"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 11 - Dimension of Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

toEngland of being able to penetrate and explore other dimensions and bring back their wealth or
knowledge was obvious. Blade's superior, the man called J, who headed MI6, had reluctantly parted
with his best agent. The prime minister himself had funneled generous support in money and trained
people to the project. But the key man in the project was still Blade himself. He was still the only man
inEngland able to travel into Dimension X and return alive and sane.
Obviously, either his luck or his endurance would run out sooner or later if they kept sending him
back. Blade knew it and took it for granted. J also knew it and was horrified at the thought. Lord
Leighton knew it and usually seemed quite indifferent. There was a subproject afoot to find other
qualified candidates for trips into Dimension X, and both J and the prime minister had given it their
blessing and their personal support. But so far it had produced nothing. Blade was still indispensable.
So he could not marry. Few women could tolerate having their husbands suddenly snatched away on
mysterious errands for weeks or months at a time and unexpectedly returning scarred, tanned, and
trimmed down. Blade would not ask those few women he could rely on to silently suffer such an
existence. His other dimensional travels had already driven away Zoe, the woman he had come closest to
marryingтАФwould have married under other circumstances. He would not take the chance of that
happening twice. So he sought out those women, like Annie, who were interested in fun, frolic, and
freedom.
Now the spinnaker was down, bagged, dropped through the forward hatch, and stowed in the sail
locker in the forepeak. The heaving of the motorsailer's deck subsided enough to make Blade's trip aft
easier than his trip forward. With only the mainsail and the number-two jib up, the yacht rode easily
through the chop.
Annie was holding her on course with no sign of effort when Blade dropped down into the cockpit
and squatted beside the wheel. "Think we can make Folkestone with the spinnaker down?" he asked.
She frowned. "Not unless we want to make the approach after dark."
Blade shook his head.
She grinned and said, "You're as careful as if you'd been at sea for twenty years. Where did you ever
learn the habit?"
Blade looked at Annie's windblown beauty and wondered how he would have answered that
question if he had not been bound hand, foot, and tongue by the Official Secrets Act. Would he have to
tell Annie about the pirates of Neral, whom he had fought both for and against, and about how he had
learned seamanship from the sadistic she-pirate named Cayla and the tough old fighter Tuabir aboard the
galleys of the pirate Brotherhood? And if he had decided to tell her about these things, could he have
made her believe him? Perhaps not. Perhaps the Official Secrets Act had saved him more than once from
being branded a madman. There was so much he had learned, so much he had seen, during his
adventures. And so much of it would have seemed incredible even to Blade if he had not lived through it
himself.
Suddenly a shout of surprise from Annie made him turn and look out across the whitecaps to where
her slender arm was pointing. A larger patch of foam was spreading across the sea, breaking up on the
fringes as the waves tossed it about. From its center rose a squat black tower, rising still higher as Blade
watched, and then a long black hull lifted from beneath the foam and sliced through the waves. One
ofEngland 's diminishing fleet of submarines was on the surface again, heading intoPortsmouth after a long
patrol in the depths of theAtlantic .
Blade watched tiny figures appear on the submarine's bridge, and then a patch of white that grew
suddenly larger as the wind caught it and whipped it out stiff and brilliant in the sunтАФthe white ensign of
the Royal Navy. An impulse to follow what had once been tradition moved Blade. He reached for the
halyard of the motorsailer's own flag and pulled gently, so that it dipped twice. Across the water there
was a flurry of motion on the submarine's bridge. Blade realized he had caught them by surprise with the
traditional gesture. Probably no one aboard the submarine, from the captain on down, had ever
witnessed this act. But then the white ensign shivered and moved down and then up with stately grace.
Blade smiledтАФthe Royal Navy could usually come up punching.