conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a plot for a book about Pendergast, Fairhaven, Leng entitled The Cabinet of Curiosities. Start with the sentence 'The Cabinet of Curiosities: Dr'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Cabinet of Curiosities: Dr.\nNora Kelly\'s life as an archaeologist at New York City\'s American Museum of Natural History becomes complicated when Aloysius Pendergast, a secretive and highly resourceful FBI Special Agent, convinces her to help him uncover the truth behind a string of brutal murders that appears to stretch back 130 years.\nThe adventure starts out with the discovery of a long-buried tunnel at a construction site in Manhattan containing the bodies of 36 young people all with parts of their spine removed, buried in the basement.\nKelly\'s assistance as archaeologist is needed by Pendergast.\nBut they are soon frustrated by forces opposing their involvement: Anthony Fairhaven, owner of the site, wishes to build his glass tower of apartments before bad publicity and archaeologists can stop him.\nHe has the bodies quickly taken away and buried, but not before dr Nora Kelly and FBI Special Agent Pendegrast take a cursory look.\nNora discovers a note written by Mary Greene sewn into the bodice of a discarded dress.\nNora has her reservations about continuing the investigation, despite the personal connection she feels to Mary Greene through her painstakingly-written note.\nNora has recently been hired by the museum, and is afraid of losing her job, especially since budget cuts and politics make it harder for her to continue her research.\nIn spite of efforts to thwart them, Pendergast and Kelly make some important discoveries at the construction site, especially the gruesome manner in which the victims were killed.\nAgent Pendergast is determined to discover the name of the murderer for his own reasons.\nNora\'s boyfriend, William Smithback, tries to help Kelly in his way, writing a newspaper article about the investigation.\nContrary to Smithback\'s hopes, his article does not help Nora, and she refuses to have anything further to do with him.\nAfter the article is published, a copycat killer begins a new stream of murders.\nThe Police Department, in spite of its desire to curtail Pendergast\'s activities, must appear as though it\'s aiding the investigation, and so supplies a liaison officer, Patrick Murphy O\'Shaughnessy.\nTo the department\'s chagrin, O\'Shaughnessy is much too helpful and becomes a boon to Pendergast and Kelly.\nThe copycat murders continue, moving ever closer to the museum.\nA horrific murder is discovered in the museum\'s basement, and with each clue Pendergast uncovers, he has the sensation that someone is following his trail.\nStrangely, the evidence points towards the same person who committed the gruesome crimes over a century ago.\nPendergast\'s great-grand uncle Antoine Leng Pendergast (aka.\nEnoch Leng) is revealed as the serial killer who stole his victim\'s spinal columns in an attempt to produce an elixir enabling him to prolong life.\nHe succeeded, and survives into the late 20th century, until he himself is killed by the copycat killer, revealed to be Anthony Fairhaven, who tracked Enoch Leng to his mansion on Riverside Drive.\nPendergast arrives to rescue Nora and Smithback from Fairhaven\'s captivity, but takes a severe bullet wound and is disarmed by Fairhaven.\nFairhaven has been searching the mansion for the formula, and is excited when Pendergast, trying to escape, finds the entrance to a secret laboratory, where he is puzzled to see a collection of toxic plants and insects, along with an esoteric collection of costumes and antique weaponry.\nOn a whim, Fairhaven decides to use an axe from the collection, instead of Pendergast\'s gun, to execute Pendergast.\nA few moments later, when Nora rushes into the room, she sees Pendergast alive and Fairhaven on the floor, writhing in agony.\nPendergast explains that his uncle Antoine/Enoch developed his formula for life extension only as a means to an end, to give himself enough time to complete his real work: perfecting a means of committing global genocide.\nIn Leng\'s mind, the best way to save humanity would be to exterminate it, so he was experimenting with a variety of deadly poisons and delivery systems.\nBy handling the objects in the room, Fairhaven inadvertently absorbed a varied "cocktail" of these poisons, and is dying, slowly and gruesomely.\nLater, at the grave of one of the murdered girls, Pendergast explains the rest of the mystery to Nora and Smithback.\nAs a young man, Fairhaven became obsessed with his own mortality after witnessing his elder brother\'s premature death from progeria.\nHe used his real estate fortune to make generous donations to biomedical research, and came across mention of Leng in some of the Museum\'s old records.\nLeng was still alive when Fairhaven tracked him down, though he was now an old man and had stopped using the formula (Pendergast reveals that Leng abandoned his project in 1954, after the Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb was successfully test-detonated, deciding that mankind had already perfected a means of destroying itself).\nLeng was powerless against Fairhaven\'s feverish brutality, and died under torture by Fairhaven, but never revealed his secret formula - which Pendergast found in a hiding place in Leng\'s laboratory.\nTo Smithback\'s shock, and Nora\'s approval, Pendergast destroys the formula, having already decided that it is more of a threat to humanity than a blessing.\nHe remarks on the irony that Leng had already discovered the secret to destroying humanity, but didn\'t realize it: all he had to do was reveal the existence of the formula, and the world would have torn itself apart trying to possess it.\nThe story introduces the cabinet of curiosity (created by the killer Leng), and hints at something hidden in it, which is featured in the consecutive novels.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the first three paragraphs for this book
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Cabinet of Curiosities
  It was afternoon by the time he settled into the morgue. The librarian brought him the first of the volumes he'd requested, and he opened it with reverence, inhaling the smell of decaying wood pulp, old ink, mold, and dust. The volume was dated January 1881, and he quickly found the article he was looking for: the burning of Shottum's cabinet. It was a front-page story, with a handsome engraving of the flames. The article mentioned that the eminent Professor John C. Shottum was missing and feared dead." Clearly, the writer knew nothing about Leng.
