Chapter 8

Chapter 8. Amy knew something was wrong as soon as Nellie came out of the rental car place. She was frowning and holding a thick brown padded envelope. "What is that?" Amy asked. "It's for you guys." Nellie held out the package. "Somebody dropped it off at the counter this morning." "That's impossible!" Amy said. "Nobody knew we'd be here." But as she said it, a chill went down her back. They'd booked the train tickets and the rental car online last night from their hotel, using Nellie's name. Was it possible somebody had tracked them down so fast? "What does the envelope say?" Dan asked. "'For A. & D. Cahill,'" Nellie read. "'From W.

第八章。内莉一从租车店出来，艾米就知道出事了。 她皱着眉头，手里拿着一个厚厚的棕色信封。 “那是什么？”艾米问。 “这是给你们的。”内莉拿出包裹。 “今天早上有人把它放在柜台上了。” “那是不可能的!”艾米说。 “没人知道我们会在这里。” 但说着说着，一阵寒意袭上了她的背。 他们昨晚在网上用内莉的名字从酒店预订了火车票和租车。 会不会有人这么快就找到了他们？ “信封上写了什么？”丹问道。 “‘给A. & D.卡希尔，’”内莉念道。 “从W。

McIntyre.'" "Mr. McIntyre!" Dan grabbed the package. "Wait!" Amy yelled. "It could be a trap." Dan rolled his eyes. "C'mon. It's from—" "It could be from anybody," Amy insisted. "It could blow up or something." "Okay, whoa," Nellie said. "Why would somebody send a couple of kids a bomb? And who is this McIntyre dude?" Dan grinned. "I say we let Nellie open it." "Um, no!" Nellie said. "You're the au pair! Aren't you supposed to defuse explosives for us and stuff?" "I'm driving you, kiddo. That's enough!" Amy sighed and snatched the package. She stepped into the parking lot, turned the flap of the envelope away from Nellie and Dan, and carefully peeled it open. Nothing happened. Inside was a metal cylinder like a flashlight, except the light was a strip of purple glass running down one side. A note was attached in sloppy handwriting, like the writer had been in a hurry:

麦金太尔。“麦金太尔先生！”丹抓起包裹。 “等等!”艾米喊道。“这可能是个陷阱。” 丹翻了个白眼。“来吧。 是——”“谁都有可能，”艾美坚持说。 “它可能会爆炸什么的。” “好吧，哇，”内莉说。 “为什么会有人给几个孩子送炸弹？” 这个麦金太尔是谁？”丹咧嘴一笑。 “我说让内莉打开吧。” “嗯,不!”内莉说。“你就是那个互惠生！”你不是应该为我们拆除炸药什么的吗？”“我开车送你，孩子。 这就够了!”艾米叹了口气，抓起包裹。 她走进停车场，把信封的封盖从内莉和丹身上拉开，然后小心翼翼地把信封打开。 什么也没有发生。里面是一个像手电筒一样的金属圆柱体，只不过光线是一条紫色的玻璃条从一侧照射下来。 附了一张字条，字迹潦草，好像写得很匆忙：

Meet me At Independence HALL this evening At eight, but only if you find the information. -W.M. (P.S. Thank you for calling the Ambulance.) "Find what information?" Dan asked, reading over her shoulder. "The next clue, I guess." "What clue?" Nellie demanded. "Nothing," Dan and Amy said. Nellie blew a tuft of black and blond hair out of her eyes. "Whatever. Stay right here. I'll bring the car around." She left them standing with the bags and Saladin in his new cat carrier. Saladin hadn't been too pleased with the cat carrier—anymore than Nellie had been with the fresh red snapper they'd bought to keep him happy — but Amy hadn't had the heart to leave him behind. "Mrrp?" Saladin asked.

今晚八点在独立厅等我，但前提是你能找到信息。 ——w.m.（附言：谢谢你叫救护车。）“找到什么信息？”丹问，从她的肩膀上看。 “我猜是下一条线索。”“什么线索?”内莉问道。 “没什么，”丹和艾米说。 内莉吹掉了一束遮住眼睛的黑金色头发。 “不管。待在这儿别动。 我去把车开过来。” 她让他们站在那里，拿着袋子，萨拉丁在他的新猫笼里。 萨拉丁对猫笼不太满意——就像内莉对他们买来让他开心的新鲜红鲷鱼不太满意一样——但是艾米不忍心把他丢下。 “Mrrp ?”萨拉丁问道。

Amy reached down and scratched his head through the bars. "Dan, maybe we shouldn't make that rendezvous. Mr. McIntyre told us not to trust anyone." "But the note is from him!" "It could be a trick." "That makes it even better! We've got to go!" Amy twisted her hair. She hated it when Dan didn't take her seriously. And this could be dangerous. "If we go, it says we have to find information first." "But you know where to look, right? You're smart and stuff." Smart and stuff. Like that's all they needed to track down a clue in a huge city. Before they'd left Boston, she'd splurged and bought some books about Franklin and Philadelphia from her friends at the used bookshop. She'd spent the whole train trip reading, but still…. "I've got a few ideas," she admitted. "But I don't know where we're going in the long term. I mean — have you thought about what this ultimate treasure could be?" "Something cool."

