Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 Amy was fine with a little bit of luxury if the opportunity presented itself, but the Russians took decadence to a whole new level. "How did I ever let you talk me into this?" she asked, staring at a grand piano in the middle of their hotel suite. They'd taken the risk of hailing a cab, after which Dan had held up his Visa gold card and said, "Take us to the best hotel in St. Pete's." They'd arrived at the Grand Hotel Europe, one of the fanciest hotels in all of Russia. But as they entered the $2,000-a-night suite, Dan decided it wasn't up to snuff. "What a rip-off!" said Dan. "Sixty-eight thousand rubles and there's no pinball machine?" Dan raced from room to room, past all the expensive furniture and paintings. "They don't even have a big-screen TV or a

如果有机会的话，艾美愿意稍微奢侈一下，但俄国人把颓废带到了一个全新的高度。 “我怎么会被你说服了呢？”她盯着酒店套房中央的一架三角钢琴问道。 他们冒着风险叫了一辆出租车，之后丹举起他的Visa金卡说：“带我们去St。 皮特的。”他们来到了欧洲大饭店，全俄罗斯最豪华的饭店之一。 但当他们走进一间每晚5000人的套房时，丹觉得不太合适。 “真是敲竹杠！”丹说。 “六万八千卢布，却没有弹球机？”丹从一个房间跑到另一个房间，走过所有昂贵的家具和油画。 “他们甚至没有大屏幕电视或

Coke machine!" "It has two nice big beds and unlimited room service. Works for me," said Amy, rubbing a small item between her fingers. It was the object she'd discovered in Rasputin's pocket at the palace: an oblong wooden token painted with a coat of arms and a set of words: She'd understood the words right away, a reference to one of her favorite books. Criminals be not punished here had to mean Dostoevsky's classic Crime and Punishment. Amy loved her books big and sprawling, and this thing was a doorstop. It was Dan, with his keen eye and incredible memory, who had recognized the coat of arms. The Russian guidebook had a whole section on heraldry. He'd correctly identified this one as belonging to Omsk, the very place the Holts were headed. Too bad they were being tailed by the

可口可乐机!”“它有两张漂亮的大床和无限制的客房服务。 对我有用，”艾米说着，用手指摩擦着一个小东西。 这是她在宫殿里拉斯普京的口袋里发现的东西：一个长方形的木制信物，上面画着一幅盾形纹章和一组文字：她马上就理解了这些文字，指的是她最喜欢的一本书。 罪犯不受惩罚这里指的是陀思妥耶夫斯基的经典《罪与罚》。 艾米喜欢她的书又大又乱，这东西简直是挡门。 正是丹，凭着他敏锐的眼睛和令人难以置信的记忆力，认出了纹章。 俄罗斯旅游指南上有一整章都是关于纹章学的。 他正确地认出了这张是鄂木斯克的，正是霍尔特一家要去的地方。 太糟糕了，他们被

Kabras. Amy pulled out Nellie's phone and charger and searched for an outlet. They'd been too busy to contact Nellie, and the growing guilt had been knotting Amy's stomach for hours. "I can't believe we let her worry about us for the entire day and night. For all she knows, we're still out looking for doughnuts in Cairo." When she glanced over, she saw that Dan was on the hotel phone dialing room service. He had a giant English-Russian menu spread across his lap. Amy shook her head as she plugged in the phone and watched the little screen do its start-up dance. "You don't have PB and J on the menu, either? Rich people food is no fun!" said Dan. He'd also asked for orange soda, chocolate chip cookies, and onion rings. "I'm calling Nellie," Amy interrupted. "Do you want to listen in?" "Hang on," said Dan. He hung up, grabbed his laptop and the power cord, and joined Amy on the floor. The two of them sat next to each other, the wall outlet between them. "All this beautiful furniture and we're sitting on

Kabras。艾米拿出内莉的手机和充电器，寻找插座。 他们太忙了，没时间联系内莉，而不断增长的负罪感让艾米的胃里打结了好几个小时。 “我不敢相信我们让她整天整夜地为我们担心。 据她所知，我们还在开罗找甜甜圈呢。” 她瞥了一眼，看到丹正在打电话给酒店的客房服务部。 他的腿上摊着一份巨大的英俄菜单。 艾米摇了摇头，插上了手机，看着小屏幕跳起了开机舞。 “你们的菜单上也没有花生酱和果酱吗？” 富人的食物一点也不好玩！”丹说。 他还点了桔子汽水、巧克力饼干和洋葱圈。 “我在给内莉打电话，”艾美插嘴说。 “你想听吗？”“等等，”丹说。 他挂了电话，抓起笔记本电脑和电源线，和艾米一起躺在地板上。 他们俩挨着坐着，中间隔着墙插座。 “我们坐在这么漂亮的家具上

the floor. What's wrong with us?" asked Amy. "I guess we're not too good at living the high life. Good thing. Wouldn't want to end up like the Cobras." Amy couldn't help thinking Dan had fallen under the spell of a Visa gold card pretty quickly. "Dan, look at this. She's got messages." The voice mail light blinked green on Nellie's phone. Amy pressed the RETRIEVE button and activated the tiny speakerphone. "You have seven new messages," a female voice offered. Amy pressed the 7 key and the first message came through, although it was a bad connection and they couldn't catch the entire thing. "If you guys… CALL ME! It's taking a long… get those doughnuts. The hotel number is…" The message crackled so badly at the end they couldn't decipher the rest. Five more messages were of equally lousy quality, all from Nellie, her voice becoming more concerned with each effort to reach them. "She's going to kill us," said Dan. "You got that right," Amy agreed.

