"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 07 - Pearl of Patmos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

right."
Blade saw a solution. "I'll go in first and bring your frock out to you. I don't suppose water will ruin
it?"
 She did smile then, and traced her fingers over his face. "No. I have hundreds of frocks. You're
making too much of it. There is something elseтАФI must go. Now. This instant."
He was not surprised. Had been half expecting it. He glanced at the beach. They were at least a
quarter of a mile out.
She read his look "I'll be fine. The distance is nothing. YouтАФyou won't try to follow me? To find out
who I amтАФor anything?"
Blade shook his head. "Not anything. The forsaken merman promises. Goodbye, Diana." He would
have had it otherwise, but under the circumstances perhaps it was just as well.
"Goodbye, Hercules. I'll never forget you. Or this day."
Their glances met and lingered. Her eyes were as green as when he first gazed into them, but the
glacial ice had melted.
"Neither of us," Blade said, "is likely to forget this day."
She kissed him lightly on the mouth, said goodbye again, and was gone.
He floated, treading now and then, watching her slim body cut the water with an expert eight-beat
crawl. He scanned the cliff tops and made out a tiny figure wandering along the path. Old Professor
Wright. Even at that distance Blade's hawkish vision could make out the cape and the deerstalker hat.
Today the old man had a butterfly net with him. After specimens. Blade shook his head and grinned. The
Professor was a specimen, no doubt of that, but harmless. He could hardly see beyond the end of his
nose. No trouble there.
He saw her leave the water and race to where her dress lay on the sand. She did not look out to sea.
Blade began to swim with slow powerful strokes. She was making for the cliff stair now, running easily
and with a coltish grace. Blade allowed himself regret. Damn, anyway! It would have been nice, fun, to
come to know this lovely stranger. He had been rather at odds with life since he had lost Zoe Cornwall.
Apart from his duties, the computer forays into Dimension X, life had been on the bleak side. There were
personality changes induced by the restructuring of his brain cells, not all of them for the better, and for a
time booze had been a problem. After that it had been women, as he sought, or so J advised him, a
surrogate for Zoe. Show girls, barmaids, ladies, and tramps,West End debs and Cockney tarts, Blade
had tried them all. None brought him more than temporary surcease. J had voiced concern and alarm and
even Lord Leighton, the old rogue, had begun totch-tchтАФa bit.
It had ended at last. Since his last trip through the computer Blade had been living in virtual seclusion
in theDorset cottage. Now this girl from nowhere. Gone back into nowhere.
He saw her on the rim of the cliff. She was in silhouette against an apple green sky. She raised a hand
and waved once. Blade did not wave back. She lingered for a moment, motionless, and he sensed those
green eyes on him. She turned and walked back out of sight.
When he came out of the sea a few minutes later there were only her footprints to prove that it had
been no dream, no fantasy. A fantastic experience, but no fantasy. As he went about gathering his things,
smoking a cigarette, he again wondered where he had seen her face before this day. He was sure now
that he had never met her in person. But he had seen that face. Where?
The path along the cliffs was deserted as he made his way to the cottage. The phone was ringing as
he entered and he did not hurry. It would only be J checking on him. Wanting to be assured that all was
well. Tomorrow the computer. A journey to hell or paradise.
 Blade reached for the strident phone. Between rings he heard, could have sworn he heard, the
muffled roar of a high-powered sports car pulling away in low gear.
Blade grinned. He hoped that Diana would go straight home, wherever that was. If not, he hoped she
would be very careful how she sat, or bent over. He was still laughing when he picked up the phone.