Chapter 9

Chapter 9 Dan decided that explosions were cool, but not if you were in one. The whole way to Independence Hall, Amy cradled Saladin's cat carrier like it was her life preserver. Nellie yelled at them for being so reckless. Dan's hearing was so messed up she sounded like she was talking from the bottom of a fish tank. "I can't believe this!" Nellie said. "A real bomb? I thought you were joking!" Amy wiped her eyes. "The Starlings … they just—" "Maybe they're okay," Dan said, but it sounded lame even to him. They hadn't stuck around for the police to arrive. They'd been so freaked out they'd simply fled, so Dan had no idea

丹认为爆炸很酷，但如果你身处其中就不一样了。 在去独立厅的路上，艾米一直抱着萨拉丁的猫笼，就像它是她的救生圈一样。 内莉对他们大吼大叫，说他们太鲁莽了。 丹的听力很差，听起来就像在鱼缸底说话一样。 “我简直不敢相信！”内莉说。 “真的炸弹？”我还以为你在开玩笑呢！”艾米擦了擦眼睛。 “也许他们还行，”丹说，但连他自己都觉得这句话很蹩脚。 他们没有等到警察到来。 他们吓坏了，直接逃走了，所以丹不知道

what had happened to the triplets. He didn't figure it was a good sign that they'd found Sinead's phone next to a whole section of collapsed roof. Nellie yanked the wheel and they turned onto Sixth Street. "You guys, this is serious. Somebody tried to kill you. I can't babysit you if—" "Au pair us," Dan corrected. "— whatever!" She pulled the car in front of Independence Hall. The sun was going down, and in the evening light, the place looked exactly like it did in school videos — a two-story brick building with a big white clock tower, surrounded by trees and flower beds. A statue of some Revolutionary dude stood out front. The hall didn't look all that impressive compared to the huge modern buildings around it, but back in the day, Dan guessed it was probably the biggest place in town. He could imagine Franklin and all his friends with powdered wigs and three-cornered hats gathering on the steps to talk about the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution, or maybe Ben's latest proposal for studying farts. The whole scene made Dan

三胞胎怎么了？ 他不认为这是一个好兆头，他们在一整个倒塌的屋顶旁边找到了西尼德的手机。 内莉猛拉方向盘，他们转到第六街。 “伙计们，这是严肃的。 有人想杀你。 我不能照顾你，如果——”“让我们做互惠生，”丹纠正道。 “——不管!”她把车停在独立厅前。 太阳下山了，在暮色中，这个地方看起来和学校视频里的一模一样——一栋两层的砖砌建筑，有一座白色的大钟楼，周围是树木和花坛。 前面立着一个革命党人的雕像。 与周围巨大的现代建筑相比，这个大厅看起来并不那么令人印象深刻，但在当时，丹猜它可能是镇上最大的地方。 他可以想象富兰克林和他所有戴着粉假发、戴着三角帽的朋友们聚集在台阶上，谈论《独立宣言》或《宪法》，或者本关于研究屁的最新建议。 整个场面使丹

think of American history tests, which were almost as scary as exploding museums. "Look, guys," Nellie said. "The deal's off. Whatever you've gotten yourselves into — this is way too dangerous for a couple of kids. I'm going to take you back to your aunt." "No!" Dan said. "Nellie, you can't. She'll—" He stopped himself, but Nellie's blue-glitter-shaded eyes narrowed. "She'll what?" Dan glanced at Amy, hoping for help, but she was still in shock, just staring out the window. "Nothing," Dan said. "Nellie, this is important. Please. Just wait for us." Nellie fumed. "I've got, like, six more songs on my playlist, okay? If you're not back in the car when the last song is over, and ready to explain things to me honestly, I am so calling Beatrice." "You got it!" Dan promised. He tried to push Amy out of the car, but she must've still been in shock, because she held on to Saladin's cat carrier. "What are you doing?" Dan asked. "Leave him here." "No." Amy fumbled to cover the carrier with a blanket. "We need to take him."

想想美国的历史考试，它几乎和炸毁博物馆一样可怕。 “看，伙计们，”内莉说。 “交易取消了。不管你们把自己卷进了什么——这对两个孩子来说太危险了。 我要带你回到你姨妈那里去。” “不!”丹说。“耐莉，你不能。 她会——"他停了下来，可是耐莉那双闪着蓝色亮光的眼睛眯了起来。 “她会什么?”丹瞥了艾米一眼，希望得到帮助，但她仍然很震惊，只是盯着窗外。 “没什么，”丹说。“内莉，这很重要。 请。等着我们。” 内莉却无可奈何。“我的播放列表里还有六首歌，好吗？” 如果我唱完最后一首歌，你还没回到车里，准备好向我坦白交代，我就打电话给比阿特丽斯。” “你说对了！”丹承诺。 他试图把艾米推出车外，但她一定还在震惊之中，因为她抓住了萨拉丁的猫托。 “你在干什么？”丹问道。 “把他留在这儿。”“没有。”艾米笨手笨脚地用毯子盖住箱子。 “我们得把他带走。”

