╗ ╚ 【書名】：58 Minutes 【作者】：[美] Wager Walter沃爾特·瓦格 【類型】：電影原著 【簡介】： Inexorably. 不可避免地。 Right across traffic from the opposite direction. 正對面是迎面而來的車流。 In the endangered vehicles, the men and women behind the steering wheels shouted, prayed and swore as they tried to avoid a fatal collision. Moving at them like a four-ton battering ram, the truck cut diagonally between the bucking zigzagging cars and swept through a red light. It missed a bus by inches. 在那些岌岌可危的車輛裡，駕駛座上的男女一邊喊叫、祈禱，一邊咒罵，竭力避免一場致命的碰撞。那輛卡車像一輛四噸重的攻城錘一樣朝他們衝來，斜穿在顛簸搖晃的車輛之間，闖了紅燈。它與一輛公共汽車僅差幾英寸。 Then it crashed into a massive self-propelled crane. Parked in the street beside a half-finished apartment house, the large piece of heavy construction machinery stopped the runaway vehicle like a stone wall. 隨後，它撞上了一輛巨大的自行式起重機。這台大型重型建築機械停在一棟半成品公寓大樓旁的街道上，像石牆一樣擋住了失控的車輛。 The impact caved in the whole front of the truck, ruptured the fuel line and burst open the door beside the unconscious driver. 撞擊導致卡車車頭完全凹陷，燃油管路破裂，昏迷不醒的司機旁的車門也被撞開。 He fell out of the truck. 他從卡車上摔了下來。 The sputtering flare embedded in the dashboard didn't. Tiny flames were flickering as the padding and plastic ignited, adding another foul smell to that of the colored smoke still pouring from the rocket. 儀錶板裡那盞閃爍不定的指示燈卻沒有熄滅。襯墊和塑膠燃燒起來，細小的火焰搖曳不定，與火箭冒出的彩色煙霧混雜在一起，散發出另一種難聞的氣味。 Some one hundred twenty feet overhead, the helicopter circled slowly with its bright searchlight beam never leaving the terrorists' truck. 直升機在距離地面約一百二十英尺的高空緩慢盤旋，明亮的探照燈光束從未離開恐怖分子的卡車。 "Let's get in closer," the detective said. 「我們靠近點，」偵探說。 "That might not be a good idea," Saldana warned. 「那可能不是個好主意，」薩爾達納警告。 "Why?" 「為什麼？」 Suddenly the flames in the cab leaped higher. The fuel tank exploded a moment later, leaving the broken vehicle a blazing hulk. The fire shot high in the air, and so did a twisting pillar of acrid black fumes. 駕駛室內的火焰突然竄得更高。片刻之後，油箱爆炸，殘破的車輛變成了一堆燃燒的廢鐵。火焰沖天而起，一股刺鼻的黑色濃煙也隨之旋轉升騰。 "That's why," the helicopter commander told Malone. "Now let's check our radio. I'll tune you in." 「原來如此，」直升機指揮官告訴馬龍。「現在我們來檢查無線電。我幫你調好。」 The pilots and Malone listened intently. 飛行員和馬龍都認真地聽著。 There was no interference of any kind on any of the six civilian or military aviation frequencies that Ernesto Saldana tested. 埃內斯托·薩爾達納測試的六個民用或軍用航空頻率均未受到任何干擾。 "All clear," Saldana said. 「一切正常，」薩爾達納說。 For how long? 多長時間？ Calculating, obsessive Willi Staub could have a third jammer—or something else. 精於算計、做事偏執的威利·施圖布可能還有第三個干擾器——或者其他什麼東西。 Even if the airwaves were open for the moment, there were very few moments left. Malone realized that he had to return to Kennedy at once. That was where the final battle of this war would be fought—probably within the next twenty minutes. The H-65 could get him there in less than five, Malone estimated. 即使無線電波暫時暢通，時間也所剩無幾了。馬龍意識到他必須立刻返回甘迺迪機場。這場戰爭的最終決戰將在那裡打響——很可能就在接下來的二十分鐘內。馬龍估計，H-65 直升機不到五分鐘就能把他送到那裡。 "Can you take me to JFK? Right away?" he asked urgently. 「你能馬上送我去甘迺迪機場嗎？」他急切地問。 The helicopter commander thought of the danger of flying into the airport in a heavy snowstorm, with all those big jets circling blindly and no radar or air traffic control to keep them from smashing into the Coast Guard rotorcraft. Then he thought of the people in the airliners. 