Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 Alistair Oh was absently doodling on his paper place mat at the dim sum restaurant when Amy and Nellie joined him. "Nice calligraphy," Nellie commented. Startled, the older man leaped to his feet, upending his walking stick, which clattered to the floor. "Good morning!" He seated them in his gallant old-world fashion. "What does it say?" Amy asked listlessly. "I beg your pardon?" She indicated the Chinese character on his place mat, elaborately formed despite the fact that he was using a ballpoint pen rather than the customary paintbrush.

阿利斯泰尔·吴心不在焉地在点心餐厅的纸餐垫上乱涂乱画，这时艾米和内莉加入了他的行列。 “书法不错，”内莉评论道。 老人吓了一跳，一下子站了起来，把手杖打翻在地，手杖哗啦哗啦地掉在地上。 “早上好!”他以他那老式的英姿让他们就座。 “上面写了什么？”艾米没精打采地问。 “你说什么？”她指了指餐垫上的汉字，尽管他用的是圆珠笔，而不是常用的画笔，但这个汉字还是写得很精致。

"That word. What does it mean?" "Oh, this. It says—'charm,'" he replied, looking a little uncomfortable. "Never mind that, Amy. Where is your brother?" "We didn't find him." Amy was working hard to hold it together, but the dark circles around her eyes revealed the depth of her worry. "I'm getting really freaked. What if Isabel Kabra has him?" Isabel, the human worst-case scenario. "Calm down." Nellie put an arm around her shoulders. "It doesn't help Dan if we panic." "Isabel is not the problem." Alistair held up a copy of the Beijing Daily, featuring a picture of Jonah at the Bird's Nest. "This is what I called you about." Nellie shook her head sadly. "Old news, Uncle A. Bad music. Good riot. No Dan."

”这个词。这是什么意思？”“哦,这样。 上面写着——‘魅力’，”他回答，显得有点不自在。 “没关系，艾美。你哥哥在哪里？”“我们没找到他。” 艾米努力控制自己的情绪，但她眼睛周围的黑眼圈显示出她有多担心。 “我真的吓坏了。 如果他在伊莎贝尔·卡布拉手里怎么办？”伊莎贝尔，人类最坏的情况。 “冷静下来。”内利伸出一只胳膊搂住她的肩膀。 “如果我们慌了，对丹没有帮助。” “伊莎贝尔不是问题所在。” 阿利斯泰尔举起一份《北京日报》，上面有一张约拿在鸟巢的照片。 “这就是我打电话给你的原因。” 内莉伤心地摇了摇头。 “老消息了，a叔叔。 良好的暴乱。没有丹。”

"Jonah's keeping an eye out for him," Amy added. "I know he's the enemy, but I think he really cares." Alistair was unimpressed. "Allow me to translate." He read from the middle of the article. "'Police broke up the altercation before there were any serious injuries. But one member of the Wizard entourage, Mr. Daniel K. Hill, was treated for a minor cut above his left eye. Mr. Hill, a young cousin of the superstar, described the scene as Ladies' Night Smackdown…'" "He's alive!" Amy exploded. "Who else could think of wrestling at a time like this?" Nellie's powerful sigh of relief sent paper napkins aloft. "Thank God! He's still lost, but at least he's okay. I mean, he's with Jonah—" Her face twisted. "That stuck-up tin-plated little hip- hop freak show! I should have known he was lying!" Alistair clucked wanly. "How little our Janus cousins have changed over time. In the years leading up to the Second World War, Puyi became a Japanese puppet in exchange for the

“约拿在盯着他，”艾米补充说。 “我知道他是敌人，但我认为他真的在乎。” 阿利斯泰尔不为所动。“请允许我翻译一下。” 他从文章的中间读起。 “警方在出现任何严重伤害之前就将这场争执解决了。 但是魔术队的一名随行人员丹尼尔？ 希尔左眼上方有个小伤口，正在接受治疗。 希尔先生是这位超级巨星的年轻表弟，他把这一幕描述为“女士之夜的对决”。艾米爆炸。 “在这种时候，还有谁会想到摔跤？”内莉如释重负地有力地叹了口气，把餐巾纸都送上了天。 “感谢上帝!他还是迷路了，但至少他没事。 我是说，他和乔纳在一起——”她的脸扭曲了。 “那个自命不凡的镀锡嘻哈怪胎！”我早该知道他在撒谎！”阿利斯泰尔无精打采地咯咯叫着。 “随着时间的推移，我们的Janus表亲变化如此之小。 在第二次世界大战之前的几年里，溥仪成为了日本的傀儡，以换取

chance to be emperor again— just as Jonah has become so obsessed with his own purposes that he can't see the anguish he's inflicting." "Or he sees it fine and flat-out doesn't care," the au pair suggested darkly. Amy struggled to keep her emotions in check. "But why would Jonah kidnap Dan? And more important, why would my idiot brother play along with it?" "The second question you've answered yourself," Alistair replied. "He has nowhere else to go. He probably believes he's an invited guest. As for Jonah's motive— isn't it obvious? The search for the thirty-nine clues." Nellie frowned. "He's got money up the wazoo and connections everywhere. What does he need Dan for?" "Don't you know?" Surprised, Alistair turned from the au pair to Amy. "You children have created quite a stir in the hunt." "Why?" asked Amy. "We've outsmarted a few people, but I don't think we're winning." She paused. "Are we?"

