"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 15 - The Towers of Melnon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

dozen estates of the size the young earl was offering.
"True," said the younger man. "But I think father would have wanted you to get it cheap. He was
always very big on the patriotic type of stuffтАФdoing your bit forEngland and all that sort of thing."
"Yes," said J in an even voice. "He was 'very big' on servingEngland . He risked his life doing it in two
wars, as a matter of fact."
The young earl flushed slightly, recognizing a polite putdown when he heard one. To cover his
embarrassment he went over to the sideboard and mixed two stiff Scotch-and-sodas. Then he returned
to his chair and the two men got down to business.
Once they did, it was a simple matter of two phone calls toLondon тАФone apieceтАФand a few lines
scribbled on a sheet of paper torn from the note pad next to the telephone. And MI6 found itself
prospectively in possession of fifteen hundred acres of Herefordshire, at something less than ten pounds
per acre.
After that, J went out to his Rover and put in two more calls on his scrambler-equipped
radio-telephone. Both of these were also toLondon . One was to a man named Lord Leighton.
"Leighton, we've got the place for the new training center."
"Splendid work. Where?"
"Not even on a scrambled line, if you don't mind."
"Oh, to be sure, to be sure."
"I'm starting back toLondon in a few minutes. Can you meet me for lunch at my club? Tomorrow at
noon?"
"Certainly."
 "See you then."
The second call was to a man named Richard Blade.
"Richard, my boy. How are you?"
"Tolerably well, sir. Just got back fromScotland . Fishing, a little rock-climbing, you know."
"Fishing for what, Richard?" J knew that Blade was rather a woman-chaser, although he was always
a gentleman about it. J neither approved nor disapproved.
"Salmon, sir. Nothing else," Blade replied with a hint of mock reproach in his voice.
"Very good, very good. NowтАФwe've picked up a place to use for that training facility I mentioned."
"The one for the new agentsтАФif and when?"
"Precisely."
"Any progress on finding anybody to train there?"
"None that I've heard of lately. The PM promised me a report ten days ago, but nothing's come
through."
"Well, with the election coming up the man must have a lot on his mind."
"To be sure." That was one of the reasons J had not only made Richard Blade one of MI6's top
agents, but also loved him like a son. Richard could always guess what the other person might be doing,
and why. It was a social asset at home and a survival skill in the field. It could help a man charm a
hostess at a Mayfair cocktail party and outwit a Russian SMERSH agent in the mountains
ofCzechoslovakia . Blade had done both.
"In any case," J continued, "I'd like you to meet me for lunch at my club. Say noon tomorrow. Lord
Leighton will be there also."
"I'll be there, sir."
"Fine, Richard, fine."
J shut off the radio-telephone, started the car, and wheeled the Rover down the driveway and out
through the front gate. The roof of the big sprawling eighteenth century house shone in the sun after the
morning's rain. J grinned. The young earl who now ruled that house might scoff at patriotism and "doing
his bit forEngland ," but he had just done it in spite of himself. He had given Project Dimension X
something it had been seeking for quite some time.
Actually, Project Dimension X had been seeking quite a number of different and sometimes