“What can we give, skipper?” Bud wondered.
“Our wrist watches,” Tom whispered.
The Khan and his wife were delighted with these tokens.
“Now they’ll be able to sneak past your alarm system,” Bud said to Tom with a chuckle.
The Swift home at Shopton was protected by an electromagnetic field. The family and all their close friends wore wrist watches containing tiny neutralizer coils to keep the person approaching from setting off the electronic alarm.
Tom now invited their hosts to come for a ride in the atomicar. At first only the Khan was brave enough to try. He howled with glee as the car soared and hedgehopped. Then all the tribesmen clamored for a ride. At last the two young 142 TRIPHIBIAN ATOMICAR
Americans were allowed to depart. Flambo and his men accompanied them part way back to the base camp.
Tom felt sure that Flambo was not the enemy behind all their troubles. Before leaving the Middle Easterner, Tom decided to ask him about the secret Assassins cult which Simon Wayne had mentioned.
Flambo scoffed. “Your friend Wayne has his geography a trifle mixed up. The cult never centered here in Kabulistan. Their stronghold was the Rock of Alamut in the Elburz Mountains of northern Persia.”
Tom felt relieved. “Thanks,” he said to Flambo as they shook hands. “You’ve not only saved our lives-you’ve also taken a load off my mind.”
At sundown, the valley in which the base camp was located soon cooled off from the day’s heat. A bracing breeze blew down from the mountain peaks.
Darkness came fast, and the night sky was studded with stars.