“He’ll have to show up soon if he’s still planning to,” Tom said, “This race will be over for us in twenty-five minutes!”
198 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
Tom took a quick reading on his position finder. Far below, the sun was glinting on the Amazon River and to the west on snow-capped mountains.
“It’s in the bag!” Bud chortled. “Tom, you can-”
His sentence was cut short by a tremendous flash of light through the porthole, followed by a faint, ominous vibration of the Star Spear.
“Tom, look at that scope!” Bud cried. “The screen’s alive with pips!”
“They’re guided missiles!” Tom groaned. “Rot-zog has found us!”
“For Pete’s sake, let’s get out of his path!” Bud urged.
Tom knew that the only way to do this was to change his course. And to change his course at this point in the race was the last thing he wanted to do.
As Rotzog’s ship closed in on the Star Spear,
AN ATTACK
199
With victory so close, the inventor hated the thought of consuming valuable seconds trying to evade Rot-zog. At best, their lead over the Australians was tenuous; the difference between victory and second place might be a matter of seconds.
“But I can’t be blasted out of the sky, either,” Tom told himself.
He decided to use a maneuver that would not consume much time and might throw his enemy off. Quickly he reached over to the controls and shut off the steering rockets. The ship was still traveling at a faster than orbital speed, and the Star Spear instantly responded by rising sharply to let a barrage of missiles pass harmlessly below. Seconds later, Tom cut in the steering motors to push the ship earthward.
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