羊毛战记 Part 5 The Stranded 73
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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)

  73
  • Silo 18 •
  Lukas couldn’t force himself to study, not what he was supposed to be studying. The Order satflopped open on the wooden desk, the little lamp on its thousand-jointed neck bent1 over and warmingit in a pool of light. He stood before the wall schematics instead, staring at the arrangement of silos,which were spaced out like the servers in the room above him, and listened to the radio crackle withthe sounds of distant warring.
  The final push was being made. Sims’s team had lost a few men in an awful explosion, somethingabout a stairwell—but not the great stairwell—and now they were in a fight they hoped would be thelast. The little speakers by the radio crackled with static as the men coordinated2 themselves, asBernard shouted orders from his office one level up, always with the crackle of gunfire eruptingbehind the voices.
  Lukas knew he shouldn’t listen, and yet he couldn’t stop. Juliette would call him any time nowand ask him for an update. She would want to know what had happened, how the end had come, andthe only thing worse than telling her would be admitting he didn’t know, that he couldn’t bear tolisten.
  He reached out and touched the round roof of silo seventeen. It was as though he were a godsurveying the structures from up high. He pictured his hand piercing the dark clouds above Julietteand spanning a roof built for thousands. He rubbed his fingers over the red X drawn3 across the silo,those two slashes4 that admitted to such a great loss. The marks felt waxy5 beneath his fingers, likethey’d been drawn with crayon or something similar. He tried to imagine getting the news one daythat an entire people were gone, wiped out. He would have to dig in Bernard’s desk—his desk—andfind the red stick, cross out another chance at their Legacy6, another pod of buried hope.
  Lukas looked up at the overhead lights, steady and constant, unblinking. Why hadn’t she called?
  His fingernail caught on one of the red marks and flaked7 a piece of it away. The wax stuck underhis fingernail, the paper beneath still stained blood red. There was no taking it back, no cleaning itoff, no making it whole again—
  Gunfire erupted from the radio. Lukas went to the shelf where the little unit was mounted andlistened to orders being barked, men being killed. His forehead went clammy with sweat. He knewhow that felt, to pull that trigger, to end a life. He was conscious of an emptiness in his chest and aweakness in his knees. Lukas steadied himself with the shelf, palms slick, and looked at thetransmitter hanging there inside its locked cage. How he longed to call those men and tell them not todo it, to stop all the insanity8, the violence, the pointless killing9. There could be a red X on them all.
  This was what they should fear, not each other.
  He touched the metal cage that kept the radio controls locked away from him, feeling the truth ofthis and the silliness of broadcasting it to everyone else. It was na?ve. It wouldn’t change anything.
  The short-term rage to be sated at the end of a barrel was too easy to act on. Staving off extinctionrequired something else, something with more vision, something impossibly patient.
  His hand drifted across the metal grating. He peered inside at one of the dials, the arrow pointingto the number “18.” There were fifty numbers in a dizzying circle, one for each silo. Lukas gave thecage a futile10 tug11, wishing he could listen to something else. What was going on in all those otherdistant lands? Harmless things, probably. Jokes and chatter12. Gossip. He could imagine the thrill ofbreaking in on one of those conversations and introducing himself to people who weren’t in theknow. “I am Lukas from silo eighteen,” he might say. And they would want to know why silos hadnumbers. And Lukas would tell them to be good to each other, that there were only so many of themleft, and that all the books and all the stars in the universe were pointless with no one to read them, noone to peer through the parting clouds for them.
  He left the radio alone, left it to its war, and walked past the desk and its eager pool of lightspilling across that dreary13 book. He checked the tins for something that might hold his attention. Hefelt restless, pacing like a pig in its pen. He knew he should go for another jog among the servers, butthat would mean showering, and somehow showering had begun to feel like an insufferable chore.
  Crouching14 down at the far end of the shelves, he sorted through the loose, untinned stacks ofpaper there. Here was where the handwritten notes and the additions to the Legacy had amassed15 overthe years. Notes to future silo leaders, instructions, manuals, mementos16. He pulled out the generatorcontrol-room manual, the one Juliette had written. He had watched Bernard shelve the papers weeksago, saying it might come in handy if the problems in the down deep went from bad to worse.
  And the radio was blasting the worse.
  Lukas went to his desk and bent the neck of the lamp so he could read the handwriting inside.
