"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 09 - Kingdom of Royth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

KingdomofRoyth
Blade Book 9


by Jeffrey Lord




CHAPTER 1
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The official Rolls-Royce carrying J toward theTowerofLondon was not quite like the advertisementsтАФso
quiet that all he could hear was the ticking of the electric clock. But it was almost that quiet, and
otherwise there were only faint traffic noises outside. It was eleven o'clock on a spring night, andLondon
was either going to sleep or already asleep.
J would normally have been in bed and asleep also. Part of his rise to the position of head of the
special intelligence branch MI6 was the result of years of rising early, not only before the dawn but
before his rivals (and his enemies). But tonight Richard Blade was being hurled through Lord Leighton's
gigantic computer on his ninth journey into Dimension X. J would sooner have violated the Official
Secrets Act than not be on hand when his best agentтАФalmost like a son to him was hurled off into some
fantastic other world to live or die by his own quick wits and superb physical prowess.
Blade had made the same journey eight times. The first time it had been by accident, when an
experiment indirectly linking one of Lord Leighton's earlier computers to Blade's mind has gone
spectacularly awry. The remaining times, however, his journeys had been part of a deliberately contrived
project to explore what was now called Dimension X, for the benefit ofEngland . Over the short time of
its existence, Project Dimension X had grown from a bee in Lord Leighton's white-haired bonnet to a
massive undertaking housed in a self-contained complex more than two hundred feet below the Tower.
Its financing swallowed money to the tune of better than half a million pounds a year. It drew on the
talents of some thirty ofEngland 's most brilliant menтАФscientists, engineers, psychologistsтАФwithout letting
them know what they were serving. Only four people in the whole worldтАФJ hopedтАФknew full details.
Blade, Lord Leighton, the Prime Minister, and J himself.
In spite of the Prime Minister's generosity with priorities, financing, and staffing, Project Dimension X
still had a weak point. That weak point was Richard Blade himself. J grinned wryly at the notion of
Blade, with his mind and body and experience, being a "weak point." Then the grin faded.
 It was true. Dimension X could not be explored or exploited without somebody going through the
computer. So far, the only person able to go through the computer and return alive and sane was Blade
himself. One other man had tried; he had returned permanently insane. A dozen others had been
considered; all had been rejected. All fell short of Blade's perfection.
But however perfect Blade might be, there was a limit to what he could take. Sooner or later his
brain would suffer major damage from too much stress placed on it too often by the computer. Even
worse, somewhere out in Dimension X his mighty strength might not be great enough, his lightning
reflexes not fast enough, and he would not come back at all.
It was absolutely necessary to find at least one other man, and preferably several, who could survive
a trip into Dimension X, both physically and mentally. They needed to take the strain off Blade for his
sake. Even more, if he cracked or vanished before they found somebody else, the whole Dimension X
project would come to a standstill, possibly for good. That would benefit nobody and nothing.
All of which explained why J was in the official Rolls-Royce heading intoLondon . An hour ago he
had been high over theAtlantic in an airliner. To all eyes he had been a tall, elderly impeccably
Establishment businessman or civil servant. He had just completed a mission to Washington, a mission
personally ordered by the Prime Minister. He had been discreetly inquiring of the Americans whether