Making a living by being whisked off to other dimensions on short notice has advantages. Also disadvantages. At the moment, Richard Blade was more conscious of the disadvantages.

The voice on the telephone was that of a young woman in a mighty rage. Even so it was a beautiful voice, as beautiful as the body it was coming from. Blade had learned to know the body intimately over several nights during the past few weeks. But then the message had come from J-get ready for another trip into Dimension X. So he had called Cynthia to tell her that he would be out of town for the next few weeks or months.

«No, I can't give you an address where you can reach me. I'll be traveling around too much for that.»

«You're trying to give me the brush-off, Dick. I wish you'd come right out and say, 'Get lost, Cynthia.' I'd have more respect for you if you did. You men are all alike. Stallions in bed, but when it comes to something like this, you haven't got the courage of a cockroach!»

«Now, damn it all, Cynthia, I'm not saying get lost because I don't want-«

«You don't want? What about me not wanting something? We were so good together, Dick. I can't stand it for you to just walk off like this. Especially when you won't tell me where you're going, or anything! You just want to go off tomcatting around, and don't want to tell me!»

«Cynthia, you're being ridicu- Hello, Cynthia? Cynthia?»

The line was dead.

Blade put the receiver back in the cradle. Then he let out his frustration and annoyance in language much stronger than merely «Damn it all!»

There definitely were disadvantages to being the key man in Project Dimension X. When the demands of the Project came down on even his most casual relationships like DDT on a mosquito and killed them just as dead, it got more than a little annoying. Oh, well, Cynthia had been showing signs of getting possessive, perhaps even marriage-minded. That would have meant telling her goodbye sooner or later, but certainly not now. Lord Leighton had barged in properly!