Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 Amy barely slept a wink. Worry mingled with jet lag in her mind, a toxic brew that had her watching the LED readout on her bedside clock throughout the long night. Never did more than ten minutes go by between red-eyed updates. In the other bed, Nellie was also sleeping fitfully, murmuring under her breath through nervous dreams. Even Saladin was restless and had coughed up three fur balls by morning. It was after five when Amy finally fell into an exhausted sleep. She was plagued by nightmares about her brother wandering through the deserted predawn gloom of Tiananmen Square. He would know no other place to look for her. And where was she? Safe in bed. It was all her fault. Why had she burdened her

艾米几乎没有合眼。 焦虑和时差交织在她的脑海里，这是一种有毒的混合物，让她整个漫长的夜晚都在看着床头闹钟上的LED显示。 每次更新的时间间隔都不超过10分钟。 在另一张床上，内莉也断断续续地睡着，紧张地做着梦，低声咕哝着。 就连萨拉丁也坐立不安，到早上为止，他已经咳出了三个毛球。 5点多了，艾米终于筋疲力尽地睡着了。 她经常做噩梦，梦见自己的哥哥在黎明前空荡荡的天安门广场上徘徊。 他不知道还有什么地方可以找她。 她在哪里？在床上安全。 都是她的错。她为什么要加重她的负担

brother with her deepest fears about Mom and Dad? No eleven-year-old was ready to face something like that. She wasn't sure she could face it herself. Nellie's urgent whispering penetrated her reverie."… in Russia they ran ahead of me on purpose. This is different. Dan knew we were in the square, waiting for him, and he didn't come back—" Amy sat up. "Who are you talking to?" Startled, Nellie slammed down the hotel phone. "Your uncle Alistair," she said quickly. "We got cut off." Amy frowned. "No offense, but that's not your call. We don't want to have anything to do with Alistair. He was there the night our parents were killed." Nellie was stubborn. "That was then and this is now. You're in charge of the clue hunt. But when one of you kids goes missing, that's Nellie time. Do you speak Chinese? Me, neither. We need someone who'll pick up on it if there's a story around town about a lost American boy."

带着她对爸爸妈妈最深的恐惧的哥哥？ 没有一个11岁的孩子准备好面对这样的事情。 她不确定自己能不能面对。 内利急切的耳语声穿透了她的遐想。“……在俄罗斯，他们故意跑在我前面。 这是不同的。丹知道我们在广场等他，可他没有回来——”艾米坐了起来。 “你在跟谁说话？”内莉吓了一跳，砰地一声挂断了旅馆的电话。 “你叔叔阿利斯泰尔。”她赶紧说。 “我们被切断了。”艾米皱起了眉头。 “无意冒犯，但这不是你的决定。 我们不想和阿利斯泰尔扯上任何关系。 我们父母被杀的那晚，他就在那里。” 内莉很固执。“那是过去，现在是现在。 你负责寻找线索。 但如果你们其中一个孩子失踪了，那就是内莉时间。 你会说中文吗？我,无论是。 如果镇上有一个失踪的美国男孩的故事，我们需要有人来关注它。”

Amy nodded, chastened. "Call him back. Thanks, Nellie." They arranged to meet Uncle Alistair at the Imperial Hotel in half an hour. And as they slipped out the door, leaving Saladin asleep on a pillow, a tiny nagging doubt tugged at Amy's mind. If Nellie had just been talking to Alistair on the phone, how come she'd had to look up the number? "Amy. Nellie." Alistair Oh stood as they approached his table and gallantly saw them into their chairs before reseating himself. He may have been a backstabber like all the other Cahills, but his manners were impeccable. "I took the liberty of ordering breakfast. Please help yourselves." Amy and Nellie dug in ravenously. In the tumult of Dan's disappearance, they had skipped dinner. "Amy, you must be frantic," Alistair said in a mixture of sympathy and worry. "Dan lost in

艾米点了点头，受到了教训。“叫他回来。 谢谢,内莉。”他们安排半小时后在帝国饭店见阿利斯泰尔叔叔。 当他们溜出门，留下萨拉丁睡在枕头上时，一个小小的怀疑在艾米的脑海里挥之不去。 如果内莉刚刚和阿利斯泰尔通了电话，她为什么要查电话号码呢？ ”艾米。内莉。”当他们走近他的桌子时，阿利斯泰尔·吴站了起来，殷勤地把他们扶到椅子上，然后自己重新坐下。 他也许像其他卡希尔家的人一样背后捅刀子，但他的举止无可挑剔。 “我自作主张点了早餐。 请大家自便。”艾米和内莉狼吞虎咽地吃着。 在丹失踪的喧嚣中，他们没有吃晚饭。 “艾米，你一定是疯了。”阿利斯泰尔说，语气中既有同情，又有担心。 丹迷失了

Beijing. All of us who love you will find this most upsetting." Amy's lips were tight. "How much did you love us when you faked your own death in Korea?" Uncle Alistair did not apologize. "That was different. A clue was involved. We Cahills are destined to serve two masters— our humanity and the thirty-nine clues." "And if a clue becomes involved again this time?" Nellie put in pointedly. "I care deeply about Dan, just as you do," he assured them, his expression pinched. "Where did you last see him?" "In Tiananmen Square," replied Amy, mangling the name with her full mouth. "Near the Gate of Heavenly Peace. We had an argument, and he ran away and never came back." The older man was astonished. "But you and your brother are so close. What were you fighting about?" Amy stuck out her jaw. "The night our parents died. The fire Isabel set. And the other people who might have been there— like you."

