Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 Hamilton Holt dropped the boy—er, girl— he'd just unmasked. Hamilton was quick on his feet. Put a football or a hockey stick in his hands, and people started using words like nimble and fleet- footed to describe him. In the Clue hunt, he'd discovered that, under pressure, his brain could be pretty nimble and quick, too. This wasn't one of those times. Right now his eyes and ears were telling him that the kid he'd just dropped was his distant cousin Sinead Starling. But his brain couldn't catch up. "No!" he protested. "You Starlings—you've been out of the race since Philadelphia. The second day. That explosion at the Franklin Institute… you were going to have to be in the hospital for ages!" Hamilton felt a twinge of guilt—the Holts had

第六章汉密尔顿霍尔特把那个男孩——呃，女孩——他刚刚揭开了面具。 汉密尔顿的脚步很快。 如果他手里拿着足球或曲棍球棒，人们就开始用“敏捷”和“机警”这样的词来形容他。 在寻找线索的过程中，他发现，在压力下，他的大脑也可以变得相当灵活和迅速。 这不是那种时候。 现在，他的眼睛和耳朵告诉他，他刚刚扔下的那个孩子是他的远房表妹西妮德·斯塔林。 但他的大脑跟不上。 “不！”他抗议道。“你们斯塔林家的人——你们自从费城选举以来就已经出局了。 第二天。富兰克林研究所的那次爆炸……你得在医院里住很长时间！”汉密尔顿感到一阵内疚感——霍尔特一家也是

been the ones who'd set off the Franklin Institute explosion. Hamilton's own family had caused the Starling triplets' injuries. But only by accident. Because we were trying to hurt Amy and Dan instead, Hamilton thought bitterly. He shook his head, trying to clear it. Nobody knows, he told himself. Nobody knows it was us. Sinead was sneering up at him. "We're geniuses, remember?" she said. "Ted and Ned and I, lying in our hospital beds, we figured out new medical procedures to speed healing. And"— she smirked— "we read up on the clues, so we totally caught up in the clue hunt. I'd say we're probably even ahead. Wouldn't you, Ted?" Hamilton was still having trouble accepting that Sinead had been the ninja in breeches. He squinted at the other two ninjas, who still had on dark masks. "Ted and Ned are the dudes in dresses?" he asked. "I don't get it." "You Neanderthal brain," Sinead said, rolling her eyes. "Hello? It's a disguise and an homage.

就是引爆富兰克林研究所爆炸案的人 汉米尔顿自己的家庭造成了星城三胞胎的伤害。 但这只是偶然。因为我们反而想伤害艾米和丹，汉密尔顿痛苦地想。 他摇了摇头，试图理清思路。 没人知道，他告诉自己。 没人知道是我们干的。西尼德朝他冷笑起来。 “我们是天才，记得吗？”她说。 “泰德、内德和我躺在病床上，我们想出了新的医疗程序来加速康复。 她得意地笑着说，“我们仔细研究了线索，所以我们完全沉浸在寻找线索的过程中。 我得说，我们甚至可能领先。 你不会吗，泰德？”汉密尔顿仍然难以接受西尼德就是那个穿马裤的忍者。 他眯着眼睛看了看另外两个还戴着黑色面具的忍者。 “泰德和内德是穿裙子的那两个吗？”他问。 “我不明白。”“你这个穴居人的脑袋，”西尼德翻着白眼说。 “喂?这是一种伪装和敬意。

Obviously you don't know Shakespeare." Hamilton didn't. But the Clue hunt had taught him a lot about danger, and he could feel it around him now. If he stood here listening to Sinead, Jonah would be back up onstage, attacking again. Or Isabel would start carrying out some diabolical plan. Or… Or Dan would be carried away. That was already happening. Even as she talked, Sinead had given some signal to her brothers, and they were carrying Dan toward the balcony. "Help!" Dan screamed. "Amy! Hamilton! Somebody!" "I'm on it!" Hamilton yelled, running after them. Amy was right behind him. Romeo blocked their path. "Begone!" the actor demanded. "Get thee off our stage! Let us finish our play, meet our intended fates…." Eisenhower Holt slammed into Romeo like a tank. "Your fate just changed, dude," Hamilton

显然你不了解莎士比亚。” 汉密尔顿没有。但是寻找线索教会了他很多关于危险的东西，他现在可以感觉到危险就在他身边。 如果乔纳站在这里听西尼德的歌，他就会回到舞台上，再次发起攻击。 不然伊莎贝尔就会实施什么邪恶的计划。 不然丹就会失去理智 这已经发生了。 就在她说话的时候，西妮德已经给她的哥哥们发了个信号，他们正把丹抬到阳台上。 “救命!”丹尖叫。“艾米!汉密尔顿!有人!”“我这就去！”汉密尔顿喊着，跟在他们后面跑。 艾米就在他后面。罗密欧挡住了他们的去路。 “走开！”演员要求道。 “滚下我们的舞台！”让我们完成我们的游戏，迎接我们的命运....” 艾森豪威尔·霍尔特像坦克一样撞上了罗密欧。 “你的命运改变了，老兄，”汉密尔顿说

muttered. Eisenhower took Romeo by the collar and hurled him toward the edge of the stage, where Isabel, Alistair, and Jonah were trying to climb back up. It was like watching an expert bowler pick up a nearly impossible split: As Romeo fell off the stage, he knocked all three Clue hunters back into the crowd. "Romeo!" Juliet shrieked. She jumped after him. The panicked crowd screamed louder. "Focus, Holts!" Eisenhower hollered like a coach at a halftime huddle. "No distractions! Don't think about anything but the clue hunt!" Hamilton raced after Dan. The Starling boys had tied him to the balcony, several feet above the stage. Now they were reaching for the paper in Dan's hand. Dan was doing his best to keep it away from them, even as he squirmed and fought against the ropes. Amy had managed to dodge Romeo and Eisenhower and reach the balcony ahead of Hamilton. She tugged on one of the Starling boys'

