hair bracelet next to the bone... ——John Donne [John Donne (1572-1631), the first collection of poems published after his death, has long been controversial, and was not recognized as a master until the twentieth century] The Saint-Jean waterfall cascades down between the easternmost pinnacles of a spur in the Alps, with the power station clinging to the edge of the mountain above.It was a wild place, a desolate and ruined wilderness.No one would build anything there if it weren't for the possibility of using the thousands of tons of water rushing through the canyons to power huge generators.

It was the second night after Mrs. Coulter's arrest, and it was stormy.Not far from the steep rocky cliff of the power station, a Zeppelin airship slowed down and circled in the wind. The searchlights under the Zeppelin airship made the airship look like it was supported by several beams of light.The airship gradually lowers itself to touch the ground. But the pilot was not satisfied, the wind was blown by the edge of the mountain into a swirl and a powerful hurricane.Beyond that, cables, pylons, and transformers were too close together: a Zeppelin full of flammable gas scraped into them would be instantly fatal.The hailstones slammed obliquely against the Zeppelin's huge stiff hull, almost drowning out the clack and roar of the constantly turning engines and obscuring the view from the ground.

"Not here," the pilot shouted over the voices, "let's fly over to the spur." Father McPhail watched angrily as the pilot pushed the control lever forward to adjust the balance of the engine. The Zeppelin suddenly tilted up and flew over the ridge. The beams of light suddenly lengthened, as if groping down the ridge. Then it gets shorter and shorter, disappearing in a vortex of hail and rain. "Can't you get a little closer?" said the President, leaning forward so that the voice could reach the pilot. "Unless you don't want to land," the pilot said.

"Yes, we want to land. Very well, drop us down under the ridge." The pilot ordered the crew to prepare for landing.Since the instruments to be unloaded were heavy and delicate, it was important to stabilize the Zeppelin.The chief judge sat back firmly, tapped his fingers on the armrest of the seat, bit his lip, but said nothing, letting the pilot work calmly. Lord Locke watched from his hiding place in the transverse bulkhead of the aft cabin.Several times during the flight his eerie little figure passed behind the wire mesh, and anyone who looked back could see him clearly, but in order to hear what was happening, he had to come to a place where he could see them. place.Such risks are inevitable.

He moved forward and listened with difficulty through the roar of the engines, the roar of hail and icy rain, the high howl of the wind between the wires and the clatter of boots on the metal walkway.The pilot shouted a few numbers to the pilot, who confirmed it.Lord Locke retreated into the shadows, clutching struts and beams, as the plane dived and banked. Finally, the motion of the plane could feel it almost come to a stop, and he followed the skin of the cabin back to his seat on the starboard side. There were people crossing in both directions: crew members, technicians and priests.Many of their elves are also dogs, full of curiosity.On the other side of the aisle sat Mrs. Coulter, awake and silent, her daemon watching from her lap, looking menacing.

Lord Locke saw his opportunity, flew over to Mrs. Coulter's seat, and soon climbed into the shadow of her shoulder. "What are they doing?" she murmured. "Land down. We're near the power station." "Are you going to stay with me, or go alone?" she whispered. "I'm staying with you, I have to hide under your coat." She wore a bulky sheepskin coat, which was uncomfortably hot in the heated cabin, but could not be removed because her hands were cuffed. "Do it, now," she said, looking around.He got into her arms and found a fur-trimmed pocket in which to sit securely.The Golden Monkey eagerly tucked in Mrs. Coulter's silk collar, looking exactly like a fussy couturier tending to his favorite model, while actually making sure that Lord Locke was completely hidden in the folds of his coat. inside.

His timing was perfect, and within a minute a soldier with a rifle came and ordered Mrs. Coulter off the plane. "Do I have to wear these handcuffs?" she said. "I have no orders to remove them," he replied. "Get up, please." "But it's hard to move if I can't hold onto something, and I'm so stiff—I've sat here most of the day—and you know I don't have any weapons, because you searched me. Go ask Is it really necessary for the judge to handcuff me, and will I run away in this wilderness?" Lord Locke was indifferent to her charm, but was interested in the effect it had on other people.

