讀點好英文:The Silence of the Lambs 沉默的羔羊

The Silence of the Lambs 沉默的羔羊

[美]托馬斯·哈里斯（Thomas Harris）

克拉麗絲是聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局的見習特工，她所在的城市出現(xiàn)了一個專剝女性人皮的變態(tài)殺人犯“野?！北葼枴？死惤z的任務(wù)是去一所戒備森嚴的監(jiān)獄訪問精神病專家漢尼拔博士，同他交談以獲取罪犯的心理行為資料來幫助破案。漢尼拔被關(guān)在地牢里，他是一位智商極高、思維敏捷但有些精神變態(tài)的中年男子，并且是個食人狂。博士對她進行心理分析，克拉麗絲說出童年的最痛苦的回憶是常常聽到羔羊的慘叫……經(jīng)過一番心理分析，漢尼拔了解了克拉麗絲為什么總會聽到羔羊的慘叫?？死惤z把對象鎖定在一個叫詹米·岡的人身上?？死惤z找到并擊中了比爾，然而更危險的人物卻又出現(xiàn)了。

Behavioral Science, the FBI section that deals with serial murder, is on the bottom floor of the Academy building at Quantico, half-buried in the earth. Clarice Starling reached it flushed after a fast walk from Hogan's Alley on the firing range.She had grass in her hair and grass stains on her FBI Academy windbreaker from diving to the ground under fire in an arrest problem on the range.

No one was in the outer office, so she fluffed briefly by her reflection in the glass doors. She knew she could look all right without primping.Her hands smelled of gunsmoke, but there was no time to wash—Section Chief Crawford's summons had said now.

She found Jack Crawford alone in the cluttered suite of offices. He was standing at someone else's desk talking on the telephone and she had a chance to look him over for the first time in a year.What she saw disturbed her.

Normally, Crawford looked like a fit, middle-aged engineer who might have paid his way through college playing baseball—a crafty catcher, tough when he blocked the plate. Now he was thin, his shirt collar was too big, and he had dark puffs under his reddened eyes.Everyone who could read the papers knew Behavioral Science section was catching hell.Starling hoped Crawford wasn't on the juice.That seemed most unlikely here.

Crawford ended his telephone conversation with a sharp“No.”He took her file from under his arm and opened it.

“Starling, Clarice M.，good morning,”he said.

“Hello.”Her smile was only polite.

“Nothing's wrong. I hope the call didn't spook you.”

“No.”Not totally true, Starling thought.

“Your instructors tell me you're doing well, top quarter of the class.”

“I hope so, they haven't posted anything.”

“I ask them from time to time.”

That surprised Starling;she had written Crawford off as a two-faced recruiting sergeant son of a bitch.

She had met Special Agent Crawford when he was a guest lecturer at the University of Virginia. The quality of his criminology seminars was a factor in her coming to the Bureau.She wrote him a note when she qualified for the Academy, but he never replied, and for the three months she had been a trainee at Quantico, he had ignored her.

Starling came from people who do not ask for favors or press for friendship, but she was puzzled and regretful at Crawford's behavior. Now, in his presence, she liked him again, she was sorry to note.

Clearly something was wrong with him. There was a peculiar cleverness in Crawford, aside from his intelligence, and Starling had first noticed it in his color sense and the textures of his clothing, even within the FBI-clone standards of agent dress.Now he was neat but drab, as though he were molting.

“A job came up and I thought about you,”he said.“It's not really a job, it's more of an interesting errand. Push Berry's stuff off that chair and sit down.You put down here that you want to come directly to Behavioral Science when you get through with the Academy.”

“I do.”

“You have a lot of forensics, but no law enforcement background. We look for six years, minimum.”

“My father was a marsha, I know the life.”

Crawford smiled a little.“What you do have is a double major in psychology and criminology, and how many summers working in a mental health center—two?”

“Two.”

“Your counselor's license, is it current?”

“It's good for two more years. I got it before you had the seminar at UVA—before I decided to do this.”

“You got stuck in the hiring freeze.”

Starling nodded.“I was lucky though—I found out in time to qualify as a Forensic Fellow. Then I could work in the lab until the Academy had an opening.”

