一張一張超大尺寸白紙鋪在生產線上,經過裁切機,被切成30等份的A4紙。
這邊不是紙工廠,而是蒙大拿地底下的一座實驗室,而穿著白袍的實驗人員忙著將裁切完的白紙裝訂成冊。
“ Is our experiment going to be in phase two?”(已經要進入到第二階段的實驗了嗎?)頭髮花白,一樣穿著白袍的年長男子問。
“ Right, Mr. Jerome.”(是的,傑羅姆先生。)
“ How about the third function?”(第三個功能呢?)
“ It's almost done. Just need some more human experiment to make sure the effort.”(研發得差不多了,可能還需要人體實驗來確認是否成功。)
“Do faster. Yirus is out of patience.”(得快,伊魯斯人可能快要對我們失去耐心了。)
“ But we don't have good writers in our lab.”(但我們實驗室沒有寫故事的高手。)
“ We do.”(我們有。)說話的男子與實驗室格格不入,在這個一片白的世界當中,他穿著優雅的深藍色。
對話中的兩人嚇到,趕緊跟忽然出現的男子問好。
“ Mr. Egan, you don't have to come in person.”(依耿大人,您不需要親自來一趟的。)
“ It's fine. I was just nearby, so I came to see how's progressing. Back to the experiment you just talked about, I have a good writer to recommend.(不要緊。我剛好在附近,順道來看一下。倒是你們剛說的實驗,我可以推薦一個好人選。)
“ Is the sir you mentioned also a Yirus?”(您說的那位大人也是伊魯斯人嗎?)
“ Yes, our species also has writers who like to survey different cultures.”(是的,我族也是有喜歡研究異文化的文學家呢。)
“ Then it will be gratful to have your help, Mr. Egan. We’ve planed to hold a human experiment in Taiwan Province. We will check both second and third function. The sir you mensioned may just meet our partners right over there on July second.”(那就麻煩伊耿大人了。我們預計在台灣省舉辦這場人體實驗,會一併驗證第二和第三個功能。可以請您提到的那位大人在七月二號直接在那邊幫我們帶實驗,我們這邊也會派幾位人員過去幫忙。)
“ Taiwan Province? The place under White Terror?”(台灣省?那個白色恐怖地區?)伊耿大人興味盎然。
剩下的兩個人默默地彼此對看。
他們心中都了解,伊耿大人口中的白色恐怖,應該要用來形容這座實驗室才對。