“Yes, and it may go on doing so for the next few A MARTIAN MYSTERY 33
hundred years-unless you and I can devise a way to bring it back to earth.”
Tom’s eyes flashed. “You mean the government is tossing the problem in our laps?”
“Right, son. It should be a real challenge to figure out how to recover a missile from fifty million miles out in space.”
“Wow!” Bud exclaimed. “You’re not kidding, sir!”
Tom began to pace excitedly. His brain was already at work on the problem.
“Dad, you remember how the space agency has often talked about finding a way to retrieve dead satellites and other space junk?”
“Yes. In some cases, the equipment aboard could be used over again and save the government hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“Well, the electrostatic-field device I’ve been working on may be the answer to both problems! We might even be able to use it to capture the mysterious rocket ship that rammed the outpost, if it ever shows up again!”
While Tom was explaining his idea, an alarm buzzer sounded. It meant that the lookout had spotted a suspect.
Bud darted to the window. “Look!” he hissed. As Tom and Mr. Swift joined him, he pointed to a figure outside.
“Rakshi!” Tom exclaimed.
The student was bending over a clump of
34 POLAR-RAY DYNASPHERE
ornamental shrubbery. Tom hastily told his father what had happened while he was away.
“He could be planting that relay transmitter in the bushes right nowl” Bud exclaimed.
The boys waited until Rakshi had strolled off, then they rushed out to search among the shrubbery. To their disappointment, there was no sign of any concealed electronic device.
“Have you lost something, my friends?”
Tom and Bud looked up with a start to find Rakshi smiling at them.
“No! We just like to sniff the pretty flowers!” Bud replied.
“Ah, indeed? I paused, myself, just a short time ago to admire the blossoms,”
Rakshi said. “Rhododendron, I believe, is it not?” The young Asian walked away.
The two boys were furious at having been taken unaware by the very person they suspected.
“He sure sneaked up on us,” Bud said angrily. “Do you think he knew what we were doing?”
Tom shrugged. “Hard to tell. If Rakshi hid that bug, he knows that once we discover it, we’ll be watching for any attempt to plant a repeater. This whole thing could have been a trick to make us tip our hand.”
He immediately phoned a report of the incident to Harlan Ames. “By the way, have you checked yet on the East Indian import shop where the bronze Buddha was purchased?”
A MARTIAN MYSTERY 35
Ames reported that it was operated by an elderly man named Lai Singh and a clerk, Benny Susak. Neither had a criminal record.
“The plotters must have some connection with that shop,” Tom mused. “And they were pretty stupid to give Mr. Ram its namel”
“Right-if the spy message was a frame-up,” Ames agreed.
“There must be a link, anyhow,” Tom reasoned. “No customer could use that importing setup for transmitting a spy message unless he had someone working in the shop.”
“Hmm. That’s true,” Ames conceded.
“I think Bud and I will pay that place a visit,” Tom said.
Late that afternoon the two boys flew to New York City in a Whirling Duck-a VTOL jet plane which Tom had designed. From the heliport they taxied to East Twenty-eight Street and entered the import shop. Its interior was dim and musty.
The front section displayed silken saris, rugs, jewelry, and Oriental art objects. Its back wall shelves were piled high with jars and cartons of East Indian foodstuffs, such as ginger, saffron, and spices.
The owner, Mr. Singh, shuffled forward to greet the boys. He was an elderly, dark-skinned man with a kindly face and gentle eyes. Tom explained why they had come and asked if Mr. Singh had waited on Prince Jahan.
“Ah, no. That order was handled by my clerk,
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Mr. Susak.” He gestured toward his assistant-a thin, sallow-faced young man-who had come out of the back room and was listening closely.
“Could there have been any mistake about that bronze Buddha?” Tom asked the clerk. “The prince claims he never ordered it.”
Susak shrugged. “There was no mistake, sir. I remember him picking it out particularly.”
Tom asked a few more questions and learned that all goods from India or Vishnapur were obtained from a firm of exporters in Bombay-Mukerji and Sons.
