Chapter 9

Chapter 9 THE GIANT BULLDOZERS IN THE PARK ARE LOVELY THIS TIME OF YEAR. Ash removed her goggles. They'd been in the game for a whole day and night, but very little real time had passed. Ms. Minerva was in the nearby office. Ash could just make out her curly hair on the other side of the windows. Knowing the teacher, she was probably absorbed in a book. Ms. Minerva was a creature of habit. So were bats. Weren't they? Ash had been giving the school's strange infestation some thought. "There must be a reason the bats are here," she said. "Don't you think?" Po replaced his pair of goggles on their peg. "Taco Tuesday?" he suggested. "I don't think they're here for the cafeteria

每年的这个时候，公园里的巨型推土机都很可爱。 阿什摘下了护目镜。他们在游戏中玩了整整一天一夜，但真正的时间几乎没有过去。 密涅瓦当时在附近的办公室。 艾什只能辨认出她在窗户另一边的卷发。 由于了解那位老师，她可能正在全神贯注地看书。 密涅瓦女士是个循规蹈矩的人。 蝙蝠也是如此。他们没有? 阿什一直在考虑学校里发生的奇怪事件。 “蝙蝠在这里一定是有原因的，”她说。 “你不这样认为吗？”阿宝把他的护目镜装回了支架上。 “周二吃玉米卷？”他建议。 “我觉得他们不是来吃自助餐的

food," Harper said. "Although you might be onto something. Maybe there are a lot of tasty mosquitoes in the area?" Ash looked at the clock. She had an hour before she had to be home for dinner. "Are you all free for a little longer?" she asked. "I want to do some investigating. Maybe see this park that Morgan mentioned." She tapped her Supersleuth Scout badge. "I'm in," said Jodi. "But first I need a snack that isn't a digital apple." "Tacos!" said Po. Ash hadn't been to the park yet since moving to town, but she'd heard it was a great place to spend a weekend afternoon. She was expecting endless fields of grass, flowers of every color, and a pond where ducklings swam in little rows.

食物，”哈珀说。“虽然你可能说到点子上了。 也许这个地区有很多美味的蚊子？”艾什看了看钟。 她还有一个小时就要回家吃晚饭了。 “你们还有时间吗？”她问。 “我想做一些调查。 也许可以去摩根提到的那个公园看看。” 她轻拍了一下她的超级童军徽章。 “我加入，”乔迪说。“但首先我需要一种不是电子苹果的零食。” “玉米饼！”阿宝说。自从搬到镇上，阿什还没去过公园，但她听说那是一个度过周末下午的好地方。 她期待着一望无际的草地，各种颜色的花朵，还有一个池塘，里面有小鸭子排成一排游来游去。

She was not expecting a giant bulldozer and a crane. The construction vehicles stood at the edge of the park, right beside a densely wooded area. A large section of trees had already been cleared. "How long has that been going on?" she asked. "It must be new," said Morgan. "I was here a few weeks ago. That area was nothing but trees." "Let's check it out," suggested Harper. "Can someone push me, though?" asked Po. "This grass is killer to wheel over." "I gotcha," said Jodi. They made their way over to the construction vehicles. There was a long chain-link fence blocking off the area. The trees were gone, and the ground was a mess of dirt and broken roots.

她没想到会有一台巨大的推土机和起重机。 施工车辆停在公园的边缘，紧挨着一片茂密的树林。 一大片树木已经被砍伐了。 “这种情况持续多久了？”她问。 “一定是新的。”摩根说。 “几周前我来过这里。 那个地方除了树什么都没有。” “我们去看看吧。”哈珀建议道。 “有人能推我一把吗？”阿宝问。 “这草开过去可要命了。” “我抓住你了，”乔迪说。他们向施工车辆走去。 有一道长长的铁丝网栅栏把这个地区隔开了。 树都不见了，地上到处都是泥土和断根。

"Wow, just look at this section of the park," said Morgan. "They made a real mess." "It's a shame," said an old man. He was seated on a park bench with a newspaper in his lap and a sleeping pug at his feet. "I come here every night to watch the bats, but now they're gone." Ash's heart sped up. "Did you say bats?" "That's right." The man nodded. "You wouldn't even know they were here during the day, but they filled the trees. At dusk, they'd all wake up and fly off to find dinner. Sometimes a

“哇，看看公园的这一部分，”摩根说。 “他们搞得一团糟。”“真可惜，”一位老人说。 他坐在公园的长椅上，腿上放着一张报纸，脚边躺着一只熟睡的哈巴狗。 “我每天晚上都来这里看蝙蝠，但现在它们不见了。” 艾什的心跳加快了。“你是说蝙蝠吗？”“没错。” 那人点点头。“白天你甚至不知道它们在这里，但它们填满了树木。 黄昏时，它们都会醒来，飞出去寻找晚餐。 有时一个

hundred of them took flight all at once. It was a spectacular sight." He sighed. "I'm sure the condominiums they're building will be just as beautiful. Not!" Then he returned to his newspaper. "So that's what happened," said Harper. She grew more excited as her mind raced. "That's why the bats are in our school. Their habitat was destroyed."

数百只蝙蝠同时飞走了。 这是一个壮观的景象。” 他叹了口气。“我相信他们正在建造的共管公寓也会一样漂亮。 不!”然后他又回到报纸上。 “原来是这样，”哈珀说。 她越想越兴奋。 “这就是为什么我们学校有蝙蝠。 它们的栖息地被破坏了。”