«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.