Finally it was all over. Blade rose, shook the salesman's hand, then buttoned up all but the top button of his Burberry.

«Thank you, Mr. Blade,» said the salesman. «It's been a pleasure doing business with you, and I hope you find driving your new car altogether agreeable. Good day, sir.»

Outside it was a sunny but brisk London morning, with enough wind so that Blade promptly buttoned the top button on his coat. Then he headed down the street toward the nearest taxi stand. As he went, he contemplated how his profession complicated even such a simple business as buying a new car.

Richard Blade was indeed leaving England within the next couple of days, but he was not traveling to America, on family business or for any other reason. He was traveling much farther, into a place where only he of all living people could go, survive, and return safely to England.

That place was called Dimension X: It was sometimes hard to realize that until only a very few years ago no one, least of all Richard Blade, had even suspected the existence of Dimension X.

Yet that was the simple truth. It was not long ago that a bad-tempered scientific genius named Lord Leighton had conceived the idea of directly linking an advanced computer and a human brain. He had found in Richard Blade the perfect combination of physical and mental development needed for the experiment.

What happened after that would have made scientific history if it hadn't immediately become the most closely guarded secret in Britain. The link with the computer did indeed alter Blade's mind, but not quite as Lord Leighton had intended. The whole world in which he'd lived until then vanished from around Blade. All his senses now registered a strange, savage, primitive world called Alb.

In that world Blade moved about, lived and loved, ate, drank, fought, killed, bled, and, by his strength and wits, managed to survive. Eventually Lord Leighton adjusted the computer, Blade's senses returned to normal, and England reappeared around him.