"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 06 - Monster of the Maze" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

The cabby, an ancient character with a Bairnsfather moustache, advised against it.

"Be closed now, mate. Them bloody beefeaters locks up shop at four sharp.
Wasting your time, you'd be."

Blade was surprised at his own reaction. It was most unlike him, yet he heard
himself snapping, "Take me to the Tower fast, and keep your bloody advice bloody
well to yourself. Understood?!"

"Yessir." The cabby turned to his wheel with a shrug. You got all kinds. But if
this toff was a tourist he was Prince Philip.
Chapter 2
Lord Leighton was not pleased with Blade's decision. He sat hunched sideways
in his chair and stared at the younger man with yellow eyes, looking every bit the
hunchbacked and evil-tempered little gnome he was. Lord L was very old and very
famous and quite properly considered himself the foremost cybernetic genius of his
time.

"It is not nearly time," he complained. "We've only just implanted the crystal.
Your hair hasn't even grown in yet."

"Damn my hair," said Blade. "I want to get on with it. Otherwise I might not go at
all. I might funk it."

J had been sitting quietly in a corner, sucking on his pipe and listening and
watching, rather enjoying himself. Enjoying Lord L's discomfiture. J had noticed that
in himself of lateтАФmore and more he had come to dislike Lord L, and all scientists,
and he had struggled against it and lost.
 Now he said, "Funk it, Richard? Not you. You never funked anything in your life,
much less a mission of this importance."

"I might this one," said Blade. He smiled at J. Theirs was very nearly a
father-and-son relationship. Blade was fond of the older man even though they were
opposite types and the generation gap was great. J was dry as dust, Establishment to
the core, something of a fussy old woman in dress and mannerтАФand as much a
genius as Lord L in his own line of work. He was a security man, head of MI6 and
also of MI6A, the special security branch created for Project DX. He did his job
superbly and hated it. As he spoke again he found himself almost wishing that Blade
would funk it, would drop out and refuse the upcoming mission. They had a new
man on tap, a trainee, and though he was no Richard Blade he would do.

Lord Leighton said: "Look, my boy. You don't really understand the problems.
The telemetry is working, and the laser microprogramming is coming along, but there
is still a tremendous amount of work to be done on the encephalographic code. And
that is the crux of the whole matter! What we have just done, directing your route
this afternoon by computer impulses, is primitive compared to what I hope to do. I
tell you, Richard, the possibilities are limitless. There is literally no endтАФ"

"And that," said J dryly and with some malice, "is just the trouble. There never is
any end to it, Lord L. There never will be, if you have your way. In any case, I'm