"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 19 - Looters of Tharn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

Blade had seen her get married. In fact, he had seen the wedding nearly disrupted by an actor
pretending to be him making a drunken ass of himself. That had been part of a trick to throw the Russians
off the scent of Project Dimension X. Poor Zoe couldn't know that, of course.

But apparently she had forgiven the wedding and remembered other things. Thus the request that he
stand as godfather to her son.

There was Zoe now, coming up the church aisle with the nurse behind her, carrying young Edward. She
walked up to her husband and took one tweed-covered arm, but her eyes were on Blade and her smile
was for him. The eyes were as bright as ever, and the smile as warm. She hadn't changed or aged much,
in spite of two children and marriage to Reginald. Blade didn't imagine that Reginald was complaining,
either. Over the years they would no doubt make a marriage as good as most and better than a good
many.

But Blade couldn't look at the red-faced, whimpering bundle the nurse was handing to Zoe without
remembering how it had been between him and that baby's mother. If things had been otherwise, that
baby might be his son as well-his and Zoe's.

The christening party drifted out into the sunlight on the church lawn and broke up. Blade exchanged a
few polite words with the parish priest, a few more with Reginald, and finally a long last exchange with
Zoe. Then he turned his back on the party, buttoned up his Burberry against the chill breeze, and climbed
into his MG.

It took him three tries to start the car, and once again he considered trading it in on something newer. He
could afford a much better car now, if he wanted one. From his last trip into Dimension X, he had
returned with a diamond worth so much that even Lord Leighton had whistled at the appraiser's figure.
Twenty thousand pounds of that sum sat in a special tax-free account for him. If he wanted to, he could
afford a Lotus or even a Rolls-Royce!

But luxury cars drew attention. That wasn't a good idea for a man in any kind of secret work. Blade had
learned that many times over during his years as a secret agent. Secret agents who didn't learn that didn't
live very long.

Besides, Blade knew he drew enough attention as it was.

He stood six feet one in his socks, weighed two hundred and ten pounds, and his heavy-boned frame
was layered with masses of perfectly conditioned muscle. He was an expert with a dozen kinds of deadly
weapons, as well as holding a black belt in karate. About him hung the mysterious air always attached to
a strong, attractive man who does something unknown but obviously dangerous and refuses absolutely to
talk about it. It drew many women to him, but since Zoe Blade had discouraged any who showed
interest in more than a casual affair.

Blade threw in the clutch and the MG went jolting down the church driveway. He shook his head in
weary amusement. He almost filled the classic picture of "the man who has everything." He even had the
best of all imaginable jobs, for Blade preferred to live on the frontiers of danger. Dimension X gave him
all the opportunities for that any man could ask for.

But he had never found a woman who could or would live out there on the frontiers with him, or at least
understand what drove him out there. So he did not have everything, and sometimes it hurt.
Chapter 2