The guard was a young man: they should have sent a grizzled veteran. "Well," said the guard, "I'm sure you won't, ma'am, but I can't do it without orders, and you understand that, I'm sure. Stand up, ma'am, if you're unsteady, I'll hold you up." your arm." She stood up, and Lord Locke felt her move awkwardly forward.She was the most graceful human being Galliferspin had ever seen: the awkwardness was an act.When they came to the top of the gangway, Lord Locke felt her trip and gave a cry, feeling the shock as the guard's arm seized her.He also heard a change in the sounds around him, the howling of the wind, the steady revving of the engine—lighted by electricity generation, and the sound of orders coming from somewhere nearby.

As they went down the gangway, Mrs. Coulter leaned heavily against the guard, and she spoke softly, and Lord Locke heard only his reply. "Sergeant, ma'am—over there by the big crate—he has the key, but I dare not ask him, ma'am, sorry." "Oh, well." She sighed regretfully in a beautiful voice, "Thanks anyway." Lord Locke heard the boots walking on the rocks, and she whispered, "Did you hear about the key?" "Tell me where that sergeant is. I need to know where he is and how far away." "About ten paces away at my pace, on the right hand side, a large man, I can see a bunch of keys around his waist."

"To know which one works, did you see them lock the handcuffs?" "I see it. It's a stubby key with black tape on it." Lord Locke scrambled down the baize of her thick woolen coat until it reached her knees, where he held on to the hem to look around. They set up a floodlight and shone a bright light on the wet rocks, but as he looked down and searched for shadows, he saw the bright light begin to swing from side to side in a strong wind, and he heard There was a cry, and the light suddenly went out. He immediately dropped to the ground and jumped through the icy rain towards the sergeant, who staggered forward, trying to catch the falling floodlight.

