Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 "AHHHHHH!" Amy didn't feel much at all. The wind. The metallic shriek of the brakes, the horn blocking out all sound. She must have closed her eyes, because she didn't see anything, either. She felt. Her body wrenched upward and backward. She was flying. And then her shoulder hit solid, cold cement. When she opened her eyes, all was dark and silent. "I g-g-guess… I'm dead?" she heard her own voice call out, strangely high-pitched and thin. For a long time, she heard nothing else. And then:

第七章“啊啊啊！”艾米一点也不觉得难受。 风。刹车发出刺耳的金属声，喇叭挡住了所有的声音。 她一定是闭上了眼睛，因为她也什么也没看见。 她的感受。她的身体上下扭动。 她在飞。然后她的肩膀撞上了坚硬冰冷的水泥。 当她睁开眼睛时，四周一片漆黑，一片寂静。 “我——我——我猜……我死了？”她听见自己的声音在叫，奇怪地尖细。 很长一段时间，她没有听到别的声音。 然后:

"Hi, Dead. I'm Dan." The ssshhhhick of a lit match sounded, and a tremulous light outlined two faces. Amy sat up. Her left ankle ached, and her shoe was missing. "Uncle Alistair? Dan?" Dan's hair was standing on end, his face shadowed with black dust and his eyes the size of softballs. "He did it. Uncle Alistair. He saved our lives. Reached out. From the wall. How—?" Dan tottered toward her, his body bent over as he gawked at Amy's foot. "It's still there. He didn't amputate it when he—" With that, Dan's knees buckled and he crumpled to the floor. "Dan!" Amy shouted. As she reached out to grab his arm, her ankle screamed with pain. "It's all right," Dan said, sitting up. "I'm all right. Don't call nine-one-one. Did my hair turn white? Like in movies, like when people get really, really scared?" "You're both safe now," Alistair said, moving his match around to outline the contours of a large room. "Dan, your hair is not white— and you

“嗨,死了。我是丹。”一根点燃的火柴发出嘶嘶声，一束颤抖的光勾勒出两张脸的轮廓。 艾米坐了起来。她的左脚踝疼痛，鞋子也不见了。 “叔叔Alistair ?丹?”丹的头发竖了起来，脸上蒙着一层黑灰，眼睛像垒球那么大。 他做到了。Alistair叔叔。 他救了我们的命。伸出手。 从墙上。——如何?”丹摇摇晃晃地走向她，他的身体弯着，呆呆地看着艾米的脚。 “它还在那里。他没有把它切除，当他——”说着，丹的膝盖一弯，瘫倒在地上。 “丹!”艾米喊道。当她伸出手去抓住他的手臂时，她的脚踝痛得尖叫起来。 “没关系，”丹说着，坐了起来。 “我没事。不要打911。 我的头发变白了吗？就像电影里，人们非常非常害怕的时候？”“你们现在都安全了，”阿利斯泰尔说，一边移动着火柴，勾勒出一个大房间的轮廓。 “丹，你的头发没有白——你也是

were right about the hiding place. It is more or less where you thought it would be. There was a small graffito, an ancient-looking symbol on what looked like an electrical plate. Once I pressed it, the door swung open. I merely brought you both in with me." Amy lunged forward on her good foot, keeping the other one in the air, and flung her arms around him. "Thank you," she said. She felt him flinch. For a horrible moment she felt as if she'd done something terribly wrong. She could tell he was not the hugging type. Then, awkwardly, Alistair wrapped his arms around her. "I… owed you one," he said softly. "Or two," Dan said. Alistair nodded. "I suppose my record is not very good in life-threatening situations." "Well, you've made up for it now," Amy said, burying her head in the shoulder of Alistair's silk suit jacket, which still smelled of aftershave. Gently, Alistair pulled himself away, glancing downward with concern. "How does your foot feel?"

我们对藏身处的猜测是对的。 它或多或少在你想象的地方。 有一个小小的涂鸦，一个看起来很古老的符号在一个看起来像电板的东西上。 我一按，门就开了。 我只不过把你们俩都带进来了。” 艾美用那只完好的脚向前扑去，另一只脚悬在空中，张开双臂搂住了他。 “谢谢你，”她说。她感到他退缩了。 在那可怕的一刻，她觉得自己好像做错了什么可怕的事情。 她看得出来，他不是那种会拥抱的人。 然后，阿利斯泰尔尴尬地搂住了她。 “我……欠你个人情。”他轻声说。 “或者两个，”丹说。Alistair点点头。 “我想我的记录在危及生命的情况下不是很好。” “好吧，你现在已经弥补了。”艾米说，把头埋在阿利斯泰尔的丝绸西装外套的肩膀上，外套上仍然有须后水的味道。 阿利斯泰尔轻轻地挪开身子，关切地向下看了一眼。 “你的脚感觉怎么样？”

"Like it was jammed under a rail and then pulled out of its shoe," Amy said with a wince. "I can move it, but I think I sprained my ankle." "Bet you can't tap-dance," Dan said, still sounding a little shell-shocked. Amy smiled at her brother, never ever having imagined she would enjoy hearing his stupid humor. She felt a rush of warmth for him. "Oh, no, I see that look— no hugs!" Dan said, backing away. Numbly, he flicked on his flashlight and swept it slowly around the room, until the beam landed on a pile of old relics lying haphazardly on the floor and covered with thick, gray-black dust— clothing, strange tarnished metal things, a metal box, a globe, a hefty cylinder. As they all moved closer, Alistair remarked, "Well, the yakuza may control some kind of underground network, but it doesn't look like they've been here in a few centuries." "Hey," Dan piped up. "What does Jar Jar Binks say when he meets a member of the Japanese Mafia?"

