II24-1964-TOM SWIFT and His 3-D Telejector by Victor Appleton II

Author:Victor Appleton II [pseud.] [Appleton, Victor II]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Published: 1964-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

12. A MYSTERIOUS INTRUDER

TOM was startled by Doc Simpson's unexpected reply. "Have you found a clue?" he asked.

"Sniff the air in here," Doc countered.

As Tom inhaled he detected a faint etherlike odor. "Good grief! Some kind of anesthetic?"

"Chloroform," Doc said. "Now look at this."

He raised Arv Hanson's arm and pulled back the pajama sleeve, revealing a tiny skin puncture.

"A needle prick!" Tom exclaimed. "That means he has been given a hypodermic injection?"

"Right." Doc said he had stopped in earlier that morning to see Felix Wong. "I noticed something I hadn't yesterday—a very small puncture mark on his arm. I phoned his personal physician, who said Felix had been in for a checkup two days ago, but had received no injection. This puzzled me, and I was about to look into it further when you called. The instant I smelled chloroform here, the connection hit me—so I checked Arv's arm. The symptoms are identical, which means the same type of injection was used."

"In other words, someone broke in while Arv was asleep," Tom said, "chloroformed him so he wouldn't wake up, then jabbed in the needle."

"Right. The injection probably contained some kind of drug or disease serum that doesn't show up under ordinary methods of analysis."

Tom's jaw clenched angrily. "Your theory sure adds up, Doc. Felix reported yesterday morning that someone broke into his place. And the same thing must have happened to Dr. Grimsey."

Arv's eyes were becoming glassy and heavy-lidded. Doc summoned the ambulance attendant to help transfer Arv to a stretcher.

Tom, meanwhile, telephoned Harlan Ames. The security chief soon arrived at the cottage with two of his staff, who began checking immediately for clues.

"Any ideas about this?" Ames asked Tom.

"It's a cinch Dr. Grimsey and Felix and Arv have all been victims of the same plot," Tom said. "And there's one connecting link—they were all working with me on the 3-D telejector."

Ames gave Tom a worried glance. "You realize what that means, skipper? You could be next!"

"If that enemy is determined to stop me from perfecting my new TV system," Tom countered, "why hasn't he already tried slipping me some of those disease germs?"

"Maybe he has tried," Ames shot back. "But since your house has a foolproof alarm system, he tried to get you with a bomb."

"Then you no longer think the bomb was just a stunt by Lunario to get publicity?"

Ames frowned. "No, not after what has happened to your three assistants."

Tom shook his head. "The bomb plot was pretty crude by comparison. I don't think it was the work of the same enemy. He could have used a needle then and there."

"You could be right," Ames said. "But I'm still going to double the security guards."

Tom had detailed Bud to make the flight to Texas, and Chow Winkler had asked to go along. They had already taken off in the Sky Queen when Tom arrived at Enterprises. The huge supersonic plane—atomic-powered and equipped with lifter jets—had been Tom's first major invention. It was equipped for scientific research and was often called the Flying Lab.

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