The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edge of the Knife, by Henry Beam Piper

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Title: The Edge of the Knife

Author: Henry Beam Piper

Release Date: June 14, 2006 [EBook #18584]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's note:

This etext was produced from Amazing Stories, May 1957. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the copyright on this
publication was renewed.

THE EDGE

OF THE

KNIFE

By H. BEAM PIPER

* * * * *

_This story was rejected by two top-flight science-fiction editors for
the same reason: "Too hot to handle." "Too dangerous for our book."
We'd like to know whether or not the readers of_ Amazing Stories
_agree. Drop us a line after you've read it._

* * * * *

Chalmers stopped talking abruptly, warned by the sudden attentiveness
of the class in front of him. They were all staring; even Guellick, in
the fourth row, was almost half awake. Then one of them, taking his
silence as an invitation to questions found his voice.

"You say Khalid ib'n Hussein's been assassinated?" he asked
incredulously. "When did that happen?"

[Illustration: There was no past--no future--only a great chaotic
NOW.]

"In 1973, at Basra." There was a touch of impatience in his voice;
surely they ought to know that much. "He was shot, while leaving the
Parliament Building, by an Egyptian Arab named Mohammed Noureed,
with an old U. S. Army M3 submachine-gun. Noureed killed two of
Khalid's guards and wounded another before he was overpowered. He was
lynched on the spot by the crowd; stoned to death. Ostensibly, he and
his accomplices were religious fanatics; however, there can be no
doubt whatever that the murder was inspired, at least indirectly, by
the Eastern Axis."

The class stirred like a grai