Traveling with the secretary of state is often a breeze. Reporters never stand in security lines, never go through passport control, never collect their bags and never have to change planes. They are whisked from the plane to the hotel in a high-speed motorcade that never stops for red lights.

和國務卿出訪往往如沐春風。記者從來不用排隊接受安檢，從來不須通過護照監控，不須提領行李，也不須轉機。他們一下機就由車隊快速飛馳送到旅館，一路暢行無阻，絕對不會碰上紅燈停車。

But the Bush administration has a plane problem. One of President Bush's two 747 jets is going through a major maintenance overhaul, and two of the four 757 jets are also in maintenance. The president always needs a back-up plane, so he has taken one of the 757s. That just leaves one 757 for high-level officials like Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to share--and both had scheduled overseas trips this week.

但布希政府飛機安排上出了點問題。布希總統兩架747噴射機之一正在進行大幅改裝維修；另外四架757噴射專機中也有兩架進廠維修。總統要有一部備用專機隨時待命，因此他要了一架757，結果只剩一架757供高層官員，像副總統錢尼和國務卿賴斯共同調用，不巧本周兩人都安排了海外行程。

Cheney trumps Rice when he goes abroad, so that left Rice with the next biggest jet--an executive 737 jet. It's a nice plane with first-class seats, large bathrooms and a special cabin for the top official. But it also means that Rice has to scale back her entourage from 42 people to just 19.

錢尼海外行，將了賴斯一軍，賴斯只好退而求其次，搭下一個最大的737行政專機，這款噴射機也不錯，配備頭等艙座位，洗手間寬敞，還有供最高層官員專用的客艙。但這也意味賴斯必須縮編隨行人員，從42人砍到只剩19人。

The first to be dropped were the journalists. Instead of the usual 13 or 14 reporters--representatives of wire services, newspapers, television networks, magazines and radio--the State Department decided to take only three wire-service reporters. That meant any other reporter had to try to follow Rice by commercial flights. A number of State Department personnel had to do the same.

而首當其衝，第一批被刷掉的就是記者。通常有13或14名記者隨行採訪，分別代表通訊社、報社、電視台、雜誌社和電台，但國務院決定只收三名通訊社記者，換言之，其他記者必須搭普通商用客機隨行採訪賴斯，連一些國務院人員也要接受同樣的安排。

Compared to most Rice trips, when she hop scotches from city to city in a pattern that cannot be easily duplicated on commercial airlines, her schedule on this trip in theory was quite workable. She planned three days in Jerusalem and then two days in Berlin, with a quick stop in Amman, Jordan, on the way to Berlin. Reporters planning to follow her would simply fly directly from Jerusalem to Berlin.

和賴斯大部分行程相較，當她從一個城市跳到另一個城市時，那種模式商務客機很不容易複製，但她這次行程理論上相當可行，她計畫在耶路撒冷待三天，接著在柏林待兩天，在約旦安曼快速停留後前進柏林。計畫隨行採訪的記者只要從耶路撒冷直飛柏林就行了。

But, as any air traveler knows, nothing is ever easy flying commercial. On the way to Israel, many of the reporters faced long delays (such as sitting four hours on a tarmac in New York) and then missed connections in Europe, bringing them hours late to Jerusalem. On the way over, they learned that Rice had snuck in an unannounced trip to Baghdad, meaning they had missed a big story.

但幾乎所有航空旅客都知道，搭商務客機絕非易事，在前往以色列途中，很多記者嚴重誤點（例如在紐約停機坪就乾坐苦等四小時），接著又錯過轉接歐洲的班機，使他們晚到耶路撒冷好幾個鐘頭，在飛行途中，他們得知賴斯臨時插花，祕訪巴格達，換言之，他們漏了一條大新聞。

Getting to Berlin was another chore. The only direct flight from Tel Aviv to Berlin left at 6 a.m., so the five reporters and four State Department officials following Rice had to leave their hotel in Jerusalem at 3:30 a.m. in order to make the 45-minute drive to Tel Aviv and still have enough time to get through the tough Israeli security.

到柏林也狀況百出，特拉維夫飛柏林唯一直飛班機清晨六點起飛，因此五名記者和四名國務院官員得在清晨三點半離開位於耶路撒冷的旅館，才能開45分鐘車到特拉維夫，也才有充裕的時間通過以色列嚴峻的安檢。

The newspaper reporters and State Department officials flew coach in the packed jet, while the TV folks had seats in business class.

報社記者和國務卿官員在塞爆的客機上坐二等艙，電視台那些人則坐商務艙。

Once they arrived in Berlin, the band of five reporters--wary of spending $100 on a taxi ride only to be stuck in a traffic jam--decided to take the $4 commuter train from the airport to the downtown airport. They carted their bags to the train station and puzzled over which train to take, finally settling themselves and their luggage in what appeared to be the right train. Suddenly, a conductor appeared, telling the embarrassed reporters that they were sitting in a train that had already ended its run.

好不容易到了柏林，一行五名記者，不願花一百美元搭計程車塞在車陣裡，決定搭4美元機場通市中心機場的通勤火車，他們把行李運送到火車站，不知該搭哪班火車，最後總算連人和行李都安置在狀似正確的火車班次上。突然，一名隨車服務員出現了，告訴這些尷尬的記者，他們正坐在一部已經收班的火車上。