THE ROBOT SPY'S STORY
"Tom!" his father cried. Anxiously the others crowded around the lanky
young inventor, who had fallen beside the new robot.
"Stand back! Give him air!" Bud urged. "How is he, Mr. Swift?"
The elder scientist was feeling Tom's wrist. "His pulse is beating, but
it's a bit weak. He must have received a terrific shock from all that
energy!... Tom!... Tom, son, can you hear me?"
The young inventor moaned and stirred faintly but his eyes did not open.
His cheeks and lips seemed colorless in the glow of Mr. Swift's
flashlight. Chow was terrified, hovering about helplessly.
"I'll call Doc Simpson to bring a pulmotor!" Hank exclaimed.
"Yes, do, Hank!" Mr. Swift pleaded. "Quick!"
An ambulance arrived a few minutes later. Doc Simpson and an attendant
leaped out, and the resuscitation equipment--specially designed by the
Swifts for their plant infirmary--was hastily unloaded.
Anxious moments followed, but finally Tom began to respond to the
treatment. Soon his eyes were open and he regained full consciousness.
As Doc held a paper cup of water for him to sip, Tom smiled wanly.
"Okay." he murmured, "I'm all right now. Sorry if I scared you, Dad." He
started to get up.
"It's a hospital bed for you, skipper. And no arguments!" Doc Simpson
said sternly. "What happened here?"
"I believe," Mr. Swift answered, "that our space friends, in finding a
way to move the energy back to us, had less close control over it on
earth than when they sent it from space."
By midmorning the next day, Tom had awakened refreshed from a good
night's sleep and felt normal again. Over Doc Simpson's protests, he
insisted upon dressing and hurrying over to his laboratory.
Here he found his father working intently amid a jumble of mechanical
parts, tools, and electronic equipment. Nearby stood Exman with a panel
open in his upper body, exposing the controls and output equipment.
"Hi, Dad!" Tom exclaimed as he strode into the laboratory. "What's doing
with Ole Think Box?"
Mr. Swift looked up with a smile of relief. "'Morning, son! All well
again? That's wonderful! I'm just giving Exman an artificial speech
mechanism. He's already briefed us via the electronic brain on the
situation in Brungaria. But I thought it would be even better if he
could tell us in person."
Details on the earthquake plot, Mr. Swift went on, had already been
reported to the Defense Department. Tom's raid on Balala Island had
effectively blocked further quake attempts.
The Brungarian rebels had become enraged by their failure to extract
Exman's secrets, and had decided to disintegrate the robot creature and
its brain energy. But the youthful Brungarian loyalist group had kept
them so busy with resistance outbreaks that they had delayed too long.
"Lucky thing!" Tom put in with an affectionate grin at Exman. "If they
had started to destroy him half an hour sooner, it might have been
pretty sad for Ole Think Box!"
Tom was intrigued by his father's design for an artificial speech
mechanism. After talking it over, they decided that Tom would go to work
on a central computer device to integrate all the senses. He would also
provide Exman with "ears," which would be sound-reception equipment. Mr.
Swift, meanwhile, would continue work on the speech mechanism and also
perfect the seeing equipment he had started earlier.
The day sped by as the two Swifts worked with feverish intensity. Lunch
was eaten from their workbenches, but the inventors reluctantly halted
at dinnertime.
After a tasty meal of fried chicken at home with Mrs. Swift and Sandy,
both Toms returned to the plant. Father and son labored until well past
midnight on their experiments. Then they snatched a few hours of sleep
and resumed their tasks early the next morning.
By early afternoon an atmosphere of excitement pervaded Enterprises. The
visitor from Planet X would soon be able to communicate directly with
his earth friends! Bud, Chow, Hank Sterling, Arv Hanson, and Art
Wiltessa gathered in the laboratory, along with several other Swift key
men. Mrs. Swift, Sandy, and Phyl also arrived to watch.
At last the sensing equipment was completed and installed. Exman was
ready to speak!
His voice came out haltingly, but as the words were selected from a vast
taped collection, they were clear and bold:
GREETINGS TO YOU, MY EARTH FRIENDS!
Sandy gave a squeal of delight and the room echoed with applause for
Exman's first effort. After a few adjustments, he was able to speak more
freely and smoothly.
Tom whispered to Phyl, "Confidentially, we had a dummy run before
lunchtime. At first, all Exman could do was croak like a frog."
