Chapter 1

1 This was a game Kyle Keeley refused to lose. For the first time since Mr. Lemoncello's famous library escape contest, he was up against his old nemesis, Charles Chiltington. "Surrender, Keeley!" Charles jeered from three spaces ahead. "Chiltingtons never lose!" "Except, you know, when they do!" shouted Kyle's best friend, Akimi Hughes. She was ten spaces behind Kyle and couldn't stand seeing Charles in the lead. The life-size board game had been rolled out like a plastic runner rug around the outer ring of

这是一场凯尔·基利不愿输的比赛。 自从莱蒙切罗先生著名的图书馆逃生比赛以来，他第一次遇到了他的宿敌查尔斯·奇尔廷顿。 “投降,基利!”查尔斯在前面三个车位的地方讥笑着。 “奇廷顿从来不会输！”“除非，你知道，当他们这样做的时候！”凯尔最好的朋友阿基米·休斯喊道。 她比凯尔落后十个车位，无法忍受看到查尔斯领先。 这个真人大小的棋盘游戏就像塑料地毯一样被铺在外面

tables in the Rotunda Reading Room of Mr. Lemoncello's library. "The game's not over until it's over, Charles," Kyle said with a smile. He had landed on a bright red question mark square, while Charles was safe on "Free Standing." A shaky collection of drifting holograms hovered over their heads, suspended in midair beneath the building's magnificent Wonder Dome. The dome's giant video screens were dark so they wouldn't interfere with the ghostly green images creating what Mr. Lemoncello called a Rube Goldberg contraption—a device deliberately designed to perform a very simple task in an extremely complicated way. Most Rube Goldberg contraptions involve a chain reaction. In Mr. Lemoncello's Rickety-Trickety Fact or Fictiony game, a new piece of the chain was added every time one of the players gave an incorrect answer. If someone reached the finish line before all the pieces lined up, they won. However, if any player gave one too many wrong

莱蒙塞罗先生图书馆圆形阅览室里的桌子。 “比赛还没结束就不算结束，查尔斯，”凯尔笑着说。 他降落在一个鲜红色的问号广场上，而查尔斯则安全降落在“自由站立”上。 一组摇摇欲坠的全息影像在他们头顶盘旋，悬浮在大楼宏伟的“奇迹穹顶”（Wonder Dome）下的半空中。 穹顶上巨大的视频屏幕是黑色的，这样它们就不会干扰幽灵般的绿色图像，这就形成了莱蒙切罗所说的“鲁布·戈德堡装置”——一种被故意设计成以极其复杂的方式完成非常简单任务的装置。 大多数Rube Goldberg装置都涉及连锁反应。 在莱蒙切罗先生的“摇晃的事实或虚构”游戏中，每次有一个玩家给出错误的答案，就会增加一条新的链条。 如果有人在所有的碎片排列好之前到达终点线，他们就赢了。 然而，如果任何玩家给了太多错误

answers, they would trigger the chain reaction and end up trapped under a pointed dunce cap. They would lose. "Are you ready for your question, Mr. Keeley?" boomed Mr. Lemoncello, acting as the quiz master. "Yes, sir," said Kyle. "Fact or fiction for six," said Mr. Lemoncello, reading from a bright yellow game card. "At five feet four inches, George Washington was the shortest American president ever elected. Would you like to answer or do the research?" It was a tough choice, especially since Kyle didn't know the answer. If he did the research, he'd have to go back one space and lose a turn so he could look up the correct answer on one of the tablet computers built into the nearby reading desk. But while he was researching, Charles might surge ahead. He might even make it all the way to the finish line.