“就像它被卡在栏杆下面，然后从鞋里拔了出来，”艾米皱着眉头说。 “我可以移动它，但我想我扭伤了脚踝。” “我打赌你不会跳踢踏舞。”丹说，听起来还是有点心惊胆战。 艾米对她哥哥笑了笑，从来没有想到她会喜欢听他那愚蠢的幽默。 她对他感到一阵温暖。 “哦，不，我看到那个表情了——不要拥抱！”丹说着，往后退。 他麻木地打开手电，慢慢地在房间里扫了一圈，直到光束落在地板上一堆乱七八糟的旧东西上，上面覆盖着厚厚的灰黑色的灰尘——衣服、奇怪的生锈的金属东西、一个金属盒子、一个地球仪、一个沉重的圆柱体。 当他们都走近时，阿利斯泰尔说：“嗯，黑帮可能控制着某种地下网络，但看起来他们已经有几个世纪没来过这里了。” “嘿，”丹尖声说。“加·加·宾克斯遇到日本黑手党成员时会说什么？”

Amy groaned. "You are recovering too quickly." "I'm game. Wait…" Alistair paused for a moment and smiled. "'You, sah? Yakuza?'" Dan's grin disappeared. "How did you know that? I just made it up out of my own head." "Puns are a sign of intelligence, deeply buried," Alistair replied, putting on his white gloves. He leaned into the pile of stuff and gingerly lifted a small, brittle garment. "Hard to tell how old this is under so many decades of metal dust." "Hey, check it out!" Dan said. He was unrolling a scroll that he'd pulled from behind a chest of drawers. "Careful!" Amy said. The scroll was open now, blackened around the edges but legible— three lines of stylized Japanese characters. "What's it say?" Dan asked. Alistair looked closely. "It's a haiku, I think. Wait, let me get the meter right…. 'To find the new home/Of Hideyoshi's treasure/Use geometry.'" "Treasure?" Amy said. "Does that include the swords?"

艾米呻吟着。“你恢复得太快了。” “我的游戏。等等……”阿利斯泰尔停顿了一下，笑了。 “你,长官?山口组?丹的笑容消失了。 “你怎么知道的？”这是我自己想出来的。” “双关语是智慧的象征，深埋其中，”阿利斯泰尔戴上白手套回答。 他探进那堆东西，小心翼翼地提起一件小小的、易碎的衣服。 “在几十年的金属灰尘下，很难判断它有多老。” “嘿，快看！”丹说。 他正在展开从五斗橱后面拉出来的卷轴。 “小心!”艾米说。卷轴现在打开了，边缘被涂黑了，但仍清晰可辨——三行日文。 “上面说什么？”丹问道。 阿利斯泰尔仔细看了看。“我想这是一首俳句。 等等，让我把计价器调对.... “寻找丰臣秀吉宝藏的新家/使用几何学。””“宝藏?”艾米说。 “包括剑吗？”

"We're rich!" Dan shouted. "Woo-hoo— I knew it! Okay, geometry. I'll get this one. Hang on, give me a minute…." "It could be anything…" Amy said, gazing around the room. "We're in a big room," Dan declared. "So… the volume of a parallelepiped, maybe?" "Beg pardon?" Alistair said. "A three-dimensional parallelogram, like this chamber," Dan explained. "How would that solve the problem?" Amy asked. "It's like trying to find a hypotenuse in a haystack." "Is that a joke?" Dan said. "Because if it is, you should give me a signal. Like, tap your head twice so I know when to laugh." He let go of the scroll with one hand. The snap of its shutting caromed off the walls into the silence. The dead silence. Amy glanced around nervously. "Um, shouldn't there have been another train by now…?"

“我们发财了!”丹喊道。 “哇——我就知道！”好的,几何学。 我买这个。等一下，给我一分钟....” “可能是任何东西……”艾米说着，环顾了一下房间。 “我们在一个大房间里，”丹宣布。 “那么……也许是平行六面体的体积？”“对不起?”阿利斯泰尔说。 “一个三维平行四边形，就像这个房间，”丹解释说。 “那怎么解决问题呢？”艾米问。 “这就像在大海捞针中寻找斜边。” “你在开玩笑吗？”丹说。 “因为如果是的话，你应该给我一个信号。 比如，轻拍你的头两下，这样我就知道什么时候该笑了。” 他一只手松开了书卷。 门关上的咔嚓声从墙上传来，笼罩在一片寂静中。 死一般的寂静。艾米紧张地环顾四周。 “嗯，现在不是应该有另一列火车了吗……”