Tom nodded. “Enough to make every American shiver, if he only knew!”
“What can we do about it?” Bud asked.
Tom resumed his worried pacing. “I’ll have to invent a shock-wave deflector, Bud. It must be done in a hurry, too. Our enemy may start to destroy American cities as well as vital defense plants!”
Immediately Tom put through an urgent call to an eminent scientist in Washington who was a member of the National Research Council. Quickly he outlined a plan.
“Tom, I’ll talk to the president’s special science adviser at once,” the man promised. “I’ll try to set up a meeting for ten o’clock tomorrow morning at Enterprises.”
Feeling relieved, Tom left the plant with Bud. The two boys drove off to attend church with Mrs. Swift and Sandy. Then, after the Sunday midday meal, Tom returned to his laboratory to work on ideas for a shock-wave deflector.
Bud and Sandy, meanwhile, drove to the Shopton Yacht Club to inspect the damage to the Sunspot. Tom had arranged with a salvage crew to tow the disabled ketch back to its slip.
68 THE VISITOR FROM PLANET X
Monday morning, a sleek Air Force jet transport touched down at Swift Enterprises. Aboard were a select group of top government scientists. Tom and Bud greeted them as they disembarked on the runway, then drove them to a conference room in the Enterprises main building.
“I’d say your theory is right, Tom, about the quakes being produced by artificial shock waves,” said Bernt Ahlgren, a tall, hawk-faced man with a shock of red hair. He was a member of the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. “But how do we stop them?”