38 Josephine Engelberger

38 Josephine Engelberger Peanut stood up, "So you worked with Mr White?" she said, a tide of anger rising inside her. "You helped him on his mission to destroy Chroma?" "In a manner of speaking," replied Engelberger. Peanut spun around to face the Markmakers, her face bright red. "WHY HAVE YOU LET THIS WOMAN INTO THE BUNKER? HOW DOES SHE EVEN KNOW WHERE THE BUNKER IS? SHE IS ON HIS SIDE! "Peanut," said Mrs M calmly, Josephine is most definitely not on his side. On the contrary. She has been imprisoned in the Spire for the last twenty years, on Mr White's orders." Peanut stood staring at Engelberger, breathing hard. She could feel her heart racing. "I, er, how er, wh-why

38 约瑟芬·恩格尔伯格·皮纳特站起来，开口道："这么说你曾经和怀特先生共事？" 话音落下，一股怒火在她心底翻涌起来。 "你帮他完成了摧毁克罗玛的任务？" "算是吧。"恩格尔伯格答道。 皮纳特猛地转身面对印记制作者们，脸涨得通红。 "你们为什么让这个女人进掩体？ 她到底是怎么知道掩体位置的？ 她是他那边的人！" "皮纳特，"M太太平静地说道，约瑟芬绝对不是他那边的人。 恰恰相反。 过去二十年，她一直遵照怀特的命令被关在尖塔里。" 皮纳特站在那儿盯着恩格尔伯格，呼吸粗重。 她能感觉到自己心跳得飞快。 "我，呃，你怎……为……为什么"

did he put you in prison?" "Because," said the woman, her voice low and measured, "I dared to question him." "Question him how?" asked Little-Bit, eyeing the woman suspiciously. "I questioned his motives for wanting the robots," she replied. "When he initially asked me to design them, I was led to believe that they would be serving Chroma. That they'd be a force for good and enhance the city's creative output." "Why on earth did you think that?" asked Peanut. "Because that's what White told me," she replied, tears pooling in her eyes. "It seems ridiculous now, I grant you. But... I believed him." "We all did," said Mrs M putting a hand on Engelberger's shoulder. "So, hang on. You're a science person like me," said Rockwell. "Well, I must say it would be nice to have a scientific thinker to keep me company among all these creatives!" "But, my friend, I am a creative person too," said Engelberger, looking at the boy. "I have swum in the Rainbow Lake. It just so happens that my gift is a knowledge and application of physics, engineering and, specifically, robotics. Peanut looked at Rockwell and shook her head. "You're just like my mum. You have to stop with this whole science

把你关进监狱的？" "因为，"女人声音低沉平稳地说道，"我敢质疑他。" "你是怎么质疑他的？"小不点满怀疑虑地打量着女人问道。 "我质疑他想要得到机器人的动机，"她答道。 "最开始他找我设计机器人的时候，我一直以为它们是为克罗玛服务的。 它们会成为正义的力量，提升整座城市的创作产出。" "你怎么会这么想啊？"皮纳特问道。 "因为怀特就是这么跟我说的，"她答道，泪水在眼眶里打转。 我承认，现在想想这太荒唐了。 但是……我那时候相信他。" "我们那时候都信他，"M太太说着，把手搭在了恩格尔伯格的肩上。 "哦，等一下。 你和我一样是搞科学的人，"罗克韦尔说道。 "哎呀，要我说啊，在这群创作者里有个懂科学的人和我做伴可太棒了！" "不过呀，小伙子，我也是个创作者哦，"恩格尔伯格看着男孩说道。 "我也曾在彩虹湖里畅游过。 只不过我的天赋是钻研应用物理学、工程学，具体来说就是机器人学罢了。 皮纳特看着罗克韦尔，摇了摇头。 "你就跟我妈妈一样。 你别再搞这套科学

versus art thing. We've talked about this before. Don't you remember what Albert Einstein said?" Rockwell frowned. "He... he said that the greatest scientists are always artists as well. "Exactly!" said Little-Bit. "Newton was a painter. Galileo was a poet..." "She's right," said Peanut, smiling now. "Think of Leonardo da Vinci. He was pretty decent with a paintbrush, right? But he also knew a thing or two about engineering. The two aren't mutually exclusive." "Scientific endeavour is totally dependent on the huge leaps of imagination at its very core," said Engelberger, nodding. "You should never forget that, young man. "So what happened when you questioned Mr White?" said Peanut, who was now sitting back down in her chair. "We had just finished building the first generation of RAZERs. I was excited to unveil them to Chroma's citizens. As far as I was concerned, they were going to be working on things like increasing pigment production, colour-correcting the Rainbow Lake, and helping to build the new galleries that we'd been planning for years. I thought the future of the city looked very bright at that point. But the first thing White sent them to do was to whitewash the famous Graffitied Wall in Warholia." "Oh! I think we just flew over that!" said Rockwell excitedly.

