CHAPTER XX
THE ROBOT SPY"S STORY
"Tom!" his father cried. Anxiously the others crowded around the lanky young inventor, who had fallen beside the new robot.
"Stand back! Give him air!" Bud urged. "How is he, Mr. Swift?"
The elder scientist was feeling Tom"s wrist. "His pulse is beating, but it"s a bit weak. He must have received a terrific shock from all that energy!... Tom!... Tom, son, can you hear me?"
The young inventor moaned and stirred faintly but his eyes did not open.
His cheeks and lips seemed colorless in the glow of Mr. Swift"s flashlight. Chow was terrified, hovering about helplessly.
"I"ll call Doc Simpson to bring a pulmotor!" Hank exclaimed.
"Yes, do, Hank!" Mr. Swift pleaded. "Quick!"
An ambulance arrived a few minutes later. Doc Simpson and an attendant leaped out, and the resuscitation equipment--specially designed by the Swifts for their plant infirmary--was hastily unloaded.
Anxious moments followed, but finally Tom began to respond to the treatment. Soon his eyes were open and he regained full consciousness.
As Doc held a paper cup of water for him to sip, Tom smiled wanly.
"Okay." he murmured, "I"m all right now. Sorry if I scared you, Dad." He started to get up.
"It"s a hospital bed for you, skipper. And no arguments!" Doc Simpson said sternly. "What happened here?"
"I believe," Mr. Swift answered, "that our s.p.a.ce friends, in finding a way to move the energy back to us, had less close control over it on earth than when they sent it from s.p.a.ce."
By midmorning the next day, Tom had awakened refreshed from a good night"s sleep and felt normal again. Over Doc Simpson"s protests, he insisted upon dressing and hurrying over to his laboratory.
Here he found his father working intently amid a jumble of mechanical parts, tools, and electronic equipment. Nearby stood Exman with a panel open in his upper body, exposing the controls and output equipment.
"Hi, Dad!" Tom exclaimed as he strode into the laboratory. "What"s doing with Ole Think Box?"
Mr. Swift looked up with a smile of relief. ""Morning, son! All well again? That"s wonderful! I"m just giving Exman an artificial speech mechanism. He"s already briefed us via the electronic brain on the situation in Brungaria. But I thought it would be even better if he could tell us in person."
Details on the earthquake plot, Mr. Swift went on, had already been reported to the Defense Department. Tom"s raid on Balala Island had effectively blocked further quake attempts.
The Brungarian rebels had become enraged by their failure to extract Exman"s secrets, and had decided to disintegrate the robot creature and its brain energy. But the youthful Brungarian loyalist group had kept them so busy with resistance outbreaks that they had delayed too long.
"Lucky thing!" Tom put in with an affectionate grin at Exman. "If they had started to destroy him half an hour sooner, it might have been pretty sad for Ole Think Box!"
Tom was intrigued by his father"s design for an artificial speech mechanism. After talking it over, they decided that Tom would go to work on a central computer device to integrate all the senses. He would also provide Exman with "ears," which would be sound-reception equipment. Mr.
Swift, meanwhile, would continue work on the speech mechanism and also perfect the seeing equipment he had started earlier.
The day sped by as the two Swifts worked with feverish intensity. Lunch was eaten from their workbenches, but the inventors reluctantly halted at dinnertime.
After a tasty meal of fried chicken at home with Mrs. Swift and Sandy, both Toms returned to the plant. Father and son labored until well past midnight on their experiments. Then they s.n.a.t.c.hed a few hours of sleep and resumed their tasks early the next morning.
By early afternoon an atmosphere of excitement pervaded Enterprises. The visitor from Planet X would soon be able to communicate directly with his earth friends! Bud, Chow, Hank Sterling, Arv Hanson, and Art Wiltessa gathered in the laboratory, along with several other Swift key men. Mrs. Swift, Sandy, and Phyl also arrived to watch.
At last the sensing equipment was completed and installed. Exman was ready to speak!
His voice came out haltingly, but as the words were selected from a vast taped collection, they were clear and bold:
GREETINGS TO YOU, MY EARTH FRIENDS!
Sandy gave a squeal of delight and the room echoed with applause for Exman"s first effort. After a few adjustments, he was able to speak more freely and smoothly.
Tom whispered to Phyl, "Confidentially, we had a dummy run before lunchtime. At first, all Exman could do was croak like a frog."
Phyl, thrilled by the spectacle of a speaking s.p.a.ce creature, gave the young inventor"s hand a squeeze. "Tom, he"s just wonderful!"
Tom agreed. "Our country owes him a lot for exposing the Brungarian rebel schemes."
To Tom"s amazement, Exman"s "ears" picked up his murmured words, even above the babble of the spectators crowding the room.
"Your country owes you much, Tom Swift," the creature said. "You conceived the idea of an electronic spy and found ways to block the rebels" destructive earthquake plans."
As Tom flushed at the crowd"s applause, Exman continued, "Unless I am mistaken, you will soon learn that you have accomplished even more."
Tom was mystified by this. Meanwhile, the spectators listened spellbound as Exman went on talking, telling what he had learned of the valiant resistance efforts to overthrow the Brungarian rebels.
A short time later the telephone rang. Tom answered, and the operator informed him that John Thurston of Central Intelligence was calling.
"Great news, Tom," the CIA man said. "We"ve just learned that the rightful Brungarian government forces have struck hard in the capital city and at half a dozen other points. The rebel puppets and their troops have been crushed completely!"
Tom was enthusiastic over the news.
"That"s not all," Thurston went on. "In case you don"t realize it, the information which you supplied by means of your electronic spy is chiefly what enabled the government forces to win out. They"ve promised to dismantle the rebels" other two earthquake bases."
As Tom hung up and relayed the electrifying news, Bud and the others burst into cheers.
"It is all due to Tom Swift and his secret a.s.sistant," Exman said.
Tom was puzzled by the remark but had no time to ask what he meant as the people in the room crowded around to shake his hand. Mr. and Mrs.
Swift smiled proudly at their son"s latest triumph. Phyl and Sandy expressed their feelings by giving Tom a quick kiss.
"Hey! Where do I come in?" Bud protested.
Before the girls could answer, the door of the laboratory opened and Harlan Ames walked in, accompanied by a lean, gray-eyed young man with dark close-cropped hair. _Samson Narko!_
Chow let out a yelp of rage. "Why, brand my sagebrush hash, it"s that double-crossin" Brungarian--"
"Hold it, Chow!" Ames cut short the outburst. "Allow me to introduce one of America"s most effective counterespionage agents, Mr. Samson Narko!"