"A good thing," Rick said. "Because all we got was the puzzlement. No explanations."
Steve tapped the cable thoughtfully. "I hate to ask you to tackle this job, but you must have some ideas about it or you wouldn't have sent that wire."
Hartson Brant nodded. "I explained my situation to you on the phone when you called a few days ago. The situation hasn't changed, but I must admit this cable from Chahda puts a new light on the matter. That boy is a member of the family."
"Then you'll go?"
"I don't want to, quite frankly. I will if there is no alternative. I lost a lot of sleep last night making that decision. But first, I want to propose that some member of my staff go in my stead."
Steve walked to the desk and perched on its edge. "Which one?"
"You know them all. You also know their specialties. Which of them would fit your requirements best?"
"Zircon. He's a nuclear physicist."
Rick held his breath. Steve was continuing:
"Chahda urges Rick and Scotty to get jobs, too. I hadn't considered that, but it's not a bad idea."
Rick closed his eyes and let out his breath in a sigh of relief. Scotty nudged him.
Hartson Brant asked, "Then you will consider Zircon as my substitute? Always on condition that he will go, of course."
Steve nodded. "I'd prefer you, but I'll take Zircon, if I can make a condition of my own, and that is that you'll fly to the Far East on a moment's notice if he and the boys can't handle it."
Rick looked at his father anxiously. Hartson Brant had not given his permission for them to make a trip, but evidently it was all right. The scientist nodded.
"I'll agree to that." He went to the telephone and picked up the instrument. "Operator, I want to place a long-distance call."
Steve winked at the boys. Then, as Hartson Brant placed the call to Zircon in New Haven, Connecticut, the JANIG man said, "Going to be a couple of tourists at government expense, huh? Pretty soft."
"Maybe," Rick said, grinning. "That cable doesn't sound like anything soft."
Steve got serious. "You two proved yourselves in Washington, so far as I'm concerned. You can make yourselves useful, and you'll provide a good cover for Zircon."
"What kind of cover?" Barby asked.
Steve smiled at her. "Women can't keep secrets, I'm told."
"I can," Barby retorted swiftly.
Steve held up his hand for silence. Hartson Brant had Zircon on the line. The scientist outlined Steve's proposal in a few words, and gave Zircon the contents of Chahda's cable. Then he listened to Zircon while Rick fidgeted anxiously. Finally, Hartson Brant said, "All right, Hobart. Tell your people up there that I'll take your lectures. We'll see you later today." He hung up and nodded at Steve.
"Hobart had lectures scheduled for next week, but I can take them for him. He'll be down this afternoon, and, he says, he'll be ready to leave in the morning if necessary."
"Good!" Steve nodded at Barby. "Even if you can't go on the trip, you can make yourself useful. Want to place a call to Washington for me?"
"Yes," Barby said eagerly. "Where to?"
Steve gave her the number. Then, while she was placing the call, he said, "Now, I'll tell you what I know."
Rick's heart beat faster. Now he would learn what was behind Chahda's cable!
"The day before I phoned here," Steve began, "my office received a message from Carl Bradley. It was a top secret message sent to us via the American consulate general's channels from Singapore. I'd better explain first that Carl is a JANIG man. His knowledge of that part of the world has made him invaluable, and he works for us secretly while doing his routine work as an ethnologist. That is top secret information that must never be repeated outside this room."
"You can depend on us," Hartson Brant assured him.
"I know it. To go on. His job is gathering information about persons who show too much interest in operations within our embassies and consulates. However, the cable we got from him wasn't quite in that line."
Steve paused to see how Barby was getting along. She was trying to listen to him and the operator at the same time.
"This cable," Steve continued, "said he had accidentally made a discovery of something potentially dangerous to America. He asked for a competent nuclear physicist, and he named you, Hartson, to be sent to Singapore at once to check on his finding, and to locate, if possible, the source of the stuff he had discovered. We haven't heard from him since. From Chahda's cable, it's evident something has happened to him. And on the basis of the cable, I think we'll send Zircon and you boys to Hong Kong first."
Scotty put into words the question that was in Rick's mind. "What was it that he discovered?"
Steve's lips tightened, then he said: "Heavy water!"
CHAPTER IV
Project X
"Heavy water!" Hartson Brant exclaimed softly.
Rick and Scotty looked at each other blankly.
And at that moment, Barby completed the connection and called to Steve. He strode to the phone and picked it up. "Who's this? All right. Steve Ames here. Take down these names. Hobart Zircon. Richard Brant. Donald Scott. You'll find full data on them in the files. Prepare travel orders and get tickets for all three to Hong Kong via the first plane leaving New York after 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night. Arrange for a letter of credit in the usual amount on the National City Bank of Washington, and have the bank make arrangements with all their Far East branches. Put all three on the pay roll at the same grades they held before. Get passports for them with visitor's visas for the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indo-China, Indonesia, Siam, and China. We don't know where they'll end up. Then put all that stuff in an envelope and get it to me here at Spindrift by special messenger … wait, never mind that. I'll send Mike back right away, and he can bring it to me. Now read those instructions back."
Steve listened for a moment. "Right. Get going. What? Oh, charge the whole thing to a new case file. Mark it Project X."
He disconnected and turned to the group. "Now," he said grimly, "let's talk turkey."
He nodded at Rick and Scotty. "Zircon said he could leave in the morning, if necessary. That's rushing you a little too much. So I've given you until tomorrow night."
Rick grinned. Once things started to move with Steve Ames, they moved strictly jet-propelled.
"What are we supposed to do?" Scotty asked.
"Find Bradley. If you can. But don't spend too much time searching. Getting all the dope – and I mean all– on that heavy water is the reason for your going out there. If you find Bradley, he can help. Maybe Chahda can help, too. But never forget for a minute that tracking down that heavy water is your mission."
"If we don't find Bradley, we won't know how to get started," Rick pointed out.
Steve grunted. "No? If I believed that, I'd have gone somewhere else for help. I came here because I knew Spindrift could give me ingenuity as well as scientific knowledge. And you hadn't better let me down!"
"We won't let you down," Scotty assured him.
Barby chimed in indignantly, "Of course they won't."
Steve smiled. "Don't worry. I'm not afraid of their falling down on the job. But it's a big one. I'll tell Zircon this when he comes, but you can be thinking it over in the meantime. You're to find out who is bringing heavy water to the Asia coast and what they're doing with it. You're to find out where it comes from, and why it is being made. You're to get samples and send them back here. And most important of all, you're to locate and pinpoint for us any industrial plants you find."
Scotty scratched his head. "Fine. Only let's get back to the beginning. What is heavy water? And why are you so excited about it?"
"I