北京。我们所有爱你的人都会感到非常难过。” 艾米的嘴唇紧绷着。“当你在韩国假死时，你有多爱我们？”阿利斯泰尔叔叔没有道歉。 “这是不同的。其中涉及到一条线索。 我们卡希尔注定要侍奉两个主人——我们的人性和三十九条线索。” “如果这次又出现了线索呢？”内莉尖锐地插了一句。 “我非常关心丹，就像你一样。”他向他们保证，他的表情很紧张。 “你最后一次见到他是在什么地方？”“在天安门广场，”艾美回答道，嘴里塞满了东西，把那个名字弄得一团糟。 “在太平门附近。 我们吵了一架，然后他就跑了，再也没回来。” 老人很吃惊。 “但是你和你哥哥那么亲密。 你们在吵什么？”艾米伸出下巴。 “我们父母去世的那天晚上。 伊莎贝尔放的火。还有其他可能在那里的人——比如你。”

Uncle Alistair shut his eyes for so long that both girls thought he might have dozed off. When he looked at them again, it was as if his face had been drawn downward by a kind of peculiar gravity. "If I could travel back in time and change a single hour, that would be the one," he said, his voice husky with emotion. "Two fine lives extinguished, two beautiful children orphaned. What a terrible calamity." "Calamity!" Amy sat forward. "You talk about it like it was an accident! Isabel burned our house down!" Alistair winced, as if the effort of recalling were physically painful. "Do you want the truth?" "I have all the truth I need!" Amy seethed. "She set fire to your house in Java, and now Irina's gone! She did the same thing seven years ago!" Alistair nodded tragically. "We all knew Isabel's ruthlessness. I should have foreseen that she was capable of murder. Perhaps that is why I've always felt a special responsibility toward you and your brother— and why his disappearance is so distressing to me."

阿利斯泰尔叔叔闭上眼睛太久了，两个女孩都以为他可能睡着了。 当他再看他们的时候，他的脸似乎被一种特殊的引力拉得向下。 “如果我能回到过去，改变一个小时，那就是那个，”他说，他的声音因激动而沙哑。 “两个美好的生命消失了，两个美丽的孩子成了孤儿。 多么可怕的灾难啊！” “灾难!”艾米向前坐着。 “你说得好像那是个意外似的！”伊莎贝尔把我们的房子烧了！”阿利斯泰尔畏缩了一下，好像努力回忆是身体上的痛苦。 “你想知道真相吗？”“我掌握了我所需要的全部真相！”艾米怒火中烧。 “她放火烧了你在爪哇的房子，现在伊琳娜不见了！”七年前她也是这么做的！”阿利斯泰尔悲伤地点了点头。 “我们都知道伊莎贝尔的无情。 我早该预见到她会杀人。 也许这就是为什么我总觉得对你和你哥哥有一种特殊的责任——也是为什么他的失踪使我如此痛苦的原因。”

It was not that Amy had nothing to say to this. She simply did not trust herself to speak without falling to pieces, as if the only thing holding her together were her silence. Nellie put an arm around her. "I know this is big stuff for you, Amy. But right now we have to concentrate on Dan." "What do you need from me?" Alistair offered. Nellie pulled a stack of Beijing newspapers out of a large tote bag and dropped them with a thud on the table in front of him. "Look through these. Anything suspicious— lost American kid, young tourist in trouble, boy found sleeping on the subway— that kind of angle. Check radio and TV news, too." "What about the US Embassy?" Alistair suggested. "No embassy!" Amy rasped. "At least, not yet. Dan and I are wanted by Social Services! If they run our names through a computer, we're out of the contest." "The contest," he repeated carefully. "My dear child, far be it from me to use this terrible

这并不是说艾米对此无话可说。 她简直不敢相信自己说话时不会崩溃，仿佛唯一能让她振作起来的就是她的沉默。 内利搂着她。 “我知道这对你来说很重要，艾米。 但现在我们必须集中精力对付丹。” “你需要我做什么？”阿利斯泰尔。 内利从一个大手提袋里拿出一叠北京报纸，砰的一声扔在他面前的桌子上。 “看看这些。任何可疑的事情——失踪的美国小孩，遇到麻烦的年轻游客，被发现在地铁上睡觉的男孩——诸如此类。 也看看广播和电视新闻。” “那美国大使馆呢？”Alistair建议。 “没有大使馆!”艾米发出刺耳的声音。“至少，现在还没有。 丹和我被社会福利机构通缉了！如果他们把我们的名字输入电脑，我们就出局了。” “比赛。”他小心地重复了一遍。 “我亲爱的孩子，我决不会用这可怕的