"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 072 - The Yellow Cloud" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Everything was ready except Test Pilot Colonel John Renny Renwick. He hadn’t shown up.

Around about stood generals and majors and lieutenants and sergeants.

No small amount of interest centered on the army’s new electrical "listener" for locating airplanes flying high. Four of
these stood on the sand. The gadgets were very efficient—but most every other army in the world had them as
efficient.

The idea of tonight’s test was: The new X-ship had a silenced motor, a special propeller, and it was hoped it could fly
so silently at an altitude of twenty thousand feet that no electrical listener could spot it. This night’s test would tell.

The army radio men had their outfits set up, too. A bang-up, new two-way radio telephone was part of the equipment
of the X-ship, and they were going to test that.
The men at the electrical "listeners" gave a start

"Sir, there’s a plane coming," one reported.

The plane came down with a brisk whistle of wind past wings, stuck out two whiskers of light from its wing floodlights,
and came to rest on the beach. The occupants—three men—alighted.

"Colonel Renwick!" someone said.

Colonel Renny Renwick had a voice that sounded something like the roof of a mine coming down must sound to a
miner.

"Holy cow!" he said. "Sorry if we’re a little late. I wanted to pick up two friends of mine."

"Two friends?"

"Sure."

"To witness testing of the X-ship, you mean?"

"Yep."

The army officers looked at each other and must have said mentally, "Oh, damn, what’ll we do about this?" The test of
the X-ship was supposed to be very, very secret, and not for outsiders to see.

"We—ah—that is—"

"Sure, I know." Renny Renwick rumbled. "But it will be all right for these two guys to watch. They’re in the army, too.
They’re Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Mayfair and Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks."

"Oh!"

"Yes," Renny said. "The two are Monk Mayfair and Ham Brooks."

That made it different. Very different.