29 Joyland

Chapter 29 JOYLAND Coke couldn't sleep. He lay in bed thinking about his next twenty-four hours. 2 PM TOMORROW LAND OF JOY. Something was going to happen at Joyland Amusement Park. In all probability, he would have to confront Doominator, Dr. Warsaw's robot clone. It tried to kill him and Pep at the Mars factory, and it was sure to try again. How do you kill a robot before it kills you? Robots don't bleed. They don't have a heart that can stop beating or a brain that can stop firing neurons. Doominator was more like a computer than like a human being. But computers break down, Coke thought. Maybe he could disable it. Make it crash. Doominator said it had twelve miles of wiring

第二十九章乔伊兰·科克睡不着。 他躺在床上，想着接下来的24小时。 明天下午2点，欢乐之地。 乔伊兰游乐园要出事了。 十有八九，他必须面对末日终结者，博士。 华沙的机器人克隆。它试图在火星工厂杀死他和佩普，它肯定还会再来一次。 如何在机器人杀死你之前杀死它？ 机器人不会流血。它们没有可以停止跳动的心脏，也没有可以停止释放神经元的大脑。 “末日终结者”更像一台电脑，而不像一个人。 但是电脑坏了，可口可乐想。 也许他能使它失效。 让它崩溃。末日终结者说它有12英里长的线路

inside it. That gave Coke an idea. Quietly, he got up from the bed, grabbed his wallet, tiptoed out of the room, and took the stairs down to the front desk of the hotel. Nobody was standing there in the middle of the night, but after a minute or so, a lady with tired eyes came out of the back room. "May I help you?" she asked. "Do you have a pair of wire cutters I could borrow?" Coke asked. "Wire cutters? Hmmm, I don't know." She was used to guests requesting toothbrushes or other toiletries they had forgotten to pack in their luggage. But nobody had ever asked for wire cutters before. She rooted around in the drawers and a closet for a few minutes, and then, miraculously, she found what she was looking for. "Do you mind my asking what you're planning to do with wire cutters?" she asked, before handing over the tool, which looked like

在里面。这给了可口可乐一个主意。 他悄悄地从床上爬起来，抓起钱包，蹑手蹑脚地走出房间，下楼来到旅馆的前台。 半夜没有人站在那里，但过了一分钟左右，一位眼神疲惫的女士从后屋走了出来。 “我能帮你吗？”她问。 “你能借我一把钢丝钳吗？”可口可乐问道。 “剪线钳?嗯，我不知道。” 她已经习惯了客人索要他们忘记放在行李里的牙刷或其他洗漱用品。 但是以前从来没有人要过钢丝钳。 她在抽屉和壁橱里翻了几分钟，然后，奇迹般地，她找到了她要找的东西。 “你介意我问一下你打算用钢丝钳做什么吗？”她问，然后把工具递给我，看起来像

a thick pair of scissors. "Yeah, I'm planning to cut some wires," Coke replied. "How much do I owe you?" "Well, I've been working here for ten years," the lady said, "and I've never had to use this thing once. Take it. Be careful. It's sharp." Coke slipped two dollars onto the counter anyway and thanked the lady. He would be able to sleep now, knowing he had a weapon he could use against Doominator. In the morning, their parents dragged—I mean took—the twins to the Buddy Holly Center in downtown Lubbock. It's a small museum honoring the rock and roll pioneer whose short career ended when he died in a 1959 plane crash. There was a film about Holly, lots of photos, clothes, and even his trademark glasses, which were recovered from the crash site in Iowa. But the kids found it hard to pay much attention. Partly it was because Buddy Holly's

一把粗剪刀。“是的，我正打算剪断一些电线，”科克回答。 “我该付你多少钱？”“嗯，我在这里工作十年了，”女士说，“我从来没用过这个东西。 把它。小心些而已。它是锋利的。” 可口可乐还是把两美元塞到柜台上，并向那位女士道谢。 他现在可以睡觉了，因为他知道他有了一个可以用来对付末日终结者的武器。 早上，他们的父母拖着——我的意思是带着——这对双胞胎来到拉伯克市中心的巴迪·霍利中心。 这是一个纪念这位摇滚先驱的小博物馆，他短暂的职业生涯在1959年的一次飞机失事中去世。 有一部关于霍利的电影，还有很多照片、衣服，甚至还有他标志性的眼镜，这些都是在爱荷华州坠机现场找到的。 但是孩子们发现很难集中注意力。 部分原因是巴迪·霍利

music was from a different era. But mostly it was because they were nervous about what was going to happen in a few short hours. Two o'clock. That's what the final cipher said—2 PM TOMORROW LAND OF JOY. After lunch at the Cast Iron Grill, Dr. McDonald drove a couple of miles to Lubbock's Mackenzie State Park, where Joyland is located. As Dr. McDonald parked the car, Pep was visibly nervous, even trembling. "What's the plan?" she whispered to her brother. "We're walking into a trap. We don't even have any weapons this time." Technically, that was true. When they confronted Evil Elvis at Graceland, they had a backpack stuffed with fireworks. Ultimately, that proved to be the undoing of Evil Elvis. "Check this out," Coke said, pulling the wire cutters halfway out of his pocket. "One snip and Doominator is finished." "Where'd you get that?" Pep asked. "The front desk of the hotel," Coke replied.

