DEKKER – Assigned by his Mysterious Master to obtain secret plans from Professor Jones.
DARING – Stumbled upon Dekker in the act of stealing the documents and caught the fire caused by the ensuing fight.
Old Timer and Junior slowly got to their feet. The explosion had consumed all of the oxygen, suffocating the flames that were ravaging the laboratory. As they entered the remains of the room, they could find no sign of their friend, Rick Daring. The explosion had hurled Jones’s safe through the window and was lying on the lawn, burnt but intact. In the distance, they heard the sound of tires screeching. Whoever killed Professor Jones and attacked Daring had escaped.
There was a faint knocking coming from the safe. Neither man said anything. They busied themselves prying off the safe’s door. Inside, cramp and crowded but alive, was Richard Darington, AKA Rick Daring.
After dusting himself off, Daring met with the security detail and related his tale of the intruder. Once they got his statement, Daring gathered the late Professor Jones’s colleagues, so that he could question them.
The three scientists sat in lounge chairs in the building’s rec room. Doctor Terrance Sergoff was a middle-aged man with grey hair and a bushy beard. Professor Walter Scott was a stout man who spoke little unless needed to. Doctor Paul Edwards was a well-groomed man with a distinct voice.
“By God,” muttered Sergoff. “Jones was right. I wouldn’t believe it.”
“What my colleague is saying is that we agreed with Jones for additional security,” said Edwards. “But we didn’t totally believe that there were people out there, after us.”
“Of course, there’s always a possibility of espionage, but still…,” stated Sergoff.
“They killed him,” added Scott.
“I am sorry we weren’t able to save him,” said Daring. “I need to know what was on the plans that got stolen.”
“Fortunately, we broke up the plans into four parts, so that no one man have the complete plans to the project,” stated Sergoff.
“I believe that Jones had the list of construction parts for the machine,” remarked Edwards.
“And what are those?” asked Junior.
“The, er, machine is mainly composed of tertainium, which is supply to us by a local shipping company. The other element is Compound X, the unstable material from the moon that fuels our creation,” explained Sergoff.
Daring signaled Junior and Old Timer that he wanted to speak to them alone.
“What’s the plan, boss?” asked Junior.
“I think we should start taking the offensive,” replied Daring. “There’s a good chance that whoever stole Jones’ part of the plans will go after these materials. Junior and I will check out the warehouse where the tertainium’s being kept. Old Timer, you go back to the Institute and use the saucer to go to the moon and check out the Compound X mine. Better yet, take Johnny and Teresa with you.”
Old Timer said nothing. He was quietly stroking his beard.
“What’s eating you, old man?” asked Junior.
“I don’t like it, Daring,” said Old Timer. “We wuz submitted to every kind of inspection before we could even breathe the same air as those scientist folks. So, yer telling me some dang blasted man, got by all of that, all by himself?”
“You think it’s an inside job?” asked Daring.
“Yer durn tootin’!” replied Old Timer.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have enough information to go on your hunch, Old Timer. Right now, we’ll stake out these locations, and if we’re lucky enough we might just catch someone who can fill us in on what’s going on.”
Sometime later, Daring’s roadster pulled up to the warehouse in question. Daring and Junior leapt out of the vehicle, when they noticed that a large, nondescript truck had been pulled up to one of the warehouse’s docks. Sneaking into the warehouse, they soon confirmed their worst fear. The man Daring identified as his attacker was standing near the back-end of the truck. A number of boxes were already loaded into the truck. The guards were bound and unconscious.
Daring pulled out a gun from his inside breast pocket and slowly approached Dekker.
“Hands where we can see them,” commanded Daring. Dekker did as he was told. “Not so tough when you aren’t ambushing people, huh?” Dekker didn’t reply. “Let’s start with who you’re working for, and then work our way towards why you’re stealing top secret government documents.”
“Should we drill them now?” came a voice behind them. Watkins and Davis, two of Dekker’s cronies, stepped into the warehouse, guns drawn. Daring and Junior looked each other with resignation. Daring tossed the gun to the ground. As the men approached, he pressed a hidden button on his watch. The “gun” exploded with a loud flare, blinding the evil men. Daring and Junior both came prepared with specialized contacts and earplugs that made them immune to the effects.
Junior grabbed the nearest thug by his lapels and slugged him in the face. The punch spun Davis in his place, quickly collapsing into a pile of crates. Dekker staggered off towards a cluster of offices. Daring started to pursue, but Watkins managed to grabbed ahold of him. Daring struggled to break his hold. Watkins pushed Daring off balance, and they both fell to the ground. Daring managed to kick Watkins off of him. Getting to his feet, Daring gave the thug a solid punch right to the jaw. Watkins slumped to the ground.
Daring ran after Dekker. He stopped at the doorway where he saw Dekker halfway out of a window. Daring already started to move towards Dekker, hoping to close the gap between them. In those precious seconds, Dekker drew his gun and fired at Daring.
Three slugs impacted Daring in the chest. He stumbled backwards, collapsing to the ground.
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Written by J M Emmons. The story and all characters are copyrighted by J M Emmons.
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