Edge of Destruction Read Online Free PDF Page A

the platform and slowly screeched to a halt. Frank stood in the middle of the stream of passengers pouring out of the train.
    His eyes were dulled, his expression blank, his mind empty except for the single word that kept echoing inside it.
    Joe. Joe. Joe. ' Joe had lost his head one time too many. And now he had lost his life.
    "Hey, what are you standing there for? No time to waste thinking. Get moving!"
    Frank blinked. It was as if he could hear Joe's voice. He had to get a grip on himself. "Didn't you hear me? Come on!"
    Then Frank saw him. Joe was coming out from behind the last car in the train. He was motioning for Frank to join him fast.
    Frank was a long-distance runner, not a sprinter like his brother, but he set a personal best record racing down the platform.
    "I thought for sure you were a goner," he panted.
    "Me too," said Joe. "How did you-?" "I'll show you," Joe said. "Come on."
    After a quick check to make sure that the last few people had left the platform and no employees were watching, Joe and Frank squeezed behind the train and dropped back onto the tracks. Joe led the way into the darkness, using the faint glow from his flashlight. Frank used his flashlight too, and for five minutes they walked the tracks.
    Frank felt confused. "I still don't see - "
    "Take a look at this," Joe interrupted. He shone his light onto the side of the concrete tunnel wall. There, painted the same color, was a metal door.
    "When I saw the train coming and realized it wasn't going to stop, I did the only thing I could," said Joe. "I hit the wall. Only instead of the wall I found this door. And even better than that, I found, well look."
    Joe pushed, and the door swung in.
    "You don't have to tell me it was dumb luck, I know it was," said Joe, and Frank nodded.
    "I'm not just talking about saving my life," Joe went on. “Finding this puts us back on the trail of that guy we were chasing. It must be the way he escaped. Come on. But watch your step. Right after we go through this doorway we go down some stairs."
    "How far down do the stairs go?"
    "I don't know," said Joe. "I figured I'd better go back to get you before trying to find out. Sometimes you actually come in handy' in situations like this. If that guy has pals down there, I'd really need you. Besides, he probably’ stopped running once he ducked out of the tunnel. No way he could know I'd stumble on this door. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have spotted it in a million years. It looks like it's part of the wall."
    "I'm not sure how safe this is," said Frank, feeling suspicious. "Why didn't the guy lock the door? Maybe we're walking into a trap."
    "Sometimes you're too cautious for your own good," said Joe in disgust. He shone his flashlight on the inside of the door. Rust had completely corroded the bolt that would lock the door. But the bolt had been chiseled away so that it could be opened, and now there was no way to lock it again.
    "Any more questions?" Joe asked.
    Without waiting for Frank's reply, he headed down rusted metal stairs, which led into pitch darkness.
    Frank did have more questions. He sensed that danger waited for them at the bottom of those stairs, and he would have liked to have some clue about what that danger would be. But he followed anyway.
    The stairs went down and down. “Wonder what they were used for," Joe said "There's a lot of stuff underground in the city. Basements built to house the foundations of all the tall buildings. Funnels for drainage, water, electrical and communication cables. And under Grand Central Station there's a whole maze of maintenance sheds and storage rooms. Things keep changing so fast in the city that a lot of underground support systems have simply been abandoned. New York isn't into looking back. It's too busy rushing into the future."
    "Hey, how do you know so much about it?" asked Joe. "From that article I told you about."
    Joe shook his head. "You're the only person I know who reads everything and forgets nothing. I