Nine（1）

Nine
I
The pilot came up to them.
“You will start now, please,” he said. “As soon as possible. There is muchto be done, and we are late on schedule.”
Hilary recoiled¹ for a moment. She put her hand nervously² to her throat.
The pearl choker she was wearing broke under the strain of her fingers.
She picked up the loose pearls and crammed³ them into her pocket.
They all got into the station wagon⁴. Hilary was on a long bench crowdedup with Peters one side of her and Mrs. Baker⁵ the other. Turning her headtowards the American woman, Hilary said:
“So you — so you — are what you might call the liaison⁶ officer, Mrs.
Baker?”
“That hits it off exactly. And though I say it myself, I’m well qualified⁷.
Nobody is surprised to find an American woman getting around and trav-elling a lot.”
She was still plump and smiling, but Hilary sensed, or thought shesensed, a difference. The slight fatuity⁸ and surface conventionality hadgone. This was an efficient, probably ruthless woman.
“It will make a fine sensation in the headlines,” said Mrs. Baker. Shelaughed with some enjoyment⁹. “You, I mean, my dear. Persistently¹⁰ doggedby ill-luck, they’ll say. First nearly losing your life in the crash at Casab-lanca, then being killed in this further disaster.”
Hilary realized suddenly the cleverness of the plan.
“These others?” she murmured. “Are they who they say they are?”
“Why yes. Dr. Barron is a bacteriologist, I believe. Mr. Ericsson a verybrilliant young physicist¹¹, Mr. Peters is a research chemist, Miss Needheim,of course, isn’t a nun¹², she’s an endocrinologist. Me, as I say, I’m only the li-aison officer. I don’t belong in this scientific bunch.” She laughed again asshe said, “That Hetherington woman never had a chance.”
“Miss Hetherington—was she—was she—”
Mrs. Baker nodded emphatically.
“If you ask me, she’s been tailing you. Took over in Casablanca fromwhoever followed you out.”
“But she didn’t come with us today although I urged her to?”
“That wouldn’t have been in character,” said Mrs. Baker. “It would havelooked a little too obvious to go back again to Marrakesh after having beenthere already. No, she’ll have sent a telegram or a phone message throughand there’ll be someone waiting at Marrakesh to pick you up when you ar-rive. When you arrive! That’s a good laugh, isn’t it? Look! Look there now!
Up she goes.”
They had been driving rapidly away across the desert, and now as Hil-ary craned forward to look through the little window, she saw a greatglow behind them. A faint sound of an explosion came to her ears. Petersthrew his head back and laughed. He said:
“Six people die when plane to Marrakesh crashes!”
Hilary said almost under her breath:
“It’s—it’s rather frightening.”
“Stepping off into the unknown?” It was Peters who spoke¹³. He was seri-ous enough now. “Yes, but it’s the only way. We’re leaving the Past andstepping out towards the Future.” His face lit up with sudden enthusiasm.
“We’ve got to get quit of all the bad, mad old stuff. Corrupt¹⁴ governmentsand the warmongers¹⁵. We’ve got to go into the new world—the world ofscience, clean away from the scum and the driftwood.”
Hilary drew a deep breath.
“That’s like the things my husband used to say,” she said, deliberately¹⁶.
“Your husband?” he shot her a quick glance. “Why, was he Tom Better-ton?”
Hilary nodded.
“Well, that’s great. I never knew him out in the States, though I nearlymet him more than once. ZE Fission¹⁷ is one of the most brilliant discoveriesof this age—yes, I certainly take my hat off to him. Worked with old Man-nheim, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” said Hilary.
“Didn’t they tell me he’d married Mannheim’s daughter. But surelyyou’re not—”
“I’m his second wife,” said Hilary, flushing a little. “He—his—Elsa diedin America.”
“I remember. Then he went to Britain to work there. Then he riled themby disappearing.” He laughed suddenly. “Walked slap out of some Parisconference into nowhere.” He added, as though in further appreciation,“Lord, you can’t say They don’t organize well.”
Hilary agreed with him. The excellence¹⁸ of their organization was send-ing a cold pang¹⁹ of apprehension²⁰ through her. All the plans, codes, signsthat had been so elaborately arranged were going to be useless now, fornow there would be no trail to pick up. Things had been so arranged thateveryone on the fatal plane had been fellow-travellers bound for the Un-known Destination where Thomas Betterton had gone before them. Therewould be no trace left. Nothing, but a burnt-out plane. There would evenbe charred²¹ bodies in the plane. Could they—was it possible that Jessop andhis organization could guess that she, Hilary, was not one of those charredbodies? She doubted it. The accident had been so convincing, so clever.
Peters spoke again. His voice was boyish with enthusiasm. For himthere were no qualms²², no looking back, only eagerness to go forward.
“I wonder,” he said, “where do we go from here?”
Hilary, too, wondered, because again much depended on that. Sooner orlater there must be contacts with humanity. Sooner or later, if investiga-tion was made, the fact that a station wagon with six people in it resem-bling the description of those who had left that morning by plane mightpossibly be noted²³ by someone. She turned to Mrs. Baker and asked, tryingto make her tone the counterpart of the childish eagerness of the youngAmerican beside her.
“Where are we going—what happens next?”
“You’ll see,” said Mrs. Baker, and for all the pleasantness of her voice,there was something somehow ominous²⁴ in those words.
They drove on. Behind them the flare²⁵ of the plane still showed in thesky, showed all the more clearly because the sun was now dropping belowthe horizon. Night fell. Still they drove. The going was bad, since they wereobviously not on any main road. Sometimes they seemed to be on fieldtracks, at other times they drove over open country.
For a long time Hilary remained awake, thoughts and apprehensionsturning round in her head excitedly. But at last, shaken and tossed fromside to side, exhaustion²⁶ had its way and she fell asleep. It was a brokensleep. Various ruts and jars in the road awoke her. For a moment or twoshe would wonder confusedly where she was, then reality would comeback to her. She would remain awake for a few moments, her thoughts ra-cing round in confused apprehension, then once more her head woulddrop forward and nod, and once again she would sleep.

