Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space Read Online Free Page A

advanced kind of gun? No, he never intended to hit anything except that planter."
    "Somebody must’ve put out a contract on your oleander bush," joked Bud. Sandy giggled in spite of herself.
    "Here’s my theory," Tom continued. "I think that wasn’t any ordinary bullet, but some kind of sophisticated microelectronic device. In the split second it flashed through the den, it probably made some sort of visual recording."
    "I see," Mr. Swift commented. "It would act like a hyperspeed digital camera with an all-direction lens. The recorded camera output could subsequently be downloaded into a computer and studied at leisure, no doubt with some sort of extreme magnification and enhancement feature."
    Tom nodded. "In which case our unknown enemies now have copies of the sketches and calculations I was working on at the desk!"
    "What were they about, Tom?" Bud asked.
    "The solar battery!"
    There was a long and ominous silence as Bud and the Swift family considered the implications of the strange invasion of the property. It seemed Tom Swift and his newest inventions were once again facing unexpected danger! This was nothing new for the scion of the Swift line of scientist-inventors. Just as the first Tom Swift—Tom’s famous great-grandfather—had defeated innumerable adversaries and threats early in the last century, so young Tom had already proven himself in astonishing adventures in the air, the deep sea, and in outer space. Only weeks before he had returned from Antarctica where he and his remarkable atomic earth blaster had been pitted against the ruthless agents of a foreign power.
    "Well," said Tom’s mother with a sudden smile, "I don’t know just why anyone would want to snoop around our den, but—I think I may be able to help you identify who’s watching. Matter of fact, boys, just one phone call should crack the case wide open—as they say on television!"

CHAPTER 4
MEETING WITH A MOGUL
    TOM AND HIS father tried very hard to be men of the new millennium. But Shopton was a small, slow-moving town in upstate New York; and the Swift family had something of a reputation for being, in many ways, somewhat old-fashioned. All of which is to say that when Mrs. Swift spoke up, the others didn’t know whether to take her seriously.
    "Anne, what do you mean?" asked Damon Swift. "How could you possibly—"
    "Oh, Daddy!" Sandy interrupted. "Let Mother finish!"
    Mr. Swift fell silent, an apologetic look on his face.
    "What I mean is this— Dear," smiled Anne Swift with just a hint of sarcasm. "I do have a degree in molecular biology, you know; and as part of that program I took some courses in medicine and disease control. I remember a photo of a man, a disease victim, from one of my textbooks. He had the sort of look Sandy described—the disease caused it."
    "That would sure make it easier to track the guy down," Bud mused. "He might be registered with local hospitals or something."
    Tom’s mother nodded, her eyes gleaming. "It would be even easier than that, I expect. As I recall, the disease is extremely rare—only a handful of people have it."
    "What’s the phone call you mentioned?" asked Tom.
    "To my old professor, Joshua TeVenter."
    "Ah. Yes—he sends us Christmas cards every year," remarked Mr. Swift.
    "Yes, Dear. The one you can’t stand."
    Tom’s father winced humorously and Mrs. Swift rose and walked over to the telephone. Minutes later she had concluded her call and was able to share what she had learned. "Professor TeVenter is sure I’m thinking of something called Inherited Xenotic Osteomorphosis Syndrome, or IXOS. It’s a form of chromosomal damage that can be inherited, but it almost always leads to stillbirths, or to death in infancy. It’s been traced back centuries to a single North African family of the Bedouine tribe. It causes progressive deformation of the shape of the skull and jaw, and the bones of the arms. In less enlightened times, victims were exhibited as ‘ape men’."
    "How many