"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 32 - Pirates of Gohar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

Blade mentally crossed his fingers. He was comfortable with machinery, but more so with
pre-electronic-era equipment than with Leighton's pet computers and similar modern marvels. He knew
just enough about them to know how many things could go wrong even under the most favorable
conditions.
That thought led Blade on to a specific suggestion. "Do we really need to have all the workshops
down here in the Complex? They take up space, and we don't exactly have that to burn."
"Nor hardware either," said Leighton with a wry grin.
"Very true. Some of them are a fire and smoke hazard, or could send an electrical surge onto the
main circuits and damage the laboratories. Also, having the workshops down here means higher security
ratings for all the people who work in them, more paperwork, and more expense."
Leighton cocked his head on one side and pulled at the tuft of white hair protruding from behind his
left ear. "You do have a point, Richard. Possibly a very good one. It would mean more traveling for me,
of courseтАФ"
"I hadn't thought of that. I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Leighton interlaced his fingers and cracked all his knuckles with a sound like a string of
firecrackers. "The day I get too old to travel from here toтАФoh, some suburbтАФand back twice a week,
I'll be too old for the rest of the job as well. No, what concerns me more is security for an outside
laboratory. Here everything is behind those damned Special Branch men on the surface and underneath
two hundred feet of earth and rock."
"That's true, sir. ButтАФand correct me if I'm wrongтАФhow much could anyone tell about the Project
from simply looking at the components? I couldn't tell if they belong to a stereo set, a tank's range-finder,
or a missile guidance system.
"In fact, it could improve our security, putting all the work that isn't readily identifiable above ground.
The fewer people we need down here, the better we can screen each one, and the less chance anybody
has of penetrating the Complex."
Blade knew what he was talking about there. Twice the Russians had put agents inside the Complex.
Neither of them had survived to report anything, but there'd been a stronger element of luck in this than
Blade liked.
Leighton nodded slowly. "You may very well be right. I'll certainly join you in raising the question
with J. But I must say, I thought you always left this sort of thing to the desk types?"
"I used to, but this is fairly important to the Project. That means it's important to whatever chances I
have of dying in bed. Also, if I do die in bed, it will be because I eventually do wind up behind a desk.
Hopefully it will be a desk connected with the Project, but it's going to be a desk all the same. I might as
well get used to the idea now."
A faint chiming crept in from the corridor outside the roomтАФLeighton's private signal. "Speak of the
devil," he said. "That's probably J now."
The old spymaster seldom showed it, but he saw Blade as the son he'd never had. It took something
really desperate in the way of emergencies to keep him from coming down to the Complex and seeing
Blade off to Dimension X.
It was J. He was waiting outside the main computer room, Lord Leighton's private sanctuary. No
matter what clearance they had or where else in the Project's Complex they could go, no one got through
the last door to the computers except in Leighton's company.
J still looked austere, undramatic, and superbly tailored, with no visible clue to his profession even to
the most discerning eye. It was obvious that he was in excellent condition for a man of his age, but what
that age was and what he did to keep in condition would be mysteries.
There was a slight change. When the Project began, one could have taken him for a senior civil
servant. Now one could take him for that same civil servant, recently retired. Appearances weren't
entirely deceiving. As the Dimension X Project grew and stretched out tentacles into more and more
areas that needed security precautions, J had less and less to do with the day-to-day activities of MI6A.
Except for major decisions, his three Deputy Directors virtually ran the store now. No one objected to