e.

Gordon was waiting, and with him was Colonel Tom Preston. Preston shook
hands with them.

"Apparently John was right," he greeted them. "You two do have a knack
of sniffing things out."

Rick looked at the thin partition. "Is it okay to talk here?"

"It is now. I've checked. The occupants of nearby rooms are out. We'll
be able to hear if anyone comes in."

Rick immediately launched into a recital of their activities since
arriving in Las Vegas. Now and then Scotty elaborated. A few times
Preston interrupted to ask for clarification on a point or two.

"Good," he said when they had finished. "I'll see that Deadrock gets his
parts back."

"Who is Deadrock Ogg?" Scotty asked.

Preston smiled. "Quite a character, isn't he? Normally he's a Forest
Ranger. At the moment he's on loan to me, serving as my outside security
officer. He did a good piece of work, getting that license number. We'll
hand it to the FBI bureau in Las Vegas and they'll take it from there."

"He must have had advance information, to be at the right spot to get
it," Rick observed.

"No more than you had," Preston told him. "We reached the same
conclusion that you and Luis Hermosa did, about how stolen goods could
get off the base. We've been watching from the inside, and Deadrock has
been watching at the Steamboat end."

"Then you already knew about Mac and Pancho leaving last night," Scotty
stated.

"Yes. But we really don't know any more than you two have found out.
We're no closer to finding out who sabotaged the rockets--or who stole
the transistors and the servomotors."

"What?" the boys exclaimed in unison.

Tom Preston's eyebrows went up. "You haven't heard? But of course you
haven't, because you weren't here when we finished inventory. We're
missing ninety thousand dollars' worth of servomotors."

"Suffering spacefish!" Rick groaned.

Scotty asked quickly, "When did it happen?"

"During the Orion shoot. Project Cetus had drawn servos the day before,
and they were on the shelves then."

"The stock clerks . . ." Rick began.

"Ran out to see Orion," Colonel Preston finished. "They've gone out to
see every shoot since the first one. But all of them swear no
unauthorized personnel got into the warehouses. Of course they can't be
sure, because none of them kept eyes on the doors."

"Could any of the clerks be in on the thefts?" Scotty asked.

"If so, we have no evidence of it. But we have so little evidence it
doesn't coun