Before Tom could answer, he heard excited voices at the other end of the line. Then Ahlgren broke in again abruptly.
“A news flash, Tom! The Walling range-finder plant has been demolished by an earthquake!”
CHAPTER XIV
AIRBORNE HIJACKERS
MR. SWIFT, hearing Tom’s dismayed reaction, rushed to the telephone.
“What’s wrong, son?”
Tom clamped his hand over the mouthpiece and quickly gave his father the news of the destroyed range-finder plant. Then he spoke into the telephone.
“Bernt, we must prevent another disaster! Let me check with our construction company on the Quakelizors and I’ll call you right back!”
“Right, Tom,” Ahlgren agreed.
Both Tom and Mr. Swift were shocked by this latest blow of their enemies.
Tom called Ned Newton at the Swift Construction Company at once and told him the news.
“How soon will the Quakelizors be ready, Uncle Ned?”
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116 THE VISITOR FROM PLANET X
“They’re finished, Tom. We’re running a final inspection on them right now.
We can have them ready to ship out by one o’clock.”
Tom relayed word to the Pentagon. Bernt Ahlgren was greatly relieved. “By the way,” Tom went on, “what about the sites? Have they been chosen yet?”
“Only tentatively,” Ahlgren replied. “We wanted to get your opinion first.”
One of the deflectors, Ahlgren felt, should be based in position to guard the New York and New England area, in view of Intelligence warnings about a probable attack on New York City. Another, in the Cumberland plateau region of Kentucky, could damp out shock waves threatening either the heavily industrialized Great Lakes area or any southern city.