Then the boys left.
“That clerk looks like a phony to me,” Bud muttered as they walked away.
Tom agreed. “And our visit may worry him. It’s almost closing time. Let’s see where he goes after work.”
After circling the block, Bud found a lookout spot in a dark doorway across the street, next to a dingy movie theater. Tom stationed himself in the alleyway behind the shop. A pile of trash-steel drums and discarded crates-hid him from view.
Presently Susak came out the back door. He glanced around furtively, then hurried off down the alley.
After waiting a moment, Tom started cautiously in pursuit. To his amazement, Susak was already out of sight! Had the clerk slipped into the rear entrance of some other building?
A MARTIAN MYSTERY 37
As Tom darted forward to investigate, he passed a small storage shed. A slight noise made him turn his head just as a masked figure, clutching a heavy stick, sprang into view.
Tom tried to duck, but the stick cracked against his skull. With a moan of pain, the young inventor crumpled to the pavement.
CHAPTER V
A HAIR-RAISING EXPERIMENT
TOM stirred and opened his eyes as consciousness returned. “What happened?” he wondered dully.
A huge gray rat scuttled across his line of vision.
“Ugh!”
Wincing, Tom forced himself to his feet, and rubbed his throbbing head gingerly. He struggled to collect his wits while looking around the alley.
Suddenly he remembered what had happened. “That clerk-Susak! He must have guessed he was being followed and was lying in wait for me!”
Tom was disgusted. The suspect had slipped through his fingers! There was nothing to do but join Bud and go back to Enterprises.
Brushing himself off, Tom strode through the alley and across the street that ran in front of the import shop. He darted to the dark doorway which 38
A HAIR-RAISING EXPERIMENT 39
Bud had selected for his stakeout-but he was no longer there!
Tom was perplexed. Could Bud have spotted Susak after the man emerged from the alley?
Earlier, the boys had checked the telephone number of a booth in a corner drugstore. It had been agreed that if they became separated one would use the number to call the other.
Tom hurried to the drugstore and waited at the booth. In a few minutes the telephone rang. Tom snatched it off the hook. Bud’s voice came over the line.
“Where are you? What happened?” Tom demanded.
“Downtown. Boy, what a relief to hear you answer! You okay?”
Tom told how he had been slugged, then asked Bud for his story.
“While watching the import shop,” his friend answered, “I saw a man dart out of the side street to flag a taxi. I realized it was Susak. You didn’t seem to be on his trail, so I went after him in another cab.”
Bud said the taxi had dropped Susak at a cheap rooming house near Battery Park. “His name’s on one of the doorbell cards-Apartment 305.”
Tom’s brain was working fast. “Bud, I have a hunch Susak panicked when he found out I was following him. So he slugged me to give himself time for a getaway.”
40 POLAR-RAY DYNASPHERE
“Then why would he risk stopping here?”
“Maybe to clear out some incriminating evidence. Are you sure he didn’t spot you?”
“Fairly sure,” Bud replied.
“Where are you calling from?”
“A pay phone down the street. I have the rooming house in plain sight.”
“Okay. I’ll call the FBI and get there fast.” Tom jotted down the address and added, “Don’t let him get away!”
Bud chuckled. “Leave it to me. I’ll slip inside and park near his door.”
Tom made a quick call to headquarters, then took a taxi to the street Bud had given him. He got out some distance down the street and started walking back toward the rooming house. Bud was nowhere in sight, so Tom paused in the doorway of a pawnshop.
Three minutes later a black car glided to the curb. A square-shouldered, gray-suited man in a snap-brim hat leaped out and walked over to Tom.
“Martin, FBI,” he said, shaking hands. “We can haul Susak in for questioning, but it may be smarter to hold off and see if he leads us to someone else in the spy setup… . Where’s your friend, by the way?”
“Inside, I think,” Tom replied. “Bud was going to keep watch to make sure Susak didn’t escape.”