Suddenly an explosion shook the hillside. The earth blaster and tons of dirt were blown back toward Tom’s control shack!
CHAPTER 1 1
SABOTAGE!
SCREAMS AND CRIES arose from the spectators as rocks and dirt pelted down on them. Tom’s shack was deluged by the debris. The crippled blaster stopped inches from it!
Tom, white-faced and shaken, leaped outside. Angry shouts greeted him on all sides.
“That crazy machine might have killed every one of us!” bellowed a fat, middle-aged man.
And a woman screamed, “It’s a public danger! The police should arrest him!”
Gritting his teeth, Tom tried to ignore the angry remarks. While Bud summoned an ambulance, he proceeded to give first aid to all who needed it, with the help of Dr. Faber and Daryl Blake. Fortunately, the injuries amounted to no more than slight cuts and bruises.
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SABOTAGE! 101
After the victims had been taken care of, Tom turned to the sergeant in charge of the police detail.
“Would you please have your men clear this area? I’d like to make a complete investigation of what happened.”
“That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” put in Voorhees. “Your blaster was improperly designed, just as I suspected all along. When it hit bedrock, it couldn’t penetrate any farther. So the result was a power blowback.”
The police sergeant seemed impressed with this line of reasoning. But Tom shook his head. “I’m quite sure that the accident was not the fault of the blaster.”
“Meaning what?” Voorhees asked.
“Meaning someone set a contact bomb to ruin our work here, and perhaps blow me up at the same time!”