音乐来自一个不同的时代。 但最主要的原因是他们对短短几个小时内将要发生的事情感到紧张。 两点钟。这就是最后的密码说的——明天下午2点，欢乐之地。 在铸铁烤架餐厅吃完午饭后。 麦克唐纳驱车几英里来到拉伯克的麦肯齐州立公园，乔伊兰就在那里。 麦克唐纳医生停车时，佩普明显很紧张，甚至有些发抖。 “计划是什么？”她低声问哥哥。 “我们正在步入一个陷阱。 这次我们连武器都没有。” 严格来说，这是真的。 当他们在雅园面对邪恶的猫王时，他们的背包里塞满了烟花。 最终，这被证明是邪恶猫王的毁灭。 “看看这个，”科克说着，从口袋里抽出一半的断线钳。 “只要剪一下，末日终结者就完蛋了。” “你从哪儿弄来的？”Pep问道。 “酒店的前台，”可口可乐回答。

"I gave the lady two bucks for it." "But how are you going to get to the wires?" "Simple. I just have to break the skin and start cutting." "Ugh, gross." "Doominator's made of metal, remember?" Coke said. "It's not like I'll be cutting into flesh and bone. It can't feel pain." Pep didn't have a lot of confidence in her brother's plan. So many things could go wrong. Maybe, if we're lucky, she thought, Mya and Bones will be there as backup. She remembered the last thing Mya said to her at the chocolate factory—"We will watch out for you, always." Even so, Pep wished she had a weapon, like a Frisbee grenade. She would be able to fling it at Doominator and take the robot out from a distance. It was one thirty when the McDonalds paid their admission and walked through the Joyland entrance gate. Getting there early was good, both twins thought. They could keep an eye out

“我给了那位女士两块钱。” “但是你要怎么到电线那里去呢？”“简单。 我只需要打破皮，开始切割。” “呸,恶心。”“末日终结者是金属做的，记得吗？”可口可乐表示。 “我又不会把肉和骨头切开。 它感觉不到疼痛。”佩普对她哥哥的计划不太有信心。 很多事情都可能出错。 也许，如果我们幸运的话，她想，米亚和骨头会在那里做后援。 她记得米娅在巧克力工厂对她说的最后一句话：“我们会永远照顾你的。” 即便如此，佩普还是希望她有个武器，比如飞盘手榴弹。 她可以把它扔向末日终结者，并从远处把机器人带走。 当麦当劳的人付了入场费，走进乔伊兰的大门时，已经一点半了。 这对双胞胎都认为，早点去是件好事。 他们可以留意一下

for the bowler dudes, Mrs. Higgins, and, of course, a robot named Doominator that looked strikingly like Dr. Warsaw. Joyland doesn't pretend to be in a class with Six Flags, Cedar Point, Disney World, or any of the other giant amusement parks. It's smaller, more intimate, sort of retro. The best part is, the lines are shorter. You spend more time on the rides than you do waiting to get on the rides. It was Texas hot, close to a hundred degrees. Nozzles were scattered around to spray mists of cold water on people. Dr. McDonald closed his eyes for a moment to take in the clatter of the roller coasters and the aroma of cotton candy and fried dough. It brought back memories of his boyhood. The family stopped in front of a map of Joyland. Even though the park was small, there were more than thirty rides and attractions. Everyone agreed it would be best to get an overview by taking Skyride, a ski-lift-style dangling cable car ride that runs the length of

玩保龄球的家伙们，希金斯太太，当然还有一个名叫“末日终结者”的机器人，它看起来非常像霍金博士。 华沙。乔伊兰不会假装自己和六旗游乐园、雪松点游乐园、迪士尼乐园或其他大型游乐园在一个级别。 它更小，更私密，有点复古。 最棒的是，排队的人变短了。 你花在游乐设施上的时间比等待乘坐游乐设施的时间要多。 那是德克萨斯州的高温，接近100华氏度。 到处都是喷头，向人们喷洒冷水。 麦克唐纳医生暂时闭上眼睛，沉浸在过山车的咔嗒声和棉花糖和油炸面团的香味中。 它唤起了他对童年的回忆。 一家人在一张乔伊兰的地图前停了下来。 虽然公园很小，但有30多个游乐设施和景点。 每个人都同意最好乘坐空中缆车（Skyride）来一览全貌，这是一种滑雪缆车式的悬空缆车，全长8公里