11 Ground Zero

Chapter 11 GROUND ZERO At this point, you're probably starting to feel a little angry that Coke hasn't been thrown into a volcano yet. I mean, I promised back in chapter 1 that Coke was going to get thrown into a volcano. And here we are in chapter 11, and the twins are nowhere near a volcano. Do they even have volcanoes in New Mexico? Again, I ask you to show a little patience. Trust me, by the end of this story Coke will get thrown into a volcano. You can take that to the bank. Dr. McDonald put the Ferrari in gear and headed north out of Alamogordo on Route 54. Coke already had his earbuds in and was nodding his head, oblivious to the world around him. "Where are we going today?" Pep asked from

说到这里，你可能开始有点生气了，因为可口可乐还没有被扔进火山里。 我的意思是，我在第一章中承诺过可口可乐会被扔进火山。 现在是第十一章，这对双胞胎离火山很远。 新墨西哥州有火山吗？ 我再一次要求你表现出一点耐心。 相信我，在这个故事的结尾，可口可乐会被扔进火山。 你可以放心了。 麦克唐纳博士把法拉利挂好档，沿着54号公路向北驶出阿拉莫戈多。 科克已经戴上了耳机，正在点头，对周围的世界浑然不觉。 “我们今天要去哪儿?”佩普问

the backseat. "We'll tell you when we get there," her father replied. "Is it a surprise?" "Let's just say we're going someplace that everyone should see," he said. "I love a mystery," Pep said, rubbing her hands together. "It's not that kind of mystery," said Mrs. McDonald mysteriously. The two-lane road cut through the New Mexico desert on a straight line for mile after mile. The most interesting thing to look at was the occasional SPEED LIMIT 55 sign at the side of the road. Pep dozed off for a while, waking up in time to see her mother telling Dr. McDonald to slow down and turn left onto an unmarked road. RESTRICTED USAGE ROAD, a small sign said. About two hours after they had left Alamogordo, another sign appeared, announcing that they were approaching WHITE SANDS MISSILE

后座。“我们到了那里会告诉你的，”她父亲回答说。 “这是个惊喜吗？”“这么说吧，我们要去一个每个人都应该去的地方，”他说。 “我喜欢神秘，”佩普搓着手说。 “这不是那种神秘，”麦克唐纳太太神秘地说。 这条双车道的公路笔直地穿过新墨西哥州的沙漠，绵延数英里。 最有趣的是路边偶尔会有限速55的标志。 佩普打了一会儿盹儿，醒来时正好看到她妈妈在告诉医生。 麦当劳必须减速并左转到一条没有标志的道路上。 一个小牌子上写着：“限用路”。 在他们离开阿拉莫戈多大约两小时后，又出现了另一个信号，宣布他们正在接近白沙导弹公司

RANGE. Dr. McDonald continued down the road for a few miles until he came to yet another sign. He stopped the car and instructed everyone to get out. Coke turned off his music. "This is the Trinity Site," Dr. McDonald said solemnly. "After years of working on an atomic bomb, this is where we dropped it. Nobody knew if the thing was going to explode, because it was the first time they had ever tested it. But it did. It blew up with the force of eighteen kilotons of TNT. Two hundred miles away,

范围内。麦克唐纳医生继续沿着这条路走了几英里，直到他来到另一个标志。 他停下车，命令大家下车。 科克关掉了音乐。 “这里是三位一体遗址。” 麦克唐纳严肃地说。他说：“在研制原子弹多年之后，我们把它扔到了这里。 没有人知道这东西是否会爆炸，因为这是他们第一次测试它。 但它确实做到了。它爆炸的威力相当于一万八千吨TNT炸药。 两百英里之外，

windows were rattling." "Wow," Coke said, not just pretending to be impressed, but genuinely impressed. "And it happened right here?" "Not exactly here," his father said. "It was a few miles down the road." "Can we go to the actual site?" Pep asked. "It's still radioactive," her father replied. "Seventy years later, and it's still radioactive. But I wanted you kids to know about this. It was the birth of the atomic age. A few weeks later, we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and you know what happened there." "Eighty thousand people died right away," Coke said, remembering an article he'd read, "and something like a hundred and forty thousand died later, from radiation." Mrs. McDonald took a photo of the sign for Amazing but True. She opened her guidebook and read a quote from Robert Oppenheimer, the mastermind behind the first atomic bomb: "'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of

