“How did your gimmick react, Tom?” Bud asked.
“‘Not good. I’ll have to make some changes. Under THE PHANTOM JET 3
really stiff radiation this relotrol would foul up the radio orders to the robot.”
Bud grinned. “You mean Mr. Robot wouldn’t know what to do? He’d sort of go berserk?”
“Right.”
“Well, what’s next on the program, inventor boy?”
“To work on the relotrol some more,” Tom replied. He clamped his invention under the instrument panel to keep it from being jarred, then nosed the plane down in the direction of the Swift Enterprises airfield.
Below was the town of Shopton, with the old Swift Construction Company buildings on one side and the new experimental group on the other. The shiny rooftops of the laboratories reflected the morning sun.
“Swift Enterprises looks mighty enterprising!” Bud said. “Do you feel enterprising enough to work the bugs out of the relotrol right now?”
“As soon as we land, Bud,” Tom said, looking down.
But Bud’s eyes were not on the airfield. They were following a black dot that had suddenly appeared against the horizon.
“Something’s coming at us from three o’clock,” he said. “It’s too small to be a plane.”
The speck quickly increased in size.
“It’s a bird,” said Bud in amazement. “A large black crow.”
Tom climbed a few hundred feet to avoid hitting 4 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT ROBOT
it, then cut the jet’s speed. As the bird winged below him, he said, “That’s too big for a crow. It’s larger than an eagle.”
“But it is a crow,” cried Bud.
Tom looked again and caught his breath. The bird was immense. It was shaped exactly like a crow but was larger than a vulture. The monstrous bird glided through the sky, then wheeled.