"Steven Gould - Jumper 02 - Reflex" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gould Stephen Jay)

unless it's you, you better get your ass over here. I'm going to stay in the National Gallery, West
Building, main floor, but going from gallery to gallery."

She tucked the bug back into her bra and took the scarf off her head, then knotted it loosely
around her neck like a tie. She took one more look at The White Girl and summoned resolve. Share
some of that serenity, please.

There were steps in the east foyer, at the head of the stairs, and she left, moving to the next
gallery. Her head twitched as she passed five Winslow Homer paintings. This is that sort of place.
Get over it. She summoned mental blinkers and moved on.

Many of the galleries had multiple doors leading from them, making the place a maze. She
worked her way toward the middle of the building, settling in Gallery 56 before a six-foot-high
portrait of Napoleon in his study. There were four entrances to the room and two museum guards.

She thought it was time to settle, to let her chasers find her, but Napoleon was staring at her a bit
too directly. She moved around the bench in the middle of the room and studied instead Portrait of a
Lady by Vig├йe-Lebrun: a woman portrayed by a woman. While this subject wasn't as serene as The
White Girl, she seemed to know what she was about. When she looked out of the frame at Millie it
was as if they were sharing something. Millie didn't feel studied and judged as she did by Napoleon.
The scale helped, too. Portrait of a Lady was only three-and-a-half feet high. She didn't loom over
Millie like the Emperor did.

She stood and moved close enough to read the note card. "тАФwas under threat of the guillotine
after the revolution. She was forced to flee Paris in disguise in 1789."

Maybe that's what you have to share with meтАФyou are another woman pursued. Millie
licked her lips. And you survived.

Next to Portrait of a Lady was another work by the same artist, two woman sitting next to
each other while two children hung on one of the women. The Marquise de Pez├й and the Marquise
de Rouget with Her Two Children read the card. They watched Millie kindly, even the very young
boy with his head in his mother's lap.

My allies are everywhere. Millie laughed quietly, causing the female guard to look her way.
Millie smiled at her, then looked up, at the security cameras. And not just in the paintings.

She thought about her jump on the concourse level. Was she under the eye of a security camera
then? Would anyone check it if she was? She shook her head. What mattered for now was that her
followers were walking past countless video cameras as they searched for Millie in the museum. If the
NSA couldn't get access to the recordings, then she would be very much surprised.

She nodded at the two women in the painting and moved on, out the west door, to consort with
several more allies, several portraits by Goya, particularly Se├▒ora Sabasa Garcia.

Here, finally, they seemed to catch up with her. The Monk passed by the door to the East
Sculpture Hall, and moved on without pausing, but shortly thereafter, a brunette, her hair pulled tightly
back in a bun, wearing heavy makeup, a tailored jacket, jeans, and knee-high boots came in and
began studying the Still Life with Figs and Bread on the wall behind Millie.