CHASE THROUGH TIME -- by Carey Wilber
When a technican-turned-spy plants a bomb in the Time Tunnel
Complex, then escapes through the Tunnel into time, Doug and
Tony's job is to find him.
The Time Travellers, Doug and Tony have just arrived in the Grand
Canyon in 1547 when something goes wrong at the Time Tunnel
Complex. A technician, Nimon, kills the scientist at the controls,
who falls across the console so that conflicting signals nearly tear
the travellers aport. Nimon, then replaces a bus-bar in the Phase
Synchronizer with one he has with him. Alarms go off, and a chase
is quickly organized as Nimon flees through the Complex while Ann
and Swain work feverishly at the console to help the writhing Doug
and Tony. Nimon dashes to the Tunnel, cuts off the picture of Doug
and Tony, and himself vanishes into time. As Nimon's effects are searched
and evidence is found that he's a spy, a much worse problem comes up.
Coded instructions say he's to plant a nuclear device in the Complex before
going off the job at midnight. It is of utmost importance for Doug and Tony
to locate Nimon, who has been transferred to their present time, and
learn from him the location of the bomb. In the Grand Canyon, Doug and Tony
draw Nimon to them by making a fire, then they trap him. The Tunnel
meanwhile has been reset, and Nimon is transferred first and the Time
Travellers a moment later. The two find themselves in a beehive-like
structure and are instantly taken charge of by an armed man, Vokar. It
is, in fact, a million years in the future. and the Time Travellers are prisoners
of a society as rigidly structured as that of bees. Nimon is there, too, but he
has gone through a time warp and has been with Vokar's people for ten years
- working on a Time Tunnel! He tells Doug and Tony his Tunnel is their only
hope of getting back, for the U.S. Tunnel was destroyed a million years ago.
But they feel his bomb may not have gone off and there may still be time to
save the Tunnel. All they learn is the time, 3 A.M., where :he bomb is go off,
and they' communicate this to the Tunnel, where it is already after 12, Ordered
to assist Nin,on in his project, Doug and Tony resist and are punished.
But they get into worse trouble when a pretty worker, Zee, is sentenced to
death for helping them and they try to save her. Before they can be killed,
the Tunnel works to move them. But they, by now, have trapped Nimon
and try to make him talk. In the extremity of the effort to move then, the
Tunnel overshoots, and the men, with Zee, are transferred to 1,000,000 B.C.
There, in dodging a prehistoric monster, Nimon falls into quicksand and will
not reveal anything until rescued. They all but lose their lives doing it, only
then to be menaced by Vokar, who is armed. But he learns human feelings, and
whecn the five of them fall into a hive of giant bees, Vokar orders Nimon to tell
Tony and Doug what they want to know. At the Tunnel, now only Ann and
Swain remain and hear Nimon say that his bomb is to be activated by the bus-bar
in the Phase Synchronizer. It's found and removed, and Ann then moves Vokar
with Zee, to their own time. Then, as the giant bees buzz near Nimon,
she picks up Doug and Tony in the Vortex of Time.
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