Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 "You're… here!" said Amy. "How did you escape?" "How did you find us?" Dan asked. "How did you start the car?" said Nellie. "All will be explained in the fullness of time, my dears." Alistair gestured urgently toward the door. "I suggest we enter the chariot and ride away from our well-muscled nemeses." "I'll drive!" Nellie raced around to the driver's side. "Let me," Alistair said, blocking her way. Amy stepped forward, then stopped in her tracks. Go now. Beware. That was the warning. Hamilton doesn't mean "beware the Holts," she

“你……在这儿！”艾美说。 “你是怎么逃出来的？”“你是怎么找到我们的？”丹问道。 “你是怎么发动车子的？”内莉说。 “到时候一切都会解释清楚的，亲爱的。” 阿利斯泰尔急切地指了指门口。 “我建议我们坐上马车，离开那些肌肉发达的敌人。” “我会开车!”内莉飞快地跑到驾驶座旁边。 “让我来。”阿利斯泰尔说，挡住了她的路。 艾米向前走了几步，然后又停住了脚步。 走了。要小心了。这就是警告。 汉密尔顿的意思不是“小心霍尔特”，她说

thought. He means "beware Alistair." "No, Nellie!" Amy shouted. "Don't get in there." Amy fixed Uncle Alistair in her vision. He was cocking his head to one side, his yellow silk scarf gently wrinkling with the motion. "Where do you go when you leave us?" Amy asked. "Amy…?" Alistair said, wiping his forehead with a white handkerchief. Amy took a deep breath and counted to three. It was a technique Mom had taught her. Sometimes that was all it took to check your heart against your brain. "Think about this, Dan. We open our hearts to him every time. He swoops in to save us. We give him whatever we find. Then he vanishes. What does he do with the information? And how did he and the Holts find us at the same time— in the middle of South Africa?" Dan looked uncomfortably at Uncle Alistair. Nellie retreated from the car door. "If you must know," Alistair said, looking

的想法。他的意思是“小心阿利斯泰尔。” “不,内莉!”艾米喊道。 “别进去。”艾米把阿利斯泰尔叔叔固定在她的幻象中。 他把头歪向一边，黄色的丝巾微微皱起。 “你离开我们后要去哪里？”艾米问。 “艾米……?”阿利斯泰尔说着，用一块白手帕擦了擦额头。 艾米深吸一口气，数到三。 这是妈妈教她的技巧。 有时候，这就是检验你的心和你的大脑所需要的。 “想想看，丹。我们每次都对他敞开心扉。 他突然来救我们。我们把找到的都给他。 然后他就消失了。他对这些信息做了什么？ 他和霍尔特一家是怎么同时找到我们的——在南非中部？”丹不安地看着阿利斯泰尔叔叔。 内莉从车门退了出来。 “如果你一定要知道的话，”阿利斯泰尔说，看了看

nervously down the hill, "I was held in Indonesia under false pretenses, but I escaped. I gambled on the notion that you were marching to Pretoria, as it were, but most international flights come in to Johannesburg. I was able to convince some airline personnel to reveal flight lists to me. It took detective work among the rental-car people to find which car you took, but we Ekats are good at that. I hired a driver to head for Pretoria. That was when I saw the Hummer, which made me suspicious." "And you followed it…" Amy said. "Precisely," Alistair replied. "Now may we go?" "Wait," Dan said. "How did the Holts find us?" "We can talk inside the car!" Alistair said. "You're a smart guy," Amy said. "You heard Nellie sing the song and boom! You knew the hint. You're light-years ahead of anyone. And you're telling us that the Holts figured all of this out without your help?" Alistair cocked his head curiously. "Are you suggesting I am in an alliance with the Holts? I can't even carry on a conversation with them!"

我紧张地走下山，“我在印度尼西亚被假证关押，但我逃了出来。 我赌了一把，以为你们要去比勒陀利亚，事实上，但大多数国际航班都是去约翰内斯堡的。 我说服了一些航空公司的工作人员向我透露航班名单。 我们在租车公司里做了一番侦探工作才查出你租的是哪辆车，但我们Ekats在这方面很在行。 我雇了一个司机去比勒陀利亚。 就在那时，我看到了那辆悍马，这让我起了疑心。” “你跟着它走……”艾米说。 “没错，”阿利斯泰尔回答。 “现在我们可以走了吗？”“等等，”丹说。 “霍尔特一家是怎么找到我们的？”“我们可以在车里说话！”阿利斯泰尔说。 “你是个聪明人，”艾米说。 “你听到内莉唱了这首歌，然后砰！你知道我的暗示。 你比任何人都领先好几光年。 你是说霍尔特一家没有你的帮助就想出了这一切？”阿利斯泰尔好奇地歪着头。 “你是在暗示我和霍尔特家结盟吗？” 我甚至不能和他们说话！”

