Chapter 5

Chapter 5. Amy could've lived in the secret library. Instead, she almost died there. She led the way down the steps and gasped when she saw all the books. They went on forever. She used to think the main public library on Copley Square was the best in the world, but this was even better. It seemed more library-ish. The shelves were dark wood, and the books were leather-bound and very old, with gilded titles on the spines. They looked like they'd been well-used over the centuries. Oriental carpet covered the floor. Cushy chairs were spaced around the room so you could plop down anywhere and start reading. Maps and oversize folios were spread out on big tables. Against one wall was a line of oak file cabinets and a huge computer with three

第五章。艾米可能住在秘密图书馆。 然而，她却差点死在那里。 她领头走下台阶，看到所有的书，倒吸了一口气。 他们没完没了。她过去认为科普利广场的主要公共图书馆是世界上最好的，但这个更好。 它看起来更像图书馆。 书架是黑木头做的，书是皮面的，很旧，书脊上有镀金的标题。 它们看起来已经被使用了几个世纪了。 地板上铺着东方地毯。 舒适的椅子在房间里间隔着，这样你就可以在任何地方坐下开始阅读。 地图和超大的文件夹摊开在大桌子上。 靠墙放着一排橡木文件柜和一台有三台的巨大电脑

separate monitors, like something they'd use at NASA. Glass chandeliers hung from the vaulted ceiling and provided plenty of light, even though the room was obviously underground. They'd descended a long way to get here, and there were no windows. "This place is amazing!" Amy ran into the room. "Books," Dan said. "Yay." He checked out the computer, but it was frozen on the password screen. He jiggled a few file cabinet drawers, but they were all locked. Uncle Alistair gingerly picked a red folio from the shelves. "Latin. Caesar's campaign in Gaul, copied on vellum. Looks like it was handwritten by a scribe around, oh, 1500." "It must be worth a fortune," Amy said. Dan suddenly looked more interested. "We could sell them? Like, on eBay?" "Oh, shut up, Dan. These are priceless." She ran her fingers along the spines — Machiavelli, Melville, Milton. "They're alphabetical by author. Find the S section!" They did, but it was a disappointment. There

单独的监视器，就像他们在美国宇航局使用的那样。 拱形天花板上悬挂着玻璃吊灯，尽管房间显然是在地下，但还是提供了充足的光线。 他们走了很长一段路才来到这里，而且没有窗户。 “这个地方太棒了！”艾米跑进了房间。 “书，”丹说。“耶”。他检查了电脑，但它在密码屏幕上死机了。 他拨动了几个文件柜的抽屉，但都是锁着的。 阿利斯泰尔叔叔小心翼翼地从书架上拿起一本红色的对开本。 “拉丁语。恺撒在高卢的战役，抄写在牛皮纸上。 看起来像是一个抄写员在1500年左右写的。” “它一定值一大笔钱，”艾米说。 丹突然显得更感兴趣了。 “我们可以卖掉它们？”比如，在eBay上？”“哦，闭嘴，丹。 这些都是无价的。”她用手指抚摸着书脊——马基雅维利、梅尔维尔、弥尔顿。 “它们是按作者的字母顺序排列的。 找到S区！”是的，但结果令人失望。 有

were ten shelves packed with everything from Shakespeare's First Folio to Bruce Springsteen's Complete Lyrics, but nothing with Richard for the first name. "Something about that..." Amy muttered. The name Richard S —, coupled with the word Resolution, kept nagging at her. They went together, but she didn't know how. It drove her crazy when she couldn't remember things. She read so many books sometimes they got jumbled around in her head. Then she glanced down the aisle. At the end of the shelf, curled up on a box on a small table, was an old friend. "Saladin!" she cried. The cat opened his green eyes and said, "Mrrp?" without much surprise, like he was asking, Oh, it's you? Did you bring me my red snapper? Amy and Dan ran to him. Saladin had the most beautiful fur Amy had ever seen — silver with spots, like a miniature snow leopard. Well … not so miniature, actually, since he was pretty enormous, with huge paws and a long striped tail.

从莎士比亚的《第一对开本》到布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀的《歌词全集》，10个书架上摆满了各种各样的东西，但没有一个是理查德的名字。 “大概是……”艾米喃喃自语。 “理查德·S”这个名字，加上“决心”这个词，一直在折磨着她。 他们一起走了，但她不知道怎么走。 当她记不住事情的时候，她快疯了。 她读了很多书，有时书会在她的脑子里混在一起。 然后她朝过道那边瞥了一眼。 在书架的尽头，蜷缩在一张小桌子上的盒子上的是一位老朋友。 “萨拉丁！”猫睁开绿色的眼睛，毫不惊讶地说：“Mrrp?”就像在问：哦，是你吗？ 你把我的红鲷鱼带来了吗？ 艾米和丹跑向他。萨拉丁的皮毛是艾米所见过的最漂亮的——银色带斑点，就像一只微型雪豹。 嗯，其实不是那么小，因为它非常巨大，有巨大的爪子和长长的条纹尾巴。

