Doctor Who_ The Algebra of Ice - Lloyd Rose [11]
The Algebra of Ice
something else.’
‘No one “does” circles,’ Molecross snapped.
‘Those two old farts who
claimed –’
‘Let’s not get into that.’ Lethbridge-Stewart paced out a few yards. The sun had come up, but the ice was still solid.
Ramsey joined him. ‘Don’t see how the ice could be done, sir,’ he said.
‘I daresay an ingenious person could work out something.
Still. . . ’
Lethbridge-Stewart surveyed the field a final time. It glistened now under the first rays of the sun. ‘Still, I think some aerial photographs would be in order.’
The photos were emailed to him later that afternoon. The Brigadier had Ramsey print them out – he had come late to computers, and looking at photographs on line gave him the uneasy feeling that he wasn’t quite seeing them – then pinned them to a large corkboard in his office over a set of Ordinance Survey maps.
‘Reminds me a bit of that maze near Winchester,’ he said to Ramsey. ‘What’s the name of it?’
‘The one on St. Catherine’s Hill, sir?’
‘That’s right. Squared off instead of curving. Only one in the country. This is rather more complex, of course.’
Ramsey thought that was understating it. The photos showed at least ten straight-sided geometric shapes, including a dodecahedron, laid down almost haphazardly, some overlapping. ‘Not very orderly,’ he observed.
‘No. Bit of a mess, really.’
‘Possibly the hoaxers were drunk, sir.’
‘If that were the case, I don’t think the lines would be so straight: they look as if they were laid out with a ruler.’
‘Hard to imagine anyone accomplishing this in one night.’
‘We don’t know that they did. The press is always going on about how astonishing it is that crop circles appear over night, but in fact we have no idea how long they’ve been there when people discover them. They’re out in the middle of fields and not visible until you’re in one.’
‘How was this one found?’
‘Usual sort of UFO sighting. Fellow up late, looks out his window, claims to have seen the stars blacked out. Calls the police and says he’s going out to investigate. Damn foolish, if you ask me. Could have been anything. Police come, more to save him from himself really and discover what looks like vandalism.’
‘Who contacted us?’
Chapter Three
27
The Brigadier sighed. ‘Molecross. He belongs to some Internet group that tracks crop-circle appearances. Ordinarily we’d ignore someone like that, but the presence of the ice was a new twist. I’m always on call for this sort of thing.’
Ramsey wondered what other examples of this-sort-of-thing might be. Fairies at the bottom of the garden? ‘Yes sir,’ he said.
‘Molecross has taken it as one up for him. He’s always pestering us, claiming we’re covering up things that the public has the right to know about.’
‘What kinds of things?’
‘Oh, Yetis in the Underground. That sort of rubbish. Anyway, it won’t be so easy to brush him off now. He’ll insist on his right to cover the story along with the mainstream press. Speaking of which, please tell Lieutenant Fedder to prepare a briefing.’
‘Right away, sir.’
When Ramsey had gone, the Brigadier remained where he was, eyes shifting from photograph to photograph. He did not consider himself an intuitive man –
far from it – but something about this made him uneasy. He wondered whether the Doctor was anywhere on the planet.
Ramsey stepped back in.
‘Fellow to see you, sir. Says he’s a doctor.’
To Ramsey’s surprise, the Brigadier laughed.
‘Send him in, Mr Ramsey.’
‘You say there was more ice?’
The Doctor was poking at the ground with his umbrella, humming tunelessly to himself. With the aerial photographs in hand, he had slowly paced the whole pattern, stopping now and then to look back along his route. The Brigadier didn’t see the point in this personal reconnaissance, but he followed patiently.
The Doctor had his own way of doing things.
As they walked, Lethbridge-Stewart examined his old friend. Even after several