
High‑altitude aviation has become a national obsession, and the world watches as daring pilots line up for a historic climb toward the stratosphere. At Roosevelt Field, where legendary flights once took off, Lucian Jeter and Tema Eyer stand ready, still smarting from being bested by the enigmatic Franz Kress. The two brilliant, yet modest, scientists‑turned‑pilots are driven by a mix of rivalry, curiosity, and the promise of global acclaim, knowing that each ascent pushes the limits of what humanity can achieve.
When Kress disappears into the night sky, he leaves his comrades a puzzling request: “If I don’t return, take off and follow me.” The cryptic warning sparks a tense partnership, forcing Jeter’s meticulous focus and Eyer’s steady confidence to mesh like never before. As they prepare their own high‑speed craft, the listeners are drawn into a suspenseful race against the unknown, wondering how far the duo will go to chase a man who may have vanished beyond the clouds.
Language
en
Duration
~2 hours (128K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2009-07-20
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects
1898–1974
A wildly prolific pulp writer, he moved from the U.S. Marine Corps into full-time fiction and became known for fast-moving stories of horror, adventure, detective work, and science fiction. His best-remembered work today often comes from the eerie, atmospheric tales he published for magazines like Weird Tales.
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