Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9 Dan gaped, ignoring his sister, who opened and closed her mouth in a stunning imitation of a spotted blowfish. "Mrrp?" said Saladin. "Awwwweso-o-o-o-ome!" Dan didn't care who heard him scream. He scooped up Saladin and threw his arms around Nellie. Amy looked as if she'd just seen a ghost. But to Dan, Nellie felt real, all right. She felt all… spiky and leathery. And a split second later, Amy was all over her, too. Sobbing of course. Which made Nellie sob, too. Which almost ruined the whole thing. Even Alistair was a little teary. Saladin climbed into Amy's arms, and she smiled disbelievingly. "But how did you…?" "Find you?" Nellie laughed. "It was all over the

丹张大了嘴，没有理睬他的妹妹，她张开又闭上嘴巴，模仿着斑点河豚的动作，令人惊叹。 “什么？”萨拉丁说。“Awwwweso-o-o-o-ome !”丹不在乎谁听到了他的尖叫。 他抱起萨拉丁，双臂搂住奈莉。 艾米看上去好像刚见了鬼似的。 但对丹来说，内莉是真实的。 她觉得自己像…刺一样坚硬。 一刹那间，艾米也扑到她身上了。 当然是在抽泣。这也使内莉呜咽起来。 这差点毁了整件事。 就连阿利斯泰尔也有点流泪了。 萨拉丁爬进艾米的怀里，她难以置信地笑了。 “可是你是怎么……？”“找到你?”内莉笑了。 “到处都是。

news— subway shut down, people on the tracks… I'm, like, ding! Amy and Dan, no-brainer!" "Where'd you get the cool car?" Dan added. "Where did those shots come from?" Amy asked. "Where's the duffel?" Dan prodded. "How did you escape the Kabras?" Alistair said. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Nellie said with a laugh. "I need backup!" Behind her, two shadowy figures stepped out of the car. "She didn't escape us," said Ian Kabra. "Far frub it," said Natalie in a stuffed-up voice. Dan felt his blood run down to his feet. Amy gripped his arm. "We just survived a ninja attack," Dan reminded her. "Remember, there are two of them and four of us." "Mrrp," said Saladin. "Sorry, five," whispered Dan. "Ah-chooo!" Natalie sneezed. "I hate cats." "ATTACK!" Dan yelled.

新闻-地铁关闭，人们在轨道上…我，像，叮！艾米和丹，不用动脑筋！”“你从哪儿弄来这么酷的车？”丹说。 “那些子弹是从哪儿射来的？”艾米问。 “行李袋在哪儿？”丹刺激。 “你是怎么逃出卡布拉家族的？”阿利斯泰尔说。 “哇，哇，哇，”内莉笑着说。 “我需要支援！”在她身后，两个影子从车里走了出来。 “她没有逃离我们，”伊恩·卡布拉说。 “太糟了，”纳塔利用哽咽的声音说。 丹感到自己的血液流到了脚上。 艾米抓住他的胳膊。“我们刚从忍者的袭击中幸存下来，”丹提醒她。 “记住，他们是两个，我们是四个。” “先生。”萨拉丁说。“对不起，5号。”丹小声说。 “Ah-chooo !”娜塔莉·打喷嚏。 “我讨厌猫。”“攻击!”丹喊道。

Ian grinned patiently at him— and brandished a sleek stun gun. "Dan— duck!" Amy screamed. "You asked about the shots?" Ian said. "This is your answer. You survived the yakuza because of my handling of this weapon. And because I insisted on renting a swift precision car, not the beige Chevy Cobalt your babysitter wanted." "Id case you dod't udderstadt, you borons, we saved you," Natalie said. "Ah-chooo!" "But… why?" Dan said. "You hate us." "Dat's true." Natalie exhaled wearily. "Yo, Nat? Take your allergy meds, okay, so you're not spraying me in the car?" Smiling at Dan and Amy, Nellie grabbed the driver's door handle. "Get in, all of you." "But—" Amy said, glancing reluctantly toward the Kabras. "We have to move before the yakuza return," Nellie said. "I'll explain everything. Oh. And we squeezed your duffels in the trunk." Yes! Dan thought. That meant they had the

伊恩耐心地对他咧嘴一笑，挥舞着一把光滑的电击枪。 “丹-鸭!”艾米尖叫。 “你问的是打针的事？”伊恩说。 “这就是你的答案。你从黑帮里活下来都是因为我对这把武器的操作。 还因为我坚持要租一辆又快又准的车，而不是你保姆想要的米色雪佛兰Cobalt。” “万一你们不明白，你们这些笨蛋，我们救了你们，”娜塔莉说。 “Ah-chooo !”“但是……为什么?”丹说。 “你恨我们。”“这是真的。” 娜塔莉疲倦地呼了一口气。“哟,Nat ? 把你的抗过敏药吃了，好吗，你不会在车里喷我吧？”内莉对丹和艾米微笑，抓住司机的门把手。 “你们都进去。”“可是——”艾美说，不情愿地朝卡布拉夫妇瞥了一眼。 “我们必须在黑帮回来之前行动，”内利说。 “我会解释一切的。哦。 我们还把你的行李袋塞进了后备箱。” 是的!丹的想法。这意味着他们有

swords. Dan climbed into the soft leather backseat with Amy and Ian as the others squeezed into the front. "Whoa, this is street cred," Dan said. "Can we keep it?" "We left some… outer clothing near the subway station," Alistair said carefully. "Perhaps I can direct you there, Nellie." "Seat belts!" Nellie commanded. She started the car, pulled away from the curb, and floored it to get through a yellow light. Alistair pointed her to the right as she continued: "Okay, update. When I see Poindexter and Morticia on the plane? I freak. I'm, like, what happened to my kids? I think, they've, like, eaten you. Then they tell me what happened. Bragging. They're, like, fourteen and eleven, but they talk like they escaped from a Clue game. 'Forged the tickets, ho-ho!'— Anyway, they try to threaten me, yada yada, and of course I argue and I'm figuring in my head, 'Haha, the next thing is they put poison in the drink'— but I'm, like, 'Nahh, of course they're not that skeezy.' Then I see her actually doing it, like two inches away from me— uh, hello? So I get kinda mad—you know, act like I'm going to drink it, and

