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

The two men walked side by side down to the first of the computer rooms. Usually Lord Leighton came
out to meet them at this point. But there was nobody in the room except two technicians in white coats,
seated in steel swivel chairs and monitoring the visual readouts on a bank of consoles.

One of them turned in his chair as the two men entered. "Lord Leighton says he's using a new variant on
the main sequence. It doesn't allow as much time as before, so you're going to have to hurry."

J raised an eyebrow and exchanged looks with Blade. In both their minds was the thought, "The old
bugger might have told us in advance." But when Lord Leighton got a technical bee in his balding bonnet,
there was no power on earth that could halt or delay him.

They practically trotted up to the door of the main room. Lord Leighton was waiting for them there,
scurrying back and forth on his polio-twisted legs, rubbing his hands together. With his hunchback under
his white coat, he looked like an overworked gnome.

"Ah, very good," he said briskly as the two men came up. "The new sequence is underway and I'd rather
not interrupt it. So if Richard can be in the chair within-oh, five minutes-it will make life simpler for all of
us."

J fixed Lord Leighton with a singularly chilly stare. "It might have made life simpler for us if you'd told us
beforehand. We could have been here earlier."

"Oh, quite, quite. But-"

Blade knew that he would never have time to listen to the argument and still be in the chair on time. He
nodded politely to both men and darted into the chamber.

In the little changing booth in one corner, he stripped to the skin. Then he smeared himself with greasy,
foul-smelling cream for protection against electrical burns and knotted a loincloth around his waist. By the
time he stepped out into the chamber again, Lord Leighton was already standing by the black metal chair
in its glass cubicle.

Blade sat down in the chair and began breathing slowly and deeply, trying to relax as much as possible.
As usual at this point, he didn't find it easy. Meanwhile, Lord Leighton scurried about again, fastening
cobra-headed metal electrodes to every conceivable and inconceivable part of Blade's body. From the
electrodes masses of wires trailed off into the bowels of the computer. By the time the scientist was
finished, Blade looked and felt like a part of the computer himself.

"There," said Lord Leighton, stepping back. Usually he stopped at this point to make a final visual
inspection. This time he trotted straight over to the main controls. He also drew a grimy, crumpled
handkerchief from his coat pocket and mopped his bald forehead.

Blade grinned. Lord Leighton, the mighty scientific intellect, was more nervous than he was! Yet it was
he who would be risking life and limb in no more than a few minutes.

But it was worth it. He had felt it at the church after the christening of Zoe's child, and he felt it even
more strongly now. Life in Home Dimension was too bloody complicated, sometimes. In Dimension X it
was more often than not a very simple matter of survival.
 In Dimension X there had also been women Blade had loved as deeply as Zoe. He had left at least two