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Liberator of Jedd
Blade Book 5


by Jeffrey Lord




Chapter One
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Lord Leighton was, at best, an indifferent speaker. For some reason which J was unable to fathom the
old man had agreed to make the tiresome journey toReading and address a seminar ofBritain 's leading
brain surgeons gathered at the University. Later, when the confusion and danger was over, J was to
guess that the old man had hoped to learn something about the human brain that he did not already know.
What this could possibly be J could not surmise; the old fellow had already far surpassed the mortal brain
by building a seventh generation computer—now waiting for Richard Blade in its guarded vault beneath
the Tower of London—and so J put the rare expedition down to vanity, boredom and a desire to
exchange chitchat with other scientific minds.
Lord L, J thought now, must get very weary of talking to J. For J was most definitely not a scientific
brain. He was a prosaic and pragmatic man, a spy master when he had time to work at it. Which was not
often these days. The truth was that J, caught up as he was in the computer experiments and Blade's
dangerous forays into Dimension X, at times nearly forgot that he was head of MI6A.
Just now, as he squirmed on the hard seat and watched Lord L hem and haw and clear his throat, J
was a little bored himself. Also tired and hungry. And worried about Richard Blade.
Lord Leighton clung to the lectern for support, rather like a frail old lion propping himself against a
tree, and peered at his audience with hooded yellow eyes. His mane of white hair, thin and silky, haloed
his pink scalp as though defying gravity.
"In such an electromechanism as the modern computer," he was saying, "we have at least succeeded
in eliminating the danger of schizophrenia. We build computers to a complex schema, most complex, but
when theyarebuilt they function exactly as intended. This certainly cannot be said of the human brain."
Lord L moved a bit, shifting his hold on the lectern to ease the omnipresent pain in his hump, and J
felt a surge of pity and admiration for the old scientist. How did he ever manage to keep going?
 For that matter how did Richard Blade manage to keep going? The boy had made four harrowing
and desperate trips into Dimension X. In the morning he would go through the great computer again. His
fifth time out. J sighed and shook his head, causing the man in the next seat to regard him curiously, and
decided to reserve all his sympathy for Blade. The boy was tense. Nervous. Drinking a little too much
and chasing far too many women. All symptoms of strain and fatigue, J thought, though Lord L did not
agree.
"The chief difference," his Lordship was saying, "is that a computer, a cybernetic machine, is a unit, a
single component, so to speak, and so it has the advantages and the integrity of such a unit. Man, on the
other hand, really has three brains. The pity, and the source of most of our troubles, is that those three
brains must function asonebrain. This they find hard to do at times. And sometimes impossible. The three
brains fight each other. And I think, though I admit to a great oversimplification here, that this is one of
the reasons why man continues to war against man. In a world run by computers there would be no
wars. Because to computers war would just not makesense."
J fidgeted and sneaked a glance at his watch. Some twenty minutes to go. Then, with any luck, they
could catch the 10:47 back toLondon . J wondered what Dick Blade was doing at the moment.
Probably something much more sensible than listening to a crowd of elderly pundits discuss something
that one didn't understand, in a jargon that was all but incomprehensible. J sighed again and shifted his