Tom Swift and His Megascope Space Prober by Victor Appleton II

office. But I think my motive will interest you." She handed Tom a white business card which read:
JULIA FURSTER
AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE
SODER-MAMBREEKT TECHNOLOGIES OF
UPPSALA
NEW YORK OFFICE
    Tom stared at the card in his hand for a long moment. "Let me give you one of mine," he said, taking a business card from within his desk drawer. She took it, and Tom winced. "Oh, good night! Those were just printed—the ink is smeary. Sorry." He plucked it out of her hand and handed her a piece of paper. "You can daub with that while I get a tissue for you."
    "Never mind," she said rather coolly. "I’ll use my handkerchief, from my purse."
    Finally, awkward preliminaries over for the moment, they began to talk.
    "I take it you know of Soder-Mambreekt’s communications breakthrough."
    "I know what I read in the papers," Tom replied. "I don’t recall anything appearing in the engineering or research journals, though."
    "Well, corporations have their secrets, don’t they?"
    "Perhaps so."
    "Still," she continued, "SMT’s Kontakt-Q Urfona, as we call it, will change the face of human communication forever!"
    Tom nodded. "It’s a wonderful achievement."
    "The word you want to use, Tom, is revolutionary ! Imagine its application in times of war, for example. SMT feels very sure that the armed forces—of many nations—and the aerospace industry will swamp us with orders when they find out what we’ve got. We’re not in full production yet, of course."
    Miss Furster paused and tossed a smile in Tom’s direction that looked sly, perhaps even mocking. "I—er—hear you’ve been working on a similar type of radio device. Grapevine gossip."
    "Enterprises is always working on new scientific developments," Tom said noncommittally, though curious as to where this particular "grapevine" might have planted its roots.
    "Oh my. Cautious type, are we?" The woman laughed rather too loudly. "But very understandable these days. In any event, Tom, SMT would feel privileged if we could demonstrate our unit to you at our lab and test center in New Jersey."
    Tom responded with a thoughtful, slightly quizzical nod. "I’d find that very interesting, ma’am. But if I might ask—why is your company especially interested in our opinion?"
    "Oh, I see." Miss Furster’s stare was barely polite. "You’d like a reason, a justification . There is such a thing as professional regard, isn’t there? Even these days? Yet it’s true—we’d like to create a certain relationship between SMT and Swift Enterprises. There may be some mutual advantage, in the long run."
    "I take it you’re suggesting some kind of cooperative venture. That’s really more my father’s end of things."
    "I see. Well then, why not bring him along? The two Swifts. How delightful."
    A meeting was set up for the day following, Tom and his father to be met at the Trenton airport by Miss Furster. "I’m looking forward to it," Tom said as she left, with a Security escort.
    As the elevator door shut, Tom hastened into Harlan Ames’s office, adjacent to the Swifts’.
    "Got something interesting for you, Harlan," Tom announced to the former Secret Service agent. "A business card just handed me by a rather tall woman, one of our Enterprises cards with a finger-smear in ink, and a piece of scratch paper with a few more fingerprints!"
    "Boss, you never fail to amaze me! Rad and I will have some kind of report for you by the end of the day."
    But the results came in well before the end of the day, as Chow served a light lunch in the Swifts’ office. Phil Radnor reported to Tom and his father: "There are a number of Julia Fursters in the U.S., and quite a few match this woman in terms of likely age. No fingerprints recorded in the criminal justice system. Nothing from Interpol."
    "I contacted Asa Pike through Congressman Van Arkyn’s office," Tom said. "He says the woman is almost certainly someone they tagged as working for Li Ching’s organization. But they’ve all become experts at