The Scarlet Lake Mystery: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story
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CHAPTER XII
Servomotors Missing
Rick and Scotty took time to shower and change, then left on theirprearranged errands. Scotty headed for his own department, to check alltravel to the north since the Orion firing. Rick set out to find JohnGordon.
The Spindrift scientist was not in his office, nor could Rick find himaround the base. Finally he took the jeep and headed for the firingarea.
There was considerable activity down on the lake bed. At a pad close tothe blockhouse a tower was under construction. That was the launchingtower for Cetus. But of even more personal interest to Rick was thepresence of a gantry crane at a third firing pad where one of thespecial rocket-transport trucks was just putting the first stage ofPegasus into place!
It was at the Pegasus pad that he found Gordon, in conversation withGee-Gee Gould, Dick Earle, Frank Miller, Cliff Damon, head of theinstrumentation section, and Lars Jannsson, head of the Pegasuspropulsion section.
"We'll start security immediately," Gordon was saying as Rick walked up."Tom Preston will arrange for a guard around the clock. We'll alsoarrange an exchange-badge system, so no one gets inside the fencewithout handing in his own badge and getting a special one. That way,we'll have absolute control on who comes and goes."
Gee-Gee Gould saw Rick and dropped a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Rickand I will do the final electronics check, just as we did on Orion."
Rick looked at Gordon. "Did you say something about a fence, sir?"
"I did. Look over there." Gordon pointed to a crew with a mechanicalposthole digger that was just starting work, then gestured to stickswith red flags that formed a huge box around the pad. "That's where thefence will go. And there will be only one gate."
Rick took advantage of the brief exchange with Gordon to wink at thescientist. Gordon picked up the cue quickly. "Can I ride back to thebase with you? I rode down with Dick, but he's not ready to leave yet."
"Glad to have you, sir," Rick replied.
On the way back to the base Rick told his story in detail, starting withScotty's and his own first suspicions about Mac and Pancho and endingwith their rescue by Deadrock Ogg.
John Gordon remained silent for long minutes after Rick had finished.Finally he said, "You've certainly stirred up something, Rick, but Idon't know how it fits into the over-all pattern. You and Scotty meet mein thirty minutes in my quarters and we'll see."
Rick dropped the scientist off at his office, then went to find Scotty.His pal was just emerging from the big maintenance shed. "Anything new?"Rick greeted him.
"Mac and Pancho took their truck out last night," Scotty reported. "Thetiming was right. They could have been driving the second vehicle thatarrived while we were getting loose in the jail."
Rick looked at him curiously. "Funny. Why would they take a truck out? Imean, what legitimate reason could they have?"
"They made one. Mac told the dispatcher they'd left an important pieceof gear at Careless Mesa."
So their hunch about Mac and Pancho had been right! But Rick stillcouldn't figure out how they were involved.
"How did you find out?" he asked.
"Easy. I checked the board. The dispatcher was sitting right there, so Ijust kind of wondered aloud what a tracking team would be doing off thebase at night. He's a talkative sort, anyway, so he just handed me thedope."
Exactly twenty minutes later Rick and Scotty walked through the doorinto the barracks in which John Gordon had his quarters. They hadn'tbeen inside before, although they had taken the precaution of locatingit in advance. It wasn't like their barracks. Instead, it was dividedinto a series of individual rooms, occupied by the chief executives ofthe base.
Gordon was waiting, and with him was Colonel Tom Preston. Preston shookhands with them.
"Apparently John was right," he greeted them. "You two do have a knackof sniffing things out."
Rick looked at the thin partition. "Is it okay to talk here?"
"It is now. I've checked. The occupants of nearby rooms are out. We'llbe able to hear if anyone comes in."
Rick immediately launched into a recital of their activities sincearriving in Las Vegas. Now and then Scotty elaborated. A few timesPreston interrupted to ask for clarification on a point or two.
"Good," he said when they had finished. "I'll see that Deadrock gets hisparts back."
"Who is Deadrock Ogg?" Scotty asked.
Preston smiled. "Quite a character, isn't he? Normally he's a ForestRanger. At the moment he's on loan to me, serving as my outside securityofficer. He did a good piece of work, getting that license number. We'llhand it to the FBI bureau in Las Vegas and they'll take it from there."
"He must have had advance information, to be at the right spot to getit," Rick observed.
"No more than you had," Preston told him. "We reached the sameconclusion that you and Luis Hermosa did, about how stolen goods couldget off the base. We've been watching from the inside, and Deadrock hasbeen watching at the Steamboat end."
