The Mountains Of Brega

Chapter 20

J stubbed out his cigar in the marble ashtray and pushed the manila folder across the teakwood desk at Blade.

«There's your copy, Richard. It's only a preliminary assessment, of course, but-«

«What is the Watcher, then?»

J began to rummage in one drawer of the desk for another cigar as he spoke. «Apparently it is an extremely complex protein compound, only one very small step below living matter. That is a rather impressive achievement, all by itself.»

«There's more?»

«Yes. Remember what the Mistress said-about the Watcher sensing changes in the baby's condition? Well, that's what it does. In some way it undergoes subtle chemical changes whenever there is a deterioration in the vital signs of any human being it is watching.»

«A sort of robot nurse, in other words?»

«All that-and more besides. The people in Brega must have been very close to creating artificial life-completely synthetic artificial life-when the disaster came upon them. But at least we've got the Watcher.»

«By good luck and a margin of about ten seconds, yes.»

There was an edge in Blade's voice as he said that which made J look sharply at the younger man. Blade showed no sign of injury from his trip to Brega except a small bandage over his scalp wound. He was tanned even more than usual, and seemed to have been toughened and trimmed down. That was it-Blade was looking too lean, too stripped down to the basics. J swallowed. This would be a delicate question.

«Is-something particular bothering you-about the trip to Brega?»

Blade shrugged. «Not this trip all by itself. But this on top of all the others-I'm getting tired of relying so much on luck.»

«You don't rely on it, Richard. You-«

«Please-spare me the lecture about making my own luck.» Blade paused. «Sorry, sir. I shouldn't have snapped back that way. But-sometimes I just get the feeling that I'm going around in circles. A lot of work is going into-what? So far there hasn't been a single worthwhile development from everything I've brought back.»

It was J's turn to shrug. «I know. I don't like it any better than you do. But the scientists aren't magicians. And if large-scale teleportation ever gets perfected-«

«And how long is that going to take?» said Blade. He took a long pull at his Scotch.

«Lord Leighton estimates-not more than another five years.»

Blade was so obviously not making the obvious retort-«I may be dead by then»-that J felt slightly embarrassed. To cover that feeling, he lit a cigar from the drawer and took a few puffs on it.

«I'm not asking to be taken off the project,» Blade went on. «It's too important for England-and that means I'm too important for England. I can't indulge myself-although I can't pretend any more that the idea isn't getting tempting.» When Blade mentioned England, there was a world of meaning in the word, meaning which would have sounded like parody or satire if anybody else had said it. But Blade and J-and Lord Leighton and the Prime Minister-saw eye-to-eye on this, if on little else.

«But I am going to be losing efficiency if I have to carry the whole burden alone too much longer. More than another three or four trips, I suspect. I'm not particularly interested in going back to some places I've already been. So as far as I'm concerned, you can shove Controlled Return up the flue. But I very badly want and need an alternate-or at least a partner. Somebody to guard my back. Consider that suggestion I put in my report.»

«About checking for possible woman partners?»

«Yes. You seem to have drawn a blank with the men so far. I admit women tend to be at a slight physical disadvantage. But suppose they turn out to have more tolerance for the mental stresses of a dimensional transfer?»

«A rather large supposition, one would think.»

«Possibly. But certainly worth exploring.»

«And just as certainly better than risking the whole project, or at least delaying it. I take your point. Very well, I'll extend the search net to qualified women. I doubt if there are more than two or three hundred in the whole free world worth examining. So it shouldn't take that long.»

«I hope not. And-speaking of women-«

«How is Elizabeth?»

«Yes.» Blade's face was slightly flushed. Thank God that Richard could show some concern for someone like Elizabeth! J had met-and even employed-ice-cold killing machines-too many of them. But he had never felt comfortable around them.

«We pushed our inquiry about Elizabeth as far as we could. And as far as we pushed it, her story stood up. So-she's on her way to Canada by now, and there's no reason to think that she won't be perfectly safe. She'll probably be married and have a child or two within five years.»

«I hope so. She was-it was almost obscene, using somebody like that in the game. What turned up about the people behind her, by the way?»

«That we're still having to push along, I'm afraid. Other than the guns, there are no definite signs of any Soviet role in the whole affair.»

«But plenty of vague hints around the edges?»

«I'm afraid so. The whole project is under a Grade Two Security Alert for the time being.»

«Damn,» said Blade.

J grinned. «Richard, you get to escape into Dimension X, where nobody has ever heard of the cold war or security alerts. I have to stay behind and hold a secure base for you while you travel.»

Blade nodded slowly. «You-and me-and Lord Leighton-we're all linked together in this. Like a set of Siamese triplets.»

J could not say anything against that.