Two generations after the nuclear holocaust, rumors persisted about a secret desert hideaway where scientists worked with dangerous machines and where men plotted to revive the cities.
Almost a continent away, Len Coulter heard whisperings that fired his imagination. Then one day he found a strange wooden box ...
Leigh Brackett (1915-1978)
Leigh Brackett was an accomplished and prolific writer of fantasy and SF, as well as a Hollywood screen writer. She worked on scripts for films such as The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye and Rio Bravo, and received a posthumous Hugo Award for the script for The Empire Strikes Back.