There are four men in the life raft: Hiro Protagonist1, self-employed stringer for the Central Intelligence Corporation, whose practice used to be limited to so-called "dry" operations, meaning that he sat around and soaked up information and then later spat2 it back into the Library, the CIC database, without ever actually doing anything. Now his practice has become formidably wet. Hiro is armed with two swords and a nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol, known colloquially3 as a nine, with two ammunition4 clips, each carrying eleven rounds.
Vic, unspecified last name. If there was still such a thing as income tax, then every year when Vic filled out his 1040 form he would put down, as his occupation, "sniper." In classic sniper style, Vic is reticent5, unobtrusive. He is armed with a long, large-caliber rifle with a bulky mechanism6 mounted on its top, where a telescopic sight might be found if Vic were not at the leading edge of his profession. The exact nature of this device is not obvious, but Hiro presumes that it is an exquisitely7 precise sensor8 package with fine crosshairs superimposed on the middle. Vic may safely be presumed to be carrying additional small concealed9 weapons.
Eliot Chung. Eliot used to be the skipper of a boat called the Kowloon. At the moment, he is between jobs. Eliot grew up in Watts10, and when he speaks English, he sounds like a black guy. Genetically11 speaking, he is entirely12 Chinese. He is fluent in both black and white English as well as Cantonese, Taxilinga, and some Vietnamese, Spanish, and Mandarin13. Eliot is armed with a .44 Magnum revolver, which he carried on board the Kowloon "just for the halibut," i.e., he used it to execute halibut before passengers hauled them on board. Halibut grow very large and can thrash so violently that they can easily kill the people who hook them; hence it is prudent14 to fire a number of shells through their heads before taking them on board. This is the only reason Eliot carries a weapon; the other defensive15 needs of the Kowloon were seen to by crew members who were specialists in that kind of thing.
"Fisheye." This is the man with the glass eye. He will only identify himself by his nickname. He is armed with a large, fat black suitcase.
The suitcase is massively constructed, with built-in wheels, and weighs somewhere between three hundred pounds and a metric ton, as Hiro discovers when he tries to move it. Its weight turns the normally flat bottom of the life raft into a puckered16 cone17. The suitcase has a noteworthy attachment18: a flexible three-inch-thick cable or hose or something, a couple of meters long, that emerges from one corner, runs up the sloping floor of the life raft, over the edge, and trails in the water. At the end of this mysterious tentacle19 is a hunk of metal about the size of a wastebasket, but so finely sculpted20 into so many narrow fins21 and vanes that it appears to have a surface area the size of Delaware. Hiro only saw this thing out of the water for a few chaotic22 moments, when it was being transferred into the life raft. At that time it was glowing red hot. Since then, it has lurked23 below the surface, light gray, impossible to see clearly because the water around it is forever churning in a full, rolling boil. Fist-sized bubbles of steam coalesce24 amid its fractal tracery of hot vanes and pummel the surface of the ocean, ceaselessly, all day and all night. The powerless life raft, sloshing around the North Pacific, emits a vast, spreading plume25 of steam like that of an Iron Horse chugging full blast over the Continental26 Divide. Neither Hiro nor Eliot ever mentions, or even notices, the by-now-obvious fact that Fisheye is traveling with a small, self-contained nuclear power source -- almost certainly radiothermal isotopes27 like the ones that power the Rat Thing. As long as Fisheye refuses to notice this fact, it would be rude for them to bring it up.
All of the participants are clad in bright orange padded suits that cover their entire bodies. They are the North Pacific version of life vests. They are bulky and awkward, but Eliot Chung likes to say that in northern waters, the only thing a life vest does is make your corpse28 float.
The lifeboat is an inflatable raft about ten feet long that does not come equipped with a motor. It has a tentlike, waterproof29 canopy30 that they can zip up all the way around, turning it into a sealed capsule so that the water stays out even in the most violent weather.
For a couple of days, a powerful chill wind coming down out off the mountains drives them out of Oregon, out toward the open water. Eliot explains, cheerfully, that this lifeboat was invented back in the old days, when they had navies and coast guards that would come and rescue stranded31 travelers. All you had to do was float and be orange. Fisheye has a walkie-talkie, but it is a short-range device. And Hiro's computer is capable of jacking into the net, but in this regard it functions much like a cellular32 telephone. It doesn't work out in the middle of nowhere.
When the weather is extremely rainy, they sit under the canopy. When it's less rainy, they sit above it. They all have ways of passing the time.
Hiro clicks around with his computer, naturally. Being stranded on a life raft in the Pacific is a perfect venue33 for a hacker34.
