«What they don't know won't hurt them,» said Blade cheerfully. «Besides, the contractor's foreman is the son of my father's old groom. He's not going to sneak.»

«Good,» said J. «How is the house coming, by the way?» He'd seen it once. It was an eighteenth-century squire's establishment, appallingly run-down when Blade acquired it.

«Well, we can keep partridges and stray pigs out of the ground-floor rooms now. There are four rooms on the upper floor where you don't need an umbrella when it rains. And you can light at least one fireplace without fumigating the whole house.»

At this point Cheeky yeeeped indignantly at being ignored and took a flying leap onto Blade's shoulder. Blade scratched his feathery crest absentmindedly, without taking his eyes off Lord Leighton and J. «Well, from the look on His Lordship's face I should say he's pickled another bright idea for us,» he said. «Do I go through hanging from a trapeze this time?»

J swallowed his laughter. Leighton merely shook his head. «No. It's simply a couple of logical extrapolations from our experience last time.»

The last trip into Dimension X, Leighton used a new technique. Whereas in the past Blade had been greased up and wired all over with electrodes, for the last trip he had stood in the middle of a booth of wire mesh, charged with an electrical field linked to the computer. Since he always came back without being physically linked to the computer, why couldn't he go the same way?

It worked-once. Leighton had a scientist's confidence that what had worked once would work again, under the same conditions. J was less optimistic, but he was willing to go along with the scientist, if Richard agreed.

Leighton explained. «With the new booth, there is a lot more room within the area the electrical field covers. Room for more than a more-or-less naked Blade. We don't have a second person trained and ready to go, but we do have Cheeky.»

Blade's first mental reaction must have been negative. Cheeky stood up, yeeeping indignantly, his feathers bristling, shaking both paws at Lord Leighton. «Easy, Cheeky, easy,» said Blade.

Leighton went on. «Cheeky is particularly suitable because of his small size, and his association with Blade.» (J noted that Leighton didn't use the word «telepathy.») «He is also intelligent enough to survive for a while if he and Blade got separated.»

«A short while, yes,» said Blade dubiously. «But that depends on the climate and the weather. I'll have to ask him.» Leighton's eyebrows rose, and Blade's voice hardened. «If you treat him as an experimental animal with no will of his own, I won't take him. I won't even leave him in your hands while I'm gone, and the devil take the Official Secrets Act!»

J nodded. He rather wished Richard hadn't forced the issue so bluntly, but he certainly had the, right of it.

«Very well,» said Leighton. «You can ask his consent. But before you do, let me finish, if you please.»

«The worst danger,» Leighton continued, «is in the transitions into Dimension X and back to Home Dimension. You see, we're not sure exactly how much molecular cohesion a body retains while transitioning between Dimensions. You've done your best to describe your sensations, Blade, but I'm afraid it hasn't been good enough.»

J relaxed. If Leighton was willing to admit any sort of limits on their knowledge of the experiment, he was likely to be reasonable. Then the scientist's next words grabbed his attention.

«If your molecules and Cheeky's lose their cohesion on the way, they might intermingle. They might also not-ah-sort themselves out before you reached the other side. Do you remember the film The Fly?»

Blade obviously did. So did J. He imagined a monstrous creature, half Blade and half Cheeky, stumbling out of the booth or lost in the wilderness of some unknown Dimension. Only a lifetime of selfcontrol kept Blade's nausea from showing on his face.

«If the new booth hadn't worked out so smoothly the first time, I'd have my doubts,» said Blade slowly. «As it is, I'm willing to try it. What about you, Cheeky?» He spoke as if he was speaking to an intelligent, rational being. J found himself looking around for the person being addressed.

«Yik-yik-yeeeek!» went the feather-monkey. Then he hopped up on top of Blade's head and clung with all his fingers and toes buried in Blade's hair. Blade stood with a long-suffering expression until Cheeky climbed back down onto his shoulder. Then he nodded.

«He's willing to try it.»

«Splendid!» said Leighton, with genuine relief and enthusiasm in his voice. «The new booth is a real breakthrough. The faster we can exploit it, the faster we can make the Project really successful. Or at least less vulnerable to accidents,» he added. «I'll really sleep a trifle better when the Project can survive Richard's falling off a ladder while fixing the roof on that confounded Hampshire mausoleum of his!»

«I couldn't agree more,» said Blade. «In fact, do we need to limit my equipment anymore? The fabric and rubber material I took through last time survived as well as the Englor Alloy.»

«More equipment, as well as Cheeky?» said J dubiously. «That's two experiments on one trip.»

«True,» said Blade. «But some sort of backpacking outfit shouldn't make that much difference. I was also thinking of Cheeky. I can forage for my meals or tighten my belt better than he can. I've got to take some food for him, at least.» The feather-monkey yeeeped in apparent approval.

«I must say I was thinking along similar lines my self,» said Leighton. «I would suggest some care, though. We've got a second knife made of EA Two, so you'll have a spare. We can also make up one for Cheeky in a few days. Other than that, I'd suggest not taking anything metal. Above all, no guns. I'd be a trifle uneasy about subjecting anything explosive to the new field this time.»

«I wasn't thinking of a gun,» said Blade. «It's the sort of thing I might find a bit hard to explain if I landed in a pretechnological society. I've been suspected of black magic often enough as it is. What about one of those knockdown crossbows we used to have in MI6A? You remember them, sir. Fit in an attache case, but a two-hundred-pound pull and no metal in them.»

J nodded. «I think I still have enough influence to rout one of them out of the Weapons people.»

«Then it's settled, is it?» said Leighton.

«As far as I'm concerned, it is,» said Blade. «What about you, sir?»

J still had reservations. This was going to be the biggest leap into the dark since the original KALI computer. However, they were already far beyond the limits of what anyone outside the Project considered science. What did they have to lose?

«Might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb,» said J. «See you next week, Richard.» They shook hands, and J also reached up and patted Cheeky's head. Blade had tried to teach the feather-monkey to shake hands, but he flatly refused.

Outside, J was so preoccupied as he walked to his car that he was nearly run down by a delivery truck pulling into Complex Two. Several men came out and started unloading crates and film canisters. J watched them idly for a moment. It seemed that Complex Two was growing every time he came.

Well, it certainly didn't hurt the Project to have room to expand. There was already more than enough equipment and people to fill two of the three buildings. If the Project was on the edge of a real breakthrough. .

J firmly squelched his optimism and climbed into his car. No matter how close they were to a breakthrough, everything still depended on Richard Blade.