Doctor Who_ The Algebra of Ice - Lloyd Rose [8]
‘Yeah, I really do,’ she said earnestly.
20
The Algebra of Ice
Ethan considered for a moment, obviously trying to work out a simple explanation. ‘You know what prime numbers are.’ It was a statement, but he glanced at her for affirmation.
‘Well. . . ’
He sighed. ‘A prime number is divisible only by itself and one. No one knows whether there’s any pattern to their occurrence in the number line. The Riemann hypothesis suggests that there is a pattern and that a way can be found to prove this.’
‘That’s it?’
‘That’s it.’
‘And no one’s found the answer? How long have they been working on it?’
‘One hundred and forty years.’
‘One hundred and forty years! What for?’
He grimaced and turned back to the movie. ‘Never mind.’
‘No, really. That’s bonkers. What does it matter if they have a pattern?’
‘I am bloody well sick of this!’ His rage was so sudden she flinched back.
He had actually stood up, and now he was leaning over yelling at her. Across the cinema, the elderly woman jerked awake. ‘It has no purpose! It is, and it’s beautiful. There’s mystery at its centre, and we approach and approach forever, but we never get there. And you ask me if it matters, you idiot!’
Ace almost punched him but she tried not to hit people wearing glasses.
What would the Doctor do? she thought, forcing herself to stop seething. What would he do in that calm, always-in-control way of his? ‘Considering I’m an illusion,’ she spat, ‘I’ve got you well pissed off.’
He stood back, puzzlement replacing anger. Ace felt a smug satisfaction. Not bad. There might be something to this reasoning stuff.
‘That’s right,’ he said, aloud but to himself. ‘I couldn’t project someone so stupid.’
Now she stood up. ‘Listen, mate. You’re one tick away from getting it, glasses or not.’
‘Oh that’s impressive.’ He was unruffled. ‘I knew you’d been the playground bully.’
‘What?’ she shouted, enraged.
‘Beat up anyone who got in your way.’
‘They beat me up, you –’
‘There they are!’ cried a wavering voice from the back of the cinema. While they’d been shouting at each other, the elderly woman had crept cautiously up the aisle to complain to the management. She stood now with an usher in Chapter Two
21
the lobby doorway, waving a trembling arm at them. ‘There. . . ’ she quavered.
‘There. . . ’
‘I’m afraid I must ask you to leave,’ said the usher. He was a reedy young man who looked to Ace like a film student. Probably a cabal of them ran the place.
‘Rotten movie anyway,’ she said as they went past. The old lady tried to swat Ethan with her handbag but missed.
‘That was exciting,’ he said dryly. ‘Do you always make scenes in public?’
‘You started it.’
‘ You started it, being so thick.’
‘Screw you, you snotty little genius.’
They walked on in sullen silence. Ace took in deep breaths – she’d heard it calmed you down, though it had never worked for her yet. Left on her own, she’d just have stomped off, but that would be letting the Doctor down. She shot a sulky glance at Ethan. He was walking with his hands jammed in his pockets, shivering. He wasn’t half bad looking, really, in a beaky sort of way.
‘You’re so smart, only you’re too daft to have a proper coat.’ But she spoke less angrily. He had struck her suddenly as forlorn, even vulnerable. ‘You ought to have had an older brother,’ she said, ‘to look after you in the playground.’
‘So ought you.’ He too sounded less angry.
‘Just one of me.’
‘I had a younger brother. I wasn’t much use protecting him.’
‘Where is he now?’
‘Accountant in Scarborough.’
‘So maths runs in the family.’
‘Accounting isn’t exactly mathematics,’ he snapped, then caught himself. ‘I mean, it’s not really the same as what I do. More arithmetic.’
‘What’s this Fermat’s last theory? Why’s it so special.’
‘Theorem,’ he corrected absently. ‘It’s not special in and of itself. But Fermat wrote in the margin of his notebook that he’d found a simple proof for the theorem, and no one has ever been able to come up with it.’
‘I’ll bet