As the great silver ship streaked through the polar sky en route to the enemy camp, Tom’s nerves were calm and steady.
“Coming on target!” shouted Bud. Far below, they could see the antlike forms of men. The tail end of the enemy’s jet bomber was just disappearing inside its own ice-dome hangar.
Jamming the stick forward, Tom sent the Sky Queen into a screaming dive.
As the mammoth ship plunged earthward like a silver thunderbolt, the Kranjovians scattered in wild panic.
“We’ve scared ‘em. Now we’ll melt ‘em,” Tom said, guiding the plane out of the dive and soaring skyward.
Reducing the forward thrust, Tom cut loose with a full blast of power from the jet lifters, raking the
DISASTER STRIKES 163
camp from one end to the other! The heat plowed a deep furrow in the snow, melting and crumpling the roofs of several ice-cave dwellings.
But this time the Kranjovians were ready. Throwing the camouflage off their gun placements, they brought the long, deadly muzzles of their ack-ack batteries wheeling into action.
As the great ship zoomed over the camp, the guns began to spit and the air blossomed with a hail of shells. But even though many whizzed perilously close to the Sky Queen, not one of the shells exploded!
Bud was beside himself with glee as he peered down at the enemy gunners through binoculars.
“You should see ‘em, Tom!” he said. “They’re going crazy! They can’t figure out why the proximity fuses on the shells aren’t going off!”
“Wonderful stuff, this Tomasite!” The young inventor chuckled. The special plastic coating completely covered the Sky Queen and insulated it from magnetic effects.