“Please! Let’s not joke about it!” said Phyl.
“Tell you what,” Tom said as he steered the car in a gentle glide back onto the highway. “I’ll invent an anticrash device before your next test ride, mademoiselle.”
“Sold!” Phyl’s brown eyes twinkled back at the young scientist.
She and Sandy soon forgot the frightening experience in the sheer exhilaration of spinning along as quietly as a breeze. The lack of engine noise, Tom explained, was due to the car being
14 TRIPHIBIAN ATOMICAR
driven by four small electric motors, one of them mounted at each wheel.
“And that steering lever does everything?” Phyl asked.
“Practically everything,” Tom said. “Accelerates, slows, stops, turns, or reverses-depending on how you move the stick.”
Passing motorists goggled admiringly at the bronze, bubble-hooded sports car. As Tom drove farther into the country, the highway skirted pleasant green woodland on the left, while off to the right the blue waters of Lake Carlopa sparkled in the June sunshine.
“How about that Łrzphibian feature you mentioned?” Sandy asked from the back seat.
“Well, you know what amphibian means.”
Sandy grinned at him in the rear-view mirror. “Don’t pin me down, professor, but it refers to something that exists on both land and water, doesn’t it? I know the Marines make amphibian landings and an amphibian plane can take off from land or water.”
Tom nodded. “Well, my atomicar is triphibian -meaning it can get around on land, through the air, or over water.”
To demonstrate, Tom pushed the repelatron switch on the dashboard, and again the car’s wheels soared gently up off the road.
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