“Wish you would, Mom,” Tom said. “I’d like all the information on Vaxilis I can get.”
MYSTERY MILLIONAIRE 107
Next morning Tom and Bud flew to Fearing Island, taking the improved model of the aquatomic tracker. After installing it in the Sea Hound, they took off and jetted eastward. Once again, Tom landed gently among the waves at the spot where the Centurion had sunk. Then he reversed blade pitch and eased the control wheel forward. The seacopter plunged smoothly into the water.
Soon the liner’s trace elements began to flash on the readout panel. Tom adjusted the aquatomic tracker to follow the trail automatically. As the Sea Hound nosed downward, all hands waited eagerly to see how the improved model of Tom’s invention would perform.
Again the seacopter leveled off more than a hundred feet below the surface.
But this time she locked on to the Centurion’s trail and settled on course with no preliminary weaving.
“Nice going, Tom! Looks as though you’ve ironed all the bugs out of the tracker,” Bud said. Puzzled, he added, “But how come we’re traveling on a horizontal course?”
“Good question-we should know the answer soon.” For several minutes Tom studied the element and isotope lights on the control panel. “Notice we’re still registering plutonium.”
“Those same submarine traces, eh? What does it mean, Tom?”
“Unless I’m mistaken,” the young inventor replied, “it means the Centurion was pirated by a large sub after it sank.”
108 AQUATOMIC TRACKER
Tom’s words brought gasps from Bud and the others. They stared at him in amazement.