“Well-almost positive.” Miss Trent frowned. “You see, it comes right after your father’s lab folder on neutron emission. And I remember putting it right behind that.”
“Okay, thanks.” As Miss Trent went out, Tom sat down at his desk. His mind was racing.
Could Creel have tampered with the file on Ngombia when he was left alone in the office?
Tom hastily checked the folder. Everything seemed to be there-the correspondence with the Ngombian Embassy; a transcript of the conference with Kwanu; Tom’s plans for his survey trip.
Darcy Creel could have read them all, Tom realized-even photographed them with his miniature camera. The shower of aluminum foil might A JUNGLE MYSTERY 45
have been a trick to lure Tom away from his office and thus give Creel the opportunity!
Tom phoned Ames and explained his suspicions.
“That may be the answer,” the security chief agreed. “Is Miss Trent certain the folder had been moved?”
“No, not absolutely,” Tom said. “But if it was moved, it sure explains a lot.”
“Hmm. On the other hand, skipper, if Creel is working for your enemies, what did they hope to find out? You only discussed the project with Kwanu the day before yesterday-they wouldn’t expect you to have a complete set of construction plans drawn up.”
“Who knows? They can’t tell how far we’ve gone with this thing,” Tom said. “For all we know, they might think that Kwanu came here to sign a definite contract with us-in fact, maybe that’s what they hoped to find out. The fake news story could have been a move to force our hand-and also provide Creel an excuse for coming here.”