"Come on, troops," Nellie said, reaching for the car door. "Let's leave Old Burrito Man here with the Frankenstein family. Maybe when they find out their plan failed, they'll use him as a soccer ball." Nellie was in the car now. She turned the engine over once… twice… three times, and it finally started. "You're not going to leave me here, are you?" Alistair was looking at Amy now. His face registered shock, panic. It was an expression she recognized from the fire two nights before. He was willing to save our lives. He was about to jump off a ledge for us, until Irina arrived. But she also knew the look from another time. From seven years ago. When he had come to their house to steal a poem. A poem with a Clue hidden in it. A poem that Hope Cahill and Arthur Trent thought would solve the riddle of the 39 Clues. We only want what is ours. Someone had said that during the night. She'd heard the voice from the study, just after the

“来吧，士兵们，”内莉说着，伸手去开门。 “让我们把玉米煎饼老头留在这里和弗兰肯斯坦一家在一起吧。 也许当他们发现他们的计划失败时，他们会把他当作足球。” 内莉现在在车里。 她把引擎转了一次，两次，三次，终于发动起来了。 “你不会把我丢在这儿吧？”阿利斯泰尔现在正看着艾米。 他的脸上流露出震惊和恐慌。 这是她在两天前的火灾中认出的表情。 他愿意救我们的命。 他正要为我们从窗台上跳下去，直到伊琳娜来了。 但她也知道另一个时代的表情。 从七年前开始。当他来到他们家偷诗的时候。 一首隐藏着线索的诗。 霍普·卡希尔和亚瑟·特伦特认为这首诗能解开39条线索之谜。 我们只想要属于我们的东西。 有人在夜里说过这话。 她听到了书房里的声音，就在

commotion had wakened her. Alistair's voice. Alistair hadn't set the fire. But he could have said something. He could have prevented… "Amy…?" Alistair said. "Are you all right, dear?" Amy looked him in the eye. "Why did you keep it from them— the fact that you'd stolen the poem?" "I— this is hardly the time—" Alistair stammered. "You could have told them," Amy said. "You could have shouted, 'I have the poem!' She was running into a fire, Uncle Alistair!" "I was contending with so many people," Alistair said. "I could barely see straight. Eisenhower Holt had some cockamamie idea that we could use the neighbors' garden hose—" "Eisenhower Holt was there, too?" Amy said. "And his wife, Mary-Todd," Alistair said. Dan's face was red. "How many people were there— just standing around, doing nothing to

骚乱把她弄醒了。 Alistair的声音。不是阿利斯泰尔放的火。 但他本可以说点什么。 他本可以阻止……“艾米……”阿利斯泰尔说。 “你没事吧，亲爱的？”艾米直视着他的眼睛。 “你为什么瞒着他们——你偷了那首诗的事？”“我——现在不是时候——”阿利斯泰尔结结巴巴地说。 “你可以告诉他们的，”艾米说。 “你可以大喊，‘我有这首诗！’她掉进了火里，阿利斯泰尔叔叔！”“我和很多人竞争，”阿利斯泰尔说。 “我几乎看不清前方。 艾森豪威尔·霍尔特有个可笑的主意，说我们可以用邻居的花园水管——”“艾森豪威尔·霍尔特也在那儿？”艾米说。 “还有他的妻子玛丽-托德，”阿利斯泰尔说。 丹的脸变红了。“有多少人站在那里，什么也不做

help them?" Eisenhower. Yes, Amy saw him now in her memory of the night. A gruff man with a red face and bristles for hair. They were all in it together. United. They may not all have set the fire, but without them it wouldn't have happened. They were killers, all of them. Tears rushed to her eyes, but Amy kept them back. Without thinking, she grabbed Uncle Alistair's silk scarf and pulled him toward her. "I don't care if you're working with them or not," she said. "Either way, when they find you, they will make your life miserable." She let go and jumped into the backseat next to Dan. Nellie gunned the engine. "Wait—you can't—" Alistair sputtered, struggling with something at the top of his cane. "Oh?" Nellie said, stepping on the gas. "Watch me."

帮助他们吗?”艾森豪威尔。是的，艾米现在在她那晚的记忆中看到了他。 一个粗鲁的人，红着脸，头发刚毛。 他们都是一伙的。 曼联。也许不是所有人都放了火，但没有他们就不会发生。 他们都是杀手，全都是。 泪水涌上了她的眼睛，但艾米忍住了。 她不假思索地抓住阿利斯泰尔叔叔的丝巾，把他拉向自己。 “我不在乎你是不是在和他们合作，”她说。 “不管怎样，当他们找到你的时候，他们会让你的生活很痛苦。” 她松手，跳到丹旁边的后座上。 内莉发动了引擎。“等等——你不能——”阿利斯泰尔吞吞吐吐地说，挣扎着拿着手杖顶上的什么东西。 “哦?”内莉说着，踩着油门。 “看着我。”