Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 "Don't say it," Dan said. "I know, it's my fault. But this place is so yikes-worthy, I forgot about the key." "How are we going to get out of here?" "We'll figure it out. C'mon, let's explore." "I don't know about this," Amy said. "What if it's booby-trapped?" "We would have tripped it already," Dan pointed out. Amy lowered her voice to a whisper. "Why isn't anyone here? The other strongholds were full of people." "Because we got lucky. Come on. Don't be a weenie." Dan bounded forward. He couldn't resist the array of genius and ingenuity before him.

第五章“别说了，”丹说。 “我知道，这是我的错。但这地方太令人讨厌了，我忘了带钥匙。” “我们怎么离开这里？”“我们会想出办法的。 来吧，让我们一起探索。”“我不知道，”艾米说。 “如果里面有陷阱怎么办？”“我们早就把它绊倒了，”丹指出。 艾米压低了声音，压低了声音。 “怎么没人来？”其他要塞都挤满了人。” “因为我们很幸运。来吧。 别像个胆小鬼。”丹跳上前去。 他无法抗拒面前的天才和聪明才智。

Holograms shimmered, LEDs flickered. Over in a corner, a machine began to clatter, spitting out ticker tape, just like in an old movie. Blueprints of inventions projected down one wall. He charged down the gallery, calling back, "Oh, man. Thomas Edison was a Cahill! How cool is that? The lightbulb!" Amy walked more slowly through the exhibits. While Dan circled Robert Fulton's design for a steamboat, she stared at a schematic of a submarine weapons-delivery system. Dan let out a whoop. "The cotton gin! Eli Whitney was an Ekat. Genius!" Ahead, Amy saw a black curtain. It seemed to suck all the energy in the room. "Amy! We invented the bicycle!" Slowly, she walked toward it. As she grew closer, she realized that it wasn't a curtain but a wall of shadow that was somehow created by a machine aiming light— or was it the absence of light? How was that possible?— toward a corner of the room. "The sewing machine. Elias Howe, you rock!"

全息图闪烁，led闪烁。 在一个角落里，一台机器开始发出咔嗒咔嗒的声音，吐出报时纸带，就像一部老电影里演的那样。 发明的蓝图投射在一面墙上。 他沿着走廊冲了过去，喊道：“哦，天哪。 托马斯·爱迪生是卡希尔家族的人！这有多酷？ 灯泡!”艾米在展品中走得更慢了。 丹在罗伯特·富尔顿（Robert Fulton）设计的汽船上圈了一圈，她盯着一张潜艇武器运载系统的示意图。 丹发出一声叫喊。“轧棉机！”伊莱·惠特尼是一名Ekat。 天才!”前面，艾米看到了一块黑色的窗帘。 它似乎吸走了房间里所有的能量。 “艾米!我们发明了自行车！”她慢慢地朝它走去。 当她走近时，她意识到那不是窗帘，而是一堵阴影墙，不知怎么的，是由一台机器瞄准光产生的——或者是没有光？ 这怎么可能呢？——朝房间的一个角落走去。 “缝纫机。伊莱亚斯·豪，你太棒了！”

Hesitantly, she moved through the shadow. Ahead of her was a white screen. As soon as she approached, it was activated. It took her almost a full minute to understand. At first, it was just blueprints flashing on the screen. Then numbers. She heard Dan crowing something about the internal combustion engine. "Way to go, Marie Curie! Radioactivity!" A slide show began, black-and-white photographs. She pressed her hands to her mouth. Dan was right outside the shadow. "These inventions are so radical. We changed history!" "Not we," Amy whispered. Another stream of images began. "Not we, Dan!" she suddenly shouted. Dan walked through the shadow curtain. "What's this?" he asked, studying the schematic and then peering at an old black-and-white photograph. There were more photographs to come in the slide show. Amy yanked Dan back into the brightly lit gallery. "Hey!" Dan protested. "What are you doing? I

她犹豫地穿过阴影。 她的前面是一块白色的屏幕。 她一靠近，就启动了。 她花了整整一分钟才明白过来。 起初，它只是在屏幕上闪烁的蓝图。 然后数字。她听到丹在吹嘘内燃机。 “干得好，玛丽·居里！”放射性!”幻灯片放映开始了，黑白照片。 她用手捂住嘴。 丹就在阴影的外面。 “这些发明太激进了。 我们改变了历史！”“不是我们，”艾米低声说。 另一幅画面开始出现。 “不是我们，丹！”她突然喊道。 丹穿过阴影幕。 “这是什么？”他问道，一边研究着原理图，然后盯着一张黑白老照片。 幻灯片里还有更多的照片。 艾米把丹拽回灯火通明的画廊。 “嘿!”丹抗议。“你在干什么？” 我

want to see!" "No," Amy said fiercely. "You don't. You don't want to see how we figured out a poison gas delivery system to kill millions." The color drained from Dan's face. "How we figured out how to split the atom and make a bomb that could annihilate a whole city!" Heat made Dan's face turn red. Except for the small scar under his eye, which stayed white. It was how he looked when he was really upset. She should stop. But she didn't. Couldn't. "Chemical warfare, Dan? Does that rock?" Amy didn't know why she was so angry at her brother. "Is genocide way cool?" Amy backed away, her hands shaking. For the first time since he was a tiny kid, she had set out to make her brother cry. Which was funny, because she was the one who wanted to wail. She wanted to stamp her feet. She wanted to scream. But her eyes were dry. "What if we're Ekats?" she whispered. "What if all that evil is part of us? Embedded in our DNA?" Seeing the fear on her face, Dan suddenly felt