有机会再次成为皇帝——就像约拿沉迷于自己的目的，看不到他所造成的痛苦一样。” “或者他觉得很好，完全不在乎，”互惠生阴郁地建议。 艾米努力控制自己的情绪。 “可是约拿为什么要绑架丹呢？” 更重要的是，为什么我的白痴哥哥会跟着玩呢？”“第二个问题你已经回答了，”阿利斯泰尔回答。 “他无处可去。 他可能以为自己是受邀嘉宾。 至于约拿的动机，不是很明显吗？ 寻找这39条线索。” 内莉皱起了眉头。“他有很多钱，到处都有关系。 他需要丹做什么？”“你不知道吗?”阿利斯泰尔惊讶地把目光从互惠生转向艾米。 “你们这些孩子在狩猎中引起了不小的轰动。” “为什么？”艾米问。“我们比一些人聪明，但我不认为我们会赢。” 她停顿了一下。“我们?”

"Perhaps not, but you're younger than the rest of us, with fewer resources, no branch to support you, and almost zero knowledge of our family history. Many predicted you wouldn't last a week. Yet here you are, right in the thick of things. Maybe you've inherited some of Grace's abilities, or perhaps your outsider status allows you to see the big picture. Whatever it is, Jonah seems to believe it can help him." "I don't care about the contest," Amy said impatiently. "Not until we've got Dan back. Who knows what Jonah's going to do when he's through with him? They've got crocodiles here, too!" "At least now we know where to look," Nellie reminded her. "Find Jonah and we've found Dan. One thing about being a world-renowned jerk-face— he can't hide. Wherever he goes, it makes the news." Alistair scanned the article. "According to this, his next stop is the Great Wall." "Then so is ours," Amy decided. "My dear," he told her, "the Great Wall of

“也许不是，但你比我们其他人都年轻，资源更少，没有分支机构支持你，对我们的家族史几乎一无所知。 很多人预测你撑不过一周。 但你在这里，就在最重要的地方。 也许你继承了格蕾丝的一些能力，也许你的局外人身份能让你看清大局。 不管它是什么，约拿似乎相信它能帮助他。” “我不在乎比赛，”艾米不耐烦地说。 “等丹回来再说。 谁知道乔纳和他分手后会做什么？ 他们这里也有鳄鱼！”“至少现在我们知道去哪儿找了，”内莉提醒她。 “找到约拿，我们就找到了丹。 作为一个世界知名的混蛋脸，他不能隐藏。 无论他走到哪里，都会成为新闻。” 阿利斯泰尔浏览了一下那篇文章。 “根据这个，他的下一站是长城。” “那我们的也一样，”艾米决定道。 “亲爱的，”他告诉她，“长城。

China is over four thousand miles long. Since Jonah is traveling from Beijing, we can make an educated guess that he will visit the Badaling section, closest to here. But even that is a vast amount of territory to cover." "Jonah's a celebrity," Amy argued. "If he's there, we'll find him." Her face turned grim. "We have to if we want to save Dan." Broderick Wizard frowned out the window of the Gulfstream G5. Far below, the rolling Chinese countryside gave way to a wide sprawl of houses and low apartment buildings. "I thought Dengfeng was supposed to be a little village. There's a lot of population down there." "Welcome to China," the flight attendant told him with a smile. "Even the small towns are big." "When you've got one-point-three billion people, you have to stick them wherever they fit," suggested Dan from the depths of a forest of sodas, milk shakes, and snacks of all varieties. It was a good thing Dan took advantage of the extravagance of the jet ride, because the comforts

中国有四千多英里长。 既然约拿是从北京来的，我们可以有根据地猜测他将参观离这里最近的八达岭部分。 但即便如此，要覆盖的领土也很大。” “乔纳是个名人，”艾米争辩道。 “如果他在那里，我们会找到他的。” 她的脸变得阴沉起来。“如果我们想救丹，就必须这么做。” Broderick Wizard在湾流G5的窗外皱起了眉头。 远处，连绵起伏的中国乡村被大片的房屋和低矮的公寓楼所取代。 “我以为登封应该是一个小村庄。 那里有很多人口。” “欢迎来到中国，”空姐微笑着对他说。 “即使是小城镇也很大。” “当你有13亿人的时候，你必须把他们安置在合适的地方，”丹在一片苏打水、奶昔和各种零食的森林深处建议道。 这是一件好事，丹利用了飞机旅行的奢侈，因为舒适