15 The Next Cipher

Chapter 15 THE NEXT CIPHER When the McDonald family climbed back into the RV after the vacuum cleaner episode, there was a six-by-nine-inch manila envelope on Coke's seat. He didn't think anything of it at first and put it aside. It wasn't until a few minutes later that he realized the envelope had not been there before. He tore it open. Inside was a sheet of lined paper with this written on it: SSGBETPLARAAENXRNDNX Another cipher. "Oh no," Coke muttered out loud. "What is it, honey?" asked his mother from the front of the RV. "Nothing, Mom," Coke said. "I just … dropped something."

当麦当劳一家在吸尘器事件结束后爬回房车时，可乐的座位上放着一个6乘9英寸的马尼拉信封。 起初他没多想，就把它放在一边了。 直到几分钟后，他才意识到信封以前没有放在那里。 他把它撕开了。里面是一张横格纸，上面写着：SSGBETPLARAAENXRNDNX又一个密码。 “哦，不，”可口可乐大声嘟囔着。 “怎么了，宝贝？”他妈妈在房车前面问。 “没什么，妈妈，”可口可乐说。 “我只是……掉了什么东西。”

Silently, he handed Pep the sheet of paper. His photographic memory was very powerful, but when it came to deciphering secret messages, he was pretty much useless. Pep looked over the paper. There were no obvious patterns. Backward, the letters meant nothing. Skipping letters didn't work. None of the usual strategies she knew seemed to fit. Embedded words—like BET—were always a distraction. Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/). Click Get Directions. In the A box, type North Canton OH. In the B box, type Somerset PA. Click Get Directions. She could solve some ciphers almost instantly. This one was not easy. It would take some time. Dr. McDonald suddenly pulled off the road into a strip mall. "Why are we stopping, Ben?" asked Mrs. McDonald. "I saw a cell phone store," he replied. "We need

他默默地把那张纸递给佩普。 他过目不忘的记忆力非常强，但在破译秘密信息时，他就无能为力了。 佩普看了看报纸。 没有明显的规律。 倒着看，这些字母没有任何意义。 跳过字母是没用的。 她所知道的常规策略似乎都不适合。 嵌入的词——比如bet——总是让人分心。 进入谷歌Maps （http://maps.google.com/）。 点击“获取路线”。在A框中，输入North Canton OH。 在B框中，输入Somerset PA。 点击“获取路线”。她几乎可以立即破解一些密码。 这并不容易。这需要一些时间。 麦克唐纳医生突然把车停在路边，开进了一家商业街。 “我们为什么要停下来，本？”麦克唐纳太太问。 “我看到一家手机店，”他回答。 “我们需要

to get new ones for the kids." "Oh yeah…" You, dear reader, who has been paying careful attention and perhaps even taking notes, certainly recall that Coke's and Pep's cell phones were ruined —they had been soaked in ice cream, hot chocolate sauce, and water back at the amusement park in Sandusky. While the twins didn't really need to have cell phones, Dr. McDonald considered it a safety issue. If for some reason the family got separated, they would be able to get in touch with one another if they all had cell phones. After they picked out phones, Coke and Pep ducked outside the store while their parents worked out the details with a clerk. "Did you figure out the cipher yet?" Coke asked his sister. "You just gave it to me, like, a minute ago!" she replied, annoyed. "Do you think you'll be able to figure it out?" "I don't know," Pep said irritably. "I'll do my best."

给孩子们买新的。” “哦，是的……”亲爱的读者，如果你一直在仔细关注，甚至可能还做了笔记，你肯定记得可口可乐和佩普的手机被毁了——它们在桑达斯基的游乐园被冰淇淋、热巧克力酱和水浸泡过。 这对双胞胎其实并不需要手机。 麦当劳认为这是一个安全问题。 如果由于某种原因一家人走散了，如果他们都有手机，他们就能互相联系。 挑选完手机后，可口可乐和佩普就躲到店外，他们的父母则和店员商量细节。 “你算出密码了吗？”科克问他的妹妹。 “你一分钟前才给我的！”她生气地回答。 “你觉得你能弄明白吗？”“我不知道，”佩普不耐烦地说。 “我会尽力的。”