  There were days that he dreaded17 her calling, dreaded getting caught or Bernard answering or herasking him to do things he couldn’t, things he would never do again. And now, with the lights steadyoverhead and nothing buzzing, all he wanted was a call. His chest ached for it. Some part of himknew that what she was doing was dangerous, that something bad could’ve happened. She was livingbeneath a red X, after all, a mark that meant death for anyone below it.
  The pages of the manual were full of notes she’d made with sharp lead. He rubbed one of them,feeling the grooves18 with his fingers. The actual content was inscrutable. Settings for dials in everyconceivable order, valve positions, electrical diagrams. Riffling through the pages, he saw the manualas a project not unlike his star charts, created by a mind not unlike his own. This awareness19 made thedistance between them worse. Why couldn’t they go back? Back to before the cleaning, before thestring of burials. She would get off work every night and come sit with him while he gazed into thedarkness, thinking and watching, chatting and waiting.
  He turned the manual around and read some of the printed words from the play, which werenearly as indecipherable. In the margins20 sat notes from a different hand. Lukas assumed Juliette’smother, or maybe one of the actors. There were diagrams on some pages, little arrows showingmovement. An actor’s notes, he decided21. Directions on a stage. The play must’ve been a souvenir toJuliette, this woman he had feelings for whose name was in the title.
  He scanned the lines, looking for something poetic22 to capture his dark mood. As the text flowedby, his eyes caught a brief flash of familiar scrawl23, not the actor’s. He flipped24 back, looking for it apage at a time until he found it.
  It was Juliette’s hand, no mistaking. He moved the play into the light so he could read the fadedmarks:
  George:
  There you lay, so serene25. The wrinkles in your brow and by your eyes, nowhere seen. A touchwhen others look away, look for a clue, but only I know what happened to you. Wait for me. Wait forme. Wait there, my dear. Let these gentle pleas find your ear, and bury them there, so this stolen kisscan grow on the quiet love that no other shall know.
  Lukas felt a cold rod pierce his chest. He felt his longing26 replaced by a flash of temper. Who wasthis George? A childhood fling? Juliette was never in a sanctioned relationship; he had checked theofficial records the day after they’d met. Access to the servers afforded certain guilty powers. Acrush, perhaps? Some man in Mechanical who was already in love with another girl? To Lukas, thiswould have been even worse. A man she longed for in a way she never would feel for him. Was thatwhy she’d taken a job so far from home? To get away from the sight of this George she couldn’thave, these feelings she’d hidden in the margins of a play about forbidden love?
  He turned and plopped down in front of Bernard’s computer. Shaking the mouse, he logged in tothe upstairs servers remotely, his cheeks feeling flush with this sick feeling, this new feeling,knowing it was called jealousy27 but unfamiliar28 with the heady rush that came with it. He navigated29 tothe personnel files and searched the down deep for “George.” There were four hits. He copied the IDnumber of each and put them in a text file, then fed them to the ID department. While the pictures ofeach popped up, he skimmed their records, feeling a little guilty for the abuse of power, a littleworried about this discovery, and a lot less agonizingly bored having found something to do.
  Only one of the Georges worked in Mechanical. Older guy. As the radio crackled behind him,Lukas wondered what would become of this man if he was still down there. There was a chance thathe was no longer alive, that the records were a few weeks out of date, the blockade a barrier to thetruth.
  A couple of the hits were too young. One wasn’t even a year old yet. The other was shadowing aporter. It left one man, thirty-two years old. He worked in the bazaar30, occupation listed as “other,”
  married with two kids. Lukas studied the blurry31 image of him from the ID office. Mustache. Recedinghair. A sideways smirk32. His eyes were too far apart, Lukas decided, his brows too dark and much toobushy.
  Lukas held up the manual and read the poem again.
  The man was dead, he decided. Bury these pleas.
  He did another search, this time a global one that included the closed records. Hundreds of hitsthroughout the silo popped up, names from all the way back to the uprising. This did not dissuadeLukas. He knew Juliette was thirty-four, and so he gave her an eighteen-year window, figured if shewere younger than sixteen when she’d had this crush, he wouldn’t stress, he would let go of theenvious and shameful33 burn inside him.
  From the list of Georges, there were only three deaths in the down deep for the eighteen-yearperiod. One was in his fifties, the other in his sixties. Both died of natural causes. Lukas thought tocross-reference them with Juliette, see if there had been any work relations, if they shared a familytree perhaps.
