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

incompatible things for quite a long time. Sometimes the Project reminded J of a gigantic fox-hunt over a
mist-shrouded and treacherous field, with only a dozen or so hunters and at least twenty foxes. You
couldn't hope to catch all of the beasts, but you could at least try chivying them all along in more or less
the same direction.
But there was no doubt that helping Project Dimension X was helpingEngland . In a nutshell, the
Project involved sending a man into a succession of alternate dimensions, to survive or die. Hopefully he
would survive and explore the dimension. And if it had resources or techniques or devices unknown in
Home Dimension, he would bring them back toEngland with him.
Dropping down from the abstract to the concrete details (all ten thousand of them or so), Project
Dimension X was a little less simple. It had begun by accident the day Lord Leighton connected Richard
Blade's mind to a computer. Lord Leighton had been and still wasEngland 's most brilliant scientistтАФnot
to mention the most maddening one to work with. He had conceived the idea of creating a combination
of human and electronic intelligences, superior to either man or computer alone. Well and good.
For the experiment he had needed the most nearly perfect physical and mental specimen he could
find. That specimen had been Richard Blade. With nearly twenty years as a top MI6 agent already under
his belt, Blade had forgotten more about survival than most men could ever learn. Leighton plugged his
specimen into the computerтАФand Blade wound up in what came to be called Dimension X. He arrived
as naked as the day he was born, but his superb mind and body kept him alive. Eventually Lord Leighton
was able to reverse the process that had sent Blade winging off into Dimension X. Blade came back
toEngland , back to the computer complex under theTowerofLondon . It had been very simple, the first
time.
But Project Dimension X promptly started shooting out complications in all directions, like the
tentacles of an octopus.England 's best scientists were unable to duplicate any of the samples of
advanced materials or technology that Blade brought home from Dimension X. Sooner or later they
would make a breakthrough, of course. But in the meantime the Prime Minister was not particularly
happy. He had to justify the millions of pounds the Project had swallowed to inquisitive members of
Parliament, so his unhappiness was hardly surprising.
It might have helped if they had been able to send Blade back to the same dimension again and again.
But so far that was impossible. They had to fire him off in the general direction of Dimension X and hope
he would land somewhere he could survive. This "shooting into the blind" improved neither the efficiency
of the Project nor the tempers of Lord Leighton, J, the Prime Minister, or Richard Blade.
And of course there was always the problem of Blade himself. Not that there was anything wrong
with him. He had suffered psychological problems of various sorts at one timeтАФdrinking, impotence, and
the like. That was the result of unexpected reactions of his brain to the computer. But he seemed to have
stabilized now. After fourteen successive trips into Dimension X, he was still the most nearly perfect
physical and mental specimen available.
And that was the problem about Blade. He was too perfect. In fact, he was the only man in the free
world who could travel into Dimension X and return alive and sane. Even if J hadn't been concerned for
Blade personally, this was a situation that had to be changed. Preferably as fast as possible. If Blade's
luck ever ran out in Dimension X, the Project would come to a screeching halt. What the devil, it would
come to a halt if Blade were run over by a bloodyLondon taxi!
So a search was onтАФhad been on for two years nowтАФfor somebody to take Blade's place.
Preferably several "somebodies." Once they had a regular team of Dimension X travelers, Blade could
retire. Perhaps he could handle the training end of the Project? Or perhaps if he did go into Dimension X,
he could go as the team leader? That was a possibility. Had Leighton done any thinking about any
techniques for sending several men through the computer at once? Probably. Leighton tended to think of
all sorts of wild hares. And he tended to ask for money to help him chase all of them, too.
But however they were to be used, the new men were badly needed. Sooner or later the combined
efforts of J and the Prime Minister would turn them up. And then they would need training. Training of a
highly specialized and unorthodox sort. Training which they had not received in their Secret Service or