Ames showed him a photograph. “Have you ever seen this man before?” the security chief asked. It was a picture, taken at the hospital, of the Arabian-featured victim.
Ed whistled and nodded. “The man who sat next to me on the plane to Shopton-Mr. Goldtooth! By the way, what caused the blast?”
“Probably the atomic capsule blew up when they removed it from the drone and tried to disassemble it,” Tom replied. “The casing was still intact.”
“At least you have one more proof that your Durastress is the real McCoy,”
Ames put in.
Just then the telephone rang. Ames answered, spoke for a few minutes, then hung up. “That was the hospital,” he reported. “Those two men are still unconscious and it’s doubtful either will survive. The doctor says they absorbed pretty massive doses of radiation.”
118 TRIPHIBIAN ATOMICAR
One thing seemed certain. The same enemy had engineered the theft of both the old book and the drone plane. Hence, Tom reasoned, whoever was trying to ferret out the secret of his atomic power plant was also involved in the ruby mine mystery.
“And I have a hunch we’ll find the answer to both riddles in Kabulistan!” Tom declared.
As the meeting broke up, the young inventor felt more eager than ever to press ahead with Provard’s Middle Eastern project. Refusing to be discouraged by the loss of his homing drone, Tom set to work constructing a new model of both the plane and the homing device. This time, Tom included a safe but effective “destroy” mechanism which would sabotage instantly all secret parts if anyone tampered with the plane.
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