59 The Spire

59 The Spire As Peanut got her breath back she looked around. She had surfaced in a small round pool of purple water. Little-Bit and Rockwell were lying on the dirty concrete floor, breathing heavily. They had, like Peanut, lost their farmer disguises. Doodle, meanwhile, was sniffing at the bottom of a metallic door in the far corner, Peanut pulled herself out of the pool and shivered. Little- Bit looked at her. "Poor 72," she said sadly. "It was the bravest robot I have ever met."

59 尖塔 花生缓过气来，环顾起四周。 她浮出水面，落在一汪小小的圆形紫水池里。 小点点和罗克韦尔趴在脏水泥地上，大口喘着气。 他们和花生一样，身上的农民伪装都不见了。 这时候，杜德尔在远墙角的金属门底部嗅来嗅去，花生爬出水池，冻得直发抖。小—— 点点望着她。 “可怜的72，”她难过地说。 那是我见过最勇敢的机器人了。

It certainly was," agreed Peanut. Another reason to rescue Dad and Mr M. We can't let 72's sacrifice be for nothing. Rockwell, any luck with that code?" "I just almost drowned! Give me a chance!" He pulled the piece of slightly damp paper from his rucksack and started looking at it intently. In the corner opposite the door was a small desk with a computer terminal on it. Little-Bit walked over and started tapping away on the keyboard. "I don't think they'll have Minecraft," said Rockwell, smiling. "Very funny," said Little-Bit. "OK, I've found a map of the building. Every floor and every cell is numbered and I would guess that this door leads into elevator shaft E3 which gives us direct access to the prison floors. All we need is Mr M's cell number. Peanut shook her head. Sometimes it was hard to believe that her sister was only five. "So, Mr Codebreaker, we're all waiting for you. "Well, it's got to be an anagram," said Rockwell. "I just can't work out why it's in blocks of five letters.

“确实是这样，”花生赞同道。 这更说明我们要救出爸爸和M先生，不能让72白白牺牲。 罗克韦尔，密码解得怎么样了？” “我刚才差点淹死！ 给我点时间啊！” 他从背包里掏出那张微微发潮的纸，聚精会神地看了起来。 门对面的墙角摆着一张小桌子，桌上放着一台电脑终端。 小点点走过去，在键盘上敲了起来。 “我觉得这儿可没有《我的世界》哦，”罗克韦尔笑着说。 “一点都不好笑，”小点点说。 “好了，我找到这栋楼的地图了。 每层楼每个牢房都编了号，我猜这扇门通往E3电梯井，我们能从那儿直接去到关押犯人的楼层。 我们只需要拿到M先生的牢房号就行。 花生摇了摇头。 有时候她真不敢相信，自己的妹妹才只有五岁。 “那么，密码破译大师，我们都等着你呢。 “唔，这肯定是个变位词，”罗克韦尔说。 我就是搞不懂为什么要分成五个字母一组。

Little-Bit stood up from the chair by the computer and walked over. "Don't you think that "Fathom" is a keyword?" she said to Rockwell. "I told you, "fathom" means "work out". It's just telling us to work it out. "Why would they do that? They don't actually want us to work it out, do they?" Rockwell looked at her. He realised that she was right. How annoying. "OK, what do you mean by "keyword"?" "Well, in my Junior Puzzler, there are often keywords that act as the cipher that cracks the code." Of course!" said Rockwell. A cipher! A word that will, somehow, make sense of all the other letters. But how does "fathom" do that, clever clogs?" "Well, it could do it in lots of different ways. Sometimes it is a literal clue, other times it's all to do with sequencing. "What's sequencing?" asked Peanut. "Duh. The order in which you read the letters." Little-Bit took the piece of paper from Rockwell and stared at it for a full thirty seconds. "Wait a minute... It couldn't be that simple, could it?" "What?" asked Rockwell nervously. "Yes! I knew it! It's a columnar transposition cipher!"

