The man's dark eyes glittered in hate, as Tom
ordered him to remove his mask. Sullenly the prisoner obeyed.
Tom gasped. "_Dimitri Mirov!_" The name sent a shock through the
Americans aboard.
"Wal, I'll be jing-whistled!" Chow declared, then broke into a gleeful
cackle.
Under their scornful gaze, the Brungarian's own eyes wavered and his
shoulders slumped in an attitude of defeat. "What is the use?" he
muttered. "Again I have failed. My career is over now, just like my
brother's."
Tom seized the opening. "In that case, maybe you're ready to do some
talking now."
Mirov shrugged. "What do you wish to know?"
In answer to Tom's questions, Mirov admitted that his group, composed of
Brungarian rebel Navy men and rocket engineers, had sabotaged the
returning Jupiter probe missile, hoping to obtain its data for their own
use.
Their key agent in America was the man who had posed over the phone as
Lester Morris and masterminded the other attempts to kidnap Tom. He had
also taken the amulet bracelet from Ames's jacket in a restaurant.
Mirov himself had been given the bracelet after his jail break. Pulling
back the sleeve of his frogman suit, he displayed it with a momentary
smirk of pride.
"I even got inside the grounds of Swift Enterprises and stole a plane
that same night," Mirov boasted.
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