Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25 "Somebody hit the button to go down again!" Amy yelled, forgetting that nobody would want to help her now. "We've got to go rescue Nellie from Eisenhower Holt!" Amy stabbed her fingers uselessly at her cell phone, trying to call Nellie. But the lit-up screen gave her the same message she'd been getting for the whole elevator ride: NO SERVICE. Hamilton seemed to be having the same problem with his phone. He threw it to the floor in disgust. "Yeah! Go down! We've got to go rescue my dad from…" A baffled look came over Hamilton's face as if he'd just realized he couldn't say Eisenhower needed to be rescued from Nellie or the helicopter pilot. Unless he really did believe that Madrigals were the most evil people on the planet. "We've got to go back for the rest of my family!" he said instead.

第25章“有人又按了下去的按钮！”艾米喊道，忘记了现在没有人愿意帮助她。 “我们得去艾森豪威尔霍尔特救内莉！”艾米徒劳地用手指戳着手机，想给内莉打电话。 但是，亮着的屏幕给了她同样的信息，她在整个电梯旅程中都得到了同样的信息：没有服务。 汉密尔顿的手机似乎也有同样的问题。 他厌恶地把它扔在地板上。 “是啊!下去!我们得去把我爸爸从……”汉密尔顿脸上露出困惑的表情，好像他刚刚意识到他不能说艾森豪威尔需要从内莉或直升机飞行员那里被救出来。 除非他真的相信牧歌族是地球上最邪恶的人。 “我们得回去救我的家人！”他反而说。

Alistair was feeling around on the elevator wall. "Yes, yes, of course some of you will want to go back down," he said in an oily voice. "I'll do everything to help you with that, just as soon as I get out here…." He had one foot out the door. "Hmm. I'm not finding a control panel." Hamilton shoved his way out of the elevator and began pounding on the keypad outside. "Down! Down! Down!" he screamed. The elevator didn't budge. "Ham—your family can climb up here on their own," Dan said. "Oh, right," Hamilton said numbly. "Fortunately, that will take a while," Alistair muttered. "And by then…" By then, somebody else will have found the prize, Amy thought. Everybody seemed to be thinking the same thing, a distraction from being outraged about Madrigals. The whole group surged forward. "No! Don't push! I'll fall!" Jonah screamed. "You need me! You need a Janus!"

阿利斯泰尔在电梯墙上摸索着。 “是啊，是啊，你们当中当然有人想回去，”他用油腻腻的声音说。 “我会尽一切努力帮助你的，只要我离开这里....” 他一只脚已经踏出了门。 “嗯。我找不到控制面板。” 汉密尔顿冲出电梯，开始敲打外面的键盘。 “下来!下来!下来！”他尖叫道。 电梯没有动。 “哈姆——你的家人可以自己爬上来，”丹说。 “哦，对了，”汉密尔顿麻木地说。 “幸运的是，这需要一段时间。”阿利斯泰尔喃喃地说。 “到那时……”到那时，别人会找到奖品的，艾米想。 每个人似乎都在想同样的事情，以分散对牧歌的愤怒。 这群人一拥而上。 “不!别碰!我要落!”约拿尖叫。 “你需要我！”你需要一个两面神！”

Amy reached the front of the elevator and saw what he was screaming about: There was only a narrow rock ledge and then a straight drop, all the way down to the cemetery. Amy stepped out of the elevator and immediately moved to the side, clutching the rock wall. "Amy?" Dan said quietly beside her. Amy braced herself for him to make fun of her fear of heights. But when she turned, Dan looked just as white-faced and terrified as she felt. "Maybe we should… hang on to each other," he whispered. Their mind-meld was working again. Amy could tell Dan had been thinking the same thing as her: What if the others hate Madrigals so much that they decide to throw us off the cliff? But Dan's thought had a second part to it: They needed someone from every branch— even the Madrigals— to get the elevator to work. They might need a Madrigal again. But they only need one of us. So… we have to stick together to be safe. Amy grabbed her brother. She turned and saw

艾米走到电梯前面，看到了他尖叫的原因：只有一个狭窄的岩壁，然后是一个直线下降，一直下降到墓地。 艾米走出电梯，立刻走到电梯的一边，紧紧抓住岩壁。 “艾米?”丹在她身边轻声说。 艾米鼓起勇气，等着他拿她恐高开玩笑。 但当她转过身来，丹的脸色和她一样苍白，一样害怕。 “也许我们应该……紧紧抓住对方。”他低声说。 他们的思想融合又开始起作用了。 艾米看得出丹和她的想法一样：如果其他人太讨厌牧歌了，以至于决定把我们扔下悬崖怎么办？ 但丹的想法还有第二部分：他们需要每个分部的人——甚至牧歌队——来让电梯工作。 他们可能又需要一首牧歌了。 但他们只需要我们中的一个。 所以，为了安全，我们必须团结在一起。 艾米抓住了她的弟弟。她转过身来，看见

that Ian and Natalie were clinging to each other just as desperately. Same reason, she thought. We only need one Lucian, too. Alistair was watching Jonah thoughtfully. "Need a Janus," he murmured. "Perhaps…" He turned toward the keypad beside Hamilton. "Perhaps someone from each of the five branches should touch this at the same time. What would happen then?" Nobody answered him. But suddenly everyone was pushing and shoving again, each person fighting to get to the keypad. "Come on! Now let's jump back into the elevator!" Dan yelled, tugging on Amy's arm as soon as he'd touched the keypad. We'll go down, Amy thought. Not back to the cemetery, but to some other level— where the prize is… Amy tripped over Jonah's feet; Dan tumbled on top of Natalie. Alistair was the last one to climb in. He probably planned that, Amy thought. So

伊恩和娜塔莉也同样拼命地粘在一起。 同样的原因，她想。我们只需要一个卢西恩。 阿利斯泰尔若有所思地看着乔纳。 “需要一个雅努斯。”他喃喃地说。 “也许……”他转向汉密尔顿身旁的键盘。 “也许五个分支中的每个分支都应该有人同时触摸它。 然后会发生什么？”没有人回答他。 但突然间，大家又开始推推搡搡，每个人都争先恐后地想要进入键盘。 “来吧!现在我们跳回电梯吧！”丹喊道，一碰到键盘就拉着艾米的胳膊。 我们下去吧，艾米想。 不是回到墓地，而是回到另一个层面——奖品所在的地方……艾米被约拿的脚绊倒了；丹倒在娜塔莉身上。 阿利斯泰尔是最后一个爬进去的。 这可能是他计划好的，艾米想。 所以

he'll be the first one out. The first one to get the prize. But the elevator didn't move. "Perhaps my hypothesis was wrong," Alistair said. Just then there was a whirring sound at the back of the elevator. Amy spun around to look: The entire back wall had vanished.

他会是第一个出来的。 第一个得奖的人。 但是电梯没有动。 “也许我的假设错了，”阿利斯泰尔说。 就在这时，电梯后面传来了一阵呼呼的声音。 艾米转过身去看，整个后墙都不见了。