“All right, you seem to have the upper hand,” Tom said. “What do you intend to do now?”
“You leave me no choice. You have found the Delian Apollo-not to mention certain other -shall we say?-borrowed masterpieces. What else can I do but get rid of you both-permanently.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Bud blurted out. “Too many people know we came here!
You could never explain our disappearance!”
Vaxilis’ lips shaped an evil smile. “Ah! Now there I must disagree! You see, we are all going for a pleasure cruise on my yacht, the Naiad-you will choose to enjoy some nighttime Mediterranean skin diving. But, alas, both of you will be drowned ‘accidentally’-one trying to rescue the other. And when I inform the authorities of your foolish decision and sad fate”-Vaxilis shrugged -“who will contradict me?”
Tom and Bud felt an icy chill of fear. The man was ruthless and his deadly plan seemed foolproof! Vaxilis glanced at the young inventor.
“It may be, my dear Swift, that I shall allow you to buy your life, provided you agree to use your
PRISONERS 131
scientific genius to help me on future projects similar to the sinking of the Centurion.”
Tom stared back defiantly. “If you think I’d ever help you endanger the lives of hundreds of innocent people, you’re crazier than you seem!”
Vaxilis’ eyes hardened. “As you wish. In any case, it might be too dangerous to trust you.”
The steel partition slid upward. Tom and Bud now saw that their host was accompanied by the chauffeur, the butler, and two burly henchmen. The strong-arm men-one thick-chested and apelike, the other a tall, muscular, bald-headed man-advanced, grinning, into the crypt.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127