captain and crew revived, they found themselves adrift in a lifeboat in broad daylight, without oars, and the Sea Charger nowhere in sight.
“Then you have no clue as to who these-these sky pirates might have been?”
asked Mr. Swift, his brow furrowed in angry puzzlement.
“None at all, sir,” Captain Church replied.
“We’d better notify Security at once!” Tom decided.
On the seacopter’s radio the young inventor quickly made contact with Harlan Ames. After reporting the rescue of the Sea Charger’s crew, Tom relayed Captain Church’s story.
Ames was baffled. “Sounds fantastic,” he commented. “I’ve already alerted the Coast Guard and the Navy,” he went on. “Both merchant shipping and commercial aircraft have been given a description of the Sea Charger and instructed to keep a lookout, but no word yet.”
“Good enough, Harlan. We’ll keep in touch.” Tom signed off.
After a quick conference, the Swifts decided that the rescued mariners should be flown back to Fearing for a medical checkup. Meanwhile, Tom and Bud would transfer to the Sea Hound and lead a systematic search for the hijacked experimental ship.
“I believe our aircraft should fan out and make a northerly, or perhaps northeasterly, sweep of Atlantic waters,” Tom mused.
SKY PIRATES1 7
“Why so?” Mr Swift asked.
Tom pointed to a map spread out on the Sea Hound’s chart desk. “Captain Church radioed his position based on a time-and-drift estimate from the spot where the attack occurred. Right?”
The captain nodded.
“But we picked him up almost a hundred miles south of there. My guess is that the pirates took him south on purpose, before setting the men adrift, to make us think they were taking the Sea Charger deeper into the Caribbean. Which means,” Tom concluded, “that they probably headed just the other way-north or east.”