直升機指揮官想到在暴風雪中飛入機場的危險，那些大型噴射機盲目盤旋，沒有雷達或空中交通管制，很容易撞上海岸防衛隊的旋翼機。然後他又想到了客機上的乘客。 "No sweat," he lied and guided the H-65 higher. 「沒問題，」他撒謊道，然後操控 H-65 飛得更高。 He leveled off at six hundred feet. Since the airliners were probably circling well up above one thousand, an altitude of six hundred would be relatively safe. Well, it ought to be. 他將飛機平穩地飛在六百英尺的高度。由於客機很可能在一千英尺以上的高空盤旋，六百英尺的高度相對來說比較安全。嗯，理應如此。 Standing beside the winch a few yards away, Frank Ma-lone was busy with his own calculations. The seven prisoners whom the terrorists had demanded would reach JFK at any minute. So would Staub and his team, if they weren't there already. No, the shrewd wary man code-named Venom had probably been there for some time, spying on his enemy's strength and positions. Collecting up-to-the-minute intelligence about his foes was part of Staub's pattern and a reason that he was still alive. 法蘭克·馬隆站在幾碼外的絞車旁，正忙著自己的計算。恐怖分子要求的七名囚犯隨時可能抵達甘迺迪機場。施圖布和他的團隊也一樣，如果他們還沒到的話。不，這位代號「毒液」的精明謹慎的特工可能已經在那裡待了一段時間，偵察敵人的力量和位置。收集關於敵人的最新情報是施圖布的慣用伎倆，也是他至今仍能活下來的原因之一。 But his information was incomplete, Malone calculated as he looked out at the snow. Staub didn't know that Malone had learned Number One's identity, or that the detective had figured out what was behind the entire operation. Six prisoners on Staub's list belonged to revolutionary groups that generally used basic conventional weapons. 但馬龍望著窗外的雪，心想他掌握的資訊並不完整。施圖布並不知道馬龍已經查明了「一號」的身份，也不知道這位偵探已經弄清楚了整個行動背後的真相。施圖布名單上的六名囚犯都屬於革命組織，這些組織通常使用基本的常規武器。 The seventh was different. That had been the clue. 第七個不一樣。那才是關鍵所在。 The seventh wasn't a revolutionary at all. He was a greedy merchant who sold high-tech arms to an immensely rich dictator. There could be but one reason why rabid leftist terrorist Willi Staub would rescue capitalist Arnold Lloyd—a lot of money. 第七位根本不是革命者。他是個貪婪的商人，把高科技武器賣給了一個富可敵國的獨裁者。狂熱的左翼恐怖分子威利·施圖布之所以會出手相救資本家阿諾德·勞埃德，只有一個原因——為了錢。 Enough to fund this complex electronic assault. 足以資助這次複雜的電子攻擊。 Enough to fund years of Staub's future operations. 足以維持施圖布未來多年的營運。 Lloyd couldn't provide that much cash, but General al-Khalif had billions and good reason to keep the amoral ex-CIA man from going to trial. That must be it, Malone reasoned. Sleazy Arnold Lloyd was the key card in this barbarous game. 勞埃德拿不出那麼多錢，但哈利夫將軍身家數十億，而且有充分的理由阻止這位道德敗壞的前中央情報局特工受審。馬龍推斷，一定是這樣。卑鄙的阿諾德·勞埃德是這場殘酷遊戲中的關鍵人物。 The odds were shifting. 形勢正在改變。 Two terrorists and their transmitters had been taken out of the war. Malone now shared one of Willi Staub's vital secrets, and the terrorist chief didn't know it. At the right time, Frank Malone would use that secret . . . would use Lloyd . . . against him. 兩名恐怖分子及其通訊器已被清除出戰場。馬龍現在掌握了威利·施圖布的一個至關重要的秘密，而這位恐怖分子頭目對此毫不知情。時機成熟時，弗蘭克·馬龍會利用這個秘密……利用勞埃德……來對付他。 But there was almost no time left. The detective studied his watch. If Annie Green's estimate was right, TWA 22 Heavy would exhaust its fuel in about one and a half minutes. 但時間所剩無幾。偵探看了看手錶。如果安妮·格林的估計沒錯，TWA 22 重型航班的燃料將在大約一分半鐘內耗盡。 出版日期：1989年 7月 法蘭克馬龍是一位離婚的紐約警局隊長，他正在紐約甘迺迪國際機場等待從加州飛來的女兒，準備和她一起過聖誕節。 然而，一個自稱「一號」的神秘男子突然聯繫塔台，聲稱他切斷了甘迺迪機場以及附近所有機場的跑道燈電源，並劫持了他們的設備。他要求機組人員在58分鐘內完成任務，否則載著弗蘭克女兒的第一架飛機將因燃料耗盡而墜毀。 此時，一場巨大的暴風雪即將來臨，所有飛機都無處可去… 法蘭克必須立即行動，在短短58分鐘內救出女兒和盤旋在空中的其他飛機上的乘客！！ |
