Chapter 1

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CHAPTER 1 The sneezing began the instant the pet carrier passed the passenger's nose. A-choo!… a-choo!… a-choo!… Frozen in the aisle of the British Airways 777, Amy and Dan Cahill waited for the spasm to end. It never did. Instead, the sneezes grew in intensity, each wheezing explosion shaking the poor man's entire body. "It can't be that bad!" Dan said impatiently. Inside the carrier, Saladin looked around anxiously, unnerved by the ruckus. "Mrrp?" Nellie Gomez, the Cahill kids' au pair, came up behind them. With her iPod blaring the Ramones full blast, all she saw was the man squirming in watery-eyed distress. "I told you the taco stand was serving habanero peppers!" she announced too loudly.

第一章当宠物笼从旅客鼻子旁经过时，他就开始打喷嚏了。 阿嚏,阿嚏!……阿嚏,阿嚏!……阿嚏,阿嚏!艾米和丹卡希尔被困在英国航空公司777客机的过道里，等待着痉挛的结束。 从来没有。相反，他的喷嚏越来越厉害，每一次喘息的爆炸声都使这个可怜的人全身颤抖。 “不可能那么糟！”丹不耐烦地说。 在航空母舰里，萨拉丁焦急地环顾四周，被喧嚣弄得不知所措。 “Mrrp ?”卡希尔家孩子的保姆内莉·戈麦斯走到他们后面。 当她的iPod把雷蒙斯乐队的声音放到最大时，她所看到的只是那个男人在流泪的痛苦中扭动着。 “我告诉过你墨西哥卷饼摊卖哈瓦那辣椒！”她大声宣布。

Her booming voice drew the flight attendant to their row. She spoke to the sneezer in Chinese and then turned to Amy and Dan. "It seems Mr. Lee is allergic to cat hair. Your pet will have to ride in the cargo hold." "But they let us keep him on the connecting flight from Madagascar," Amy protested. By this time, Nellie had switched off her iPod. "Can't Mr. Lee move to another seat?" "I'm sorry. The flight is completely full." Saladin did not go quietly. The Egyptian Mau's outraged mrrps resounded through the cabin until the boarding door was closed. Mr. Lee blew his nose as Amy and Dan squeezed past him into their seats. Nellie settled herself one row behind them, lost once again in her iPod. "How lame is this?" Dan complained, already fidgeting, even though the plane had yet to pull back from the gate. "Our second million-hour flight in a row, and we don't even have Saladin. What could be worse?" Their eyes met for about half a second, and then

她洪亮的声音把空乘人员吸引到了他们那排。 她用中文对打喷嚏的人说了几句话，然后转向艾米和丹。 “李先生似乎对猫毛过敏。 你的宠物必须坐在货舱里。” “但他们让我们把他留在马达加斯加的转机航班上，”艾米抗议道。 这时，内莉已经关掉了她的iPod。 “李先生不能换一个座位吗？”“我很抱歉。 航班已经全部客满了。” 萨拉丁并没有安静地离开。 埃及人愤怒的嘟嘟声响彻机舱，直到登机门关上。 当艾米和丹从他身边挤进座位时，李先生擤了擤鼻子。 内莉坐在他们后面一排，又一次沉浸在她的iPod里。 “这有多差劲？”丹抱怨道，尽管飞机还没有从登机口拉回来，他已经坐立不安了。 “这是我们连续第二次飞行百万小时，我们甚至没有萨拉丁。 还有比这更糟的吗？”他们对视了大概半秒钟，然后

they both looked away. It was a stupid question, and Dan knew it. What could be worse? This was the definition of worse— the real reason Dan's mood was misery-minus, and why Amy had no patience for him. It had nothing to do with long flights and cats. Madrigals! After all these weeks, Amy and Dan had finally solved the mystery of which branch of the Cahill family they belonged to. Not the scheming and brilliant Lucians, masters of strategy. Not the creative geniuses, the Janus. Not the physically dominant Tomas, descended from warriors. Not the innovative Ekaterinas, the greatest inventors the world has ever known. No. All these weeks circling the globe in the hunt for the 39 Clues, Amy and Dan had been Madrigals. Madrigals. The worst of the worst. Madrigals had slaughtered the Russian royal family in the course of a killing spree that spanned continents. Their tools of the trade: stealth, sabotage, deceit, murder, and above all, terror. Even the Lucians

