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.Nearly halfway around the work, she stopped and examined an area closely."Joseph?" she said, and he came to where she was standing."Look at that.It looks as though it.came outward."Where she was pointing, iron had been twisted and wrenched away from the mass.It seemed to leave a definite path back toward the middle of the sculpture, and there they could clearly see where the sculpture had burst outward from the center, from a force that had left no sign of its passing but the bent iron.There was not the slightest scent of flame or powder or ash or any of the other olfactory evidence that a true explosion would leave behind."What the hell happened here?" Joseph asked."An explosion? Some force—"Joseph looked at the tangle of iron for a moment."You know," he said slowly, "maybe Holberg intended it to look like this.We know that he was asking Guaraldi about explosions.maybe because he was working on this—sort of an intentional artistic destruction.""But remember," Laika said, "Holberg wasn't even supposed to know that he was working on this.""I don't buy that.You can't do something this complex—rent a warehouse, order supplies, create this thing—and not know it.And he knew enough to hide the records.""Maybe he was hiding them from himself," Laika said, then sighed."Or maybe you're right.maybe it was all planned and Holberg just faked the fugue states to surprise Guaraldi with the piece later.There's just one problem with that.""What?""Look at the size of it, and look at the door.He'd never have gotten it out of here."Joseph looked at the door and nodded."But what if he just intended to show it here?""In this neighborhood?" Laika was glad to see him nod again in agreement.They continued walking around the vast sculpture and at the far end of the room found a rickety wooden table.On it were a number of badly soiled and stained sheets of paper, each of them eighteen by twenty-four inches.They all contained enigmatically complex pencil drawings and series of numbers running down the sides.The drawings were mostly of angles and lines, and what looked like measurements were written next to every line and angle.The pile of papers was nearly six inches thick, and she and Joseph were careful not to get them out of order as they leafed through."Plans?" she asked."I think so.You know who has to see this?""Yes.Guaraldi.He worked closely with Holberg, so he might be able to make something out of it all."They examined the rest of the sculpture, but found only more iron joinings interrupted by seeming chaos.The longer Laika looked at it, the more her sickness waned, as if the work were slowly seducing her, until, in its own bizarre way, it seemed dangerously beautiful, like a monument to bone and sinew.The rust that crawled up the pipes somehow added to its gritty glory, and the puddles on the floor reflected the discordant structure above like pools of blood."We need to take photos," Joseph said, breaking in on her reverie."I'll get the camera in the trunk.""No." Laika shook her head."Let me go.I need a breath of fresh air." She did not realize how badly she needed to get out of the warehouse until she spoke.The air was cloying and thick, with a trace of salt.It was like breathing through a bloody nose."Let me go with you.Those kids—"She waved a hand dismissively."They'll be no problem now.Besides, even if they were.""I know.You could take 'em." Joseph smiled."I'll just poke around here.Don't be long, though.This place even gives me the creeps."Laika took out her flashlight as she opened the front door and stepped into the parking lot.She thought about holding her pistol, but decided not to.After all, she could draw it in two-tenths of a second, should the need arise.As she shut the door behind her, she hesitated for a moment, checking the terrain, listening, watching, and even smelling the air.Once, in Haiti, the scent of an enemy agent's body odor had alerted her to his presence as she'd entered her hotel room.His plan had been to kill her, but he had died instead.Ever since, Laika had used all of her senses to fight her battles.It was a good thing she had [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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