54 Becoming Mr White

Chapter 54 Becoming Mr White Nerys put the hat back on her head. She walked over to the wall and started to rub out the door marked NYC—the one that had taken Peanut, Little-Bit and Rockwell to New York on their last visit. Peanut winced. "Why did you decide to call yourself Mr White?" asked Little-Bit from the cage. "Why not something more... imaginative?" "Yeah," said Rockwell, "like Mr Partypooper or Mr Vlbekill?" "Very witty," said Nerys, sarcastically. "Well, if you must know, the name Nerys comes from the traditional Welsh name Generys, which means White Lady," she replied proudly. "So the name White was a no-brainer, really."

第54章 成为怀特先生 内里斯把帽子戴回了头上。 她走到墙边，开始擦去标着NYC的那扇门——就是上次花生、小不点和罗克韦尔去纽约时走过的那扇。 花生皱起了眉。 "你为什么给自己起名叫怀特先生呀？"笼子里的小不点问道。 "为什么不叫个更……有想象力的名字呢？" "对呀，"罗克韦尔说，"干嘛不叫扫兴先生或者煞星先生呢？" "可真会说话呀。"内里斯挖苦地说。 "好吧，既然你们一定要知道，内里斯这个名字源自威尔士传统名字杰内里斯，意思是白衣女士，"她骄傲地回答。 "所以选怀特这个名字真的是想都不用想。"

"No-brainer is right," scoffed Rockwell. Nerys scowled at him. "HEY!" A muffled cry came from the hatch, followed by lots of banging. "LET US OUT!" It was Dad. "NERYS?" shouted Mum. "IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE LIKE THIS. WHATEVER HAS HAPPENED, WHATEVER YOU'VE DONE, WE CAN SORT IT JUST LET US OUT!" "The name White also made my outfit choice easier, continued Nerys, totally ignoring the voices. "Image is important when running for office, and I wanted to stand out from the crowd. In a city that's full of colour, a white suit worked perfectly. I thought a hat would help me to keep a certain amount of anonymity, and I was obviously right- you lot had no Idea who I really was!"

"可不就是不用想嘛，"罗克韦尔嘲笑道。 内里斯沉着脸看向他。 "喂！" 舱门那边传来一声闷喊，接着就是一阵砰砰的砸门声。 "放我们出去！" 是爸爸。 "内里斯？"妈妈喊道。 "事情没必要闹成这样。" "不管发生了什么，不管你做了什么，我们都能解决的，快放我们出去！" "怀特这个名字也让我选服装更方便，"内里斯完全没理会外面的声音，继续说道。 竞选公职的时候形象很重要，我想要从人群里脱颖而出。 在这座满是色彩的城市里，一身白西装再合适不过了。 我本来觉得戴帽子能帮我隐藏身份，显然我说对了——你们这群家伙完全猜不到我到底是谁！

Peanut turned away, still annoyed at the fact that she'd been wrong about White's true identity. That's when she first noticed Alan staring at her. It was almost as if he was trying to catch her eye. It kind of creeped Peanut out. "Wearing this costume really helped," said Nerys as she began rubbing out the door marked M for Milan. "I felt like a different person. Much more confident. More assertive. More powerful. All my insecurities just seemed to... disappear. Over the years, I gained people's trust, people of real influence in the city, like Josephine Engelberger, whose ideas about robotics immediately appealed to me. I imagined what it would be like to have an entire robot army at my beck and call. I don't suppose Nerys would ever have thought like that, and she certainly wouldn't have been able to talk all these people into following her. But Mr White had no problems whatsoever. As White, I would drop little nuggets into the conversation here and there, y'know, telling people what I would do if I were running things in Chroma. How I would colour-correct the Rainbow Lake more regularly, build more art galleries, make sure that every child was given their own set of water-soluble magic markers. All that nonsense. Everybody lapped it up.

花生转过了脸，她还在为自己猜错怀特的真实身份感到窝火。 就在这时，她第一次注意到艾伦正盯着她看。 那模样就好像他在努力吸引她的注意。 这让花生有点心里发毛。 "穿这身装扮真的帮了我大忙，"内里斯一边说，一边开始擦去标着M代表米兰的那扇门。 "我感觉自己变成了另一个人。" 自信多了。 也更果断了。 更有权力了。 我所有的不安好像全都……消失了。 这些年来，我得到了很多人的信任，都是这座城里真正有影响力的人，比如约瑟芬·恩格尔伯格，她有关机器人学的理念一下子就打动了我。 我忍不住想象，要是有一整个机器人军队都听我调遣，会是什么样子。 换作以前的内里斯，绝对不会这么想，她也肯定没办法说服这么多人跟随她。 但怀特先生做这些一点问题都没有。 以怀特的身份，我总会在聊天时时不时透漏一点想法，你懂的，告诉大家如果我掌管克罗玛城，我会做些什么。 我会更定期给彩虹湖校正色彩，建更多美术馆，保证每个孩子都能拿到一套水溶性魔法马克笔。 全都是这类好听的废话。 所有人都吃这一套。

Peanut nodded. She could see exactly how White had gradually forced his will onto the unsuspecting public, and all it took was a few insincere promises. It was scary how easy it was for this sort of thing to happen. Horrifying, really. At this point, Alan caught Peanut's eye again. He was staring straight at her, eyebrows raised, and he appeared to be jerking his head towards the hatch. Peanut had no idea what he was doing. "I was so successful," continued Nerys while rubbing out the Paris door, "that by the time I announced that I was going to run for mayor, nobody was surprised. In fact, they all predicted that I'd win by a landslide. And guess what? They were right!" How long until they realised you were a complete and utter fraud?" spat Peanut. Nerys smiled and moved on to the door marked B for Beijing. "Oh, that happened very quickly, lovely. Just after I'd passed the law banning anyone from swimming in the Rainbow Lake. Or maybe it was when I'd made all artistic apparatus illegal. I don't recall. Either way, by the time they realised what was happening, it was too late. Much, much too late.

花生点了点头。 她完全明白怀特是怎么一步步把自己的意志强加给毫无防备的公众的，只需要几句虚情假意的承诺就够了。 这种事居然这么容易发生，想想真让人害怕。 说真的，太骇人了。 就在这时，艾伦又和花生对上了目光。 他直直盯着她，挑着眉毛，还一个劲朝着舱门甩头示意。 花生完全搞不懂他是什么意思。 "我当时进展得太顺利了，"内里斯一边擦去标注巴黎的门，一边继续说道，"等我宣布要竞选市长的时候，根本没人觉得惊讶。" 实际上，所有人都料到我会以压倒性优势获胜。 你猜怎么着？ 他们说对了！" "那他们花了多久才发现你根本就是个彻头彻尾的骗子？"花生恶狠狠地说。 内里斯笑了笑，走到标着B代表北京的那扇门前。 "哦，他们很快就发现啦，亲爱的。 就在我通过法律禁止任何人去彩虹湖游泳之后没多久。 也可能是在我把所有绘画工具都列为违禁品的时候， 我记不清了。 不管怎么说，等他们反应过来出了什么事的时候，已经太晚了。 太晚，太晚了。