“And it must be someone right here,” Tom realized unhappily. “Someone who either works at Enterprises or has access to the plant!”
Tom phoned Harlan Ames and gave him a full report. The security chief was equally shocked by the thought that Tom’s enemy might be someone they both knew.
“Are you sure these marks on your car are the same as the scorings on the lock metal?” Ames asked.
“No, I can’t be positive,” Tom admitted. “The scratches look fresh, but they might have been caused when the car overturned, like the other scratch marks were. I think we ought to follow up on it, though, Harlan.”
“So do I,” Ames agreed emphatically. “I’ll check with the police and get a rundown on all known acquaintances of Tappan and this Raymond Dunstan.
Then we’ll see if any of them might have a connection here at the plant.”
MYSTERIOUS MARKINGS 81
“Thanks, Harlan,” Tom said. “I sure hope I’m wrong.”
“For once, so do I, skipper!”
He now went back to perfecting the Private Ear, then continued work on his megascope space prober. “I’ll have to get cooking if I hope to watch Bud’s flight to Venus.”
The next step would be to work out a way for focusing his prober on a given point in space. It would have to be done by manipulating his anti-inverse-square-wave beam, Tom realized.
The young inventor was deep in thought when Chow Winkler came clomping into the laboratory. “Got a delivery for you, bossl Want it in here?”
CHAPTER X
A SUDDEN WARNING
TOM looked up absent-mindedly. “What is it, Chow?”
The leathery-faced cook jerked a thumb toward the corridor. “Some kinda gas tank, I reckon. Got it right outside.”
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