Dan didn't know why, but he decided not to argue. They hurried along the sidewalk. They were halfway up the steps of Independence Hall when Dan realized the place was closed for the night. "How do we get in?" "Children!" a voice called. "Over here!" William McIntyre was leaning against the building, half hidden behind a rosebush. Amy ran over and gave the old lawyer a hug, which seemed to embarrass him. He had a bandage on his left hand and a cut below his right eye, but other than that he looked pretty good for a guy who'd just gotten out of the hospital. "I'm glad you're safe," he said. "I heard about the Franklin Institute on the news. I assume you were there?" "It was horrible," Amy said. She told him everything — from the secret library in Grace's mansion right up to the man in black in the museum and the Starling triplets going ka-boom. Mr. McIntyre frowned. "I called Jefferson University Hospital. The Starlings will survive, but they're in bad shape. They'll be recovering for months, which puts them out of the race

丹不知道为什么，但他决定不争论了。 他们沿着人行道匆匆而行。 当他们走上独立厅的台阶时，丹意识到这个地方已经关门了。 “我们怎么进去？”“孩子们！”一个声音喊道。 “在这里!”威廉·麦金太尔倚着房子，半掩在一丛玫瑰后面。 艾米跑过去给了老律师一个拥抱，这似乎让他很尴尬。 他的左手上缠着绷带，右眼下方有一道伤口，但对于一个刚出院的人来说，除此之外，他看起来还不错。 “我很高兴你平安无事，”他说。 “我在新闻上听说了富兰克林研究所。 我想你在那儿吧？”“太可怕了，”艾米说。 她把一切都告诉了他，从格蕾丝豪宅里的秘密图书馆到博物馆里的黑衣人，再到星城三胞胎的爆炸。 麦金太尔先生皱起了眉头。“我打电话给杰斐逊大学医院。 欧椋鸟会活下来，但它们的情况很糟糕。 他们需要几个月的恢复期，这让他们出局了

permanently, I fear." "It was the man in black," Dan said. "He set that trap for us." Mr. Mclntyre's eye twitched. He took off his spectacles and polished them with his tie, his nose casting a shadow across the side of his face. "This explosion … from your description, I'd say it was a sonic detonator. Very sophisticated, designed to stun and cause only localized damage. Someone knew what they were doing." "How do you know so much about explosives?" Dan asked. The old man focused on him, and Dan got the sudden feeling he hadn't always been a lawyer. He'd seen things in his life — dangerous things. "Dan, you must be careful. This explosion was almost the end of the race for you. I had hoped to stay out of the competition. I must not be seen as partial to any one team. But when your grandmother's mansion burned down … well, I realized just how much of a predicament I'd put you in." "That's why you sent us the black light reader?"

恐怕是永久的了。”“是那个穿黑衣服的人，”丹说。 “他给我们设了那个陷阱。” 麦克林泰尔先生的眼睛抽动了一下。 他摘下眼镜，用领带擦了擦，鼻子在脸的一侧投下了一道阴影。 “这次爆炸……根据你的描述，我认为是声波雷管。 非常复杂，设计用来打晕并且只造成局部伤害。 有人知道他们在做什么。” “你怎么知道这么多爆炸物？”丹问道。 老人把注意力集中在他身上，丹突然觉得他并非一直都是律师。 他这辈子见过很多危险的事。 “丹，你一定要小心。 这次爆炸几乎是你比赛的终点。 我本来希望置身于竞争之外。 我不能让人觉得我偏袒任何一支球队。 但是当你祖母的豪宅被烧毁的时候……嗯，我才意识到我给你带来了多大的困境。” “所以你才送我们黑光阅读器？”

Mr. McIntyre nodded. "I'm concerned by how much the other teams are targeting you. They seem determined to put you out of commission." "But they failed!" Dan said. "We got the second clue. Nobody else has it, right?" "Dan, what you found is merely a lead to the second clue. Make no mistake, it is a good lead, and I'm glad the black light reader was useful. But it is by no means the only lead. Other teams may find different paths toward the next clue. Or, if they believe you have useful information, they can simply follow you, as the Starlings tried to do, and take the information from you." Dan felt like kicking the wall. Every time they got a break, something bad happened, or it turned out they weren't nearly as close to the next clue as he'd thought. "So how do we know when we find the actual second clue? Is it going to have a big sign on it — CLUE TWO?" "You will know," Mr. McIntyre said. "It will be more … substantial. An essential piece of the puzzle." "Great," Dan grumbled. "That clears it up." "What if Nellie's right?" Amy's voice quavered.

麦金太尔点点头。“我担心的是其他球队对你的关注程度。 他们似乎下定决心要把你撤职。” “但是他们失败了！”丹说。 “我们得到了第二条线索。没有其他人拥有它，对吧？”"丹，你发现的只是第二条线索的线索。 毫无疑问，这是一个很好的线索，我很高兴黑光阅读器有用。 但这绝不是唯一的线索。 其他团队可能会找到通往下一个线索的不同路径。 或者，如果它们相信你有有用的信息，它们可以简单地跟着你，就像椋鸟试图做的那样，从你那里获取信息。” 丹想踢墙。 每次他们得到休息，就会发生不好的事情，或者他们离下一个线索远不如他想象的那么近。 “那么我们怎么知道什么时候找到了真正的第二条线索呢？” 它会不会有一个很大的标志——线索二？”“你会知道的，”麦金太尔说。 “它将更加……实质性。 这是拼图的重要组成部分。” “太好了，”丹抱怨道。“这就清楚了。” “如果内莉是对的呢？”艾米的声音颤抖着。