“The message was just relayed a minute ago from our rocket base on Fearing Island. It said the Sea Charger’s crew had been gassed and set adrift.
Luckily, Captain Church still had his miniature pocket transmitter and was able to make radio contact.”
“Did he give their position?”
“Right, skipper. Got a pencil?”
Tom copied down the figures as Ames reported the latitude and longitude.
“That’s all we were able to learn,” Ames added. “After that, the signal conked out.”
“All right. Order the base to send all available seacopters and planes to the area for a rescue search,” Tom said. “I’ll take off from here as soon as possible.”
He pressed the telephone cutoff button, then dialed his father, Tom Swift Sr., at their Enterprises office. The elder scientist was shocked at the news but wasted no words. “I’ll meet you at the heliplane hangar at once, son!”
SKY PIRATES! 3
Tom and Bud dashed out of the laboratory and hopped into a jeep. There was no time to discuss the mystery as the boys sped across the grounds of the sprawling experimental station toward the Enterprises airfield.
Within minutes, the heliplane was fueled and ready for take-off. This revolutionary aircraft, dubbed “the whirling duck,” was one of Tom’s earlier inventions. It had pulse-jet rotors for vertical lift or hovering, but was also designed to fly as a transonic jet, with the rotors folded sleekly into the fuselage after the ship was air-borne.
“You have the crew’s position, son?” Mr. Swift asked, as they climbed into the heliplane’s cabin. The distinguished scientist, like his son, was lean in build but slightly shorter.
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