“You wrote to me about coming here, didn't you, and I don't think I answered—I know I didn't. I should have.”

“You've had plenty else to do.”

“Do you know about VI-CAP?”

“I know it's the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. The Law Enforcement Bulletin says you're working on a database, but you aren't operational yet.”

Crawford nodded.“We've developed a questionnaire. It applies to all the known serial murderers in modern times.”He handed her a thick sheaf of papers in a flimsy binding.“There's a section for investigators, and one for surviving victims, if any.The blue is for the killer to answer if he will, and the pink is a series of questions an examiner asks the killer, getting his reactions as well as his answers.It's a lot of paperwork.”

Paperwork, Clarice Starling's self-interest snuffled ahead like a keen beagle. She smelled a job offer coming—probably the drudgery of feeding raw data into a new computer system.It was tempting to get into Behavioral Science in any capacity she could, but she knew what happens to a woman if she's ever pegged as a secretary—it sticks until the end of time.A choice was coming, and she wanted to choose well.

行為科學部是聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局處理系列兇殺案的部門，位于昆迪可學院大樓的底層，有一半在地下?？死惤z·史達琳從聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局模擬射擊訓練中心的靶場上一路快步走來，到這兒時已是滿臉通紅。她的頭發(fā)里有草，那件聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局學員的防風衣上也都沾著草跡，那是在射擊場的抓捕訓練中她冒著火力猛撲到地上時沾上的。

外面的辦公室空無一人，所以她就對著玻璃門，就著自己的影子，將頭發(fā)簡單地拂弄了一下。她知道自己不用過分打扮看上去也是可以的。她的手上有火藥味，可來不及洗了，該部的頭兒克勞福德說，現(xiàn)在就要召見她。

她發(fā)現(xiàn)杰克·克勞福德獨自一人在一個雜亂無序的辦公套間里。他正站在別人的桌子邊打電話。一年來，這是她第一次有機會好好地打量他。他的樣子，讓她覺得很是不安。

平日里，克勞福德看上去像一位體魄強健的中年工程師。他讀大學時的費用很可能是靠打棒球支付的——他像是個機靈的接手，由他來擋投手板，對方可就頭疼了。而如今，他瘦了，襯衫的領(lǐng)子那么大，紅腫的雙眼下有黑眼圈。每個看報紙的人都知道，行為科學部眼下正大遭罵名。史達琳希望克勞福德不要開足馬力拼老命，可在這兒，那看來是根本不可能的。

克勞福德突然“不”的一聲結(jié)束了他的電話談話。他從腋下取出她的檔案，打了開來。

“克拉麗絲·史達琳，早上好！”他說。

“你好?！彼皇嵌Y貌地微微一笑。

“也沒出什么事，但愿叫你來并沒有把你嚇著?！?/p>

“沒有?！笔愤_琳想，這么說并不完全是真的。

“你的老師告訴我你學得不錯，班上排前15名?！?/p>

“希望如此。成績他們還沒有張榜公布呢。”

“我時不時會問他們?！?/p>

這使史達琳有些吃驚；她原以為克勞福德是個招募新手的警察小隊長，兩面派的耍滑頭角色，成不了什么大器。

克勞福德曾以特工身份應(yīng)邀到弗吉尼亞大學講過課，史達琳就是在那兒遇見他的。他開的犯罪學課程質(zhì)量高，她之所以來聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局，就有這個因素。她獲得進入學院的資格后曾給他寫過一個條子，可他一直沒有回音；在昆蒂科當實習生三個月了，也沒有引起他的注意。

史達琳是那種不求人施恩、不強求他人友誼的人，但克勞福德這種做法還是叫她感到困惑和后悔。可此刻，她很遺憾地注意到，當著他的面，自己竟又喜歡上他了。

顯然是出什么事了?？藙诟５律砩铣怂遣胖侵猓€有一種特別的機敏，史達琳看出這一點首先是從他的著裝搭配及其衣服的質(zhì)地上，即使衣服是聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局工作人員的統(tǒng)一制服。此刻的他整潔卻了無生氣，仿佛人正在蛻皮換骨似的。