  And then he saw the third file. This was his George. Her George. Lukas knew it. Doing the math,Lukas saw he would be thirty-eight if he were still alive. He had died just over three years earlier, hadworked in Mechanical, had never married.
  He ran the ID search, and the picture confirmed his fears. He was a handsome man, a square jaw,a wide nose, dark eyes. He was smiling at the camera, calm, relaxed. It was hard to hate the man.
  Difficult, especially, since he was dead.
  Lukas checked the cause and saw that it was investigated and then listed as an industrial accident.
  Investigated. He remembered hearing something about Jules when the up top got its new sheriff. Herqualifications had been a source of debate and tension, a wind of whispers. Especially around IT. Butthere had been chatter that she’d helped out on a case a long time ago, that this was why she’d beenchosen.
  This was the case. Was she in love with him before he died? Or did she fall for the memory of theman after? He decided it had to be the former. Lukas searched the desk for a charcoal34, found one, andjotted down the man’s ID and case number. Here was something to occupy his time, some way ofgetting to know her better. It would distract him, at least, until she finally got around to calling himback. He relaxed, pulled the keyboard into his lap, and started digging.
 


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
2 coordinated 72452d15f78aec5878c1559a1fbb5383     
adj.协调的
参考例句:
  • The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
  • The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
3 drawn MuXzIi     
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的
参考例句:
  • All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
  • Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
4 slashes 56bb1b94ee9e9eea535fc173e91c6ee0     
n.(用刀等)砍( slash的名词复数 );(长而窄的)伤口;斜杠;撒尿v.挥砍( slash的第三人称单数 );鞭打;割破;削减
参考例句:
  • They report substantial slashes in this year's defense outlays. 他们报道今年度国防经费的大量削减。 来自辞典例句
  • Inmates suffered injuries ranging from stab wounds and slashes to head trauma. 囚犯们有的被刺伤,有的被砍伤,而有的头部首创,伤势不一而足。 来自互联网
5 waxy pgZwk     
adj.苍白的;光滑的
参考例句:
  • Choose small waxy potatoes for the salad.选些个头小、表皮光滑的土豆做色拉。
  • The waxy oil keeps ears from getting too dry.这些蜡状耳油可以保持耳朵不会太干燥。
6 legacy 59YzD     
n.遗产,遗赠;先人(或过去)留下的东西
参考例句:
  • They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
  • He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。
7 flaked 62b5ec44058865073ee4b2a3d4d24cb9     
精疲力竭的,失去知觉的,睡去的
参考例句:
  • They can see how its colours have faded and where paint has flaked. 他们能看到颜色消退的情况以及油漆剥落的地方。
  • The river from end to end was flaked with coal fleets. 这条河上从头到尾处处都漂着一队一队的煤船。
8 insanity H6xxf     
n.疯狂,精神错乱;极端的愚蠢,荒唐
参考例句:
  • In his defense he alleged temporary insanity.他伪称一时精神错乱,为自己辩解。
  • He remained in his cell,and this visit only increased the belief in his insanity.他依旧还是住在他的地牢里,这次视察只是更加使人相信他是个疯子了。
9 killing kpBziQ     
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
参考例句:
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
10 futile vfTz2     
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的
参考例句:
  • They were killed,to the last man,in a futile attack.因为进攻失败,他们全部被杀,无一幸免。
  • Their efforts to revive him were futile.他们对他抢救无效。
11 tug 5KBzo     
v.用力拖(或拉);苦干;n.拖;苦干;拖船
参考例句:
  • We need to tug the car round to the front.我们需要把那辆车拉到前面。
  • The tug is towing three barges.那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。
12 chatter BUfyN     
vi./n.喋喋不休;短促尖叫;(牙齿)打战
参考例句:
  • Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
  • I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。
13 dreary sk1z6     
adj.令人沮丧的,沉闷的,单调乏味的
参考例句:
  • They live such dreary lives.他们的生活如此乏味。
  • She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.她听够了那些关于酗酒和暴力的乏味故事。
14 crouching crouching     
v.屈膝,蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • a hulking figure crouching in the darkness 黑暗中蹲伏着的一个庞大身影
  • A young man was crouching by the table, busily searching for something. 一个年轻人正蹲在桌边翻看什么。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
15 amassed 4047ea1217d3f59ca732ca258d907379     
v.积累,积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He amassed a fortune from silver mining. 他靠开采银矿积累了一笔财富。
