The lift in the block stopped between the third and fourth floors at five o'clock. It gave one long groan, and then it was silent.
下午五点，楼里的电梯停在了三楼和四楼之间。它发出一声长长的呻吟，然后就没了动静。
Ansel, the caretaker, heard the groan from his office in the basement. He sighed, picked up his keys and called the repair company. A weary voice told him that an engineer would come in the morning.
管理员安塞尔在地下室的办公室里听到了那声呻吟。他叹了口气，拿起钥匙，给维修公司打了电话。一个疲惫的声音告诉他，明天早上会有工程师过来。
"In the morning?" Ansel said. "We have fourteen floors of people here."
“明天早上？”安塞尔说，“我们这儿有十四层楼的人呢。”
"I am sorry," the voice said. "Nobody is free tonight."
“很抱歉，”那个声音说，“今晚没有人有空。”
Ansel put down the phone and went up to the lobby. Within ten minutes, it was full of people with heavy shopping bags. A man with a bicycle sighed loudly. A woman with a pushchair sat on the bottom step and refused to move. Three children asked if the lift would ever work again.
安塞尔放下电话，走上大厅。不出十分钟，大厅里就挤满了提着沉重购物袋的人。一个推着自行车的男人大声叹气。一个推着婴儿车的女人坐在最下面一级台阶上，怎么也不肯挪窝。三个孩子问电梯还能不能修好。
"Not tonight," Ansel told them all. "Please use the stairs, and please be careful. I will check every floor."
“今晚不行，”安塞尔对大家说，“请走楼梯，千万小心。我会挨层检查。”
He climbed slowly, with a torch in his hand. On the sixth floor, the corridor lights were still on. On the seventh, everything was dark. The fault had cut the power to every floor above the sixth. The switch that could bring it back was locked inside the motor room. Only the engineer had the key.
他拿着手电筒，慢慢往上爬。六楼的走廊灯还亮着。到了七楼，一片漆黑。这次故障切断了六楼以上每一层的电。能让电恢复的开关锁在电机房里，钥匙只有工程师才有。
He kept climbing. On the ninth floor, he found Edin sitting on the top step. A strange object lay on her knees.
他继续往上爬。在九楼，他看见埃丁坐在最顶上的台阶上，膝盖上放着一件奇怪的东西。
"You are the only person today who isn't shouting at me," Ansel said.
“今天只有你没冲我嚷嚷，”安塞尔说。
"I would shout if it helped," Edin said. "But look at this. It was outside my door when I came home."
“要是嚷嚷有用，我也会嚷的，”埃丁说，“不过你看看这个。我回家的时候，它就放在我家门外。”
It was a toy robot, about the size of a shoebox. Its body was made of dented silver metal, and one arm was raised in a wave. A square of paper was taped to its chest.
那是一个玩具机器人，大约有鞋盒那么大。它的身体是用凹凸不平的银色金属做的，一只手臂举着，像是在挥手。胸口贴着一小张方方的纸。
Ansel pointed the torch at the note. The handwriting was round and careful, like a child's. It said, "Ninth floor landing. Press my left hand before eight o'clock tonight. Please do not leave me in the dark."
安塞尔用手电筒照着那张字条。字迹圆圆的，一笔一画很用心，像小孩子写的。上面写着：“九楼平台。今晚八点前，按我的左手。请不要把我留在黑暗里。”
"Who would leave a thing like this?" Edin asked.
“谁会把这样的东西放在这儿？”埃丁问。
"I don't know," Ansel said. "But somebody wanted it switched on here, tonight. I am curious now."
“我不知道，”安塞尔说，“不过有人想让它今晚在这里开机。我现在好奇起来了。”
He pressed the left hand once, and then again, harder. The painted eyes stayed dull. Nothing whirred, and nothing clicked.
他按了一下左手，又用力按了一下。画上去的眼睛依旧暗淡。没有嗡嗡声，也没有咔嗒声。
"The battery is flat," Edin said. "Or the toy is broken."
“电池没电了，”埃丁说，“要不就是玩具坏了。”
Ansel turned the robot over and opened a small panel in its back. Inside there was a round socket and a label with tiny letters. He read it twice. "It says it can run straight from a charger, even with a flat battery."