小点点从电脑旁的椅子上站起来，走了过来。 “你不觉得“Fathom”是关键词吗？” 她对罗克韦尔说。 “我告诉过你，fathom的意思就是“破译”， 它只是提醒我们来破译密码而已。 “他们为什么要这么做？ 他们根本不想让我们破译出来，对不对？” 罗克韦尔看着她。 他意识到小点点是对的。 真让人头疼。 “好吧，你说的关键词是什么意思？” “你看，我那本《少年谜题书》里，经常会有关键词当密匙来破译密码。” “对啊！”罗克韦尔说。 是密码！ 一个词就能把所有这些乱字母理出意义来。 可fathom 要怎么做到啊，小聪明鬼？” “唔，有好几种不同的方法哦。 有时候是字面线索，有时候和排序有关。” “排序是什么？”花生问道。 “笨呀。 就是读字母的顺序呀。” 小点点从罗克韦尔手里拿过纸，盯着它足足看了三十秒。 “等一下…… 不可能这么简单吧，对吗？” “什么？”罗克韦尔紧张地问。 “没错！ 我猜对了！ 这是列换位密码！”

"It's a what?" said Rockwell. "Now you're just making up words!" "No, I'm not! It's a columnar transposition cipher!" She started to bounce with happiness. "Oh no, please don't dance," said Rockwell. "Just explain what a communal transfiguring siren is. "It'll be easier to show you. Peanut, can I borrow your pencil? Right. Let's start with our keyword, "Fathom"..." She wrote it down. FATHOM "Now, if we were to assign each letter a number, from 1 to 6, depending on where it sits alphabetically, we would end up with this..." FATHOM 216354 "OK, Now let's add our mysterious blocks of letters. We'll put the first block of five, A, E, R, L and T in column "1"..."

“这到底是什么呀？”罗克韦尔说。 你肯定是瞎编出来的词！” “我才没有！ 真的是列换位密码！” 她高兴得蹦了起来。 “哦拜托，别跳呀，”罗克韦尔说。 快给我讲讲那个什么公共变形警报是什么东西。 “演示给你看更容易懂， 花生，能借我你的铅笔用用吗？ 好的。 咱们先从关键词“Fathom”开始……” 她把关键词写了下来。 FATHOM “现在，我们按字母表顺序给每个字母标上1到6的编号，最后就会得到这个结果……” FATHOM 216354 “好了，现在我们把这些神秘的字母块填进去。 我们把第一组五个字母A、E、R、L、T填进“1”号列……”

FATHOM 216354 A E R L T "Next, let's add the next block, M, K, O, E and N in column 2..." FATHOM 216354 MA KE OR EL NT

FATHOM 216354 A E R L T “接下来，我们把第二组字母M、K、O、E、N填进2号列……” FATHOM 216354 MA KE OR EL NT

And so on..." FATHOM 216354 MARKMA KERFLO ORSIXC ELLTWE NTYTWO "I still don't get it," said Rockwell, puzzled. "I do!" said Peanut. "LB, you're a genius!" "Can someone please explain?" said a forlorn Rockwell. "It's so easy once you see it!" Peanut beamed. "Just read across, line by line, left to right." "MARKMA, KERFLO, ORSIXC, ELLTWE, NTYTWO." "What does that mean'? Write it down. Come on, you're meant to be the smart one." Rockwell took the pencil.

以此类推……” FATHOM 216354 MARKMA KERFLO ORSIXC ELLTWE NTYTWO “我还是没懂，”困惑的罗克韦尔说。 “我懂了！”花生说。 “小点点，你真是天才！” “谁能给我讲讲吗？”失落的罗克韦尔说。 “你看出来之后就超级简单！” 花生开心地笑了。 “逐行从左往右读就好了呀。” “MARKMA，KERFLO，ORSIXC，ELLTWE，NTYTWO。” “这是什么意思呀？ 写出来呀。 快点，你才是聪明人呀。” 罗克韦尔接过了铅笔。