Chapter 2

During the next few days, everyone's nerves were stretched tight over the risks they were taking. Blade tried at first to assemble his equipment from many different countries, so that no one would be able to tell where he himself came from. He spent several days trying to find South African hiking boots and Czech canteens before realizing that he was wasting his time. The Russians had penetrated Project Dimension X twice, but both times their agents had died before revealing its secret. It was highly unlikely that he would meet anyone in Dimension X who knew or cared where his gear came from.

He still carefully tore off all the labels and tags. If he landed in an advanced society, someone might notice the strange language and the unknown names and get curious. Such curiosity could be as dangerous to the Dimension X secret as Russian spies, even if it didn't have immediate consequences in Home Dimension.

Blade bought new clothing and equipment, but decided to keep his old hiking boots, which were well broken-in and comfortable. He was prepared to die for England but not get unnecessary blisters for it.

Cheeky was a strict vegetarian, but he would eat nearly anything which wasn't meat. Blade had seen him munch brussel sprouts, daffodil bulbs, and scraps of leather. The same fruits, nuts, whole-grain cereal bars, and chocolate Blade was going to eat would also do for Cheeky.

Lord Leighton was not only nervous but found time on his hands. He kept making telephone calls to both J and Blade, fussing over trifles. The last straw came when he rang up Blade to ask which sedatives should be given to Cheeky when he was sent through the transition.

«No,» said Blade, «I won't suggest what sedatives to use! I will not cooperate with this whole idiotic proposal! If you go on with it, you'll never find Cheeky, and you may have some trouble finding me!»

«Richard, you're-«

«I'm not what you're going to say I am, that's for bloody well certain. I'm tired of Cheeky's being treated as an experimental animal, that's what I am!»

«Besides,» he added. «You're forgetting the telepathic link between me and Cheeky. Sedation might break it. How can we be sure he'll go with me without the telepathy? Can we even be sure of finding a safe sedative without a pile of experiments? Do you want to delay the next trip?»

«If you'd given us a free hand with Cheeky when you came back from the Crimson River, we could have made the experiments by now,» said Leighton.

«Well, I didn't. With the attitude you're showing now, I think I was bloody well right!»

After a long silence Leighton cleared his throat. «Richard, I'm sorry I raised the matter. I said I wouldn't put pressure on you. I meant it. I'm afraid I'm not thinking quite as clearly as I ought to. The strain, you know.»

That was more of an apology than Leighton ever gave anybody, and Blade decided to accept it, such as it was. «I understand,» he said. «Well, let's get me and Cheeky fired off into Dimension X, and you and J can both relax.»

Blade still didn't breathe easy until two days later, when he and Cheeky showed up in Complex One ready for the trip into Dimension X. Complex One lay two hundred feet below the Tower of London, with a concealed entrance guarded by dark-suited Special Branch men. Once it held the whole Project, and it still held the master computer, the new booth, and everything else which might give away the secret of Dimension X.

That wasn't enough to fill the whole Complex. An entire corridor of offices and laboratories once alive with lights and voices and hard work was now dark and empty, the equipment having gone to the new Complex Two or else shrouded in dust covers. Blade had the feeling ghosts would be lurking in those empty rooms before long.

As usual, Blade stepped into the changing booth to get ready. Once, had had to strip to a loincloth and smear himself with foul-smelling black grease to prevent electrical burns from the mass of electrodes which linked him to the computer. Now he pulled on net underwear, heavy socks, woolen trousers and shirt, and a light windbreaker. He slipped one knife into a wrist sheath and hung the other along with a canteen on his belt. A light rucksack held a poncho, a spare canteen, extra socks and underwear, soap and toothbrush, several days' rations for himself and Cheeky, water purification tablets, snares, fishing line, and the disassembled crossbow.

Meanwhile, Cheeky was pulling on a modified dog sweater and belting on his own miniature knife. He wasn't quite intelligent enough to reason out for himself how to use unknown tools. He only had to be shown a couple of times, though.

With Cheeky perched on his shoulder, Blade stood as the wire-mesh booth was lowered over him. Last trip it had been about the same size and shape as the glass booth which held the rubber-padded chair of the original computer, before the KALI capsule. For this trip it was six inches larger all around, to provide just enough room for Cheeky. Looking out through the mesh, Blade saw Leighton standing by the manual control panel.

That was all right with Blade. For the first time he wouldn't reach Dimension X alone. For the first time he was also taking someone else into its unknown dangers. He was glad to see that Leighton wasn't adding to those dangers unnecessarily by using the untested new automatic sequencer.

«All right, Richard?» said Leighton.

Blade gave a thumbs-up gesture and Cheeky imitated him. Leighton's hand pulled the red master switch in one swift motion to the bottom of the slot.

From where J sat on a folding stool, the booth suddenly seemed filled with green light, with Blade and Cheeky clearly visible inside it. Then the light turned silvery, Blade and Cheeky blurred, and both they and the light vanished.

Leighton stood with his hand on the switch until the lights on the consoles seemed to satisfy him. To J, they made less sense than so many Egyptian hieroglyphics. Finally the scientist turned to J.

«Do you need a drink as badly as I do?»

«Probably more so.»

«I sincerely doubt if that would be possible,» said Leighton. He reached under the control panel and came out with a silver flask and a thermos jug.

«Weak or strong?»

Blade only saw the green light. Then the wire mesh and the room beyond it wavered. He seemed to be looking at them through the hot air rising from a fire. He felt a stab of some strong emotion in his mind from Cheeky, not quite fear but certainly discontent with the situation.

Easy, Cheeky, thought Blade. I've been through this dozens of times. It's not so bad after the first time. He hoped it was nothing more than facing the unknown which was bothering Cheeky.

Then the green light and the wavering booth and room both vanished. Blade felt Cheeky 's weight lift from his shoulder and heard him yeeep. He sounded more angry than frightened, but suddenly his thoughts weren't reaching Blade.

Then Blade felt himself falling. He fell down through dreamlike cold and blackness for what seemed like forever. It was so cold that he felt the sweat on his skin starting to freeze, and so black that even the idea of light seemed impossible.

His thoughts still came clearly. He'd just begun to wonder if something might have gone badly wrong, when suddenly the cold and the darkness vanished. There was blue sky overhead, damp grass under his hands, and a cool breeze puffing against his face.

Blade sat up. He was sitting in foot-high grass on a slope which looked like the bank of a river. Between the water's edge and the main channel lay a hundred yards of dead trees, patches of black mud, and clumps of reeds. The reeds were a sickly yellow-green, and looked vaguely familiar.

Behind him the bank rose toward the crest of a hill. The grass gave way to scrubby bushes, and the bushes to gnarled trees. High above the treetops, a large bird made lazy circles with hardly the flicker of a wingtip, riding the updrafts.