CHAPTER XVII
Crowd at Martins Creek
Rick and Scotty awoke to find four newcomers at Steve's house. Steveintroduced them to Dave Cobb, electronics specialist; Joe Vitalli andChuck Howard, JANIG agents; and Roy McDevitt from Wallops Island.
McDevitt, who had just driven over from the rocket range, was a tall,lean engineer dressed in slacks and a spectacular sport shirt emblazonedwith tropical flowers. He shook hands cordially. "You're Hartson Brant'sboys. We've certainly enjoyed having your family over at the island.When Barby and Jan leave, the whole base will go into mourning."
Rick grinned. "Somebody loses, somebody wins. We're anxious to have themback with us again."
Vitalli and Howard greeted the boys as old comrades. Although they hadhad no chance to become well acquainted, the two agents had been part ofthe JANIG team during the case of _The Whispering Box Mystery_.
Dave Cobb, who was scarcely older than the boys, had been hastilyborrowed from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. He spared notime for greetings other than a cordial wave, and immediately got towork on the rocket Rick had found in the cove.
The group pulled chairs up to the kitchen table on which Cobb wasworking, and watched.
Cobb studied the rocket for a few minutes, then took a pointed tool andpressed it into a spot five inches below the rounded nose. He rotatedthe cylinder and pressed a similar spot on the other side. Rick saw athin line appear around the rocket below where Cobb had pressed.
The electronics specialist gripped the cylinder above and below the thinline and twisted. The nose of the rocket came off. Cobb pointed to apair of metal prongs that extended out of the nose into the rocketcasing. "Contacts," he said. "They press against strips inside therocket casing. The whole assembly acts as a dipole antenna."
No one commented. Cobb took a tiny screwdriver and removed two screwsfrom a metal plate in the bottom of the nose cone. The screws were longones, holding the entire nose assembly in place. With the screws laidcarefully aside, Cobb tapped the cone and the assembly dropped into hishand.
"A terrific job of miniaturization," he commented. "First-rate design."He pointed with a screwdriver to a segment about the size of two silverdollars stacked together. "Tape recorder. It accumulates data, thenplays it back in a single high-speed burst."
Rick watched, fascinated, as the electronics expert identifiedcomponents and circuits. The whole unit, scarcely larger than a commonsoup can, contained receiver, tape recorder, transmitter, batteries, andcommand circuits that could be triggered from the ground. It was ahighly complex and beautifully engineered package for receiving data,storing it, then retransmitting it.
"But why?" Rick demanded. "Why send up a rockoon at all? What data doesit receive and transmit, and what do the people at the mansion do withit?"
"What Rick is asking," Scotty observed, "is the question that haspuzzled us since we got here. Why do the stingarees fly?"
Steve waved a hand. "Patience for just a few more minutes. Anythingelse, Cobb?"
The electronics expert shook his head. "Not unless you have specificquestions. In summary, this is a very elegant little assembly ofreceiver, data recorder, transmitter, and command circuits."
"Fine. McDevitt, what about the rocket?"
The man from Wallops Island shrugged. "Nothing very complex about it.It's a simple solid-fuel rocket with star grain, fired by a squib thatis commanded from the ground. A squib is simply an igniter to start thefuel burning. Battery power makes it glow red hot when turned on."
"How high an altitude would the rocket reach?" Steve asked.
"It's difficult to be precise, but I'd estimate the balloon carries itto ten thousand feet, then it is fired by signal from the ground at theproper time. The rocket would go to about one hundred thousand feet,plus or minus twenty thousand. In other words, I'd guess its maximumaltitude at nearly twenty-three miles."
"Did you say fired at the proper time, or proper altitude?" Rick askedquickly. He wanted clarification of the point, although he was sureMcDevitt had said "time."
"The altitude isn't important. I'd say time was the principal factor."
"But if altitude isn't important, why use a rockoon? Why not use arocket launched directly from the ground?" Scotty demanded. He lookedpuzzled.
Rick looked at Steve expectantly. The young agent smiled. "Got theanswer, Rick?"
"Maybe. It's a matter of secrecy, isn't it? The folks around here werepuzzled by the flying stingarees, but they would have been more puzzledby rocket firing. They'd have been curious enough to want to know whythe rockets were being fired, and it's certain that an investigationwould have resulted. By using rockoons, with balloons that didn't looklike balloons, Camillion confused the issue. People who reported seeingthings got laughed at, mostly because they call any unidentified flyingobject a flying saucer. The rockets fired only when high in the air,where people wouldn't notice."
"Two did," Scotty reminded him. "Remember? We had two interviews wherethe people saw spurts of flame."
"Sure," Rick agreed, "but they had no idea it was a rocket taking offfrom a balloon. And only two out of the whole bunch even noticed flameat all."
Steve nodded. "You've hit it, Rick. It's the only answer that makessense."
"Not until we know what data were collected by the rockoons," Rick saidstubbornly. "That's the whole key. Nothing will really make sense untilwe know that."
"We ran the dates and times of sightings through the computer with a lotof other dates and times for various things," Steve explained. "I had ahunch, but the computer turned it into good comparative data."
"What data?" Scotty demanded.
"Every single sighting you collected coincided with the launching of aresearch rocket from Wallops Island!"
The boys sat back, openmouthed. Rick said, "So that's why the glow fromWallops Island in the south-eastern sky was so significant. That's whatput you on the trail!"
"Right," Steve agreed. "The yellow glow is from sodium vapor rocketsfired from Wallops. The rockets allow visual measurement ofmeteorological data. People around here are used to seeing them to thesoutheast, over Wallops. When I saw that sightings had been made overSwamp Creek at the time of sodium shots, I got an idea. It wasn't muchto go on, but it was at least a good clue. The computer did the rest."
"Then Lefty Camillion and his friends have been intercepting data fromour rocket launchings at Wallops," Scotty said unbelievingly. "But why?How could Lefty use data like that? It's all straight, unclassifiedscientific and meteorological stuff. He's no scientist."
Steve grinned. "I doubt that he even knows what the data are. He and hisfriends are a bunch of chuckleheads of the very worst kind. But aboutwhat he does with the data--Joe Vitalli has been doing someinvestigating along that line."
Vitalli nodded. "With the FBI. They put agents on the case and found outLefty had been in touch with the Soviet Embassy in Washington, through athird secretary whose function it is to gather various kinds ofscientific intelligence. We're not absolutely certain, but it looks verymuch as though Lefty plans to sell his data tapes to the Soviets."
"So that's why JANIG has moved into the case," Scotty concluded.
"On the nose," Steve agreed. "Now it's time to move in on our foolishfriends at Calvert's Favor. Do you boys want to take a hand?"
"Try and leave us out," Rick said with a grin. "JANIG is welcome toassist us, but the flying stingarees are our babies. Scotty's and mine,that is."
"Be glad to have you help," Scotty echoed.
The JANIG men laughed. "You've got a point," Chuck Howard conceded.
"Want to plan the operation?" Steve asked with a twinkle.
Rick held up his hand. "Whoa! We didn't say that. You've got informationwe don't have."
"Only one piece of information," Steve replied. "The time of the nextlaunching from Wallops Island."
"When?" Rick asked eagerly.
"At dusk tonight."
The Flying Stingaree: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story Page 17