窗户在嘎嘎作响。”“哇，”可口可乐说，不是假装被打动了，而是真的被打动了。 “就发生在这里吗？”“不完全是在这里，”他父亲说。 “沿着这条路走几英里就到了。” “我们能去现场吗？”Pep问道。 “它仍然有放射性，”她父亲回答说。 “70年后，它仍然具有放射性。 但我想让你们知道这件事。 这是原子时代的诞生。 几周后，我们在广岛投下了原子弹，你知道那里发生了什么。” “8万人当场死亡，”科克回忆起他读过的一篇文章说，“后来又有大约14万人死于辐射。” 麦克唐纳夫人为《神奇但真实》拍了一张标牌的照片。 她打开旅行指南，读到第一颗原子弹的主谋罗伯特·奥本海默（Robert Oppenheimer）的话：“现在我成了死神，成了毁灭世界的毁灭者。

worlds.'" For a few minutes, none of the McDonalds said anything. There were no snarky jokes or wisecracks from the twins. It didn't seem like the time or place. "Why did we do it?" Pep finally asked. "Why did we build such a horrible thing?" "It was during World War Two," Dr. McDonald told her. "If we hadn't built an atomic bomb, Hitler would have built one." "You can imagine what would have happened if he did it first," said Mrs. McDonald. "I always wanted to come here," Dr. McDonald said, "and I wanted you kids to come here too. Hopefully, in your lifetime, nobody will ever use an atomic weapon again. Okay, let's go." Back on the road, it was obvious why this part of New Mexico had been chosen for the first nuclear test. There was nothing around as far as the eye could see. Or maybe it was the opposite—there was nothing around because

世界。’”好一会儿，麦当劳的人都没说话。 这对双胞胎没有讲什么尖酸刻薄的笑话或俏皮话。 时间和地点都不合适。 “我们为什么要这么做？”佩普最后问道。 “我们为什么要造这么可怕的东西？”“那是在第二次世界大战期间。” 麦克唐纳告诉她。“如果我们没有制造原子弹，希特勒也会制造一颗。” 麦克唐纳夫人说：“你可以想象一下，如果他先动手，会发生什么。” “我一直想来这里。” 麦克唐纳说：“我想让你们这些孩子也来这里。 希望在你的有生之年，再也没有人会使用原子武器。 好吧，我们走吧。”回到路上，新墨西哥州的这一地区被选为第一次核试验地点的原因显而易见。 放眼望去，周围什么也没有。 或者正好相反——周围什么也没有，因为

there had been a nuclear test here. Nobody wanted to get radiation poisoning. In any case, it was a good thing they started the day with a full tank of gas. There was no place to fill up. Everyone seemed lost in their thoughts when Dr. McDonald suddenly announced, "I think I've got it!" "What, Ben?" asked Mrs. McDonald. "This could be my book! I could write a novel about the Trinity Site!" The others had almost forgotten about Dr. McDonald's recent interest in writing a novel. As a university professor, he had written several nonfiction books in his field of technology. But they were only read by the academic community and had not sold many copies. He wanted to write something that would find a wide audience. He yearned to see his name on the bestseller list. "What about the Trinity Site, Dad?" Pep asked.

这里曾经进行过核试验。 没人想被辐射中毒。 无论如何，这是一件好事，他们开始了一天的满箱汽油。 没有地方可以加油了。 每个人似乎都陷入了沉思。 麦当劳突然宣布：“我想我找到了！”“什么，本？”麦克唐纳太太问。 “这可能是我的书！”我可以写一本关于三一遗址的小说！”其他人几乎已经忘记了他。 麦当劳最近对写小说很感兴趣。 作为一名大学教授，他在他的技术领域写了几本非小说类书籍。 但它们只被学术团体阅读，并没有卖出多少本。 他想写一些能吸引广大读者的东西。 他渴望看到自己的名字出现在畅销书排行榜上。 “那三一基地呢，爸爸？”Pep问道。