15 I’ll Be Watching You

Chapter 15 I'll Be Watching You As the McDonalds drove back on Lovelock Highway up to I-80, the twins sat without saying a word. Suddenly they realized how naive they had been. They had thought that once they'd gotten on the road with their parents, their troubles would be over. They had thought they would be safe in the RV. Who could bother them in the deserts of Nevada? Their parents would protect them. Right. Coke felt the back of his head. There was a GPS chip buried in there somewhere, he remembered. Bones had staple gunned it into his scalp. But who knew where Bones was now? He didn't show up at the sand dune to help them.

当麦当劳一家沿着洛夫洛克高速公路开回I-80号公路时，双胞胎兄弟一言不发地坐在那里。 他们突然意识到自己是多么天真。 他们以为一旦和父母一起上路，他们的麻烦就会过去。 他们原以为呆在房车里是安全的。 谁能在内华达州的沙漠里打扰他们呢？ 他们的父母会保护他们。 正确的。可乐摸了摸后脑勺。 他记得有个GPS芯片埋在里面的某个地方。 骨头把它钉进了他的头皮。 但谁知道骨头现在在哪里？ 他没有出现在沙丘上帮助他们。

That bowler dude guy had said that Mrs. Higgins had "taken care of" their friends. Maybe Bones and Mya weren't even alive anymore. Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/). Click Get Directions. In the A box, type Toulon NV. In the B box, type Wendover UT. Click Get Directions. Coke looked out the window at the big sky. Mrs. Higgins was working with those bowler dudes to kill him and Pep. That much he knew. Maybe satellites were tracking their position, following their every move, listening in on every conversation. What had they gotten themselves into? He fiddled with his deck of cards as these thoughts were running through his brain. The cards had become his security blanket in a way. Just holding them calmed him. Pep sat with her eyes closed. She was shaken, traumatized by the incident at the top of Sand Mountain.

那个打保龄球的家伙说希金斯太太“照顾”了他们的朋友。 也许骨头和米娅已经不在人世了。 进入谷歌Maps （http://maps.google.com/）。 点击“获取路线”。在A框中，输入土伦NV。 在B框中，输入wenddover UT。 点击“获取路线”。可乐望着窗外广阔的天空。 希金斯太太和那些打保龄球的人一起想杀了他和佩普。 这些他都知道。也许卫星在追踪他们的位置，跟踪他们的一举一动，监听他们的每一次谈话。 他们给自己惹上了什么麻烦？ 这些念头在他脑子里闪过，他摆弄着那副牌。 在某种程度上，这些卡片成了他的安全毯。 只是抱着它们让他平静下来。 佩普闭着眼睛坐着。 在沙山山顶发生的事件使她受到了惊吓和创伤。

Dr. McDonald pulled on to I-80 and announced that his goal was to make it across Nevada by the end of the day. It would be about 320 miles. "How about a travel game to pass the time?" Mrs. McDonald piped up cheerfully. "I'll name a place, and you guys have to think of a different place that starts with the last letter of my place. Got it? I'll start. Vietnam." "Miami," said Dr. McDonald. "Islip," said Mrs. McDonald. "It's a city in New York State." "Punjab," said Dr. McDonald. "It's a region in India." "What about you kids?" Mrs. McDonald hollered behind her. "Don't you want to play? Get into the spirit of it! Can you think of a place that starts with the letter B?"

麦克唐纳把车开到80号州际公路上，宣布他的目标是在当天结束前穿过内华达州。 大概是320英里。 “来个旅行游戏打发时间怎么样？”麦克唐纳太太高兴地尖声说。 “我来命名一个地方，你们必须想出一个以我的地名的最后一个字母开头的地方。 明白了吗?我将开始。越南。” “迈阿密，”麦克唐纳医生说。 “是我，”麦克唐纳太太说。 “它是纽约州的一个城市。” “旁遮普，”麦克唐纳博士说。 “这是印度的一个地区。”“你们这些孩子呢？”麦克唐纳太太在她身后喊道。 “你不想玩吗？”进入它的精神！你能想到一个以字母B开头的地方吗？”

