Read Online Tom Swift and His Cosmotron Express by Victor Appleton II - Free Book Online

joined by Tom’s father. Chow’s hat ended up under his chair and immersed in his personal shadow. "I should probably explain further," Emda said. "I have advanced degrees in astrophysics and engineering, from the University of Texas, and I worked much of my adult life for NASA."
    "The Houston Space Center?" asked Damon Swift.
    "Yes, and for various contractors. But eight years ago I was made a good offer and traveled back to Brungaria to work for their equivalent to NASA, COSMOSA. My technical work was perfectly genuine—but it developed that I was in a good position to undertake a very different assignment at the request of the Brungarian government. I became something of a spy."
    "Uh- huh !" broke in Chow with a degree of self-satisfaction.
    "That’s right," grinned Emda. "A spy—or maybe I should say a planted informant. As you know, many remnants of the old regime continue to work in COSMOSA while secretly supporting the dissident faction called the Sentimentalists. They developed what was virtually their own space program, using the abandoned Dyaune project—"
    Tom uttered a faint gasp. "I recognize you!"
    "I reck’nized him first!" snorted Chow.
    The Brungarian American nodded. "I wondered if you would. Yes, I was a member of the Dyaune ’s crew on the moon flight. I was one of the ones who went aboard the animal saucer with Nattan Volj. Didn’t have the mustache back then, and I was in one of our bulky spacesuits." As Tom’s eyes shifted to Radnor quizzically, Emda went on: "Mr. Thurston should have let you know about my heroic past. I had wormed my way into Volj’s employ as part of my informant job, gaining his trust over the years.
    "I was sickened by what happened, gentlemen—Volj’s attempt to destroy you and seize the alien life forms for his own purposes. I celebrated inside when you used your repelling machines to kick us out into space."
    "We never knew what happened to the Dyaune thereafter," commented Mr. Swift.
    "We limped back to Earth with our nuclear-ion tail between our legs," the man replied. "In the ship, Volj remained in seclusion—the crew wondered if he’d had a breakdown. We landed, under our anti-radar cloak, in her permanent base in North Africa."
    "I gather you don’t know its location," Radnor put in. "I know you’ve been pretty extensively debriefed."
    "Yes, by both my governments. But no, once we arrived at the airport in Algiers on our frequent trips they always put us in a chopper with blacked-out windows, coming and going. We’re set up in a little box canyon—pretty sure it’s in the Ahaggar Mountains. That’s about all I know.
    "The Sentimentalists made sure I retained my ‘official’ position in COSMOSA, and sent me back to Brungaria regularly. The last time, after the Dyaune ’s return from the moon, I ran away for good, into government protection. After making my reports, I was out of the spy business—just another consulting engineer with an astrophysics background working in a ‘cleansed’ division of COSMOSA. As you know, we’re restarting our space program with a new vehicle based in part on the perfected technology of the Dyaune . I do know something about that ."
    Tom decided to take a risk. He spoke carefully, with a glance at his father. "Andor—"
    "Naw, gimme a break. Andy—please."
    "There are rumors in scientific circles about the Dyaune and Professor Volj. Have you... heard anything?"
    Emda nodded. "I think you mean this deal about the ship having disappeared up in space."
    "Then you know," Tom confirmed.
    "I’ve heard the rumors, and I presume both of ‘my’ governments know a lot more, a lot more than they’re willing to tell humble helpers like me. It’s thought that a rival faction may have seized the craft, or perhaps that it exploded. I’ve also heard the notion that it’s a hoax from beginning to end, that the Brungarian security boys are trying to lure the Sentimentalist leadership into the open by capturing the ship—maybe