我想看看！”“不，”艾米恶狠狠地说。 “你不。你不会想看到我们是如何发明出杀死数百万人的毒气输送系统的。” 丹的脸失去了血色。 “我们是如何发现如何分裂原子，制造出可以毁灭整个城市的炸弹的！”热得丹的脸变红了。 除了他眼睛下面的小伤疤，还是白色的。 这是他真正难过时的表情。 她应该停下来。但她没有。 不能。“化学战，丹？” 那能摇滚吗？”艾米不知道她为什么对哥哥这么生气。 “种族灭绝很酷吗？”艾米往后退，双手颤抖着。 自从他还是个小孩子以来，这是她第一次想把弟弟弄哭。 这很有趣，因为她才是那个想哭的人。 她想跺跺脚。 她想尖叫。但她的眼睛是干的。 “如果我们是埃卡特呢？”她小声说。 “如果所有的邪恶都是我们的一部分呢？” 嵌入到我们的DNA里？”看到她脸上的恐惧，丹突然觉得

afraid, too. "Every branch had bad people in it," he said. "And there are plenty of good Ekats, too. I mean, where would we be without Edison? In the dark, that's where. Anyway, we don't know what branch we're in. We only know we're Cahills. If I had to choose a branch based on the bad guys, I wouldn't want to be part of any of them." Amy slumped to the floor and leaned her head against the wall. "What are we doing here?" she asked. "The more we find out, the more I have to wonder. Why would Grace want us to know that we were connected to so much evil?" "I was just babbling before," Dan said. "Saying that we were responsible for that"— he jerked his head toward the black curtain— "is like saying I invented the cotton gin." Amy gave a wan smile. "Good point. But Grace… she always protected us. She loved us, Danny. Or, at least… I thought so." Dan was too stunned to even complain that she called him "Danny." That nickname had been offlimits since he was six. "You thought so? What

也害怕。“每个部门都有坏人，”他说。 “而且也有很多好的Ekats。 我是说，没有爱迪生我们会变成什么样？ 在黑暗中，就是在那里。 不管怎样，我们不知道我们在哪个分支。 我们只知道我们是卡希尔家的。 如果我必须选择一个基于坏人的分支，我不想成为其中任何一个的一部分。” 艾米瘫倒在地板上，把头靠在墙上。 “我们在这儿干什么？”她问。 “我们发现得越多，我就越想知道。 为什么格蕾丝想让我们知道我们和这么多邪恶有联系呢？”“我刚才只是在胡言乱语，”丹说。 “说我们对此负有责任，”——他把头朝黑窗帘一摇——“就像说我发明了轧棉机。” 艾米淡淡一笑。“好点。 但格蕾丝，她总是保护我们。 她爱我们，丹尼。或者，至少……我是这样认为的。” 丹太震惊了，甚至没有抱怨她叫他“丹尼”。 从他六岁起，这个绰号就被禁止了。 “你这么想？”什么

do you mean?" "Ever since we started this, we've wondered why Grace didn't help us," Amy said. "She didn't leave us a private message. She didn't leave us anything. She just lumped us in with all the rest of the Cahills." "Like we weren't special to her," Dan said. He expected Amy to leap to Grace's defense like she always did. It annoyed him, but he depended on it, too. Instead, she nodded. "So did we really know her at all?" Amy asked. "Think about it. There was this whole huge thing in her life, and we didn't know. Being a Cahill was so much a part of her. How could we have known her, really known her, if we didn't know that?" Amy swallowed. "It just makes me feel so…" "Dumb?" Dan asked. "Hey, speak for yourself." Amy didn't even get irritated. "Mr. Mclntyre told us to trust no one. What if that includes… Grace?" Amy closed her eyes. She hated saying these things. She hated thinking them. But she couldn't

你的意思是？”“自从我们开始这件事以来，我们一直在想为什么格蕾丝不帮助我们，”艾米说。 “她没有给我们留下私人信息。 她什么也没留给我们。 她把我们和其他卡希尔家的人混为一谈了。” “好像我们对她来说没什么特别似的，”丹说。 他以为艾米会像往常一样站出来为格蕾丝辩护。 这让他很恼火，但他也很依赖它。 相反，她点点头。“那么我们真的了解她吗？”艾米问。 “想想看。她的生活中发生了一件大事，我们却不知道。 卡荷尔家族是她生命的一部分。 如果我们不知道这一点，我们怎么可能了解她，真正了解她呢？”艾米吞下。 “这让我觉得……”“傻？”丹问道。 “嘿，为你自己说话。” 艾米甚至没有生气。 “麦克林泰尔先生告诉我们不要相信任何人。 如果那包括……格蕾丝呢？”艾米闭上了眼睛。 她讨厌说这些话。 她讨厌去想这些事。但是她不能