"Saladin, what are you doing down here?" Amy stroked his back. The cat closed his eyes and purred. Amy knew he was just a cat, but she was so happy to see him she could've cried. It was like part of Grace was still alive. "Hey, Saladin," Dan said. "What's that you're sitting on, dude?" "Mrrp," Saladin complained as Dan lifted him up. Underneath was a polished mahogany box with the gold initials GC engraved on the lid. Amy's heart skipped a beat. "It's Grace's jewelry box!" Amy opened it up, and there was Grace's personal jewelry, which Amy had loved since she was little. Grace used to let her play with these — a pearl bracelet, a diamond ring, a pair of emerald earrings. Amy hadn't realized until much later that the stuff was real — worth thousands of dollars. She blinked the tears out of her eyes. Now that she'd found Saladin and the jewelry box, she felt like she really was standing in Grace's most secret place. She missed her grandmother so much it hurt. Then she pulled a very familiar piece of

“萨拉丁，你在这里干什么？”艾米抚摸着他的背。 那只猫闭上眼睛发出呼噜声。 艾米知道他只是一只猫，但她看到他太高兴了，几乎要哭了。 就好像格蕾丝的一部分还活着。 “嘿，萨拉丁。”丹说。“老兄，你坐的是什么东西？”“哼，”当丹把萨拉丁举起来时，他抱怨道。 下面是一个抛光的红木盒子，盖子上刻着金色的GC首字母。 艾米的心跳加快了。 “这是格蕾丝的首饰盒！”艾米打开盒子，里面是格蕾丝的私人珠宝，艾米从小就很喜欢。 格蕾丝过去常常让她玩这些东西——一个珍珠手镯，一个钻石戒指，一对祖母绿耳环。 很久以后，艾米才意识到这东西是真的——价值数千美元。 她眨了眨眼睛，把眼泪挤出来。 现在她找到了萨拉丁和首饰盒，她觉得自己真的站在了格蕾丝最隐秘的地方。 她对祖母的思念使她心痛。 然后她拉了一根非常熟悉的

jewelry out of the box…. "Dear me," Alistair said. "That's her favorite necklace, isn't it?" He was right. Amy had never seen her grandmother without this necklace — twelve intricately carved squares of jade with a green dragon medallion in the center. Grace had called it her good-luck charm. Amy touched the dragon in the center. She wondered why Grace hadn't been buried with this necklace. It didn't seem right. "Hey!" Dan called. "Look at this!" Amy found him around the corner, holding Saladin and staring at a giant wall map covered in pushpins. The pins were in five different colors: red, blue, yellow, green, and white. Every major city in the world seemed to have at least one. Some areas were stuck with only red pins, some with green or blue, some with several colors. "She's been doing voodoo on the world!" Dan said. "No, dummy," Amy said. "Those must be markers. They tell where something is." "Like what?"

珠宝开箱.... “天哪，”阿利斯泰尔说。“那是她最喜欢的项链，对吗？”他是对的。 艾米从来没有见过祖母不戴这条项链的样子——12块雕刻精美的方形玉石，中间有一个绿色的龙形大勋章。 格蕾丝称它为她的好运符。 艾米摸了摸中间的龙。 她想知道为什么格蕾丝下葬时没有佩戴这条项链。 这似乎不对。“嘿!”丹。 “看这个！”艾米在拐角处发现了他，他正抱着萨拉丁，盯着一张挂满图钉的巨大的墙上地图。 别针有五种不同的颜色：红、蓝、黄、绿和白。 世界上每个大城市似乎都至少有一个。 有些地方只用红色的别针，有些地方用绿色或蓝色的，有些地方用几种颜色的。 “她一直在对这个世界施巫术！”丹说。 “不，笨蛋，”艾米说。“那些一定是记号笔。 它们能告诉我们东西在哪里。” “像什么?”

Amy shook her head. She found the map creepy. "Maybe something about the Cahills?" She glanced at Alistair. He frowned. "I don't know, my dear. Most curious." But he wouldn't meet her eyes, and Amy got the feeling he was hiding something. "Look at Europe," Dan said. "And the East Coast." Those areas were heavily pinned in all five colors. Amy could hardly see the cities underneath. If these pins represented the Cahills, then it looked like they'd started somewhere in Europe and spread across the world, heavily colonizing North America. Then she thought: Europe. Colonies. North America. The name Richard S — started nagging at her mind again, trying to scratch its way out. A name from the eighteenth century, someone who had written resolutions … Suddenly, she turned and raced down the row of shelves. "Hey!" Dan cried, as Saladin wriggled out of his arms. "Amy, where are you going?"

艾米摇了摇头。她觉得这张地图令人毛骨悚然。 “也许是卡希尔家的事？”她瞥了阿利斯泰尔一眼。 他皱起了眉头。“我不知道，亲爱的。 最好奇。”但他不肯直视她的眼睛，艾米觉得他在隐瞒什么。 “看看欧洲，”丹说。 “还有东海岸。”这些地方都被五种颜色牢牢地钉住了。 艾米几乎看不到下面的城市。 如果这些别针代表卡希尔人，那么看起来他们是从欧洲的某个地方开始的，然后传播到世界各地，在北美建立了大量殖民地。 然后她想到：欧洲。殖民地。 北美。“理查德·S”这个名字又开始在她的脑海里唠叨起来，想把它挤出来。 一个来自18世纪的名字，一个写过新年决心的人……突然，她转过身来，沿着那排书架跑了下去。 “嘿!”当萨拉丁挣脱他的臂弯时，丹叫道。 “艾米，你要去哪儿？”