Coke paced nervously back and forth outside the store, worried that they were getting closer to Washington. "Where are Mya and Bones?" he asked. "They were supposed to help us, protect us. Some help they are. When was the last time we saw them? In that motel? We'll probably never see them again. They abandoned us." "Look, they said they'd meet us in Washington," Pep told her brother. "I believe them." "Yeah, they also said we could relax and have fun until we got to Washington," Coke said bitterly. "But Archie Clone almost killed us at the amusement park, and Mrs. Higgins almost killed us at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Maybe they're working together. Mya and Bones were nowhere in sight. And now we're getting all these ciphers that make no sense at all." "You need to calm down," Pep said. "We're going to need you to be sharp when we get to D.C." She was right, and Coke knew it. Usually it was Pep who was the nervous one. But the closer they

可口可乐在店外紧张地来回踱步，担心他们离华盛顿越来越近了。 “米娅和骨头在哪儿？”他问。 “他们应该帮助我们，保护我们。 他们是有帮助的。我们最后一次见到他们是什么时候？ 在那个汽车旅馆？我们可能再也见不到他们了。 他们抛弃了我们。”“听着，他们说要在华盛顿见我们，”佩普告诉她哥哥。 “我相信他们。”“是啊，他们还说我们可以放松一下，玩得开心，直到我们到达华盛顿，”科克痛苦地说。 “可是克隆阿奇在游乐园差点把我们杀了，希金斯太太在摇滚名人堂差点把我们杀了。 也许他们是一伙的。 米娅和骨头不见了。 而现在我们得到的所有这些密码都毫无意义。” “你需要冷静下来，”佩普说。 “我们到华盛顿后需要你机灵点。” 她是对的，可口可乐也知道这一点。 通常是佩普比较紧张。 但他们越接近

got to Washington, the more anxious Coke had become. He reminded himself to stay strong, stay focused. One slip and it could be all over for both of them. "Okay!" Mrs. McDonald said as she came out of the cell phone store and handed the twins their new phones. "You kids need to be careful with these. We don't want to replace them again." "Now let's put some miles away today," Dr. McDonald said. "Washington, here we come!" Soon they were cruising at seventy miles per hour down Interstate 76, a superhighway that starts near Akron, Ohio, and goes all the way to New Jersey. They had been in the state of Ohio for a long time. But soon this sign appeared at the side of the road: Pennsylvania welcomes you.

到了华盛顿，可口可乐就变得越来越焦虑。 他提醒自己要坚强，要专注。 只要一失手，他们俩就都完了。 “好吧!”麦克唐纳夫人说着从手机店出来，把新手机递给双胞胎。 “你们这些孩子要小心这些东西。 我们不想再替换它们了。” “现在让我们离开几英里。” 麦克唐纳说。“华盛顿，我们来了！”很快，他们就在76号州际公路上以每小时70英里的速度行驶，这条高速公路从俄亥俄州阿克伦附近开始，一直延伸到新泽西州。 他们在俄亥俄州待了很长时间。 但很快，路边出现了这样一个标志：宾夕法尼亚欢迎你。

"Woo-hoo!" Coke shouted. "The Keystone State! We can get some keystones here." "What's a keystone?" asked Pep. "I have no idea," Coke said. "But I do know that Pennsylvania is a state of firsts. They had the first hospital in America. The first library and zoo. They had the first newspaper, the first TV and radio broadcasts. Pennsylvania had the first capital of the United States. And most importantly, the banana split was invented here!" "You are such a wealth of totally useless information," Pep said. "You wish you were me," her brother replied. Dr. McDonald pushed his foot down on the accelerator just a little bit harder. The speedometer nudged past seventy, well above the speed limit. He hoped he wouldn't get a ticket. All four McDonalds looked out the window. After they had crossed the Pennsylvania state line, there was the definite feeling that they had finally reached the eastern part of the country. They were just 287 miles from Washington now. It no longer

“啊!”可口可乐喊道。“基石州！”我们可以在这里弄到一些基石。” “基石是什么？”佩普问。 “我不知道，”可口可乐说。 “但我知道宾夕法尼亚州是一个首创的州。 他们拥有美国第一家医院。 第一个图书馆和动物园。 他们有了第一份报纸，第一套电视和广播。 宾夕法尼亚州是美国的第一个首都。 最重要的是，香蕉饼干是在这里发明的！”佩普说：“你提供了大量毫无用处的信息。” “你希望你是我，”她哥哥回答。 麦克唐纳医生把油门踩得更紧了一点。 速度计轻轻超过了70英里，远远超过了速度限制。 他希望自己不会被开罚单。 四家麦当劳都向窗外望去。 他们越过宾夕法尼亚州的州界后，有一种明确的感觉，他们终于到达了这个国家的东部。 现在他们离华盛顿只有287英里了。 它不再