CHAPTER IX – Tom Swift and His Elec­tric Loco­mo­tive opens on a tense night as Tom Swift, increas­ing­ly aware of poten­tial sab­o­tage attempts, decides to rein­force his home with a new­ly installed bur­glar alarm. With crit­i­cal doc­u­ments secured in his per­son­al safe and the house qui­et under a star­less sky, he tries to set­tle down, only to find him­self locked out in min­i­mal cloth­ing amid a brew­ing storm. The dis­com­fort of being trapped out­doors quick­ly gives way to con­cern when Tom real­izes some­thing more sin­is­ter is unfolding—especially after spot­ting sub­tle signs that sug­gest an intrud­er has man­aged to bypass his defens­es.

Tom’s instincts are con­firmed when he fails to receive a response from Koku, his depend­able ser­vant, whom he expect­ed to awak­en at the first sign of the alarm. The silence is alarm­ing. Upon man­ag­ing reen­try, Tom dis­cov­ers Koku uncon­scious, clear­ly ren­dered immo­bile by chlo­ro­form. The method­i­cal nature of the attack leaves no doubt that this was a pre­med­i­tat­ed strike by skilled intrud­ers. The fact that they sub­dued Koku with­out mak­ing noise shows they came pre­pared, under­stand­ing both the lay­out of Tom’s estate and the roles of his clos­est allies. Tom now knows this isn’t the work of oppor­tunis­tic thieves—this is indus­tri­al sab­o­tage, care­ful­ly plot­ted and dan­ger­ous­ly exe­cut­ed.

Real­iz­ing the impli­ca­tions, Tom imme­di­ate­ly inspects the house and the work­shop for miss­ing or tam­pered items. For­tu­nate­ly, his safe remains secure and the port­fo­lio intact, but the breach itself sends a stronger mes­sage than any stolen pro­to­type. The attack­ers are watch­ing, wait­ing, and test­ing vulnerabilities—not just in his prop­er­ty, but in his rou­tines. The expe­ri­ence hard­ens Tom’s resolve. Rather than retreat, he responds with strate­gic adjust­ments: the alarm sys­tem is upgrad­ed, addi­tion­al locks are installed, and armed secu­ri­ty is dis­cussed with Ned New­ton the fol­low­ing morn­ing. Tom also makes plans to rotate guard duties and con­sid­er back­up pow­er sources for the alarm in case of elec­tri­cal inter­fer­ence. Every new lay­er of pro­tec­tion becomes part of a grow­ing defense around the loco­mo­tive project.

Though shak­en, Tom quick­ly shifts from reac­tive to proac­tive. He begins trac­ing any exter­nal leads that could iden­ti­fy the spy net­work tar­get­ing his work. Sus­pi­cion nar­rows toward indus­tri­al competitors—especially those who stand to lose if the Her­cules 0001 meets its per­for­mance goals. He dis­patch­es Ned to qui­et­ly inter­view near­by wit­ness­es and sup­pli­ers, hop­ing to find some­one who noticed unfa­mil­iar faces or vehi­cles near the com­pound. Mean­while, Koku recov­ers and express­es frus­tra­tion at his own inca­pac­i­ta­tion, vow­ing not to be caught off guard again. Tom, appre­cia­tive of Koku’s loy­al­ty, assures him that no blame rests on his shoulders—this attack was designed to exploit even the strongest defens­es.

In pri­vate reflec­tion, Tom acknowl­edges the psy­cho­log­i­cal war­fare now embed­ded in his jour­ney. It’s no longer just a race to build the fastest, most pow­er­ful elec­tric locomotive—it’s a bat­tle of attri­tion, where rivals use fear and sab­o­tage to stall progress. He finds strength in the sup­port of his friends and the sta­bil­i­ty of his engi­neer­ing designs. Still, he rec­og­nizes that bril­liance alone won’t ensure suc­cess. Strat­e­gy and cau­tion are now as impor­tant as inno­va­tion. He doc­u­ments the inci­dent, cat­a­logs his response, and adds a new sec­tion to his project file: “Secu­ri­ty Pro­to­cols.” From now on, the work will continue—but under tighter watch and few­er assump­tions.

As the chap­ter ends, the storm out­side begins to pass, mir­ror­ing the sense of regained con­trol Tom feels. The attack has exposed vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, but it has also clar­i­fied what’s tru­ly at stake. His elec­tric loco­mo­tive isn’t just a machine—it’s a sym­bol of change, one that oth­ers will try to extin­guish. But Tom Swift, test­ed under pres­sure, isn’t one to fold. With every wheel and wire of the Her­cules 0001, he push­es not just against tech­ni­cal lim­its, but against those who fear progress. The chal­lenge has grown dark­er, but so has Tom’s deter­mi­na­tion to lead the charge for­ward.