Free Tom Swift and the Asteroid Pirates by Victor Appleton II Page B

wink. "Swift Enterprises, to be specific. You see, we plan to make a great big lazy circle over the Great Lakes, then head back."
    Tom nodded. Evidently the secret conference was to take place entirely in midair!
    It was Ahlgren who seemed to be in charge of the agenda. "Tom, you’re being brought into this because it appears to be connected to what’s happening up in space, the Nestria problem."
    "You’re referring to the Black Cobra? Li Ching?"
    "For some time now we’ve known, thanks to the work of our... our special experts... that the Comrade-General is somehow involved in all this. He has his own spacecraft, of course—one which we can barely see, let alone track on radar. As you know, our boys haven’t quite solved the secret of his antidetection technology."
    "Which is not to say that your own ‘Antitec’ material isn’t far superior," hastily interjected John Thurston, as if it were important to keep Tom’s ego well-stroked.
    Tom said, "You’ve obviously read the reports my father and I have been sending to Washington. We assume the Cobra has produced some sort of finely dispersed cloud of antimatter particles in the space around Little Luna. I expect to be able to retrieve a sample in a matter of days."
    "That’s good news," muttered Dr. Palfrey. "Do you have hope of reaching the surface of the asteroid before conditions at the base become critical?"
    "Hope? Yes." Tom frowned. He sensed that a good deal was being left unsaid. "No offense intended, gentlemen, but how about explaining to me how all this is a matter for the CIA and gosh-knows what else you represent."
    An exchange of glances ended at Bernt Ahlgren. "The EMP event the other day has quite a few folks—and not just in this country —mighty worried. If this international marauder can create phenomena of this nature on demand, he can basically pick the highest bidder—and auction off the rest of the world."
    "Bernt is speaking metaphorically, of course," said Thurston. "But then also, we must consider Li’s evident access to antimatter, the ultimate ‘controlled substance’. The implications for ― "
    "I think we should tell him!" interrupted Dr. Palfrey suddenly.
    "Yes," stated Tom Swift. "I think you should!"
    "Very well, then." Ahlgren leaned forward. "From behind the shield of a protective barrier of the sort he has created, the Cobra could wield a weapon even more formidable than antimatter. Antimatter is fantastically destructive—but that is also its weakness. Great for blackmail, theoretically. But bombard a country from outer space, and what you get are tens of thousands of square miles of radioactive embers, useless and uninhabitable for Lord knows how long. Nor can the rest of the planet be protected from windborne fallout. As a practical matter, Tom, this sort of ‘doomsday weapon’ is valueless."
    "Antimatter warfare is not healthy for children and other living things," said Palfrey in what Tom finally concluded was an attempt at wit.
    "It would only be launched by some sort of revenge-minded psychotic, as a sick final gesture," Tom agreed. "Li Ching is egotistical and grandiose, but mainly ― "
    "The word you want is controlling ," John Thurston said. "And a man like that needs to have something left to control."
    Dr. Palfrey’s voice was dry, almost ghostly. "Our people have concluded that the weapon he is seeking, the weapon he may now have , is one that destroys selectively, without general devastation. Do you understand, Tom?"
    "I do, sir." The young inventor had long since felt the blood draining from his face as he caught on. The prospect suddenly confronting him was a terrible one. "You’re talking about Lunite deatomization."
    It was Tom Swift who had led the expedition to Little Luna that claimed the phantom satellite for his country, and Tom Swift who had handled the two rock fragments of metallic crystal that he had subsequently named Lunite. Acting under some unknown external influence, the rocks had twice