剑。当其他人挤进前座时，丹和艾米、伊恩一起爬上了柔软的皮革后座。 “哇，这是街头信誉，”丹说。 “我们能留着它吗？”“我们在地铁站附近留下了一些……外衣，”阿利斯泰尔小心翼翼地说。 “也许我可以指引你去那儿，耐莉。” “安全带!”内莉所吩咐的。 她发动了车，驶离路边，踩着油门通过了一盏黄灯。 阿利斯泰尔指着她的右边，她继续说：“好的，最新情况。 当我在飞机上看到波因德克斯特和莫蒂西亚的时候？ 我狂。我在想，我的孩子们怎么了？ 我想，它们好像把你吃了。 然后他们告诉我发生了什么。 吹牛。他们一个14岁，一个11岁，但他们说话就像从线索游戏中逃出来一样。 “假票，嗬嗬！”-不管怎样，他们试图威胁我，等等等等，当然我争辩了，我在脑子里想，“哈哈，下一件事就是他们在饮料里放毒药”-但我想，“不，他们当然没有那么恶心。”然后我看到她真的在做，就在离我两英寸远的地方-喂？ 所以我有点生气，表现得好像我要喝了它，然后

then zam, I spritz the stuff all over their faces. Well, I'm, like, 'Nyah nyah, this is really funny,' but they start to totally wig out and fall all over each other to get to their carry-on— they're, like, 'Eek our faces have schmutz on them!' And I'm, like, 'Dudes, grow up!' So I take their carry-on and sit on it. Um. Baad idea." "The poison was in a concentrated form," Ian spoke up. "In the amount that Natalie had used, it would have mutilated, perhaps blinded us." Amy squirmed away from him in disgust, nearly squeezing Dan into the side of the car. "And you were going to let Nellie drink it?" she said. "We meant to temporarily disable her," Ian said. "Just a drop. But Natalie slipped during air turbulence. Before we could warn your nose- ringed nanny, she drenched us. Luckily, she allowed us to retrieve the antidote from our carryon." "That's kindness," Amy said. "I made them agree to give me all their cash," Nellie explained. "That's bribery," Natalie grumbled.

然后，我把东西喷在他们脸上。 嗯，我说，‘嗯，嗯，这真的很有趣，’但他们开始完全崩溃，为了拿到他们的随身行李，他们互相摔倒在一起——他们说，‘哎呀，我们的脸上有脏东西！’我说，‘伙计们，成熟点吧！’所以我拿了他们的随身行李，坐在上面。 嗯。Baad主意。”“毒药是浓缩的，”伊恩大声说。 “按照娜塔莉使用的剂量，它会使我们致残，甚至致盲。” 艾米厌恶地从他身边扭开，差点把丹挤到车的侧面。 “你打算让内莉喝吗？”她说。 “我们打算暂时让她失去能力，”伊恩说。 “就一滴。但是娜塔莉在气流中滑倒了。 我们还没来得及警告你那戴鼻环的保姆，她就把我们给淋透了。 幸运的是，她允许我们从行李里取出解药。” “这是善良，”艾米说。 “我让他们同意把所有的现金都给我，”内莉解释说。 “这是贿赂，”娜塔莉抱怨道。

Nellie jerked the car to the right, and Dan felt like he was going to carry an Amy imprint on him for the rest of his life. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amy's hand brush accidentally against Ian's. She let out a yelp and pulled it away. "Mrrp!" said Saladin, arching his back and spitting at Ian. "Er, ahem," Ian said, leaning away from the cat, "the reason we are still here is that we'd like to propose a temporary alliance. As we explained to your porcine au pair, we have something you need." "Like, two plane tickets?" Dan said. "Too late. And we'd rather have an alliance with a bucket of slime than with a Kabra— if we could tell the two things apart." "Fine," Ian said. "We will use our artifact to find the clue ourselves—" Alistair turned around toward Ian. "Artifact?" "How refreshing, an open mind," Ian said with a sly smile. "As you well know, Mr. Oh, the Lucians have been collecting hints for years. So have the Ekats. And presumably so have… er, what branch

内莉猛地把车开向右边，丹觉得他的余生都要带着艾米的印记了。 他从眼角看到艾米的手不小心碰到了伊恩的手。 她大叫一声，把它拉开了。 “哼！”萨拉丁拱起背，朝伊恩吐了口唾沫。 “呃，嗯哼，”伊恩说着，把身子从猫身上挪开，“我们还在这里的原因是我们想提议一个临时联盟。 正如我们向你的猪互惠生解释的那样，我们有你需要的东西。” “比如，两张机票？”丹说。 “太迟了。我们宁愿与一桶烂泥结盟，也不愿与卡布拉结盟——如果我们能区分这两者的话。” “很好，”伊恩说。“我们将用我们的神器自己去寻找线索——”阿利斯泰尔转向伊恩。 “神器?”“多么清新，一个开放的思想，”伊恩狡黠地笑着说。 “噢，先生，你很清楚，卢西亚人多年来一直在收集线索。 埃卡特夫妇也是如此。大概也有…呃，什么分支