12 The First Cipher

Chapter 12 THE FIRST CIPHER "How was the tour of the satellite dishes?" their father asked when the twins got back to the visitor center. "Bo-ring." "Bo-ring," of course, was Coke and Pep's default reply whenever their parents asked them about anything. They didn't mention anything about the meeting with Mya and Bones. Once they were back in the car, Mrs. McDonald gave each twin a souvenir she had purchased in the gift shop—a package of freeze- dried ice cream like the kind astronauts eat. Coke stuffed the package in his pocket. Pep opened hers right away and munched it as she copied down the cipher that Bones and Mya had delivered, in neat handwriting on a clean page of her notepad.

“卫星天线的参观怎么样？”双胞胎回到游客中心时，父亲问。 “Bo-ring。”当然，每当他们的父母问他们任何问题时，可口可乐和佩普都会默认地回答“Bo-ring”。 他们没提米亚和骨头的会面。 他们一回到车里，麦克唐纳太太就给了每一个双胞胎一个纪念品，那是她在礼品店买的——一包冻干冰淇淋，就像宇航员吃的那种。 可乐把包裹塞进口袋里。 佩普马上打开了她的，一边嚼着，一边把骨头和米娅送来的密码抄在记事本上干净的一页上，字迹整洁。

NEZVES YZTRIH TNEETEN ZINHTH GIEYTZ NEWZTYAM What could that possibly mean? Dr. McDonald retraced his steps back to the town of Socorro and then turned north on I-25 toward Albuquerque, the largest city in New Mexico. Of course, that isn't saying much, considering that the entire state only has about two million people living in it. As a comparison, more than thirty-six million people live in California. Worry lines wrinkled Pep's forehead, and she truly had something to worry about. Not only was Dr. Warsaw back on the radar, but now that lunatic was building an atomic briefcase bomb. And he just might be crazy enough to use it. Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/). Click Get Directions.

纽兹坦姆：这是什么意思？ 麦克唐纳博士沿着原路折回索科罗镇，然后沿着I-25向北转向新墨西哥州最大的城市阿尔伯克基。 当然，考虑到整个州只有大约200万人居住，这并不能说明什么。 相比之下，超过3600万人居住在加州。 佩普的额头上布满了皱纹，她确实有事情要担心。 华沙医生不仅重新受到关注，而且那个疯子还在制造公文包原子弹。 他可能会疯狂到使用它。 进入谷歌Maps （http://maps.google.com/）。 点击“获取路线”。

In the A box, type Socorro NM. In the B box, type Albuquerque NM. Click Get Directions. Pep got to work. First, she stared at the cipher to see if there were any obvious patterns. NEZVES YZTRIH TNEETEN ZINHTH GIEYTZ NEWZTYAM She copied the letters again, this time closing them up. Spaces between words, she knew, are often put in there just to throw you off. NEZVESYZTRIHTNEETENZINHTHGIEYTZN "See anything?" Coke whispered, looking over her shoulder. "Not yet," she whispered back. "NEETEN pops out, but it's probably just some random letters that look like a word." She copied the cipher once again, this time writing it backward. MAYTZWENZTYEIGHTHNIZNETEENTHIRT

在A框中，输入Socorro NM。 在B框中，输入Albuquerque NM。 点击“获取路线”。佩普开始工作了。 首先，她盯着密码看是否有什么明显的规律。 她又抄了一遍信，这次她把信合上了。 她知道，单词之间的空格通常只是为了迷惑你。 “看到什么了吗？”科克低声说，回头看了看。 “还没有。”她小声回答。 “NEETEN会跳出来，但它可能只是一些看起来像单词的随机字母。” 她又抄了一遍密码，这次是倒着写的。 MAYTZWENZTYEIGHTHNIZNETEENTHIRT

"Wait a minute!" she said. "I think there are nulls in there." "You mean fake letters?" Coke asked. "Yeah, probably Z." She crossed out all the Zs, and this is what was left MAYTWENTYEIGHTHNINETEENTHIRTYSE "That's it!" Coke said, a little too loud. "You're a genius! Add the spaces!" She didn't have to. It was obvious now. MAY TWENTY EIGHTH NINETEEN THIRTY SEVEN "May 28, 1937!" Pep said. "What do you think that could mean?" Coke asked his sister. "How should I know?" Pep replied. "You're the one who remembers everything. Something important must have happened on that date." "What are you two whispering about back there?" asked Mrs. McDonald. "Yeah," said their dad. "What mischief are you up to?"

