Tom Swift and His Repelatron Skyway Read Online Free PDF

the scope."
    "If he had been attacked and rendered unconscious—they could have put him in a car, even the trunk, and driven him out."
    "We’ve had problems along that line," admitted Tom. "We now use special equipment to scan all vehicles automatically as they pass through any of our gates. And the access roads and parking lots are all covered by videocams day and night."
    "Then the answer to all this is quite clear," Onamma stated grimly. "Yes. Mr. Kwanu has been sucked by a mysterious unknown force into the fifth dimension! Ah—no, my friends—a witticism."
    "I understand you Ngombians are well known for your sense of humor," noted Tom with a rather strained smile.
    "Yes," he confirmed. "That is, we Ghiddua are. Our poor little brothers the Ulsusu have no such capacity." He smiled broadly. "Now then. I have been told to ask you if you might send to us, to our Embassy, copies of your security tapes. No doubt your automatic cameras were trained upon all critical areas at the time of the incident. Hmm?"
    Ames gave a curt nod. "They show all Mr. Kwanu’s movements out in the open air, from his arrival to his return to the Visitors facility."
    "He returned? I was told― "
    "When we ran the tapes, we found that he had crossed the grounds back to the Visitors Center building, and we saw him enter it," Tom said. "But he never made it to the front lobby. We’re sure he’s not anywhere in the building, either."
    "Quite a bafflement, then. Nevertheless, our own investigatory personnel must examine the relevant tapes. There may be certain clues you would not think to notice. For I must say, my friends, in all branches of our new government—even here in our Embassy—one finds... suspicions. Not all our countrymen are pleased with us, and the ousted regime has its friends. Poor little people, to be so afraid of what is new."
    The video confab ended with a promise that Enterprises would send copies of the digitally recorded camera output by way of the videophone system. In turn, Ambassador Onamma promised to acquire a copy of the Burlow report from the home office in Ngombia and provide it to the Swifts for their assessment.
    Later in the long morning, the high sun saw Tom and Bud standing on a lawn between two multistory lab buildings next to the Enterprises airfield. They were both looking skyward.
    "So that’s your ‘repelaspan’ gimmick, huh, genius boy?" commented Bud skeptically, shading his eyes with his hand.
    "You sound a little querulous."
    "If that means what I think it does, I am. I see a bunch of equipment and antennas and bracing struts on the top of Design 2, and more of the same facing it on the top of Astronautics. In between, a two-hundred-foot stretch of blue-skied nothing !"
    "Bothers you, hmm?"
    "Makes me a tad curious. Where’s the bridge?"
    Tom laughed. "I thought ‘repela’ would be all the clue you’d need, flyboy! My ‘flying bridge’ isn’t made of anything solid—it works by repelatron force." He explained that computer controlled repelatron beams, tightly focused and sweeping back and forth across the gap, would create an invisible "bridge" of repulsion energies that would be powerful enough to lift and safely propel vehicles from one side to the other. "In other words, we transform ordinary cars into temporary flying machines."
    "Okay," said the young Californian. "Still, I don’t really get how― "
    "Aw now, brand my bridgework," came a gravelly voice behind them, "even I get how them repelly-trons kin do a job like that!"
    Tom turned. "Hi, Chow! You must’ve used your Texas tracking skills to sneak up on us."
    "Naw, jest wearin’ my sneaky boots today. Got soft stuff on th’ bottom—Doc Simpson says it’ll keep my ole feet from painin’ me."
    Bud gave a humorous wince and said. "Speaking of pain― "
    "Don’t bother t’say it, Buddy Boy. I know all about this here bright-eye shirt o’ mine." Chow Winkler had always had a weakness for gaudy western-style shirts. A close