Doctor Who_ The Algebra of Ice - Lloyd Rose [22]
‘British Rail. Might have guessed.’
He had her there. She ignored him and concentrated on the map. It was a section of an inch-to-the-mile Ordinance Survey map with an overlay of coordinates and a hand-drawn outline of the site. ‘We just walk straight in and we’ll hit it. We can’t miss. Come on. It’ll be a new experience.’
‘It’s already been a new experience.’
‘That’s the wrong attitude, mate.’ She plucked at his sleeve and they started off. ‘The Doctor always says a catastrophe looked at properly is an adventure.’
‘He’s quoting G. K. Chesterton, and I don’t think the saying’s particularly encouraging.’
They were crossing the field now. The rising moon reflected on something on the ground a few hundred feet ahead. As they came closer, they saw that it was a glimmering network of ice.
‘Here we are!’ she said.
Chapter Five
47
Ethan tapped at the ice with his heel. It cracked slightly. ‘I don’t understand.
The weather’s certainly cold enough to freeze water, but why would water only be here?’
‘It’s a bit dug out – maybe water drained into it.’
‘I don’t think the land lies that way.’ He walked off alongside the pale track.
Amused, she followed.
‘See, it is something new.’
‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘You win that one.’ He stopped and looked over the dark field. Trails gleamed all around them. ‘It’s not much sense just following the lines. We can’t get a decent impression of the pattern this close up, probably not even in the daylight.’
‘What caused it, d’you think?’
‘No idea.’ He tapped at the ice with his heel again. ‘But I can’t see anyone faking this. It would be an enormous amount of work, even if all that was involved was mowing down the stubble. But to dig a trench. . . ’
‘And fill it with ice.’
‘I honestly can’t imagine how that was done.’
Though her experience of oddities both extraterrestrial and earthly was, to say the least, expansive, Ace, couldn’t imagine either. She found that slightly unsettling.
He said, ‘This is really here, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, unless we’re both nuts.’
‘Pass,’ he murmured. ‘I wonder whether –’
He stopped. She had grabbed his arm. ‘Ssh! There’s someone here.’
‘What?’ He looked around.
‘Be quiet!’ She pulled him to a crouch. ‘Over there.’
He peered ahead. After a few seconds he spotted an inexplicable vertical shadow that might have been a person. It moved a few feet and he was sure.
‘Man or woman?’ he whispered.
‘Can’t tell. What’re they doing, then?’
Ethan watched the figure’s dim movements. ‘I think they’re. . . digging.’
‘You’re joking.’ She squinted across the field. ‘You mean it really is a hoax?
And that’s who did it?’
‘So it appears.’
‘Wicked!’ Ace grabbed his arm again. ‘We’ll catch them in the act!’
He hung back. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘We’ll catch the hoaxer!’
‘What? What if he’s armed?’
48
The Algebra of Ice
‘We’ll sneak up on him.’
‘Sneak up – This isn’t a movie!’
‘It’s all right,’ she whispered reassuringly. ‘I’ve got some explosives.’
‘What!?’
‘Ssh. Nitro Nine. It’s –’
‘Oh God!’ He banged his head against the ground. ‘Why me? What did I do in a past life –’
‘Oh shut up!’
‘I’m not coming. Explosives! God, let this be a hallucination.’
‘Hard cheese,’ she said shortly. ‘We’re all real. Now d’you want to do something useful or just lie here?’
‘Lie here.’
‘All right. Fine.’ She stood up angrily. ‘No wonder you don’t have a life. You don’t deserve one.’
The figure suddenly turned towards them. They froze.
‘Ace?’
‘Doctor?’ she squeaked.
CHAPTER SIX
‘What in heaven’s name are you doing here?’ The Doctor was very angry. ‘And who’s that with you?
‘Ethan. He –’
‘Ethan? You brought him into this?’
‘Into what? Professor, what are you doing?’
‘Get out of here.’ He strode toward them. ‘As fast and as far away as possible.’
‘We can’t.’
‘We came in a taxi,’ Ethan explained.
The Doctor spat something incomprehensible and grabbed Ace’s wrist.
‘Hurry,’ he snapped. ‘Both of you.’
They ran back to where he had been digging. The Doctor grabbed the hoe and frantically gouged out another foot or so. Ace saw that he had