The Edge of Tomorrow Read Online Free

trait.”
    â€œPossibly and possibly not. It’s been a long time.”
    â€œHas it? Then you haven’t heard from your sister lately?”
    â€œAlmost a year,” Felton answered.
    â€œIt didn’t alarm you?”
    â€œShould it? No, it didn’t alarm me. My sister and I are very close, but this project of hers is not the sort of thing that allows for social relations. There have been long periods before when I have not heard from her. We are poor letter writers.”
    â€œI see,” nodded Eggerton.
    â€œI am to conclude that she is the reason for my visit here?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œShe’s well?”
    â€œAs far as we know,” Eggerton said quietly.
    â€œThen what can I do for you?”
    â€œHelp us, if you will,” Eggerton said, just as quietly. “I am going to tell you what has happened, Mr. Felton, and then perhaps you can help us.”
    â€œPerhaps,” Felton agreed.
    â€œAbout the project, you know as much as any of us, more perhaps, since you were in at the inception. So you realize that such a project must be taken very seriously or laughed off entirely. To date, it has cost the government eleven million dollars, and that is not something you laugh off. Now you understand that the unique part of this project was its exclusiveness. That word is used advisedly and specifically. Its success depended upon the creation of a unique and exclusive environment, and in terms of that environment, we agreed not to send any observers into the reservation for a period of fifteen years. Of course, during those fifteen years, there have been many conferences with Mr. and Mrs. Arbalaid and with certain of their associates, including Dr. Goldbaum.
    â€œBut out of these conferences, there was no progress report that dealt with anything more than general progress. We were given to understand that the results were rewarding and exciting, but very little more. We honored our part of the agreement, and at the end of the fifteen year period, we told your sister and her husband that we would have to send in a team of observers. They pleaded for an extension of time—maintaining that it was critical to the success of the entire program—and they pleaded persuasively enough to win a three year extension. Some months ago, the three year period was over. Mrs. Arbalaid came to Washington and begged a further extension. When we refused, she agreed that our team could come into the reservation in ten days. Then she returned to California.”
    Eggerton paused and looked at Felton searchingly.
    â€œAnd what did you find?” Felton asked.
    â€œYou don’t know?”
    â€œI’m afraid not.”
    â€œWell—” the secretary said slowly, “I feel like a damn fool when I think of this, and also a little afraid. When I say it, the fool end predominates. We went there and we found nothing.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œYou don’t appear too surprised, Mr. Felton?”
    â€œNothing my sister does has ever really surprised me. You mean the reservation was empty—no sign of anything?”
    â€œI don’t mean that, Mr. Felton. I wish I did mean that. I wish it was so pleasantly human and down to earth. I wish we thought that your sister and her husband were two clever and unscrupulous swindlers who had taken the government for eleven million. That would warm the cockles of our hearts compared to what we do have. You see, we don’t know whether the reservation is empty or not, Mr. Felton, because the reservation is not there.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œPrecisely. The reservation is not there.”
    â€œCome now,” Felton smiled. “My sister is a remarkable woman, but she doesn’t make off with eight thousand acres of land. It isn’t like her.”
    â€œI don’t find your humor entertaining, Mr. Felton.”
    â€œNo. No, of course not. I’m sorry. Only when a thing makes no sense at