The Swifts exchanged puzzled looks. “That is strange,” Mr. Swift murmured thoughtfully. “I know of no scientific meeting going on down there at this time.”
“No, we’ve checked that angle,” Dr. Palfrey stated. “There’s none in session.”
“Could the men have been engaged for some secret project by the Argentine government?” Tom asked.
“The answer is no,” said a CIA man. “We’ve checked out all sources and we’re sure the government doesn’t come into the picture. It looks as though Argentina is being used merely as a gathering point.”
“What it boils down to is this,” Thurston told the Swifts. “Something important may be going on -perhaps a secret project, as Tom suggests. But 76 THE ASTEROID PIRATES
what sort of project? And for whom? Will it affect United States security? In any event, we don’t want this country caught flat-footed!”
Mr. Swift frowned. “Just who are these unofficially missing men?”
Thurston glanced at Bernt Ahlgren. The Defense Department expert pushed a leather-bound, loose-leaf volume toward the Swifts.
“Dr. Palfrey and I have collected all the information available on the scientists in question,” he explained. “I suggest you look over the data and give us your comments.”
Tom and his father began leafing through the volume with interest. It contained photographs of all the vanished scientists, with dossiers on their backgrounds.
“Say, Dad!” Tom exclaimed, pointing to one of the photos. “Isn’t that the fellow who kicked up such a row at the International Magnetohydrody-namics Seminar in Baltimore?”