Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 When Amy Cahill dreamed of traveling the world, she'd never pictured herself sitting next to a pint- sized John Lennon. "I don't think we're going to find doughnuts in Russia," she muttered, staring at her brother's goofy round glasses. "Not to worry! We're covered," Dan answered. He was staring into a bottomless pit of snacks. Their backpack was loaded down with candy bars and bags of chips, purchased by Dan with help from his new best friend, the Visa gold card. Dan opened a bag of Doritos and leaned back in his seat. Amy was more focused on what they should be doing than stuffing her face with junk food. She'd finally convinced Dan to let her hold the parchment so he wouldn't cover it in Doritos dust, but staring at it only heightened her concern. The

当艾米·卡希尔梦想着环游世界时，她从来没有想象过自己坐在一个身材矮小的约翰·列侬旁边。 “我不认为我们会在俄罗斯找到甜甜圈，”她嘟囔着，盯着她哥哥那副傻乎乎的圆眼镜。 “别担心！”我们有掩护，”丹回答。 他盯着一个无底的零食坑。 他们的背包里装满了糖果棒和几袋薯片，这是丹在他的新朋友——Visa金卡的帮助下购买的。 丹打开一包多力多滋，向后靠在座位上。 艾米更专注于他们应该做的事，而不是用垃圾食品填满她的脸。 她终于说服丹让她拿着羊皮纸，这样他就不会在上面撒上多力多滋的灰尘，但盯着羊皮纸只会让她更加担心。 的

telegram they'd gotten that morning was from someone who called himself NRR, which meant nothing to Amy or Dan. Worse was the fact that Nellie's phone was dead, so they couldn't reach her. "Do you think we can trust NRR? I mean, we're on our own here. Nellie can't protect us this time. This whole thing could be an elaborate setup." "All I know is four hours on a plane with this mustache is going to kill me. It itches like crazy." "Can't you be serious for one minute? We're on our way to Russia. Russia, Dan. Do you get that? Without Nellie or Saladin." Amy knew Dan loved Saladin and couldn't bear the idea of being away from him for very long. And no Nellie? She wasn't their mom, not even close, but she was a pretty good stand-in given the crazy situation they were in. "Let me see that thing again," said Dan, snatching the note from Amy's fingers. He held the parchment in his hand and looked at the scrambled letters, then he reverently turned it over. Amy knew it was the photo on that side that most intrigued him. She watched as he

那天早上他们收到的电报来自一个自称NRR的人，这对艾米和丹来说毫无意义。 更糟糕的是内莉的电话没电了，所以他们联系不上她。 “你认为我们可以信任NRR吗？” 我是说，我们只能靠自己了。 内莉这次保护不了我们了。 整件事可能是一个精心设计的圈套。” “我只知道，带着这胡子在飞机上呆四个小时会害死我的。 它痒得要命。”“你就不能严肃一点吗？” 我们正在去俄罗斯的路上。 俄罗斯,丹。你明白了吗？ 没有内莉和萨拉丁。” 艾米知道丹爱萨拉丁，无法忍受离开他太久的想法。 没有内莉？她不是他们的妈妈，甚至不是，但考虑到他们当时的疯狂处境，她是一个相当不错的替身。 “让我再看看那东西。”丹说着，从艾米的手指上抢过纸条。 他把羊皮纸拿在手里，看了看那些乱七八糟的字母，然后虔诚地把它翻过来。 艾米知道最吸引他的是那一面的照片。 她看着他。

looked at it, his attention riveted on the blackand- white image of a couple, young and clearly in love, standing in front of the American embassy in Russia. "It's really them, isn't it?" asked Dan. "You bet it is," Amy answered. In Paris, Dan had lost his only picture of their parents and Amy knew what having a new one meant to him. But it had also sent them both into a tailspin. Mom, Dad, what were you doing in Russia? Amy hesitated. "It's amazing seeing them like this, so young and happy. I mean, it's the perfect bait. How horrible would it be if someone was using this picture to manipulate us?" "I get what you're saying," said Dan. He ran his finger along the edge of the photo, touched his mom's face, gazed into the eyes of a dad he could barely remember. "But if there's a chance to find something out…" Amy knew how Dan felt because she felt exactly the same way. There was a message in script below the picture, and Dan read it aloud for about the hundredth

