It was a masked frogman! The light revealed him in the act of attaching a large pouch to his diver’s belt. He gave a startled backward glance, then darted to an overhanging rock and leaped far out into the water!
Bud would have dived in pursuit, fully clothed, but Tom stopped him.
“You can’t catch him without diving gear!”
“He’ll get away!”
“Not if I can help it!” Tom sprinted back to the Whirling Duck and radioed Fearing Island. He ordered patrol boats to take off for the mainland at once and make a coastal sweep. Tom also directed
60 3-D TELEJECTOR
that his diving seacopter, the Sea Hound, begin a search with its aquatomic tracker. This device enabled the craft to trail a submerged object by detecting the minute chemical traces left in the water.
“What now, skipper?” Neil Forman asked.
“Ten to one that frogman came out of a tunnel,” Tom replied. “Let’s take a look.”
The trio scrambled down the cliffside. They found that the shrubbery concealed an entrance to a narrow, timbered passageway. Tom took the lead with his flashlight. After following the tunnel for several hundred yards, they came to a small, brick-walled chamber. Bud spotted a light switch and flicked it.
“Wow! So this is their secret setup!” Neil exclaimed. “Must be right below the sign.”
The chamber was bare except for a console of radio-recording devices. Tom examined the gear. “He must have removed the data tapes and installed new ones,” Tom announced. “That’s probably what he was carrying in his pouch.”
As they emerged from the tunnel, the Sea Hound came hovering into view in the night sky.
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