Chapter 11

chapter eleven The enforcer starts to take a step forward, but her body jerks and jitters. She's still in the middle of analyzing me and Quint, and apparently she's not great at doing two things at once. Fair enough. I can never do the "pat your head and rub your belly at the same time" thing, and doing some sorta identi-scan while trying to grab Globlet looks a lot harder. Thinking back to all those old Westerns Dirk made us watch back in the tree house, I put on a country drawl, tip a nonexistent cowboy hat, and back away slowly. "It's been a pleasure, ma'am, but it's time for us to be getting along now." That's when the identi-scan finishes. A twitch runs through her body, like a warning signal. Then her eyes flash and—

执法者开始向前迈出一步，但她的身体抽搐和颤抖。 她还在分析我和昆特，显然她不擅长同时做两件事。 很好。我永远不会做“一边拍拍头一边揉肚子”的事情，而且在试图抓住Globlet的同时做某种身份扫描看起来要困难得多。 回想起德克让我们在树屋里看的那些老西部片，我装出一副乡村口音，戴上一顶根本不存在的牛仔帽，慢慢地后退。 “很高兴见到你，夫人，但我们现在该好好相处了。” 这时身份扫描就结束了。 她全身抽搐，像是一个警告信号。 然后她的眼睛一闪一闪

alert. Other-dimensional creatures detected enforcers engage The enforcer barks, "SET PHASERS TO STUN—" Hey, stun? That's not too bad. I figured she was gonna say "incinerate" or something. "STUNNINGLY PAINFUL!" she finishes. Oh. Darn. "It's called a getaway! Not a stayput!" Globlet shouts, shoving her face through the open taxi door. "So let's gooooo." Quint scales the taxi's long fingers, and I scramble up behind him. The fingers are in desperate need of some lotion, and we use the rough skin like a ladder. I jam my foot into a callus the size of a basketball, use a knuckle as a final handhold, and hoist myself inside.

警报。侦测到异次元生物执行者交战执行者叫道：“设置相位器击晕-”嘿，击晕？ 还不错。我以为她会说“焚化”之类的。 “痛得吓人！”她说。 哦。该死的。“这叫逃跑！”不是留宿者！”Globlet喊着，把脸从开着的出租车门里挤出来。 “那我们走吧。”昆特抓住出租车修长的手指，我爬到他身后。 手指急需乳液，我们把粗糙的皮肤当梯子用。 我把脚塞进一个篮球大小的老茧里，用一个指关节作为最后的抓手，把自己抬进去。

I expect to find Globlet flipping switches, powering up engines, checking coordinates. Instead, she's sitting calmly in the middle seat, slurping a drink the size of a football. I want to ask her a lot of questions—most of them some variation on "WHY ARE YOU WANTED BY THE MONSTER POLICE?" But for some reason, the question that pops out of my mouth is... where'd you get a soda? Came with the ride. Tastes like cherries and optimism. Suddenly, Seabiscuit stands, and everything sways. I'm thrown into a fleshy armrest, then go flipping over a

我希望看到地球仪打开开关，启动引擎，检查坐标。 相反，她平静地坐在中间的座位上，喝着足球大小的饮料。 我想问她很多问题——其中大部分都是类似于“为什么怪物警察要找你？”但出于某种原因，从我嘴里蹦出来的问题是…… 你从哪弄来的汽水？随车而来。 尝起来像樱桃和乐观。 突然间，海洋饼干站了起来，一切都动摇了。 我被扔到一个肉质扶手上，然后翻了个身

fleshy cupholder, and when I'm finally upright again, I'm sitting in the also-fleshy driver's seat. "Oh, good, I was hoping you'd want to drive," Globlet says, hopping up front. "My footises can't reach the scale-pedals." Actually, no, I don't want to, but I see the enforcer's glowing eye-beams shining into the cabin. And a trio of enforcers is on the road ahead, marching toward us. It's pretty clear I've got no choice. "Drive... Right, OK," I say, searching for the ignition or a button or something. "And I do that... how?" "You do it..." Globlet says. "With gusto!" Globlet grabs a long shard of bone that pokes through the cabin floor. It's like a gearshift, I realize, as Globlet pushes it forward. There's a squelching sound—then Seabiscuit lurches forward, swinging around, charging into the terminal. "Wrong direction!" I shout. "This is a getaway. That means we're supposed to be getting away!" "Fantastic!" Quint remarks. "I was hoping we'd get to see inside of the terminal during our tour." "IT'S NOT A TOUR!" I cry as I desperately jerk the wheel back and forth, trying—and mostly failing—to avoid hitting anything.