看着照片，他的注意力集中在黑白照片上，一对年轻而明显相爱的夫妇站在美国驻俄罗斯大使馆前。 “真的是他们，不是吗？”丹问。 “当然了，”艾米回答。 在巴黎，丹丢失了他唯一一张父母的照片，艾米知道有一张新的对他意味着什么。 但这也让它们都陷入了混乱。 妈妈，爸爸，你们在俄罗斯做什么？ 艾米犹豫了一下。“看到他们这样，如此年轻和快乐，真是太棒了。 我是说，这是个完美的诱饵。 如果有人用这张照片来操纵我们，那该有多可怕？”“我明白你的意思，”丹说。 他的手指沿着照片的边缘，抚摸着妈妈的脸，凝视着一个他几乎不记得的爸爸的眼睛。 “但如果有机会找到一些东西……”艾米知道丹的感受，因为她也有同样的感受。 照片下面有一条文字信息，丹大声念了一百遍

time, trying to make sense of it: Dan flipped over the parchment to look at the scrambled letters again. He stared at them all the way through takeoff while he munched through a second monster bag of Doritos. It wasn't until the beverage cart arrived and he guzzled an entire Coke that Amy could see things were starting to click. "Where did you say we were flying to again? Volvoflurb?" "Volgograd," Amy replied. "Riiiiight. Give me that envelope the bellboy handed you this morning. I have an idea." Amy was using the envelope as a bookmark. She pulled it out and gave it to Dan, curious about what he was up to. "This should do it," said Dan. He ripped a page out of an in-flight magazine and pulled out a pen, writing down one of the word combinations. RGOLGOVAD

丹把羊皮纸翻过来，又看了看那些乱成一团的字母。 在起飞的整个过程中，他一直盯着他们，大口嚼着第二袋超大的多力多滋。 直到饮料车来了，他一口气喝光了一整瓶可乐，艾米才意识到事情开始有了转机。 “你刚才说我们要飞去哪儿来着？” Volvoflurb ?”“伏尔加格勒，”艾米回答。 “Riiiiight。把今天早上服务员递给你的信封给我。 我有个主意。”艾米把信封当书签用了。 她把它拿出来递给丹，好奇他在做什么。 “这个应该够了，”丹说。 他从飞机上的一本杂志上撕下一页，拿出一支笔，写下了其中一个单词的组合。 RGOLGOVAD

"That was the problem, the missing letters. It was confusing me. But they come from the envelope— this one's VOLGOGRAD, see?" Dan took the underlined L from the envelope into the mix and unscrambled all the letters. Amy flipped to a page in the guidebook listing cities in Russia, and a few minutes later Dan and Amy were staring at a list of six. "Yekaterinburg," said Dan. "Sounds like a place where they throw up a lot. Can we skip that one?" Amy didn't bother commenting. She had already figured out something else. "We have a leftover X and a 2 with the St. Petersburg one," said Amy. "I bet that means X2. St. Petersburg, times two. It must mean there are two things we have to discover there." Dan nodded. "Now we just have to figure out what we're supposed to do in all these places." "Volgograd is where this plane is headed, so it

“这就是问题所在，丢失的信件。 这让我很困惑。但是它们是从信封里来的——这是伏尔加格勒，明白吗？”丹从信封里拿出划了线的“L”，把所有的信都整理好。 艾米翻到俄罗斯旅游指南上的一页，几分钟后，丹和艾米就盯着那张有六个城市的清单看了。 “叶卡捷琳堡。”丹说。 “听起来像是一个他们经常呕吐的地方。 我们能跳过这个吗？”艾米没有评论。 她已经想出了别的办法。 “我们有一个剩下的X和一个2与St。 彼得堡一号，”艾美说。 “我打赌这意味着X2。圣彼得堡，乘以2。 这一定意味着我们必须在那里发现两件事。” 丹点了点头。“现在我们只需要弄清楚我们应该在所有这些地方做些什么。” “伏尔加格勒是这架飞机的目的地，所以它

has to be the first place we're supposed to search. It's also shown in this paperweight," said Amy. "How do you figure?" asked Dan. She held the heavy glass ball out where Dan could better see it. "The letters on the wall— TSV— those stand for Tsaritsyn, Stalingrad, and Volgograd. According to the guidebook, they've renamed the city twice." "The Russians can't make up their minds?" asked Dan. Amy ignored her brother's question and leaned in closer. "I think I know what we're looking for once we land." "You've been holding out on me!" said Dan, wiping his salty fingers on his goatee. Amy tapped the cover of the book she'd found in the locker. "These things are full of answers. You just have to open one up once in a while." When Dan saw Russia for the first time, he choked on a corn chip and coughed it up onto the airport sidewalk. "Ew! Seriously, you will never have a girlfriend,"

必须是我们要搜查的第一个地方。 这个镇纸也显示了这一点，”艾米说。 “你怎么知道的？”丹问。 她把沉重的玻璃球举到丹看得更清楚的地方。 “墙上的字母——TSV——分别代表察里琴、斯大林格勒和伏尔加格勒。 根据旅游指南，他们已经给这个城市重新命名了两次。” “俄国人拿不定主意吗？”丹问。 艾米没有理会哥哥的问题，靠得更近了。 “我想一旦我们着陆，我就知道我们要找什么了。” “你一直瞒着我！”丹说着，用带盐的手指在山羊胡子上擦了擦。 艾米敲了敲她在储物柜里找到的那本书的封面。 “这些东西充满了答案。 你只需要偶尔打开一个。” 当丹第一次看到俄罗斯时，他被一块玉米片噎住了，把它咳到了机场的人行道上。 “哟!说真的，你永远不会有女朋友的。”