Tom Swift and His Repelatron Skyway Read Online Free PDF Page A

now, goodbye!"
    He turned and left, a human whirlwind. In a moment Tom heard the elevator door open and close.
    Good night! he thought. What are we getting into?
    Stepping next door, Tom spoke for a time to Harlan Ames, giving an account of what had happened. "Tom, you must admit this Kwanu’s story is quite a stretch to take in. He flies by commercial airline to Shopton with a valuable briefcase, rents a car, opens the briefcase inside the car and verifies that all’s well, then locks the door and drives here. Then—gone."
    Tom nodded. "I’m sure he would have mentioned it if it weren’t in his possession at all times."
    "So how’d the switch get made? If there was a switch!"
    "That ‘if’ crossed my mind too, Harlan," agreed Tom. "It’s more likely that he’s lying to us than that somebody teleported his briefcase away without his knowing it!"
    "You know," said Ames determinedly, "I can get pretty forceful when I need to. If Kwanu hasn’t driven off yet, I’m going to have Security politely drag him back here. We need a few answers before this goes any further."
    He contacted the security desk at the Visitors Center. "No? Oh really? You’re absolutely—yes, of course. Thanks a lot, Terry." Ames looked thoughtful and troubled as he clicked off the telephone and turned back to Tom. "He hasn’t come back through the building yet. Terry says he can see Kwanu’s rental car still sitting in the lot."
    Brow creasing, Tom ran a hand through his crewcut. "It’s been more than long enough for someone—even a crocodile!—to walk from Admin to the Visitors Center."
    With increasing concern Harlan Ames alerted Security and initiated a search of the grounds. "Not a sign of him," he finally reported to Tom. "Somehow or other the guy’s vanished ! Now tell me, boss—how can that be ?"
    Tom’s response was a quiet mutter of bafflement. "How can it be? I can’t imagine. But it is! "
     
CHAPTER 4
CHOW’S SPACEWALK
    "WE understand the seriousness of this matter, Mr. Ambassador," said Damon Swift.
    "We have no doubt that you do," responded the official. He was half-smiling in a polite way, but his tone bespoke diplomatic caution.
    It was the morning after Mr. Kwanu’s strange disappearance. Tom and his father had arranged to speak to the Ngombian Ambassador directly, by means of Enterprises’ private television system, the videophone network. Joined by Harlan Ames the two Swifts sat in their office while the Ambassador, Dr. Onamma, spoke to them from the Washington videophone outlet.
    Onamma continued. "Your FBI reports that they have no leads thus far. It is the same with your own security apparatus, is it not?"
    "That’s right," said Ames. "We instituted, and have now completed, a very thorough search of the plant grounds. No sign of Mr. Kwanu or that briefcase of his. Or anything else."
    "Might he not have been kidnapped and taken from the grounds over your perimeter fence?"
    Tom shook his head and answered for Ames. "That’s unlikely, and would require some special electronic equipment for everyone involved, victim and kidnappers. We have a radar-type security system here at Enterprises, which we call the Patrolscope. Unless we program-in a specific ‘ignore’ command, anything with a size, shape, and movement suggesting a person sets off a plant-wide alarm."
    "But then your own workers― "
    "Our regular workforce, executive staff included, all carry special devices that tell the Patrolscope computer to not respond to the reflection-source wearing them," Tom’s father explained. "Visitors are also provided with amulets as they enter at the main gate."
    "Yes, I see," nodded the Ambassador thoughtfully. "Ah! Um, um, um! Surely that is why you cannot detect Kwanu—he is made unseeable by this amulet he was given."
    "Naturally, sir, that thought occured to us," declared Ames with a trace of professional indignation. "We immediately transmitted a coded signal that deactivated his personal unit. Nothing came up on