Chapter 1

ONE FALSE NOTE

一个假音符

CHAPTER 1 The hunger strike began two hours east of Paris. Saladin took a single dainty whiff of the open cat food tin and turned up his nose. "Come on, Saladin," coaxed fourteen-year-old Amy Cahill. "Here's your dinner. It's a long way to Vienna." The Egyptian Mau emitted a haughty snort that was a clinic in nonverbal communication: You've got to be kidding me. "He's used to red snapper," Amy said apologetically to Nellie Gomez, the Cahills' au pair. Nellie was unmoved. "Do you have any idea how much fresh fish costs? We've got to make our money last. Who knows how long we'll be running around looking for these precious clues of yours?" Saladin let out a disapproving "Mrrp!"

在巴黎以东两小时的地方开始了绝食抗议。 萨拉丁轻轻地吸了一口打开的猫粮罐头，然后抬起鼻子。 “来吧，萨拉丁。”十四岁的艾米·卡希尔哄着说。 “这是你的晚餐。去维也纳的路很远。” 埃及毛发出一声傲慢的鼻息，像是在进行非语言交流：你在跟我开玩笑吧。 “他吃惯了红鲷鱼，”艾米抱歉地对卡希尔家的保姆内莉·戈麦斯（Nellie Gomez）说。 内莉不为所动。“你知道鲜鱼要多少钱吗？” 我们得让我们的钱持续下去。 谁知道我们要花多长时间到处寻找你这些宝贵的线索呢？”萨拉丁发出一声不赞成的“哼！”

Dan Cahill, Amy's eleven-year-old brother, looked up from the page of sheet music he was examining. "I'm with you, dude. I can't believe we had to take the slowest train in Europe. We've got to get moving! The competition has private jets, and we're wasting time on the Loser Express. Are we going to stop in every podunk town in France?" "No," Nellie told him honestly. "Pretty soon it'll stop in every podunk town in Germany. Then every podunk town in Austria. Look, it was cheap, okay? I didn't agree to babysit you guys on this quest—" "Au pair us on the quest," Dan amended. "—just to have you drop out halfway through because you blew all your cash on snapper and expensive train tickets," she concluded. "We really appreciate your help, Nellie," Amy told her. "We could never do this without you." Amy was still dizzy from the whirlwind of the past two weeks. One minute you're an orphan; the next, you're part of the most powerful family the world has ever known! An unbelievable twist for two kids who had

丹·卡希尔，艾米11岁的弟弟，从他正在检查的乐谱上抬起头来。 “我支持你，伙计。真不敢相信我们要坐欧洲最慢的火车。 我们得走了！竞争对手有私人飞机，而我们却在Loser Express上浪费时间。 我们要在法国的每个偏僻小镇都停吗？”“不，”内利诚实地告诉他。 “很快，它就会在德国的每个偏僻小镇停止。 然后是奥地利的每个小镇。 听着，那很便宜，好吗？我不同意在这次探险中照看你们——”“在探险中给我们做互惠生。”丹修正道。 “——只是为了让你中途退学，因为你把所有的钱都花在了昂贵的火车票上，”她总结道。 “我们真的很感谢你的帮助，内莉，”艾米告诉她。 “没有你，我们做不到。” 过去两周的狂风暴雨使艾米仍然头晕目眩。 前一分钟你还是个孤儿；下一秒，你就成了世界上最强大的家族的一员！这对两个孩子来说是难以置信的转折

been palmed off on an uncaring guardian who, in turn, palmed them off on a series of au pairs. Now they knew the truth — they were relatives of Benjamin Franklin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and more — geniuses, visionaries, and global leaders. We were nobody. Suddenly we have a chance to shape the world…. All thanks to the contest their grandmother Grace had set up in her will. Somehow, the secret of the Cahills' centuries-old power had been lost — a secret that could only be found by assembling 39 Clues. Those Clues were hidden all around the globe. So this was a treasure hunt. But what a treasure hunt — spanning oceans and continents, with nothing less than world domination as the prize. Yet high stakes meant high risks. Their rivals would stop at nothing to defeat them. Already there had been casualties. There will probably be many more…. Amy regarded Dan in the seat opposite her. Two weeks ago, we were fighting over the TV