1 recoiled   

v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回

参考例句：

• She recoiled from his touch. 她躲开他的触摸。
• Howard recoiled a little at the sharpness in my voice. 听到我的尖声，霍华德往后缩了一下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

3 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

4 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

5 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

6 liaison   

n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通

参考例句：

• She acts as a liaison between patients and staff.她在病人与医护人员间充当沟通的桥梁。
• She is responsible for liaison with researchers at other universities.她负责与其他大学的研究人员联系。

7 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

8 fatuity   

n.愚蠢，愚昧

参考例句：

• This is no doubt the first step out of confusion and fatuity.这无疑是摆脱混乱与愚味的第一步。
• Therefore,ignorance of history often leads to fatuity in politics.历史的无知，往往导致政治上的昏庸。

9 enjoyment   

n.乐趣；享有；享用

参考例句：

• Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
• After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。

10 persistently   

ad.坚持地；固执地

参考例句：

• He persistently asserted his right to a share in the heritage. 他始终声称他有分享那笔遗产的权利。
• She persistently asserted her opinions. 她果断地说出了自己的意见。

11 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

12 nun   

n.修女，尼姑

参考例句：

• I can't believe that the famous singer has become a nun.我无法相信那个著名的歌星已做了修女。
• She shaved her head and became a nun.她削发为尼。

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

15 warmongers   

n.战争贩子( warmonger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The speech hits out at warmongers. 演讲猛烈地抨击了战争贩子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The imperialist warmongers stand condemned by the people of the whole world. 帝国主义的战争贩子受到全世界人民的谴责。 来自互联网

16 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

17 fission   

n.裂开；分裂生殖

参考例句：

• The fission of the cell could be inhibited with certain chemicals.细胞的裂变可以通过某些化学药品加以抑制。
• Nuclear fission releases tremendous amounts of energy.核裂变释放出巨大的能量。

18 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

19 pang   

n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷

参考例句：

• She experienced a sharp pang of disappointment.她经历了失望的巨大痛苦。
• She was beginning to know the pang of disappointed love.她开始尝到了失恋的痛苦。

20 apprehension   

n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑

参考例句：

• There were still areas of doubt and her apprehension grew.有些地方仍然存疑，于是她越来越担心。
• She is a girl of weak apprehension.她是一个理解力很差的女孩。

21 charred   

v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦

参考例句：

• the charred remains of a burnt-out car 被烧焦的轿车残骸
• The intensity of the explosion is recorded on the charred tree trunks. 那些烧焦的树干表明爆炸的强烈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 qualms   

n.不安；内疚

参考例句：

• He felt no qualms about borrowing money from friends.他没有对于从朋友那里借钱感到不安。
• He has no qualms about lying.他撒谎毫不内疚。

23 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

24 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

25 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

26 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。