"Then you already knew about Mac and Pancho leaving last night," Scottystated.
"Yes. But we really don't know any more than you two have found out.We're no closer to finding out who sabotaged the rockets--or who stolethe transistors and the servomotors."
"What?" the boys exclaimed in unison.
Tom Preston's eyebrows went up. "You haven't heard? But of course youhaven't, because you weren't here when we finished inventory. We'remissing ninety thousand dollars' worth of servomotors."
"Suffering spacefish!" Rick groaned.
Scotty asked quickly, "When did it happen?"
"During the Orion shoot. Project Cetus had drawn servos the day before,and they were on the shelves then."
"The stock clerks . . ." Rick began.
"Ran out to see Orion," Colonel Preston finished. "They've gone out tosee every shoot since the first one. But all of them swear nounauthorized personnel got into the warehouses. Of course they can't besure, because none of them kept eyes on the doors."
"Could any of the clerks be in on the thefts?" Scotty asked.
"If so, we have no evidence of it. But we have so little evidence itdoesn't count for much anyway. Of course we have some ideas, and Isuppose you do, too."
Rick and Scotty nodded.
Preston continued, "The thing that's clear to us is that there isn'tjust an Earthman. There's a gang. Someone sabotages the rockets. Someoneelse steals the stuff from the warehouse. Someone else--and it lookslike Mac and Pancho--takes the stuff to Careless Mesa, or Steamboat, orboth. And someone else--the gang that captured you--gets it at Steamboatand takes it to Vegas. Then, I suppose, still another man or group getsrid of it through trade channels."
John Gordon had been listening without comment. Now he spoke up. "Thepattern seems to indicate sabotage, in order to create a diversion forthieves. I can't buy it."
The boys and Preston waited for his reason.
"The thefts are peanuts. Oh, not in terms of ordinary thefts. But itdoesn't seem reasonable that anyone, no matter how greedy or crooked,would destroy ten million dollars' worth of rocket to steal goods only atiny fraction of that in value."
Gordon's comments were an echo of what Rick had thought when the theftof transistors first came to light. He simply couldn't believe theft wasthe only reason. He had also rejected theft as a means of hamperingoperations. While loss of parts was a nuisance, it wasn't crippling.
"Then the Earthman--I mean the Earthman who sabotages the rockets--hasto be a part of the technical staff," Rick said.
Gordon and Preston nodded. "Because only the project people have readyaccess to the rockets," Gordon agreed. "Have you found out anythingsuspicious about any of them, Tom?"
Preston shook his head. "I've studied their security backgroundinvestigations until I'm half blind. There isn't a thing that has even aremote connection."
Gordon added, "Maybe finding the actual saboteur is the toughest part,but there are some things about the thefts that aren't clear to me. Forinstance, ho
w did Deadrock Ogg know the car would be traveling withoutlights? He told the boys how he planted himself at the Pahrump Valleyturnoff because the sedan would have to turn on lights there. How did heknow?"
Rick had figured that part out. "At night, car lights can be seen formiles. The last thing in the world the thieves would want would be toattract attention to Steamboat. The only way to be sure would be totravel without lights. Turning them on during the run through thetwisting roads into the valley wouldn't be too much of a risk, becausethe road can't be seen for long distances there."
Scotty asked, "But why did the men handle us so gently last night? Theydidn't rough us up, especially. And one of them said we could getloose."
"You didn't see them, did you?" Preston countered. "It was too dark. Sothere was no danger of your identifying them. Why add murder or mayhemto the list of charges when you gain nothing?"
John Gordon stirred restlessly. "We'd better end this meeting. If theboys are associated with us, and especially with you, Tom, it will meanan end to their usefulness."
"You're right, John." Preston looked at the boys. "The biggest value youhave is as free agents. I won't try to keep you posted on all myactivities. And don't bother trying to contact me, or John, about whatyou're doing. It's too dangerous--unless you turn up a definite lead.Meanwhile, go on as you have been. I'd say you were doing fine. Just becareful. These men may have been gentle last night when they had nothingto lose, but that doesn't mean it's a way of life with them. Now scoot.And try not to be seen leaving."
The boys shook hands and started out, but Rick paused at the door andsaid something that had been on his mind since the Orion disaster.
"There's one thing. Let's hope that when the Earthman finally trips up,it won't be in front of everybody, especially after a shoot that he'sjust sabotaged. Otherwise, we'll never get a chance to question him.He'll be dead--lynched on the spot by the rocketeers!"