Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18 The holding cell was tiny and smelled bad. This may or may not have been because the toilet was right in the middle of the room, displayed like it was a stylish conversation piece. Dan hoped he wouldn't be there long enough to have to use it. If Dan was upset, Jonah was devastated. His fans would not have recognized their hip-hop idol, who sat on the wooden bench, his famous face sinking lower with each passing hour. Gone was his effervescent confidence. In fact, he wasn't speaking at all. To Dan, who had only known Jonah the world-beater, the change was almost as scary as their current predicament. Dan tried to be encouraging. "Your dad was parked just down the block. He must have seen what happened. I'll bet he's on his BlackBerry right now, pulling strings to get us out of jail." "Yeah, whatever," Jonah mumbled.

第十八章拘留室很小，散发着难闻的气味。 这可能是也可能不是因为厕所就在房间的正中央，就像它是一个时髦的谈话对象一样。 丹希望他在那里待的时间不要太长，以免不得不使用它。 如果说丹心烦意乱，那约拿就崩溃了。 他的粉丝不会认出他们的嘻哈偶像，他坐在木凳上，他那张著名的脸随着时间的流逝而下沉。 他那热情洋溢的信心荡然无存。 事实上，他根本就没说话。 对丹来说，他只知道约拿是世界之王，这种变化几乎和他们目前的困境一样可怕。 丹试着鼓励她。 “你爸爸的车就停在街区那头。 他一定看到发生了什么。 我敢打赌他现在正在用他的黑莓手机，在幕后操纵我们逃出监狱。” “是啊，管它呢，”约拿咕哝着说。

Dan was bewildered. "Don't you want to get out of here?" Jonah shrugged. "I don't care." "Well, you ought to care! You've got the world's greatest life to get back to! You're a rap star, a TV star—" "You think that means anything?" Jonah interrupted. "Seriously, yo, in our family, if you can't hack it with the thirty-nine clues, you're nothing!" "Fine," Dan conceded. "Ian and Natalie put one over on us. So what?" Jonah was bitter. "So what if I stink at the thing I've been prepping for since the day I was born? Yeah, put me in a recording studio— double platinum. Put me on TV— hit show. Put me in the clue hunt—" "Who cares about the clue hunt?" Dan interrupted. "After all you've accomplished, you're a failure because you don't think you're acing the clue hunt?" "I am a failure!" Jonah stormed. "As a Cahill and a person! Don't you get it? I bailed on you

丹被弄糊涂了。“你不想离开这里吗？”约拿耸耸肩。 “我不在乎。”“好吧，你应该关心的！你有世界上最好的生活要回去！你是一个说唱明星，一个电视明星——”“你认为这意味着什么？”约拿中断。 “说真的，你，在我们家，如果你不能破解这39条线索，你就什么都不是！”“好吧，”丹承认。 “伊恩和娜塔莉骗了我们。 那又怎样?”约拿心里很难受。 “如果我从出生那天起就一直在为这件事做准备，那又怎么样？” 是啊，让我进录音室，双白金唱片。 让我参加热门电视节目。让我去找线索——”“谁在乎找线索？”丹打断。 “在你完成了所有事情之后，你就是个失败者，因为你认为自己没有在线索搜索中获胜？”“我是个失败者！”约拿袭击。 “作为一个卡希尔家族和一个人！”你还不明白吗？ 我抛弃了你

tonight!" "You didn't! You probably saved my life!" "I was halfway out the door, cuz," Jonah insisted. "Okay, I came back. But I was gone." "That proves you're not bad," Dan reasoned. "Any idiot can do the right thing. You know what's hard? Doing the right thing when you've been hardwired to do the wrong one!" Who better than a Madrigal to understand that? "I flaked on an eleven-year-old kid who I set up to get killed!" Dan took a step back. "You wanted me dead?" The famous features twisted. "You were supposed to be my decoy. If the guards spot us, I throw you to the sharks and bounce. Nothing personal," he added, noting Dan's hurt expression. "It's the clues, yo. They're supposed to make you the most powerful human in history— I say they make you less than human!" Dan said nothing, mostly because there was nothing he could say. He wasn't even all that angry at Jonah. Dan knew better than anybody how the Clue hunt could mess with your head.

今晚!”“你没有!你可能救了我的命！”“我正要出门，老兄，”乔纳坚持说。 “好吧，我回来了。但我已经离开了。” “这证明你并不坏，”丹解释道。 “任何白痴都能做正确的事。 你知道最难的是什么吗？当你一直在做错误的事情时，去做正确的事情！”谁能比牧歌更能理解这一点呢？ “我出卖了一个11岁的孩子，我安排他被杀！”丹后退了一步。 “你想让我死？”著名的五官扭曲了。 “你应该是我的诱饵。 如果警卫发现我们，我就把你扔给鲨鱼，然后跳起来。 他注意到丹受伤的表情，补充道。 “这是线索。它们应该让你成为历史上最强大的人类——我说它们会让你变得不如人类！”丹什么也没说，主要是因为他无话可说。 他对约拿甚至没有那么生气。 丹比任何人都清楚寻找线索会让你头脑混乱。