安塞尔把机器人翻过来，打开它背后的一块小面板。里面有一个圆形插口和一张字特别小的标签。他读了两遍。“上面说，即使电池没电，它也可以直接接充电器运行。”
"Then we need a charger," Edin said. "And we need to hurry. Look at the time."
“那我们得找个充电器，”埃丁说，“还得抓紧。你看看时间。”
Ansel's watch said ten past seven.
安塞尔的手表指着七点十分。
"I have a box of old chargers in the basement," he said. "One of them might fit. I will run."
“我在地下室有一箱旧充电器，”他说，“说不定有一个合适。我跑一趟。”
He ran down nine flights in the half dark, with one hand on the cold rail. In the basement, he tried eleven chargers. The twelfth slid into the robot's socket with a small click. Then he ran all the way back up. When he reached the ninth floor, his legs were shaking, and it was a quarter to eight.
他在半明半暗中一口气跑下九层楼，一只手扶着冰凉的扶手。在地下室，他试了十一个充电器。第十二个轻轻咔的一声，滑进了机器人的插口。然后他一路跑回楼上。到九楼的时候，他的腿都在发抖，时间是差一刻八点。
"I have the charger," he said, breathing hard. "But there is nowhere to plug it in. Nothing works above the sixth floor."
“充电器拿来了，”他喘着粗气说，“可是没有地方插。六楼以上什么都不通电。”
"Then we carry the robot down to the sixth," Edin said.
“那我们把机器人抬到六楼去，”埃丁说。
"The note says the ninth floor landing," Ansel said. "Whoever wrote it chose this place for a reason. I don't want to move it."
“字条上写的是九楼平台，”安塞尔说，“写字条的人选这个地方，一定有原因。我不想挪动它。”
Edin leaned over the railing. The stairwell had a wide gap in the middle. The floors below looked like a stack of dark squares. She counted them with her finger.
埃丁探身趴在栏杆上。楼梯井中间有一道很宽的空隙。下面的楼层看上去像一摞黑乎乎的方块。她用手指一层一层地数。
"The nearest socket is three floors down," she said. "If a cord follows the stairs, it needs forty metres."
“最近的插座在往下三层的地方，”她说，“如果电线顺着楼梯走，需要四十米。”
"We don't have forty metres," Ansel said. "I have one cord, and it is five metres long."
“我们没有四十米，”安塞尔说，“我只有一根线，五米长。”
Edin smiled slowly. "We don't have to follow the stairs," she said. "We can drop the cord straight down the gap. Straight down, it is only twelve metres."
埃丁慢慢地笑了。“我们不必顺着楼梯走，”她说，“可以把线直接从空隙里垂下去。直直往下，只要十二米。”
Ansel stared at her. Then he laughed out loud. "Twelve metres," he said. "Everyone in this building owns an extension cord. Go and knock on doors. I will do the joining."
安塞尔盯着她看。然后他哈哈大笑起来。“十二米，”他说，“这栋楼里家家都有延长线。你去敲门吧，接线的事我来。”
Edin ran along the corridor in the dark. She knocked on every door she passed. A man in a bath towel gave her a long orange cord and asked no questions. A girl with a guitar found two short cords under her bed. A student with wet hair handed over one that was so tangled it looked like a nest.
埃丁在黑暗中沿着走廊跑。她经过的每一扇门都敲了一遍。一个裹着浴巾的男人递给她一根长长的橙色电线，什么也没问。一个抱着吉他的女孩从床底下找出两根短线。一个头发湿漉漉的学生递过来一根，缠得乱七八糟，活像一个鸟窝。
"What is it for?" the student asked.
“这是干什么用的？”学生问。
"A very strange rescue," Edin said, and ran on.
“一次很奇怪的营救，”埃丁说完，又跑开了。
In six minutes, she came back with four cords in her arms. Ansel joined them end to end and wrapped every join with tape from his belt. His hands moved fast, but the second hand on his watch moved faster. It was ten to eight.
六分钟后，她抱着四根电线回来了。安塞尔把它们首尾相接，每个接头都用腰带上取下的胶带缠好。他的手动得很快，可是他手表的秒针走得更快。已经是差十分八点了。
He tied his heavy bunch of keys to the plug at one end of the cord. Then he held the keys over the gap and let them fall. The cord ran through his fingers, hissing, past the eighth floor and the seventh. The keys swung at the bottom with a faint ring, just outside the sixth-floor door.
