"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 18 - Warlords of Gaikon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

just put his hand on the soda-water siphon when the telephone rang. Blade picked up the receiver while
he poured out the whiskey with the other hand.
"Hello, Richard?"
Blade couldn't help tensing for a moment, and he felt his heartbeat speed up in a brief flurry. The
voice on the line belonged to the man called J. He was Blade's chief—among other things.
"Yes, sir?"
"Are you alone?" J had never approved of Blade's open and energetic pursuit of women, but he had
never done anything to interfere with it, either. He would not do that to Blade, whom he loved like the
son he had never had. Besides, it was simply not proper for one gentleman to intrude into the private
affairs of another or to pass judgment on them. And J was a gentleman to his fingertips.
He was also one of the most formidable spymasters in the history of intelligence operations.
"Yes, sir." Blade couldn't help adding ruefully, "I hadn't planned to be, but that's the way it worked
out."
J's voice held a tinge of amusement as he continued. "Well, then, Richard. Will you be free to be at
the Tower tomorrow at eleven?"
Blade grinned. "Of course, sir."
 "Very good, Richard," said J. "His lordship will be waiting." A click, and the line went dead.
Blade slowly put the receiver back in its cradle and finished preparing the Scotch and soda. Then he
stretched out on the sofa and sipped it leisurely, savoring the smell and taste of every drop. It might be a
long time before he tasted good Scotch again. In fact, he might never do so at all.
There was only one thing Richard Blade ever did at theTowerofLondon . He descended two
hundred feet below it to a secret laboratory complex, to be strapped into a chair in the heart of a gigantic
computer, the most advanced in the world. Then "his lordship"—Lord Leighton,England 's most brilliant
scientist—pulled a red switch. And Richard Blade vanished fromEngland , to reappear—somewhere
else.
That "somewhere else" they called Dimension X.
They would go on calling it Dimension X until they knew more about it, which would be a very long
time. But Richard Blade was definitely the farthest-traveling man in the world, because he had been into
Dimension X time after time. Each time so far he had returned toEngland alive and sane. Every journey
into Dimension X was a grim battle for survival, and sooner or later he was going to lose one of those
battles.
But Richard Blade believed that he owedEngland his best, everything his superb mind and body
together could give. He had believed that when he was one of J's best agents in the secret intelligence
agency MI6. He had gone on believing it when he became the only man in the world to travel into
Dimension X and return safely.


Chapter 2
«^»
Richard Blade was walking along the main corridor of the Project Dimension X complex below
theTowerofLondon . J was walking beside him. The corridor stretched on ahead of the two men,
apparently deserted and lifeless, with no ears to hear or eyes to. see anything the two men might do. But
Blade knew that every step he took, every word he spoke, every gesture he made, was recorded by
supersensitive electronic devices that scanned the corridor more intensively than a hundred human
sentries could have done. The ability to travel to other dimensions was the most closely guarded secret
inEngland , one that millions of pounds and a few lives had been spent to protect. Not evenEngland 's
friends could be trusted with the secret of what Lord Leighton had done, and as for her enemies—
A thought struck Blade. "Is Lord Leighton planning any special effects for me this time?"
J shook his head. His voice held a mixture of relief and annoyance as he said, "There's really nothing
ready to test that hasn't already failed. Lord Leighton doesn't dare make your trips too much more