United States or Anguilla ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Besides the Sea Hound and the other diving seacopter which had already been rigged with antisonar and antidetection equipment, Tom ordered a large cargo jetmarine to be similarly equipped. Then he drew up a list of supplies and underwater search gear needed for the missile hunt. Tom phoned orders to a dozen different departments.
Tom took over the hydrophones. Sure enough, his ears could make out the faint hum of the jetmarine's atomic turbines. Tom directed Hank toward the sound, then ordered him to switch on the Sea Hound's powerful search beam. The light cut a path of radiance through the murky dark-green waters. Dead ahead, the jetmarine could be seen gliding across their field of view.
"A Navy sub, maybe?" suggested Zimby. Bud shrugged. "Let's find out." He ordered a change of course, hard to the right, and gunned the jets to bring the jetmarine directly on the mystery object's trail. "It's a sub, all right," he said a short time later, listening again over the hydrophones. "Pretty close to Fearing Island, isn't it?" put in Mel Flagler. "That's a government-restricted area."
"When we took off again in our hydrolungs to go back aboard ship, the jetmarine was gone!" "Maybe she's trailing the enemy sub," Tom conjectured. "That's what I'm hoping," Bud said uneasily. "Trouble is, our subs aren't armed, and who knows about that Brungarian job? The way they sling missiles around, anything could happen if she spots the jetmarine." Tom frowned.
Tom returned happily to base, feeling that the antidetection problem was now solved. The jetmarine, however, failed to appear. "That's funny. The test was over at four-fifteen," Tom murmured. "Maybe Bud surfaced out at sea somewhere," Arv Hanson suggested. Repeated radio calls brought no response.
Rather than lose time trying to contact Bud, Tom decided to let him find the Sea Hound. Accordingly, he switched off the antidetection system and ordered all ships to submerge. Arv's seacopter and Mel's jetmarine were to maintain close formation and stand guard while Tom's craft did the actual searching. Now the missile hunt began.
Or had Bud and his crew fallen victim to the enemy? At the end of the test period, Bud had prepared to bring the jetmarine to the surface. But just as he was about to blow the ballast tanks, Mel Flagler sang out a warning from the sonarscope. "Whoa! Hold it, skipper! I think we have company on the starboard beam!" Bud jerked his head around in surprise. "You mean the Sea Hound?"
Tom dashed out of the shed and scanned the sea to the southward. Sure enough, a jetmarine had surfaced and was speeding toward the sub docks. Minutes later, Tom was shaking hands warmly with Zimby Cox and Mack Avery. "Is Bud okay?" was Zimby's first question. "Right! I just heard from him," Tom replied. "He and Mel captured those enemy frogmen and a copter's on the way to pick them up.
A jetmarine was hoisted into drydock and the work crew swarmed over it, rigging the transducers. Would his experiment succeed? Tom wondered. Hopefully, he set to work assembling the electronic control unit. Bud helped the men on the hull for a while, then descended through the hatch to see how Tom was progressing.
In less than two hours they were ready to submerge again. Zimby Cox joined the crew. Bud suggested taking along hydrolungs in case of any need for tinkering with the transducers or amplifying equipment. This time, the jetmarine scored perfectly on the test, successfully eluding all the Sea Hound's efforts to detect it.
Word Of The Day