他把那一大串沉甸甸的钥匙系在电线一端的插头上。然后他把钥匙悬在空隙上方，松手让它落下去。电线嘶嘶地从他的指间滑过，经过八楼，经过七楼。钥匙在最下面晃荡着，发出一声轻轻的叮当，正好停在六楼的门外。
"Got them!" Edin shouted from far below. She had run down the stairs two at a time, and her voice echoed up the stairwell. "Now I'm looking for the socket."
“拿到了！”埃丁在很远的下方喊道。她是两级并作一级跑下楼梯的，声音在楼梯井里回荡着传上来。“我现在去找插座。”
Ansel waited. The robot sat on the landing, silent and dull, with its arm raised. He pushed the charger's plug into the end of the cord and waited.
安塞尔等着。机器人坐在平台上，一声不响，黯淡无光，手臂还举着。他把充电器的插头插进电线的另一端，接着等。
"Anything?" he called down.
“有反应吗？”他朝下面喊。
"One moment!" Edin shouted. "This socket is behind a plant pot. There. It is in."
“等一下！”埃丁喊道，“这个插座在花盆后面。好了，插上了。”
Nothing happened for ten long seconds. Ansel looked at his watch. It was two minutes to eight. He pressed the left hand once, and then he pressed it again.
足足十秒钟，什么也没发生。安塞尔看了看手表，差两分八点。他按了一下左手，然后又按了一下。
A small green light came on inside the robot's chest. The painted eyes began to glow, softly at first, and then as bright as two lamps. The landing, the railing and Ansel's tired face all turned green. Edin arrived, panting, at the top of the stairs just in time to see it.
机器人的胸膛里亮起了一盏小小的绿灯。画上去的眼睛开始发光，起初很柔和，然后亮得像两盏灯。平台、栏杆和安塞尔疲惫的脸，全都被映成了绿色。埃丁气喘吁吁地赶到楼梯口，正好看见了这一幕。
"It works," she whispered. "We did it."
“它亮了，”她小声说，“我们做到了。”
The robot's arm came down slowly. A clear voice came from its chest, high and light, like the voice of a child.
机器人的手臂慢慢放了下来。一个清晰的声音从它胸口传出来，又高又轻，像个孩子的声音。
"Hello," it said. "Thank you for the light. I have waited a very long time. Please come to number thirteen."
“你好，”它说，“谢谢你们给了我光亮。我等了很久很久。请到十三号来。”
The green light faded. The eyes went dark, and the robot was quiet again, as if it had never spoken. Ansel and Edin looked at each other for a long moment.
绿光渐渐暗了。眼睛熄灭了，机器人又安静下来，仿佛从没开口说过话。安塞尔和埃丁对视了很久。
"Thirteen," Edin said at last. "But there isn't a thirteenth floor. The lift goes from twelve to fourteen."
“十三号，”埃丁终于说，“可是没有十三楼啊。电梯是从十二楼直接到十四楼的。”
"I know," Ansel said. "I have worked here for nine years. The builders skipped the number."
“我知道，”安塞尔说，“我在这儿工作九年了。建楼的时候把这个数字跳过去了。”
"So where is number thirteen?"
“那十三号在哪儿？”
Ansel didn't answer. He picked up his torch and began to climb. Edin followed him past the tenth floor, the eleventh and the twelfth. Between the twelfth and the fourteenth, the stairs turned a corner. There was a small landing there that Ansel had passed a thousand times.
安塞尔没有回答。他拿起手电筒，开始往上爬。埃丁跟着他走过十楼、十一楼和十二楼。在十二楼和十四楼之间，楼梯拐了个弯。那里有一个小小的平台，安塞尔从前路过过上千次。
Behind a pile of old paint tins, there was a narrow door. It had no number. A thin line of warm yellow light shone under it. From somewhere behind it came a soft, steady ticking.
一堆旧油漆罐后面，有一扇窄窄的门。门上没有号码。一道细细的、暖黄色的光从门缝底下透出来。从门后的某个地方，传来轻柔而稳定的滴答声。
