Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 It had to happen. After all these years of hating museums, he'd turned into a permanent exhibit. Dan pressed his palms against the wall. "Help," he whispered. "How much longer do you think he'll leave us here?" Amy asked. "Until we crack," Dan said. "How can we crack? We don't know anything." "I know I'm hungry," Dan said. "If Oh offered me a pizza, I'd think of something." "Nellie will start to wonder where we are," Amy said. "She'll never find us." "She'll tell the front desk. Maybe they'll call the police…."

第八章这事非发生不可。 经过这么多年对博物馆的憎恨，他变成了一个永久的展品。 丹把手掌贴在墙上。 “救命，”他低声说。“你觉得他还要把我们留在这儿多久？”艾米问。 “直到我们崩溃，”丹说。 “我们怎么破解？”我们什么都不知道。” “我知道我饿了，”丹说。 “如果吴某给我一个披萨，我一定会想办法的。” “内莉会开始怀疑我们在哪里，”艾米说。 “她永远找不到我们的。”“她会告诉前台的。 也许他们会报警....”

"Don't you get it? He owns the hotel. They're not going to do anything." "He can't just leave us here." Amy's voice quavered, and she swallowed hard. She had been in worse spots, she told herself. But somehow this Plexiglas cube made her feel panicked. Like she was a thing on display, not a person. She tried to take a breath. "How much air is in this thing?" "I don't know," Dan said. "Maybe… maybe we shouldn't talk." Now she had scared her brother. Losing his breath was a real issue for him. Amy straightened her shoulders. She wasn't going to lose it. She'd freaked out in front of Dan before, and she wasn't going to do it again. Ever. "I'm sure there's enough." For how long? The thought rose and she batted it away. The panic eased a little. She could do this. She knew now that the trick to being brave was not thinking of the worst thing that could happen. It was a weird thing— if you acted brave, you could almost feel brave. She'd just have to work at it. As hard as she

“你还不明白吗？”他是酒店的老板。 他们什么也不会做。” “他不能把我们丢在这里。” 艾米的声音颤抖着，她使劲咽了一口唾沫。 她告诉自己，她经历过更糟糕的处境。 但不知何故，这个有机玻璃立方体让她感到恐慌。 就像她是一件展出的东西，而不是一个人。 她试着喘口气。 “这东西里面有多少空气？”“我不知道，”丹说。 “也许……也许我们不应该说话。” 现在她把哥哥吓坏了。 喘不过气来对他来说是个大问题。 艾米挺直了肩膀。 她不会失去它的。 她以前在丹面前抓狂过，她不会再这样了。 永远。“我相信足够了。” 要多久？这个念头冒了出来，她把它赶走了。 恐慌缓和了一些。她可以这么做。 她现在明白了，勇敢的诀窍就是不去想可能发生的最坏的事情。 这是一件很奇怪的事情——如果你表现得很勇敢，你几乎可以感觉到自己很勇敢。 她只需要努力去做。 像她一样努力

could. "Kiddos?" Nellie called from the bedroom. "There'd better be food out there waiting for me!" No answer. "Dudes?" Nellie knotted the sash of the thick hotel robe. "Munchkins?" They hated when she called them that. But no howl of dismay came from the other room. Nellie pushed open the door. The room was empty. A robe lay on the floor next to a broken umbrella. The kids had flown the coop. Well. Who could blame them? They were in a five-star hotel, and they wanted to explore. Nellie flopped on a sofa and gave herself up to a luxurious perusal of the room service menu. Twenty minutes later, she'd plowed through quite a bit of the delicious assortment of small dishes called meze. But even with the last bites of sabanikhiyat, she realized that her stomach was more full of worry than spinach. Something was up. It had taken her way too long to realize it. Alarm bells should have been clanging way before this. She was getting sloppy.

可以。“出头?”内莉从卧室里喊道。 “最好有食物在外面等着我！”不回答。 “帅哥?”内莉把厚厚的旅馆睡袍的腰带打了个结。 “梦境人?”他们讨厌她这么叫他们。 但是从另一个房间里没有传来惊慌的嚎叫。 内莉推开门。 房间是空的。地板上放着一件长袍，旁边是一把破伞。 孩子们已经飞走了。 好。谁能责怪他们呢？ 他们住在一家五星级酒店，他们想去探险。 内莉扑通一声躺在沙发上，开始奢侈地阅读客房服务菜单。 二十分钟后，她吃了不少美味的小菜，这些小菜被称为meze。 但即使吃完最后一口萨巴尼希亚特，她也意识到她的胃里充满了担忧，而不是菠菜。 发生了什么事。她花了太长时间才意识到这一点。 警钟早该敲响了。 她变得邋遢了。

Blame it on hunger or jet lag, but there was no excuse. You've got some explaining to do if you don't kick your brain into overdrive, Nellie. She had been schooled not to show panic, so she didn't. She sprang up and inspected the room. For the first time, she took note of the robe on the floor by the door. At first she'd assumed that it was Dan's usual sloppy habits, but when she studied it again, she realized that the way it was lying meant that someone had flung it off in a hurry. While standing facing that connecting door… Nellie sprang forward. She examined every inch of the door. Then she looked at the broken umbrella on the floor. And everything suddenly made sense. She saw them before they saw her. Her heart squeezed. Just clapping her eyes on them gave her a nice rush of relief. But how was she going to get them out of there? She took a breath and composed herself. She had to keep them calm. Amy heard the slap of flip-flops and whirled around. The fear in her eyes turned to relief.