In the confusion, Lord Locke jumped up as the big man's legs passed him, grabbed his camouflage trousers - already rain-soaked, heavily - and kicked a boot spike into the top of the boot. in the meat. The sergeant grunted and fell awkwardly, clutching his legs, trying to breathe and shout.Lord Locke stopped and jumped away from the falling man. No one noticed: the howling of the wind, the roar of the engines, and the thud of hailstones drowned out the man's voice.In the dark, his body would not be seen, but there were other people beside him, so Lord Locke had to move faster.He jumped to the side of the fallen man, the bunch of keys lying in a pool of icy water, dragged aside the huge steel shafts that were as round as his arms and half his length, and found the key keys with black tape.Then there was the key ring to deal with, and hailstones as big as his two fists to dodge—which would have been fatal to the Galliferspin. Then a voice above him said, "Are you all right, Sergeant?" The soldier's daemon was growling and snouting the semi-conscious sergeant's daemon, and Lord Locke couldn't wait: with a jump and a kick, the other fell beside the sergeant. After tugging and tugging and pulling, Lord Locke finally opened the key ring, and then he had to remove the other six keys to get the one with the black tape on it.Now they could turn on the light again at their convenience, but even in the half-dark they hardly thought of the two men who lay there unconscious—as he was taking out the key, someone With a cry, he dragged the huge steel shaft with all his strength, dragging and pulling for a while, and he just hid behind a small boulder when heavy footsteps came, and a voice called to turn on the light. "Shot?" "I didn't hear a sound—" "Are they still breathing?" Then the re-fixed floodlights snapped on again, and Lord Locke was exposed to the light like a fox in front of a car headlight;Once he was sure that everyone's attention was on the two unexplained collapsed men, he slung the key over his shoulder and ran across the pools of water and boulders to Mrs. Coulter's around. A second later, she released the handcuffs and quietly lowered them to the ground.Lord Locke jumped on the hem of her coat and ran over her shoulders. "Where's the bomb?" he said close to her ear. "They just started unloading it, that big crate on the ground over there, and I can't do anything until they get it out, and even then—" "Well," he said, "run. Hide yourself, I'll stay here to keep watch. Run!" He jumped down onto her sleeve.She moved quietly out of the light, slowly at first so as not to catch the guard's eye; then she crouched down and ran into the rainy darkness and up the slope, the golden monkey ahead Pathfinder. Behind her she heard the incessant roar of the engine, the chaotic shouts, the forceful voice of the President trying to issue some order to stabilize the situation.She still remembered the long and terrible pain and hallucinations brought to her by the spurs of the knight Thales, so she didn't envy the two people's awakening. But soon she was on higher ground, and all she could see behind her was the flickering light of the floodlights bouncing off the curved belly of the Zeppelin, and then the lights went out again, and all she could hear was the roar of the engines The sound, fighting in vain against the hurricane, and the roar of the waterfall below. Engineers at the power station were struggling to pull a cable over the edge of the canyon to the bomb. For Mrs. Coulter, the question was not how to get out of this place alive: that was a secondary question. The point is how to get Lyra's hair out of the bomb before they fire it.Lord Locke had burned the hair in the envelope after her capture, letting the wind blow the ashes into the night sky, and he found the lab and watched as they sent the rest of the little dark golden curls into the resonance chamber.He knew exactly where it was located and how to open the resonance chamber, but not to mention the technicians coming and going, the bright lights and the shining laboratory alone prevented him from doing anything. . So they had to remove the bomb after it was loaded. But judging from the President's idea of ​​Mrs. Coulter, it was more difficult.The power of the bomb comes from severing the bond between human and elf, which means a terrible separation process: mesh cage, silver gallows.He was going to sever her lifelong bond with the Golden Monkey, and with the energy released thereby destroy her daughter, she and Lyla would perish from what she had produced herself.At least it would be neat, she thought. Her only hope was Lord Locke, but in a whispered conversation aboard the Zeppelin he explained the situation with his poisonous boots: he couldn't use them continuously because each sting lessened the venom and It takes a day to refill.It won't be long before his vital weapon loses its power, and then all they have is their wits. She found a ledge of rock near the roots of a spruce tree clinging to the edge of the canyon, and settled herself beneath it to look out. Over her head behind her, on the lip of the canyon, the power station loomed in the full howling wind; Commands are issued in the distance, lights can be seen flickering through the trees.A huge coil of cable as thick as a man's arm is being hauled off a truck at the top of the slope, and at the speed they're