55 Nerys in the Real World

Chapter 55 Nerys in the Real World Nerys started rubbing out one of the two remaining doors left on the wall. Gold RAZERs 005 and 006," she barked, "get Peanut Jones out of the cage and bring her to me. I need to show her something. Oh, and make sure she's restrained. Two robots whizzed over to the cage. One unlocked the cell door, wrapped their extendable metal arms around Peanut and pulled her out, while the other relocked the door behind them. Rockwell and Little-Bit both tried to grab Peanut's hand, but it was no use. The RAZERs moved too quickly. As they zoomed past with Peanut, Alan had to jump

第55章 现实世界的内里斯 内里斯开始擦拭墙上仅剩的两扇门中的一扇。 黄金镭射机器人005号和006号，”她吼道，“把皮纳特·琼斯从笼子里带过来见我。 我要给她看点东西。 哦对了，一定要把她控制住。 两个机器人嗖地冲到了笼子边。 一个打开牢门，用可伸缩金属手臂捆住皮纳特把她拽了出来，另一个在他们出门后重新锁好了门。 罗克韦尔和小比特都想去抓皮纳特的手，可根本来不及。 这些镭射机器人动作太快了。 他们抓着皮纳特冲过去的时候，艾伦不得不跳开

behind the control desk, otherwise they would have knocked him over. Again, he caught the girl's eye, his eyebrows raised. A curious notion suddenly entered her head. Maybe Alan was trying to tell her something. Could he be trying to. help them?! He had been well and truly done over by Nerys, after all. "Tidy," said Nerys once the RAZERs were next to her. OK," said Peanut, shooting a curious glance at Alan. "Shall I ask the obvious question? Why are you rubbing out these doors?" "Two reasons," replied Nerys. "First, I have no need for these portals anymore. And second, because I need to make room for the big one that I'm about to draw." "Why are you drawing a new one?" "You'll see," said Nerys as she erased the final hinge on the final door. "By the way, would you like to hear about the beautiful coincidence in this whole fascinating story? It really is quite incredible." "Not really," said Peanut. "But I'm sure you're going to tell me anyway.

躲到控制台后面，不然他就会被撞倒了。 他再一次和女孩对上目光，抬了抬眉毛。 一个奇怪的念头突然钻进了她的脑袋。 也许艾伦是想告诉她什么事情。 他该不会是想要…… 帮他们！ 毕竟，他早就被内里斯整得够惨了。 “好了，”内里斯说，此时镭射机器人已经站到了她身旁。 “行吧，”皮纳特说，好奇地瞥了艾伦一眼。 “那我就问个明摆着的问题吧？ 你为什么要擦掉这些门？" "两个原因，" 内里斯回答。 "第一，我已经不需要这些传送门了。 第二，我要腾出地方画我接下来要画的那扇大门。" "你为什么要画一扇新的？" "你马上就知道了，" 内里斯说着擦掉了最后一扇门上最后一个合页。 "对了，你要不要听听整个精彩故事里那个美妙的巧合？ 这真的太不可思议了。" "不想听，" 皮纳特说。 "不过我知道你反正都要讲的。"

"Yes, lovely, I am. When I wasn't running for high office in Chroma, I was spending my time in the real world working admin jobs at various boring accountancy firms. I needed to earn a bit of money after all. As she spoke, she started to draw a huge arch on the wall with Little Tail. I ended up in London," continued Nerys, "at a very whizz-bang firm called—you've guessed it—Blood, Stone & Partners. The work was as dull as ever, but at least the offices were pretty close to the National Portrait Gallery. Handy for my regular trips to Chroma. I had been elected mayor by this point and my masterplan was well under way. And that's when you met Mum," said Peanut. "Indeed," said Nerys. "I was working for one of the directors, a slimy toad of a man called Stone who was habitually rude to everybody. So I was relieved when your mum joined and I was asked to be her assistant too. It made my annoying job slightly less annoying. "Mum always talked fondly about you, said Peanut sadly "How could you be so two-faced?" "Ha!" said Nerys. "Literally! I have two faces, Nerys's and Mr White's. Your mum is a nice lady, I must admit. Although she did have a tendency to bang on about her home life."

"没错，我就是要说，太好啦。 我没在柯罗玛竞选高官的时候，就待在现实世界，在各种无聊的会计师事务所做行政工作。 我总得赚点钱过日子啊。 她一边说，一边用“小尾巴”在墙上画了一个巨大的拱门。 "我后来到了伦敦，" 内里斯继续说，"在一家时髦的公司上班——你猜对了——就是布拉德、斯通联合事务所。 工作还是一样无聊，不过办公室离国家肖像馆挺近的。 方便我常去柯罗玛。 那时候我已经当选市长了，我的大计划也在顺利推进了。 "然后你就在那里遇到了我妈妈，" 皮纳特说。 "没错，" 内里斯说。 "我当时给一个董事干活，那个叫斯通的家伙就是个卑鄙的癞蛤蟆，对所有人都习惯性摆臭脸。 所以你妈妈入职后，安排我当她的助理，我可松了一口气。 这让我这份烦人的工作少了一点烦人。 "我妈妈总说起你的好，" 皮纳特难过地说 "你怎么能这么两面三刀？" "哈！" 内里斯笑了。 "说对了！ 我就是有两张脸，内里斯的脸和怀特先生的脸。 我得承认，你妈妈是个好人。 不过她就是总没完没了念叨她的家里事。"