归咎于饥饿或时差，但没有任何借口。 如果你不让你的大脑超负荷运转你就得好好解释一下了，内莉。 她被教导不要表现出恐慌，所以她没有表现出来。 她跳起来检查房间。 她第一次注意到门边地板上的长袍。 起初，她以为这是丹一贯的邋遢习惯，但当她再次研究它时，她意识到它撒谎的方式意味着有人匆忙地把它扔掉了。 正对着那扇相连的门站着，内莉跳上前去。 她仔细检查了门的每一寸。 然后她看了看地板上那把破伞。 一切突然变得有意义了。 她在他们看到她之前就看到了他们。 她的心怦怦直跳。只要对着它们拍手，她就会感到一阵轻松。 但她要怎么把他们弄出来呢？ 她吸了一口气，使自己镇静下来。 她必须让他们保持冷静。 艾米听到人字拖的啪啪声，转过身来。 她眼中的恐惧变成了解脱。

"Nellie!" She could hear her clearly. The cube must have been wired for sound. Nellie took a bite of her pita. "What is this place?" she asked. "Nellie? Uh, notice something?" Dan asked. "Like, we're trapped in a cube?" He was trying to act casual, but she could hear his breath was short. She had tucked his inhaler in her robe pocket in case he needed it. But it would be better if he didn't. Nellie took another bite. Even while she chewed, she assessed the situation with a cool glance. Saladin appeared and brushed against her ankles. "You two are an au pair's worst nightmare. This could be a way for me to keep tabs on you. It's, like, a method." "NELLIE!" they shouted. "He could be back any minute!" Dan said. "Who?" "Bae Oh! He's the one who put us in this thing." "That old dude you told me about? What did he do, arm wrestle you?"

“内莉!”她听得很清楚。 这个立方体肯定装了隔音装置。 内莉咬了一口皮塔饼。 “这是什么地方？”她问。 “内莉?嗯，注意到什么了吗？”丹问道。 “比如，我们被困在一个立方体里？”他试图表现得若无其事，但她听得出他的呼吸很急促。 她把他的吸入器塞在长袍口袋里，以防他需要。 但如果他不这么做会更好。 内莉又咬了一口。即使在咀嚼的时候，她也用冷静的目光评估着形势。 萨拉丁出现了，抚摸着她的脚踝。 “你们俩是互惠生最可怕的噩梦。 这可能是我监视你的一种方式。 这就像是一种方法。”“耐莉！”他们喊道。 “他随时都可能回来！”丹说。 “谁?”“Bae哦!是他把我们带进这个烂摊子的。” “你跟我说过的那个老头？” 他做了什么，跟你扳手腕吗？”

"NELLIE!" Nellie walked around the cube. She tapped it with a fingernail. "Any suggestions?" "Look up in that far left corner," Amy suggested. "The circuit is up there." "He pointed a laser at it," Dan said. Nellie slapped the pocket of her robe. "Whoa, I think I left my laser pointer back with my PowerPoint presentation." "Nellie!" She walked directly over to the corner and peered up. "I see it," she said. She reached into her pita, then bent down and fed it to Saladin. "He loves hummus," she said. "Who knew?" "Well, he is an Egyptian Mau," Dan said. "Maybe this is home cooking for him." "This is no time to feed the cat!" Amy exclaimed. Saladin licked his cat lips and began to rub against Nellie's legs, begging for more. Nellie scooped out another blob of hummus. She looked up at the corner again. She aimed and

“内莉!”内莉绕着立方体走了一圈。 她用指甲敲了敲它。 “什么建议?”“抬头看最左边的那个角落，”艾米建议。 “电路在上面。” “他用激光指着它，”丹说。 内莉拍了拍她长袍的口袋。 “哇，我想我把激光笔落在ppt上了。” “内莉!”她径直走到角落里，朝上面看了看。 “我看到了，”她说。她把手伸进皮塔饼里，弯下腰喂给萨拉丁。 “他喜欢鹰嘴豆泥，”她说。 “谁知道?”“嗯，他是埃及的毛，”丹说。 “也许这对他来说是家常便饭。” “现在不是喂猫的时候！”艾米喊道。 萨拉丁舔了舔他的猫嘴唇，开始摩擦耐莉的腿，乞求更多。 内莉又舀出一团鹰嘴豆泥。 她又抬头看了看街角。 她瞄准了