hauling over the rocks, they'll be there in five minutes or less over there with the bomb. At the Zeppelin, Father MacPhail regrouped the soldiers, a few standing guard, rifles in hand, staring into the freezing darkness, while others opened the crates containing the bombs and prepared for the cable ready.Mrs. Coulter could clearly see through the rain-washed floodlights the tangle of clumsy machinery and wiring sloping slightly on the uneven ground.She heard high-tension crackling and humming from the lamp.The electric light wire swayed in the wind, scattering the rain, and its shadow dangled on the rocks like a grotesque skipping rope. One part of the device was familiar to Mrs. Coulter: the mesh cage and the silver flakes on it. They stood at one end of the apparatus, and the rest of the apparatus was foreign to her, and she could see no reason behind the coils of wire, the bottles, the pile of insulation, the grid of pipes.Still, that little lock of all-important hair must be somewhere in the whole complex. To her left, the slope stretched into darkness, and far below was a line of bright white, and the thunderous sound of water from the waterfall of Saint-Jean. There was a cry, and a soldier dropped his rifle, stumbled forward, and fell to the ground, kicking and striking, moaning in pain.The President accordingly looked up at the sky, put his hand to his mouth, and uttered a piercing cry. what is he doing After a while, Mrs. Coulter understood.A witch unexpectedly flew down and landed beside the president, who shouted over the wind: "Search around! There is something helping that woman, it has attacked several of us, you can see through the night, Find it and kill it." "Something is coming," said the witch, and her words came clearly to Mrs. Coulter. "I see it in the north." "Never mind that, find that fellow, and kill him," said the President. "It must be nearby, and look for that woman too. Go!" The witch jumped into the air again. Suddenly, the monkey grabbed Mrs. Coulter's hand and pointed. There was Lord Locke, conspicuously lying on a patch of moss.How could they not see him?But something happened because he didn't move. "Go get him back," she said, and the monkey darted low from rock to rock, toward the little patch of green moss in the crag, his golden hair soon darkened by the rain. , close to the body, making him appear smaller and less visible, but still very conspicuous. Meanwhile, Father MacPhail turned to the bomb again, and the engineers at the power station had dragged their cables right next to it, and the technicians were busily fixing the clamps and preparing the terminations. Mrs. Coulter was wondering what the President was going to do when his prey had escaped.Then the President looked back, and she saw his expression, which was so determined and serious that it made him look more like a mask than a person.His lips were moving in prayer, his eyes were wide open, letting the rain beat against the sky, and he was like a saint rejoicing in martyrdom in some gloomy Spanish painting.Mrs. Coulter felt a sudden wave of terror because she knew exactly what he was planning: he was going to sacrifice himself, and the bomb would go off whether she was part of it or not. The golden monkey galloped from rock to rock to Lord Locke. "My left leg is broken," Gallifers said flatly. "The last man stepped on me. Listen carefully—" As the monkey removed him from the light, Lord Locke explained in detail where the resonance chamber was, and how to open it.They were actually right under the eyes of the soldiers, but step by step, from shadow to shadow, the elf carried this little weight and stalked. Mrs. Coulter bit her lip and watched; then she heard a gust of wind and felt a heavy blow—not on her, but on the tree.An arrow pinned tremblingly, less than a hand's distance from her left arm.Before the Witch could shoot another arrow, she rolled away, and hurried down the slope towards the Monkey. And then it all happened at the same moment, all too quickly: the other side opened fire, and a cloud of acrid smoke billowed down the slope.But she saw no flames.Seeing Mrs. Coulter being attacked, the golden monkey put Lord Locke down and jumped over to protect her. The witch just flew down with a knife in her hand.Lord Locke climbed to the nearest rock to lean on.Mrs. Coulter fought the witches directly, and they fought viciously among the rocks, while the golden monkey proceeded to pluck all the needles from the witch's cloud pine. Meanwhile, the President was shoving his lizard sprite into the smaller silver-mesh cage. She writhed, screamed, kicked, and bitten, but he knocked her out of his grasp and slammed the door open. close.Technicians are doing final adjustments, checking their gauges and gauges. A seagull screamed wildly from nowhere, flew down out of nowhere, and caught Galliferspin in its claws, which was the witch's elf.Lord Locke fought hard, but the bird held him too tightly, and then the witch broke free from Mrs. Coulter, snatched the tattered pine branch, and leaped into the air to join her elf. Mrs. Coulter slammed into the bomb, feeling the smoke clawing at her nose and throat: tear gas.Most of the soldiers had fallen or staggered to one side from suffocation (where did the tear gas come from, she wondered?), but now, with the wind blowing it away, they were waking up again.The Zeppelin's