Dick Earle shook hands, too. "You certainly saved the project, Rick, even if by accident. If you hadn't been locked in, and able to get the control operating, Pegasus would have crashed."
Later, when he had a chance to talk with Scotty alone, Rick asked, "How about Mac and Pancho? Was anything stolen?"
"Mac and Pancho are still at large. Tom Preston hasn't let them know they're in any way under suspicion. And, yes, stuff was stolen. This time it was ionization chambers and photon counters."
Scotty had stayed in his position in the maintenance shop, where he could watch the warehouses. Luis Hermosa had also watched, from the firehouse. The janitor, Dusty Rhoads, had wandered casually into a warehouse, pushing his cart. On orders from Preston the clerks were on the job, instead of watching the shoot.
Then, fire had suddenly broken out in a small tool shed across from the warehouse area. Luis had to abandon the watch to go to the fire, and the clerks had all run out at the sound of the sirens. Whereupon, with Scotty watching, Dusty Rhoads had emerged, pushing his cleanup cart in front of him. He had even stopped to watch the fire being put out.
Scotty followed him, and watched Rhoads unload the stolen instruments from his cart and dump them into the base rubbish pile. The janitor covered them with other, noninflammable junk and went on about his business.
"So you got the stuff back," Rick commented.
"Nope." Scotty shook his head. "It's still there."
"What?"
"Under day and night guard. From a distance, of course. Rhoads doesn't know he was seen. Now Tom Preston is waiting for the next step."