《惊人之旅》实地笔记：劳拉·克劳馥——圣方济各堂之下究竟埋藏着什么？
Astonishing Travels - Field Notes: Lara Croft. What Lies Beneath St. Francis' Folly?
2026年9月17日
September 17, 2026
《惊人之旅》编辑部在新一期《实地笔记》中把目光转向希腊：劳拉·克劳馥与一支身份不明的武装承包商先后抵达雅典近郊，后者一路向西北，指向一处封闭近百年的拜占庭修道院遗址——圣方济各堂。附近徒步者报告该方向传出多次爆炸声，警方仅派无人机远观，并把现场痕迹归到“擅入者”头上。专栏作者朱利安·默瑟把秘鲁、旧金山、希腊三地的线索串在一起，抛出更大胆的推测：那层拜占庭石墙之下，或许还叠压着更古老的秘密。
诺拉·贝内特： 欢迎各位读者收看新一期的 《实地笔记》， 《惊人之旅》的常设圆桌讨论专栏，这里的编辑标准更宽松，种种猜测也能占得一席之地。而这一回，这席位还格外大。我是诺拉·贝内特，这家小刊物的主编。再次坐到我身边的，是我们这里专门研究边缘话题的朱利安·默瑟。上一期封面故事把神秘的劳拉·克劳馥一路追到秘鲁安第斯山脉，大获成功，我猜他这会儿正得意得不行。
Nora Bennett: Welcome, readers, to another edition of Field Notes, Astonishing Travels' recurring roundtable series where the editorial standards are looser and speculation gets a seat at the table. A rather oversized seat in this case. I'm Nora Bennett, Editor-in-Chief of this little publication. Joining me once again is our resident fringe specialist Julian Mercer, who I suspect is feeling especially smug after the success of our last cover story tracking the enigmatic Lara Croft to the Peruvian Andes.
朱利安·默瑟： 我们的出版商看着确实挺满意。
Julian Mercer: Our publisher did seem quite pleased.
诺拉： 我们也一样。你嗅出了一桩绝佳的悬案，还把 足够多的 线索串了起来，在读者中激起了惊人的猜想，而且多少有些出人意料，这股热潮还远远溢出了我们的读者圈。
Nora: As were we. You sniffed out an excellent mystery and connected just enough dots to kindle a remarkable amount of speculation among our readership, and, somewhat unexpectedly, well beyond it.
朱利安： 劳拉·克劳馥和杰奎琳·纳特拉出现在同一个故事里？谁能抗拒得了。一个是媒体追逐的对象，另一个则是阴谋论的磁石。
Julian: Lara Croft and Jacqueline Natla in the same story? Irresistible. One’s a media obsession and the other a conspiracy magnet.
诺拉： 哪个是哪个？
Nora: Which is which?
朱利安： 这层区别一细究就站不住了。我想说的是，我本该料到这个故事会传得那么远，远远超出我们平时的读者群。
Julian: The distinction collapses on inspection. The point being, I should have anticipated how far the story would travel beyond our usual readership.
诺拉： 朱利安，谦虚可不是你的风格。
Nora: Humility doesn’t suit you, Julian.
朱利安： 那确实让人浑身不自在。
Julian: It certainly chafes.
诺拉： 不过，稍微骄傲一下也是应该的。秘鲁专号的首批印量销售一空，订阅量一路攀升，我们的出版商随后也松了松钱袋子。错过那篇报道的读者有福了：我们将限量重印第 310 期，换上全新的手绘封面，替下那张被用滥了的新闻照。本期追踪克劳馥前往希腊，也享受了同样的待遇。两期的插图都出自克劳馥粉丝圈里一位才华横溢的成员之手，她在网上的名字是 Illyne。
Nora: A little pride is warranted, though. We sold out of the first run of the Peru edition, subscriptions climbed, and our publisher subsequently loosened the purse strings. For those of you who missed the original story, we’re releasing a limited-edition reprint of #310 with a new illustrated cover, replacing that overused press photo. This issue, which follows Croft to Greece, received the same treatment. Both are illustrated by a talented member of the Croft community; she goes by Illyne online.
朱利安： 不用说，如果劳拉之前还不知道 《惊人之旅》 ，那我们现在绝对已经进入她的视线了。最近有人在伦敦见到她，一些不大讲究操守的小报正用越来越耸人听闻的说法对她穷追不舍：有人说劳拉在比尔卡班巴把卡洛斯献祭了，那是某种古老末世仪式的一部分；也有人说她在替纳特拉找回某种生物科技武器，诸如此类。从各方面看，克劳馥一贯冰山般的镇定依然完好无损。她本人和她的发言人对这些都未置一词。
Julian: Needless to say, if Lara wasn’t aware of Astonishing Travels before, we’re absolutely on her radar now. She’s recently been spotted in London, and some of the less principled papers have been hounding her with increasingly lurid theories: that Lara sacrificed Carlos at Vilcabamba as part of an ancient apocalyptic ritual, or that she was recovering some sort of biotech weapon for Natla, among others. By all appearances, Croft’s usual glacial composure remains intact. Neither she nor her representatives have commented on any of it.
诺拉： 那劳拉是回家了？
Nora: Lara’s returned home, then?
朱利安： 是的。不管这次追寻到底是什么，似乎在极短时间里接连跨越了好几个目的地。我们实际上一直在追赶，一点点还原一条她早已走完的路线。
Julian: Yes. Whatever this hunt was, it seems to have encompassed several destinations in rapid succession. We’re effectively playing catch-up, reconstructing an itinerary she’s already completed.
诺拉： 世界并没有因为什么古老的末世而终结，纳特拉科技也没有发布什么神奇的生物科技新突破，所以我想，这些说法暂时可以先放到一边。
Nora: The world hasn’t ended from some ancient apocalypse, nor has Natla Tech unveiled any miraculous new biotech breakthroughs, so I think we can set aside those theories for now.
朱利安： 我同意。
Julian: Agreed.
诺拉： 读者们都急着想知道最新进展。不过，在动身前往希腊之前，我们先把秘鲁这摊事收拾干净。
Nora: Our readers are eager for an update. Before departing for Greece, however, let’s tidy up Peru.
朱利安： 很遗憾，卡洛斯还是没有任何消息。我们有意隐去了那个安第斯村落的坐标，这样做是对的——免得那些阴谋论者把寻找他的行动，变成一场注定失败的探险。
Julian: Unfortunately, still no word on Carlos. We intentionally withheld the coordinates of the Andean village in question, and rightly so, to prevent theorists from turning the quest to locate him into an ill-fated expedition of their own.
诺拉： 我还是抱着希望，希望他这会儿正躺在某个海滩上。
Nora: Still holding out hope he’s on a beach somewhere.
朱利安：出于应有的审慎， 我跟进了地方当局。他们对追查这件事并不怎么上心。他们的立场基本上就是：那一带地形危险，卡洛斯的路线不明，凡是自己选择进山的人，就别指望能有个说法。相当冷酷，你不觉得吗？
Julian: In the name of due diligence, I followed up with regional authorities. They weren’t terribly interested in pursuing the matter. Their position was, essentially, that the terrain is dangerous, Carlos’ route was unknown, and those who choose to enter the mountains forfeit closure. Rather callous, don’t you think?
诺拉： 也可以说是务实。
Nora: One could argue pragmatic.
