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

Millie smiled at Se├▒ora Garcia and left by the north door, moving west through the main hall
and into the rotunda where a bronze Mercury dominated the center. She eyed the main entrance to
the south but wanted to stay under the eyes of the security cameras, near the museum guards, in the
public eye.

She moved into the West Sculpture Hall and took the second left, chosen because it was empty
for the moment, except, of course, for the ever-present guard.

She stopped, blinking. Why is no one here? It had to be an abnormal ebb in the tide of
patronsтАФthe room was filled with Rembrandts. She turned slowly in the middle of the room, then
froze opposite another allyтАФSaskia van Uylenburgh, the Wife of the Artist. Millie felt the
connection again, the sense of shared problems, of shared strengths.

A couple came in through the east door and started moving around the gallery, studying a
gorgeous rendition of a European man in turban and robe. Millie eyed them. They weren't very
convincing. The woman hung on the man's arm but her posture was wrong, not relaxed. If they'd
walked into her office like that she would've thought, impending divorce, they're going through the
motions.

Now she gave it another interpretation. They don't have an existing relationship that calls
for touching each other. That's camouflage, for me.

Millie took the west door and turned sharply, to put her out of sight of the couple. She counted
to three, then stuck her head back around the door. The couple was moving toward her, walking
apart, no longer touching. The instant they saw Millie they each swerved toward the other, then
paused to study another Rembrandt.

Gotcha.

Millie turned and walked. She was scared but she was also smiling. Come on, guys, it's time
for the NSA to put in an appearance. She moved through the gallery, a roomful of Dutch painters
who were not Rembrandt, and into a roomful of Flemish work, notably, Rubens. She paused before
a giant painting over ten feet wide and seven feet tall.

OuchтАФthat's a little too close to home.

It was Daniel in the Lions' Den and, while Daniel's eyes were on heaven, several of the
life-sized lions looked out at Millie with startling intensity.

She only had one other exit from this room, besides the direction she came in. She took it and
found herself in a smaller room with more Rubens. She cut through it into a larger gallery and paused
before yet another Rubens, The Assumption of the Virgin.

She paused again. "That's the ticket," she muttered. Angels and cherubs carried the Madonna
toward heaven while onlookers either stared up in awe or touched the discarded shroud. Where are
you, Angels?

She took deep breaths and turned from The Assumption to Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria,
the only other Rubens in the room. The woman wore an enormous Elizabethan collar but she looked
out at Millie with impish merriment.