Free Tom Swift and His Polar-Ray Dynasphere by Victor Appleton II Page B

particles—are driving the wind. The particle-wind makes space a conductor of what amounts to electric current, producing erratic ‘eddies,’ called spicules , near the sun’s surface. Now it looks like similar eddies are disrupting the local environment around Saturn, which Titan is part of."
    "High winds and bad weather, hunh?"
    "Very high!" Tom grinned. "Basically, the solar-wind Alfven Waves are interacting with the halo of gas molecules and ice particles that surround all the giant planets and give Saturn those big rings. Some of the material is always being scooped into space from the various moons by the ‘wind,’ or blasted into space by meteor impacts or volcanism."
    "And that’s what’s bouncing the space probe around?"
    "They think so. Now what I’m trying to do with this, mm, yet-unnamed polar-ray beamer is to distort the electrodynamics of the effect in the area of the Kronus. The main idea is to turn the surges back on themselves to change the direction of push, and also to concentrate it. You can see what happens. The near-vacuum in the test chamber contains a haze of charged atoms and replicates the Alfven Wave space phenomenon on a small scale."
    Bud nodded enthusiastically. "And it works! You’re basically going to shove the Kronus back on track—like using a hose to blow leaves out of a drain gutter. But look, Skipper, why not just use a big repelatron to push the satellite around? Couldn’t the Nameless Wonder beam the repulsion field across space—like you did the other day with the electrostatic field?"
    The young inventor shook his head. "Wish I could. But the dyna-field only affects electrical and magnetic dipole phenomena. The repelatron’s spacewaves are based on an entirely different principle. It interacts with the force that holds the atomic nucleus together, called the strong nuclear force."
    "Okay. Scratch my Swift idea."
    " My Swift idea is tough enough," replied Tom wryly. "This little lab demo is nothing compared to the difficulties involved in producing controlled effects on the other side of the solar system. It’ll require a much more advanced model. But I’ve already begun designing it in my head."
    Bud snorted admiringly. "Glad you’re keeping busy, chum."
    "Busier than that—I’ve also been thinking of a carrier spacecraft to mount it on. I’m beginning to realize how the device could have many uses. If I can beam out a powerful enough field― "
    A call from the Security Office interrupted the thought. "Harlan Ames," Tom murmured to Bud as he answered. "Maybe it’s news on our Buddha mystery."
    It was. "Agent Martin just contacted me, Tom, about Benni Susak. He’s dead!"
    " What !"
    "The police found his body—I suppose it’s not exactly his body now —washed up on the East River docks. He’d been beaten to death with some sort of club or blunt instrument, looks like. No sign of those little statues, by the way. Guess somebody wanted them back bad."
    Tom paused, shocked. "Was anything else found on him? It looked to me that he was carrying something when he left the shop, something too big to put in his pocket."
    "Funny you should ask, boss. Something was found on him," reported Harlan Ames. "And when I say on him, I mean that literally!"
     
CHAPTER 9
SWIFT SKY RESCUE
    AS Bud listened in excitedly, Ames explained to his puzzled boss that the unfortunate Benni Susak had been found to bear a peculiar tattoo that might be of significance to the case. "Oh? I didn’t notice any tattoos, Harlan," Tom remarked.
    "Right—because it wasn’t there! Despite the effects of river water, not to mention being beaten to a pulp, the medical examiner thinks Susak was already dead when the tattoo was inscribed on the back of his neck."
    "What did it say, Harlan?" Bud asked. "One of those ‘dire warnings,’ maybe?"
    "No, it didn’t say anything—no words, just a picture. Offhand I have no idea what it signifies, or even what it is. Then again, I suppose the perps didn’t