Doctor Who_ The Algebra of Ice - Lloyd Rose [25]
‘It’s a professional liability.’
‘For me too, Professor. You know it is.’
‘Well it’s not for Mr Amberglass,’ he said sharply. ‘You had no right to pull him into this.’
‘That’s not fair. If you keep me in the dark, I’m going to have to do the best I can with what I know.’
‘Ace,’ he sighed, ‘you know very well that if I do tell you and then ask you to stay away, you won’t do it. You don’t give me a choice.’
‘You might get hurt,’ she said quietly. ‘You could have been hurt tonight. And you would have been,’ she added defiantly, ‘except I was here.’
54
The Algebra of Ice
‘Well, yes.’ He smiled. ‘You have me there.’ He put his arm around her shoulders and they walked back to the circle.
Ethan was sitting with his palms pressed to his eyes. As they came up he lowered his hands and looked apprehensively around and up at the sky.
‘Are you all right?’ the Doctor asked.
‘More or less.’ Ethan’s voice was unsteady.
‘Professor!’ said Ace. When he turned, she was pointing. The hoe had fallen so that its handle lay outside the circle on one of the lines of ice, black and withered as a dead branch.
‘Mr Molecross?’
Molecross wasn’t sleeping, just drifting in a druggy haze. He opened his eyes and stared drowsily at the odd little man.
‘Do you feel well enough for a conversation?’
‘Sure.’
The man sat down neatly on a chair beside the bed. All his movements were neat and self-contained; he made Molecross think of a domestic cat.
‘I went out there.’
Molecross started to nod agreeably, then jerked a bit more awake. ‘To the field?’
‘Yes, to the field.’
‘Did they come back?’
‘They came back. But they didn’t come through.’
Molecross licked his lips. ‘Do you think,’ he whispered, ‘they’re aliens?’
‘Well, they’re not human beings,’ the little man said dryly.
‘They might be some Earth-generated force we know nothing about. Are you aware that we know more about the bottom of the sea than the centre of the Earth?’
‘You won’t like what you find at the centre of the Earth,’ the man said. ‘I want to confirm what you told the Brigadier and myself.’
‘Well. . . ’ Molecross grasped at his slippery thoughts. ‘I didn’t see anything. I didn’t hear anything. I was very cold. Then my hand burned off.’ He looked at the bandaged stump of his arm and began to cry. The man stood up to make a tactful withdrawal. ‘I know who you are.’
‘Hm?’
‘You’re him.’
‘Him who?’
‘You’re the Doctor.’
Chapter Six
55
The Doctor sat down again. ‘I beg your pardon.’
‘You’ve been sighted many times, in many different forms. But the information is sketchy. The accounts are all third hand. I thought you were a legend.’
‘My name is John Smith.’
Molecross smiled and wagged his remaining forefinger at him. ‘When I had your wrist,’ he said smugly, ‘I felt the double pulse.’
The Doctor said nothing, just regarded him thoughtfully.
‘I can’t believe it,’ Molecross sighed happily. ‘I can’t believe I’ve been so lucky.
Twice in two days!’
The Doctor glanced at the bandaged stump. Molecross must be very drugged indeed. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Your pulse. . . ’
‘You may have felt something anomalous – I have high blood pressure.’
Molecross swiped at his wrist, but the Doctor easily eluded him. ‘Then let me feel it again.’
‘I certainly will not. You have a lamentable lack of respect for other peoples’
privacy.’
‘I know it’s you. I know. I’ll tell.’
‘You sound like a schoolboy snitch. Whom would you tell?’
‘The world!’
‘Through your webzine?’
‘The media will hunt you down.’
‘Really? Oh dear me, how worrisome.’ The Doctor got up. ‘I think it’s best I leave now.’
‘Oh please.’ Molecross’s voice was pitiful. ‘At least give me an interview.’
‘Now that’s just silly. Why would anyone believe you’d actually talked to this Doctor person? Everyone will think you made it up.’
‘I have a reputation for integrity.’
‘Not after that you wouldn’t.’
‘Don’t go away,’ Molecross pleaded. He was crying again. ‘Don’t leave me.
You’re a miracle.’
‘You made me up, Mr Molecross. I’m only a dream.’
The Doctor