"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 02 - The Jade Warrior" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

far. I hop right into bed and I love it. But I can't love it forever, you know. I'm a woman. I want to get
married and have children and have a husband I see every day. And every night. You won't even tell me
what you really do for a living!"
Blade squinted up at her and made the effort. "Come off it, Zoe. You know what IтАФ"
She put a cool hand over his lips. "Bureau of Economic Planning.Whitehall ."
It was a new cover, one that J had dreamed up since the computer experiments began.
"I asked about yourrealjob, Richard. That Bureau thing is only what they call a cover in the thrillers.
I've looked into it. Father has friends, I have friends, and all our friends have friends. It wasn't so hard,
really. You have got an office inWhitehall , and a pretty little thing as a secretary, and you spend about
one hour a week there, signing papers that mean nothing."
Blade closed his eyes again. Somewhere a cuckoo sang a last sad parting note. Wait until J heard
about this! The plumbing was leaking. It had, of course, been a hasty setup.
Zoe leaned to kiss him softly on the mouth. Her lips were warm again. "Dick. Sweetheart. If you are
some sort of secret agent, doing some sort of dreadfully mysterious and dangerous work, why don't you
just simply tell me? Just one word. I'll understand and never ask another question."
Hah!
"I can't tell you," he said. "I can't tell you anything at all."
"Not even yes or no?"
"Not anything."
There was silence. The cuckoo cried a last time. Zoe was leaning over him, her marvelous taut
breasts touching his face.
"All right," Zoe said at last. "Will you marry me, then? Right away. I love you so much that I'll settle
for just that. Marry me and I'll try my best not to be a hindrance to you in whatever it is you do."
"I can't marry you."
When the computer thing began they voided his old Official Secrets Act and had made him sign a
new oneтАФwith a special codicil. No marriage. J was the best security man in allEurope and he did not
trust bedsprings, even connubial ones.
Zoe drew away from him. "You can't marry me? Or won't marry me?"
"Can't. IтАФ"
 They heard the phone ringing in the cottage then, a hundred yards back from the cliff, shrill and angry
in the quietness.
Zoe stood up abruptly and starting brushing off her skirt. "I'm not expecting a call."
"I am. Come on. I'll carry you." Blade snatched her up and ran down the path, carrying her as
effortlessly as a man carries a kitten. There was a four-step stile just at the turnoff to the cottage and he
took it in stride, vaulting the high stone like a thoroughbred at the National.
Zoe cried out. "You fool. You'll cripple both of us!" Ordinarily she would have loved it. There was
no particular hurry. Blade knew the phone would keep ringing. It did.
The phone was in the bedroom. Blade flung Zoe on the bed in a flurry of skirts and long bare legs
and went to answer it. It was an ordinary black phone with no scrambler attachment. "Hello."
"Hello, dear boy. How are things?" J's tone was bland and calm as the Channel a hundred yards
away. He sounded as if he were about to invite Blade to tea the next day.
"Things might be a little better," Blade said. He glanced at Zoe on the bed. She had arranged her skirt
and was regarding him with an odd little smile, her chin cupped in her hand. A reclining Mona Lisa.
"My dear fellow," said J, "I hope I haven't interrupted anything." J sounded as though he actually
meant it.
"Only a blazing quarrel, sir. Nothing to worry about. What is it? Is the deal going through?"
"It is," said J. "First thing in the morning. Can you be at your office inWhitehall to sign the necessary
papers? Quite early?"
"Right, sir. I'll be there." He hung up. Blade went to a closet to get his light suitcase, very conscious of
Zoe's dark eyes on him.