The Secret of the Ninth Planet | Page 8

way to the break in the wall and climbed through it.
Outside, the Sun shone down brighter than it had before. The sky was the calm serene
blue of a cloudless day. Burl knew that at that same moment, all over the world, the sky
was clearer and the Sun warmer.

But for how long? Behind them the building still stood and its inventors were still to be
found.



CHAPTER THREE
The Secret of A-G 17
THE DENNINGS did not have much time to speculate on the mystery of the Sun-stealers.
For just as they were discussing what should be their next course of action, the problem
was solved for them. There was a roaring in the air, then a humming, and in a matter of a
few more seconds, six rocket helicopters popped into sight, hovered over the valley on
streaming jets, and settled down.
"They're U.S. planes!" gasped Burl, jumping to his feet and going to meet them. "It must
mean that they know we stopped the machines."
"Obviously," said his father, striding with him to greet the helmeted man who was now
stepping out of the lead machine. By this time the last of the squad had landed, and the
khaki-clad soldiers in them were already disembarking. "I imagine that all over the world
the sky turned a little brighter. It must have been apparent at once."
The leader of the 'copter men reached them. He was a tall, bronzed man, wearing the
service coveralls and markings of a captain of the Air Force. He stretched out his hand.
"You must be the Dennings. I'm Captain Saunders. I've been asked to bring you back
with me right away so that we can get a complete report on this affair. How fast can you
get ready?"
"Why," said Burl, "we're ready right now. As soon as we can dump our packs aboard. But,
gee, you mean go back where?"
Saunders smiled grimly. "To California. We just left there. I have been given urgent
orders to waste no time. So will you oblige?"
The two Dennings looked at each other. This was important, all right. They realized that
these planes had flown on fast rockets the instant the sky had cleared. Possibly there was
still a crisis one they had not heard of.
They did not pause to ask further questions. Mark Denning asked the captain to dispatch
one of his 'copters to the camp beyond the mountains to tell Gonzales to load up and start
back for Lima. This order given, the two Dennings climbed into the rocket 'copter, and
Saunders took the controls.

With a whoosh, the squat craft lifted on its rockets, its jet-driven fan carried it up, folded,
and the rocket engine took over. On upward into the stratosphere they hurtled, across the
Western Hemisphere, across the face of jungle and isthmus, across the barren mountains
of Mexico, and in a matter of less than half an hour, settled down in the wide open field
of a U.S. Air Force base in southern California. It was all so swift, so sudden, that to Burl
it seemed like a dream. There had been so many days in the field, in the peace and quiet
of the high mountains of the Andes. There had been the slow hunting around age-worn
ruins; the careful, deliberate sifting of tons of soil and sand for tiny shards; then this: the
urgent message, the trek, the weird building, the strange, body-filling shock, and the
control over the Sun-theft globes, followed by the swift transition over thousands of
miles.
Here he was in his home country weeks sooner than he had expected but not to return to
his home and school. No, for he felt that somehow an adventure was beginning that could
lead anywhere. Perhaps his adventure had actually ended, but he saw now that he would
be questioned, probed, and asked to recount his story over and over.
Burl and his father were met at the port by a group of officers and escorted rapidly to a
room in a large building. Here there were half a dozen men in civilian clothes. One by
one, these men were introduced, and as each one was named, Burl wondered more about
what was to come.
There was a general from Army Intelligence. There was a high member of the State
Department. There were three noted astronomers among them the surprisingly young
Russell Clyde and the elderly and famous Dr. Merckmann. There was an aircraft
manufacturer whose name graced a thousand planes, and an engineer who had
contributed to the conquest of the Moon.
The general, Walton Shrove, asked them to sit down. He was in charge of the affair. It
turned out to be a careful questioning of their story. It