Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27 "Stop it! Who's doing that?" Jonah screamed as pebbles rained down on him. "I'll have you know —this face is insured!" He automatically looked around for a bodyguard to protect him, but Jonah had left all his bodyguards behind when he'd sneaked off without telling his parents. When he'd decided to be true to his own self. Jonah imagined his mother there, taunting him, And you thought you could win this on your own? Ian and Natalie dropped to the stairs together when the first stone hit. "It can't be her. It can't be her," Natalie chanted. "Please tell me it's not her." "Of course not," Ian said. "That would be impossible." He glanced at his watch. "We've still got time."

第二十七章“住手！这是谁干的？”约拿尖叫起来，鹅卵石像雨点一样落在他身上。 “我告诉你——这张脸上了保险！”他不由自主地环顾四周，寻找一个保镖来保护他，但乔纳在没有告诉父母的情况下偷偷溜走时，把所有的保镖都抛在了身后。 当他决定忠于自己的时候。 约拿想象着他母亲在那里嘲笑他，你以为你能凭一己之力赢得这场比赛？ 第一块石头砸到的时候，伊恩和娜塔莉一起摔到了楼梯上。 “不可能是她。不可能是她，”娜塔莉高呼。 “请告诉我那不是她。” “当然不是，”伊恩说。 “那是不可能的。” 他看了看表。“我们还有时间。”

Another stone clattered past them. "It's just one of the riffraff, right?" Natalie asked anxiously. "Absolutely," Ian agreed. He'd never realized what a lovely word riffraff was. The riffraff were beneath his notice. They didn't matter. They couldn't hurt him because he was superior to the riffraff of the world in every way. But what if the riffraff beat Natalie and him to the prize? Dan swung his flashlight around as soon as he heard Jonah and the Kabras screaming behind him. Stones were falling from the ledge high above, where the elevator was. Dan didn't care about stones. He was more interested in the dark figure that had dislodged the stones— a figure now swinging on a rope, past the staircase. "No! No! He— she— whoever— they're getting ahead of us!" Dan screamed. The black figure made a perfect arc and landed

又一块石头从他们身边走过。 “这只是一群乌合之众，对吧？”娜塔莉焦急地问。 “当然，”伊恩同意道。他从来没有意识到“痞子”是一个多么可爱的词。 那些乌合之众不值得他注意。 他们不重要。他们伤害不了他，因为他在各方面都比这个世界上的乌合之众优越。 但如果那群乌合之众抢在他和娜塔莉之前呢？ 丹一听到约拿和卡布拉兄弟在他身后尖叫，就把手电筒转了一圈。 石头从高处的窗台上掉下来，电梯就在那里。 丹不关心石头。 他更感兴趣的是那个移开石头的黑影——那个人影正吊在一根绳子上，从楼梯那边荡来荡去。 “不!不!他——她——不管是谁——他们走在我们前面了！”丹尖叫。 那个黑影划了一个完美的弧线，落在地上

at the bottom of the spiral staircase, only a few paces from a door. Then the figure turned and raced toward it. "No!" Dan screamed. "We! Can't! Lose!" Hamilton blinked, confused. Why hadn't he thought of tying a rope somewhere and swinging down past the spiral staircase? I couldn't see where the bottom of the staircase was, he thought. It was too dark. He noticed that the figure by the door was wearing the same kind of night-vision goggles that soldiers used. He felt a burst of pride that someone in his family, someone on his team— Reagan? Madison? His mom?— had been so prepared. "Hold on! I'm coming with you!" Hamilton hollered. "I'm on your team!" He shoved past Alistair, who was still looking back. Ian, Natalie, and Jonah were easy to jump past, since they were crouched down on the stairs. "I'm coming, too!" Dan screamed.

