The Project Gutenberg EBook of Final Weapon, by Everett B. Cole

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Title: Final Weapon

Author: Everett B. Cole

Illustrator: Alexander Leydenfrost

Release Date: March 1, 2008 [EBook #24723]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

FINAL
WEAPON

BY EVERETT B. COLE

_Man has developed many a deadly
weapon. Today, the weapon most
effective in destroying a man's
hopes and security is the file
folder ... and that was the weapon
Morely knew and loved. But there
was something more potent to come._

Illustrated by Leydenfrost

District Leader Howard Morely leaned back in his seat, to glance down at
the bay. Idly, he allowed his gaze to wander over the expanse of water
between the two blunt points of land, then he looked back at the
skeletonlike spire which jutted upward from the green hills he had just
passed over. He could remember when that ruin had been a support for one
of the world's great bridges.

Now, a crumbling symbol of the past, it stubbornly resisted the attacks
of the weather, as it had once resisted the far more powerful blasts of
explosives. Obstinately, it pointed its rusty length skyward, to remind
the observer of bygone conflict--and more.

Together with the tangled cables, dimly seen in the shoal water, the
line of wreckage in the channel, and the weed-covered strip of torn
concrete which led through the hills, it testified to the arrival of the
air age. Bridges, highways, and harbors alike had passed their day of
usefulness.

Not far from the ruined bridge support, Morely could see the huge, well
maintained intake of one of the chemical extraction plants. He shook his
head at the contrast.

"That eyesore should be pulled down," he muttered. "Should have been
pulled down long ago. Suggested it in a report, but I suppose it never
got to the Old Man. He depends on his staff too much. If I had the
region, I'd--"

He shook his head. He was not the regional director--yet. Some day, the
old director would r