朱利安： 也可以说是省事。不再开口的并不只是当局。我在村子里的线人也一样，透露出几个新细节之后就没了声音。我们报道发出之后，一扇扇门关得那么快，我可不太喜欢。
Julian: One could also argue convenient. The authorities weren’t the only ones to stop talking. My contact in the village disclosed a few new details before going quiet as well. I don’t particularly like how quickly doors started closing after we published.
诺拉： 我也不喜欢。门关上之前，你打听到了什么？
Nora: Nor do I. What did you learn before the door shut?
朱利安： 那个金发男人回来了。
Julian: That the blond man returned.
诺拉： 回来了？我们报道过，他是搭乘纳特拉的飞机离开的。
Nora: Returned? We reported he left aboard the Natla aircraft.
朱利安： 他是走了。当时付印的截稿日期迫在眉睫，我把精力都放在了追踪劳拉上。等我回过头再挖，才发现同一架飞机在不到四十八小时后又飞回了那条简易跑道，而他就在机上。那并不是唯一一次抵达。差不多同一段时间里，还有好几架货运包机在那条跑道上起降。
Julian: He did. With the print deadline looming, I focused my efforts on tracking Lara. When I dug back in, I learned that the same aircraft returned to the airstrip less than forty-eight hours later, with him on board. It wasn’t the only arrival. A number of freight charters came through the strip within roughly the same window.
诺拉： 而这些你都错过了？
Nora: And you missed them?
朱利安： 我分了轻重缓急。别忘了，那是一条为采矿作业服务的工业跑道。货运往来本身并不可疑。但等我线人告诉我，那批货、随货前来的承包商，还有我们那位金发美国人全都是一道走的时候，事情就有意思多了。
Julian: I prioritized. Remember, this is an industrial airstrip servicing mining operations. Cargo traffic isn’t inherently suspicious. It became considerably more interesting once my contact told me the freight, the contractors who arrived with it, and our blond American all traveled together.
诺拉： 回村子里去了？
Nora: Back to the village?
朱利安： 穿过村子，然后上山。设备里有工业起重装置、发电机，还有数量相当可观的加固金属板和金属框架。尺寸很大，拆成部件分批发运。
Julian: Through it, and then up the mountain. The equipment included industrial lifting gear, generators, and a considerable number of reinforced metal panels and frames. Large ones, transported in sections.
诺拉： 用来做什么？
Nora: For what?
朱利安： 我也不确定。不过据我线人说，有些结构组装起来之后，看着明显像笼子。
Julian: I’m uncertain. Once assembled, though, my contact thought some of the structures looked distinctly cage-like.
诺拉： 像笼子？
Nora: Cage-like?
朱利安： 那是她的用词，不是我的。接下来的几天里，那一带的直升机活动也明显多了起来。
Julian: Her word, not mine. There was also substantially more helicopter activity in the region over the following days.
诺拉： 也就是说，纳特拉的人离开秘鲁，两天后带着承包商、货运航班、重型设备、模块化板材和直升机支援又杀了回来。
Nora: So Natla’s man leaves Peru, comes back two days later with contractors, cargo flights, heavy equipment, modular panels, and helicopter support.
朱利安： 遗憾的是，这是我拿到的最后一点有用信息。她又联系了我一次，只为把话说清楚：她不会再跟我谈了。考虑到这个时间点，我不由得怀疑，是不是有哪个出价更高的人买断了她的沉默。
Julian: Unfortunately, those were the last useful details I got. She contacted me once more, only to make it quite clear she wouldn’t be speaking to me again. Given the timing, I can’t help but wonder if someone with a bigger budget bought her silence.
诺拉： 你觉得地方当局也可能是这种情况？
Nora: And you think that might be the case with local authorities as well?
朱利安： 我要是排除这种可能，那就太天真了。
Julian: I’d be naïve to rule it out.
诺拉： 好吧，那就是说秘鲁这边我们不再有实地人手了。你就不能找你那位“卫星朋友”帮个忙，追踪一下这次行动？
Nora: Okay, so no more boots on the ground in Peru. Couldn’t you have called in a favor with your satellite friend to track the operation?
朱利安： 不能。那个人情绝对只能用一次。我多少有点后悔这么早就动用了这条线，但说实话，没有它就不会有秘鲁那篇报道，我也没什么可抱怨的。
Julian: No. That favor was strictly a one-off. Part of me laments pulling that string so soon, but realistically, there wouldn’t have been a Peru story without it, so I can hardly complain.
诺拉： 也许现在正好提醒一下我们的新订户，如果你们当中有人恰好能接触到卫星技术，要怎么联系我们。
Nora: Perhaps this is a good time to remind our new subscribers how to reach us, should any of them happen to have access to satellite technology.
朱利安：这也许没大家想的那么离谱。秘鲁那期一上报摊，各路线报就蜂拥而至。其中大部分自然是垃圾，但有那么几条出乎意料地有用。有一条让我们看清了劳拉在秘鲁和希腊之间一次短暂的停留，那次停留我早就记录在案，却一直解释不通——旧金山。
Julian: That might not be as much of a stretch as one would think.Since Peru hit the stands, we’ve been flooded with tips. Naturally, most of them are rubbish, but a few have been surprisingly helpful.One shed light on a quick stop Lara made between Peru and Greece, a stop I’d already logged but couldn’t explain. San Francisco.
诺拉： 既然你早就知道这次停留，为什么没写进上一期？
Nora: If you knew about the stop, why didn’t you include it in the last issue?
朱利安： 因为当时我手上只有一个机尾编号、几小时的地面停留时间，至于她去了哪里、为什么去，一点线索都没有。
Julian: Because all I had then was a tail number, a few hours on the ground, and no indication of where she went or why.
诺拉： 而拖到现在才说，跟需要一个承上启下故事的桥段一点关系都没有？
Nora: And the delay had nothing whatsoever to do with needing a bridge between stories?
朱利安： 诺拉，两件事是可以同时是真的。
Julian: Two things can be true, Nora.
诺拉： 我亲手造了个怪物。
Nora: I’ve created a monster.
朱利安： 顺便说一句，这期报道闹出这么大动静，我完全有理由相信，劳拉以后会想办法把自己的飞行行踪藏起来。这一次，纸质出版的节奏倒是帮了我们。秘鲁那期付印之后，我仍在继续追踪克劳馥的飞机；等杂志送到读者手上时，我已经知道她途经旧金山，之后又去了希腊。我缺的，是对这次停留的一个说法。那是后来才有的。
Julian: As a side note, given how much attention this story garnered, I fully expect Lara will find a way to conceal her aviation activities in the future. The nature of print worked in our favor this time. I kept following Croft’s aircraft after the Peru issue had gone to press, and by the time it reached readers, I already knew she’d passed through San Francisco and continued to Greece. What I didn’t have was a theory for the stop. That came later.
诺拉： 她应该谢谢你。你帮着暴露了她安保上的一处破绽。
Nora: She should thank you. You’ve helped to expose a weakness in her security.
朱利安： 至于感谢信，我还是别抱太大期望了。
Julian: I’ll temper my expectations for a thank-you note.
诺拉： 那么，旧金山和这个故事到底有什么关系？
Nora: So, what was the relevance of San Francisco to this story?
