"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 04 - Slave of Sarma" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

His Lordship glanced up from his work. "For God's sake, man, stop pacing like a tiger. And stop
looking so worried. I told youтАФthe Prime Minister will put a spoke in the Carrandish wheel. More than
likely Harry will have the man in for a little chat. They'll have a sherry or so and Harry will tell him to keep
his long nose to himself and that will be that."
J stopped prowling long enough to chunk up the fire. He scowled at the flames. "I doubt it will be that
simple, Lord L. The Prime Minister will have to tell him somethingтАФ"
 The old man chuckled. "Harry will think of something. He's a good liar. Made it to the top in politics,
didn't he? Now do be a good fellow and let me concentrate. I may be getting senile after allтАФI have a
simple nanosecond equation here that a babe should be able to solve and I'm having trouble. Very
upsetting, that Carrandish type, very."
J regarded the old scientist with affection and exasperation.England 's top man of science he might
be, but in certain matters he was a babe in arms. He knew nothing of the jungle in which J and Richard
Blade must work and survive. Lord Leighton reigned high in his Ivory Tower, lost amid his giant
computers, thinking in symbols that only a few men could understand, enmeshed in cybernetic jargon,
screened from the real and dirty world of plot and counterplot. The world of bullet and knife and noose
and poison. "I don't like it," J said.
Lord L dropped his pen. He pushed his papers from him. "Don't like what? Get it off your chest,
man, then go away and let me work. Get on to Blade, for one thing, and tell him I want him here in two
days' time. NowтАФwhat don't you like?"
J resumed his pacing. "Carrandish will go the Prime Minister, Lord L, and since he is already bound
by the Official Secrets Act, and as nosy as a ferret and as slithery as an eel, my guess is that the PM will
end up by telling him about Dimension X Project. As the most effective way of shutting him up."
Lord Leighton nodded. He pulled one crippled leg over the other and sought comfort for his hump.
"So, J? You may be right. Itwouldbe the most effective way of stifling the man. But why
worryтАФCarrandish may be a bother, I agree, but that doesn't make him a traitor."
J despaired of making the old man understand the laws of averages and permutationsтАФas they
applied to espionage. To J's way of thinking only two men could really keep a secret, and even that was
chancy. Bring in a third man and you no longer had a secret.
"My point is," he said gloomily, "that Carrandish will be just one more who knows about Project X.
And there are far too many now. The thing is getting out of hand and I just don't know how much longer
I can promise absolute security." If, he thought, there is such a thing.
His Lordship tut-tutted a moment, then agreed that J might have a point. "But you must have foreseen
this, J. You knew that PDX was going to grow and need more money and more personnel and material.
Even I saw that and I"тАФhis smile was faintтАФ"I am not a very practical man, as you know."
J nodded. "I have taken every bloody precaution I could think of. I know my job, Lord L, and I have
done it. And it hasn't been enoughтАФthis Carrandish comes straight to you, like a hound after a hare, and
starts blathering about vouchers and unexplained money. That shouldn't have happened, Lord L.
Something was overlookedтАФthere should have been a cutoff somewhere and there wasn't."
Lord L was sympathetic. "Someone in your organization made a mistake, J. It happens. I have to
read off my assistants a dozen times a day. But don't let it fret youтАФyou can't be everywhere and do
everything."
"You can tell that," said J fervently, "to the bloody Horse Marines! Maybe I can't be everywhere and
do everything, but I've got the responsibility just as though I could. I am responsible to you and to the
Prime Minister and to Her MajestyтАФ"
Lord Leighton clapped his gnarled old hands. "Hear-hear. The man is going to make a speech after
all. But not here, J, please! Go down toHyde Park corner and make it and let me get on working, eh?"
J smiled a little sheepishly as he went to the chair where he had left his bowler and mack and
umbrella. He bent to tug on a pair of stretch rubbers, American made.
 "Sorry," he told Lord L. "But I am nervous these days. I am in a nervous profession anyway and all
this PDX, on top of my other duties, may just be a little much. I don't know, Lord LтАФmaybe I'm getting