答案是，他们会引发连锁反应，最终被困在一个尖头的笨蛋帽下。 他们会输的。“你准备好回答问题了吗，基利先生？”莱蒙切罗先生以问答主持人的身份大声说道。 “是的，先生，”凯尔说。“事实还是虚构，六题，”莱蒙切罗先生看着一张亮黄色的游戏卡说。 乔治·华盛顿身高5英尺4英寸，是美国有史以来最矮的总统。 你是愿意回答还是愿意做调查？”这是一个艰难的选择，尤其是因为凯尔不知道答案。 如果他做了调查，他就得后退一个空格，失去一个回合，这样他就可以在附近的阅读桌上的一台平板电脑上查找正确的答案。 但当他在研究的时候，查尔斯可能会冲在前面。 他甚至有可能一路跑到终点线。

On the other hand, even though Kyle didn't know the answer, if he said either "fact" or "fiction," he had a fifty-fifty chance of being right and moving forward six spaces, putting him in front of Charles, and that much closer to victory. Of course, Kyle also had a fifty-fifty chance of being wrong and adding what might be the final hologram to the wobbly contraption overhead. "Do the research, Kyle!" urged Akimi. "Please do," sneered Charles. "Yo!" shouted another one of Kyle's best buds, Miguel Fernandez. "Don't let Chiltington get under your dome, bro. He's just playing mind games with you." "Impossible." Charles sniffed. "Keeley doesn't have a mind for me to play with." "Uh, uh, uh," said Mr. Lemoncello. "Charles, I wonder if, just this once, you might choose kind?" He turned to Kyle. "Well, Mr. Keeley? No one can make this decision for you, unless, of course, you hire a professional decider, but trust me—they are decidedly expensive. Are you

另一方面，即使凯尔不知道答案，如果他说“事实”或“虚构”，他有50%的机会是正确的，并向前移动六个空间，使他在查尔斯之前，更接近胜利。 当然，凯尔也有50%的可能性是错的，他给头顶上摇摇晃晃的装置添加了可能是最后的全息图。 “做研究吧，凯尔！”明美催促道。 “请说吧，"查尔斯冷笑着说。 “哟！”凯尔的另一个好朋友米格尔·费尔南德斯喊道。 别让奇廷顿钻进你的穹顶，兄弟。 他只是在和你玩心理游戏。” “不可能。”查尔斯嗅。 “基利没有脑子让我玩。” “呃，呃，呃，”莱蒙切罗说。 “查尔斯，我想知道，就这一次，你能不能选择仁慈？”他转向凯尔。 “怎么样，基利先生？”没有人能帮你做这个决定，当然，除非你雇佣一个专业的决策者，但相信我，他们绝对是昂贵的。 你是

willing to put everything on a waffle and take a wild guess?" Kyle hated losing a turn when the whole idea was to win the game. He hated going backward when the object was to move forward. He studied the teetering collection of holograms suspended under the darkened dome. He looked at Charles, who was sneering back at him smugly. "I want to answer, sir." "Very well," said Mr. Lemoncello. "Let me repeat the question before the cucumbers I had for lunch repeat on me: At five feet four inches, George Washington was the shortest American president ever elected. Fact or fiction?" Kyle took a deep breath. He remembered some teacher once saying people were shorter back in the olden days. So odds were that Washington was a shrimp. "That, sir," he said, "is a… fact?" A buzzer SCRONKed like a sick goose.

愿意把所有的东西都放在华夫饼上，然后胡乱猜测吗？”凯尔讨厌失去一个回合，因为他的目的是赢得比赛。 当目标是前进时，他讨厌倒退。 他研究着悬挂在昏暗穹顶下的摇摇欲坠的全息图。 他看了看查尔斯，后者正得意地对他冷笑。 “我想回答，先生。”“很好，”莱蒙切罗说。 在我午餐吃的黄瓜重复到我身上之前，让我重复一下这个问题：乔治·华盛顿身高5英尺4英寸，是美国有史以来最矮的当选总统。 事实还是虚构？”凯尔深吸了一口气。 他记得有个老师曾经说过，以前的人都比较矮。 因此，华盛顿很可能是一只小虾。 “先生，”他说，“这是……事实吗？”蜂鸣器像病鹅一样发出嗡嗡声。