朱利安： 这一点，遗憾得很，我始终没能搞清楚。她是夜间降落的，只停留了几个小时。不过这条线报有用的地方在于，把她定位在了南市场街以南的区域。
Julian: Of that, I remain frustratingly uncertain. She landed at night and only stayed for a few hours. Where the tip proved useful, however, was placing her in SoMa.
诺拉： 这为什么值得关注？
Nora: And why is that of interest?
朱利安： 因为那里离纳特拉科技公司总部只有一步之遥。
Julian: Because that puts her within a stone’s throw of Natla Technologies’ headquarters.
诺拉： 这 就 值得玩味了。你联系纳特拉总部请他们置评了吗？
Nora: That is of interest. Did you reach out to Natla HQ for comment?
朱利安： 当然。他们没有回应。大概是因为他们被各种信息淹没了——有人指控杰奎琳·纳特拉企图统治世界，也有人说她在压榨亚马逊那些无辜的树懒来制药。我猜，纳特拉科技公司不太喜欢我们打在他们身上的这束聚光灯。
Julian: Of course. They didn’t respond. Perhaps because they’re being inundated with messages accusing Jacqueline Natla of attempting to take over the world or exploit the innocent sloths of the Amazon for pharmaceutical purposes. I suspect Natla Technologies isn’t particularly fond of the spotlight we’ve shone on them.
诺拉： 我想不出是为什么。
Nora: I can’t imagine why.
朱利安： 纳特拉已经好几周没有公开露面。平心而论，这也算不上绝无仅有，而这只会让各种猜测愈演愈烈。
Julian: The fact that Natla hasn’t made a public appearance in weeks, which to be fair, isn’t entirely unheard of, has only fed the speculation.
诺拉： 算不上死胡同，只是这条线索还在勉强吊着一口气。秘鲁——旧金山——希腊。我是不是漏掉了某种规律？
Nora: Not a dead end, but a lead on life support.Peru. San Francisco. Greece. Am I missing some sort of pattern here?
朱利安： 就我所能判断的，看不出有什么明显的文化或历史线索把它们串在一起。规律在人身上。一小撮不同寻常的人，总是一再出现在同样的地方。
Julian: As far as I can tell, there’s no obvious cultural or historical thread connecting them. The pattern is the people. An unusual collection of individuals keeps turning up in the same places.
诺拉： 光有这些还不够。
Nora: We’ll need more than that.
朱利安： 我还有更多。把劳拉追到希腊？不成问题。在希腊境内 追踪她 则要困难得多。她的飞机被记录降落在雅典市中心外一座小型通用航空机场，至少有两个人记得在那里见过她。其中一人甚至把这次目击发到了社交媒体上。巧的是，那一周那座机场已经招来了一些不受欢迎的关注，所以安保人员和常客们都格外警觉。
Julian: I have more. Tracking Lara to Greece? No problem. Tracking her within Greece was more difficult. Her aircraft was logged at a small general-aviation airfield outside of central Athens, and at least two people remembered seeing her there. One even posted the sighting to social media. As luck would have it, the airfield had already attracted some unwanted attention that week, so security and patrons were quite alert.
诺拉： 因为……？
Nora: Because…?
朱利安： 几天前，一队规模不小，看起来似乎是私人安保承包商从这里经过。那是一座相对较小的机场，主要供私人飞机、飞行学校之类使用，所以他们格外扎眼，尤其是有人在他们卸下的装备里看到了步枪箱和其他武器。机场安保把情况反映给了当地警方，警方很快就向所有人保证——也许快得有点过头——这伙人的证件手续齐全。此后再没有任何调查。
Julian: A sizable group of what appeared to be private security contractors passed through a couple of days earlier. It’s a relatively small airfield, used for private aircraft, flight schools, that sort of thing, so they stood out, especially when rifle cases and other weapons were spotted among the equipment they were unloading. Airport security referred the matter to local police, who quickly assured everyone, perhaps a little too quickly, that the group’s documentation was in order. No further investigation followed.
诺拉： 听起来他们是合法行动？
Nora: Sounds like they were operating legally?
朱利安： 或者有人让他们在纸面上合法了。当地一家媒体报道了这些投诉，于是我联系了那位记者。他们随后试图调取当局声称已经查验过的文件，却一无所获。即便把我们两边的资源凑到一起，我们也查不出是谁雇了这伙人。在机场周边拍到的照片，加上机场内部人士提供的一张截图，同样没帮上什么忙。没有徽章，没有公司标识。没有我们能确切认出来的人。也许这样反倒更好。
Julian: Or someone made them legal on paper. A local publication covered the complaints, so I contacted the journalist. They subsequently tried to obtain the paperwork the authorities claimed to have reviewed and got nowhere. Even with our resources combined, we couldn’t establish who had hired the group. Photographs taken around the airfield, along with a still supplied by an airport source, weren’t much help either. No insignia, no company markings. No one we could reliably identify. Perhaps for the best.
诺拉：……这是要临阵退缩了，朱利安？
Nora: …Getting cold feet, Julian?
朱利安： 我还很稳呢，多谢关心。不过我可不想引起一伙全副武装的专业人员的注意，何况我连他们的雇主是谁都查不出来。如果这一切真有关联，我越来越倾向于这么认为，那就不免要问一句：在考古这个行当里，为什么需要武装到这个程度。
Julian: My feet are tepid, thank you, but I’d rather not attract the attention of a heavily armed group of professionals whose employer I can’t identify. If all of this is connected, which I am increasingly led to believe, one does have to ask why that level of armament is necessary in the world of archaeology.
诺拉： 问得好。看起来是谁在负责？
Nora: Fair question. Who appeared to be in charge?
朱利安： 这就是事情变得更有意思的地方。那些承包商本身相当专业。衣着利落。行动协调。但有一份当地人的描述说，随行的还有一个人，明显和别人不是一个路数：花白头发，留着山羊胡，说话可能带法国口音。他比其他人活跃得多，旁人对他也相当恭敬，所以我怀疑他就是客户，至少是在现场指挥行动的人。
Julian: That’s where things get more interesting. The contractors themselves were remarkably professional. Clean-cut. Coordinated. But one local account described a man traveling with them, who was very clearly the odd one out: salt-and-pepper hair, a goatee, possibly a French accent. Much more animated than the others and treated with enough deference that I suspect he was the client, or at least directing the operation.
诺拉： 那他们去了哪儿？
Nora: And where did they go?
朱利安： 他们装好装备，组成车队向西北方向去了。
Julian: They loaded up their equipment and headed northwest in convoy.
诺拉： 劳拉是什么时候到的？
Nora: When did Lara arrive?
朱利安： 不到二十四小时。她不仅降落在同一座机场，而且也是往西北方向去的。这次是一个人。没有向导，没有同伴。于是我开始逐条梳理有关那支车队的报告：路边目击、加油和补给的停靠点，凡是能证实的都不放过。每一条都把范围再缩小一点，我顺着他们可能的路线，又去挖沿线有历史价值的地点。
Julian: Within twenty-four hours. Not only did she land at the exact same airfield, but she also headed northwest. Alone this time. No guide, no companion. So, I began working through reports of the convoy: roadside sightings, stops for fuel and supplies, anything I could substantiate. Each one narrowed the corridor a little further, and from there I dug into sites of historical interest along their likely route.
诺拉： ……然后呢？
Nora: …And?
