"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 13 - The Golden Steed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

The Golden Steed
Blade Book 13


by Jeffrey Lord




CHAPTER ONE
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The ringing of the telephone broke Richard Blade's sleep. As always, he was awake in an instant. In his
profession those who were slow to awake didn't last long. He reached one long tanned arm out of bed
and picked up the receiver.
"Hello, Crawford here." That was his cover name when traveling abroad on personal business. He
was no longer an active field agent for the secret intelligence agency MI6. But here certainly must be
people who remembered that a "Richard Blade" had been one of MI6's top agents for nearly twenty
years. In those years he had done a good deal to give many people scores and grudges against him. If his
name showed up nakedly on aRiviera hotel register, some of those people might be tempted to try
settling those scores. And Blade preferred to take his holidays without interruptions or excitement. He
got more than enough excitement on his new job.
"Ah, Francis," came the familiar paternal voice on the other end of the line. Fuzzed and distorted as it
was by the long-distance line fromLondon , J's voice was unmistakable. The old spymaster had been
Blade's chief in MI6, and was in an odd sort of way still his chief. "How are you?Riviera agreeing with
you?"
"Very much, sir."
"Have anything doing that you can't break off?"
"Nothing in particular, sir." That was approximately true. There had been an American girl, on her
way toOxford . But she couldn't be called particular. Decidedly not. There was an impressive number of
hours in that young lady's bedroom log, Blade was sure. "Has business suddenly picked up?"
"Not worth mentioning. But his lordship wants to call a conference on the twelfth to discuss one of
the new lines. Number Nineteen, I think he said."
"Very good, sir. I'll be there in plenty of time."
 The line went dead. Blade put the receiver back in place and lay back in the bed. Like his identity,
his profession was concealed while he was abroad behind a cover story and a code. But there were
reasons for concealing his profession that went beyond his personal safety.
There was no single word to describe Blade's profession, a profession unknown to the public—or so
he and J both devoutly hoped. And Blade doubted if there ever would be a word. How can you describe
a man whose job it is to travel into alternate dimensions—not quite on alternate Thursdays, but much the
same way a deep-sea sailor goes on a long voyage? Blade didn't know. All he knew was that he was the
best man in the world today for that job. And he enjoyed it. He had an adventurous temperament, but he
had managed to be born in a century when there were few professions that offered that much chance for
adventurers. He knew that he was very lucky.
His luck had begun the day thatEngland 's most brilliant and eccentric scientist, Lord Leighton, had
decided to make an experiment. The experiment consisted of linking a man's brain directly into an
advanced computer—or at least what had been an advanced computer then. Compared to what Lord
Leighton used now, that first computer was hardly more than a child's toy. Leighton's goal was to
radically increase the powers of both the human and the electronic intelligences, each taking strength from
the other.
A good idea. Blade rather hoped that one day the original experiment could be carried out