  • They have amassed a fortune in just a few years. 他们在几年的时间里就聚集了一笔财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》
16 mementos 2cbb9a2d7a7a4ff32a8c9de3c453a3a7     
纪念品,令人回忆的东西( memento的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The museum houses a collection of mementos, materials and documents. 博物馆保存着很多回忆录以及文献资料。
  • This meant, however, that no one was able to retrieve irreplaceable family mementos. 然而,这也意味着谁也没能把无可替代的家庭纪念品从火中救出来。
17 dreaded XuNzI3     
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词)
参考例句:
  • The dreaded moment had finally arrived. 可怕的时刻终于来到了。
  • He dreaded having to spend Christmas in hospital. 他害怕非得在医院过圣诞节不可。 来自《用法词典》
18 grooves e2ee808c594bc87414652e71d74585a3     
n.沟( groove的名词复数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏
参考例句:
  • Wheels leave grooves in a dirt road. 车轮在泥路上留下了凹痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Sliding doors move in grooves. 滑动门在槽沟中移动。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
19 awareness 4yWzdW     
n.意识,觉悟,懂事,明智
参考例句:
  • There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
  • Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。
20 margins 18cef75be8bf936fbf6be827537c8585     
边( margin的名词复数 ); 利润; 页边空白; 差数
参考例句:
  • They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
  • To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙,加左或者右的margins来定义链接。
21 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
22 poetic b2PzT     
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的
参考例句:
  • His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
  • His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。
23 scrawl asRyE     
vt.潦草地书写;n.潦草的笔记,涂写
参考例句:
  • His signature was an illegible scrawl.他的签名潦草难以辨认。
  • Your beautiful handwriting puts my untidy scrawl to shame.你漂亮的字体把我的潦草字迹比得见不得人。
24 flipped 5bef9da31993fe26a832c7d4b9630147     
轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 ); 按(开关); 快速翻转; 急挥
参考例句:
  • The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转,撞毁了。
  • The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。
25 serene PD2zZ     
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的
参考例句:
  • He has entered the serene autumn of his life.他已进入了美好的中年时期。
  • He didn't speak much,he just smiled with that serene smile of his.他话不多,只是脸上露出他招牌式的淡定的微笑。
26 longing 98bzd     
n.(for)渴望
参考例句:
  • Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
  • His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。
27 jealousy WaRz6     
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌
参考例句:
  • Some women have a disposition to jealousy.有些女人生性爱妒忌。
  • I can't support your jealousy any longer.我再也无法忍受你的嫉妒了。
28 unfamiliar uk6w4     
adj.陌生的,不熟悉的
参考例句:
  • I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
  • The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。
29 navigated f7986e1365f5d08b7ef8f2073a90bf4e     
v.给(船舶、飞机等)引航,导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 );(从海上、空中等)横越;横渡;飞跃
参考例句:
  • He navigated the plane through the clouds. 他驾驶飞机穿越云层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The ship was navigated by the North Star. 那只船靠北极星来导航。 来自《简明英汉词典》
30 bazaar 3Qoyt     
n.集市,商店集中区
参考例句:
  • Chickens,goats and rabbits were offered for barter at the bazaar.在集市上,鸡、山羊和兔子被摆出来作物物交换之用。
  • We bargained for a beautiful rug in the bazaar.我们在集市通过讨价还价买到了一条很漂亮的地毯。
31 blurry blurry     
adj.模糊的;污脏的,污斑的
参考例句:
  • My blurry vision makes it hard to drive. 我的视力有点模糊,使得开起车来相当吃力。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The lines are pretty blurry at this point. 界线在这个时候是很模糊的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
32 smirk GE8zY     
n.得意地笑;v.傻笑;假笑着说
参考例句:
  • He made no attempt to conceal his smirk.他毫不掩饰自鸣得意的笑容。
  • She had a selfsatisfied smirk on her face.她脸上带着自鸣得意的微笑。
33 shameful DzzwR     
adj.可耻的,不道德的
参考例句:
  • It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己,真不害臊。
  • We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。
34 charcoal prgzJ     
n.炭,木炭,生物炭
参考例句:
  • We need to get some more charcoal for the barbecue.我们烧烤需要更多的碳。
  • Charcoal is used to filter water.木炭是用来过滤水的。
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