A LUCKY BLAST
Tom's earphones caught the hiss of the approaching grenade. Instantly
his eyes darted to the sonarscope on his wrist.
A tiny blip of light was moving on the screen!
Tom whirled about, then gunned his ion drive. He pushed out of the path
of the grenade, which nevertheless grazed him as it streaked past.
Seconds later, the grenade struck bottom. A shattering _bo-o-oom_
reverberated through the depths, and clouds of silt darkened the water
into Stygian gloom.
Tom, knocked off balance, was tumbled about helplessly by the train of
shock waves. As they died away, he gradually recovered his bearings and
pressed the throttle control of his ion drive. It coughed and stuttered!
For a moment Tom felt a surge of panic, but the jet motor smoothed into
a steady purr of power.
"Whew!" he thought in relief. "At least I can still get around at full
speed if anything else comes at me!"
He had clung to the flashlight and fork despite the explosion. The blast
had hurled him away from the spot where the missile was buried, so Tom
began trying to locate it again.
But he soon realized that his efforts were hopeless. He must wait until
the silt which clouded the water cleared. Now Tom feared that the
explosion might have reburied the nose cone.
Suddenly a new worry gripped him. _Had the missile's precious contents
been destroyed by the blast?!_ Slowly he began making his way back to
the _Sea Hound_.
Unknown to Tom, Bud was fighting a desperate battle with his adversary
barely fifty yards away. The divers grappled each other in an
octopuslike duel. At such depths, their movements were impeded, as if by
oil.
The Brungarian pulled out the knife at his belt. Bud, a skilled wrestler
from high-school days, managed to twist his foe's knife arm behind his
back--then applied a punishing judo hold! The Brungarian gave an audible
screech of pain and dropped the knife.
"Now you're coming along with me!" Bud muttered. He gunned his jet,
forcing himself and his adversary toward the _Sea Hound_.
Moments later, they passed the seacopter's cabin window. Reaching the
air lock, Bud hammered for admission. The hatch opened quickly and his
prisoner was hauled inside. Bud followed.
Tom greeted him with a bear hug. "Hi, Bud, you old devilfish!" Turning
to the prisoner, Tom added "Who's this?"
"The rat who fired that grenade at you!"
The prisoner was wearing a frogman costume and a mask which hid the
lower part of his face. The man's dark eyes glittered in hate, as Tom
ordered him to remove his mask. Sullenly the prisoner obeyed.
Tom gasped. "_Dimitri Mirov!_" The name sent a shock through the
Americans aboard.
"Wal, I'll be jing-whistled!" Chow declared, then broke into a gleeful
cackle.
Under their scornful gaze, the Brungarian's own eyes wavered and his
shoulders slumped in an attitude of defeat. "What is the use?" he
muttered. "Again I have failed. My career is over now, just like my
brother's."
Tom seized the opening. "In that case, maybe you're ready to do some
talking now."
Mirov shrugged. "What do you wish to know?"
In answer to Tom's questions, Mirov admitted that his group, composed of
Brungarian rebel Navy men and rocket engineers, had sabotaged the
returning Jupiter probe missile, hoping to obtain its data for their own
use.
Their key agent in America was the man who had posed over the phone as
Lester Morris and masterminded the other attempts to kidnap Tom. He had
also taken the amulet bracelet from Ames's jacket in a restaurant.
Mirov himself had been given the bracelet after his jail break. Pulling
back the sleeve of his frogman suit, he displayed it with a momentary
smirk of pride.
"I even got inside the grounds of Swift Enterprises and stole a plane
that same night," Mirov boasted.
Tom was startled. "How did you manage that?"
"Very simple. I thumbed a ride with one of your trusted workers on the
late shift and showed him the amulet to identify myself as a Swift
employee. The guard at the gate was fooled the same way."
Tom nodded thoughtfully. "They were instructed to look for a man trying
to sneak past alone. Seeing you in the same car with a known employee,
he probably assumed you were all right."
Mirov was allowed to change into dry clothes, then his hands were bound
behind his back. When the water cleared, Tom and Bud ventured outside
again. First they headed for Bud's jetmarine to reassure his crew. Here
they learned that the mystery submarine had vanished.
"Good riddance!" Bud exclaimed jubilantly. "They probably didn't even
realize you had found the missile!"
"_Had found_ is right--past tense," Tom said wryly. "It's no doubt
buried again. But at least we have the right spot."
They emerged from the jetmarine and headed back toward the site. As they
glided astern of the _Sea Hound_, Tom uttered a cry over his suit mike.
"_Bud! There it is!_"
Both boys darted ahead at increased speed, and Tom played his flashlight
beam over the precious treasure. Instead of burying the missile deeper,
the grenade explosion had uncovered the entire nose cone and part of the
section behind it!
"Sizzlin' squids! What a break!" Bud whooped.
The boys jetted back to the _Sea Hound_ to announce the good news. Zimby
and two other crewmen were dispatched in hydrolungs to inform the other
ships. Tom requested them to remain submerged and guard the site.
Twenty minutes later the _Sea Hound_ was zooming up to the surface. Tom
hoisted the craft's aerial and radioed word to his father, who was
overjoyed. Mr. Swift, in turn, had news--that the rebels' key man and
Len Unger had been seized by the FBI. Tom's next call was to Admiral
Walter.
"Tom, this is wonderful news!" the admiral exclaimed. "I'll have our
Navy ships routed back there immediately--and I intend to fly out
myself as soon as I can board a plane!"
As Tom waited for the task force to arrive, his thoughts turned to new
inventions to tackle. But he could not anticipate what would happen to
him in his _Triphibian Atomicar_.
Within hours, the task force arrived at the site and recovery operations
got under way. The missile was hoisted to the surface by cables attached
to submarines, then hauled aboard the tender. Tom himself supervised the
job of extracting the sealed data section.
"You've done a tremendous job, Tom Swift, and our whole country will be
proud of you!" Admiral Walter declared before sailing home.
Tom grinned as he prepared to descend the ladder over the side. "Let me
know about life on Jupiter, sir. I may go there myself one of these
days!"