Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11 Sinead Starling crouched out of sight in a pew at Holy Trinity Church. She and Alistair were the advance scouting team. Her brothers were on guard duty outside. At least, that's what she'd told Alistair the boys would do. He can't tell, can he? she wondered. He hasn't noticed that my brothers are… There were certain words that Sinead didn't let herself think. She hugged her arms around her torso. Even through her sweatshirt, she could feel the ridges of scar tissue that crisscrossed her rib cage— just one of her souvenirs from the explosion at the Franklin Institute. She shivered, the horrible memories crashing down on her yet again: The flash of light, the rumble of what seemed to be the whole world falling in on her and her brothers… the pain… the screaming. How many times did she shout her brothers' names before

第十一章西尼德·史达琳蹲在圣三一教堂的长椅上。 她和阿利斯泰尔是先遣侦察队。 她的哥哥们在外面站岗。 至少，她告诉阿利斯泰尔孩子们会这么做。 他看不出来，对吧？她想知道。 他没注意到我的兄弟们…有些话西妮德没让自己去想。 她用双臂抱住自己的躯干。 即使透过她的运动衫，她也能感觉到胸腔上纵横交错的疤痕组织——这只是她从富兰克林研究所爆炸中留下的纪念品之一。 她打了个寒颤，可怕的记忆又一次向她袭来：一道闪光，仿佛整个世界都砸向她和她的兄弟们的轰鸣声……痛苦……尖叫声。 她以前喊过几次她哥哥的名字

anyone answered? How many times did Sinead beg, "Save them! Please save them!" Sinead gritted her teeth and tried to shut down the flow of memories. We just have to win, she reminded herself. No matter what. That's the only thing we can think about. She and her brother had already had two lucky breaks, getting mysterious tips about the Globe yesterday and the church today. Not that Sinead had exactly told Alistair she was getting help with her brilliant deductions. "Psst." Alistair's whisper came through the tiny communications device hidden in Sinead's headband. Sinead might not trust Alistair, but this was one point in his favor: He loved gadgets as much as Sinead and her brothers did. Or as much as they always had. "I'm in," Sinead whispered back. "Nothing to report yet." Not that she intended to report anything truly worthwhile to Alistair. "I think we can call your brothers off guard

有人回答吗?辛尼德求过多少次：“救救他们！请救救他们！”西尼德咬紧牙关，试图阻止记忆的流动。 我们一定要赢，她提醒自己。 无论如何。这是我们唯一能想到的。 她和她哥哥已经有了两次幸运的机会，昨天得到了关于《环球报》的神秘消息，今天得到了关于教堂的消息。 西尼德并没有告诉阿利斯泰尔，她的出色推理得到了帮助。 “嘘。”阿利斯泰尔的耳语通过藏在西妮德发带里的微型通讯设备传来。 辛尼德可能不信任阿利斯泰尔，但有一点对他有利：他和辛尼德和她的兄弟们一样喜欢小玩意。 或者和以前一样多。 “我加入，”西尼德小声回答。 “还没有什么可报告的。”她并不打算向阿利斯泰尔报告什么真正有价值的东西。 “我想我们可以让你的兄弟们放松警惕

duty," Alistair whispered from his position on the other side of the church. "It appears we are latecomers to this party." "What? What's that mean?" Sinead hissed. She raised her head so fast she cracked it against the side of the pew. Oh, Sinead realized, the pain in her head growing. He means that the other clue-hunting teams are already here. A cluster of Holts was striding down the aisle near the front of the church in what looked to be a military formation. Jonah Wizard was skulking along the wall, running his fingers over the stones. And two of those nasty Kabras, Natalie and Ian, were closing in on Alistair. Trapping him in the corner. We're Ekats, you're an Ekat…. It's really like we're on the same team, Sinead had said to Alistair only yesterday when she was trying to get him to tell his secrets. Had he believed her? Would he expect her to come to his assistance now?

阿利斯泰尔在教堂另一边小声说道。 “看来我们是这个派对的后来者。” “什么?这是什么意思？”辛妮发出嘘嘘的声音。 她猛地抬起头，头撞在了长凳的边上。 哦，西妮德意识到，她的头越来越痛。 他的意思是其他线索搜寻小组已经来了。 一群霍尔特人沿着教堂前面的过道大步走着，看起来像是一个军事编队。 巫师约拿沿着墙偷偷摸摸地走着，手指在石头上摸索着。 两个讨厌的卡布拉，娜塔莉和伊恩，正在逼近阿利斯泰尔。 把他困在角落里。 我们是Ekat，你是Ekat.... 就在昨天，当西尼德试图让阿利斯泰尔说出自己的秘密时，她还对他说，我们真的是一条战线上的人。 他相信她了吗？他会指望她现在来帮助他吗？