Vic reads and rereads a soaked paperback35 novel that he had in the pocket of his MAFIA windbreaker when the Kowloon got blown out from under them. These days of waiting are much easier for him. As a professional sniper, he knows how to kill time.
Eliot looks at things with his binoculars36, even though there is very little to look at. He spends a lot of time messing around with the raft, fretting37 about it in the way that boat captains do. And he does a lot of fishing. They have plenty of stored food on the raft, but the occasional fresh halibut and salmon38 are nice to eat.
Fisheye has taken what appears to be an instruction manual from the heavy black suitcase. It is a miniature three-ring binder39 with pages of laser-printed text. The binder is just a cheap unmarked one bought from a stationery40 store. In these respects, it is perfectly41 familiar to Hiro: it bears the earmarks of a high-tech42 product that is still under development. All technical devices require documentation of a sort, but this stuff can only be written by the techies who are doing the actual product development, and they absolutely hate it, always put the dox question off to the very last minute. Then they type up some material on a word processor, run it off on the laser printer, send the departmental secretary out for a cheap binder, and that's that.
But this only occupies Fisheye for a little while. He spends the rest of the time just staring off at the horizon, as though he's expecting Sicily to heave into view. It doesn't. He is despondent43 over the failure of his mission, and spends a lot of time mumbling44 under his breath, trying to find a way to salvage45 it.
"If you don't mind my asking," Hiro says, "what was your mission anyway?"
Fisheye thinks this one over for a while. "Well it depends on how you look at it. Nominally46, my objective is to get a fifteen-year-old girl back from these assholes. So my tactic47 was to take a bunch of their bigwigs hostage, then arrange a trade."
"Who's this fifteen-year-old girl?"
Fisheye shrugs48. "You know her. It's Y.T."
"Is that really your whole objective?"
"The important thing is, Hiro, that you have to understand the Mafia way. And the Mafia way is that we pursue larger goals under the guise49 of personal relationships. So, for example, when you were a pizza guy you didn't deliver pizzas fast because you made more money that way, or because it was some kind of a fucking policy. You did it because you were carrying out a personal covenant50 between Uncle Enzo and every customer. This is how we avoid the trap of self-perpetuating ideology51. Ideology is a virus. So getting this chick back is more than just getting a chick back. It's the concrete manifestation52 of an abstract policy goal. And we like concrete -- right, Vic?"
Vic allows himself a judicious53 sneer54 and a deep grinding laugh.
"What's the abstract policy goal in this case?" Hiro says.
"Not my department," Fisheye says. "But I think Uncle Enzo is real pissed at L. Bob Rife55."
收听单词发音 |
1
protagonist
|
|
| n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
spat
|
|
| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
colloquially
|
|
| adv.用白话，用通俗语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
ammunition
|
|
| n.军火，弹药 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
reticent
|
|
| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
mechanism
|
|
| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
exquisitely
|
|
| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
sensor
|
|
| n.传感器，探测设备，感觉器（官） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
concealed
|
|
| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
watts
|
|
| （电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
genetically
|
|
| adv.遗传上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
Mandarin
|
|
| n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
prudent
|
|
| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
defensive
|
|
| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
puckered
|
|
| v.（使某物）起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
cone
|
|
| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
attachment
|
|
| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
tentacle
|
|
| n.触角，触须，触手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
sculpted
|
|
| adj.经雕塑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
fins
|
|
| [医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
chaotic
|
|
| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
lurked
|
|
| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
coalesce
|
|
| v.联合，结合，合并 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
plume
|
|
| n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
continental
|
|
| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
isotopes
|
|
| n.同位素；同位素( isotope的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
corpse
|
|
| n.尸体，死尸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
waterproof
|
|
| n.防水材料；adj.防水的；v.使...能防水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
canopy
|
|
| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
stranded
|
|
| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
cellular
|
|
| adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
venue
|
|
| n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
hacker
|
|
| n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人，电脑黑客 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
paperback
|
|
| n.平装本，简装本 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
binoculars
|
|
| n.双筒望远镜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
fretting
|
|
| n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
salmon
|
|
| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
binder
|
|
| n.包扎物，包扎工具；[法]临时契约；粘合剂；装订工 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
stationery
|
|
| n.文具；(配套的)信笺信封 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
high-tech
|
|
| adj.高科技的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
despondent
|
|
| adj.失望的，沮丧的，泄气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
mumbling
|
|
| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
salvage
|
|
| v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
nominally
|
|
| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
tactic
|
|
| n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
shrugs
|
|
| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
guise
|
|
| n.外表，伪装的姿态 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
covenant
|
|
| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
ideology
|
|
| n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
manifestation
|
|
| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
judicious
|
|
| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
sneer
|
|
| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
rife
|
|
| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |