Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 Sleeping on the train gave Dan and Amy an electric energy when they hit the pavement in St. Petersburg. Why go to a hotel when there were palaces to be broken into? "We need to go that way," said Amy, the crisp evening air filling her with new excitement as she made her way down the bustling platform. They had arrived at Moskovsky Station, less than two miles from the palace, and decided to walk rather than risk another cab ride. "There's a whole cluster of palaces along the banks of the Moika River. Yusupov is one of them." "You should be a tour guide," said Dan. "Lead the way." Soon they were outside following Nevsky Prospekt, an eight-lane avenue. Seventeenth- century pastel buildings and newly constructed

第六章丹和艾米在火车上睡觉，当他们走在圣。 彼得堡。既然有宫殿可以破门而入，为什么还要去旅馆呢？ “我们得走那条路，”艾米说。当她走下熙熙攘攘的站台时，傍晚清新的空气让她充满了新的兴奋。 他们到达了距离宫殿不到两英里的莫斯科车站，决定步行而不是冒险再坐出租车。 “莫伊卡河沿岸有一群宫殿。 尤素波夫就是其中之一。”“你应该当导游，”丹说。 “带路。”很快，他们沿着涅夫斯基大街走了出去，这是一条八车道的大道。 十七世纪的粉彩建筑和新建的

stores stood side by side, competing for space in thriving twenty-first-century Russia. "Dan," said Amy, jerking her brother's hand. "I think someone is tailing us." Dan glanced over his shoulder. "The man in black," he whispered. It was unquestionably him. The dark coat and hat, the gliding way he moved, the craggy face full of shadows. He was unmistakable. Amy and Dan broke into a run, darting between pedestrians on the busy sidewalk. Their movements seemed to set the world in motion. A truck barreled across two lanes, heading directly for them. Dan sped up, but Amy froze in her tracks. The truck swerved near the curb and an envelope came hurtling out the passenger window, landing in the gutter at Amy's feet. "Watch where you're going, you big jerk!" yelled Dan. A lot of people turned to stare at him as the truck sped back into traffic and disappeared around a corner. "He's gone," said Amy, her voice trembling in the night air. Had the man in black made the truck move? Either way, just as mysteriously as he

商店肩并肩，在繁荣的21世纪俄罗斯争夺空间。 “丹，”艾米说，拉着她哥哥的手。 “我觉得有人在跟踪我们。” 丹回头瞥了一眼。 “那个黑衣人。”他低声说。 毫无疑问是他。 黑色的外套和帽子，他轻盈的动作，布满阴影的嶙峋的脸。 他说得没错。艾米和丹跑了起来，在繁忙的人行道上从行人中间窜过。 他们的行动似乎使世界动了起来。 一辆卡车穿过两条车道，径直朝他们驶来。 丹加快了速度，但艾米却停住了脚步。 卡车在路边突然转弯，一个信封从副驾驶窗口飞了出来，落在艾米脚边的排水沟里。 “看路，你这个大混蛋！”丹喊道。 很多人都转过头来盯着他看，因为卡车加速回到车流中，消失在拐角处。 “他走了，”艾美说，她的声音在夜风中颤抖。 是那个黑衣人让卡车移动的吗？ 不管怎样，和他一样神秘

had appeared, the man in black had vanished. "I think we should keep going," said Dan. "That dude could be anywhere." Amy nodded and they hurried down Nevsky Prospekt. Dan ripped open the envelope as they went. "What's it say?" asked Amy. As Dan read the letter aloud, Amy could almost feel the night getting blacker around them. "'Time is running out. You need to move faster. You are being followed, and I don't mean the Madrigal. When your pursuers show themselves, give them this map to throw them off track and be on your way. You must enter the palace at night and find Rasputin. Follow the orange snake. NRR.'" "The man in black is a Madrigal! Do you realize what this means? We're dead. Dead, dead, dead!" Dan yelped. "At least we got another note from NRR," said Amy. "We're hot on the trail of something… I just wish we knew what it was." She put her hand on Dan's shoulder as if to steady both of them.

黑衣人一出现，就不见了。 “我认为我们应该继续前进，”丹说。 “那家伙可能在任何地方。” 艾米点点头，他们匆匆沿着涅夫斯基大街走去。 丹一边走一边撕开信封。 “上面说什么？”艾米问。 当丹大声朗读这封信时，艾米几乎能感觉到周围的夜色越来越黑了。 “时间不多了。你得动作快点。 你被跟踪了，我不是指牧歌。 当追赶你的人出现时，把这张地图给他们，让他们偏离轨道，走你的路。 你必须在晚上进入宫殿，找到拉斯普京。 跟着橙色的蛇。NRR。’”“那个穿黑衣的人是牧歌！你知道这意味着什么吗？ 我们死了。死了，死了，死了！”丹叫喊起来。 “至少我们又收到了全国广播公司的通知，”艾米说。 “我们正在寻找线索……我只是希望我们知道是什么。” 她把手放在丹的肩膀上，好像要稳住他们俩。