“來了件活兒，我就想到了你?！彼f，“其實也不是什么活兒，更確切地說是一份有趣的差使。你把那椅子上貝利的東西拿開坐下。這兒你寫著，學院的實習一結(jié)束，你就想直接來行為科學部?！?/p>

“是的。”

“你的法醫(yī)學知識很豐富，但沒有執(zhí)法方面的經(jīng)歷。我們需要有六年執(zhí)法經(jīng)歷的人，至少六年?！?/p>

“我爸曾是個司法官，那生活什么樣我知道?！?/p>

克勞福德微微笑了笑：“你真正具備的是心理學和犯罪學雙學位，還有就是在一個心理健康中心干過，幾個夏天？是兩個嗎？”

“兩個。”

“你那心理咨詢員證書現(xiàn)在還能用嗎？”

“還可以管兩年，我是在你到弗吉尼亞大學講課之前拿到這證書的，那時我還沒有決定要干這個?！?/p>

“雇用單位凍結(jié)不招人，你就被困住了?！?/p>

史達琳點了點頭：“不過我的運氣還不錯——及時發(fā)現(xiàn)了結(jié)果并獲得了法醫(yī)會員的資格。接下來我可以到實驗室干，直到學院有空缺的職位?！?/p>

“你曾寫信給我說要上這兒來是吧？我想我沒有回信——我知道我沒有回。應(yīng)該回的?！?/p>

“你有許多別的事要忙?！?/p>

“你知不知道有關(guān)VI-CAP的情況？”

“我知道那是指‘暴力犯罪分子拘捕計劃’?！秷?zhí)法公報》上說你們正在處理數(shù)據(jù)，尚未進入實施階段?！?/p>

克勞福德點點頭：“我們設(shè)計了一份問卷，它適用于當今所有已知的系列兇犯?！彼麑⒀b在薄封皮里的厚厚一疊文件遞給了她，“其中有一部分是為調(diào)查人員準備的，還有一部分是為幸存的受害者準備的，如果有幸存者的話。那藍色部分是要兇手回答的，假如他肯回答的話。粉紅色那部分是提問者要問兇手的一組問題，他以此獲得兇手的反應(yīng)及回答。案頭活兒不少呢！”

案頭活兒?？死惤z·史達琳出于自身利益，像一頭嗅覺靈敏的小獵犬一樣在聞著什么。她聞到有一份工作正向她降臨——那工作很可能單調(diào)乏味，只是往新的電腦系統(tǒng)中輸入原始數(shù)據(jù)。竭盡全力進入科學部對她來說是誘人的，可她知道，女人一旦被拴住做秘書，結(jié)果會是什么樣——一輩子就在這位置上待著吧。選擇的機會來了，她要好好地選擇。

A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.

——C.M.Schwab

只要有無限的熱情，一個人幾乎可以在任何事情上取得成功。

——施瓦布

實戰(zhàn)提升

作者介紹

托馬斯·哈里斯，美國通俗小說家，曾任美聯(lián)社駐紐約記者兼編輯，專門從事刑事案件的采編，積累了豐富的寫作材料。他先后出版了《黑色星期五》《紅色龍》《沉默的羔羊》等多部偵探小說和犯罪小說，其中以《沉默的羔羊》影響最大，曾躍登《紐約時報》暢銷書排行榜榜首。

單詞注解

flush[flQF]v.涌；涌流；n.奔流；adj.富足的；同高的

puff[pQf]v.一陣陣地吹；n.一陣；吹噓

instructor[in5strQkt[]n.教員；教練；指導者

texture[5tekstFE]n.組織，結(jié)構(gòu)，質(zhì)地

marshal[5mB:FEl]n.元帥；司儀；典禮官；司法官

database[5deitEbeis]n.資料庫，數(shù)據(jù)庫

flimsy[5flimzi]adj.脆弱的；易損壞的；輕薄的

beagle[5bi:^l]n.小獵犬；密探

名句大搜索

史達琳是那種不求人施恩、不強求他人友誼的人，但克勞福德這種做法還是叫她感到困惑和后悔。

顯然是出什么事了。

選擇的機會來了，她要好好地選擇。