19 Chapter 19

Chapter 19 "Oh, Mrs. Tobin?" Akimi called out. "I need to use my Librarian Consultation." "You sure about this?" said Kyle. "That's the beauty of being a team. After we burn through mine, we'll still have yours." The hologram librarian appeared and advised Akimi that Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was the book located right underneath the holographic image of Dr. Seuss and the Cat in the Hat. After Mrs. Tobin vanished, Kyle and Akimi used their desktop computer to find the call

第十九章“哦，托宾太太?”明美喊道。 “我需要使用我的图书管理员咨询服务。” “你确定吗?”凯尔说。 “这就是团队的美妙之处。 在我们烧完我的之后，我们还有你的。” 全息图书管理员出现了，并告诉Akimi，马克·吐温的《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》就在Dr。 苏斯和戴帽子的猫。 托宾夫人失踪后，凯尔和阿基米用他们的台式电脑找到了这通电话

number for Huckleberry Finn. Kyle grabbed a pen and scribbled it down on his palm. "Are you going to do what I think you're going to do?" said Akimi. "Yep. I'm going to float up there, hoist myself into that nook where the hologram is, reach over to the window, push it open, and stick out my hand. Technically, I will have found my way out of the library. Nothing in the rules said anything about how far outside we had to go to win." "You could fall." "I don't think so. I'm wiry, like a monkey." "Seriously, Kyle. It isn't worth it." "Um, yes it is. Did I mention I want to win?" "You should improvise a safety harness," suggested Sierra Russell. "Huh?" "Well, in this adventure book I read once, the hero was in a very similar predicament. So he removed the curled handset wires from several telephones, bundled them together, and made a safety rope."

哈克贝利·费恩的号码。 凯尔抓起一支笔，在手掌上草草写了下来。 “你会做我认为你会做的事吗?”明美说。 “是的。我要飘上去，爬到全息图所在的那个角落，伸手到窗户那里，推开窗户，伸出我的手。 严格来说，我已经找到了走出图书馆的路。 比赛规则中没有任何规定我们要走多远才能赢。” “你会掉下去的。”“我不这么认为。 我很结实，像只猴子。”“说真的,凯尔。 不值得。”“嗯，是的。 我说过我想赢吗?”“你应该临时准备一个安全带，”塞拉·拉塞尔建议道。 “嗯?”“嗯，在我曾经读过的一本冒险书中，主人公也处于非常相似的困境。 于是他从几部电话上取下卷曲的电话线，把它们捆在一起，做成了一根安全绳。”

Ten minutes later, Kyle, Akimi, and Sierra had stripped the sproingy wires off a couple of telephone handsets. Kyle looped the cables around his waist and tied the other end to the handrail of the hover ladder. When fully extended, the safety rope would stretch out to a little more than twenty feet. It should work. "Be careful up there," said Akimi. "Yes," said Sierra, who wasn't reading her book anymore. Apparently, watching a real live person risk his real live life by doing something really, really scary was one thing more exciting than reading. Kyle locked his feet into the hover ladder's ski boot brackets. "Here we go." Serious adrenaline raced through his body as he tapped the call number for Huckleberry Finn into the hover ladder's book locator keypad. "When you open the window," said Akimi, "just shout, 'I found the way out!' and we win." "Right," said Kyle. "All three of us." "Huh?"

十分钟后，凯尔、阿基米和西拉从几个电话听筒上拆下了细长的电线。 凯尔把缆绳绕在腰上，另一端系在悬停梯子的扶手上。 当安全绳完全伸展时，它会伸展到20英尺多一点。 这应该行得通。“在上面要小心，”明美说。 “是的，”塞拉说，她不再看她的书了。 显然，看着一个活生生的人冒着生命危险做一些非常非常可怕的事情比读书更令人兴奋。 凯尔把脚锁在悬停梯子的滑雪靴支架里。 “我们走吧。”当他把《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》的电话号码输入悬停梯的图书定位键盘时，肾上腺素迅速涌上全身。 “当你打开窗户的时候，”明美说，“只要喊，‘我找到出去的路了!’我们就赢了。” “好的，”凯尔说。“我们三个。” “嗯?”