朱利安： 希腊最不缺的就是废墟。我一开始列了大约十几个可能的地点，先把最显而易见的排除掉。主要旅游目的地、联合国教科文组织遗产地，以及任何一支车队或武装承包商一出现就会立刻惹来注意的地方。另外几处正在进行发掘或保护施工，同样不大可能。我最后总是一次次回到同一个有说服力的候选地点：圣方济各堂。
Julian: Greece is hardly short on ruins. I started with roughly a dozen possibilities and eliminated the obvious ones first. Major tourist destinations, UNESCO sites, anywhere a convoy or armed contractors would have attracted immediate attention. Several others had active excavations or preservation work underway, which made them equally unlikely. I kept coming back to one compelling candidate: St. Francis’ Folly.
诺拉： 那座拜占庭修道院？那里已经封闭几十年了。
Nora: The Byzantine monastery? It’s been closed for decades.
朱利安： 大半个世纪都不止了。遗址本身的年代可能远比这个名字所暗示的要久远，不过现代记录大多只涉及地面上残存的修道院建筑群。公众和学界一直被禁止进入，表面上的理由是废墟本身和下方崖体都危险得随时可能垮塌。有报告把那里的坍塌定性为“迫在眉睫”。
Julian: The better part of a century. The site itself is potentially much older than the name suggests, but the surviving monastic complex is what most modern records concern. Public and academic access has long been prohibited, ostensibly because both the ruins and the cliff beneath them are dangerously unstable. A collapse has been labeled “imminent.”
诺拉： 都快一个世纪了还“迫在眉睫”？
Nora: Imminent for nearly a century?
朱利安： 看来“迫在眉睫”这个词弹性还挺大。几十年来，加固崖体、保障外部通道安全的尝试有过不少。有几项甚至真的开了工，不过工程很少延伸到崖面和通道之外。
Julian: Imminence is a rather elastic concept, apparently. There have been numerous attempts over the decades to stabilize the cliff and make the exterior approaches safe. Several even got off the ground, although the work rarely extended beyond the cliff face and access routes.
诺拉： 就没有人做完过？
Nora: And no one ever finished?
朱利安： 没有。出于这样那样的原因，这些加固工程总是比悬崖先垮掉。资金没了。合同被取消。最近一次像样的工程，是在项目初期有三名工人分别死于事故之后不了了之的。还有一件挺多人都知道的事：几年前，一位内容创作者无视路障和禁入警告，被人发现死在崖底。自那以后，再没有人尝试过加固。
Julian: No. For one reason or another, these stabilization efforts always collapse long before the cliff does. Funding disappears. Contracts are canceled. The most recent serious effort ended after three workers died in separate accidents early in the project. Famously, a few years ago, a content creator ignored the barriers and trespassing warnings and was found dead at the bottom of the cliff. Since then, there have been no further stabilization attempts.
诺拉： 听起来……可疑。
Nora: Sounds…suspicious.
朱利安： 年代如此久远的遗址 确实 本身就暗藏危险。
Julian: Sites this old can be inherently dangerous.
诺拉： 朱利安，这回你是在替那种平淡无奇的解释辩护吗？
Nora: Are you defending the mundane explanation this time, Julian?
朱利安： 谈不上。我只是想说明，悬崖完全有能力在不借助外力的情况下要人的命，而且从人类出现起就一直这么干。圣方济各堂难以抵达，是因为它本来就建在难以抵达的地方。追求隐修的宗教团体，从来不以方便为先。
Julian: Hardly. I’m simply noting that cliffs are perfectly capable of killing people without assistance and have been doing so since the dawn of humankind. St. Francis’ Folly is difficult to reach because it was built in a difficult place. Religious communities seeking isolation have not been known for prioritizing convenience.
诺拉： 这么说，地点本身并不让你在意。
Nora: So, the location itself doesn’t bother you.
朱利安： 地点？不。真正在意的是，所有试图勘察或加固它的行动，失败得都如出一辙。那才让我兴致大得多。还有一点，就是那些说法……
Julian: The location? No. The remarkable consistency with which attempts to investigate or stabilize it failed? That interests me considerably more. That, and there are theories…
诺拉： 这 正是我一直在等的。
Nora: This is what I’ve been waiting for.
朱利安： 我的一位主要线人认为，真正有权势的人一直在通过官僚程序，把考古遗址藏在众目睽睽之下。资金可以被抽走。合同可以被推翻。比如，一处遗址可以被无限期地置于安全管制之下。
Julian: One of my primary sources believes that truly influential people have hidden archaeological sites in plain sight through bureaucracy. Funding can be withdrawn. Contracts can be challenged. A site can remain under safety restrictions indefinitely, for example.
诺拉： 这位线人是你那支“劫掠随从”里的一员吗？你的“考古复仇者”？你当时管他们叫什么来着？
Nora: Is this source a part of your raiding retinue? Your archaeological avengers? What did you call them?
朱利安： 我再认真地说一遍：我从来没说过存在一个有组织的劫掠者网络。我只是有联系人。是你自己跳到那个结论上，还凭一己之力把人家一路升格成了秘密结社。
Julian: Once more with feeling: I never said there was an organized network of raiders. I have contacts. You leapt to that conclusion and promoted them to a secret society entirely on your own.
诺拉：我是踩着你搭的跳板起跳的。
Nora: I leapt off your springboard.
朱利安： 说得好。
Julian: Touché.
诺拉： 好吧。假设这样一个组织 真的 存在，克劳馥会是其中一员吗？
Nora: Fine. Hypothetically, if such an organization did exist, would Croft be a part of it?
朱利安： 我很怀疑。克劳馥一贯表现出独立行事的偏好，而且她对各类机构普遍反感，这一点是有据可查的。
Julian: I rather doubt it. Croft has consistently demonstrated a preference for working independently and a documented dislike for institutions as a whole.
诺拉： 没错。具体说到这位线人，他们有多可靠？
Nora: True. As for this source specifically, how trustworthy are they?
朱利安： 他们提供的信息已经多次被证实可靠，所以即便是他们那些更离奇的说法，我也会认真对待。至于他们本人，我了解得少得让人着急，只知道英语几乎肯定不是他们的母语，而且他们对克劳馥的兴趣之浓，恐怕连我都比不上。
Julian: Their information has proved reliable often enough that I take even their more unusual theories seriously. I know frustratingly little about them personally, other than that English almost certainly isn’t their first language and they appear to have an interest in Croft that rivals even mine.
诺拉： 知道他们是哪儿人吗？
Nora: Any idea where they’re from?
朱利安： 很可能是法语区。我们的往来通信里能看出一点语言上的蛛丝马迹。
Julian: Francophone, most likely. There have been a few small linguistic tells in our correspondence.
诺拉： 你的线人会不会就是领队的那个法国人？
Nora: Could your source be the French man leading the caravan?
朱利安： 诺拉，世界上讲法语的人有好几亿呢。
Julian: There are hundreds of millions of French-speaking people in the world, Nora.
诺拉： 朱利安，上一期你是怎么评价巧合的？
Nora: What did you say about coincidences last issue, Julian?
朱利安： ……巧合出现的次数越多，就越难让人信服。
Julian: …Coincidence becomes less convincing the more often it occurs.
诺拉： 我就这么一说。
Nora: Just saying.
