"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 01 - The Bronze Axe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

it, of course."
The car arrived. Blade stepped in. There were no buttons or controls of any sort in the car. A bronze
door sighed hydraulically and the car shot rapidly downward, so fast that Blade's stomach felt queasy.
The car fell for a long time. Blade wondered how long they had been secretly mining beneath the
Tower. Had it anything to do with atomic blast shelters? Certainly their security was good; he had a
finger in a lot of pies, knew pretty much what went on, and this was his first inkling that such a place
existed. J hadn't known, either. Blade was impressed.
The car stopped. Blade's stomach returned to its normal place. The door slid open and Blade
stepped out into a brilliantly lighted foyer. It was bare except for a desk and two chairs. Behind the desk
sat a little gnome of a man who Blade recognized at once as Lord Leighton, top scientist in allBritain .
High boffin of all the boffins, as English scientists were called by laymen. In theUnited States they were
called "brains". InEngland they were boffins. Call them what you liked, they were the men on
whomBritain was now depending for her very life as a great power and nation.
Lord Leighton was something of a mystery man. His background was shadowy and very few
pictures of him appeared in public. Blade had seen a photo of Leighton years before, in the course of his
work, and he saw at once that years had ravaged the man.
Leighton stood up. His thin hair was white, and Blade had forgotten that the man was a hunchback.
Polio, too, Blade guessed as Leighton came around the desk in a halting, crablike walk. Leighton
extended his hand.
 "Richard Blade?"
They shook hands. Leighton's was small and dry. "Fine of you to assist us," he said. "I trust it isn't an
imposition?"
Blade said that it wasn't. Not at all. He was only too happy to help in, er, whatever it was.
Leighton gave Blade an up and down glance, much the same appraisal that J had made in the taxi.
The hunchback's smile was warm and tobacco stained.
"If itisan imposition, a nuisance, you really have only yourself to blame, Mr. Blade. We were looking
for as near a perfect physical and mental specimen as we could get, and the computers kicked out your
card every time. Just how do you feel about computers, by the way?"
It was an odd question, pointed up by the fact that the little man had just led Blade into a
low-ceilinged room where dozens of computers were humming and clicking and clacking. Leighton, his
hand on Blade's arm, guided him through the maze of consoles.
Blade was puzzled. All he could honestly say was: "I don't feel any particular way about them, sir. I
just don't know very much about them. We use them in our work, of course, but I personally have very
little contact with—"
"Good, good," said Leighton, who did not appear to be paying much attention to Blade's words.
"Just as long as you don't really feel any hostility for computers. They can sense it, you know, and it
makes them most uncooperative at times. Ah! Here we are, Mr. Blade. Just in through that door, Mr.
Blade, and strip down. Naked. To the buff. You'll find a sort of loincloth. Please put it on and rejoin me
here as soon as possible. Time is slipping away, you know, and I'm sure you want to get this over with
and be on your way."
Blade, who knew when he was out of his depth, nodded and went into the small dressing room.
There was a small linen loincloth hanging on a hook in the wall. Blade stripped and twisted the cloth
about his waist. It barely covered his genitals. He went back out to where the computers were humming
like giant mechanical bees. Lord Leighton, his hump grotesque under a white smock, was bending over
one of the machines and peering at the flashing lights. His lips were moving and Blade realized that the
man was talking to himself. He began to wonder if the old boy was all there.
But the man's small yellowish eyes had the clear, cold stare of sanity as they regarded Blade's
nakedness. He nodded. "Fine. Marvelous. If your brain is in as fine a shape as your body you're just
what we've been looking for. But then it is, of course. Our computers don't lie. Which is more than you
can say for most people, eh?"