"Boring," said Coke. He was right, too. There actually is a town in Oregon called Boring. Go ahead and look it up. "We don't want to play right now, Mom," Pep said quietly. "We're tired." "You kids are no fun at all," Mrs. McDonald said. She gave up the idea of playing a travel game and slipped a CD out of the visor in front of her —The Best of Police. The first song began to play. A guy was singing about how he would always be watching somebody—every breath they take, every move they make. The song sent a shiver down Pep's spine. Somebody was watching them. She took out her cell phone and punched in a text to her brothe.... PEP: U think that bowler dude on sand mountain is dead? COKE: Don't no. Don't wanna no. Probly not. PEP: We couldve killed him. The sword was just

“无聊，”可口可乐说。他也是对的。 俄勒冈州有个小镇叫无聊镇。 去查一下吧。“我们现在不想玩，妈妈，”佩普平静地说。 “我们很累。”“你们这些孩子一点也不好玩，”麦克唐纳太太说。 她放弃了玩旅行游戏的念头，从面前的遮阳板里拿出一张CD——《最佳警察》。 第一首歌开始演奏了。 一个人在唱歌，说他会一直注视着别人——他们的每一次呼吸，他们的每一个动作。 这首歌吓得佩普脊背发冷。 有人在监视他们。 她拿出手机，给弟弟发了一条短信：.... 佩普：你觉得那个在沙山上玩保龄球的家伙死了吗？ 可乐：不要。我不想要。 探针。PEP：我们可以杀了他。 这把剑只是

lying there. COKE: Coulda shoulda woulda. PEP: If hes still alive he could bother us again. COKE: I no. Pep pulled out her pad and pencil to resume work on the unsolvable cipher they had found on the windshield that morning. JNTET FFHNO LCDNB LTYUL VSEED NTHTU EWNYI TOECO KOTEA EORIEDPNOITOR She tried reading every second letter to see if it made any sense that way. Then she tried reading every third letter, and then every fourth letter. Then she tried them all backward. It was just gibberish. She closed her eyes again. People who have never been to Nevada tend to think it's just a barren desert with two big cities: Las Vegas and Reno. In fact, it's the most mountainous state in the nation and is filled

躺在那里。可乐：本可以，本应该，本应该。 PEP：如果他还活着，他会再来烦我们的。 可乐：我没有。佩普拿出她的便笺簿和铅笔，继续研究那天早上他们在挡风玻璃上发现的无法破解的密码。 她试着每隔一封信就读一遍，看看是否有任何道理。 然后她试着每读第三个字母，然后每读第四个字母。 然后她把它们都倒着试了一遍。 那只是胡言乱语。她又闭上了眼睛。 从来没有去过内华达州的人往往认为它只是一个贫瘠的沙漠，有两个大城市：拉斯维加斯和里诺。 事实上，它是美国最多山的州，而且人口稠密

with jagged canyons, lush valleys, gorgeous fields of alfalfa hay, sheep ranches, and cactus. Lots of cactus. And yes, the occasional rattlesnake, Gila monster, and kangaroo rat. There are also a lot of cool places in Nevada, especially for people who gravitate toward the offbeat. Like Coke and Pep's mom. Mrs. McDonald reached into her tote bag full of guidebooks and pulled out one titled Eccentric America. "Hey, in Middlegate they have this thing called the Nevada Shoe Tree," she announced. "It says here that some couple was about to get married and the groom was afraid his bride was going to run away, so he threw her shoes up into the tree. Lots of other people threw their shoes up there too, and today that tree is filled with shoes. We should go there." "Middlegate is a hundred miles south of here," Dr. McDonald said. "I'm not driving that far out of our way to see a tree with shoes on it."

这里有参差不齐的峡谷、郁郁葱葱的山谷、长满苜蓿干草的美丽田野、牧羊场和仙人掌。 很多仙人掌。是的，偶尔还有响尾蛇、吉拉怪物和袋鼠鼠。 内华达州也有很多很酷的地方，尤其是对那些被另类吸引的人来说。 就像可口可乐和佩普的妈妈。麦克唐纳太太把手伸进装满旅游指南的手提袋，拿出一本名为《古怪的美国》的书。 “嘿，在米德尔盖特，他们有一种叫做内华达鞋树的东西，”她宣布。 “这上面说，一对新人要结婚了，新郎怕新娘跑掉，就把她的鞋子扔到树上。 许多其他人也把他们的鞋子扔到那里，今天那棵树上满是鞋子。 我们应该去那里。”“米德尔盖特在这里往南一百英里处。” 麦克唐纳说。“我可不想把车开那么远，就为了去看一棵挂着鞋子的树。”