Doctor Who_ The Algebra of Ice - Lloyd Rose [45]
‘Does that matter?’
‘Is it the entropy stuff? I’ve been going over it. It’s me who could use your help.’ Ethan wished he knew how to get hold of the Doctor. This was about as good a piece of luck as could be hoped for. ‘Perhaps we could meet tomorrow morning.’
‘Er, well, actually, I’m here now.’
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The Algebra of Ice
‘Here where?’
‘On the street, at the corner. I’m on my mobile.’
‘At the corner? Why didn’t you just come up?’
Unwin’s voice lowered. ‘You can’t be too careful. They might be watching.’
Oh good, Ethan thought. A paranoid. He’d met a lot of them in the institution
– very difficult to talk to. ‘But it’s freezing out there.’
‘Perhaps we could meet somewhere? A restaurant?’
‘There’s nothing around here but kebab shops and fish and chips. Look, it’s all right to come up. No one’s watching the flat.’
‘That’s what you say,’ Unwin whispered. ‘But how can you be certain?’
Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose. It was no good trying to talk sense –
they’d just go in circles forever.
‘All right,’ he said reluctantly, ‘I’ll come down. There’s a pub a couple of blocks over.’
‘I’m by the chemist’s.’
Ethan had not only never met Unwin, he’d never even seen a photograph, so he examined him curiously as he came up to the corner. Unwin was standing right up against the dark chemist’s window, a medium-sized man with thinning hair and a weak mouth. Though dressed in an expensive-looking coat, he was shivering. He smiled at Ethan inquiringly, the smile coming and going nervously.
‘That you, Amberglass?’
‘Yes. Hello.’ They shook hands. ‘Good to meet you after all this time.’
‘Yes indeed. Isn’t it strange, after working side by side not knowing each other, that we should turn out to be kindred spirits?’ Unwin locked his arm in Ethan’s in an overly familiar fashion, and they started along the pavement.
‘I’m only building on your work.’
‘But whyever did you start, old boy? Everyone thought I was barmy.’
‘Not exactly,’ said Ethan, treading carefully. ‘They asked me to look over your stuff. At first I thought it was daft, but then it began to intrigue me.’
‘I’m flattered. Or perhaps you should be, since your being intrigued shows you’re brilliant enough to understand me.’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t got far. Could turn out we’re both mental.’
Unwin tittered. ‘Oh I don’t think so, do you?’
Ethan smiled weakly. He had been dreading a conversation in a crowded, noisy pub, but he was beginning to find that idea preferable to being out in the cold with a fellow whose mind seemed to have slipped a bit sideways. He tried subtly to disengage his arm but Unwin was hugging it as if it were a beloved Chapter Eleven
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toy. ‘I think entropy is the problem, don’t you? I mean, what’s the point of all the rest of it if we’re only going to end up cold toast?’
‘Erm,’ said Ethan.
‘Nothing matters, does it, so long as that end hangs over us. “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” Not our petty individual graves, the grave of the entire universe. A cemetery for the time when all that will be has become all that was.’
‘Yes indeed,’ said Ethan, relieved they were approaching the pub. ‘It’s right up he-’
‘Pat, you old bastard!’ The back door of a large car parked at the kerb had swung open. ‘Long time no see!’
Unwin stopped, peered into the back seat. ‘Sherry! Is that you?’
‘In the flesh, old boy.’
Ethan tried again to slip loose his arm. He really wasn’t interested in attending a public schoolboys’ reunion. But Unwin enthusiastically pulled him forward. ‘This is my old friend Sheridan Brett. We were at university together.
Sherry, this is Ethan Amberglass, a fellow agency mathematician.’
‘Mr Amberglass.’ Brett, who was seated on the far side of the car, leaned forward and took Ethan’s hand. At the same moment, Unwin gripped the back of his neck and shoved. Ethan fell across the seat and, as the door slammed, Brett rolled him onto the floor and pinned him, one foot on his stomach and the other on his throat. Ethan’s breath slammed out of him. He heard a match