"Hey, Sierra came up with the safety rope idea. She's on our team now, too." "Fine. Whatever. Just don't break your neck." "Not part of the plan." Kyle pressed the enter button on the control panel. The platform floated up off the ground and drifted slightly to the right. "Be careful!" said Akimi. "Watch it!" "I'm not doing anything," said Kyle. "This thingama-jiggy is doing all the work. I'm just along for the ride." Kyle gripped the handles as the platform rose higher and higher. He sailed past books by Tolstoy and Thackeray. Tilting back his head, he looked up at the semi-transparent statues projected into the curved niches next to the arched windows. They were a weird mix. A thoughtful African American man in a three-piece suit and a bow tie. A guy with long curly hair, old-fashioned clothes, and a looking glass. A long-haired dude in a scruffy shirt hiding behind cutouts of the letters "P" and "B." A bald guy with a beard. Since the statues were really holographic projections, they had chisel-type labels floating in

“嘿，西拉想出了安全绳的主意。 她现在也是我们队的。” “很好。无论什么。别摔断脖子就行了。” “不是计划的一部分。”凯尔按下了控制面板上的回车键。 平台从地面上浮起来，微微向右移动。 “小心!”明美说。“看!”“我什么也没做，”凯尔说。 “这个小东西在做所有的工作。 我只是来凑热闹的。” 平台越升越高，凯尔紧握着把手。 他读过托尔斯泰和萨克雷的书。 他仰起头，抬头看了看拱窗旁边弯曲壁龛里的半透明雕像。 他们是一个奇怪的组合。一个体贴的非裔美国人，穿着三件套西装，打着领结。 一个留着长长的卷发，穿着老式衣服，拿着一面镜子的男人。 一个穿着破烂衬衫的长发男人躲在字母"P"和" b "的剪纸后面 一个留着胡子的秃顶男人。由于这些雕像是真正的全息投影，它们有凿子式的标签漂浮在上面

front of their pedestals identifying who the famous people were. The ones closest to Kyle were George Orwell, Lewis Carroll, Dr. Seuss, and Maya Angelou. As he continued to climb, Kyle could hear the soft whir of the electromagnets invisibly lifting him toward the ceiling. And then he heard something much louder. "What a ridiculous idea!" Charles Chiltington. He was standing on the second-floor balcony at the far side of the rotunda. "You know, Keeley, I thought about doing the same thing. But then I noticed something you obviously overlooked: There's a wire mesh security screen on the other side of those windows." The levitating platform stuttered to a stop. "Enjoy staring at the ceiling, Keeley. I'm off to win yet another game!" Kyle ignored Chiltington and grabbed hold of the ledge beneath Dr. Seuss's berth. He tried to haul himself up but his feet wouldn't budge. They were locked in place by those ski boot clamps.

在他们的基座前，标明名人是谁。 与凯尔最亲近的人是乔治·奥威尔，刘易斯·卡罗尔， 苏斯和玛雅·安杰洛。当他继续往上爬的时候，凯尔可以听到电磁铁发出的微弱的嗡嗡声，无形地把他推向了天花板。 然后他听到了更响亮的声音。 “多么可笑的想法!”查尔斯Chiltington。 他站在二楼的阳台上，在圆形大厅的另一边。 “你知道吗，姬莉，我也想过这么做。 但后来我注意到你显然忽略了一件事:那些窗户的另一边有一个金属丝网的安全屏幕。” 悬浮平台磕磕绊绊地停了下来。 “好好盯着天花板看吧，基利。 我要去赢得另一场比赛!”凯尔没有理睬奇廷顿，而是抓住了他下面的窗台。 苏斯的泊位。他想把自己拖起来，但他的脚不动。 它们被滑雪靴夹锁住了。

And this close to the skylights, Kyle could see that Chiltington was right—there was a security screen on the other side of the windows. Kyle checked his wristwatch. It was one p.m. He and his teammates had wasted an hour on the lame window idea. He sighed heavily and stared up at the quivering Seuss projection in the bowed niche above his head. The Cat in the Hat's mouth started to move. " 'Think left and think right and think low and think high.' " Kyle recognized the voice. It was Mr. Lemoncello. " 'Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!' " In other words, Kyle was back to square one. He needed to think up a whole new escape plan. The ladder began a slow and steady descent to the floor—even though Kyle hadn't pushed a button. "Don't listen to smarmypants Charles," Akimi coached as Kyle coasted toward the floor. "It was worth a shot." "I agree," said Sierra.

在离天窗这么近的地方，凯尔可以看到齐廷顿是对的——窗户的另一边有一个安全屏幕。 凯尔看了看手表。 那是下午一点。他和他的队友们在这个蹩脚的窗户点子上浪费了一个小时。 他重重地叹了口气，抬头盯着他头顶上弯曲的壁龛里瑟瑟发抖的投影。 帽子里的猫开始动了起来。 “‘左想右想，低想高想。’”凯尔认出了这个声音。 是莱蒙切罗先生。“哦，只要你努力，你就能想出这些想法!”’”换句话说，凯尔又回到了起点。 他需要想出一个全新的逃跑计划。 梯子开始缓慢而稳定地下降到地板上——尽管凯尔没有按下按钮。 “别听那些自作聪明的家伙的话，查尔斯，”阿基米在凯尔滑行到地板上时指导道。 “值得一试。”“我同意，”西拉说。