Sinead started to stand up— she really did. But the memory of the Franklin Institute explosion hovered at the edge of her mind. Sinead still didn't know which of the other Clue-hunting teams had caused it. What if it had been the Kabras? Ian was reaching into his pocket. For a gun? Sinead wondered. Or something worse— a hand grenade? A detonator? Sinead's flashback was starting again. If there was another explosion, could Sinead get out to her brothers in time to make sure they were safe? Ian pulled out… a piece of paper. "How many clues do you have, Uncle Alistair?" he asked in an ingratiating voice as he glanced down at the paper. "Just confidentially, you can tell me. Brag. Tell me how much smarter you Ekats are than we Lucians." He gave Alistair a smile that was probably meant to be charming. Sinead thought it looked desperate. Desperation was something she understood. "Appealing to my vanity, are you?" Alistair

西尼德开始站起来——她真的站起来了。 但富兰克林研究所爆炸的记忆仍萦绕在她的心头。 辛尼德仍然不知道是哪支寻找线索的队伍造成的。 如果是卡布拉家族呢？ 伊恩把手伸进口袋。 为了一把枪？辛妮很好奇。 或者更糟的——手榴弹？ 雷管吗?辛尼德的闪回又开始了。 如果又发生了爆炸，辛尼德能及时赶到她的哥哥们身边，确保他们的安全吗？ 伊恩拿出一张纸。 “你有多少线索，阿利斯泰尔叔叔？”他低头看了一眼报纸，用讨好的语气问道。 “你可以秘密地告诉我。 吹牛。告诉我你们猫比我们卢西亚人聪明多少。” 他对阿利斯泰尔笑了笑，这可能是有意的。 西尼德觉得这看起来很绝望。 绝望是她能理解的。 “迎合我的虚荣心，是吗？”阿利斯泰尔

asked. "Please. Give me credit for being smarter than that." "You have fourteen clues, don't you?" Natalie asked. "Fifteen, if you count the clue the Starlings stole from Bae Oh and shared with you. And six of them are clues that no one but Ekats have. Right?" Alistair blinked. Uncle Alistair! Sinead thought. Can't you fake them out any better than that? You just confirmed everything! "No!" Alistair said, a bit too emphatically. "You're wrong!" Ian scribbled something on his piece of paper. Quickly, Sinead popped a contact into her eye— one of the telescopic-vision contacts she and her brothers had designed. She focused as quickly as she could on the paper in Ian's hand. It was a welter of initials and numbers and question marks. Most people wouldn't have been able to make heads or tails of it. But Sinead had always been good with numbers. She zeroed in on the column where Ian had written the numeral 6. She added

问。“请。请相信我比你更聪明。” “你有14条线索，是吗？”娜塔莉问道。 “十五个，如果算上欧椋鸟从裴欧那里偷来并分享给你的线索的话。 其中六个是只有埃卡特才有的线索。 对吗?”Alistair眨了眨眼睛。Alistair叔叔!辛妮的想法。 你就不能把他们伪装得更好吗？ 你刚刚证实了一切！“不!”阿利斯泰尔说，语气有点过于强调了。 “你错了!”伊恩在他的纸上潦草地写了些什么。 很快，Sinead把一个隐形眼镜塞进了她的眼睛——这是她和她的兄弟们设计的一种望远镜视力隐形眼镜。 她尽可能快地把注意力集中在伊恩手里的那张纸上。 那是一堆首字母、数字和问号。 大多数人都不能理解它的意思。 但西尼德一直对数字很在行。 她把注意力集中在伊恩写数字6的那一栏上。 她补充说

numbers in her head and double-checked twice. All three times she came up with the same number: thirty-eight. And she knew what it meant: Ian Kabra thought that the Clue-hunting teams all together had found thirty-eight Clues. We're even further behind than I thought, Sinead realized, despair sweeping over her. There's only one clue left. The scars on her torso ached. Her head throbbed. She popped out the telescopic contact and peeked out the door behind her, catching a glimpse of her brothers huddled behind a tombstone in the church cemetery. I don't care what we have to do, Sinead thought. Lie, cheat, steal, betray every relative we have… We Starlings have to get that last clue. Hamilton patrolled the front section of the church while his mother and sisters peered down at Shakespeare's tombstone. It was inside rather than out in the cemetery— part of the floor, really, in a roped-off section not far from the altar. Hamilton saw Ian and Natalie Kabra edging too

她脑子里的数字，仔细检查了两遍。 她三次都得出了同样的数字：38。 她知道这是什么意思：伊恩·卡布拉认为寻找线索的队伍总共找到了38条线索。 我们比我想象的还要落后，辛尼德意识到，绝望席卷了她。 只剩一条线索了。 她躯干上的伤疤疼痛。 她的头隐隐作痛。她从望远镜里探出来，从她身后的门往外偷看，瞥见她的兄弟们蜷缩在教堂墓地的一块墓碑后面。 我不管我们要做什么，西妮德想。 撒谎，欺骗，偷窃，背叛我们所有的亲人…我们星人必须找到最后的线索。 汉密尔顿在教堂的前厅巡逻，他的母亲和姐妹们低头凝视着莎士比亚的墓碑。 它是在墓地的里面而不是外面——实际上是地板的一部分，在离祭坛不远的一个用绳子围起来的地方。 汉密尔顿看到伊恩和纳塔利·卡布拉也被淘汰出局