Operation Moon Rocket by Nick Carter Read Free Book Online Page A

each lithe step outlining the youthful swelling of her thighs.
    Quickly N3 reviewed the salient facts: Joy Han Sun, M.D., Ph.D.; born in Shanghai during Japanese occupation; British mother, Chinese businessman father; educated at Mansfield College in Kowloon, then at M.I.T. in Massachusetts; became U.S. citizen; a specialist in aerospace medicine; worked first for General Kinetics (at GKI's Miami Medical Institute), then for the U.S. Air Force at Brooks Field, San Antonio; finally for NASA itself, dividing her time between the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston and Cape Kennedy.
    "Dr. Sun, may we see you a moment?"
    It was the tall, anvil-shouldered man at Nick's side who spoke. Major Duane F. Sollitz, Security Chief for the Apollo Project. Nick had been handed over to him for re-processing by General McAlester;
    She turned toward them, a faint smile still on her lips from the previous conversation. Her gaze brushed past Major Sollitz and came to an abrupt halt at Nick's face — the face on which Poindexter of Editing had labored for almost two hours that morning.
    She was good. She didn't scream or run down the hall or do anything silly. And the widening of her eyes was barely perceptible, but to Nick's trained eye the effect was no less dramatic than if she had. "I didn't expect you back this soon, Colonel." Her voice was low, its timbre remarkable clear. The accent was British. They shook hands, European style. "How do you feel?"
    "Still a bit disoriented." He spoke with a pronounced Kansas twang — the result of sitting three hours with a tape-recording of Eglund's voice plugged into his ear.
    "That's to be expected, Colonel."
    He watched the pulse beating in her slim throat. She didn't look away from him but the smile was gone and her dark eyes were strangely bright.
    Major Sollitz glanced at his watch. "He's all yours, Dr. Sun," he said in clipped, precise tones. "I'm running late for the o-nine-hundred meeting. Let me know if any problems crop up." He turned abruptly on his heel and marched off. There were no waste motions with Sollitz. A ramrod-stiff veteran of the Flying Tigers and a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines, he was almost a caricature of militarism run rampant.
    General McAlester had been worried about sneaking Nick past him. "He's sharp," he'd said while visiting Nick in Eglund's Lawndale Road apartment that morning. "Very sharp. So don't relax around him for even a second. Because if he tumbles to the fact that you're not Eglund, he'll push the alarm button and blow your cover higher than the Washington Monument." But when Nick had reported to the Major's office, it had gone off like a charm. Sollitz had been so surprised to see him that he'd put him through only the most perfunctory of security checks.
    "Follow me, please," said Dr. Sun.
    Nick fell in behind her, automatically noting the smooth, limber movement of her hips, the length of her long, firm legs. The opposition, he decided, was getting better and better looking.
    Opposition she was, though. No doubt about it. And maybe a killer, too. He remembered Hawk's phrase: "He,
or she,
will try again." And so far it all pointed to "she." The person who'd tried to kill Eglund had to be, (first,) someone with access to the Medical Research Section and (second,) someone with scientific training, particularly in the chemistry of extra-terrestrial life support. Someone who knew that a certain quantity of extra nitrogen would mix with the ammonia from human sweat to form deadly Amine gas. Dr. Sun, Medical Research Chief of Project Apollo, had the access and the training, and her special field was maintaining human life in outer space.
    She opened the door of a small anteroom and stood aside, motioning to Nick. "Take off your clothes, please. I'll be right with you."
    Nick swung toward her, his nerves suddenly tight. Forcing his tone to remain casual, he said, "Is this absolutely necessary? I mean Walter Reed released me, and a copy of their report is on