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

哦，好吧，他还是多往好处想想。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.

他在一幢大楼的十三层，坐在一尺宽的窗台上，他真的不确定这种局面是不是值得一双好鞋英勇献身。

He stared in woozily through the darkened glass.

他头晕眼花地往黑黝黝的窗户里瞅。

It was as dark and silent as the tomb.

里面又黑又静，活像座坟墓。

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

不，这么想真可笑。他曾经在坟墓里参加过不少一级棒的派对呢。

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.

他是不是察觉到了什么动静？福特不大确定。他好像看见了一种怪里怪气，扑扑棱棱的影子。或许不过是血在顺着睫毛往下流而已。他把血抹掉。老天，他真希望自己在什么地方有间农场，可以养上几只绵羊什么的。他再次往窗里瞅，想弄清那玩意儿究竟是什么，可他有种感觉——在如今的宇宙里这实在司空见惯——觉得自己看见的不过是某种视觉幻影，觉得这只不过是眼睛在跟他捣鬼。

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.

里头是不是有只什么鸟？他们封锁了整层楼，装上防导弹的黑窗户就是为了藏这个？某人的鸟巢？里面的确有什么东西在扑哧扑哧地扇翅膀，可与其说它是鸟还不如说它是空间里一个鸟形空洞。

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.

他闭上眼睛，反正他想闭眼也已经好一会了。他开始琢磨接下来到底怎么办。跳吗？爬吗？他不认为自己能想出什么法子爬窗而入。好吧，没错，先前被导弹打中的时候，那个防导弹玻璃好像并不真能抗导弹，可那枚导弹是超近距离发射的，当初设计的时候，工程师考虑的多半不是这种情况。所以，这并不意味着他能在拳头上包块毛巾把它砸碎。管他呢，他还是试了试，结果伤了自己的手。当然他所处的位置不大容易使上劲儿，这样也好，否则伤势没准会相当严重。在蛙星遇袭之后，《指南》的大楼整个重建，那时候结结实实地加固过，现在它大概是本行业装甲最重的出版公司了。不过，福特暗想，既然是公司委员会设计的系统，弱点肯定是有的。他已经找到一个不是吗？工程师设计窗户的时候，没想到会有人从楼里近距离发射导弹，所以窗户没撑住。

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

那么，如果有人坐在楼外的窗台上，哪些举动是工程师预料不到的呢？

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

他搜肠刮肚了一两秒钟，然后他想到了。

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.

他们想不到的就是窗台上竟然会出现他这么个人。只有彻头彻尾的白痴才会坐在这地方，所以他赢了一局。人家设计傻瓜式智能设备的时候，最常见的一个错误就是低估了大傻瓜的独创性。