經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第12章6

Oh well, he’d better make the best of it. At least it had saved his life. For the time being.

哦，好吧，他還是多往好處想想。至少它救了他的命不是。至少眼下如此。

He was perched on a foot-wide ledge thirteen stories up the side of a building and he wasn’t at all sure that that was worth a good shoe.

他在一幢大樓的十三層，坐在一尺寬的窗臺上，他真的不確定這種局面是不是值得一雙好鞋英勇獻身。

He stared in woozily through the darkened glass.

他頭暈眼花地往黑黝黝的窗戶裏瞅。

It was as dark and silent as the tomb.

裏面又黑又靜，活像座墳墓。

No. That was a ridiculous thing to think. He’d been to some great parties in tombs.

不，這麼想真可笑。他曾經在墳墓裏參加過不少一級棒的派對呢。

Could he detect some movement? He wasn’t quite sure. It seemed that he could see some kind of weird, flapping shadow. Perhaps it was just blood dribbling over his eyelashes. He wiped it away. Boy, he’d love to have a farm somewhere, keep some sheep. He peered into the window again, trying to make out what the shape was, but he had the feeling, so common in today’s universe, that he was looking into some kind of optical illusion and that his eyes were just playing silly buggers with him.

他是不是察覺到了什麼動靜？福特不大確定。他好像看見了一種怪里怪氣，撲撲棱棱的影子。或許不過是血在順着睫毛往下流而已。他把血抹掉。老天，他真希望自己在什麼地方有間農場，可以養上幾隻綿羊什麼的。他再次往窗裏瞅，想弄清那玩意兒究竟是什麼，可他有種感覺——在如今的宇宙裏這實在司空見慣——覺得自己看見的不過是某種視覺幻影，覺得這只不過是眼睛在跟他搗鬼。

Was there a bird of some kind in there? Was that what they had hidden away up here on a concealed floor behind darkened, rocket-proof glass? Someone’s aviary? There was certainly something flapping about in there, but it seemed like not so much a bird, more a kind of bird-shaped hole in space.

裏頭是不是有隻什麼鳥？他們封鎖了整層樓，裝上防導彈的黑窗戶就是爲了藏這個？某人的鳥巢？裏面的確有什麼東西在撲哧撲哧地扇翅膀，可與其說它是鳥還不如說它是空間裏一個鳥形空洞。

He closed his eyes, which he’d been wanting to do for a bit anyway. He wondered what the hell to do next. Jump? Climb? He didn’t think there was going to be any way of breaking in. OK, the supposedly rocket-proof glass hadn’t stood up, when it came to it, to an actual rocket, but then that had been a rocket that had been fired at very short range from inside, which probably wasn’t what the engineers who designed it had had in mind. It didn’t mean he was going to be able to break the window here by wrapping his fist in his towel and punching. What the hell, he tried it anyway and hurt his fist. It was just as well he couldn’t get a good swing from where he was sitting or he might have hurt it quite badly. The building had been sturdily reinforced when it was completely rebuilt after the Frogstar attack, and was probably the most heavily armoured publishing company in the business, but there was always, he thought, some weakness in any system designed by a corporate committee. He had already found one ofthem. The engineers who designed the windows had not expected them to be hit by a rocket from short range from the inside, so the window had failed.

他閉上眼睛，反正他想閉眼也已經好一會了。他開始琢磨接下來到底怎麼辦。跳嗎？爬嗎？他不認爲自己能想出什麼法子爬窗而入。好吧，沒錯，先前被導彈打中的時候，那個防導彈玻璃好像並不真能抗導彈，可那枚導彈是超近距離發射的，當初設計的時候，工程師考慮的多半不是這種情況。所以，這並不意味着他能在拳頭上包塊毛巾把它砸碎。管他呢，他還是試了試，結果傷了自己的手。當然他所處的位置不大容易使上勁兒，這樣也好，否則傷勢沒準會相當嚴重。在蛙星遇襲之後，《指南》的大樓整個重建，那時候結結實實地加固過，現在它大概是本行業裝甲最重的出版公司了。不過，福特暗想，既然是公司委員會設計的系統，弱點肯定是有的。他已經找到一個不是嗎？工程師設計窗戶的時候，沒想到會有人從樓裏近距離發射導彈，所以窗戶沒撐住。

So, what would the engineers not be expecting someone sitting on the ledge outside the window to do?

那麼，如果有人坐在樓外的窗臺上，哪些舉動是工程師預料不到的呢？

He wracked his brains for a moment or so before he got it.

他搜腸刮肚了一兩秒鐘，然後他想到了。

The thing they wouldn’t be expecting him to do was to be there in the first place. Only an absolute idiot would be sitting where he was, so he was winning already. A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

他們想不到的就是窗臺上竟然會出現他這麼個人。只有徹頭徹尾的白癡纔會坐在這地方，所以他贏了一局。人家設計傻瓜式智能設備的時候，最常見的一個錯誤就是低估了大傻瓜的獨創性。