朱利安： 他们认为某些遗址是被刻意封存起来的，这个说法在我们这次调查之前就已经存在了。克劳馥一牵扯进来，我就去联系他们，料想他们总会有话说。可这一次，我几次询问都没得到回复，这很不寻常。
Julian: Their theory about certain sites being deliberately kept inaccessible predates this investigation. Once Croft became involved, I reached out expecting they’d have thoughts. They haven’t returned any of my inquiries this time, which is unusual.
诺拉： 又是一扇关上的门。
Nora: Another closed door.
朱利安： 正是。
Julian: Precisely.
诺拉： 记下了。回到圣方济各堂。
Nora: Noted. Back to St. Francis’ Folly.
朱利安： 锁定那处修道院之后，我开始翻查当地警方的报告，想找到更多目击车队的记录。结果却发现了更有意思的东西。一名长途徒步者沿着邻近山脊一条僻静小路行走时报告说，听到修道院方向传来爆炸声。他还看到周围的山上升起几缕淡淡的烟柱。
Julian: Once I homed in on the Folly, I started combing through local police reports for further sightings of the convoy. Instead, I found something rather more interesting. A long-distance backpacker traveling a secluded trail along a neighboring ridge reported hearing explosions from the monastery’s direction. He also saw faint plumes rising above the surrounding hills.
诺拉： 他什么时候报的案？
Nora: When did he report it?
朱利安： 没有马上报。他走的是人迹罕至的路线，又过了两天才抵达下一个补给点。他在那里报了案，几天之后警方才去做了一次查看。
Julian: Not immediately. He was well off the beaten path and didn’t reach his next resupply point for another two days. He filed a report there, and several days later police conducted an inspection.
诺拉： 他们的调查有什么收获吗？
Nora: Did their investigation net anything?
朱利安： 没有进行地面搜查。考虑到遗址结构不稳、又限制进入，他们认定地面搜查风险过高，于是派了一架无人机从头顶飞过。外部废墟上看不出新的损毁。唯一明确的人类近期活动痕迹，是其中一条通道附近一处临时搭建的小型营地。丢弃的食品包装、垃圾之类的东西。
Julian: There was no ground search. Given the site’s instability and restricted access, they deemed that unnecessarily risky and flew a drone overhead. No new damage was visible on the exterior ruins. The only clear sign of recent human activity was a small makeshift campsite near one of the approaches. Discarded food packaging, rubbish, that sort of thing.
诺拉： 警方把这些垃圾算到了谁头上……？
Nora: And the police attributed the litter to…?
朱利安： 一名擅自闯入者。
Julian: A trespasser.
诺拉： 这听着可不怎么像一支纪律严明的军事单位会留下的标记。
Nora: It doesn’t exactly sound like the calling card of a disciplined military unit.
朱利安： 我同意。那处营地可能属于任何人。重要的是，不久前确实有人在那里待过。
Julian: Agreed. The campsite could have belonged to any number of people. What matters is that someone had been there recently.
诺拉： 那爆炸呢？
Nora: And the explosions?
朱利安： 官方结论是，那位徒步者把落石误当成了爆炸。
Julian: The official conclusion was that the backpacker had mistaken a rockfall for an explosion.
诺拉： 落石也许能解释一声响动，可他报告的是好几声，不是吗？
Nora: A rockfall might explain one sound, but he reported several, did he not?
朱利安： 他是走了。远看的话，尘土和烟很像，所以那些烟柱也算不上什么铁证。但不管怎么说，那份报告确实解释不清多声响动和多股烟柱。等警方去查看现场时，已经过去好几天了。
Julian: He did. Dust can resemble smoke from a distance, so the plumes aren't particularly damning either. But no, the report doesn’t neatly account for multiple sounds and multiple plumes. By the time police inspected the site, a number of days had passed.
诺拉： 真是巧。
Nora: Convenient.
朱利安： 说得通。巧上加巧。
Julian: Plausible. Also convenient.
诺拉： 那么，劳拉·克劳馥和一队全副武装的车队朝着同一个方向走。你在他们可能的路线上锁定了一处受管制的历史遗址。接着，差不多同一时间，有目击者报告那处历史遗址疑似发生多起爆炸，警方还发现了人类近期活动的痕迹。
Nora: So, Lara Croft and a heavily armed convoy both head in the same direction. You identify a restricted historical site along their likely route. Then, around the same time, a witness reports multiple apparent explosions at said historical site, and police find evidence of recent human activity.
朱利安： 看起来是这样。这就引出了一个显而易见的问题：如果圣方济各堂就是目的地，究竟什么东西值得这样的关注、这样的火力？
Julian: It would appear so. Which raises the obvious question: if St. Francis’ Folly was the destination, what could possibly warrant that sort of attention and that much firepower?
诺拉： 我们已经说过，名利都驱动不了克劳馥。背后一定还有别的。给我们捋一捋圣方济各堂和周边地区的历史吧。我有种感觉，你自己也有一套说法。
Nora: We’ve already established that wealth and publicity don’t motivate Croft. There must be more. Run us through the history of St. Francis’ Folly and the surrounding area. Something tells me you also have a theory.
朱利安： 由于迄今为止，没有任何一支获得授权的现代团队完成过圣方济各堂的全面内部勘察，我们所知的大部分都来自外部勘测、无人机影像和远距离观察。工程师只对部分崖面和可见通道做过处理，内部基本上仍是一片空白。不过从外面看，残存的建筑群无疑是拜占庭风格的：一座嵌建在本身就非同寻常的地势中的修道院。
Julian: Because no authorized modern team has completed a full interior survey of St. Francis’ Folly, most of what we know comes from exterior surveys, drone imagery, and observation at a distance. Engineers have worked on portions of the cliff face and visible approaches, but the interior remains largely undocumented. From the outside, however, the surviving complex is unmistakably Byzantine: a monastery built into an already remarkable location.
诺拉： 顺便一提，拜占庭时代算是克劳馥特别感兴趣的一个领域，对吧？几年前不是有消息说，她二十出头时为了延续父亲的研究，曾非法进入叙利亚？
Nora: As an aside, the Byzantine era is something of a special interest for Croft, isn’t it? Didn’t it emerge some years ago that she illegally entered Syria in her early twenties while attempting to continue her father’s research?
朱利安： 对于这个传言，克劳馥本人和她的发言人都没作过正式回应。
Julian: There was no official response from Croft or her representatives on that rumor.
诺拉： 意料之中。
Nora: Not surprising.
朱利安： 那座修道院更迷人的地方在于，希腊的拜占庭修道院从来不是建在历史真空里的。在整个这一带，你会发现一个文明叠建在另一个文明的遗存之上：神庙被重新利用，地基被并入新建筑，石料被挪作他用。一层又一层，全是历史。正是这种可能性，让学界一直急着想进去看看。
Julian: What makes the Folly more fascinating is that Byzantine monasteries in Greece were hardly built in historical isolation. Across the region, you find one civilization building over the remains of another: temples reused, foundations incorporated, stone repurposed. Layers upon layers of history. That possibility is one reason academics have been so eager to get inside.
诺拉： 给读者来个速成版吧。
Nora: Give readers the cliff notes.
朱利安： 把数千年的希腊文明压缩成速成版？太狠了。
Julian: Cliff notes on millennia of Greek civilization? Cruel.