艾米俯下身，隔着栅栏挠了挠他的头。 “丹，也许我们不应该约会。 麦金太尔先生告诉我们不要相信任何人。” “可是那张纸条是他写的呀！”“这可能是个骗局。” “那就更好了！”我们得走了！”艾米扭了扭她的头发。 她讨厌丹不把她当回事。 这可能很危险。 “如果我们去，它说我们必须先找到信息。” “但你知道去哪里找，对吧？” 你很聪明。”很聪明。 就像他们在大城市里追踪线索只需要这些一样。 在他们离开波士顿之前，她挥霍了一番，在旧书店里从朋友那里买了一些关于富兰克林和费城的书。 她在整个火车旅行中都在读书，但仍然.... “我有一些想法，”她承认。 “但我不知道从长远来看我们会走向何方。 我是说——你想过这个终极宝藏会是什么吗？”“很酷”。

"Oh, that's real helpful. I mean, what could make somebody the most powerful Cahill in history? And why thirty-nine clues?" Dan shrugged. "Thirty-nine is a sweet number. It's thirteen times three. It's also the sum of five prime numbers in a row—3, 5, 7, 11, 13. And if you add the first three powers of three, 31 plus 32 plus 33, you get thirty-nine." Amy stared at him. "How did you know that?" "What do you mean? It's obvious." Amy shook her head in dismay. Dan acted like a doofus most of the time. Then he'd pull something like that — adding prime numbers or powers of three that she'd never thought about. Their dad had been a mathematics professor, and Dan apparently had inherited all of his number sense. Amy had enough trouble remembering phone numbers. She held up the weird metal cylinder Mr. McIntyre had sent them. She switched it on and the light glowed purple. "What is that thing?" Dan asked. "I don't know," Amy said. "But I have a feeling we'd better figure it out before eight o'clock."

“哦，这真的很有帮助。是什么让一个人成为卡荷尔家族历史上最强大的人？ 为什么是39条线索？”丹耸耸肩。 “39是个甜蜜的数字。 是13乘以3。 它也是行中5个素数的和- 3 5 7 11 13。 如果你把3的前三个幂加起来，31加32加33，就得到39。” 艾米盯着他。“你怎么知道的？”“你是什么意思？” 很明显。”艾米沮丧地摇了摇头。 丹大多数时候表现得像个傻瓜。 然后他会做一些类似的事情——加上质数或3的幂，这是她从未想过的。 他们的父亲是一名数学教授，丹显然继承了他所有的数字意识。 艾米记电话号码已经够麻烦的了。 她举起麦金太尔先生送给他们的那个奇怪的金属圆筒。 她打开电源，灯发出紫色的光。 “那是什么东西？”丹问道。 “我不知道，”艾米说。“但我有一种感觉，我们最好在八点之前把它弄清楚。”

Amy hated cars almost as much as she hated crowds. She promised herself that when she got older she'd live somewhere where she never had to drive. Part of that was because she'd been in the car with Nellie before. Nellie had rented a Toyota hybrid. She said it was more environmental, which was fine with Amy, but it cost two hundred and fifty-eight dollars a day, and the way Nellie raced around corners and gunned the gas wasn't exactly "green." They were on Interstate 95, heading into downtown, when Amy happened to look behind them. She wasn't sure why—a prickling sensation on her neck like she was being watched. In fact, she was. "We're being followed," she announced. "What?" Dan said. "Five cars back," Amy said. "Gray Mercedes. It's the Starlings." "A Starbucks?" Nellie said excitedly. "Where?" "Starlings," Amy corrected. "Our relatives. Ned, Ted, and Sinead." Nellie snorted. "That's not really their names."

艾米讨厌汽车几乎和讨厌人群一样多。 她向自己保证，长大后要住在一个不用开车的地方。 部分原因是她以前和内莉在车里。 内莉租了一辆丰田混合动力车。 她说这样更环保，这对艾米来说没什么问题，但每天要花258美元，而且内莉在街角急匆匆地跑，加大油门的方式也不完全是“环保”。 他们当时在95号州际公路上，正往市中心开，这时艾米碰巧看到了他们的身后。 她不知道为什么——脖子上有一种刺痛的感觉，好像有人在监视她。 事实上，她是。“有人跟踪我们，”她宣布。 “什么?”丹说。“五辆车后，”艾米说。 “灰色奔驰。是欧椋鸟。” “星巴克?”内莉兴奋地说。 “在哪里?”“八哥，”艾米纠正道。 “我们的亲戚。内德，泰德和辛尼德。” 内莉哼了一声。“那不是他们真正的名字。”