14 The Factory Vent and the Tin of Soup

Chapter 14 The Factory Vent and the Tin of Soup Oh no! What happened?" said Peanut. Mrs M took a deep breath and steeled herself. "Well, as I said, Frida was our best available agent. When it comes to covert surveillance there are few finer." As cunning as a fox and as stealthy as a jaguar," said Mr M, a note of pride in his voice. "She'd been tracking White for a long, long time," continued Mrs M. "In fact it was Frida who reported back on many of his original visits out to Warholia. After he stole Little Tail from you, however, those trips suddenly stopped. For a while at least.

第14章 工厂通风口和一罐汤 哦不！ "发生什么事了？"花生说道。 M夫人深吸一口气，让自己镇定下来。 "嗯，就像我说的，弗里达是我们目前最棒的特工。 说到秘密侦察，很少有人比她更出色。" "她像狐狸一样狡猾，像美洲豹一样悄无声息，"M先生说，语气里带着一丝骄傲。 "她追踪怀特已经很久很久了，"M夫人继续说道。 "实际上，怀特最初好几次去沃霍尔亚，都是弗里达向我们汇报的。" 不过，自从他从你这里偷走小尾巴之后，那些出行就突然停止了。 至少有一段时间是这样。

Peanut bristled at the thought of that man being in possession of the magical pencil. Her magical pencil. "For a while?" she said. "Yes. Until a year after you last visited, in fact." Her voice caught in her throat and she pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve. "Oh, Millicent," said Mr M, "don't upset yourself. It's not your fault." "But I can't help feeling responsible, Malcolm," she replied, dabbing at her eyes. "Listen," he said. "Frida knew the risks. She knew what she'd signed up for." "So what happened?" asked Rockwell. "She was at her regular post overlooking the Spire," said Mrs M, "when she saw Mr White, a platoon of RAZERs and Alan leave and head towards Warholia, just as they'd done many times before. So Frida followed them, at a safe distance, to the same place that they always used to visit a small alleyway at the side of one of the old factories in the industrial zone. But, this time, things were different." "How so?" asked Peanut. swell, a couple of minutes after arriving, the RAZERS and Alan turned right around and headed back to the Spire. Without White." "He must have gone through a portal!" gasped Little-Bit.

一想到那个男人拿着魔法铅笔，花生就气得浑身发毛。 那是她的魔法铅笔。 "一段时间？"她问道。 "没错。 实际上，一直到你上次来过之后的一年。" 她的声音哽咽了，从袖子里掏出一块手帕。 "噢，米利森特，"M先生说，"别难过了。 这不是你的错。" "可我总觉得我有责任，马尔科姆，"她一边回答，一边轻轻擦着眼睛。 "听我说，"他说道。 "弗里达知道这有风险。 她知道自己选择的是什么路。" "所以到底发生了什么？"罗克韦尔问道。 "她一直在日常岗哨上盯着尖塔，"M夫人说，"然后她看到怀特先生，带着一队剃刀兵和艾伦离开，朝着沃霍尔亚去了，就和他们之前很多次做的一样。 于是弗里达就跟在他们后面，保持着安全距离，一路跟到他们常去的那个地方——工业区老工厂侧边的一条小胡同里。 但这一次，情况不一样了。" "怎么不一样了？"花生问道。 你看，他们抵达后没过几分钟，剃刀兵和艾伦就掉头往回走，回尖塔去了。 怀特没跟他们一起。" "他肯定是进传送门了！" 小威喘着气说道。

Mr M nodded. "Frida immediately radioed in to tell us what had happened, and to ask whether she should investigate further. "I was on the other end of that radio," sniffed Mrs M, "and I was the one that said she should. Mr M put an arm around his wife. "Which was the right call. We'd been tracking him for years by this point. It was our breakthrough moment, so of course she had to investigate further." "So did she go and have a look down the alleyway?" asked Rockwell. "She did. And, unsurprisingly, found that it was totally empty." Mr M glanced over at his wife. "But Frida did notice something. A small air vent, a metre or so from the floor, with its front panel slightly ajar." "She went through it, didn't she?" said Little-Bit. "Indeed she did." And where did it lead?" "It led," said Mr M, "to MoMA, the Museum of Modern