A loud sobbing sound came from the hatch in the floor where Mum, Dad, Leo and Doodle were trapped. It sounded like Mum. I can't tell you how many times I heard how proud she was of her children," continued Nerys. "Or how lovely her husband was. It was just so much blah blah blah." Peanut and Little-Bit looked at each other and shared a small smile. Alan, meanwhile, subtly edged a few centimetres closer to the hatch. One of her saving graces, however," continued Nerys, was the fact that her husband was a failing artist. He didn't seem to be able to sell any of his paintings. As you can imagine, this filled me with happiness. I'd pretend to be all sympathetic when Tracey was telling me how worried she was, but inside I always danced a little celebratory jig. I love hearing about other people not doing well. It always makes me feel better about my own... shortcomings." And, as we know, there are plenty of those," said Rockwell, wryly. "Meanwhile, back in Chroma," continued Nerys, who, by now, had almost finished drawing a wonky, but impressive, ornamented arched doorway on the wall, "I became aware that a Resistance movement was developing. We found out that a group of citizens, led by the Markmakers, had banded together in an attempt to put a stop to my plans. Laughable,

地板的活门那里传来响亮的抽泣声，妈妈、爸爸、里奥和都都都被困在下面。 听起来是妈妈。 "我都记不清听过多少遍她说她有多为孩子骄傲，" 内里斯接着说。 "也听了多少遍她说她丈夫有多好。 全都是一堆没完没了的废话。" 皮纳特和小比特对视一眼，偷偷笑了一下。 与此同时，艾伦悄悄地往活门的方向挪了几厘米。 "不过，你妈妈有一点倒是挺好，" 内里斯接着说，那就是她丈夫是个不得志的画家。 他一幅画都卖不出去。 你可想而知，这让我有多开心。 特蕾西跟我说她有多担心的时候，我还假装特别同情，可我心里早就开心得跳起小舞了。 我就爱听别人过得不顺心。 这总能让我对自己的……缺点感觉好一点。" "而且啊，谁都知道，你的缺点可多了去了，" 罗克韦尔挖苦地说。 "话说回柯罗玛那边，" 内里斯接着说，这时候她已经差不多在墙上画完一扇歪歪扭扭、却气派十足带装饰的拱门，"我察觉到有一个反抗组织慢慢发展起来。 我们查到，一群市民在印记制造者的带领下联合起来，想要阻止我的计划。 真可笑，

really. But, nevertheless, it was something I kept an eye on. By this point, I had persuaded Josephine Engelberger to make me an army of robots, a shoal of flying mechanical fish, and the beginnings of a fleet of Big X vehicles that would help with the mono-ing of the city. With an army that size, I had spies everywhere. Imagine my surprise when we discovered that one of the leading operatives in the Resistance was a man called Gary Jones, and that he was married to my boss back in London! You see? A beautiful coincidence!" "Not sure beautiful is the word I'd use," said Peanut, under her breath. "So, I decided to kill two birds with one stone, pardon the pun," continued Nerys. "Since I knew where Gary lived and had a pretty good idea of his movements, thanks to his wife's constant jabbering, I decided to take him prisoner. I waited until I knew he would be alone in the house and then despatched Alan to kidnap him and stick him in the Spire, which I had turned into a prison. For once, Alan was very effective. Peanut thought she saw a flash of anger cross the henchman's face. "I personally wrote a little goodbye note, in Gary's handwriting, and instructed Alan to leave it in your house. Then I backed it up a few days later with a postcard supposedly sent from Gary while overseas. It was all pretty convincing, I thought.

没错。 不过话说回来，这件事我一直放在心上，盯得很紧。 那时候，我已经说服约瑟芬·恩格尔伯格给我造了一支机器人大军、一群会飞的机械鱼，还有第一批大型X交通工具，帮我完成统一城市的计划。 有了这么大一支队伍，我到处都安插了眼线。 你都想不到我有多惊讶，我们发现反抗军的核心骨干之一，就是那个叫加里·琼斯的男人，而他居然是我原来伦敦老板的丈夫！ 你看？ 多巧的巧合啊！ “我可不觉得能用‘巧’来形容，”花生小声嘟囔道。 “所以我决定一石二鸟，不好意思玩了个文字梗，”内瑞斯接着说。 “多亏他老婆成天碎碎念，我早就知道加里住哪儿，也摸透了他的行程，所以我决定把他抓起来。 我算好他一个人在家的时候，派艾伦去绑了他，把他关到我改造成监狱的尖塔里。 也就这次，艾伦干得特别利落。 花生觉得自己刚才瞥见那个打手脸上闪过一丝怒色。 “我亲自模仿加里的笔迹写了一张告别便条，吩咐艾伦放到你家里。 几天之后我又补了一张明信片，假装是加里在国外寄来的。 我觉得这一切做得挺天衣无缝的。