The Edge of Tomorrow Read Online Free Page A

all—how could an eight-thousand-acre stretch of land not be where it was? Doesn’t it leave a large hole?”
    â€œIf the newspapers get hold of it, they could do even better than that, Mr. Felton.”
    â€œWhy not explain?” Felton said.
    â€œLet me try to—not to explain but to describe. This stretch of land is in the Fulton National Forest, rolling country, some hills, a good stand of redwood—a kidney-shaped area. It was wire-fenced, with army guards at every approach. I went there with our inspection team, General Meyers, two army physicians, Gorman, the psychiatrist, Senator Totenwell of the Armed Services Committee, and Lydia Gentry, the educator. We crossed the country by ’plane and drove the final sixty miles to the reservation in two government cars. A dirt road leads into it. The guard on this road halted us. The reservation was directly before us. As the guard approached the first car, the reservation disappeared.”
    â€œJust like that?” Felton whispered. “No noise—no explosion?”
    â€œNo noise, no explosion. One moment, a forest of redwoods in front of us—then a gray area of nothing.”
    â€œNothing? That’s just a word. Did you try to go in?”
    â€œYes—we tried. The best scientists in America have tried. I myself am not a very brave man, Mr. Felton, but I got up enough courage to walk up to this gray edge and touch it. It was very cold and very hard—so cold that it blistered these three fingers.”
    He held out his hand for Felton to see.
    â€œI became afraid then. I have not stopped being afraid.” Felton nodded. “Fear—such fear,” Eggerton sighed.
    â€œI need not ask you if you tried this or that?”
    â€œWe tried everything, Mr. Felton, even—I am ashamed to say—a very small atomic bomb. We tried the sensible things and the foolish things. We went into panic and out of panic, and we tried everything.”
    â€œYet you’ve kept it secret?”
    â€œSo far, Mr. Felton.”
    â€œAirplanes?”
    â€œYou see nothing from above. It looks like mist lying in the valley.”
    â€œWhat do your people think it is?”
    Eggerton smiled and shook his head. “They don’t know. There you are. At first, some of them thought it was some kind of force field. But the mathematics won’t work, and of course it’s cold. Terribly cold. I am mumbling. I am not a scientist and not a mathematician, but they also mumble, Mr. Felton. I am tired of that kind of thing. That is why I asked you to come to Washington and talk with us. I thought you might know.”
    â€œI might,” Felton nodded.
    For the first time, Eggerton became alive, excited, impatient. He mixed Felton another drink. Then he leaned forward eagerly and waited. Felton took a letter out of his pocket.
    â€œThis came from my sister,” he said.
    â€œYou told me you had no letter from her in almost a year!”
    â€œI’ve had this almost a year,” Felton replied, a note of sadness in his voice. “I haven’t opened it. She enclosed this sealed envelope with a short letter, which only said that she was well and quite happy, and that I was to open and read the other letter when it was absolutely necessary to do so. My sister is like that; we think the same way. Now, I suppose it’s necessary, don’t you?”
    The secretary nodded slowly but said nothing. Felton opened the letter and began to read aloud.
    June 12, 1964
    My dear Harry:
    As I write this, it is twenty-two years since I have seen you or spoken to you. How very long for two people who have such love and regard for each other as we do! And now that you have found it necessary to open this letter and read it, we must face the fact that in all probability we will never see each other again. I hear that you have a wife and three children—all wonderful people. I think it is hardest to know that I will not