big, bulging belly over the bomb strained the wind's cables, its silvery hull dripping with rain. But a voice high in the air made Mrs. Coulter's ears ring: the scream was so high and so frightening that even the golden monkey clutched her in terror.A second later, with white arms, black silk, and green branches twirling, the witch fell, landing right at Father MacPhail's feet, her bones slapping against the rocks. Mrs. Coulter rushed forward to see if Lord Locke was alive, but Galliferspin was dead, his right boot stab deep in the witch's neck. The Witch herself was still alive, and her mouth trembled as she said, "Something's coming—something else—coming—" It didn't help.The President had straddled her to the larger cage, and his daemon was jumping up and down in the other cage, her tiny claws buzzing the silver mesh, she was crying and begging. The golden monkey lunged at Father MacPhail, but instead of attacking him: he climbed and leaped over the man's shoulders to reach the heart of the complex of wires and pipes, the resonance chamber.The president tried to grab him, but Mrs. Coulter grabbed his arm and tried to drag him back; she could see nothing: the rain was pouring into her eyes, and there was tear gas in the air. There are guns and guns all around: what's going on? The floodlights swayed in the wind, so everything seemed wobbly, even the black rocks on the hillside.The president and Mrs. Coulter fought hand to hand, scratching, punching, tearing, pulling, biting, she was tired, but he was strong, but she also fought desperately.She could have yanked him away, but instead she was distracted watching her elf manipulating the handles, angry black claws jerking the mechanism this way and that, pulling and twisting and thrusting— Then she was punched hard in the temple and she fell dazed to the ground.The judge broke free, moved into the cage bloody, and then closed the door. The monkey had opened the resonance chamber—it was a glass door on heavy hinges, he put his hand inside, and there was the curl of hair: in the middle of the rubber pad in the metal clip!There was still more to do, and Mrs. Coulter propped herself up on trembling hands, shaking the silver mesh with all her strength, looking up at the piece of silver, the shiny terminals, the one inside. man.The monkey is letting go of that clip. The President's face became a mask of ruthlessness and complacency as he twisted the wires together. There was a flash of white light, a crack like a whip, and the monkey's body was thrown high into the air, and with him was a little golden cloud: was that Lyra's hair?Or his own hair? Whatever that was, it was instantly blown away in the dark.Mrs. Coulter's right hand shook so violently that it gripped the mesh, leaving her half-lying, spinning and her heart beating violently. But there was a change in her vision, her eyes suddenly sharpened, with the ability to see the most subtle details, and they were focused on the only thing that mattered in the universe: a deep thread glued to a pad in the clip of the resonance chamber. blond hair. She let out a cry of pain and shook the cage, trying to shake the hair loose with what little strength she had left. The presiding judge wiped his face with his hands, wiping away the rain, his mouth moved as if speaking, but she couldn't hear a word, and she tore helplessly at the mesh, and then when he brought the two wires together and the spark flickered, She slammed her entire body into the machine, and in utter silence, the gleaming piece of silver was shot down. Somewhere, something exploded, but Mrs. Coulter felt nothing. A hand lifted her up: that of Lord Asriel.There was nothing to fuss about anymore, the mind machine stood on the slope behind him, absolutely stable.He picked her up. "Is he dead? Was it fired?" she struggled. Lord Asriel crawled in and sat beside her, and the snow leopard jumped in too, taking the half-conscious monkey in its mouth.Lord Asriel held the control lever, and the mind machine immediately jumped into the air.Through eyes dazzled with pain, Mrs. Coulter looked down at the hillside, where people were scurrying about like ants, some dead, some limbless crawling on the rocks, pulled from the power station. The big cable that came out snaked through the chaos, the only thing of purpose in sight, all the way to the gleaming bomb, where the President was curled up in a cage. "Where's Lord Locke?" asked Lord Asriel. "Dead," she whispered. He pressed a button, and a burst of flames shot at the swaying Zeppelin. In an instant, the entire airship became a white fire rose, enveloping the mind machine, and the mind machine hung motionless in the flames. Nothing was lost.Lord Asriel unhurriedly removed the telekinesis, and they watched the zeppelin slowly fall, slowly fall over the whole scene, bombs, cables, soldiers and everything, everything started Rolling downhill in billowing smoke and flames, faster and faster, burning the resinous trees along the way, and finally crashing into the white spray of the waterfall, which swept everything into darkness. Lord Asriel touched the lever again, and the mind machine began to accelerate north, but Mrs. Coulter could not take her eyes off the sight, and she stared behind her for a long time, eyes full of tears. The fire, until it was a vertical golden line in the dark, billowing with smoke and vapor, and then nothing.