"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 20 - Guardians of the Coral Throne" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

"File Acorn" was this month's code word for another trip into Dimension X. Tomorrow atten o'clockin
the morning Blade would be far below theTowerofLondon, wired into Lord Leighton's mammoth
computer, ready to be fired off into the unknown.

Blade's mind was so occupied with what would be happening next morning that he hardly noticed the
helicopter's landing. He only came fully alert again when the sergeant tapped him on the shoulder.

"Mister Blade, sir-time for the next go-round."

"Thanks, sergeant."

Blade stood up and started shoving his equipment into its carrying bag. As the helicopter's rotors whined
and whispered down into silence he jumped down onto the grass of the landing pad. At the far end of the
runway the little high-winged jump plane was banking in for a landing. Sunlight sparked and glinted off its
wings. The sun was fully up now, and the last traces of mist and dew were rapidly vanishing. It was going
to be a beautiful day for jumping.

It was also going to be a day for keeping his mind on the job at hand, and not on what was going to
happen tomorrow. It would be bloody silly for him to rack himself up doing something he had done sixty
or seventy times!

Chapter 2

As always, the underground corridor seemed to stretch out for an empty, echoing, gleaming mile ahead.
Blade quickened his stride, wanting to cover the distance as fast as possible. As always, he found himself
getting more and more keyed-up as the place and time of his trip into Dimension X approached.

Beside him strode J, keeping pace with Blade in spite of his sixty-odd years. J had not always been a
deskbound spymaster. He had put in his years in the field, and done his field work with deadly efficiency.
Even today he never seemed entirely comfortable with sitting and watching younger men set out under his
orders to risk and sometimes lose their lives.

"You're sure you're feeling altogether fit?" he asked Blade.

"Perfectly, sir. Not an ache, not a twinge. I spent an hour in the sauna last night, and I honestly couldn't
be feeling better."

"That's good. Not that it would be easy to persuade Leighton to hold things off, unless you showed up in
a wheelchair."

"Oh, I doubt if the old boffin's that tough," said Blade with a grin. "I imagine a pair of crutches would be
enough to convince him."

"Quite possibly. But he'd probably ask for a doctor's certificate in that case."

"Three certificates, you mean, sir. And from different doctors."

"No doubt."
 The two men's caustic wit at Lord Leighton's expense was only partly sincere. Much of the time the