他们俩都把目光移开。这是个愚蠢的问题，丹知道。 还有比这更糟的吗？这就是“更糟”的定义——丹心情低落的真正原因，也是艾米对他没有耐心的原因。 这与长途飞行和猫无关。 牧歌的!经过了这么多星期，艾米和丹终于解开了他们属于卡希尔家族哪个分支的谜团。 而不是诡计多门的卢西亚人，战略家。 不是创造天才，是双面神。 不是体格强健的托马斯，他是勇士的后裔。 不是爱创新的叶卡捷琳娜，而是世界上最伟大的发明家。 否。这几个星期，艾米和丹绕着地球寻找39条线索，就像牧歌一样。 悠扬。坏中的坏。 牧歌在横跨各大洲的杀戮狂潮中屠杀了俄罗斯皇室。 他们的手段是：秘密行动、破坏、欺骗、谋杀，最重要的是，制造恐怖。 即使是卢西亚人

feared the Madrigals— and everyone was afraid of the Lucians. It's like living your whole life without ever looking in a mirror, Amy thought, and suddenly you see your reflection, and you're a monster. How could they have been Madrigals without knowing it? All the way from Africa they had repeated that question, hammering themselves with it, hoping against hope that if they asked it enough, the answer might change from the awful truth. But Madrigals were so secretive that they even kept secrets from themselves. Amy and Dan's grandmother, Grace, must have been a Madrigal, too. After the death of their parents, she'd been their closest relative in the world. Yet she'd never said a word about it to them. Now Grace is gone, too, Amy reflected sadly. She and Dan were alone— except for Nellie. And, of course, Saladin, their grandmother's cherished pet. They had barely gotten used to the idea that they were members of the illustrious Cahill

害怕牧歌——每个人都害怕卢西亚人。 这就像你一辈子都没照镜子，艾米想，突然你看到了自己的倒影，你变成了一个怪物。 他们怎么可能是牧歌而不知道呢？ 从非洲来的一路上，他们一直在重复这个问题，反复思考这个问题，抱着一线希望，希望如果他们问得足够多，答案可能会改变，而不是可怕的事实。 但是牧歌是如此的神秘，他们甚至对自己保守秘密。 艾米和丹的祖母格蕾丝肯定也是一首牧歌。 在他们的父母去世后，她一直是他们在这个世界上最亲近的亲人。 然而她从来没有对他们说过一个字。 现在格蕾丝也走了，艾美悲伤地想。 她和丹单独在一起——除了内莉。 当然，还有萨拉丁，他们祖母珍爱的宠物。 他们还没有习惯自己是著名的卡希尔家族的成员

family. The search for the 39 Clues still seemed unreal to them— a chance for two Boston orphans to become the most powerful people in human history! Yet this was the ultimate shocker. Their mom and dad must have been Madrigals, too. Did that mean they were evil? Amy had been soul-searching a lot lately, trying to see clearly what was inside her own heart. It wasn't all sweetness and light. Anger at the dirty tricks of the hunt. Isabel— just the name of her parents' killer kindled a heat shimmer that distorted her vision. Isabel, who had held her as a child. Who had called her dear and played the part of the loving aunt. Isabel, who had taken two happy kids and turned them into orphans… Revenge!! It was more emotional surge than rational thought, the revving of a supercharged engine. It was so automatic, so pure, that it could only have come from the Madrigal at her core. When you're evil, can you recognize it in yourself?

家庭。对他们来说，寻找39条线索似乎仍然是不真实的——这是两个波士顿孤儿成为人类历史上最强大的人的机会！然而，这是最令人震惊的。 他们的父母一定也是牧歌人。 这意味着他们是邪恶的吗？ 艾米最近一直在自我反省，想弄清楚自己内心的想法。 并不都是甜蜜和光明。 对肮脏的狩猎手段感到愤怒。 伊莎贝尔——仅仅是杀死她父母的凶手的名字就点燃了她的视线。 小时候抱过她的伊莎贝尔。 她叫她亲爱的，扮演着慈爱的姑妈的角色。 伊莎贝尔，她把两个快乐的孩子变成了孤儿……复仇！！与其说是理性的思考，不如说是情感的激荡，是一台增压发动机的加速。 它是那么自然，那么纯洁，它只可能来自她内心深处的牧歌。 当你邪恶的时候，你能意识到自己的邪恶吗？