Doctor Who_ The Algebra of Ice - Lloyd Rose [91]
‘Oh, they’ll harvest existence very slowly. Thread by thread, you might say.
Their conversion process is extremely efficient.’
‘What in God’s name is in this for you?’
‘I’ve already had that conversation with the Doctor.’
Without warning, Brett yanked Ethan up, tore his shirt back over his shoulders, and swung him against the stove. Ethan yelled, and Brett threw him down. ‘Only a singe,’ he said softly. ‘Just a taste of things to come.’ He bent and ran a thumbnail across Ethan’s blistered spine, forcing a cry from him. ‘Let’s stop this nonsense. Eventually you’ll do what I want, so why don’t we simply jump to the end?’ He took hold of an arm and helped Ethan up. ‘I suppose I should do something about your back. I never remember what to put on burns.
Is it butter?’ Ethan only groaned. Brett sat him on the edge of the chair. ‘I don’t recommend leaning back.’
Ethan sat forward, exhausted, his face in his hands. ‘What about ice?’ he said between his fingers.
‘Oh yes,’ Brett repeated slowly. ‘What about ice?’ He walked around behind Ethan and laid a palm against the burn. Ethan’s head jerked up – ‘What. . . ’ He began to shiver, teeth nearly chattering. ‘What have you. . . ’
Brett came back in front of him. ‘Feel better?’
‘But your hands. . . ’ Ethan was still shaking. ‘They weren’t. . . Before, they. . . ’
‘Yes,’ said Brett heavily. ‘It comes and goes.’
Chapter Twenty-two
187
‘ What comes and goes?’
‘Never actually leaves, though.’ Brett was standing by the stove now, his eyes tired. Then, almost as if pushed, he moved away. ‘To be frank,’ he said, ‘it’s a bit of a bore.’
‘Show yourself,’ Ethan said quietly. ‘I can see; show yourself.’
Brett looked bewildered. As Ethan watched, something like an aura began to appear around him, only in pieces, sliding in and out of his body. Triangles, squares, rhombuses, octahedrons – finally shifting so fast Ethan couldn’t distinguish them. It was as if lightning flashed around Brett – but of course it wasn’t lightning at all. It wasn’t even light. A long narrow triangle plunged out of Brett’s stomach, then zipped back inside.
‘What are you looking at?’ said Brett angrily.
‘I can see it.’
‘You can what?’
‘See it. There’s something funny about my eyes. Something came through, didn’t it? Only a bit. Made a home in you.’
‘My,’ said Brett softly. ‘You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?’
‘It’s feeding off you.’
‘Well,’ Brett moved to the stove again, ‘I suppose you could put it that way. A cold fire consuming heat. It seems only able to make use of something organic.
I wanted to find an animal for it, but I’ve discovered I can’t go very far from the field, and there’s no livestock nearby.’
‘Is it. . . Does it. . . ’
‘Have intelligence? Not really. I think it’s only a piece of some entity that does. All it seeks is survival.’
‘It’s killing you.’
Brett shrugged. ‘Probably. It certainly needs my heat to maintain its stasis.’
He strolled over and placed his hands on Ethan’s bare shoulders, as if about to impart some important piece of advice. ‘You know, I think I’d like to share the experience with you,’ – and he sliced his long thumbnail into Ethan’s col-larbone.
Freezing energy slammed up Ethan’s veins – he toppled into Brett, who held him up. Then a shriek like grinding ice shot through his head, and the thing was gone. Brett staggered as it dived back into him. ‘Dear me. It doesn’t seem to like you.’
He dropped Ethan and started pacing again – to the stove, away from the stove, to the stove. . . Ethan crawled to the chair, but was too weak to climb 188
The Algebra of Ice
into it; he held on to the seat cushion like a life belt. Brett eyed him curiously.
‘I wonder why it rejected you.’
Who cares? thought Ethan. He lowered his head to the cushion,