Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20 GUARD DOGS LIVE ELECTRICAL CURRENT ALARMED!! KEEP OUT!!! Dan gaped at the sign over the locked gate. Behind it was a stone walkway flanked by shrubbery. It led to a windowless building with six sides, constructed of pale marble that seemed to change shade as you walked. On one side, a massive air-conditioning machine hummed, and over the front door hung a sign with a corporate logo: UBUHLALU ELECTRONICS. "Well, that's cheery," Nellie said. "I— I think Mr. Mondli was right," Amy said. "We probably shouldn't do this." "How would we get in?" Nellie said.

第20章看门狗带电电流报警！！继续! !丹目瞪口呆地看着锁着的大门上方的牌子。 屋后是一条石砌人行道，两旁是灌木。 它通向一座没有窗户的六面建筑，由苍白的大理石建造，似乎随着你的行走而改变阴影。 大楼的一侧，一台巨大的空调在嗡嗡作响，前门上方挂着一个公司标志：UBUHLALU ELECTRONICS。 “嗯，那很愉快，”内莉说。 “我——我认为蒙德里先生是对的，”艾米说。 “我们可能不应该这么做。” “我们怎么进去呢？”内莉说。

"Do we want to get in?" Amy asked. "This could be a wild goose chase. I mean, Churchill wrote those coordinates over a hundred years ago. We don't know if the Tomas are really here. What if they moved on?" Nellie glanced skeptically at the building. "This place doesn't look very Tomas-ish," Nellie said. Dan thought for a moment. Churchill had given coordinates for a Tomas clue. Mr. Mondli's description made it sound like these people could be Tomas. But companies could be unfriendly, too. "Let's scope the place out," he suggested, heading around the side of the building, "and be careful in the bushes." "Why?" Amy said. "This is South Africa, dude," Dan replied. "Where cobras come from. And not the hot ones, like Ian." He followed the building to its opposite side, where a hill sloped gently downward. Extending from the back of the building was an ugly, rusted metal structure that looked like the remains of an old warehouse. Above it rested sheets and sheets

“我们想进去吗？”艾米问。 “这可能是徒劳的。 这些坐标是丘吉尔一百多年前写的。 我们不知道托马斯一家是否真的在这里。 如果他们离开了呢？”内莉怀疑地瞥了一眼大楼。 “这地方看起来不太像托马斯，”内莉说。 丹想了一会儿。丘吉尔给了托马斯线索的坐标。 蒙德里先生的描述让人觉得这些人可能就是托马斯。 但企业也可能不友好。 “我们先把这个地方打量一遍，”他建议道，一边绕到大楼的另一边，“在灌木丛里要小心。” “为什么?”艾米说。“这是南非，伙计，”丹回答。 “眼镜蛇是从哪里来的。而且不是像伊恩那样的帅哥。” 他跟着房子走到对面，那里有一座小山缓坡向下。 从大楼后面延伸出来的是一个丑陋的、生锈的金属结构，看起来像一个旧仓库的遗迹。 上面放着一张张床单

of sleek blue solar panels. A tidy white picket fence enclosed the warehouse, extending from the larger building's wall down the hill. A weary- looking gardener was opening a door in the warehouse. He scowled, waving for them to go away. Then he disappeared inside. "Green recycling," Amy remarked. "Old building on bottom, solar collector on top." Attached to the fence was a sign with a message in different languages. In English it said DO NOT PROCEED BEYOND THIS AREA/ENERGY COLLECTORS. "Okay, that does it," Nellie said. "I say we head back down the hill, buy some beads from the locals, crack a few antelope jokes…" But Dan had his eye on something. A vertical wooden post was attached to the bigger building, with a glass strip running down its length. A series of these posts, like stray cacti, had been placed in the grassy area between the picket fence and the solar collectors— like the remains of an older fence within the newer one. "Amy, do you have any coins?" Amy pulled out several Indonesian rupiah coins

光滑的蓝色太阳能电池板。 一个整洁的白色尖桩栅栏围住了仓库，从较大的建筑物的墙壁一直延伸到山下。 一个满脸倦容的园丁正在打开仓库的一扇门。 他皱起眉头，挥手叫他们走开。 然后他就消失在里面了。 “绿色回收，”艾米说。 “底部是老建筑，顶部是太阳能收集器。” 篱笆上挂着一个牌子，上面用不同的语言写着信息。 用英语说，不要越过这个区域/能量收集器。 “好吧，就这样吧，”内莉说。 “我说我们下山去，从当地人那里买一些珠子，开几个羚羊的玩笑……”但是丹看中了什么。 一根垂直的木柱固定在较大的建筑上，玻璃条沿着它的长度延伸。 在尖桩栅栏和太阳能集热器之间的草地上，有一串这样的柱子，就像迷路的仙人掌，就像新栅栏里旧栅栏的残骸。 “艾米，你有硬币吗？”艾米掏出几枚印尼盾硬币

from her pocket, which she gave to Dan. Rearing back, he tossed them toward the old building. Dzzzit! Dzzzit! Dzzzit! Dzzzit! One by one, they sparked and fell to the ground, trailing wisps of smoke. "Who-o-oa," Nellie gasped. "What'd you do?" "It's an invisible electric eye," Dan said. "Go past it, and you're nuked. The gardener must turn it on and off." "Nuking people to protect solar panels?" Amy said. "Come on, let's pay these guys a visit." Dan began sprinting back to the main entrance. Amy caught up to Dan in front of the warning sign. "'Guard dogs… live electrical current.' Who goes first?" "Maybe there's a doorbell," Nellie said. "Hey, this could be worse," Dan said. "At least it doesn't say…" Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a slithery movement in the grass. "SNAKE!" Amy rolled her eyes. "Very funny."

