Part 33 (1/2)

The rooot his entire staff together, and there were plenty of chairs In ato Steve

”You were all involved,” the agent began, ”so I want you all to knohat has been going on So the investigation However, the part that involves you is finished, and you'll probably never hear about the rest of it”

Rick knew that was true Who the houseboaters and the barber really were, who paid them, how they had been tipped off to the project in the first place, and similar details would reton

”The key to the whole affair was uncovered in Washi+ngton yesterday

Most of you know about the physical arrange up the security systeeneral ed,'

which is the term we use for wire taps, hidden ht his friend looked a little embarrassed

”In spite of our care, it developed that we did have a hiddenit to the eneroup I can only say in our own defense that it was the kind of 'bug'

we couldn't have found without tearing the building apart”

”It's nearly impossible to take all modern electronic developments into account,” Julius Weiss said ”We all kno thorough you are, Steve Go on”

”Thank you, Julius Directly above us, on the fifth floor, was the Peerless Brokerage Coood business We had no reason to suspect it, even though we checked out all fir on the houseboaters, we discovered that the firm had recently been taken over by a dummy corporation, and most of it was actually owned by the ht after the project e in the fir The firm continued to operate as always There was one personnel change A lawyer, representing the new principal stockholder, took over one of the offices”

Rick suspected that said laas now in custody

”As soon as we discovered the connection, we made a check Under the floor in the lawyer's office we found a 'bug' A hole had been drilled into the floor structure until only a thin shell of plaster re So actually the microphone ithin a fraction of an inch of our room, but there was no e could detect it That's how every move we made was anticipated, and why the enemy moved to Whiteside on the same day that the project ht ”Did the barber tape the two scientists?” he asked

”We think so He's the boss of the ene the period when he was in Washi+ngton, his h to a rooh the power cord into the electric outlet, and the impulses were actually trans in the basement We found the machine where he had stored it”

Rick knew that could be done quite simply The frequencies of the electric current and the brain patterns were so different that they would not interfere with each other

”He didn't plan to use his machine in Whiteside,” Steve went on, ”because he left the ton”

”Then why did he bring it?” Barby asked

”We're not sure The likeliest possibility is that he wanted to continue using it as a e machine, because he ent who didn't need money”

Steve looked at Rick ”I' Why didn't the Spindrift twins suspect foul play when Hartson Brant ran over so in the speedboat?”

It was Rick's turn to be eht Why?”

”TheIt had a yoke on it Apparently the houseboaters had taken a lesson fro for Spindrift traffic on the water We think they waited until they heard the sound of the Spindrift speedboat, then took the pra rope”

Scotty spoke up ”That's what puzzles -distance electronics to violence?”