Gladiators Of Hapanu

Chapter 24

The secure telephone in J's office rang. He wasn't surprised to hear Lord Leighton on the other end.

«Ah, J. Good news. Nearly the best, in fact. Richard's not only back, but he had a fairly straightforward trip and a very easy transition.»

«Both ways?» asked J. He would have liked to be on hand for Richard's return himself, but for once he hadn't been able to make it. As chief of security for the Project, he was still tying up loose ends left over from the Ngaa affair.

«Yes. There wasn't any of the usual psychedelic display on the way out, and no trauma to speak of on the way back. I would say the physiological stress was equivalent to-oh, his running five or six miles on a good track.»

J's eyebrows rose. «So-something well within the capacity of anyone in good physical condition?»

«I would say yes. Mind you, I'm only going on the doctor's first report. But it seems as if my hypothesis about the KALI capsule's reducing the stress of the transition may have something in it.»

A year ago Lord Leighton might have been claiming complete vindication. But the Wizard of Rentoro and the Ngaa seemed to have taught him what J considered badly-needed and long-overdue lessons in caution.

«What about the trip itself? You called it 'straightforward', I recall?»

«Quite. It was very much the sort of thing Richard once called 'Inter-Dimensional social work'-helping people solve a problem they didn't quite have the knowledge to solve themselves. The sort of thing he can do on his head.»

J caught the hint in the scientist's voice and said with gentle firmness, «That doesn't mean anyone else can do the same, Leighton.»

«Certainly not. And we can't really expect to predict what sort of problems our people will find in Dimension X until we can predict where they're going to end up. However, I'm quite willing to put off trying to repeat trips until we've solved the problem of sending other people besides Blade.

«I'd like to get started on that at once. This will mean a bit of money-«

«How much?»

«Not more than twenty thousand pounds.»

That was small enough so that even the Prime Minister might swallow it. «What exactly do you need it for?»

«To finish assembling the third KALI launch capsule. The one we used this time was the spare. We'd assembled components for a third, to use when we set up a two-capsule rig. It will need a good deal of work before it's operational, though.»

«Good enough. As soon as you've delivered your full report on this trip, I'll approach the Prime Minister.»

«I appreciate that.» Click.

J hung up and leaned back in his chair. He couldn't help wondering if Leighton had permanently lost some of his old fire and arrogance. Or was it just that the nightmarish battle with the Ngaa had shaken him temporarily, and he'd be back to his old self soon enough?

J swiveled his chair away from his desk and began to think seriously. They could increase the search for another Dimension X traveler now. That meant going back to the personnel records of the various agencies in the British intelligence establishment and the Ministry of Defense. They'd be sticking to experienced field operatives or similar types from the armed forces for the time being. Such people were most likely to have the necessary range of survival skills, and they'd also be easier for Richard to work with.

What about extending the search outside Britain? That might come eventually, but where should they start? The CIA was out of the question. Their security was so full of holes that sooner or later the Dimension X secret would trickle out through one of them. They'd done the Project a good turn during the affair of the Ngaa, but that had been largely on the initiative of a good field man who owed Blade a favor. Their central office hadn't done a blessed thing.

The British Commonwealth? Now that was a real possibility. Their intelligence operations were small, but they had a certain number of good people. And the Prime Minister would probably be enthusiastic. He was always speaking out in favor of revived Commonwealth ties-probably to conceal his inability to do anything about Britain's own problems.

J turned back to his desk and started scribbling notes. Excitement rose in him. He hadn't felt so optimistic about the prospects of a breakthrough in the Project in a long time. As he scribbled, he occasionally wondered what Richard might be thinking now.

Richard Blade wasn't thinking very much. He was lying in bed in the Project's hospital, halfway between waking and sleep.

He really didn't need to be in the hospital. The doctor who'd examined him said as much. «You could go out and climb in the Alps right now if you wanted to,» were his words. Then he added, «But just in case there's something that hasn't shown up yet, I'd like to keep you under observation for about forty-eight hours.»

Blade took a shower, pulled on a pair of his own pajamas, and went to bed. He started drifting off to sleep almost at once, and as he did so, realized that he felt better than he'd done since the battle with Ngaa and Zoe's death.

The Project was saved, at least for the time being. He'd made a round trip into Dimension X without any real complications, successfully testing the combination of the old computer and the new KALI capsule. J and Leighton could tell the P.M. that things were back to normal-whatever that was. Could you call it «normal» to turn a whole people in a new direction and prevent a series of wars which might have killed hundreds of thousands?

The Protector's staff now sat in the Project's master safe, and it would stay there until somebody figured out what to do with it. That might take a while, since it was definitely more ornamental than useful.

The Shield of Life was very different. The Project biochemists were already hard at work on analyzing it. Blade would be interested in the results of that analysis, but there was one thing he knew already. It would be almost impossible to turn the Shield of Life into a killing weapon. The tranquilizing effect he'd never been able to test might be developed as a riot-control weapon, but that was about it. He'd brought back something for healing, not destruction.

Blade drifted off to sleep, and as he did he realized that for the first time in months he wasn't afraid of the nightmares sleep might bring him.