对立艺术的说法了。 我们之前早就聊过这个了。 你不记得阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦说过的话了吗？" 罗克韦尔皱起了眉头。 "他……他说过，最伟大的科学家本身也同时是艺术家。 "没错！"小不点说道。 "牛顿是个画家。 伽利略还是个诗人呢……" "她说得对，"皮纳特说着，这下露出笑容了。 "想想莱昂纳多·达·芬奇嘛。 他画画可是相当不错，对不对？ 但他也懂不少工程学的知识呀。 这两者并不是互相排斥的。" "科学探索从根源上就完全依赖想象力的巨大飞跃，"恩格尔伯格点着头说道。 "永远别忘了这点，年轻人。 "那你质疑怀特之后发生了什么？"皮纳特问道，这会儿她已经坐回椅子上了。 "我们那时候刚造完第一代RAZER机器人。 我当时满心激动，要向克罗玛的市民展示它们。 在我看来，它们将来会负责这类工作：提升颜料产量、校正彩虹湖的色彩，还能帮忙建造我们筹划了多年的新美术馆。 那时候我觉得这座城市的未来一片光明。 可怀特派它们去做的第一件事，就是刷白沃霍尔区那面著名的涂鸦墙。" "哦！ 我想我们刚才刚从那上头飞过去！"罗克韦尔兴奋地说道。

"I was appalled!" said Engelberger. "I immediately went to see White, and I asked, in no uncertain terms, what he was up to. And right there, in the Mission Control room at the top of the tower, he revealed his true self to me for the first time. It was scary. Let's just say that he didn't like being questioned. Not at all! That was when I realised that the city had a big problem, and that I had contributed to it. "So what did you do?" asked Peanut. "Well, I felt awful. Terribly guilty. But there was no time for self-pity. We were already working on the second generation of RAZER by that point, so I focused all of my energy on trying to program them to develop more autonomy. I wanted the robots themselves to be able to make decisions. I figured that at least that might help at some point in the future."

"我当时惊呆了！"恩格尔伯格说道。 "我立刻去找怀特，直截了当地问他到底在搞什么名堂。 就在塔顶的任务控制中心里，他第一次向我露出了真面目。 那太可怕了。 只能说，他一点都不喜欢被人质疑。 一点都不！ 那时候我才意识到，这座城市出了大问题，而我也助长了这个问题。 "那你后来做了什么？"皮纳特问道。 "唉，我那时候难受极了。 愧疚得要命。 但我没时间自怨自艾。 那时候我们已经在研发第二代RAZER机器人了，所以我把全部精力都放在给机器人编程，让它们能拥有更多自主意识上。 我希望机器人自己能做决定。 我想着，至少这在将来的某一天能帮上忙。"

The three children looked at each other. "72!" they said in unison, remembering the rogue RAZER and Resistance operative who had helped them on Die Brücke, sacrificing themself by deliberately falling into the Rainbow Lake and causing a distraction so that the children could carry out their mission successfully. "By then I knew I wouldn't be part of Mr White's regime for much longer. Not now that I had openly questioned his methods," continued Engelberger. And, sure enough, a week later a platoon of RAZERs arrived at my lab in Modernia and took me to the Spire. I was imprisoned by the very robots that I had designed." She smiled and shook her head. "The irony." "Tell them, Josephine," said Mr M. "Tell the children what you've just told us. Tell them what you found out before you were imprisoned." "OK," said the woman, taking a deep breath. "In the week before I was taken to the Spire, White became much more vocal in terms of what he really wanted to achieve as Mayor of Chroma." "That he wants to mono the city and stop people from our world visiting Chroma?" asked Peanut. "Yes. But that's just the start," said Josephine. "He also plans to drain the Rainbow Lake completely so that no one, from any world, will ever swim in it again. He wants to make sure that all creativity will die everywhere."

三个孩子互相对视着。 “72！” 他们异口同声喊出这个名字，想起了这名叛变的雷泽，也是帮助过他们的反抗军特工。他在蓝桥行动中故意掉进彩虹湖引开敌人，牺牲自己，帮孩子们顺利完成了任务。 “那时候我就知道，我没法再留在怀特先生的阵营里了。 我已经公开质疑他的做法，当然不可能再待下去了。”恩格尔贝格继续说道。 果不其然，一周后，一队雷泽闯进了我在摩登尼亚的实验室，把我抓去了尖塔。 我竟然被自己设计出来的机器人关进了大牢。” 她笑着摇了摇头。 “真是讽刺。” “告诉孩子们吧，约瑟芬，”M先生说，“把你刚告诉我们的事，都讲给孩子们听。 说说你被抓前查到的真相。” “好的。”女人说着，深吸了一口气。 “在我被抓去尖塔的前一周，怀特越来越直白地说出了他当克罗玛市长的真实野心。” “他想垄断这座城市，不让我们世界的人去克罗玛游玩对吗？”皮纳特问道。 “没错。 但这还只是开始。”约瑟芬说道。 “他还打算把彩虹湖彻底抽干，这样一来，不管来自哪个世界，都再也没人能在这里游泳了。 他要让所有地方的创造力，全都彻底消失。”