她从口袋里掏出钱给了丹。 他向后仰起身子，把它们扔向那座老房子。 Dzzzit !Dzzzit !Dzzzit !Dzzzit !它们一个接一个地燃烧起来，落在地上，拖着一缕缕烟雾。 “嗬——嗬——嗬，”耐莉喘着气说。 “你做了什么？”“这是一只看不见的电眼，”丹说。 “过了它，你就完蛋了。 园丁必须把它打开和关上。” “用核武器来保护太阳能电池板？”艾米说。 “来吧，我们去拜访一下这些家伙。” 丹开始向正门跑去。 艾米在警示牌前追上了丹。 “‘看门狗……带电电流。’谁先走？”“也许门铃响了，”内莉说。 “嘿，情况可能更糟，”丹说。 “至少上面没说……”他从眼角瞥见草丛里有什么滑溜溜的动静。 “蛇!”艾米翻了个白眼。 “非常有趣”。

"No, Amy, look!" "Ghhh… gchhh…" The words caught in Amy's throat. She felt the weight across her shoe tops even before looking down. When she did, her feet were under the flowing green body of a snake at least six feet long. It slithered fast, its eyes wide. "Mamba," Dan said, remembering it from science class. Snakes were one of the only topics that kept him awake in school. "Don't. Move. As long as its head is close to the ground, you should be all right." Amy's arms were vibrating. Her face was bone white. The bulk of the snake's body was over her now… the tail… almost gone… THWACK! The building's door swung open. Amy jumped. With an angry hiss and a flare of its sides, the snake reared up out of the grass. "Dan!" Amy yelled. A man stormed toward them, down the flagstone walkway. He was dark-skinned and close to seven feet tall, with a potbelly that strained the buttons of his black shirt. A scar split his left

“不，艾米，你看！”“呜……呜……”这句话哽在艾米的喉咙里。 她还没往下看，就感觉到了压在她鞋面上的重量。 当她这样做的时候，她的脚被一条至少六英尺长的蛇的绿色身体所覆盖。 它滑得很快，眼睛睁得大大的。 “曼巴，”丹说，想起了科学课上的名字。 在学校里，蛇是唯一让他睡不着觉的话题之一。 “不要。移动。只要它的头贴近地面，你就没事了。” 艾米的手臂在颤抖。 她的脸苍白如骨。现在蛇的大部分已经在她身上了……尾巴……几乎没了……砰！大楼的门开了。 艾米跳。蛇发出一声愤怒的嘶嘶声，身体两侧张开，从草丛中抬起头来。 “丹!”艾米喊道。一个男人沿着石板路向他们冲了过来。 他皮肤黝黑，身高接近七英尺，大肚腩把黑色衬衫的扣子都拉紧了。 一道伤疤撕裂了他的左边

eyebrow, running down his cheek to his jawbone. He glared at them with bloodshot eyes. In his right hand was a rifle. The snake rose higher, eyes now on the guard. As the man approached, it lunged forward. With one fluid motion, the man lifted a stick from the ground in his bare hand. The mamba clamped its teeth down hard on the stick. Calmly, the man tossed the stick down the hillside, the snake flailing along with it. He glared at Dan, Amy, and Nellie. The anger in his eyes had turned to puzzlement. "May I help you?" On his badge was the name A. Bhekisisa. "Th-that was awesome," Dan said. The guard smiled. "Thank you. I am confused. An alarm went off. Was that you?" "Maybe," Dan said. "We got kind of lost." "We're… l-l-looking for our p-p-parents," Amy stammered. Dan groaned inwardly. Mr. Bhekisisa laughed. "I'm so sorry. The gun is

眉毛，顺着他的脸颊一直延伸到他的下颌骨。 他用充血的眼睛怒视着他们。 他的右手拿着一支步枪。 蛇爬得更高了，眼睛盯着守卫。 当那个人走近时，它向前冲去。 那人徒手从地上举起一根棍子，动作流畅。 曼巴用牙齿紧紧咬住树枝。 男人平静地把棍子扔到山坡上，蛇也跟着甩来甩去。 他怒视着丹、艾米和内莉。 他眼中的愤怒变成了困惑。 “我能为您效劳吗？”他的徽章上写着A。 Bhekisisa。“太棒了，”丹说。 卫兵笑了。“谢谢。 我很困惑。闹钟响了。 是你吗？”“也许吧，”丹说。 “我们有点迷路了。”“我们……我们在找——找——找我们的——父母。”艾米结结巴巴地说。 丹在心里呻吟。贝基萨笑了。 “我很抱歉。枪是