  Smithback paged forward until he found a follow-up story on the fire, reporting that remains believed to be Shottum had been found. No mention was made of Leng.
  Now working backward, Smithback paged through the city sections, looking for articles on the Museum, the Lyceum, or any mention of Leng, Shottum, or McFadden. It was slow going, and Smithback often found himself sidetracked by various fascinating, but unrelated, articles.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Enoch, Leng, Shottum's, named, billed.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Cabinet of Curiosities
  It was afternoon by the time he settled into the morgue. The librarian brought him the first of the volumes he'd requested, and he opened it with reverence, inhaling the smell of decaying wood pulp, old ink, mold, and dust. The volume was dated January 1881, and he quickly found the article he was looking for: the burning of Shottum's cabinet. It was a front-page story, with a handsome engraving of the flames. The article mentioned that the eminent Professor John C. Shottum was missing and feared dead. Also missing, the article stated, was a man named Enoch Leng, who was vaguely billed as a boarder at the cabinet and Shottum's "assistant. " Clearly, the writer knew nothing about Leng. 
  Smithback paged forward until he found a follow-up story on the fire, reporting that remains believed to be Shottum had been found. No mention was made of Leng. 
  Now working backward, Smithback paged through the city sections, looking for articles on the Museum, the Lyceum, or any mention of Leng, Shottum, or McFadden. It was slow going, and Smithback often found himself sidetracked by various fascinating, but unrelated, articles.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: four more paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: They worked their way down as far as 120th Street. Here, the neighborhood improved and most of the buildings were occupied.
  They hurried back to 131st Street—the point where their search had begun—and continued north. This proved much slower going. The neighborhood deteriorated until it seemed as if most of the buildings were abandoned. Pendergast dismissed many out of hand, but he broke into one, then another, then a third, while Nora watched the street.
  At 136th Street they stopped before yet another ruined house. Pendergast looked toward it, scrutinizing the facade, then turned his eyes northward, silent and withdrawn. He was pale; the activity had clearly taxed his weakened frame.
  It was as if the entire Drive, once lined with elegant townhouses, was now one long, desolate ruin. It seemed to Nora that Leng could be in any one of those houses.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the last four paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: As Nora looked at Pendergast, she saw—behind the conflict still evident on his face—a bottomless sorrow, an exhaustion of spirit.
  Smithback shook his head miserably. "Do you know what you've done? You've just destroyed the greatest medical advance ever made."
  Pendergast glanced at the writer for a moment. Then he dropped his gaze to the grave. His shoulders seemed to droop.
  As she spoke, Pendergast's eyes remained on the ground. Then, slowly, his gaze rose to meet her own. Perhaps it was her imagination, but the anguish in his face seemed to lessen almost imperceptibly at her words.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Smithback shook his head miserably. "Do you know what you've done? You've just destroyed the greatest medical advance ever made."
  Pendergast glanced at the writer for a moment. Then he dropped his gaze to the grave. His shoulders seemed to droop.
  As she spoke, Pendergast's eyes remained on the ground. Then, slowly, his gaze rose to meet her own. Perhaps it was her imagination, but the anguish in his face seemed to lessen almost imperceptibly at her words.