Phyl, thrilled by the spectacle of a speaking space creature, gave the
young inventor's hand a squeeze. "Tom, he's just wonderful!"
Tom agreed. "Our country owes him a lot for exposing the Brungarian
rebel schemes."
To Tom's amazement, Exman's "ears" picked up his murmured words, even
above the babble of the spectators crowding the room.
"Your country owes you much, Tom Swift," the creature said. "You
conceived the idea of an electronic spy and found ways to block the
rebels' destructive earthquake plans."
As Tom flushed at the crowd's applause, Exman continued, "Unless I am
mistaken, you will soon learn that you have accomplished even more."
Tom was mystified by this. Meanwhile, the spectators listened spellbound
as Exman went on talking, telling what he had learned of the valiant
resistance efforts to overthrow the Brungarian rebels.
A short time later the telephone rang. Tom answered, and the operator
informed him that John Thurston of Central Intelligence was calling.
"Great news, Tom," the CIA man said. "We've just learned that the
rightful Brungarian government forces have struck hard in the capital
city and at half a dozen other points. The rebel puppets and their
troops have been crushed completely!"
Tom was enthusiastic over the news.
"That's not all," Thurston went on. "In case you don't realize it, the
information which you supplied by means of your electronic spy is
chiefly what enabled the government forces to win out. They've promised
to dismantle the rebels' other two earthquake bases."
As Tom hung up and relayed the electrifying news, Bud and the others
burst into cheers.
"It is all due to Tom Swift and his secret assistant," Exman said.
Tom was puzzled by the remark but had no time to ask what he meant as
the people in the room crowded around to shake his hand. Mr. and Mrs.
Swift smiled proudly at their son's latest triumph. Phyl and Sandy
expressed their feelings by giving Tom a quick kiss.
"Hey! Where do I come in?" Bud protested.
Before the girls could answer, the door of the laboratory opened and
Harlan Ames walked in, accompanied by a lean, gray-eyed young man with
dark close-cropped hair. _Samson Narko!_
Chow let out a yelp of rage. "Why, brand my sagebrush hash, it's that
double-crossin' Brungarian--"
"Hold it, Chow!" Ames cut short the outburst. "Allow me to introduce one
of America's most effective counterespionage agents, Mr. Samson Narko!"
Tom and his friends were astounded. Narko himself smiled somewhat
uncomfortably. "I can imagine how you all feel--you especially, Tom.
But, believe me, I could not risk pulling my punches even when it put
you all in grave peril, such as when I fired that missile across the bow
of your sub. I could only hope that Tom Swift would succeed in eluding
us."
Ames quickly briefed the others on Narko's background. Brungarian-born,
he had received his engineering training in the United States and had
learned to love America. When he saw his own country threatened by the
forces of dictatorship, he had secretly offered his services to the CIA
against the rebels. Soon afterward, the agency had approached him to
become a counterspy.
"I dared not relax from my role as a spy for a moment," Narko added.
"I even grabbed the chance to plant that cache of firearms in Latty's
cellar to convince any rebel agents who might be watching me that I was
on their side. Tom, the rebels gave me the job of hijacking your space
robot. But, going on the brief messages that the CIA was able to get
through to me, I guessed that you were using it as bait."
"I guess we all owe _you_ an apology," Tom said. "And our thanks. We
were lucky to have you on our side."
"He saved the lives of a number of loyalist prisoners and gave the
government forces some vital tip-offs of his own," Ames added.
As Tom shook hands with Narko, the young Brungarian said warmly, "It is
good to know that Tom Swift is my friend." With a chuckle, Narko added,
"I know from experience that you certainly make a dangerous enemy!"
As the others gathered around to speak to Samson Narko and add their
friendly congratulations, Bud slapped Tom on the back.
"Well, skipper, what's next on the schedule?"
For a moment Tom did not reply. He too wondered where his next
scientific adventure would lead him.
Finally Tom turned to Bud. "I'm not sure. But who knows what space
secrets Exman may have up his mechanical sleeve!"
* * * * *
* * * *
* * * * *
[Errors noted by transcriber:
Tom and Bud wore swimming trunks under their slacks.
_text reads_ swiming
Tom looked up, his blue eyes blazing.
_text has period for comma_
KIDNAPED! [chapter title] _and elsewhere_
_spelling "kidnaped" consistent in text_ ]