诺拉： 那就让我开开眼。
Nora: Impress me.
朱利安： 这一带更早的成规模遗存，要追溯到迈锡尼希腊：那个青铜时代的世界，后来与特洛伊、阿伽门农以及希腊英雄传说牢牢绑定在了一起。迈锡尼的宫殿体系崩溃之后，希腊进入了我们今天通称的早期铁器时代：聚落规模变小，社会剧烈变动，而且在好几个世纪里，希腊的文字记录彻底消失。
Julian: The earliest substantial remains in the broader region reach back to Mycenaean Greece: the Bronze Age world that would later become inseparable from stories of Troy, Agamemnon, and the Greek heroic tradition. When the Mycenaean palace system collapsed, Greece entered what we now generally call the Early Iron Age: smaller settlements, profound social change, and, for several centuries, the disappearance of written Greek records.
诺拉： 接下来是古风时期。
Nora: Followed by Archaic Greece.
朱利安： 正是。聚落不断扩张，城邦崛起成为重要的政治与文化力量，希腊人的社群遍布到整个地中海，宏伟的宗教建筑也日渐显眼。
Julian: Precisely. Settlements grew, the city-states emerged as major political and cultural powers, Greek communities expanded throughout the Mediterranean, and monumental religious architecture became increasingly prominent.
诺拉： 这就进入了古典时期。
Nora: Which leads into Classical Greece.
朱利安： 雅典最负盛名的年代。伯里克利、苏格拉底、柏拉图。帕特农神庙。希腊悲剧。雅典与斯巴达之间的伯罗奔尼撒战争。这是古希腊世界记载最详尽的时期之一。
Julian: Athens at its most famous. Pericles, Socrates, Plato. The Parthenon. Greek tragedy. The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. It’s one of the best documented periods of the ancient Greek world.
诺拉： 然后是亚历山大大帝。
Nora: And then Alexander the Great.
朱利安： 然后是亚历山大。他的离世标志着我们所说的希腊化时期的开端：希腊的语言、艺术、宗教与建筑向外传播，并与从埃及、安纳托利亚一直延伸到叙利亚、波斯乃至更远地区的文化相互融合。那也是一个痴迷于宏大营造、工程技艺、奇观场面，以及对更古老神话加以重新诠释的时代。
Julian: And then Alexander. His death marks the beginning of what we call the Hellenistic period, when Greek language, art, religion, and architecture spread and blended with cultures stretching from Egypt and Anatolia into Syria, Persia, and beyond. It was also an era fascinated with monumental construction, engineering, spectacle, and the reinterpretation of older mythology.
诺拉： 听起来可能有点关系。
Nora: Which sounds potentially relevant.
朱利安： 非常。再往后，罗马的势力逐渐压过了希腊。就文化而言，雅典依然是彻头彻尾希腊内核，但罗马的统治又添上了一层建筑：既延续了浴场、蓄水池和水利设施的传统，又新建了为奇观场面而建的宏大市政建筑群和圆形竞技场。
Julian: Very. Then Roman power gradually overtook Greece. Athens remained profoundly Greek, culturally speaking, but Roman rule added another architectural layer, expanding existing traditions of baths, cisterns, and waterworks while adding new monumental civic complexes and amphitheaters built for spectacle.
诺拉： 还包括见血的那一类。
Nora: Including the bloody sort.
朱利安： 正是。角斗士竞技和斗兽表演——也就是那种安排好的狩猎，出场的动物从熊、狼，到狮子、豹子，偶尔还有鳄鱼之类更稀奇的外来货。
Julian: Quite. Gladiatorial contests and venationes: staged hunts involving animals ranging from bears and wolves to lions, leopards, and occasionally more exotic imports like crocodiles.
诺拉： 再后来，帝国基督教化了。
Nora: And eventually the empire Christianized.
朱利安： 没错。随着基督教重塑了宗教与现实的景观，更古老的神庙被废弃、拆解、改建，或者干脆被直接压在新建筑底下。到拜占庭时代，教堂和修道院已经成为希腊的标志性景观。
Julian: Exactly. Older temples were abandoned, dismantled, converted, or simply built over as Christianity transformed the religious and physical landscape. By the Byzantine era, churches and monasteries had become defining features of Greece.
诺拉： 这就把我们带回了圣方济各堂。
Nora: Which brings us back to St. Francis’ Folly.
朱利安： 看得见的那座修道院，属于那个拜占庭层位。但如果希腊其他地方常见的那种模式在这里也成立，那么拜占庭人也许只是在那座悬崖上建造的最后一批人，而不是第一批。
Julian: The visible monastery belongs to that Byzantine layer. But if the pattern seen elsewhere in Greece holds true, the Byzantines may simply have been the latest people to build on that cliff, not the first.
诺拉： 也就是说，从外面看着像一座废弃修道院的地方，理论上底下可能叠压着希腊历史上好几个不同的时期。
Nora: So, what looks like one ruined monastery from the outside could, in theory, contain several different periods of Greek history underneath it.
朱利安： 正是。
Julian: Precisely.
诺拉： 恭喜，简洁得令人佩服。
Nora: Congratulations, impressive brevity.
朱利安： 这正是圣方济各堂这类遗址的魅力所在。乍看之下，它无疑是拜占庭式的。但考虑到这一带向来有在更古老建筑上叠建的传统，这样一处遗址完全可能被占据、扩建并重新诠释了好几个世纪。取决于具体时期，你眼前看到的可能是与任何一位神祇有关的神庙或纪念建筑：雅典娜、阿波罗、波塞冬、阿尔忒弥斯、赫菲斯托斯，随便举几个。
Julian: This is the appeal of sites like St. Francis’ Folly. At first glance, it’s unmistakably Byzantine. But given the region’s history of building over older structures, a site like this could have been occupied, expanded, and reinterpreted for centuries. Depending on the period, you could be looking at temples or monuments associated with any number of gods: Athena, Apollo, Poseidon, Artemis, Hephaestus, to name a few.
诺拉： 这一带有没有过同等规模发现的先例，还是说我们已经在往想入非非的方向飘了？
Nora: Is there precedent for a discovery on this scale in the region, or are we drifting into flights of fancy?
朱利安： 光是厄琉息斯一处，就足以让人收起怀疑。离雅典不远的地方，曾矗立着一座规模宏大的圣地，供奉得墨忒耳与珀耳塞福涅，也就是厄琉息斯秘仪的发源地：那是一种秘密的入会仪式，参与者被严令禁止透露其中发生的一切。那座建筑群本身经历了数百年的演变。如果如此重大的东西能在离雅典这么近的地方存在过，我就不太愿意否定另一种可能——还有某种非同寻常的东西，正等着被人发现。
Julian: Eleusis alone should temper skepticism. Within easy reach of Athens stood an enormous sanctuary dedicated to Demeter and Persephone, home to the Eleusinian Mysteries: secret initiation rites whose participants were famously forbidden from revealing what occurred within. The complex itself evolved over centuries. If something of that significance could exist so close to Athens, I’m reluctant to extinguish the possibility that something extraordinary still waits to be found.
诺拉： 我们认为圣方济各堂最后一次有人居住是在什么时候？存世的记录难道不能告诉我们这处遗址更早的用途吗？
Nora: When do we believe St. Francis’ Folly was last occupied? Wouldn’t surviving records tell us something about the site’s earlier use?