"I think we should keep going, don't you? It's not like we have a lot of choices here. And besides, the man in black is gone," Amy said. "Okay, let's assume he's actually hit the road, which I doubt. So what? Apparently, there's someone else tailing us, not just him. It could be anyone, but it's probably someone who wants to drop a piano on our heads!" "Chances are it's another team, that's all I'm saying. And besides, NRR gave us something to keep them busy." "Maybe he wants to get us away from everyone else so we're an easier target," Dan argued. "Did you think of that? What if the picture of Mom and Dad is just a trick to get us totally off on our own?" Amy paused. "Dan, I hate to tell you this, but we've been on our own for awhile now." The truth of that silenced them both. Amy took the letter from Dan. Across the bottom there was an elaborate map of St. Petersburg with a dotted line winding through it. It ended across two canals in an entirely different part of the city. Amy tore the map free from the

“我认为我们应该继续前进，你说呢？” 我们又没有太多的选择。 再说，那个黑衣人已经走了，”艾米说。 “好吧，让我们假设他真的上路了，我对此表示怀疑。 那又怎样?显然，还有其他人在跟踪我们，不只是他。 可能是任何人，但可能是想用钢琴砸我们脑袋的人！”“很有可能是另一支球队，这就是我要说的。 而且，全国广播公司给了我们一些东西让他们忙起来。” “也许他想让我们远离其他人，这样我们就更容易成为目标，”丹争辩道。 “你想过这个吗？”如果爸爸妈妈的照片只是一个让我们完全独立的诡计呢？”艾米停顿了一下。 “丹，我不想告诉你，但我们已经独自生活了一段时间。” 这一事实使他们两人都沉默了。 艾米从丹手里接过信。 底部是一张精心制作的圣路易斯市地图。 彼得堡有一条虚线蜿蜒而过。 它穿过两条运河，在城市的另一个完全不同的地方结束。 艾米把地图从

rest of the letter. "See? It looks like a trail leading somewhere important, but it's a wild goose chase. All we have to do is give it to whoever is tailing us when they show themselves, then they leave us alone for awhile. Maybe NRR is trying to isolate us, but the photo… I want to know what it means." Amy could see Dan had run out of steam. He took a half-empty box of Skittles out of his back pocket and dumped about twenty of them in his mouth, chomping morosely. "If we can just get inside the palace, I know what NRR means about Rasputin. There's a reenactment exhibit inside. It's all about when they tried to kill him, the stuff I was telling you," Amy coaxed. "Suppose I gotta see that," said Dan, getting reluctantly excited again at the thought of an unkillable monk. Amy smiled. "Okay! Now all we have to do is find a snake to follow." It was nearly eleven o'clock by the time Dan and Amy approached Yusupov Palace. Things were

信的其余部分。“看到了吗?看起来像是一条通往重要地方的线索，但这是徒劳的。 我们所要做的就是把它交给跟踪我们的人当他们出现的时候，然后让他们暂时离开我们。 也许NRR试图孤立我们，但这张照片……我想知道它意味着什么。” 艾米看得出丹已经精疲力竭了。 他从后面的口袋里掏出一盒半空的彩虹糖，把大约二十颗扔进嘴里，郁郁不乐地咀嚼着。 “如果我们能进入宫殿，我就知道NRR对拉斯普京意味着什么。 里面有一个重演展览。 都是关于他们想杀他的时候，我跟你说的那些事，”艾米哄着说。 “如果我能看到这个，”丹说，想到一个不死的和尚，他又不情愿地兴奋起来。 艾米笑了。“好吧!现在我们要做的就是找到一条蛇来跟踪。” 当丹和艾米来到尤苏波夫宫时，已经快十一点了。 事情是

starting to wind down along the quiet banks of the Moika, a river that ran along the front of the three-story palace of yellow and white. A few pedestrians strolled here and there along the embankment rail, and the occasional headlights came toward them, but other than that, the area was deserted. The Yusupov Palace stretched along the river with thirty darkened windows on each level staring out onto the Moika. There was a giant arched entryway at the very center of the building, and three tall white columns on each side of the door. "Somehow I don't think the door is going to be open," said Dan. "Should we try a window?" Amy walked along the front of the palace, looking for anything that might resemble a snake. "Amy," called Dan. He'd crossed the street to get a better look at the narrow river. It was only about sixty feet to the other side, where windowed buildings and houses lined a street similar to the one he stood on. Amy arrived next to Dan and stared out into the black water.

开始沿着安静的莫伊卡河岸蜿蜒而下，莫伊卡河沿着这座三层楼高的黄白相间的宫殿蜿蜒而下。 有几个行人沿着堤岸的栏杆来回踱步，偶尔会有车灯朝他们照过来，但除此之外，这片区域空无一人。 尤苏波夫宫沿着河流延伸，每层都有30扇漆黑的窗户，面向莫伊卡河。 在大楼的正中央有一个巨大的拱形入口，门的两边各有三根高大的白色柱子。 “不知怎么的，我觉得门不会开了，”丹说。 “我们要不要试试窗户？”艾米沿着宫殿的前面走着，寻找任何可能像蛇的东西。 “艾米，”丹叫道。他穿过街道是为了更好地看看那条狭窄的河。 离河的另一边只有大约六十英尺，有窗户的建筑物和房屋排列在一条街上，和他站的那条街很像。 艾米来到丹身边，凝视着漆黑的水面。