“等一下！”她说。 “我觉得里面都是零。” “你是说假信？”可口可乐问道。 “是的，可能是z。”她划掉了所有的“z”，剩下的就是：“对了！”科克说，声音有点太大了。 “你真是个天才！”加上空格！”她没必要这么做。 现在很明显了。1937年5月28日！Pep说。 “你觉得那是什么意思？”科克问他的妹妹。 “我怎么知道？”Pep答道。 “你是那个记得一切的人。 那天一定发生了什么重要的事情。” “你们两个在后面嘀咕什么呢？”麦克唐纳太太问。 “是的，”他们的爸爸说。“你在搞什么恶作剧？”

"Oh, we're just playing a word game," Coke told his parents. "Sounds like fun," said Mrs. McDonald. "Can we play, too?" "No!" said both twins. The twins looked at each other. They knew they would have to wait a few minutes after being snotty before they could ask a favor of their parents. It was sort of like waiting an hour after you eat before going swimming. Finally, they determined that enough time had passed. "Hey, you guys are old," Coke called up to the front seat. "What does the date May 28, 1937, mean to you?" "I'm not that old," said Dr. McDonald. "Why do you ask?" "I was just wondering," Coke lied. "Well, 1937 was shortly before World War Two broke out, if that helps," said Dr. McDonald. It didn't. Both twins realized that this was too serious for guessing games. Dr. Warsaw was

“哦，我们只是在玩文字游戏，”科克告诉他的父母。 “听起来很有趣，”麦克唐纳太太说。 “我们也可以玩吗？”“不！”双胞胎都说。 这对双胞胎面面相觑。 他们知道，在流完鼻涕之后，他们得等上几分钟才能请求父母帮忙。 这有点像你吃完饭后等了一个小时才去游泳。 最后，他们确定时间已经过去了。 “嘿，你们老了。”可口可乐朝前座喊道。 “1937年5月28日这个日子对你来说意味着什么？”“我没那么老。” 麦当劳。“你为什么这么问？”“我只是想知道，”可口可乐撒谎道。 “嗯，1937年是第二次世界大战爆发前不久，如果这有帮助的话。” 麦当劳。它没有。这对双胞胎都意识到，这对猜谜游戏来说太严重了。 华沙医生

working on a nuclear bomb. From now on, Coke and Pep would have to stop relying on their parents' knowledge to help them figure out these clues. No more fooling around. No more mistakes. Lives could be at stake. "Google it," Coke said to his sister. She borrowed her mother's laptop computer and tapped the date into the box. There were 345,000 results. Pep paged through the top choices looking for something significant. One thing kept popping up. MAY 28, 1937: VOLKSWAGEN IS FOUNDED "That's gotta be it!" Coke whispered. "Volkswagen was Hitler's pet project. I saw that in a book. He wanted a car that average people

研制核弹。 从现在开始，可口可乐和佩普将不得不停止依赖父母的知识来帮助他们找出这些线索。 别再鬼混了。不要再犯错了。 生命可能受到威胁。“听着，”科克对他妹妹说。 她借了妈妈的笔记本电脑，把日期敲进盒子里。 有34.5万个结果。 佩普翻遍了最前面的选项，寻找有意义的东西。 有一件事不断出现。 1937年5月28日：大众汽车成立。“就是这样！”可口可乐低声说。 “大众汽车是希特勒的宠儿。 我在书上看到的。他想要一辆普通人的车