The third man was Richard Blade. He was the only living man who could travel into other Dimensions and return alive and sane.

Richard Blade hadn't always been a traveler into the unknown world they'd appropriately named Dimension X. He began his career as a field agent for MI6A. J picked the young Blade straight out of Oxford and saw him become one of the best men in his demanding and often deadly profession. He'd also seen Blade become the only man in the profession of inter-Dimensional Travel, even more demanding and much deadlier.

Blade's new career began as the subject of one of Lord Leighton's experiments. If a powerful human brain was linked to a powerful computer, what would happen? Leighton expected a combination of human and electronic intelligence able to work marvels.

What he got was Richard Blade shot off into nowhere. Fortunately Blade came back, then and every time since. He'd come back with his share of scars, of course, and sometimes by the skin of his teeth. He still came back alive and sane, and no one else had ever done this.

Unfortunately, about all he could do was take expensive round trips into the unknown. This wasn't for lack of trying on the part of Lord Leighton, or for lack of money and cooperation from the British government. Prime Ministers knew perfectly well that a new British Empire might come into being if Dimension X travel was perfected. They'd provided millions of pounds to finance Lord Leighton's successive brainstorms and protect the secret of Dimension X. So far the return on all this money and effort had been rather modest. If you caught him off his guard, even Lord Leighton would admit this.

«We're worse off than Alexander the Great,» the scientist had often grumbled. «He only had one Gordian knot to undo. We've got two. We have to find somebody besides Richard who can survive the trip. We also have to learn how to send our people to the same Dimension more than once.»