被一个冷漠的监护人骗走了，而后者又把他们骗走了一些互惠生。 现在他们知道了真相——他们是本杰明·富兰克林、沃尔夫冈·阿玛迪斯·莫扎特等天才、梦想家和全球领袖的亲戚。 我们什么都不是。突然间，我们有机会塑造世界.... 这一切都要归功于他们的祖母格蕾丝在遗嘱中设立的竞赛。 不知何故，卡希尔家族几个世纪以来的秘密已经丢失了——这个秘密只有通过收集39条线索才能找到。 这些线索藏在世界各地。 所以这是一次寻宝。 但这是一场多么精彩的寻宝活动——跨越大洋和大陆，以统治世界为奖品。 然而，高风险意味着高风险。 他们的对手会不惜一切代价打败他们。 已经有人伤亡了。 可能还会有更多.... 艾米看着坐在她对面座位上的丹。 两周前，我们为了电视吵架

remote…. She couldn't seem to get through to Dan how weird it all was. Her brother saw nothing unusual about belonging to the strongest, most influential family in history. He accepted it without question. After all, it said great things about him. He saw no drawbacks to being a high roller in the scheme of things. The poor kid was only eleven — no parents, and now even Grace was gone. In all the excitement over the contest, they had hardly mourned their grandmother's death. It didn't seem right. Amy and Grace Cahill had been so close. Still, Grace was the one who had started them on this dangerous roller coaster. Sometimes Amy didn't know what to feel…. She shook her head to clear it and focused on her brother. He was scouring the sheet music, looking for hidden markings or secret writing. "Any luck?" Amy asked him. "Zilch," he told her. "Are you sure this Mozart dude was a Cahill? I mean, Ben Franklin hardly blew his nose without planting a coded message in the Kleenex. This is nothing but boring music."

远程…她似乎无法让丹明白这一切有多奇怪。 她哥哥觉得自己属于历史上最强大、最有影响力的家族没什么不寻常的。 他毫无疑问地接受了。 毕竟，它说了很多关于他的事情。 他看不出在事态发展中成为一个豪赌客有什么不利之处。 这个可怜的孩子只有11岁——没有父母，现在连格蕾丝都不在了。 在比赛的兴奋中，他们几乎没有哀悼祖母的去世。 这似乎不对。艾米和格蕾丝·卡荷尔非常亲密。 不过，是格蕾丝让他们坐上了这趟危险的过山车。 有时艾米不知道该怎么想.... 她摇了摇头，把注意力集中在她哥哥身上。 他仔细检查乐谱，寻找隐藏的记号或秘密的字迹。 “任何运气吗?”艾米问他。 “什么也没有，”他告诉她。“你确定这个莫扎特的家伙是卡希尔家的吗？” 我是说，本·富兰克林每次擤鼻涕都会在纸巾里放个密码。 这只是无聊的音乐。”

Amy rolled her green eyes." 'This Mozart dude'? Were you born a dweeb, or did you have to get a diploma? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is considered the greatest classical composer who ever lived." "Right, classical. Boring." "Musical notes correspond to the letters A through G," Nellie mused. "Maybe there's a message that way." "Been there, done that," Dan reported. "I even tried unscrambling the letters in case the words were anagrams. Face it — we almost got killed for a clue that isn't really a clue." "It's a clue," Amy insisted. "It has to be." Clues. 39 of them. Never before had a contest held so much promise — or so much danger. With ultimate power hanging in the balance, the deaths of two American orphans would be barely a footnote. But we didn't die. We found the first clue — after a treacherous obstacle course through the life of Benjamin Franklin. Amy was convinced that Mozart was the key to the second. The answer lay

艾米翻了翻她的绿眼睛。” “这个莫扎特的家伙”？你是天生的呆子，还是非得拿文凭不可？ 沃尔夫冈·阿玛迪斯·莫扎特被认为是有史以来最伟大的古典作曲家。 “对,古典。无聊。” “音符对应字母A到G，”内莉若有所思地说。 “也许这是一种信息。” “我也经历过，”丹说。 “我甚至试着解开字母，以防单词是字谜。 面对现实吧——我们差点因为一条根本不是线索的线索而送命。” “这是一条线索，”艾米坚持说。 “必须是这样。”线索，一共39条。 从来没有一场比赛有过如此大的希望，也没有过如此大的危险。 在最终权力悬而未决的情况下，两名美国孤儿的死亡仅仅是一个注脚。 但我们没有死。我们找到了第一个线索——在经历了本杰明·富兰克林一生中充满危险的障碍之后。 艾米确信莫扎特是第二个故事的关键。 答案是