Pick out a couple of men for a crew and take her down." Tom
produced a hydrographic chart of the waters around Fearing and marked
out a test area. "Cruise around there for an hour and we'll try to spot
you in the _Sea Hound_."
"Hide and seek, eh?" Bud grinned and snapped a salute, then left to
supervise the relaunching of the jetmarine.
For his crew, Bud chose Mel Flagler and another man. Mel was an
experienced jetmariner who had gone on the Swift expedition to Aurum
City, the underwater ruins of a lost civilization. Here Tom had used his
spectromarine selector to restore the ancient buildings.
Tom, Hank, and Arv went back to the airfield and soon took off in the
diving seacopter. Landing on the water, they submerged and began the
undersea detection test.
Tom manned the sonarscope personally, eager to conduct as careful a
search as possible.
"Getting any blips, skipper?" Hank called out from his post at the _Sea
Hound_'s controls.
"Not a ping, Hank. The system seems to be working out even better than
I'd hoped."
Tom felt a glow of satisfaction. He explained, however, that the
jetmarine's transparent nose pane--which had to be left unprotected for
the pilot's visibility--offered one vulnerable spot to sonar detection.
"But a little smart maneuvering can cover up that angle," Tom added.
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