Tom and Bud gaped in stunned surprise. The speaker was a huge, bear-sized man who was seated at a desk. An enormous blond handlebar mustache jutted out on each side of his ruddy-cheeked face.
“Simon Wayne!” Tom cried out.
“Exactly. Come in and take a load off your feet, boys!” Wayne invited, waving toward chairs. “I recognized you via a hidden television eye just outside the trap door. A jolly surprise, eh?”
Simon Wayne roared with laughter. “You’ll have to admit, son, it’s an original way to bag guests-with an antiaircraft gun!”
“I suppose you also shot down our missing drone?” Tom said.
Wayne nodded. “Yes, indeed. I’ve been trying hard to lay hands on one of your atomic capsules so I could copy the design. Never expected one would come flying right into my web!”
As Wayne chuckled, Tom and Bud glanced at each other with a look of furious understanding.
“So you’re the sneak who buzzed the Sky Queen on the flight back from New Mexico!”
158 TRIPHIBIAN ATOMICAR
Bud accused. “And hijacked the first drone plane too, I’ll bet!”
“Certain employees of mine did, acting on my orders,” Wayne admitted.
A sudden suspicion flared in Tom’s mind as he recalled the blast that had shattered the building in which the stolen magnetic homing pigeon had been hidden. One of the two victims had been Mr. Goldtooth-which meant that Simon Wayne was also involved in the ruby mine mystery!
“What is this underground hideout of yours, Wayne?” Tom demanded.
The beefy sales-engineer grinned. “You’ve guessed, eh? Well, you’re quite right, my dear Swift. You are now inside the Amir’s Mine!”
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