SECRET WEAPON - by Theodore Apstein
When an enemy scientist comes claiming to have defected to the
U.S., Tony and Doug are sent back in time for vital information on
him.
In his interview with General Parker, Dr. Biraki
offers his services as a Time Tunnel expert to the U.S. He built such a
machine in his country he says, but did not realize he was serving the wrong
political cause. Disclosing nothing about already having such a machine
General Parker requests the Time Travellers to check the background of the
Doctor. To do this Tony and Doug land in Europe where they discover the date
is June 1956. Meeting a man named Alexis, they find they have been mistaken
for a pair of scientists who are to be escorted, in the morning to Project A-
13. Arriving there the next day, the Project turns out to be a primitive
replica of a time tunnel, presided over by a Dr. Biraki, some ten years
younger than the one who spoke to General Parker. Dr. Biraki, expecting spies
Smith and Williams, takes Doug and Tony as compatriots and urges them to have
a good look at the tunnel. Not knowing they’re thought to be spies, they
pretend to admire the tunnel, while noting it does not have a radiation bath,
which means it cannot work. But then they do learn that Biraki means to send
travellers through the time capsule, a technique which means certain death,
and that they have been chosen to make the test flight. Those back in the U.S.
Time Tunnel know the danger of the capsule technique, so they begin a
corresponding countdown; the difference being that at zero they plan to remove
the men from the capsule. The result is disastrous - Tony and Doug are nearly
killed as the forces from the two tunnels tear at them. But when the primitive
capsule doesn't move, they're taken from it. Later though, Biraki hears them
discussing the lack of a radiation bath and he holds them prisoners until they
construct one. The two get to work, but instead, they make the tunnel explode.
Biraki thinks they are dead, but in effect they have just ejected themselves
into the time vortex, while Parker arrests Biraki for espionage.
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