地板上。我们怎么了？”艾米问。 “我想我们不太擅长过奢华的生活。 件好事。我可不想落得眼镜蛇队的下场。” 艾米不禁认为丹很快就被Visa金卡迷住了。 “丹，看看这个。她有留言。” 内莉手机上的语音信箱指示灯闪着绿色。 艾米按下取回按钮，启动了那个小小的扬声器。 “你有七条新信息，”一个女声说。 艾米按下了7键，第一条信息传了过来，尽管信号不好，他们没能捕捉到整个过程。 “如果你们……给我打电话！”要花很长时间去买甜甜圈。 酒店的电话号码是……”留言最后噼里啪啦地响得很厉害，他们无法破译剩下的内容。 另外五封短信的质量同样糟糕，都是内莉发来的，她的声音在每一次尝试中都变得更加担心。 “她会杀了我们的，”丹说。 “你说得对，”艾米同意道。

She clicked to retrieve the last message. It wasn't from Nellie. "Call in for a status report," said a man's whispery voice. "We haven't heard from you." Dan and Amy stared at each other. "Do you know who that was?" asked Amy. "It's not a voice I've ever heard, have you?" "No," Dan said, and shook his head hard, as if trying to knock a bad thought out of it. They stared at each other for a second, and then Amy deliberately changed the subject. "I hope Nellie is okay. I'm worried about her." "I wonder how Saladin is doing," said Dan, a glint of concern rising in his voice. "Let's e-mail her instead of calling," said Amy. "Just let her know we're okay. That way we don't have to worry about her freaking out on us. I'm not sure I could handle that right now." "And we'll tell her to take good care of Saladin," said Dan. They jumped online and found a string of e- mails from Nellie that sounded a lot like the phone messages she'd left. She was careful to let them know that Saladin was doing just fine, dining

她点击查看最后一条消息。 不是内莉寄来的。“请报告一下情况。”一个男人耳语的声音说。 “我们还没有收到你的消息。” 丹和艾米面面相觑。 “你知道那是谁吗？”艾米问。 “我从来没听到过这样的声音，你呢？”“不，”丹说着，使劲摇了摇头，好像要把一个坏念头打消似的。 他们对视了一会儿，然后艾米故意转移了话题。 “我希望内莉没事。我很担心她。” “我想知道萨拉丁怎么样了。”丹说，他的声音里带着一丝担忧。 “我们给她发电子邮件吧，别打电话了，”艾米说。 “让她知道我们没事。 这样我们就不用担心她会对我们大发雷霆了。 我不确定我现在能承受得了。” “我们会告诉她好好照顾萨拉丁。”丹说。 他们在网上找到了内莉发来的一系列电子邮件，听起来很像她留下的电话留言。 她小心翼翼地让他们知道萨拉丁很好，正在吃饭

on fresh fish from a Cairo marketplace and taking long naps in the hotel room. "You see there?" said Amy. "Saladin is doing great." Amy took the laptop and banged out a short message. Dear Nellie, We stumbled onto a trail we couldn't turn back from. Before we knew it, we were on our way out of Cairo and into Russia. It all happened really fast. We know you probably can't come get us, but don't worry— we're okay. No problems so far. Please take good care of Saladin. We promise to check back in tomorrow morning. Please don't worry— we're fine! Amy and Dan. "How's that?" asked Amy. "I think it'll do the trick. Send it." Amy clicked the SEND button. At least Nellie would know they weren't dead. "We should send something to Hamilton, too, don't you think?" asked Dan. Amy had almost forgotten. Of course! The trail led into Siberia next, right where Hamilton Holt

在开罗市场上吃新鲜的鱼，在酒店房间里小睡一会儿。 “你看到了吗？”艾米说。 “萨拉丁做得很好。”艾米拿起笔记本电脑，发了一条短信。 亲爱的内莉，我们误入歧途，无法回头。 在我们意识到之前，我们已经在离开开罗前往俄罗斯的路上了。 这一切发生得太快了。 我们知道你可能不能来接我们，但别担心，我们没事。 到目前为止还没有问题。请好好照顾萨拉丁。 我们保证明天早上再来。 请不要担心——我们很好！艾米和丹。 “怎么了？”艾米问。“我想它会起作用的。 发送它。”艾米点击了发送按钮。 至少内莉知道他们没死。 “我们也应该送点东西给汉密尔顿，你不觉得吗？”丹问。 艾米差点忘了。当然!这条小路下一条通向西伯利亚，汉密尔顿·霍尔特就在那里