Look how it had turned Amy against their parents and split up two siblings who had scarcely left each other's company for eleven years. Dan couldn't escape a growing dread that this wasn't a temporary separation— that there was a very real chance that he might never see his sister again. At the same time, he had saved his own life in hand-to-hand combat, using skills taught to him by a Shaolin master— how awesome was that? There was a clatter of metal on metal, and the guard appeared, accompanied by Broderick Wizard. "Are you guys okay?" His famous son didn't even look up, but to Dan, the man was a welcome sight. This was the closest Dan would ever come to having a dad show up in the nick of time. "We're all right," Dan told Broderick. "Thanks for getting us out." Jonah's father marched them briskly through the building toward the waiting limo. Their quick pace and the dirty looks they were receiving from all the police officers plainly said that they were

看看这件事是如何让艾米与他们的父母反目成仇的，并把两个11年来几乎不离不弃的兄弟姐妹拆散了。 丹无法摆脱一种日益增长的恐惧，这不是暂时的分离，他很有可能再也见不到妹妹了。 与此同时，他还在徒手格斗中保住了自己的性命，使用的是一位少林大师教给他的技巧——这有多厉害？ 金属与金属碰撞的声音响起，警卫出现了，由巫师布罗德里克陪同。 “你们还好吗？”他著名的儿子甚至没有抬头，但对丹来说，这个人是一个受欢迎的景象。 这是丹最接近父亲在关键时刻出现的一次。 “我们没事，”丹告诉布罗德里克。 “谢谢你把我们救出来。” 乔纳的父亲轻快地带领他们穿过大楼，走向等候的豪华轿车。 他们走得很快，所有警察都对他们投来嫌恶的目光，这就清楚地说明了他们是坏人

making their getaway before the cops changed their minds. "Don't even ask what the record company had to say about this," Broderick informed his son as the limo pulled away from the station. "They called in favors they'll still be repaying twenty years down the road." Jonah slumped against the leather upholstery. "I thought the 'gangsta' image was good for sales." "Not in China," Broderick growled. "They take their terracotta warriors very seriously. And you turned six of them into dust." "Blame the Kabras," Dan said defensively. "And the hit man they hired." "Well, he must have escaped," Jonah's father concluded, "because this whole rap is on your heads. And you wouldn't believe what it cost to make it go away. Venice hit the ceiling! The Janus haven't had a cover-up this big since Lufbery's lion got loose in Piccadilly!" Jonah's answer was a soft purring snore. He hadn't slept a wink all night. Neither had Dan, but never could he remember being so wired— not

在警察改变主意前逃跑。 当豪华轿车驶离车站时，布罗德里克告诉儿子：“不要问唱片公司对此有什么看法。” “他们请了人帮忙，20年后还得还钱。” 约拿瘫倒在皮革坐垫上。 “我认为‘黑帮’的形象有利于销售。” “在中国不行，”布罗德里克咆哮道。 “他们非常重视兵马俑。 你把其中六个变成了尘土。” “都怪卡布拉家族。”丹辩解道。 “还有他们雇的杀手。” “好吧，他一定是逃走了，”约拿的父亲断定，“因为这一切都是你们的责任。 你不会相信让它消失的代价是什么。 威尼斯撞到天花板了！自从卢夫贝里的狮子在皮卡迪利大街跑出来以后，雅努斯家族还没有过这么大的掩饰！”乔纳的回答是一声轻柔的呼噜声。 他一夜没合眼。 丹也没有，但他从来没有这么兴奋过——从来没有

even the time he'd put away forty ounces of Red Bull. He watched the sun rise over the miles of apartment buildings in Xian on both sides of the walls of the old city. The dawn of a new day that he had almost not lived to see. It felt— big. Jonah woke up as the limo stopped in front of the Bell Tower. He followed along like a zombie as they took the private elevator up to the penthouse. "There's a surprise waiting for you in the room," Broderick promised his son. "And I've got a surprise for you. I'm out. No more clue hunt for this kid. I don't want it and I don't like what it's turning me into. Tell Mom she's going to have to find another chump." At that moment, the elevator door slid aside, leading them directly into the suite, and a strong female voice declared, "Why don't you tell me yourself, Jonah?" Jonah's eyes widened. "Mom?" Cora Wizard, internationally renowned sculptor and performance artist. The youngest Nobel laureate in history. Legendary leader of the Janus

甚至他把40盎司的红牛藏起来的时候。 他看着太阳从西安老城城墙两侧绵延数英里的公寓楼上空升起。 这是他几乎没能活着看到的新一天的黎明。 感觉——很大。轿车停在钟楼前，乔纳醒了过来。 他像僵尸一样跟在后面，他们乘私人电梯上了顶楼。 “房间里有一个惊喜在等着你，”布罗德里克向儿子保证。 “我给你准备了一个惊喜。 我出去了。别再找这孩子的线索了。 我不想要，我也不喜欢它把我变成的样子。 告诉妈妈，她得另找一个笨蛋了。” 就在这时，电梯门滑开了，把他们直接带进了套间，一个强有力的女性声音说：“你为什么不自己告诉我，乔纳？”约拿睁大了眼睛。 “妈妈?”科拉·奇才，国际著名雕塑家和行为艺术家。 史上最年轻的诺贝尔奖得主。 雅努斯的传奇领袖