66 The Quick Way Down

66 The Quick Way Down Peanut took the pencil out of her pocket and drew a can of spray paint as carefully as she could, trying to remember what the one in her (now confiscated) bandolier had looked like. When she finished, she picked it up. Mr M gasped. "Is that... is that... Pencil Number One?" "It is," said Peanut, before picking up her drawing and testing the spraying mechanism. She aimed the nozzle at the wall. It worked perfectly. She smiled. "OK. I think we've got a chance..." she said excitedly.

66 捷径下山 花生从口袋掏出铅笔，尽可能仔细地画了一罐喷漆，努力回想她那把（如今被没收的）子弹带上的喷漆是什么模样。 画完之后，她拿起了这幅画好的喷漆。 M先生倒吸了一口凉气。 “这难道……这难道是…… 一号铅笔？” “没错，”花生说完，拿起画好的喷漆测试了喷射装置。 她把喷嘴对准了墙壁。 效果好极了，完全能用。 她笑了。 “好啦。 我觉得我们有机会逃出去了……”她兴奋地说。

Then she drew a big, dotted-line oval that stretched from high up on the wall right down to the floor. When she had finished, she told everyone to stand back. She steeled herself for a moment, and then kicked the middle of the circle as hard as she could. To everyone's surprise, the whole thing popped out and tumbled into the night, as if the dotted lines she'd drawn were perforations. There was now a massive hole in the wall. The purple, star-filled sky looked huge as the wind rushed noisily into the room. The sudden sound triggered a commotion outside their cell: metallic voices talking very fast. Then they heard the sound of a key in the lock.

接着她画了一个大大的虚线椭圆，从墙的高处一直延伸到地面。 画完之后，她让所有人都退后站。 她给自己鼓了劲，接着用尽全力踢向椭圆的中心。 出乎所有人意料，整块椭圆墙都掉了出来，滚进了夜色里，就好像她画的虚线本来就是穿孔线一样。 现在墙上出现了一个巨大的洞。 缀满星星的紫黑色夜空辽阔无边，风呼呼地刮进房间。 这突如其来的声响惊动了牢房外，外面传来金属嗓音急匆匆的说话声。 接着他们听到了钥匙插进门锁的声音。

"Quick!" shouted Peanut. "Everyone stand in single file behind me and grab the person in front." Mr M scooped up Doodle and they all did as they were told. The cell door started to open. "Hold tight!" Peanut stood looking out of the hole into the void, her toes over the edge of the precipice and the wind blowing through her topknot. She held the can of spray paint in front of her, pointed it just ahead of her feet, and pushed the button. A wide blast of paint came flying out of the nozzle, creating a length of runway suspended in the air in front of them. Peanut smiled. Then she aimed the can slightly further ahead and started to shape the runway so that it began to slope downwards like a slide. She edged the whole group out of the hole and along the first section of spray paint. When they reached the beginning of the incline, she held her breath and tipped her body forwards. WHOOSH! They all started to zoom down the chute, standing upright like a conga line of Silver Surfers. As they whizzed along, Peanut kept her finger on the button, spraying a pathway a couple of metres ahead of them. It twisted and turned like a magical ribbon in the sky. After thirty seconds or so, Peanut began to get the hang of it. In a moment of science-based rationale that even Death

“快！”花生大喊道。 “所有人都在我身后排成一列，抓住前面的人。” M先生抱起嘟嘟，所有人都照她的话做了。 牢房门慢慢开了。 “抓牢了！” 花生站在洞口望向外面的虚空，脚趾搭在悬崖边缘，风吹过她的顶髻。 她把喷漆罐举在身前，喷嘴对准脚前一点的位置，按下了按钮。 一大股漆从喷嘴喷了出来，在他们面前的半空中造出了一段悬浮跑道。 花生笑了。 接着她把喷嘴对准更远一点的地方，把跑道修成向下倾斜的滑梯模样。 她带着整队人慢慢挪出洞口，沿着第一段喷漆跑道前进。 走到斜坡起点的时候，她屏住呼吸，身体向前倾。 嗖——！ 他们全都顺着滑道往下冲，笔直站着就像一串银色冲浪手排成的康加舞队。 一路向下冲的时候，花生一直按着按钮，在他们前方几米处不停喷出前进的路。 路弯弯曲曲，就像天空中一条神奇的丝带。 大约三十秒后，花生慢慢摸到了窍门。 这一刻，她这套基于科学的推断，就连死神

Breath Dawkins would have been proud of, she decided that flying in circles would be the best way of modulating their speed and maintaining a certain amount of control. So she started to circle the Spire as if it were a giant helter-skelter. "THIS IS LIKE THE BEST ROLLER COASTER EVER!" whooped Little-Bit. Rockwell and Mr M, on the other hand, looked decidedly ill. Are we nearly there yet?" asked Rockwell gingerly. "We're about a quarter of the way down," replied Peanut, marvelling at the magnificent view. It was something to behold. Even though it was night- time, she could see the clearly defined districts radiating out from the Spire, rotating below them as they circled the tower: the long, straight bridge of Die Brücke, the patchwork farmland of Vincent Fields, the ponds of the Light District, the skyscrapers of Superhero Heights, the highways of the Strip and the black mountains of the Ink District. When the North Draw came into view, she aimed the spray paint slightly to the right and straightened their descent, aiming for the wide-open snowy expanses. As they flew over the north side of the Rainbow Lake, Peanut felt a sudden wave of relief. She shouted over her shoulder, "I think we're going to make it. I think we're going to be OK!" Unfortunately, she had spoken too soon.

布雷思·道金斯都会感到骄傲，她认定绕圈飞行是调整速度、保持控制的最佳方法。 于是她开始绕着尖塔盘旋，就把这里当成了一个巨型螺旋滑梯。 “这简直是全世界最棒的过山车！” 小不点欢呼道。 可罗克韦尔和M先生却脸色难看，晕得厉害。 “我们快到了吗？”罗克韦尔小心翼翼地问道。 “我们大概才下了四分之一，”花生回答，一边惊叹眼前壮丽的景色。 眼前的景色美得令人惊叹。 虽然是夜晚，她依然能清晰看到以尖塔为中心向四周辐射、在脚下随盘旋转动的各个区域：迪克大桥笔直修长，文森特原野是错落拼缀的农田，光区分布着片片池塘，英雄高地立着座座摩天大楼，带状区公路纵横交错，墨区则是黑压压的群山。 北闸进入视野后，她把喷漆喷嘴稍稍偏向右方，把下落路线拉直，朝着开阔的雪原飞去。 飞过彩虹湖北岸的时候，花生突然感到一阵强烈的释然。 她回过头大喊：“我觉得我们能成功的。 我们都会没事的！” 可惜，她还是说得太早了。