M先生点了点头。 "弗里达立刻发无线电告诉我们情况，还问我们要不要她进一步侦查。" "我当时就在无线电另一头，"M夫人抽着鼻子说，"让她去侦查的人是我。 M先生伸出胳膊揽住他的妻子。 "你的决定没错。 到那时候我们已经追踪他很多年了。 这是我们的突破性机会，所以她当然得进去侦查。" "那她去胡同里查看了吗？"罗克韦尔问道。 "她去了。 而且不出所料，里面空空荡荡的。" M先生扫了一眼他的妻子。 "但弗里达确实注意到了一件怪事。 一个小小的通风口，离地面大概一米高，通风口的前盖板微微开着。" "她钻进去了，对不对？"小威说道。 "她确实进去了。" 那它通向哪里？" "它通向，"M先生说，"MoMA，也就是现代

Art in New York City!" "NO WAY!" shouted all three children. "Way," deadpanned Mr M. "Via one of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can paintings." The children looked confused. "In the Geffen Wing at MOMA," explained Mr M," there are thirty-two nearly identical soup-tin artworks, painted by Warhol and hung in a grid formation on the gallery wall. After Frida had squeezed through the air vent, she turned back to see what she'd climbed through, and saw that the painting on the far left of the bottom row had opened up like a door." "Ooh, cool!" said Little-Bit.

艺术博物馆，就在纽约！" "不可能吧！"三个孩子一起喊了出来。 "是真的，"M先生面无表情地说道。 "走的是安迪·沃霍尔的金宝汤罐画作的通道。" 孩子们一脸困惑。 "在MoMA的格芬馆里，"M先生解释道，"一共有三十二幅几乎一模一样的汤罐画作，都是沃霍尔画的，排成网格挂在展厅的墙上。 弗里达挤过通风口之后，转身看自己是从哪里钻出来的，就看到最左下角那幅画像门一样打开了。" "哇，太酷了！"小威说道。

"So did she then follow Mr White through New York?" asked Peanut. "That's the thing. We don't know," said Mrs M, her voice thick with emotion. "The last we heard from her was when she radioed to tell us about MoMA and the painting. She said she was going to investigate further, but the connection went dead soon afterwards." "So she didn't come back through the portal later on?" Unfortunately not. Of course, we sent backup to Warholia immediately, but by the time the agents arrived, the vent in the factory wall was... just a vent in a factory wall. "What do you mean?" said Peanut. "It didn't lead anywhere," said Mr M. "The portal had, somehow, been... closed. Doodle, still sitting on Little-Bit's lap, whimpered quietly. Mrs M shook her head. "Which meant that Frida DaDa couldn't get back to Chroma. And she hasn't been seen since.

"那她之后跟着怀特先生去纽约了吗？"花生问道。 "问题就在这儿。 我们也不知道，"M夫人说，声音里充满了情绪。 "我们最后收到她的消息，是她发无线电告诉我们MoMA和那幅画的事。 她说她要继续侦查，可很快通讯就中断了。" "所以她之后就没从传送门回来过吗？" 很遗憾，没有。 我们当然立刻派了增援去沃霍尔亚，可等特工赶到的时候，工厂墙上的通风口已经…… 就是工厂墙上一个普通的通风口而已。 "你这话是什么意思？"花生问道。 "它哪儿也不通了，"M先生说。 "传送门不知道怎么就……关上了。 嘟嘟还坐在小威的腿上，轻轻呜咽了一声。 M夫人摇了摇头。 "这就意味着弗里达·达达没法回到柯罗玛了， 从那之后就再也没有人见过她。