BOXING DAY
7 PM
LONDON was cold. No snow had fallen here, but a freezing wind whipped the ancient buildings and the curled streets, and people hunched1 their shoulders and tightened2 the scarves around their necks as they hurried to the warmth of pubs and restaurants, hotels and cinemas.
Toni Gallo sat in the back of a plain gray Audi beside Odette Cressy. Odette was a blond woman Toni's age, wearing a dark business suit over a scarlet3 shirt. Two detectives sat in the front, one driving, one studying a direction-finding radio receiver and telling the driver where to go.
The police had been tracking the perfume bottle for thirty-three hours. The helicopter had landed, as expected, in southwest London. The pilot had got into a waiting car and driven across Battersea Bridge to the riverside home of Adam Hallan. All last night the radio transmitter had remained stationary4, beeping steadily5 from somewhere in the elegant eighteenth-century house. Odette did not want to arrest Hallan yet. She wanted to catch the maximum number of terrorists in her net.
Toni had spent most of that time asleep. When she lay down in her flat just before noon on Christmas Day, she felt too tense to sleep. Her thoughts were with the helicopter as it flew the length of Britain, and she worried that the tiny radio beacon6 would fail. Despite her anxieties, she had dropped off in seconds.
In the evening, she had driven to Steepfall to see Stanley. They had held hands and talked for an hour in his study, then she flew to London. She slept heavily all night at Odette's flat in Camden Town.
As well as following the radio signal, the Metropolitan7 Police had Adam Hallan and his pilot and copilot under surveillance. In the morning Toni and Odette joined the team watching Adam Hallan's house.
Toni had achieved her main objective. The deadly virus samples were back in the BSL4 laboratory at the Kremlin. But she also hoped to catch the people responsible for the nightmare she had lived through. She wanted justice.
Today Hallan had given a lunch party, and fifty people of assorted8 nationalities and ages, all wearing expensive casual clothes, had visited the house. One of the guests had left with the perfume bottle. Toni and Odette and the team tracked the radio beacon to Bayswater and kept watch over a student rooming house all afternoon.
At seven o'clock in the evening, the signal moved again.
A young woman came out of the house. In the light of the street lamps, Toni could see that she had beautiful dark hair, heavy and lustrous9. She carried a shoulder bag. She turned up the collar of her coat and walked along the pavement. A detective in jeans and an anorak got out of a tan Rover and followed her.
"I think this is it," Toni said. "She's going to release the spray."
"I want to see it," Odette said. "For the prosecution10, I need witnesses to the attempted murder."
Toni and Odette lost sight of the young woman as she turned into a Tube station. The radio signal weakened worryingly as the woman went underground. It remained steady for a while, then the beacon moved, presumably because the woman was on a train. They followed the feeble signal, fearing it would fade out and she would shake off the detective in the anorak. But she emerged at Piccadilly Circus, the detective still tailing her. They lost visual contact for a minute when she turned into a one-way street, then the detective called Odette on his mobile phone and reported that the woman had entered a theater.
Toni said, "That's where she'll release the spray."
The unmarked police cars drew up outside the theater. Odette and Toni went in, followed by two men from the second car. The show, a ghost story with songs, was popular with visiting Americans. The girl with beautiful hair was standing11 in the queue for collection of prepaid tickets.
While she waited, she took from her shoulder bag a perfume bottle. With a quick gesture that looked entirely12 natural, she sprayed her head and shoulders. The theatergoers around her paid no attention. Doubtless she wanted to be fragrant13 for the man she was meeting, they would imagine, if they thought about it at all. Such beautiful hair ought to smell good. The spray was curiously14 odorless, but no one seemed to notice.
"That's good," said Odette. "But we'll let her do it again."
The bottle contained plain water, but all the same Toni shivered with dread15 as she breathed in. Had she not made the switch, the spray would have contained live Madoba-2, and that breath would have killed her.
The woman collected her ticket and went inside. Odette spoke16 to the usher17 and showed him her police card, then the detectives followed the woman. She went to the bar, where she sprayed herself again. She did the same in the ladies' room. At last she took her seat in the front orchestra and sprayed herself yet again. Her plan, Toni guessed, was to use the spray several times more in the interval18, and finally in the crowded passages while the audience was leaving the building. By the end of the evening, almost everyone in the theater would have breathed the droplets19 from her bottle.
Watching from the back of the auditorium20, Toni listened to the accents around her: a woman from the American South who had bought the most beautiful cashmere scarf; someone from Boston talking about where he pahked his cah; a New Yorker who had paid five dollars for a cup of cawfee. If the perfume bottle had contained the virus as planned, these people would by now be infected with Madoba-2. They would have flown home to embrace their families and greet their neighbors and go back to work, telling everyone about their holiday in Europe.
Ten or twelve days later, they would have fallen ill. "I picked up a lousy cold in London," they would have said. Sneezing, they would have infected their relations and friends and colleagues. The symptoms would have gotten worse, and their doctors would have diagnosed flu. When they started to die, the doctors would have realized that this was something much worse than flu. As the deadly infection spread rapidly from street to street and city to city, the medical profession would have begun to understand what they were dealing21 with, but by then it would be too late.
Now none of that would happen—but Toni shuddered22 as she thought how close it had been.
A nervous man in a tuxedo23 approached them. "I'm the theater manager," he said. "What's happening?"
"We're about to make an arrest," Odette told him. "You may want to delay the curtain for a minute."
"I hope there won't be a fracas24."
"Believe me, so do I." The audience was seated. "All right," Odette said to the other detectives. "We've seen enough. Pick her up, and gently does it."
The two men from the second car walked down the aisles26 and stood at either end of the woman's row. She looked at one, then the other. "Come with me, please, miss," said the nearer of the two detectives. The theater went quiet as the waiting audience watched. Was this part of the show? they wondered.
The woman remained seated, but took out her perfume bottle and sprayed herself again. The detective, a young man in a short Crombie coat, pushed his way along the row to where she sat. "Please come immediately," he said. She stood up, raised the bottle, and sprayed it into the air. "Don't bother," he said. "It's only water." Then he took her by the arm and led her along the row and up the aisle25 to the back of the theater.
Toni stared at the prisoner. She was young and attractive. She had been ready to commit suicide. Toni wondered why.
Odette took the perfume bottle from her and dropped it into an evidence bag. "Diablerie," she said. "French word. Do you know what it means?"
The woman shook her head.
"The work of the devil." Odette turned to the detective. "Put her in handcuffs and take her away."
收听单词发音 |
1
hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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3
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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6
beacon
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| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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7
metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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8
assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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9
lustrous
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| adj.有光泽的；光辉的 | |
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prosecution
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| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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12
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
usher
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| n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员 | |
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18
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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19
droplets
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| n.小滴( droplet的名词复数 ) | |
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20
auditorium
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| n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂 | |
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21
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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22
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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23
tuxedo
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| n.礼服，无尾礼服 | |
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fracas
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| n.打架；吵闹 | |
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25
aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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aisles
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| n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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