在螺旋形楼梯的底部，离一扇门只有几步远。 然后那个人影转身朝它跑去。 “不!”丹尖叫。“我们!不能!失去!”汉密尔顿眨了眨眼睛，迷惑不解。 为什么他没有想到在什么地方系一根绳子，从螺旋形楼梯上荡下来呢？ 我看不见楼梯的底部在哪里，他想。 天太黑了。他注意到门边的人戴着和士兵们使用的一样的夜视镜。 他感到一阵自豪，因为他的家人，他的团队中的某个人——里根？ 麦迪逊呢?他的妈妈吗?——是这样准备的。 “等一下!我跟你一起去！”汉密尔顿大声喊道。 “我是你们队的！”他从仍在回头看他的阿利斯泰尔身边挤了过去。 伊恩、娜塔莉和约拿很容易跳过，因为他们蹲在楼梯上。 “我也来了！”丹尖叫。

"Not while there are stones falling," Hamilton said, leaping past both Cahill kids. Hamilton didn't stop to think if he was protecting Dan or just delaying him. Five huge steps later, Hamilton was close enough to grab the dark figure's arm. "Reagan? Madison?" he asked. "Wait! It's me! Where are the others?" Hamilton had probably grabbed his sisters' arms a thousand times apiece during their childhood, even if you only counted games where he held them down until they promised to do what he wanted. As he squeezed his hand tighter and tighter around the dark figure's arm, he thought, Not enough muscle to be Reagan or Madison. Then he thought, Or Mom. Or certainly not Dad. This arm was scrawny. And— scarred. "You're not a Holt!" Hamilton accused. "Sure, I am!" the figure whispered. "Hammy, uh… bro! Let go! I'll run ahead. You hold off the others." She was trying to pull away. Hamilton tightened his grip.

“有石头要掉下来，”汉密尔顿说着，从卡希尔家的两个孩子身边跳过去。 汉密尔顿没有停下来想一想，他是在保护丹，还是只是在拖延他。 迈了五大步后，汉密尔顿走得足够近，抓住了黑影的手臂。 “里根?麦迪逊？”他问道。 “等等!是我!其他人呢？”在他的姐妹们的童年时代，汉密尔顿大概每一个人都抓过她们一千次胳膊，即使你只把那些他把她们摁住直到她们答应听他的话的游戏算进去。 当他的手越来越紧地抓住那个黑影的手臂时，他想，没有足够的肌肉成为里根或麦迪逊。 然后他想，或者是妈妈。当然也不是爸爸。 这只胳膊骨瘦如柴。,伤痕累累。 “你不是霍尔特家的人！”汉密尔顿指责。 “当然，我是！”那个身影低声说。 “哈米，呃……兄弟！”放开!我跑在前面。 你拖住其他人。”她试图挣脱。 汉密尔顿握紧了他的手。

"No, you're not. You're— you're—" In his mind, Hamilton ran through the hundreds of scrawny arms he'd grabbed over the years, mostly belonging to little kids back home in Wisconsin who'd proved to be incredibly eager to give him their lunch money. Somehow, he didn't like thinking about that now. He narrowed his mental search to scrawny arms he'd grabbed during the Clue hunt. At the Globe Theatre, the ninja in breeches… "You're Sinead Starling!" Suddenly, Hamilton understood why he could feel scars through the girl's sleeve. She really did get hurt in that Franklin Institute explosion, Hamilton thought guiltily. The one my family caused… His grip on Sinead's arm faltered.

“不，你不是。你是——你是——”在汉密尔顿的脑海里，这些年来，他抓住了数百条骨瘦如柴的手臂，其中大部分是威斯康辛州的孩子们，事实证明，他们非常渴望把午餐钱给他。 不知怎的，他现在不喜欢去想这件事。 他把脑子里的搜索范围缩小到他在寻找线索时抓住的瘦骨嶙峋的手臂上。 在环球剧院，穿马裤的忍者…“你是西妮德·史达琳！”突然，汉密尔顿明白了为什么他能从女孩的袖子里感觉到伤疤。 她确实在富兰克林学院的爆炸中受伤了，汉密尔顿内疚地想。 是我的家人造成的……他抓着西妮德的胳膊发抖了。