嘟囔着。艾森豪威尔抓住罗密欧的衣领，把他扔到舞台边缘，伊莎贝尔、阿利斯泰尔和乔纳正试图爬上去。 这就像看一个专业的投球手捡起一个几乎不可能的分裂：当罗密欧从舞台上掉下来时，他把所有三个线索猎人都撞回了人群。 “罗密欧!”朱丽叶尖叫起来。她跟着他跳了起来。 惊慌失措的人群尖叫得更大声了。 “焦点,霍尔特嗤之以鼻!”艾森豪威尔像教练一样在中场休息时大喊大叫。 “不分心!什么都别想，只想着寻找线索！”汉密尔顿追赶丹。 星城的男孩们把他绑在离舞台几英尺高的阳台上。 现在他们伸手去拿丹手里的那张纸。 丹尽他最大的努力让它远离他们，尽管他扭动着身体，与绳子搏斗。 艾米设法躲过了罗密欧和艾森豪威尔，在汉密尔顿之前到达了阳台。 她拽着一个星城男孩

arms, but he just flicked her away. "Pathetic," Sinead murmured behind Hamilton. "Who let those mouth breathers stay in the clue hunt so long? It's a good thing we Starlings are back because the rest of you are losers!" Eisenhower Holt's words still echoed in Hamilton's mind: No distractions! Don't think about anything but the clue hunt! Really, Hamilton only needed to grab Dan's paper and take off. But Hamilton was already distracted. He couldn't help seeing the pain and fear on Amy's and Dan's faces— and the hope that showed up any time either of them glanced toward Hamilton. Hamilton strode toward Ned and Ted and slammed their heads together. Then he slid one of the boys across the stage toward Sinead— just a variation on Dad's bowling-with-people technique. Sinead toppled in exactly the right way so Hamilton could scoop her up in a tight grip. He hung her by the back of her breeches beside Dan on the balcony. "Show some respect for my buddy Dan-o,"

手臂，但他只是把她推开了。 “可怜，”西尼德在汉密尔顿身后喃喃地说。 “是谁让那些口齿不清的人在搜寻线索上呆了这么久？” 我们欧椋鸟回来了是件好事，因为你们这些人都是失败者！”艾森豪威尔·霍尔特的话仍然在汉密尔顿的脑海中回响：不要分心！什么都别想，只想着找线索！真的，汉密尔顿只需要拿起丹的纸就走了。 但是汉密尔顿已经分心了。 他情不自禁地看到艾米和丹脸上的痛苦和恐惧，以及每当他们瞥汉密尔顿一眼时就会出现的希望。 汉密尔顿大步走向奈德和泰德，把他们的头撞在一起。 然后，他把其中一个男孩推到舞台另一边的辛尼德面前——这只不过是父亲“与人打保龄球”技巧的一种变体。 辛尼德以正确的方式倒地，这样汉密尔顿就可以紧紧抓住她。 他把她的马裤背挂在阳台上丹的旁边。 “尊重一下我的朋友丹欧”

Hamilton lectured Sinead, his face a few inches from hers. "Amy, too. You've missed a lot of this clue hunt, and things have changed. Amy and Dan, they're, they're—" He remembered a term his football coach back home liked to use. "They are worthy competitors. Got it?" "Ned!" Sinead gasped. "Ted! Plan B!" Barely bothering to look, Hamilton flailed out a fist in either direction— catching one Starling boy on the right jaw and the other on the left. Both crumpled to the ground. "Thanks, Ham!" Dan exploded. "Do you mind?" Hamilton skillfully picked the knot the Starling boys had tied around Dan and lowered him to the floor of the stage. "Okay, okay, get on with it!" Eisenhower screamed, even as he and the rest of the Holts guarded the edge of the stage. They shoved back everyone trying to climb up again. "Now grab the clue for Team Holt! Do it!" Automatically, Hamilton reached his arm over Dan's shoulder. Dan belatedly tried to shift the paper from one hand to the other, to get it out of

”艾米。你错过了很多线索，事情已经变了。 艾米和丹，他们是，他们是——”他想起了家乡的足球教练喜欢用的一个词。 “他们是值得竞争的对手。 明白了吗?”“内德!”辛妮气喘吁吁地说。 “泰德!B计划!”汉密尔顿连看都懒得看，就朝两个方向挥了一拳——一个斯塔林男孩的右下巴和另一个男孩的左下巴都被击中了。 两人都瘫倒在地。 “谢谢,火腿!”丹爆炸。 “你介意吗？”汉密尔顿巧妙地解开了星城男孩们系在丹身上的绳结，把他放到了舞台的地板上。 “好了，好了，继续吧！”艾森豪威尔尖叫着，尽管他和霍尔特的其他成员守在舞台边缘。 他们把所有想爬上去的人都推开了。 “现在为霍尔特队抓住线索！”这么做!”汉密尔顿下意识地把胳膊搭在丹的肩上。 丹姗姗来迟地试图把纸从一只手移到另一只手上，想把它拿出来