II30-1968-TOM SWIFT and His G-Force Inverter by Victor Appleton II

Author:Victor Appleton II [pseud.] [Appleton, Victor II]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Published: 1968-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

11. TINY ATTACKERS

TOM frantically hauled Chow in through the hatch. He had barely slammed it shut when an explosion pounded the underside of the ship.

The blast would have ripped through any ordinary fuselage. But when the Flying Lab was built Tom had covered the entire interior and exterior with Tomasite, a puncture-proof plastic material of tremendous strength.

Chow was speechless. The two girls had screamed and everyone was pale.

"Another narrow escape," Tom mumbled. "But how—?"

The Texan had recovered his voice. "Thought there was somethin' fishy about that fish!" he joked. "Good thing we found out 'bout the bucket before it came aboard."

Harlan Ames spoke up. "I think we should delay the flight long enough to look into all this. Obviously somebody put explosives in Chow's fish, hoping to blow us to smithereens when we were in flight."

"An' they'd 'a' done it, too, if I weren't such an ole butterfingers!"

Ames was puzzled. "When could the explosive have been put into the fish? Chow caught them himself?"

"Did you leave the ice bucket alone at any time?" Tom asked the cook.

"Come to think of it, I did. On the way to the plant I stopped for coffee at Wally's Diner. Hung up my jacket an' left the fish along with it. The hook was near the door. Saw a stranger kind o' messin' around there—"

"Talking of strangers," Tom said, "one came here looking for you. A real old-timer by the name of Pickwick."

"Not Lloyd Pickwick?"

"That's the one."

Chow was bewildered. "But it couldn't be! I had a letter from Lloyd jest the other day! He's in a Texas hospital."

"Let's check his picture," Ames suggested.

He contacted his office and they ran the videotape which had been made of Lloyd as a security measure.

Chow was enraged. "That's not Lloyd! Lloyd is small an' wiry an' has a stubby beard, not that soup strainer! This man's an impostor!"

"Have you ever seen the man before?" Ames asked. "How about looking at the picture again?"

Chow did so. The next second he spluttered, "Why, that's the carpetbagger who was skulkin' around my fish!"

"How long ago was that?" Tom reached for the phone.

"Couldn't be more'n an hour," Chow said, then stroking his chin, asked, "Think he figgered on bombin' my kitchen?"

"Maybe," Ames suggested, "he was planning to slip something into our food."

Tom spoke up. "He may still be in Shopton. I'll call Chief Slater." An alarm was immediately sent out for the impostor.

Finally Tom said, "Guess we can take off now," and went to the pilot's cabin.

He flipped on the audiogyrex, which he had devised to eliminate any rapid-rising sensation as atomic power poured into the jet lifters. The Sky Queen shot vertically into the sky. At fifty thousand feet he applied forward thrust and the ship streaked for Africa at a cruising speed of twelve hundred miles an hour.

Ames appeared in the doorway of the pilot's cabin. "Our sensoring equipment is turned up full strength, but I can't get a thing," he reported.

"Maybe our enemy has been alerted," Tom surmised, "and is keeping silent.

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