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

on for work like this. I think more and more about retiring."
His Lordship snorted. He had heard talk like this before. "The thing for you to do," he said, "is to
take a little holiday. Go down toDorset and join young Blade. I'm sure he can find another totsy for you.
That's it, J. Take a few days off. Get drunk. Knock off a policeman's hat. Have Blade find you a totsy
and have an orgy. Then, when you're over your hangover and remorse, you can get back to your job."
It would not be overstating to say that J was a little shocked. He stared at the white-haired gnome, a
look of doubt on his well-bred Establishment features.
Lord Leighton chuckled maniacally. "You look like you've just been goosed by the Queen, man!"
J's jaw dropped. His false teeth glinted in the firelight. The old scientist chuckled again.
"Bladeishaving a go with the totsies, isn't he? Ever since his girl, Zoe? Since she found another chap?"
J nodded. "I suppose so, Lord L. Really, you know, I don't pry into the private lives of my people.
IтАФ"
"The hell you bloody don't," said His Lordship inelegantly. "Don't givemethat cock, old man. I'll bet
you know every time they go to the WC."
By now J had regained his composure. "Not always," he smiled. "Now and again they manage to nip
in without me knowing about it."
Lord Leighton, having seen J smile, scowled. "Then go and check, man. One of your agents might be
doing number two now and you in the dark about it. Go find out. Let me work. And have young Blade
up here in two days, remember. I've only a few more adjustments to make on the master computer and
we can send him out again. His fourth time, eh! Should be smooth as silk this time. I'm looking forward to
it."
On his way back to the dingy office in Copra House, while the taxi crawled through fog, J wondered
if Richard Blade was also looking forward to his next trip into Dimension X. There was, sighed J
inwardly, really no way of knowing. Richard Blade did his job, performed his duty, and let it go at that.
He didn't talk about it.
As the taxi slowed and became jammed in traffic, as the fog seeped in a crack of window and spread
tentacles like a dank brown octopus, J's mood began to sink once more. He did smile once as he
recalled Lord L's bawdy attempt to cheer himтАФthe old man did have prescience in other than scientific
mattersтАФthen his mouth dropped. Hewasworried. Things had gone too well for too long. His stomach
pained him and that was a sure sign. The truth was, J admitted as he stared at a flashing Bovril sign
without seeing it, that the Project, PDX, was due for trouble. Law of averages. Inexorable. You could
never get away from it.
How true. When J got back to his office in Copra House the proof was waiting on his desk.
Richard Blade had leftMoscow .


Chapter Two
┬л^┬╗
Somewhere in the Kremlin, tucked away deep in the basement labyrinth, is a department known simply
as TWIN. In keeping with the implied dichotomy, and to keep an eye on each other, TWIN is run by
two high ranking officers: Ilich Yevgeniy of KGB, Victor Nikolayevich of GRU. The two men, apart from
the usual departmental rivalry, worked well together.
TWIN is not a Russian, or an original, idea. The Russians adapted it from the Germans, who called it
Doppelganger. The Germans in turn had stolen it from the British in World War 1. The British called it
Code Gemini.
J, as a young officer in World War 1, had worked in Code Gemini for a short time. J never forgot it.
The basic idea behind TWIN, laughably simple, is predicated on the old belief that every man, and
woman, has a double Somewhere in the world. A ringer. The Russians have developed the idea to the
Nth degree; where they could not find a double they made one.
A double for every enemy agent known to the Russians. They helped nature by plastic surgery when