He took a deep breath. «If you won't cooperate, I'll have to do a housecleaning myself. Nothing brutal, you understand-just reassigning everybody I suspect of having had anything to do with hiding the capsule.»

«That certainly won't speed up our recovery from the Ngaa affair,» said Leighton.

«I'm willing to risk up to six months delay in the Project over this,» said J firmly. «I'm also willing to put the whole matter before the Prime Minister if necessary. It's not just our enemies who could benefit from sloppy security. What about the CIA, for example?»

Leighton sighed. «All right. I trust you to keep your mouth shut and not get anybody in trouble.»

The two older men shook hands, and after that things went swiftly. Leighton punched the button to initiate the Main Sequence. Blade climbed into the capsule, lay back, and relaxed. Leighton counted down, and as the count reached six, pressed another button to close the lid of the capsule. A click and darkness swallowed Blade. He felt the firmness of the capsule's inner surface against his skin.

Then in rapid succession:

A dazzling golden flash.

A soft, warm blueness, and a subtle sensation all over his skin, like a dozen skilled masseuses all working on him together. It was pleasant, almost erotic.

A harder blueness, neither cold nor warm.

Complete blackness.

Chapter 2

Blade woke up in the middle of such a din that for a moment he thought he'd landed in the middle of a busy city. Then he recognized the chattering of birds and apes, the drone of insects, the rustle of leaves. Now he thought of a jungle instead of a city.

He opened his eyes-or at least he tried to. The world stayed dark. For a moment that seemed hours long, Blade was frozen by a gruesome question. Was he blind? If the KALI capsule had somehow destroyed his sight