朱利安： 存世记录显示，那里在公元 1270 年前后已有修士团体，但并没有说清修道院本身究竟建于何时，关于遗址日常生活的记载也少得让人着急。更古老的材料，才是事情变得更有意思的地方。
Julian: Surviving records place a monastic community there by roughly 1270 CE, but they don’t establish precisely when the monastery itself was founded, and they tell us frustratingly little about daily life at the site. The older material is where things become more interesting.
诺拉： 说来听听。
Nora: Do tell.
朱利安： 公元前 5 世纪中叶前后的一些零散记载提到，雅典若干有影响力的人物——包括政治家、行政长官和学者——与一名身份不明的外邦人，以及城外某处一项秘密营造工程有牵连。自然没有一处指名圣方济各堂，也没有一处说清当时在建的究竟是什么。
Julian: Fragmentary accounts from around the middle of the fifth century BCE describe influential Athenians, including statesmen, magistrates, and scholars, connected to an unidentified foreigner and a secret construction project somewhere beyond the city. None name St. Francis’ Folly, naturally, and none clearly state what was being built.
诺拉： 这就有眉目了。这就是你的希腊版比尔卡班巴？
Nora: Now we’re getting somewhere. Is this your Greek equivalent of Vilcabamba?
朱利安： 我得提醒你，比尔卡班巴那套说法是得到过学界人士支持的。
Julian: I must remind you that the Vilcabamba theory had support from members of academia.
诺拉： 经过挑选的、匿名的学界人士。
Nora: Select, anonymous members of academia.
朱利安： 好吧。不过没错，还有下文。同一批记载把这个外邦人称做一位 黄金异乡人：一个查不到任何城邦归属的男人，据说为他身边的人带来了一段秩序井然、繁荣非常的时期。流传下来的线索十分零散。抄本和后来的家族记录陆续在科林斯、底比斯等地现身，但看来看去，似乎都能追溯到与雅典有关系的人身上。这种散落究竟是出于刻意的保密，还是几百年来不断抄录的自然结果，已经无从判断。
Julian: Fair. But yes, there is more. The same body of accounts refers to this foreigner as a kind of golden stranger: A man with no known polis affiliation who was credited with bringing an extraordinary period of order and prosperity to those around him. The surviving trail is scattered. Copies and later family records have surfaced in Corinth, Thebes, and elsewhere, but they all appear to trace back to people with ties to Athens. Whether that dispersal reflects deliberate secrecy or simply centuries of copying is impossible to say.
诺拉： 黄金。 这会是在指弥达斯吗？
Nora: Golden. Could this be a reference to Midas?
朱利安： 确实有些记载把他和弥达斯相提并论，大概是因为他走到哪里，繁荣就跟到哪里。但这并不等于真有人相信那位弗里吉亚国王回来了。一个比方重复得够多，本身就能变成传说。
Julian: Some accounts do compare him to Midas, likely because prosperity seemed to follow in his wake. That doesn’t mean anyone literally believed the Phrygian king had returned. A comparison repeated often enough can itself become a legend.
诺拉： 或者，整件事也可能只是政治宣传。
Nora: Or the whole thing could be political propaganda.
朱利安： 完全可以这么说。敌对的城邦有的是理由贬低雅典，把它的成就算到某个来路不明的外人头上。不过这些记载里也有些出奇务实的细节：石料在夜间搬运，劳工立誓保密，还有一项从未公开说明用途的大型工程。
Julian: Absolutely. Rival cities had every reason to diminish Athens by crediting its achievements to some mysterious outsider. But the accounts also contain oddly practical details: stone moved at night, laborers sworn to secrecy, and a major construction project whose purpose was never publicly acknowledged.
诺拉： 有意思。
Nora: Intriguing.
朱利安： 更迷人的是据说接下来发生的事。这项工程起初看上去只是一项了不起、但还算说得通的雅典工程成就。随后，建造者在遗址底下或遗址内部碰到了更古老的建筑，据称连他们自己也解释不了。从那以后，工程变得更繁复、更隐秘，显然也更危险。
Julian: What makes it even more fascinating is what supposedly happened next. The project appears to have begun as an impressive but otherwise comprehensible feat of Athenian engineering. Then the builders encountered older construction beneath or within the site, structures they reportedly couldn’t explain. From that point, the work became more elaborate, more secretive, and apparently more dangerous.
诺拉： 危险到什么程度？我们终于要走到“考古学变成动作片”这一步了吗？
Nora: Dangerous how? Are we finally at the point where archaeology turns into an action film?
朱利安： 就差一块压力板了。说正经的，流传下来的描述太含糊，说不清楚。可能是仪式性建筑，可能是防御机关，可能是结构上的险情，也可能只是每转述一次就更离奇一点的故事。我不敢说我们手上的材料足以区分这几种可能。
Julian: We’re one pressure plate away. In all seriousness, the surviving descriptions are too vague to say. Ritual architecture, defensive mechanisms, structural hazards, or simply a story growing more extraordinary with every retelling. I won’t pretend we have enough to distinguish between them.
诺拉： 这些记载有没有哪一条能对上现存的某处考古遗址？
Nora: Do any of these accounts match an existing archaeological site?
朱利安： 不能下定论。也没有任何东西把它们和圣方济各堂直接联系起来。但那处愚行确实符合我们能推想出的少数几个条件：离雅典够近，难以进入，而且内部基本没有被记录过。这些条件足以让它留在考虑范围内，却还不足以说它就是答案。
Julian: Not conclusively. And nothing ties them directly to St. Francis’ Folly. But the Folly does satisfy the few conditions we can infer: close enough to Athens, difficult to access, and still largely undocumented within. That’s enough to keep it in consideration, not enough to call it a match.
诺拉： 那么，并没有确凿证据把这位“黄金异乡人”和那处修道院联系起来。
Nora: So, no solid evidence connecting the “golden stranger” to the Folly.
朱利安： 没有。有的只是间接证据，和一大串叫人不安的无解问题。
Julian: No. Circumstantial evidence and an uncomfortable number of unanswered questions.
诺拉： 包括为什么有人会一门心思要限制外人进入那里。
Nora: Including why someone would be invested in limiting access to it.
朱利安： 你现在开始像我一样思考了。这就留下了一个我觉得格外耐人寻味的问题：如果圣方济各堂真有什么值得保护的东西，它配得上劳拉·克劳馥亲自跑一趟吗？
Julian: Now you’re thinking like me. Which leaves us with the question I find considerably curious: if there is something worth protecting at St. Francis’ Folly, is it something worthy of Lara Croft’s attention?
诺拉： 问题比答案多多了，朱利安。万一整个故事从一开始就是那么回事呢？一个故事？某个古老传说被反复讲述，讲到后来，人们干脆把它当成了历史？
Nora: More questions than answers, Julian. What if this entire story began as exactly that? A story? Some ancient tale repeated often enough that people eventually mistook it for history?
朱利安： 这一点，我当然不能排除。不过你留着我，可不是为了让我给出那个现成的答案。你留着我，本来就是为了让我往没人走的地方跑。
Julian: Well, I certainly can’t rule that out. But you don’t keep me around to arrive at the easy answer. You keep me around explicitly to wander off the beaten path.
诺拉： 结果那条偏路上，新订户的数量多得出乎意料。
Nora: Turns out there are an unexpected number of new subscribers down that particular path.
