"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 37 - Warriors of Latan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

whose qualities of mind and body let him travel time after time into a series of deadly and bizarre parallel
worlds, the only living human being who could travel into Dimension X and return alive and sane.

Dimension X was discovered quite by accident, like so much else in the history of science. Lord
Leighton was experimenting with hooking up Richard Blade's brain to what was then his most advanced
computer, hoping to create a superior combination of human and electronic intelligence. Leighton had,
hoped Blade's superior mental and physical abilities would be enhanced by connecting him to a
computer, and that Blade would, in turn, improve the computers capabilities. Direct interaction, it was
called, but instead of learning all the information stored in the computer, Blade was hurled off into the
unknown, from which he returned only by the use of his wits and strength, with a good deal of luck
thrown in.

Obviously the ability to explore a parallel Dimension, with lands that mirrored Home Dimension, and use
their resources would be enormously valuable to England. So Project Dimension X was born.

A few years and a few million pounds later, they'd actually made some progress-although not much in
proportion to the time and money spent, not to mention the number of scars on various portions of
Richard Blade's anatomy.

As he always did, seeing Blade again after an interval, J studied the younger man closely. He didn't
expect to see any changes, and didn't. Blade was older, wiser, and more experienced than he'd been
when they first met. J was head of the secret military intelligence agency MI6A then, and Blade was its
newest field agent, straight out of Oxford. Today Blade still walked alone, a man born into the wrong
century, better fit for the life of a professional adventurer than anyone else J had ever met.

As Blade appeared, Cheeky let out a wild yeeeep of delight and launched himself from J's shoulder
toward his master and friend. He forgot to let go of J's hair as he did, and a large tuft of it went with the
feather-monkey. J winced and rubbed the spot.

"Cheeky, that was bad of you," said Blade sharply, lightly slapping the feather-monkey about the head
and shoulders several times.

"Mreeeep?" said Cheeky. He sounded contrite, but it was hard to tell what he was thinking. The only
person who could was Blade himself. He'd found Cheeky in Dimension X, among the warring lords of
the Crimson River, and immediately established a telepathic link with the feather-monkey. The two could
communicate by sending each other mental images or pictures. Their minds seemed to communicate
without the use of their senses, and this strange bond tied them together in a close relationship that Blade
had never known with any human.

That telepathic link, J now knew, might be one of the biggest advances the Project ever made. Or at
least that was Leighton's best guess-not that he was ever willing to admit that he was "guessing," of
course. He regarded "guessing" as an obscene act. Nevertheless, the peculiar bond between Cheeky and
Blade seemed to enable the feather-monkey to travel into other Dimensions, too. Maybe now the
scientists were close to discovering how to send other human beings to Dimension X.

With a subdued Cheeky on his shoulder, Blade led the way to the part of the house that he had already
cleaned and redecorated. He had bought the country house for himself a short time ago; it was to be his
haven in Home Dimension, a place to house the growing menagerie of creatures he brought back with
him from his strange travels. Built in the eighteenth century and neglected since before the Second World
War, the house was going to need even more work before it was really comfortable. But at least you