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"I thought you were setting things up back at Atom City." "You fumble-fisted, space-gassing jerk!" snarled Charley Brett. "Depend on you to get things messed up! That Barnard guy is all set to roll with his reactor!" "Then why didn't Ross take care of him on the Moon?" asked Miles. "He didn't land," replied Brett. "He kept going and made the whole trip without refueling that new unit of his.
While the black ship had made it to Ganymede under full power without refueling, the strain might have damaged her seriously. Tom waited patiently for the reply, drumming his fingers on the table in his excitement. "Not more than sixteen hours, Good Company," the Ganymede operator finally answered. "Where are you now?"
He sat down on a heavy chop at Charlotte Amalie, and the Sky Wagon gave them a rough ride as he taxied to the pier. Lieutenant Jimmy Kelly was waiting in a Navy sedan with an armed guard in attendance. Rick supervised the refueling of his plane at the pier gasoline depot, a task he would not delegate to anyone else. The presence of attendants made it impossible to talk to the Navy lieutenant.
Only static filled the control deck of the Space Lance as Tom clutched the microphone and pleaded desperately for Quent Miles to answer him. "Come in, Miles! This is Corbett on the Space Lance to Quent Miles on the Space Knight! Come in, Miles! Come in!" Bill Sticoon shook his head. "Miles must be nuts trying to get to Ganymede without refueling," he muttered.
The refueling crew got down to the ground and fed the hose back to the pit which devoured it. That was all. But somehow Joe remembered the sandy-haired man and his arm going up inside the wheel well for a fraction of a second. The pilot read one part of the flight orders again and tore them carefully across. One part he touched his pocket lighter to. It burned.
The three Solar Guard officers looked at each other in surprise as the Titan operator acknowledged the call. "This is Titan. Go ahead, Ganymede." "We have just received word that the rocket ship Space Knight is within five minutes of a touchdown this spaceport. Will probably blast off again immediately after refueling. Acknowledge, Titan!" "I read you, Ganymede!" replied the Titan operator.
"You mean, Manning?" asked Miles, after an almost imperceptible pause. "Yes, I mean Manning!" snapped Tom. "Can't oblige, Corbett," said Quent Miles. "Your pal took it on the lam back at Ganymede. He ran out on me. As far as I know, he's still there. Didn't you see him when you stopped for refueling?" "We didn't stop," said Tom. "What do you mean, he got off at Ganymede?
But neither Tom nor Astro said anything but that the best man would win. There were the usual eager spectators too, thousands from the large cities on Mars who had taken the ferry rocket up to the spaceport to see the ships come in for refueling. As soon as Tom and Astro could tear away from the stereo reporter, they were mobbed by the onlookers who clamored for autographs.
Ross confessed that he was in Luna City and planted a time bomb on Gigi's ship when the French Chicken came in for refueling." "Say," exclaimed Roger, "I just happened to think! With Miles disqualified, Kit wins the race!" Seated in the pilot's chair, Kit turned to Roger and waved a paper. "Here's the contract, Roger. Signed, sealed, and with only the crystal to be delivered."
Rip looked through the thick port beside him and saw the distinctive blue glow of a nuclear drive cruiser sliding sternward toward the platform. "Wave your eye stalks at that job," Flip said admiringly. "Wonder what it’s doing here?" The space platform was a refueling depot where conventional chemical fuel rockets topped off their tanks before flaming for space.
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