«Most unfortunate,» his Lordship said, «but I refuse to blame myself or the computer. The lad was simply not up to it. I doubt that any man is up to it-with the single exception of Richard Blade.»

Dr. Colby departed to catch a train back to Scotland. J and Lord Leighton were alone in the restricted area of the Tower Computer Complex. His Lordship sat like a gnome behind his old desk, his polio-ruined legs sprawled before him; now and then he rubbed the pain in his humped back. He regarded J with yellow lion eyes in which lurked a question.

«You're not going to mention any of this to the boy?»

Lord L, who was somewhere in his eighties, only referred to Richard Blade as a boy when he was preparing to make a sentimental pitch. J knew this. He narrowed his eyes at the old man. He knew what was coming and he intended to have no part of it, in fact to fight it every step of the way. Blade, whom he loved as his own son, had suffered enough, had done far more than his share in the damnable adventure called Project Dimension X.

But he decided to bide his time. The old man was a formidable opponent and J did not like to confront him except in cases of dire necessity. For the moment he temporized.

«I won't have to tell him anything,» he said. «Richard was there when you brought Dexter back through the computer. He saw the state the man was in, so he must know. Who better? Richard has been out in that hell seven times.»

Lord L opened his mouth, then closed it. He sensed J's mood and decided to alter his tactics. He would, of course, get his way in the end.

«It really is too bad about Dexter,» he said mildly. «Of course he will be taken care of as long as he lives. But I just don't understand it. We must have failed somewhere in the tests-the man had a weakness we didn't detect. Richard never suffered any permanent ill effects.»

J was silent. Lord L doodled on a scrap of paper and sighed. «I suppose we shall just have to begin training another man.» He beamed his sweetest smile at J. «Unless, of course, we can prevail on the boy to-«