"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 36 - Return to Kaldak" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

He still carefully tore off all the labels and tags. If he landed in an advanced society, someone might
notice the strange language and the unknown names and get curious. Such curiosity could be as
dangerous to the Dimension X secret as Russian spies, even if it didn't have immediate consequences in
Home Dimension.

Blade bought new clothing and equipment, but decided to keep his old hiking boots, which were well
broken-in and comfortable. He was prepared to die for England but not get unnecessary blisters for it.

Cheeky was a strict vegetarian, but he would eat nearly anything which wasn't meat. Blade had seen him
munch brussel sprouts, daffodil bulbs, and scraps of leather. The same fruits, nuts, whole-grain cereal
bars, and chocolate Blade was going to eat would also do for Cheeky.

Lord Leighton was not only nervous but found time on his hands. He kept making telephone calls to
both J and Blade, fussing over trifles. The last straw came when he rang up Blade to ask which sedatives
should be given to Cheeky when he was sent through the transition.

"No," said Blade, "I won't suggest what sedatives to use! I will not cooperate with this whole idiotic
proposal! If you go on with it, you'll never find Cheeky, and you may have some trouble finding me!"

"Richard, you're-"

"I'm not what you're going to say I am, that's for bloody well certain. I'm tired of Cheeky's being treated
as an experimental animal, that's what I am!"

"Besides," he added. "You're forgetting the telepathic link between me and Cheeky. Sedation might
break it. How can we be sure he'll go with me without the telepathy? Can we even be sure of finding a
safe sedative without a pile of experiments? Do you want to delay the next trip?"

"If you'd given us a free hand with Cheeky when you came back from the Crimson River, we could have
made the experiments by now," said Leighton.

"Well, I didn't. With the attitude you're showing now, I think I was bloody well right!"

After a long silence Leighton cleared his throat. "Richard, I'm sorry I raised the matter. I said I wouldn't
put pressure on you. I meant it. I'm afraid I'm not thinking quite as clearly as I ought to. The strain, you
know."

That was more of an apology than Leighton ever gave anybody, and Blade decided to accept it, such as
it was. "I understand," he said. "Well, let's get me and Cheeky fired off into Dimension X, and you and J
can both relax."

Blade still didn't breathe easy until two days later, when he and Cheeky showed up in Complex One
ready for the trip into Dimension X. Complex One lay two hundred feet below the Tower of London,
with a concealed entrance guarded by dark-suited Special Branch men. Once it held the whole Project,
and it still held the master computer, the new booth, and everything else which might give away the secret
of Dimension X.

That wasn't enough to fill the whole Complex. An entire corridor of offices and laboratories once alive
with lights and voices and hard work was now dark and empty, the equipment having gone to the new
Complex Two or else shrouded in dust covers. Blade had the feeling ghosts would be lurking in those