当我终于重新站起来的时候，我坐在了同样是肉的驾驶座上。 “哦，太好了，我正希望你愿意开车呢，”Globlet跳上了前面。 “我的脚够不着秤踏板。” 事实上，不，我也不想看，但我看到那个打手的眼睛在向船舱里射出光芒。 前面的路上有三个执法者，正朝我们走来。 很明显，我别无选择。 “开车…好吧，好吧。”我一边说，一边寻找着点火装置或按钮之类的东西。 “我就是这么做的……如何?”“你来……” Globlet说。“津津有味地!”Globlet抓住了一根长长的骨头碎片，刺穿了小屋的地板。 我意识到，这就像变速杆，Globlet推着它前进。 一声“吱”的声音——然后“海洋饼干”蹒跚向前，四处摇摆，冲进了航站楼。 “错误的方向!”我喊。 “这是一次逃亡。这意味着我们应该离开这里！”“太棒了!”五胞胎言论。 “我希望我们能在旅行中看到航站楼的内部。” “这不是旅游！”我一边哭一边拼命地前后晃动方向盘，试图避免撞到任何东西，但大部分都失败了。

Seabiscuit gallops past landing platforms and heaps of wreckage and endless shops and stalls and emporiums. "Ooh, Pinky Palace," Globlet says, pointing. "That place has the best sammiches." "We should stop for some," Quint says. "If you two don't get serious, I WILL PULL THIS CAR OVER!" I roar. "Actually, I won't, 'cause I don't know how to and also 'cause we're being chased by an army of monster police. But, yeah... GET SERIOUS." Geez, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I woke up in the wrong dimension in a river after almost getting my head torn off by a monster that's trying to kill me Globlet glances back at Quint, and they both giggle. I want to strangle them. I suddenly feel very guilty about

“海洋饼干”号疾驰而过，经过了着陆平台、成堆的残骸、无数的商店、货摊和商场。 “哦，Pinky Palace，”Globlet指着说。 “那个地方的三明治最好。” “我们应该停下来休息一会儿，”昆特说。 “如果你们两个不认真点，我就把车停在路边！”我咆哮。 “事实上，我不会，因为我不知道怎么做，而且我们正被一群怪物警察追赶。 但是,是的…认真。” 天啊，有人起床时心情不好。 我在错误的次元里醒来在一条河里差点被一个想杀我的怪物扯掉脑袋Globlet看了昆特一眼，他们都咯咯地笑了起来。 我想掐死他们。我突然感到很内疚

every time I horsed around in the back of some tired parent's car as they drove me home for car pool. Seabiscuit skids around a corner, swerving into a wide corridor. "A way out!" I say, pointing at a huge, arcing exit up ahead. I can see the daylight beyond. But much of that daylight disappears as enforcers begin to fill the opening. First three or four, and then a dozen of the glow-eyed monsters. They ride beasts, nightmarish mash-ups of machinery and musculature. The enforcers and their beasts move closer, forming a roadblock. And we're racing straight toward it. One enforcer tosses a snake creature into the path ahead of us. All along its back, its scales erupt into spikes—spikes that will shred Seabiscuit's finger-feet if we drive over them. I quickly scan our surroundings, looking for another way. "Just go, man!" Globlet says, tugging the bone-shift and hurtling Seabiscuit forward at runaway-freight-train speed. Meanwhile, Quint just stares out the window in fascination. "Look!" he exclaims, tapping the glass. "A remarkable time-telling device!"

每次我在一些疲惫的父母开车送我回家拼车时，在他们的车后座上胡闹。 “海饼干”滑过一个角落，突然转向一条宽阔的走廊。 “一条出路！”我指着前方一个巨大的弧形出口说。 我能看到远处的日光。 但当执法者开始填补空缺时，大部分日光就消失了。 一开始是三四个，然后是十几个发光眼睛的怪物。 他们骑着野兽，可怕的机械和肌肉的混合体。 执法者和他们的野兽靠近，形成一个路障。 我们正朝着它飞奔而去。 一个执法者把一条蛇扔到我们前面的路上。 在它的背部，它的鳞片都长出了尖刺——如果我们从它身上开过去，这些尖刺会把它的手指脚撕碎。 我迅速环顾四周，寻找另一条路。 “走吧，伙计！”Globlet一边说，一边拖着骨头，以货运列车的速度向前冲去。 与此同时，昆特只是着迷地盯着窗外。 “看！”他敲着玻璃惊叫道。 “一个了不起的报时装置！”