朱利安： 那我想，我该给这一章的谜团收个尾了。
Julian: Then I suppose I should close out this chapter of our mystery.
诺拉： 请便。那些承包商是从他们来的那座机场离开的吗？
Nora: Please do. Did the contractors leave through the same airfield they arrived at?
朱利安： 有些人是。
Julian: Some did.
诺拉： 有些人？
Nora: Some?
朱利安： 被看到离开的人少得多。按我能拼凑出的最可靠的计数，原来那批人里只有三分之一是从同一座机场离开的。目击者说，那些离开的人看上去狼狈得多。
Julian: Far fewer were seen leaving. By the best count I could assemble, a third of the original group departed through the same airfield. Witnesses said those who did looked considerably worse for wear.
诺拉： 你觉得其他人死了？
Nora: You think the others are dead?
朱利安： 你倒是出奇地爱耸人听闻。我说的是他们下落不明。他们可能走了别的路线，可能还留在希腊，也可能接到了新指令，去了我查不到的地方。不过考虑到那处修道院传出的爆炸声，我要是排除伤亡的可能，那就太蠢了。
Julian: How oddly sensational of you. I said they’re unaccounted for. They could have left by another route, remained in Greece, or received new orders somewhere beyond my ability to track them. But given the reports of explosions at the Folly, I’d be foolish to rule out casualties.
诺拉： 难怪我总觉得你在犹豫。
Nora: Hence the hesitation I’ve been sensing from you.
朱利安： 你能怪我吗？我没法确认有人死了。我能确认的是，和这个故事有关的人，正一个接一个地从记录里消失。卡洛斯、那些承包商。还有突然就不肯开口的线人。到了某个节点，人们就不能不怀疑：这也许已经不再是那种人们只是为了某件文物、或者一点历史荣光而去追寻的谜团了。
Julian: Can you blame me? I can’t confirm that anyone died. I can confirm that people connected to this story keep disappearing from the record. Carlos. Contractors. Sources who suddenly stop talking. At a certain point, one must consider that this may no longer be the sort of mystery people pursue merely for an artifact or a bit of historical glory.
诺拉： 它显然已经变成了别的什么东西。那些被看到离开的人里，有那个法国人吗？那个看起来是头儿的人？
Nora: It certainly appears to have become something else. Was the French man among those seen leaving? The apparent leader?
朱利安： 没有他。
Julian: He was not.
诺拉： 还有你那位多年的老线人——就是对劳拉·克劳馥兴趣异常浓厚、你推测可能来自法语区的那位——也差不多在同一时间不再回话了？
Nora: And your longtime source, the one with an unusual interest in Lara Croft, who you believe may be francophone, stopped responding at roughly the same time?
朱利安： ……是的。
Julian: …Yes.
诺拉： 耐人寻味。我理解那种打退堂鼓的心情。把那些更离奇的说法都剥掉，我们手上依然剩这些：劳拉·克劳馥奔走于一场跨国冒险，杰奎琳·纳特拉从公众视野里消失，一队身份不明的武装承包商，一群出奇漠不关心的官方机构，一处受管制的历史遗址传出的爆炸声，还有一个两千多年从未被圆满解开的谜。这一点我可以承认：这是一串耐人寻味的巧合。
Nora: Food for thought. I understand the cold feet. Strip away the wilder theories and we still have Lara Croft on an international adventure, Jacqueline Natla absent from public view, an unidentified group of armed contractors, authorities who seem remarkably incurious, reported explosions at a restricted historical site, and a mystery more than two millennia old that has never been satisfactorily resolved. I’ll grant you this much: it’s a curious collection of coincidences.
朱利安： 再说一次，这不是打退堂鼓。是应有的谨慎。
Julian: Again, not cold feet. Appropriate caution.
诺拉： 请记录在案：朱利安刚才发出的那个声音，我愿意称之为紧张的干笑。
Nora: Let the record reflect that Julian just made a sound I’d characterize as nervous laughter.
朱利安： 真没礼貌。
Julian: Rude.
诺拉： 这个世界你比大多数人懂，朱利安。告诉我，为什么这一回感觉不一样。
Nora: You know this world better than most, Julian. Tell me why this one feels different.
朱利安： 我几乎整个职业生涯都泡在阴谋论圈子里。大多数阴谋论纯属一派胡言。有些含着一点真实的影子。还有一些是被人刻意制造出来，用来转移视线，好掩盖一个更加不堪的真相。而极其偶然的时候，你会挖出某种东西，让你恨不得自己早几步就停手别再往下挖。我学会了在分不清自己追的是哪一种故事时，保持谨慎。
Julian: I’ve spent nearly my entire career in conspiracy circles. Most conspiracies are complete bollocks. Some contain a grain of truth. Others are deliberately engineered to distract from an even less savory truth. And, on very rare occasions, you uncover something that makes you wish you’d stopped digging a few steps earlier. I’ve learned to exercise caution when I can no longer tell which kind of story I’m chasing.
诺拉： 这可不像你，说得人心里发毛。
Nora: That was uncharacteristically unsettling.
朱利安： 我倒真希望不是这样。
Julian: I rather wish it weren’t.
诺拉： 说回那些承包商。知道他们要去哪儿吗？
Nora: Back to the contractors.Any idea where they were headed?
朱利安： 他们的包机是飞往埃及的。而克劳馥跟了上去。
Julian: Their charter was bound for Egypt. And Croft followed.
诺拉： 然后，据说又回家了。
Nora: And then, apparently, returned home.
朱利安： 算是吧。我们知道她最后到了哪儿。但她怎么从埃及回到伦敦，还原起来就困难多了。这是我接下来在挖的事，还有那个更大的问题：究竟是什么把秘鲁、希腊和埃及串在了一起。
Julian: Eventually. We know where she ended up. How she got from Egypt back to London is proving considerably more difficult to reconstruct. That’s what I’ve been digging into next, along with the rather larger question of what ties Peru, Greece, and Egypt together.
诺拉： 你该知道，埃及会让这件事更难被无视。
Nora: You realize Egypt is going to make this substantially harder to ignore.
朱利安： 很少有哪个地方能像埃及这样，既激起那么多向往，也招来那么多猜测。
Julian: Few places have inspired as much fascination, or as much speculation, as Egypt.
诺拉： 这么大一个故事到头来还全靠间接证据，我几乎有点恼火。
Nora: I’m almost irritated by how much of this story remains circumstantial.
朱利安： 几乎？
Julian: Almost?
诺拉： 因为明知不该，我还是非常想知道接下来发生了什么。
Nora: Because, against my better judgment, I very much want to know what happened next.
朱利安： 乐意为您效劳。
Julian: Glad to be of service.
编者按：我又何尝不是。如果您掌握能填补这些空白的可靠信息，比如目击记录、照片、行程记录、航空数据，或者任何与克劳馥在埃及的行踪有关的线索，都请与我们联系。匿名线索同样欢迎。调查将在《惊人之旅》未来的某一期继续。
Editor’s Note: That makes two of us. If you have credible information that may help fill the gaps, such as sightings, photographs, travel records, aviation data, or anything else connected to Croft’s movements through Egypt, we want to hear from you. Anonymous tips are welcome. The investigation continues in a future issue of Astonishing Travels.
